Embellished Memory

‘Run. Run. Run’! Daisy sprinted across the meadow, icy fear slithering down her spine as the taunting cries of her pursuers grew ever closer. She was almost there, she could see a gap in the fence a few meters away, if she got through she’d be safe, her tormentors would never dare to follow her, they weren’t that stupid. “Daisy, won’t you be my lady?” the leader of the group pursuing her called in a sing song voice. She was too frightened to reply, her brain frozen like an overloaded computer. Just a few more steps now, she told herself as she neared the fence, just a few more steps then… “blargh”!

Daisy shrieked as a boy with a face covered with war stripes lurched out of the tall grass swaying gently on the other side of the fence. She skidded, then turned sharply, barely avoiding his clawed hands as she made a dash for the other side of the meadow. ‘Quick now, quick now, faster, faster’. Daisy gasped in a lungful of air as she urged her tired legs on. Her sharp turning had caught the boy’s by surprise but soon they were after her again, hooting and hollering like wild things until hands grasped Daisy’s shoulders with painful strength and hot, triumphant breath rattled down her ear. Daisy squirmed frantically, desperately trying to escape the hold that was pulling her backwards until “bloody hell”. The grip on Daisy’s shoulders loosened and a wet thump told her that her would-be captor had just lost his footing on the slippery grass and fallen. Smiling, Daisy took off, running like a fox being chased by baying hounds, dashing into the deep, dark woods that surrounded most of the school grounds. She knew where to go now, there was a place that no one would ever look for her, that no one but her knew about. She just had to lose her pursuers.

Mindful of the tree roots and stones that littered her path she turned her head and saw the boys standing at the edge of the wood, each one of them wheedling each other to go in, to enter the big bad woods where anything could be lurking, lions, tigers or bears.

‘Uh uh! A forest! A big dark forest. We can’t go over it. We can’t go under it. Oh no! We’ve got to go through it’! Daisy chuckled as the memory of her mother’s soft voice washed over her while she paused and watched the boys dare each other to enter the school’s forbidden realm. Then one of the boys leaped forward with a mewling war cry and charged towards her. Heart leaping into her throat, Daisy sprinted away from him as fast as she could, berating herself for stopping to watch the fearful pack. She could hear the others re-joining the chase now, screaming insults like wild things as they raced towards her.

Daisy sped up, dodging sticks and stones as she ran through the woods until she came to a wide lazy river. With no time to think about what she was doing Daisy jumped in and frantically waded across, well aware that the boy’s cries were getting closer and closer. As she scrambled out three of the boys neared the river and exchanged grins before jumping in. Then something strange happened. As the boys waded further in, the water level began to rise and the current grew stronger until they could barely stand.

“What’s this? What’s happening?” the shorter of the three shrieked as he tried to keep his head above water. “I don’t know” Daisy answered, as shocked as he was. She scanned the river bank, looking for something, anything that would enable her to help the boys get out of the river. It didn’t matter that only a moment before they had been hounding her with the intention of hurting her once they had caught up; she couldn’t let them drown or get sick, she had to be the bigger person. But almost as soon as she had spied a likely looking stick the current began to ease and the water level began to climb back down.

“Woah, that was freaky” said one of the boys on the bank, his eyebrows rising up to make an almost perfect triangle with the bridge of his nose. “Yeah, maybe the freak did it” the group leader suggested with a malicious smile.

“No, that’s impossible. No one could do that” the smallest boy argued as he slowly waded towards his friends on the bank. “Witches could. Witches are real, my parents told me so” the leader countered, “and Daisy is a witch aren’t you? That’s why you come out here, that’s why you’re always talking to yourself and no one can understand you. You’re a witch, a freaky little witch”!

“No I’m not” Daisy protested, stumbling backwards.

“Yes you are, yes you are, yes you are! Hey, maybe we should tie you to a tree and burn you, like they did in the dark ages”.

“Look over there, there’s a bridge”!

“Yeah, let’s go, let’s get her”!

Horrified, Daisy spun around and ran, tears pouring down her cheeks. She didn’t know what had caused the river to rise or the current to grow stronger but it wasn’t her, it wasn’t her and now they were going to hurt her and she was too far away from the school to scream for help. “Uh”! Daisy grunted as she tripped over a tree root and crashed to the earthy floor of the woods. Spitting away leaves and wiping away tears Daisy looked up, and gasped - she’d found the old man tree. Filled with a burst of delighted energy Daisy jumped to her feet and hurried forward, gently rubbing the tree’s nose in greeting before scrambling around the other side and pushing her way through the tree’s hair until she came to its inside, where’s its mind should be, if the tree really were an old man, her mind supplied. Daisy shivered at the thought, she knew that there was a strange kind of magic to the tree, something old and kindly, but to imagine that it had once had a mind, had once been capable of thought like the tree’s in Narnia, that scared her.

Deeper and deeper inside the tree she went, not wanting to be heard or seen by the boys should they pass, until she began to realise that she had gone far deeper into the tree than should be possible. Slowly, hesitatingly, she stretched out her shaking hands in front of her, expecting to come into contact with bark or even creeping crawling insects, but there was nothing except for a light breeze. Intrigued Daisy moved further in until she spied a chink of light up ahead. This was impossible, but so were the river’s actions and she had to find out what was causing the impossible. She had to.

Warily, Daisy carried on, the chink of light ahead of her growing bigger and brighter with every step she took until she had to shield her eyes to avoid being blinded by it until “hello there missy. What are you doing here?” a voice rumbled. Daisy jumped and took two steps backwards. Never talk to strangers her mum had warned her. But her mum was gone now, and she had to choose between the howling, hollering boys who would torment her until she broke or the mysterious man inside the magic tree.

“H, hello. Who are you? Where are we?” Daisy called. She still couldn’t see anything except the light but as she watched a tall curly haired silhouette appeared and tilted its head. “You don’t know where we are? My my, you must be lost. We’re in Avalon of course. The realm of the seelie fae”.

“The what?” Daisy said blankly, the hairs on her arms and neck slowly rising to attention. The figure sighed then spread out his arms as if he was going to fly and slowly, slowly the light began to fade and somehow rise up like a curtain revealing a land that Daisy believed only could exist in heaven. Everywhere she turned there were flowers and trees of all size and description, all of them surrounded by humming insects, singing birds and chattering animals. “How, this is, this is...” lost for words Daisy looked up at the beaming man in front of her. “Wonderful isn’t it”?

“Yes, but how did I get here? I go and hide in the old man tree all the time. There was no passage there before”.

“Ah yes, well” the man shuffled his feet awkwardly, “well I suppose we should have kept an eye on the area for a bit longer before we opened a portal inside the tree. I mean, human’s stumble across us all the time, well, not so much now a-days, but you, you’re just a child” he muttered helplessly.

“So? And what’s a seelie fae”? The man looked at her with his kind eyes, assessing. “You’re alone aren’t you? Frightened and lost and so very alone. Come with me child. I’ve got friends, lady friends. They can explain this better than I can”. A prickling sensation climbed up her body at those words. Something bad was going on. But what? Cautiously, she followed the man who had already turned and begun to walk away through the lush green grass, clearly expecting her to follow.

After walking for some distance they came across a small wooden cottage filled with the sounds of laughter and music. Daisy wished she had something to hold as a comfort but the man strode forward and banged three times on the bright yellow door. The music stopped.

After a few seconds the door swung open to reveal the most beautiful woman Daisy had ever seen. Her jaw dropped as the woman’s ocean blue eyes settled on her for a moment before she turned and called into the house “Anwen, Aures, we have a mortal guest”. She turned back to Daisy and gestured for her to enter the house with a dazzling smile. “It’s alright child, no harm will come to you here. My name is Ceinwen. Come inside, you must have lots of questions, and I believe, a decision to make” she added with a glance at the man.

Daisy tip-toed forward as far as the entrance of the cottage then poked her head inside. Her eyes widened. She was in a witch’s cottage. Above the crackling fire hung a pot filled with something that bubbled and boiled and from the ceiling came down hundreds of herbs and spices. Daisy started to tremble as she turned her head to examine the two women sitting at a small wooden table. They didn’t look like witches, they didn’t look like women who ate children for breakfast, lunch and dinner. In fact, they looked kind.

“Come in, sit down with us, we won’t hurt you” said a woman with dark eyes and an explosion of curls smiled, pulling out a wooden stool from underneath the table. “What’s in there?” Daisy asked as she slowly moved towards the table. The curly haired woman laughed. “Soup. Why, did you think that we were going to eat you, little mortal”?

“I think she needs an explanation Anwen, not a diversion” the man said, coming into the house and leaning against the green wall. “An…oh, alright”. Anwen turned back to Daisy and bit her lip. “What’s your name little mortal” she asked, playing with the reed in her hands. “Daisy. Daisy Thornwel” Daisy replied. “Alright”, Anwen took a deep breath, “do you know what we are Daisy Thornwell”?

“Seelie fae, according to him” Daisy added, jerking a thumb in the man’s direction. The man chuckled and creaking footsteps told her that he’d moved away from the wall and begun to follow Ceinwen around the spacious room. “I think I’d better give the explanation then” Aurel muttered,

draining a delicate looking teacup. She put the cup back on the saucer and sighed. “Basically, fae are fairies…”

“Fairies!” Daisy squealed excitedly, all tension draining out of her and she hopped up and down on the stool.

“Aye, aye, aye, I haven’t finished yet”.

“Sorry” Daisy mumbled, staring down at her shoes in shame.

“You’ve entered Avalon, the home of the good fairies, the seelie, and….is there even a way to put this lightly?” Aurel asked Anwen who sombrely shook her head. “Wonderful. Okay. You have entered our realm, and unfortunately, you can’t go back to your own world, not…it won’t be like it was when you left. Time moves differently here, one day in Avalon, depending on which portal you came through and a whole host of other things, could be a year or more in the mortal realm. I’m sorry child, but unless you’re willing to tough it out for a while and hope that your friends and family recognize you, you’re stuck here”.

“One year isn’t long enough to forget somebody” Daisy argued, even though some part of her jumped for joy at the thought of being able to get away from everyone that made her miserable. The man snorted derisively, ignoring the dirty look he received from Ceinwen, “one year is plenty. Mortal humans are the most forgetful species I’ve ever come across”.

“Edryd”!

“Yes dear” he grinned, turning to meet Ceinwen’s scowl. Daisy grinned behind her hands as Aurel snorted. “Don’t listen to him, he thinks he knows everything but he’s an idiot really” Anwen smiled. Daisy’s grin vanished. She hadn’t been in Avalon long, fifteen minutes at the most but already she was struck with the desire to stay forever. She had no mum, no dad, no one to care for her, no one to play with and these people, these fairies, they had been far kinder to her than anyone had in a long time. But Avalon, this house, it wasn’t like home, it wasn’t like hearing the soft whisper of the sea or the cry of gulls. It wasn’t like the photographs of her Dad’s smile and her Mum’s laugh or the old records they used to play. It wasn’t home, it wasn’t hers. Should she stay, and try and make a new life for herself in the land of the fairies, or should she go and hope for the best? Daisy had no idea.

Published 15th December 2018