Creatures and Kidnappings

“Come on, Elli! We need to go check the fairy village! We need to go!” Darlina tugged on my arm, pulling me towards the back door and out into our backyard. Even though I didn’t want to go outside- there was a storm on the horizon- I was no match for her puppy eyes.

“Okay, okay. Let me go. I’m coming.” I pulled on my shoes and followed my little sister outside, calling to my parents: “Mom! Darli and I are going outside for the Fairy garden.”

I heard a muffled agreement and stood in the cold fall air. On our small wooden porch, I could see my own breath. Darlina- Darli for short- was standing in the dull grass, positively quivering with excitement. 

A few years ago, our father had helped up build a few bird house sized buildings. Darli was the absolute poster child for all things fantasy. She knew all there was to know about unicorns, fairies, mermaids, and dragons. She had memorized all the Grimm’s fairy tales, and could recite them without having to even think. When she found out that some people made little villages and stuff for fairies, she almost exploded. For the next two months, that’s all she talked about. She wrote whole essays about how this would be a ‘good investment for the family.’ She drew out blueprints for all the different buildings in the garden. Eventually, our dad agreed. It was built within weeks.

Once we finished the short walk to the tree, under which the village was, Darli was sprinting to look. Once she got there, she screamed. I ran over to her immediately, thinking she’d stepped on a pointy rock or got pricked by a thorn. What I had not expected, however, was a wide grin taking up the majority of her face. She was looking down at the garden, where there were about six tiny beings, peeking out from behind the minuscule doorways.

“What the-”

“Fairies! They are real!” Darli exclaimed. She had tears o joy running down her face, and was bouncing on the balls of her feet. 

A blended down to get a better look at the tiny things. They had to be fairies, I thought. 

As I looked at them, I started to notice that they weren’t exactly what I had envisioned. Instead of cute little girls and boys of three inches tall, with leaf dresses and acorn hats, they were about a foot tall, with small, dark eyes and all wearing jumpsuits made out of tightly woven grass. 

I didn’t think Darli would want to stay around after seeing they weren’t what she thought. How wrong I was, though. In fact, she stepped closer, then again, then again, until she was practically in the center of the little horseshoe shaped village.

As I stood up to warn her to get away from them, the creatures zipped out of the houses and swarmed my little sister. They formed practically a tornado with their tiny bodies. All at once the creatures stopped where they were and grabbed a part of her. Two to each arm and a few to each other part of her body. I noticed that therapy all had translucent wings that were tinted in all the colors of the rainbow. That might have been the only ‘fairy-ish’ think about them. 

After only a millisecond- which I show long this whole ordeal took- they started to flutter their wings. As they did, the combined effort of what had to have been more than ten beings, they started to lift my little sister off the ground. They gained momentum and soon my little sister was more than ten feet in the air, kicking and screaming as the creatures she so loves carried her to what she thought was her certain death. 

I ran off after her, following the jerking movements of her body on the ground. She soon took a turn into the forest, where I had to follow. I couldn’t think about my parents at that moment, only my sister.

As she crossed the tree line, I followed the approximate direction in which they were carrying her. Soon enough, though, I had become completely lost. As I slowly move to a stop, I almost give into tiredness and grief. As I sit down on a heavily mossed tree stump, I stop and wonder where I am. I couldn’t see a noticeable path, either an existing one or the one I had just made by running on. 

As I stopped and looked around the dimly lit forest, I noticed other beings. In a parade by my feet were tiny humanoids, although they had abnormal colored hair and skin. They were all carrying little prizes, one of them had a toothpick, another an acorn. 

Behind me, I heard a high pitched giggle. I turned around, hoping to see my sister, and hoping this was all a prank, but when I turned around, there was a hedgehog, except it wasn’t a hedgehog. Instead of spikes, the protective covering seemed to be a red and white toadstool. It also had a human face, which was completely androgynous. Except for the toadstool and face, it looked exactly like a hedgehog. 

It was giggling because it was holding a flower that constantly changed colors. I was able to smell it from where I was seated, and though I could not pinpoint what it smelled like exactly, it was fruity and sweet. All I could do is stare in wonder as other creatures emerged from the trees surrounding me. 

There were what I would say are gnomes, being with a feathered sphere for a body and large feathered wings. Insects that I couldn’t describe if I wanted to. 

The wonder of these creatures almost distracted me from why I had come in here in the first place. My memory was brought back when I saw the toadstool hedgehog. It reminded me of her. I kept up from my humble stump and sprinted farther into the forest. 

Before I could realize I didn’t know where I was going, I saw another one of the fairies. I followed it to what looked like an actual fairy village. There, my sister was in the middle of a circle of them. She looked smaller, more petite. 

I soon realized she was actively shrinking. Her clothes slowly morphed into the green grass jumpsuit of the other fairies. She was turning into one of them! 

I rushed over to her, pushing over many of the other fairies. As I watched helplessly become smaller and smaller, her eyes became glazed over. They turned from her natural light blue coloring to a dark brown, or even a black. As I watched this take place, I noticed the grass around my feet growing. 

Were the fairies doing some nature magic to make the grass grow? And why did they look normal sized. I didn’t stop to realize that I was turning into one of them.

I hope my parents at least herd their daughter’s screams.