Beyond the Firefly Field

by Munzing, R. E.

  “This is my little sister, Kast,” SeeLee proudly announced, then added, “as you can see, she's still trying to figure out the air.”

  “I do it pretty good,” Kast insisted, rising to be face-to-face with SeeLee. Then she looked down and started to fall, but SeeLee caught her again and gently lowered her.

  “Yes, you do, until you forget you can stay in the air,” SeeLee admonished before introducing Kast to the boys and finally Penny.

  “Where are their wings?” Kast asked after introductions were made.

  “They don't have wings. They are my human friends.”

  “I know about humans,” Kast said gleefully and stared at them in amazement.

  “You're so adorable. Can I take Kast home with me?” Penny asked as she bent down to hug Kast. She stared at the little fairy in wonderment, and Kast reflected her awe.

  “Come see what I made,” Kast begged, grabbing Penny's hand as she led her to a table.

  “That's the furniture?” Paul asked.

  “Yes, all against the wall,” Karl said, arms spanning the room.

  Dozens of functional furniture pieces sat on a raised platform that circled the egg-shaped room. Older fairies were either building or examining each piece. The inspectors seemed to be searching for hidden compartments and springs, which when activated, would cause the recognizable furniture to unfold for a new use. The creator of each piece stood smugly nearby, so proud of his work.

  “Look at that one,” Ron said, pointing.

  The boys turned to see a fairy examining a newly made bedroom dresser. It had six drawers and was level with the fairy's chin. The dresser's edges were fashioned of rough bark, but the adjoining wood of the front was beautifully carved and shone with the same waxy sheen as the workshop walls.

  After discovering several hidden compartments, the inspector fairy gently moved a piece of bark, and pivoted the top forward from a hidden post rising from the back corner. Swinging like a door, the top stopped moving ninety degrees from its original position. Spotting a hinge across the front of the lower half, the fairy excitedly grabbed the rear of the top and swung it forward until the dresser morphed into a desk.

  Swinging the bottom side of the dresser in an arc, it easily unfolded into a chair. With this accomplished, the inspector fairy sat down and eagerly began searching for more hidden compartments.

  After studying the whole operation for a minute, Clayton determined that the rows of tables and benches were used for training younger fairies. They were being taught how to make anything, or maybe everything, from wood. From the older fairies walking the rows, teaching and encouraging their students, the chamber was as much a social club as a training room.

  The talk and laughter filling the room was so loud that Clayton barely heard Karl ask SeeLee if they could visit the platform and search for hidden compartments.

  Clayton looked to the table where Penny was carefully examining Kast's newest creation and decided he could leave for a few minutes and join his friends as they explored. Clayton couldn't imagine any harm coming to his little sister in this tiny part of the universe that the fairies had altered for their use.

  As he followed the others up the stairs, Clayton didn't look back. Penny was in good hands, he thought.

  Kast led Penny from the safe room into one of the tunnels that occasionally interrupted the platform. The unsuspecting fairies were so cozy and smug, hidden in the little pocket of peace they created, that they were blissfully unaware a creature they had imprisoned under the tree many years before had escaped into one of the tree's dark and winding tunnels.

  Freedom

  A long with many of his kind, Getch—the angry, ugly W creature—had been imprisoned for a very long time. He hated the fairies with a passion. What right did those flitting twits have to keep his kind from roaming the face of the earth? His assigned world of dimly lit caves never suited him even though he was born to it.

  He loved to listen when the Elders circled around the glow fires and spoke of life on the surface of the earth. He was determined to get there. He wanted to see everything for himself—the giant ball of light in the sky, open spaces as far as the eye could see, roaring rivers, sparkling blue lakes, green plants growing in abundance, and especially, oh yes, especially roaming animals beyond number to savor and devour.

  All his life he'd listened to those tales told around the glows, and he desperately wanted them to be real.

  Sometimes, the creature left the glows thinking the Oldest had only imagined these wondrous things in dreams.

  Stories were also told about the persecution of his kind by fairies and humans. Neither species would leave his clans alone, each having tried to force his entire species into extinction. Both humans and fairies were to be hated, that was for certain. The creature really didn't believe in humans because none were ever seen, but fairies were real enough. They could be seen every day guarding the prison cave's only exit. Now, he would find out for sure if those old stories were real.

  Getch had spent the last few months chewing his way up through a large, newly dead tree root. He kept his escape effort secret from his own kind by acting so peevish and short-tempered that no one wanted to be near him. The creature wanted the escape from his prison to be a personal triumph before he would share with the others.

  The creature would sneak down a maze of tunnels to his hidden work station. There had been fables told of others' ancient attempts to dig escape routes through the earth, but they always failed when rocks and layers of stone made it impossible to dig any further. He was the only one—the smartest one—to think of tunneling up a tree root, with no barrier to hinder his tedious excavation, except for the horrific stink of rotting wood.

  As he had done so many times before, he frantically clawed at the gnarled root when the entrance to a small chamber off a tunnel suddenly tumbled open. The moist air wafting from what had to be a fairy's tunnel held the scent of sweet freedom. Success had come just in the nick of time, because he was tired of smelling the decaying root and ready to concede failure.

  Now, he was breathing a different kind of air. It didn't have the properties of the foul cave air he had inhaled for years. This air seemed to be richer, like there was more air in it. The creature imagined the air at the surface to be really wonderful, and he was very anxious to find out. As much as he wanted to make his run for freedom, he cautiously chose to hide in the tree root to determine how often the tunnel was used. It had to be a fairy-made tunnel and was possibly heavily trafficked.

  When the creature was young, he was taught how the fairies had lured his species into a trap. It was told that an army of humans chased after them to kill or capture everyone they could. Between the fairies' lure and the humans' chase, his species ended up in a prison with fairy guards barring their escape. Some of the craziest Elders would say that the fairies made them all smaller. He didn't know what to believe, so he would proceed with great caution, since he had come so far.

  The creature was lucky the root ran through a small room adjacent to the tunnel instead of jutting into the tunnel wall or floor where his escape hole could be easily seen. He climbed back into the root, leaving only part of his head exposed to watch for activity.

  He would watch and learn, then collect the others. As the builder of an escape route that really worked, his status in the tribe would certainly improve. Hopefully, he would be awarded the daughter of the head tribal chief to be his mate. If he could kill a fairy, his family would hold a place of glorified prominence. Even better, if he could drag a fairy back to the prison so all could share in its death, he might even be made a tribal chief of some standing.

  Yes, he thought as he rubbed his claws together. My time has come.

  Down by the Lake

  Kast guided Penny through tunnels and rooms where her family lived.

  “This is so cool!” Penny exclaimed as she entered Kast’s bedroom.

  Like the other rooms Penny had visited, piles of fairy light illuminated
it brightly, and the walls glistened with the same polished, waxy surface evident throughout the tree. Flowery woodland scenes were carved into the walls.

  A bed, dresser, and table had been intricately carved into the walls of the room, and a chair was the only moveable furniture. The bed was crowned with four ornately carved corner posts curving high to the center of the bed near the ceiling. Penny could almost touch the ceiling with her raised hand. Thin, silver netting draped from the posts and looked like it had been woven by spiders. The inside of Kast’s room sparkled like a jeweled egg. Decorations mimicking fairy clothing garlanded the walls, with feathers and sparkling gems reflecting the light. Jewel-toned glass mosaics dangled from the ceiling and sparkled with luminous energy.

  Penny noticed a few knives mounted on a wall and thought them strange in the beautiful surroundings. “Do you throw knives, too?”

  “No, I’m too young.”

  “How old is too young?”

  “I’m two hundred and eighty-four years old. In one hundred and sixteen years, I can start throwing. SeeLee, or maybe my cousin DarLan, will teach me.”

  Penny’s jaw dropped when Kast said her age, and again when she learned that SeeLee could throw knives. She walked to the bed, where the netting was folded back, and sat on the overstuffed mattress. An intricately detailed quilt was folded neatly over the mattress and felt wonderfully warm and soft.

  “This place is so pretty and cozy, I don’t know why you would ever leave it,” Penny sighed, feeling so relaxed as the bed called to her. She decided stretching out for just a minute would surely put her to sleep, encouraging frightening dreams about knife-throwing fairies, so she didn’t dare give in to her closing eyes.

  “I have to leave my room, or I wouldn’t be able to get new things to make it even prettier,” Kast explained.

  “Your whole house is pretty. There is so much pretty, you’re covering up pretty with more pretty, and it doesn’t need to be any prettier,” Penny countered as she watched Kast open a cupboard carved into a wall. She took a small cup from a shelf, then pumped water into the tiny cup from a small faucet. She carried the water to the dresser and dumped it on a mossy plant growing from a corner in the dresser top.

  “Everything can always be prettier. We make everything wonderful so that beauty is the first thing we see every morning and the last thing we see every night when we cozy down to sleep. Then we are more able to spread beauty and happiness every day with each other,” Kast explained, as if it was only natural to be surrounded by loveliness at all times.

  Penny got up from the bed and went to the dresser. “Does this dresser have hidden compartments?”

  “Of course, every piece of furniture has them. See if you can find the ones hidden in this piece.”

  After discovering a few hidden compartments, Penny knew why the boys were drawn to the furniture. As she explored the dresser, Kast arrived with another cup of water.

  “That sure doesn’t look like any water coming from Marsh Lake,” Penny said as she watched the clear liquid pour over the strangely beautiful mossy plant.

  “It’s not from Marsh Lake. It’s from the lake at the bottom of the tree.”

  “There’s a lake at the bottom of the tree?” Penny asked in disbelief.

  “With an island in it, too,” Kast reaffirmed. “That’s where the Old Ones stay. They live in a village by the shore. It’s really beautiful down there, and it’s hard to get any of them to ever leave. My grandfather just came out of the tree, though, and I got to see stories in his wings.”

  “Did you see the scary one?”

  “No, my mother took me away after a few stories. Anyway, the island is the most beautiful place in the whole fairy tree, and everywhere you look there’s something so beautiful you want to stare at it forever,” Kast explained.

  “I know the feeling. Can we see the lake now?”

  “Yes, I can take you to see it,” Kast answered and returned the cup to its shelf.

  Penny wondered if Clayton knew she had left the furniture factory with Kast. This was the first time they had been apart since arriving at the tree, and now she was going to wander off even further from her brother. Then, a sense of adventure overwhelmed her, and Penny jumped to her feet to follow as Kast closed the cupboard door.

  As Clayton closed the cupboard door on a piece of furniture he had been exploring, thoughts of Penny popped into his mind. He surveyed the room behind him, looking for Penny and Kast, but he didn’t see them anywhere. Then he realized he probably wouldn’t be able to see them if they were sitting. He shrugged his shoulders and walked back to the table, hoping his uneasy feelings would settle.

  With envy, Clayton looked at the pieces of furniture he had yet to explore, and imagined his friends having fun discovering their secrets. The twins had unfolded two chairs and a table from a tall kitchen hutch. Now they were standing on the chairs to look for hidden compartments near the top of the hutch. He looked across the fairy-filled room and decided certainly no harm could come to Penny with all the activity going on.

  He looked for SeeLee, then saw her chatting with friends in the middle of the room. MarJoReAn was also in the room, walking and talking with fairies as she helped the young ones. They both seemed completely unconcerned that anything could go wrong. The fairies were preoccupied in making their surroundings beautiful, happy, safe, and serene, so Clayton decided Penny would be perfectly safe.

  As these thoughts raced through his head, Clayton found himself standing in front of a very unusual piece of furniture, which he couldn’t resist the urge to explore. He was having too much fun to worry. He ran his hands along the rough bark to see if any part would move.

  Getch was feeling around the rough bark, exploring the door he had woven together to cover his escape hole in the tree root. He needed to be sure no part of it would move or fall off, exposing his exit effort. He had already gathered the loose pieces scattered on the floor; he couldn’t leave any clues behind for the fairies to find. He tried the door several times, opening and shutting it from both outside and inside the tree root. Once satisfied no pieces would fall off, he went back to watching and being bored.

  The entire time Getch had stationed himself outside the tree root, no creature, much less a fairy, had used the tunnel. Feeling brave, he moved into the fairy tunnel, dimly lit by a glowing fungus covering the walls and low ceiling. He cautiously shuffled a couple of steps to the middle of the tunnel and turned to his right. The tunnel curved and rose slightly. He could see only fifty yards before it curved out of sight to the left. Looking in the other direction, the tunnel slanted downward and curved out of sight to the right fifty yards away. He turned again to the rising part of the tunnel and sniffed the air. It smelled musty, but so much better than the foul cave air. Suddenly, a familiar scent crept up his nostrils as he sniffed the downward slope. He could smell water, lots of water.

  In the underground prison where the fairies had trapped his species, there was very little water. It oozed from rocks and was just enough for drinking. Stronger tribes of his kind had claimed caves with small pools or streams running through them. The caves with streams were the best. Fish and other water creatures made food plentiful. The streams always flowed out of sight into dark tunnels, and took the smoke from the glow fires with them. Those tribes were healthier and flourished in captivity, but his tribe wasn’t so lucky.

  Getch was always dirty and thirsty, his skin always dry and itchy, and his claws were brittle and easily broken. Without consciously making a choice, his feet had instinctively taken him several paces down the tunnel in the direction of the water before he stopped to wonder if he should go there. He reasoned the risk of being caught lessened in this seemingly unused tunnel, and the prospect of finding water for his tribe urged him on. He listened for noise up and down the tunnel, but heard only the sounds of his pounding heart.

  Heading down the tunnel, he ran as fast as he could, but being careful not to make a sound. He stopped frequently to keep fr
om becoming giddy from the rich air and to listen for any hint of discovery. He had traveled quite a distance from the safety of his escape tunnel, and he thought about what might happen if he was trapped.

  He encountered other small chambers branching off the tunnel as he rushed along. Some were dark, while others were brightened by the same fungus that lit the tunnel. The gloomy rooms would offer excellent places to hide if the need arose, so he proceeded with renewed confidence.

  Shortly, another tunnel joined the one in which he was exploring, and he was forced to stop to see if the new channel was also deserted. After a few minutes of silence, he cautiously ambled down the adjoining route a short distance and sniffed the air. No water. He went back to the tunnel he had chosen to follow and continued on his way. The scent of water drove him at a quickened pace.

  Getch wondered if he was becoming woozy from breathing the rich air. The tunnel ahead seemed to be growing smaller, but when he reached where it appeared to change size, all was the same. Dismissing this sensation as an illusion, he continued his frenzied search for water. The curve of the tunnel had favored the right but suddenly curved sharply to the left and descended steeply. The tunnel floor became uneven before turning into a series of crude steps. Then he saw the tunnel’s end and froze in his tracks.

  Beyond the tunnel’s end, a chamber appeared, much darker than the tunnel illuminated by the glowing fungus. The only light coming from the chamber was a faint, comforting orange radiance emitting from the right of the dark opening. The strange light added to the sense of urgency as he became obsessed with finding the water source. With magnetism never felt before, Getch was drawn out of the tunnel into the chamber. He was filled with fear and couldn’t move, except for his legs, and they wouldn’t stop. His feet had taken several steps into the immense chamber before caution could stop him from moving