FAIRY DOOR CHAPTER 3

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

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Little could be seen through the midnight shadows of the forest men called enchanted. She didn’t have a light, so Eibhlin set herself beneath a large beech tree just beyond the tree line, hugged herself in her cloak, and after a few minutes fell asleep. When she woke, her body was stiff in the chill air. Sunlight passing through leaves tinted the world in soft green and gold.

After a few painful stretches, Eibhlin stood to her feet and took out a biscuit to eat while walking. She needed to find a fairy. Deeper into the forest she went. The ground foliage thickened, causing her to trip on hidden sticks, roots, branches, and stones. The thought already arose to abandon her search, but she clutched a gold coin and went deeper. Deer, rabbits, birds, insects, she saw plenty of wild life, but not a single sign of a fairy.

As afternoon arrived, she heard the sound of water and followed it to the wide river Lúrin, the border of Enbár, a river quickened from the recent rain. Eibhlin took off her shoes and stepped into the river, shivering as cold water bent around her ankles. She looked up through breaks in the trees to the bright sky. By now, her father was certainly awake and looking for her, or maybe even sending out a search party, and many in town knew the woods far better than she did. With that thought, she shook the numbness from her feet, dried them with her cloak, and slipped them back into her shoes. She mustn’t be found, not yet.

She followed the river south. Leana had once said the river led down to the sea. “Might as well head that way,” said Eibhlin. “At least it’s somewhere.”

It was about an hour down river that her luck turned. In the heat of the day, over the river’s chatter, at first faint enough she thought it was her imagination, she heard singing. As she continued downstream, the voice grew clearer, as clear as cold starlight, and the words were not anything Eibhlin knew. Curiosity turned her from the river. Hope kept her quiet.

Not far into the undergrowth, she came to the voice’s origin, and it was only her careful eye that kept her from stepping too far, for she saw a small fairy singing as she skipped around a near perfect ring of mushrooms. A fairy ring, a gateway into the Fae Country. Sweat chilled on the back of Eibhlin’s neck. A fairy! What luck, and yet what terrible circumstances! One wrong move, and Eibhlin could fall through the fairy ring and find herself lost in the Fae Country. And then what? But time didn’t favor her, and the fairy was there.

Creeping closer, Eibhlin took off her cloak and waited till the fairy hopped to the closest mushroom, and then the girl pounced, throwing her cloak over the tiny woman. If she had not surprised the fairy, Eibhlin might have died a cursed frog. As it was, she managed to capture the creature in the layers of cloth. The fairy nearly broke free, but Eibhlin curled over the bundle and pinned it to the forest floor. From inside the cloak came several shrieks and what sounded like half-formed curses.

“Calm down, Miss Fairy,” shouted Eibhlin. “I don’t want to hurt you. I just need to ask you something.”

The fairy stopped. “Ask me something?”

“Yes. You see I—”

“I shall not answer anything so long as you treat me like a bug,” said the fairy. “Next thing I know, you’ll stick me in a jar and pull off my wings.”

“Please! Just a few questions,” said Eibhlin.

The fairy fell silent for a few moments then said, “Let me go. I won’t speak with you while you hold me captive. Such inconsideration!”

Eibhlin relaxed and moved. The fairy shot from the cloak. Landing on a high tree branch, she began to laugh. “Silly, stupid human!” she said. “If you want to force a fairy’s help, don’t let it go so easily next time.”

Eibhlin flushed to her ears. “Well, you’re free. Now won’t you answer my questions?”

The fairy started straightening her hair. “Not at all.”

“What! Why?”

“Why should I help you?” said the fairy. “If you’ve got a problem, fix it yourself. Why do I need to get involved? There’s nothing in it for me, anyway. So, since it’s a nice day, I’ll let you go, but try anything like that again and you’ll wish I had drowned you in the Lúrin. Now, bye-bye.”

As the fairy flew away, Eibhlin said, “Wait! Wait! Um… how… how about a deal!”

The fairy’s ears twitched. Glancing down, she asked, “What kind of deal?”

“I give you something you want in exchange for answers to my questions. Simple as that,” said Eibhlin.

For a long moment, the fairy hovered, staring at Eibhlin with a blank expression. Finally, the fairy said, “Sweets.”

“Huh?”

“Sweets,” the fairy said. “I smell sweets. If you give me the sweets you have in your bag, I’ll answer three questions as best I can.”

“Oh, okay.” Eibhlin pulled out a biscuit and the jam from her bag. The little fairy grew to the height of a small child and snatched the treats. She dipped a slender finger into the jam and scooped some into her mouth before spreading sticky fruit preserves over the biscuit. Between nibbles, the fairy said, “All right, give me some context and ask your three questions.”

After Eibhlin’s summary, the fairy frowned. “A fairy from two days back. Long, black hair, dark but bright eyes, and a taste for enchanted artifacts? Sounds like you made a deal with the fairy your country calls Mealla.”

“Then you know her!” said Eibhlin.

“I know about her, and it would be shameful if I didn’t,” said the fairy. “She’s famous in the Fae Realm as someone not even royals mess with. Why would you do such a stupid thing as make a trade with Mealla? No matter how long I spend under the Mortal Sun, I still can’t understand humans.”

“I didn’t know who she was,” said Eibhlin. “Now, for my first question, I need to find this Mealla. Where and how can I find her?”

“That’s actually two questions, but I’ll let it slide this time,” said the fairy, taking another lick of jam. “As for ‘where’ she is, I can’t really tell you. See, a long time ago, even for us Fae, Mealla cast some potent protection spells around her home. It’s possible to find it on accident, but to just go there? I don’t think even the royal family could, not that they’d risk it. So, to just ‘find’ Mealla on purpose is impossible.”

“That can’t be!” said Eibhlin. “I have to—”

“Don’t interrupt. So inconsiderate! Anyway, I can’t tell you ‘where’ Mealla is exactly, but I can tell you how to get there,” said the fairy.

“But didn’t you—You just said finding her on purpose is impossible,” said Eibhlin.

The fairy huffed. “Interruptions. Interruptions. Do you want answers or not? As I was about to say, it’s impossible unless you follow certain steps.”

“Steps?” asked Eibhlin.

“Second question,” said the fairy, to which Eibhlin mentally cursed herself. The fairy continued, “You need to use a certain fairy door that goes straight to her home, and for that you’ll need three keys. Special fairy keys Mealla made. After making them, though, Mealla hid them in the Mortal Realm, and only she knows where they all are or where the door is. I do know where to look for one of the keys, though, if the rumors are true.”

“Really? Where?’ said Eibhlin.

“Far away, in a place too far to reach in a season on foot,” said the fairy.

“Can’t you be more specific?” cried Eibhlin. “And what am I supposed to do after that? Search the world for keys when I don’t even know where to start?”

“Not my problem. I’ve already answered three questions. Our business is finished,” the fairy said.

Eibhlin said, “Wait! Isn’t there anything else you know? I’ll trade for it. I have to find Mealla.”

With a sidelong glance, the fairy sighed and said, “I’ve really spent too long here in the Mortal Realm. Fine. I’ll do what I can. I mean, you did let me go instead of pulling my wings off, after all, so consider this my gratitude.”

“Thank you!” said Eibhlin.

“I’m not doing much, just getting rid of you. Don’t be so happy about it,” said the fairy. “Come on. Let’s get this over with.”

River rock held back trees, forming a clearing, in the place where the fairy stopped. Standing alone near the edge of the Lúrin was a large, wide willow covered in knots. The fairy led Eibhlin to the riverside tree.

Eibhlin asked, “Why are we here?”

“More questions?” said the fairy. “This tree, silly human, is a fairy door. If you unlock it, you can go to wherever its road connects to.”

“Unlock? How?”

Smirking, the fairy reached out her hand. Light twisted together to form the shape of a key that shone soft, white light. “This is what you humans call a ‘fairy key.’ It can open almost any door, magic or not. You’ll be looking for similar keys, only since they’re Mealla’s, the ones you want are bound to specific doors. Now listen carefully. I’m going to open the fairy door in this tree. It’s just an ordinary door to an ordinary fairy road, but I can use my magic to connect this road to another road I’ve heard leads to one of Mealla’s keys. Oh, don’t look so amazed. Connecting roads is nothing special. However, don’t get comfortable. Our doors like to just go one way, so joined roads can be a little unstable. They only last a couple trips before the bond breaks and they go back to normal. After that, don’t risk it. You don’t know where you could end up. Understand?”

Eibhlin nodded. “Yes. Thank you.”

With a return nod, the fairy approached the tree and slid the white key into a knot in the bark. She jerked it slightly counter clockwise then turned it the other way. Click. Rays of light burst from the keyhole like the sun behind an eclipse, but nothing else seemed to change. The fairy removed the key, and its light slipped away into the keyhole, leaving behind a simple, tarnished key.

“What happened?” Eibhlin asked.

“The key just lost its magic. Normal fairy keys are one use only. Mealla’s keys are different. You’ll see when you find them. There’s no mistaking them, even by a human. Well, there’s your road,” said the fairy.

“My road,” Eibhlin whispered. The light from the keyhole sent tingles up and down her spine. She shivered and stepped toward it.

“H-human!”

Eibhlin turned to the fairy.

“Gi-give me some of your hair. Nine strands. That should be enough,” said the fairy.

“Why?” said Eibhlin.

“Just do it,” the fairy said, her pale skin tinted pink.

Eibhlin plucked the requested number and handed over the long strands. Light gathered at the fairy’s fingertips. With the hair held tight in one hand, she took the strands with the other and, faster than Eibhlin could see, wove them into a tiny braid. However, it was not a braid of hair but of pale gold. After joining the ends, the fairy handed the chain to Eibhlin, saying, “An apology, for laughing at you. Use this to hold the keys. The chain will never break or fall off your neck or leave you without your permission.”

“But there’s no clasp. How did you join it?” said Eibhlin as she took the chain.

“Must light have a clasp to join together?”

Eibhlin could only shake her head. “Thank you, Miss Fairy. Thank you very much.”

Facing away, the fairy said, “I don’t know why you’re thanking me. Silly human! It’s just a business deal, nothing more. Trying to catch me like a bug and then thanking me? Stupid! I’m not going to waste any more time here. I do have things to do, after all. You need to hurry, too. The door won’t stay open for long.”

The fairy took off, but as she shrank and flew away, she glanced back and said, “May Lady Fortune favor you, human.”

Eibhlin waved as the fairy disappeared into the woods. Then, taking a deep breath and pulling the chain over her head, she stepped toward the fairy door.

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