Spellbound

Nothing ever changed in Faerie.

Every day the same sun crested over the horizon, bringing with it the warmth of the same sleepy summer afternoon. A cool breeze always followed closely behind, ensuring the realm’s inhabitants never grew uncomfortably warm. And when the sun fell and darkness embraced the land…the nights never grew too cold. In Faerie, one could sleep comfortably with naught but the night sky as a blanket.

Deep in the heart of this realm was a glade. Like everything else in Faerie, it was perfect.

The spacious meadow gave ample room to play…and thick groves of trees stood nearby to provide shade. A brook wound its way through the woods, babbling like an infant in this land of immortals. Near the largest bend of the brook stood a magnificent tree, and atop the tree was a house.

In this tree house there lived a boy. At least, that’s what you or I would call him. Each morning, the boy in the treehouse rose from his bed of vines, yawned loudly enough to shake the leaves from their branches, and set off to find the thing that would make him happy. He had no notion of what this thing may be nor where it was…only that he needed to find it.

The boy leapt to the soft earth below and drank deeply of the babbling brook. Though he was far older than the brook, the glade, and the forest itself, time in the realm of Faerie was a fickle thing. This being saw himself as a boy nearing the end of his thirteenth summer, and so he was.

His skin shared the pale glow of the full moon and his curly auburn hair did little to hide the extended points of his ears. His eyes were the purest shade of emerald green. Indeed, any emerald that beheld such eyes would surely question its existence and redden into a ruby in shame.

The boy sighed appreciatively as his thirst was quenched. Blinking the last of the dreamsand from his eyes he once more set off into the meadow and the forest beyond.

First, he checked all of his usual spots, in case his happiness had tried to creep up on him in the middle of the night. He checked the secret cave west of the meadow. It was here that the boy kept all the fantastic treasures he found on his travels. The cave held a candle that would burn forever, a sword that could cut through anything, and a magic Opal that could answer almost any question. But it did not contain his happiness.

He looked under the big rock at the north end of the meadow, and in the hollow of the oak tree to the south. As usual…he found nothing.

Satisfied that his happiness was not playing coy, the boy continued his quest. His search took him to the far corners of Faerie. He scaled the highest mountains. And found nothing. He swam the deepest seas. And found nothing. He spoke to every creature who held a voice. None of them knew where his happiness was.

All day he wandered the realm…as he did every day. And as the sun touched the horizon, he made to turn home.

He would do the same thing he did every night. He would make a meal of the berries that grew at the foot of his house, and drink deeply of the stream. He would wrap himself in leaf and vine and drift slowly into the realm of dreams. Through the night’s embrace, he would dream of his happiness and how he must find it. Then, the song of birds would awaken him from his slumber, and he would continue his search once again.

Every day and every night he did this. And he was content. Content to live his life in comfort and curiosity. Content to explore the endless forests of Faerie until the stars burnt out. Content with his meadow, his stream, and his treehouse. Indeed…he was content.

But he was not happy.

This thought made the boy hesitate. Maybe just a bit longer? He said to himself. Maybe this day it will be different.

He was right.

It was another hour before he found Something. This particular Something took the form of two trees. The first had golden bark that shone with the radiance of the sun. The second was bright silver and glowed with the light of the full moon. Though they appeared metallic their roots extended deep into the earth that had born them. The trees had grown towards each other, their branches stretching out to form a sort of archway between them.

The boy stared in wonder. He was certain that he had explored this part of the forest, and yet he had never seen these trees. Curiosity burned within him as he stepped forward to examine them.

He reached out and laid a hand upon the golden trunk. The bark was warm to the touch. He could feel a faint pulse beneath his fingers…almost as if the ancient plant had a heartbeat of its own. He walked a few paces over to the silver trunk. As soon as he placed his fingers upon the metal he withdrew his hand in shock. The branches were as cold as ice.

The boy took a few steps back and turned his attention to the space between the trunks. The air between them seemed to shimmer. Almost like light dancing across the surface of a pond. The boy practically vibrated with excitement as he stretched his hand out and into the empty air.

For a moment, his hand met a strange resistance…but quickly pushed past it and into the space beyond. The boy watched with wide eyes as his fingers vanished from sight. Heart thudding with excitement, he took two steps forward and found himself in a new world.

It smelled funny.

The air was thick and humid and stunk of burned things. The sun was not the gentle glow of the one he knew. No, it was altogether too bright. He squinted his eyes against the harsh light and tried to take in his surroundings.

He stood on top of a small hill overlooking a green field. This field was ringed not with trees, but with dwellings. The constructions were made of neither wood nor stone but something in between. Each bore a distinct color and shape…and yet somehow they all looked alike. At the base of the hill was a large pit of sand. Rising from the sand was what appeared to be a wooden castle. Tiny Faeries laughed and screamed as they chased each other around the structure. Nearby, larger Fae chatted amongst themselves…keeping one eye on the little creatures at all times. He had never seen Fae garbed in such strange attire as these. Their hair was cut into foreign styles, exposing their round ears and…

He blinked. Round ears? Surely they couldn’t be hu…

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of something splattering against the ground to his left. Swift as an arrow he spun to one side, and locked eyes with a very surprised Thing.

It appeared to be a human girl roughly his age. (Or at least, the age he thought himself as). Unlike his own bare feet, her’s were encased by white coverings that extended up to her ankles. The trousers she wore were fashioned out of a blue material unfamiliar to him, and her shirt depicted four demonic figures sneering out from the fabric. The boy did not understand the significance of the five symbols hung over the fiends…though he thought the one in the middle very much resembled a lightning bolt. Her hair was the color of sable and fell in a dark curtain to her shoulders. And her eyes…

He had never seen eyes so blue.

The girl stared at him…mouth agape in shock. At her feet sat the pink remains of whatever she had been eating before he appeared. The boy glanced down at his own simple tunic and shook his head in wonder. He had crossed over. Somehow…the trees had allowed him to enter the mortal realm.

Excitement rose into his chest as he began to consider the possibilities. He regarded the human creature with interest. This one is familiar with these lands, he thought. Perhaps it can point me in the direction of my happiness.

As he brushed himself off and made to introduce himself in the formal manner of his kind, the girl snapped her mouth closed with an audible POP. Her shocked expression vanished behind a mask of fury.

“Hey!” she exclaimed, pointing an accusatory finger at the boy. “You made me drop my ice cream!”

The boy reeled back in surprise. He had expected the mortal to quiver in awe or perhaps fear at his otherworldly presence. He didn’t expect…well...this.

“My apologies,” he replied. “I have no notion of what you speak, but you have my word thrice spoken that I shall repay you for this transgression.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You talk funny. Where are you from?”

“The glade by the stream.”

“What glade? Which stream?!”

A frown curled his brow. “My glade. By my stream.”

She scowled. “Fine. Don’t tell me then. Doesn't change the fact that you ruined my ice cream with that weird trick of yours!”

“Trick?” he replied, his frustration growing by the moment. If this stupid human wouldn’t help him, then he would set out to find his happiness alone. As he always had.

“Yeah, the way you just appeared out of that shrub! What are you, some kind of magician?”

His scowl deepened. “I am no mere magician, you foolish mortal. I have traveled upon paths unseen in search of my happiness and now I intend to seek out and find it. Good day. ” He turned to leave.

The girl was yelling now. “Well, I had my happiness in my hands before someone made me drop my…”

The boy spun around once more and bellowed, “Look I’m SORRY I made you drop your…your…your whatever that stuff was...but I have things to do and places to be so I bid you a GOOD DAY.”

He stood there for a moment, chest heaving in anger. The girl suddenly went very still. Then, in a voice barely more than a whisper, she said “You’ve never had ice cream before?”

He blinked. “No. I can’t say I have.”

The girl’s shock was pushed aside by a look of pure determination. She marched forward, grabbed the boy's hand, and began leading him down the hill. Off-balance and thoroughly confused, he could only stumble behind the human as she made a beeline towards something at the end of the field.

She towed him to the front of a strange contraption. It appeared to be a large white box on…. were those wheels??? Multicolored hieroglyphics were inscribed on its surface, no doubt to provide some sort of protective enchantment. The boy had similar spells inscribed upon his own home.

The annoying human ignored the glyphs and marched him up to the front of the van. She pounded on the side of the box in a strange rhythm. Ah, thought the boy, the pattern to disarm the wards. These mortals are more clever than I gave them credit for.

A side panel of the box swung open and a large hairy face emerged from its depths. The owner of the face was, by the boy's best estimate, approaching his second millennium of age. He wore a strange white hat and shirt, and most of his face was occupied by the single largest mustache the boy had ever seen. Lines appeared on the elderly gnome’s face as he beheld the two children before him.

“Well missy,” he said in a voice brimming with mirth. “Back again I see? You know you have your entire childhood to rot your teeth out? Ain't no need to get it all done in one day.”

The girl shook her head, her face deathly serious. “No time for jokes today Mike, we’ve got an emergency on our hands. My friend,” she paused for a moment and frowned “say, what is your name anyway?”

The boy straightened slightly. “My name is the laughter of the creek on a summer’s evening, the whisper of the wind through the evergreens, and the song of the robin when the first rays of dawn light the sky.”

She blinked. “Ok…Robin. Like I was saying Mike, Robin here has never...in his whole entire life...eaten ice cream.”

The massive mustache shook as a bellowing laugh erupted from the man’s chest. The laughter continued for several minutes before he regained control of himself. A beefy finger appeared to wipe away the tears. “Oh Lord, it's been a while since I heard that line. You kids come up with the best stuff. But this ain't Old Mike’s first trip around the block. I’ll tell ya what though. Here’s a free sample from my latest batch. Consider it payment for a genuine belly laugh”.

He vanished back from whence he came only to reappear a moment later holding a small brown cone topped with what looked like colored snow. The girl eagerly accepted and handed it off to Robin. She stared at him expectantly, as if waiting for him to do something.

Robin sniffed at the strange substance. It smelled sweet…like the berries back home…but was cold to the touch. He looked once more at the girl, who nodded her head in extreme enthusiasm, before shrugging his shoulders and placing his tongue on the pink and purple material.

Robin was a creature of Faerie. He understood magic on a level that you or I could never hope to comprehend. And yet this…this was more powerful than any enchantment he had ever experienced. An explosion of sensations erupted across his tongue and a rush of primordial energy surged through his body. He felt invigorated. He felt alive! And for a moment…all went black…

When he regained awareness of his surroundings, the two humans were staring at him in horror. He glanced down at the shattered remains of the cone in his hand and became conscious of the cold tingling around his mouth and face. He eagerly licked his lips to clean up the remnants of the delicious treat before smacking them in satisfaction.

Mike gulped. “Lord take me, I ain’t never seen nothin' like that before. When you said what you said before, I thought you was kiddin…but now…”

His voice trailed off as Robin’s eyes locked onto his. It was the same look a tiger gave a water buffalo before it pounced.

“Sir mage,” he said, bowing his head in grim respect, “I know not how you conjured such a marvel, nor do I expect you shall part with such a secret. And yet I swear thrice upon my name that, should you be willing to replicate your spell once more for myself…and my companion…you shall be handsomely rewarded.”

Robin leaned down and selected three fair-sized stones from the ground. He walked up to the box on wheels and presented the stones to the man with a deep bow and accompanying flourish.

Mike hesitantly accepted the rocks. “Look sonny, I’m more than happy to do business with ya, but I can’t accept…”

Robin’s head rose from his bow. His eyes glowed a deep green. “Our bargain is struck.” The words did not so much leave his lips as they did resonate from his person. Like a string being plucked, the sound vibrated through the air and washed over the stones in the big man’s hand.

Mike watched with disbelief as, one by one, the rocks in his palm turned to gold.

A few moments later Robin and his new friend were laughing as they walked back toward the field. Their arms were burdened with two of the biggest ice cream sundaes ever seen in this realm. They sat under the shade of a big oak tree and devoured the cold treats with relish. Then, with tingling fingers and aching stomachs, they sat back against its bark and looked at one another for what seemed like the first time.

“My thanks for introducing me to the Archmage Mike,” said Robin. “I trust that this fulfills my oath to you?”

The girl cocked her head and gave him a puzzled grin. “If that’s your way of asking if we are even, the answer is yes.”

He grinned in return. “Then, as a companion rather than a vassal, I beg to ask something of thee. You have given me a name of mine own…and yet you have not yet given me yours?”

Her smile widened. “Katrina. My name is Katrina.” She shook her head. “You know, you sure do talk funny. Where did you say you were from again?”

He sucked in a breath to answer…then let it out once more. “You would not believe me if I told you.”

Katrina’s brow knit together as she drew in a breath to respond. Robin held up a hand to delay the oncoming onslaught.

“It would be far simpler to show you.”

…

Katrina glanced around in wonder as the magnificent forest materialized before her eyes. Robin glanced back at her with a grin as they crossed over. He took a few steps ahead and made a grand sweeping gesture with his arms. He spun, turning the gesture into a graceful bow towards Katrina.

“Welcome to Faerie, my friend.'' He had to fight to keep the mad grin off his face. He hadn’t felt this excited in ages. “What would you like to see first?”

Katrina met his eyes with a mad grin of her own. “Show me everything!”

And it was so. Every day Robin and Katrina met on top of the hill and one would show the other the wonders of a new world. And with each passing day, the bond between them grew stronger.

Robin introduced Katrina to the gnomes who lived in massive caverns beneath the Archbone Hills. Katrina brought him to the local arcade to play air hockey. He showed her the clearing where the unicorns fed on Moongrass each night. She taught him how to make Tiktoks. He taught her how to listen to the whispering language of the trees…who spoke in voices softer than the breeze and deeper than the foundations of the earth. She invited him to the neighborhood water balloon fight. Which they won, of course.

Every night, Robin would do the same thing. He would make a meal of the berries that grew at the foot of his house…and his secret supply of Mike’s ice cream. He would wrap himself in leaf and vine and drift slowly into the realm of dreams. Through the night’s embrace, he would dream of new adventures for him and Katrina to experience. Then the song of birds would awaken him from his slumber and he would race towards the trees of silver and gold to see his friend.

He was particularly excited for today. Something had been bothering Katrina these last few adventures and he wanted to cheer her up. She had been pestering him to take her to visit the Cave of Night and see the sleeping dragons. It was going to be a perfect day. He stepped through the portal and took in the familiar sight of the park below. Katrina should be here any…

There! Katrina sprinted up the hill to the secret entrance. Today she wore running shoes and a shirt depicting one of her favorite bands. Robin couldn't quite remember the name of the musicians...though he was fairly sure it had something to do with metal balloons.

Robin practically buzzed with excitement as he began to tell Katrina about the dragons…but she held up a hand to stop him.

“Sorry Rob, “ she said, still panting “I can’t today. My Grandmother asked me to stay home and help pack. I had to beg her to let me race over here and give you the news.”

Robin tried to not let his disappointment show. He forced a smile. “Fear not my friend, there will soon come another day for…wait…did you say pack? Pack for what?”

She wouldn’t meet his eye. “I’ve tried telling you…but there was never really a good time to say it. I’m moving.”

“Moving?” Robin frowned. “Of course you’re moving. We move every day. How else would we get from one place to another?”

A quick laugh escaped her lips before abruptly dying off. “Oh, Rob…I’m going to miss you.”

“Miss me?!?!” Robin felt his stomach drop. “Katrina, what in the name of Queen Titania are you talking about?”

She finally looked at him. And Robin could, at last, see the tears in her eyes. “I was only here for the summer, see,” she managed to get out. “Now that it's over, I have to go back to my parents in New York. School is starting soon and I need to,” she stopped and sniffed. “I need to go. In three days I’ll be gone…and I won’t be back for a long time.”

Robin felt his heart sink into his shoes. “Katrina…please…don’t…”

Whatever he was going to say was lost as she crushed his ribs in an enormous bear hug. Robin was too stunned to hug her back. Before she ended the embrace, she whispered in his ear.

“I’ll come back and see you. Every day before I go. I’ll run up here to see you, I promise. Goodbye Robin.”

And with that, she turned and sprinted back down the hill.

Robin reached up with a trembling hand and felt the warm tears across his cheek. Whether they were his or Katrina’s, he could not say. He turned back to the portal in a daze. He did not remember how he got back to the treehouse, but the next thing he remembered was lying on his back, staring at the familiar stars of Faerie, and thinking about his friend. The person who had shown him the marvels of the new world. The person who filled each of his days with a new joy. The person who could have helped him find his…

Robin shot upright in the bed. No, he thought. I swear by mine own name, by the name of the Queens, and the names of all the stars in the sky…this shall not be.

He leapt from his treehouse to the soft earth below. He took a quick drink from the icy stream to freshen his mind. Then he set off into the meadow to find the thing that would make Katrina stay.

…

The next day, he passed through the portal to find Katrina already sitting in wait for him. Her expression lit up with joy as she saw Robin emerge from the bushes, then fell into curiosity as she saw the cloth-colored parcel in his arms. She started as the Fae boy sprinted up to her and dumped the heavy object into her lap.

She gave him a quizzical look. “What’s this?”

“A gift. Open it,” he said with a gesture.

Inside the cloth was an ornate silver mirror. Its edges were inscribed with dozens of runes. The midday sun fractured off of its polished surface and created a beautiful display of color and light.

“The gnomes made it for me. It can bend light from anywhere in any world to show you what you wish to see.” He demonstrated by waving his hand over the mirror and speaking the name of her Mother. The silvery surface rippled and solidified into a moving image of a dark-haired woman in business attire. Sat on the desk beside her was the smiling photo of a young woman with the same sable hair as her. Robin’s smile widened as Katrina let out a small gasp.

“See?!” The excitement was evident in his voice. “Now you can see your parents, friends, and even the Archmage Mike whenever you please! You can even use it to see your skoola, or whatever it was you called it. Now there is no reason for you to leave!”

Katrina was silent for a moment. Robin’s excitement turned to confusion as he watched tears fall on the mirror's metal surface. The image vanished as quickly as it appeared. His friend looked up at him with red eyes.

Katrina wrapped the cloth back around the mirror. “It's a beautiful gift Rob…but it’s not that easy. I need to be at school so I can learn things. And what’s the point of seeing my mom or dad if I can’t talk to them.”

She clutched the mirror between her hands. “I’d like to keep it all the same though. On account of you not having a phone and all…I’d like some way to see you.” She smiled. “I’m sorry Rob…I’ll visit again tomorrow.”

And she turned away and walked down the hill.

The next day Katrina returned to find Robin swinging from a tree branch. The boy was practically vibrating with excitement. She opened her mouth to call out a greeting. Before she could utter a single syllable the Faerie had dropped from his branch and ran over to shove another parcel into her hand.

“Another one?” she asked with a sigh. “Robin, I told you that…”

“Just open it!” he said, bouncing up and down on his heels.

Katrina opened the wooden box. Inside was a shimmering opal the size of an egg. The gemstone seemed to glow in the shade of the trees. Bands of multicolored light weaved in and out of its interior, giving her the strange sense that the stone was somehow alive.

“It's called the Answerer,” Robin spoke almost too quickly for her to make out the words. “It contains the Answers to almost every Question there is. All you need to do is speak your question to the stone. Now you don’t need to go to school to learn things…you can learn nearly anything you want! Now, will you stay?”

Katrina had so many emotions wrestling in her chest she didn’t know which one to feel. “What do you mean almost every Question?” she said in a flat voice.

Robin ran a hand through his hair. “Well, it won’t reveal anything about the user or their own personal future, but from a general knowledge gathering perspective there’s no better…”

Katrina let him ramble on for a bit while she decided which emotion to embrace. After a few moments, she settled on rage.

“Why are you doing this?!?” she snapped. Robin’s eyes widened and he took a few paces back in surprise. “I have to leave! I wanted our last few days to be special and what you’re doing right now is only making it harder!”

She screamed in frustration and stormed down the hill. She heard Robin’s voice behind her, calling for her to come back. She didn’t stop until she was back in her room.

Katrina cried herself to sleep that night. How could Robin be so stupid? Telling him that she was leaving was one of the hardest things she had ever done. And he couldn’t accept that. He couldn’t be happy for her. Sometimes she wondered if that boy could really be happy at all.

That thought gave her pause. Her fingers felt under her pillow for the cool surface of Robin’s opal. She thought for a moment, then whispered to the stone.

“Where will Robin find his happiness?”

Th stone glowed. And she had her Answer.

…

The sun reached its zenith on the third day. This was it. Come evening, Katrina would set off for her old home and a new school year. She sat alone on the hilltop…as she did every day…and waited for Rob.

Maybe he won’t come. She thought. Maybe that will make this easier. Maybe he’s still mad at what I said yesterd…

Her thoughts were interrupted by a rustling in the bushes. Katrina stood up and brushed the leaves off her jeans. How would Robin react when she asked him to…

As Robin stepped from the bushes, Katrina let out a yelp and rushed to his side. She caught him as he fell to the earth, cradling his head in her lap.

Her friend looked terrible. Both eyes were blackened and blood trickled from one of his nostrils. Great chunks of his auburn hair were missing. He had dragged his left leg behind him as he walked, and his right arm hung limp at his side. Despite all of this…he smiled when he saw her.

“Apologies for my tardiness,” he said in a weak voice. “But the Queen’s attendants were loath to part with this particular item.” And Robin unclenched the fingers of his left hand to reveal his final gift.

In the center of his palm sat a tiny vial. Inside was a golden amber liquid that seemed to pulse with a light of its own. Katrina hesitantly took the vial from his hands and examined it.

“What is it?” she asked.

Robin’s chuckle turned into a cough. “This, my friend, is the Elixir of Life. It is the most jealously guarded substance in all of Faerie. You need only drink this vial…and you’ll become one of us.”

Katrina felt her breath catch in her throat. “What?”

Robin nodded. “You can come live with me in Faerie. We can explore the realm together, for all of time. You will never age…never die. You need only drink.”

Katrina looked at the vial of amber liquid. Then she looked at it some more. Finally, she came to a decision.

She uncorked the stopper from the vial.

And poured it down Robin’s throat.

He coughed and sputtered in surprise, but it was too late. All of his wounds healed in an instant. Robin sprang to his feet in anger.

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!? Do you have ANY idea how rare that stuff is?!? How bloody difficult it was to get?!? You just threw away the one thing that mortals have sought from our realm since the dawn of time. How could anyone be so STUPID?!?!”

Katrina felt her face grow hot. “How could I be so stupid?!? You nearly got yourself killed so I could become a Faerie?!? THAT was your big plan? I don’t want to live forever, I want to go see my mom and dad, and my friends and school. I want to grow up and make my own choices. I WANT to go and live my life!”

Robin sniffed in disdain. “FINE! If you want to go then GO!” He turned his back to her.

Katrina took a shaky breath. “And I want you to come with me, idiot!”

Robin went very still. He slowly turned back around

“What did you say?” his voice was barely a whisper.

“I said that I want you to come with me. I talked to my folks, and they’re cool with it. You can stay with us as long as you need to, and we can enroll you in school and…and we won’t have to say goodbye. What do you say?”

Robin didn’t speak for several moments. The thought of leaving the glade forever had never crossed his mind, let alone the thought of leaving Faerie. He wasn’t sure what would happen to him if he stayed in this world for too long. But he had a sneaking suspicion. If he went with Katrina, he would die. Maybe not today, tomorrow, or even fifty years from now. But he would become human. He would age. And one day, he would end.

Robin glanced back at the bushes. He thought about his perfect home in his perfect glade. He thought of the brook, clear and cold. He thought of the berries that guarded him against hunger. He thought of the Fae back home. How they would never change. Never die. And he thought about being content for all of eternity.

Then he looked at Katrina.

Katrina looked back at him with eyes more blue than the sky itself. Surely, any sapphire that beheld those eyes would reconsider its existence and drop out of school to become an emerald instead.

“Why are you smiling?” she asked.

“No reason,” he answered. “I just found something I thought I’d lost.”

She smiled back at him. Then, hand in hand, they walked down the hill together.

The End