Beyond the Firefly Field

by Munzing, R. E.

  As he walked with the others, Clayton didn’t share their enthusiasm for the booby traps they’d set. There was the possibility a leg or ankle could be broken in the stone avalanche, and any amount of harm could happen when the log rolled down the gulley. Clayton also knew that if somebody was very allergic to bee poison, numerous stings could cause death.

  So now they were willing to kill to keep the fairies a secret? He didn’t want to think of himself as a killer and wished none of this was happening. He wanted to talk the others out of taking this any further, but felt he was on a rushing river flowing in only one direction. So, he turned to his happy memories of time spent with the fairies, hoping to find justification for whatever might happen.

  Before long, they came to the first trap and, checking to see it was still ready to be sprung, carefully navigated around it. So far, no Mike sightings, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t following them.

  After going past the first trap, the group slowed and lowered their voices. Clayton ran back to listen for the trap being sprung, leaving the others to walk slowly to the next trap location. He stayed out of sight at a bend in the trail, and was rewarded a few minutes later with the sound of falling rocks.

  He heard two voices cry, “Ouch!” followed by swearing. Satisfied they were being followed, he ran quietly along the trail to where the others waited. As he approached, they could tell by his giggles that the trap had worked perfectly. The friends quickly shared his laughter as they welcomed him.

  “Did you actually see them spring it?” Karl asked eagerly. It was obvious that he wanted to savor the details of his success.

  “No, but I heard two of them cry out and swear a lot. The rocks must have landed on their toes and bounced off their ankles, so they weren’t hurt too much. Good job, Karl.”

  They quickly walked past their next trap. This time, the others waited for Clayton near the last trap and threw sticks at the hive to agitate the bees. Some bees were just getting back to the hive for the night and were joined by others, buzzing around the opening in search of the threat.

  When Clayton ran past the hive after his reconnaissance mission, only a few bees were buzzing outside. Panic started to well up inside him as he joined the others. Nervous laughter celebrated another success.

  The final booby trap required split-second timing. Ron climbed a tree eighty yards up the trail from the bee tree and was to signal when Mike and his friends got close.

  Karl waited twenty yards closer, well hidden in the bushes. The others waited on the trail between the two, except Penny, who was planted next to Karl so she could see the outcome. She couldn’t wait for all of this to be over so they could go see the fairies. All were silent and barely breathing as the seconds ticked by. As they waited, they noticed the perching birds singing. Crickets also started chirping to attract mates. It would soon turn into a perfect late summer night.

  As the seconds seemed to pass even slower, their hearts were beating faster. And faster still when Ron finally gave the signal. Taking his cue, Karl said in a louder than necessary voice, “I must have dropped it when I tripped back there. Don’t wait, I’ll catch up.”

  After his bogus announcement, Penny and Karl rounded the bend in the trail and headed to the bee tree. They caught a glimpse of a body disappearing behind the bee tree for cover, just as they’d planned. Karl stopped, and Penny was disappointed to find no one running frantically from the bees. They looked at each other and shrugged.

  The others couldn’t stand the suspense and came back to join the watch.

  Suddenly, screams pierced the air as Mike and three other boys scattered from behind the bee tree, two running from each side. They raced away, screaming like banshees, waving their arms wildly around their heads. Slapping frantically at themselves, they disappeared into the surrounding brush. As their screams and the sounds of snapping twigs grew fainter, the little group on the trail cheered and heartily patted Karl on the back. Ron quickly climbed down and joined in.

  “Run from the little bees, you big bully!” Penny yelled out as everyone celebrated their victory.

  “This is getting out of hand,” Clayton announced. “Somebody could have died tonight. Are we really ready to kill to keep the secret?”

  “Nobody died,” Penny insisted. Her brother could be so annoying sometimes.

  “We don’t know that for sure yet. If one of those guys is allergic to bee stings, he might die before he could get home for help. We would be better off never seeing the fairies again than killing people to keep the secret safe,” Clayton angrily cautioned.

  The celebration turned somber as everyone thought about Clayton’s words. After brief consideration, Karl warned the others, “On our way home, we have to take that bow apart. And we must vow to never to talk about this again.” Knowing what was at stake, a collective vow was taken, and all agreed to get rid of the bow.

  “I like celebrating and vowing as much as the next guy,” Brian butted in, “but I really have the urge to do that size change thing and stare at some fairy wings.”

  The others quickly agreed, and they started off down the trail once again. They walked lightheartedly, now that Mike was chased away and they could talk freely. Of course, the talk was all about fairies.

  Never bored with the topic, they shared their amazement that fairies were once part of the human race, which was growing taller all the time according to scientists. So, maybe in the distant past, humans and fairies were a similar size. It seemed it would take more than an evolution theory to explain the wings and levitation. And if fairies could do it, shouldn’t humans be able to levitate, too? Everyone was bubbling with questions they were determined to get answered. How many fairies were there? How long did they live? How did they survive winter? Why were they living here of all places? Their discussion was interrupted when they came to the part of the trail they had covered up.

  “We forgot to listen for Farmer Hawkins,” Penny said, freezing in position.

  They all stopped and listened, remembering the section of the field he’d cut and the warning they had to give the fairies. Hearing only the wind in the trees and the rustling of dead leaves, the group continued on the covered trail.

  Quickly but cautiously, they arrived at the field’s edge. Coming from the gloomy forest, the field appeared brightly lit under a cloudless sky, but the fading light would soon darken it. Looking to the right where the old farmer’s road entered, the field looked the same as before. The tall grasses and wildflowers still waved in a sea before them, divided by the path they had trampled.

  “We’ve got to do something about this path,” Clayton said with a sudden realization.

  “You’re right,” Karl agreed. “It goes straight to the tree!” The group grew upset when they realized the telltale line gave away the fairies’ exact location. As the fireflies started their nightly light dance, a wave of guilt washed over the kids for putting the fairies in danger this way.

  Karl was quick to come up with a plan. “All we have to do is pile a bunch of dead branches on the path next to that big bush about thirty yards out and completely block the original path. Then we’ll carve a new path stretching to the far corner by the lake. If we walk close to the brush once we get to the far side, there won’t be much of a trail leading back to the fairy tree.”

  Everyone seemed satisfied with Karl’s solution and quickly started gathering deadfall branches and piling them on the trail next to the bush. When the pile was high and thick enough, they headed off in the new direction, stomping and trampling as big a path as they could in a short amount of time.

  More and more fireflies lit the field; those in the adventurers’ path flittered easily out of the way.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Clayton thought he caught a glimpse of someone walking by the lake. The lumbering body didn’t resemble Mike or Farmer Hawkins, he quickly concluded. He stopped to look again, but the vision disappeared. He wondered why anyone would be walking around the lake this late. Was someone follo
wing him that he didn’t know about? No one else in his group claimed to have seen the walker. Yes, he was probably just imaging things. He went back to daydreaming about visiting his fairies again. But underneath his happy visions, a feeling of dread sat in his stomach.

  The Warnings

  As he walked along, Clayton was lost in thought and paid little attention to his surroundings. He remembered SanArEnDar’s words about avoiding discovery. If the fairies went to great lengths to keep from being discovered, how could they possibly trust a bunch of kids with an age-old secret already getting away from them?

  Diverting Mike and his friends from the fairies was only a temporary measure. If Mike’s cousin really did work for a TV station, sooner or later Mike could probably get a reporter and a cameraman to the tree and obtain proof of the fairies’ existence. Clayton felt horrible about endangering the little creatures, and he dreaded telling them about the jeopardy surrounding their secret. And it was all because of him. More and more, he thought they should just never visit the fairies again.

  Then there was the matter of the developer and his plans for the land. How could he explain that to them? The warning about Farmer Hawkins was probably no longer necessary. They must have watched him cutting the field, and maybe they even knew why he did it.

  Both issues could be as dangerous to the fairies as Mike. And now there might be someone else to worry about. Hopefully, that mysterious person at the lake left before the firefly field really lit up. He would have to warn the fairies about this new possible threat. His worried reluctance about warning the fairies slowed his pace, and the others weaved past him to keep from making a straight trail.

  “What took you so long?” Karl asked after Clayton abruptly bumped into him.

  Looking up, Clayton saw they had arrived at the fairy tree. “Sorry, I was busy thinking about warning the fairies. I hope they don’t get mad at us for Mike finding out about them.”

  “I can’t imagine them getting mad about anything,” Penny offered. “They seem to have only happy and good emotions.” The others agreed, and Clayton felt a little more at ease.

  “We need a plan for getting onto the branch.”

  Karl said, “We can get in single file on the path, then walk through the gathering a couple of seconds after the person walks through in front of us. Once on the branch, we keep walking until the last in line gets on and says to stop.”

  “I’ll go last,” Clayton said quickly.

  “I’ll go first,” Penny claimed before anyone else could utter a word. They lined up and quickly proceeded to carry out the new plan.

  They each tried to keep their eyes open to observe their changing size, but the thick concentration of fireflies made it impossible. Clayton didn’t wait before following Brian through the swarm. The fireflies dispersing for Brian didn’t have time to re-gather before Clayton marched through.

  “I did it!” Clayton exclaimed.

  “Did what?” Brian asked.

  “I kept my eyes open,” Clayton proclaimed triumphantly.

  “What was it like?” Karl demanded.

  “I saw Brian getting smaller, like he jumped off something and was moving away from me very fast. Then everything else got bigger. I still didn’t feel like I was actually getting smaller, though,” he explained, not knowing how else to put it.

  “Hello,” said a voice from further up the branch.

  Turning to find the voice, they saw a male fairy walking toward them. He looked and dressed like all the other guy fairies, and Clayton wondered how many he could meet before he would have trouble telling them apart.

  “I’m Vork. I’ve heard about you, and I was hoping to meet you,” he said by way of introduction. They each introduced themselves to the fairy who seemed to have trouble pronouncing their names.

  After the introductions, with many name corrections, Clayton decided to get the warnings over with quickly. “I’m sorry,” he began, “but I have to warn you about things that might put you all in great danger.”

  “It sounds serious. The Old Ones will have to be told. I can convey your warnings to them if you’d like,” Vork offered helpfully.

  “Yes, I would like that,” Clayton said, relieved that the right someone would finally be told.

  “Let me get something to write on, BrayIn,” Vork said as he turned away.

  “It’s Clayton.”

  “Of course, ClayTan,” Vork noted. Walking over to a knot bump on the branch, the fairy unfolded a desk. He reached for a piece of rolled brown paper and a stick of charcoal to use as a pen. Everyone gathered around Vork, curious to see if fairy writing was as understandable as their language. Sometimes they heard a fairy speak a word that was completely unknown to them. Some words sounded like two words stuck together and shortened, but made sense if used in a sentence.

  Vork seemed a little self-conscious as he dropped the charcoal stick. Maybe he was scared of humans, Clayton thought. Karl bent down to retrieve the stick, and just as Vork bent to pick it up, the two bumped heads. Vork dropped the paper. When they both bent to pick it up, they bumped heads again. Karl finally stood up with both objects and rubbed his sore head with the back of one hand.

  Then Vork stood with one hand on his forehead, staggering back a few steps. His second step landed on Penny’s foot, causing him to fall over. With a quick reaction, Vork grabbed Penny’s arm to steady himself. Instead, he pulled her down with him.

  Phil, who was standing on Vork’s other side, offered a hand to help him. Taking the offered hand, Vork sprang up, but he fell back down again, pulling Phil with him. Phil fell forward over Vork’s body and bumped heads with Penny, who was trying to stand.

  As they untangled limbs to Vork’s repeated apologies, it dawned on everyone that Vork was a helper fairy. They all took precautionary steps away from the hapless fairy before he could cause any more help. Everybody stood frozen in place, not knowing what to do next.

  “Is your head all right?” Vork asked, having recovered somewhat, stepping toward Karl, who was raising his hand to check his head.

  “Vork, you need to fold the desk up and put it back into the tree before someone falls over it and really gets hurt,” Karl suggested as he handed Vork the paper and charcoal. He carefully took another step back.

  Vork eagerly began the task, buying time for the uneasy kids. While putting the desk away, he also stashed the paper and charcoal inside. Suddenly, a comforting familiar voice came from above. Vork was told by the gentle voice that someone needed help gathering sticks for a stove fire on another branch.

  The look of dismay on Vork’s face was replaced by a wide smile at the news of someone needing his help. He walked to the edge of the branch and stepped onto the air, plummeting a short way before slowly rising with his wings spread wide, showing patterns of swirling browns, oranges, and grays.

  With great relief at having the helper redirected, the kids looked up to find SeeLee floating where Vork hovered. Behind SeeLee followed LeeLan, MarLan, and AnDrin. The descending fairies’ wings shared the same swirling patterns and vivid colors, as if they were connected somehow.

  As the others landed, Vork rose into the air. He looked back at the group and waved goodbye, seemingly happy to be off to help someone else who needed him. As he drifted upward, his wings’ swirling patterns changed into jagged shards like a broken stained glass window, falling back into the base of the wings. The pieces melted back into the spreading swirls before he was out of sight.

  “Congratulations on surviving your first helper,” SeeLee laughed as Penny rushed to give her a hug.

  “You showed up just in time,” Clayton admitted. “Once we realized Vork was a helper, we didn’t know what to do, and then we started getting scared.”

  “You don’t have to be afraid of them,” SeeLee said reassuringly, then continued in her “everything will be all right” voice. “You just have to anticipate that anything could go wrong. If there’s something to trip over, they’ll trip over it. If there’s somet
hing to tip, they’ll knock it down. If something can be spilled or dropped, be prepared to get out of the way fast. If a helper fairy approaches you, be ready to move. And always try to redirect them or give them a simple task to perform. They just want to help, and anything they’re given to do makes them very happy.”

  “That’s what Karl did,” Penny chimed in. “When Vork came closer to him, Karl suggested he fold the desk back into the tree.”

  “That’s perfect. Now you see how it works,” SeeLee nodded approvingly. “If you can’t think of anything else, you can send them to find me or LeeLan, MarLan, or AnDrin.” The kids then exchanged brief greetings with the other fairies.

  The relief Clayton felt after Vork said he would convey the warnings to an Old One evaporated. Once again he would have to approach the subject of the dangers threatening the fairies’ safety, or maybe even ending their very existence.

  Clayton looked along the branch he thought of as home while visiting the fairy world. The fairies scurrying about were preoccupied with the same activities he had seen them doing before. Booths were being set up, tables and chairs were unfolded seemingly out of nowhere, and splashes and laughter could be heard from the pools above.

  Babies bounced on their spider-web trampolines. Firefly lamp posts were being set up for the night, and insects were busily running errands. Everywhere fairies happily greeted each other as though a holiday was approaching. Clayton knew all were oblivious to what might befall them, and a sense of panic began to overwhelm him. He felt a sense of loss about something that hadn’t even happened yet. He looked at SeeLee to find that she was already staring intently at him. He blushed and broke into a sweat.

  Softly, SeeLee crooned, “You radiate such distress and show a need for relief from some burden you carry.” Her voice soothed him, giving him encouragement that everything would soon be okay. But Clayton knew he had to give his terrible warning, no matter how wonderful and secure SeeLee made him feel.

  Words spilled out of Clayton like the breaking of a dam. Hoping a serious tone would get through to SeeLee, he warned of the old farmer and the road he had cut, emphasizing that the field had been mowed very close to SeeLee’s home. He hoped the alarm and anxiety in his voice conveyed the seriousness of his warning.