Prompt: “The reason faerie folk and magic folk trade their magic for unborn children is to spare their souls from abuse and neglect by people who readily barter them in exchange for fortune, fame, or power. They are cared for and loved and learn the magic of their benefactors to save other children.”
Rosemary laid her bed snoring away. One leg under the blankets and one poking out of the blankets. Her curly brown hair was a mess and pointed in ten different directions. All around her room were clothes, cloaks, and books just thrown about. It looked like a tornado came through this room. And knowing Rosemary, it’s possible she had an accident with a tornado before she fell asleep.
Rosemary looked like any ordinary Human, but she had never seen the Human world. Well that’s not completely true. She was born there as a baby, but spent her entire childhood in the Fey world raised by her caretaker, Lady Fey. Once Rosemary was eleven years old, she was enrolled in the magic school Lady Fey taught at and for the past three years she had been learning magic alongside the Fey individuals.
It took a little bit of adjusting for the other students, but eventually the other students accepted that they had a human in their midst learning the same magic they were learning. Before long, Rosemary became quite equipped with the Fey magic and rose through the ranks. Although this didn’t mean that Rosemary was perfect. She had her quirks.
There was a knock on the door that barely eclipsed the sound of Rosemary’s snoring.
“Rosemary? Are you awake?” A voice came from the other side of the door.
Rosemary did not wake.
“Rosemary!” The person knocked on the door harder.
“Huh? What?” Rosemary sat straight up in the bed.
“Rosemary, it’s me. Are you ready to go?”
Rosemary realized the voice on the other side of the door was Lady Fey.
“Oh crap,” Rosemary mumbled as she looked around the room.
She had overslept…again. She was supposed to be packed and ready to go on her mission by now.
It was a huge deal that Rosemary was going on this mission. Usually students didn’t get a chance to leave the Fey world and go to the Human world until they were 18 or 19. It was almost unprecedented that a 14 year old would go. Lots of students were angry at Rosemary for getting this opportunity to go and said that Rosemary was only going because Lady Fey worked at the school. However, Lady Fey told Rosemary that she had earned this mission for excelling at her studies and that the other students were just jealous. This made Rosemary feel a little better, but in the back of the mind, she still doubted that this wasn’t in part due to Lady Fey.
“Rosemary,” Lady Fey knocked again.
“Uh…one minute. Almost ready,” Rosemary lied through her teeth.
Rosemary jumped out of bed and started waving her arms frantically. Green wisps of magic rolled off her fingers and started to pick up items off the ground. Little whirlwinds started picking up the clothes.
Rosemary opened her magic bag and the items were sucked into them like a twister. The clothes, books, and magic items flew off the ground and shelves and into the bag.
“Rosemary, open the door. What’s going on?”
“Just a minute!” Rosemary yelled.
The items continued to swirl into her bag as Rosemary snatched some clothes out of the air. She threw off the old clothes and put on the new, less wrinkled clothes. The old dragged across the ground and leapt into the bag a long with the rest of the clothes. As soon as all of Rosemary’s stuff was in the bag, the green mist evaporated and the bag clothes.
“Rosemary.”
The door opened and Rosemary was standing there. Her sweater was on backwards, her hair was still a mess, and she was wearing two different kinds of socks, but Rosemary was standing there with a smile.
“Good morning, Lady Fee,” Rosemary said still putting on her other shoe.
Lady Fee let out a small sigh.
“You overslept again, didn’t you?”
“Ummm…just a little bit,” Rosemary said with a smile.
“Well come on, we need to go if we’re going to make it on time.”
“Right, right.”
Rosemary finished putting on her shoe and picked up her bag.
Lady Fee walked down the hallway of the girls’ dorm and Rosemary ran after her.
Lady Fee and Rosemary walked across the school’s campus towards the edge of the forest. There was a large, stone, circular platform called the Fey Gate. It was a portal that allowed powerful magic users like Lady Fee to cross into the Human world.
“So what exactly is the mission?” Rosemary asked Lady Fee.
“Don’t worry Rosemary. I know you are nervous, but I will explain everything once we arrive at our destination.”
“I…I’m not nervous,” Rosemary said unconvincingly.
Lady Fee gave her a smile.
“You have nothing to worry about. I’m here for you.”
“You’re staying the entire month, right?”
“If that’s what you wish,” Lady Fee said. “You might want me to leave once we get there.”
Rosemary wasn’t sure what to make of that. It kind of seemed like Lady Fee was nervous or maybe concerned about something. She was a hard person to read.
“Uh…ok,” Rosemary said not sure what else to say.
“Come on,” Lady Fee grabbed Rosemary’s hand and lead her to the center of the stone circle.
Lady Fee reached out her other arm and blue wisps of magic began to circular them both. Magic symbols engraved in the stone began to glow with the same blue light. Lady Fee’s eyes began to glow as well as the blue mist swirled around them faster and faster.
Rosemary could tell that this magic was way more powerful than she was used to.
There was a flash of light and the Fey World was gone. They were no longer standing on stone, but soft soil surrounded by small, red mushrooms. Beyond that was a forest thick with large oak trees.
Rosemary stumbled a bit but caught herself on Lady Fee.
“Woah,” Rosemary said as her head spun.
“Sit for a bit,” Lady Fee said as she helped Rosemary to the ground. “Teleportation magic like that can affect people in different ways. Your dizziness should subside shortly.”
“Yeah sure,” Rosemary said her vision becoming more normal.
“In the meantime I am going to disguise myself,” Lady Fee said.
She stood and snapped her fingers. Blue energy once again swirled around her and her appearance shimmered. Normally Lady Fee had purple skin as well as feline eyes. However the magic changed her appearance giving her tan skin like mine. Her feline eyes became more rounded and her ears became less pointed. Her white hair stayed the same color.
“Wow, do I need to do that?” Rosemary asked her.
“No Rosemary,” Lady Fee said with a laugh. “You will fit in perfectly here. I however might be spotted as a Fey.”
“You don’t want to look like a Fey?”
“Here Fey are quite rare and some Humans even try to hunt us for our magical ability. It’s best that I look more Human just in case. You never know who you are going to run into in the forest.
“How far do we need to go?” Rosemary asked.
She stood up regaining her composure.
“There is a small cottage not too far from here. That’s where we need to go,” Lady Fee explained. “It’s about a ten minute walk.”
“Why didn’t you just teleport us there?” Rosemary asked.
Lady Fee looked back at the mushrooms directing Rosemary’s attention to them.
“See those mushrooms? In the Human world a circle of mushrooms like that is called a fairy circle. The mushrooms grow like this due to the magic in the area. They grow where two ley lines come together. You remember learning about ley lines, right?”
Rosemary thought about it for a moment.
“Yeah, I remember learning about them in class,” She said. “They are like magical lines that wrap around the entire world and act as magical pathways.”
“Correct. And when two or more of these ley lines come together, they house enough magic to open a connection between the Fey world and the Human world. This is the closest I could get us to the cottage.”
“That makes sense.”
Lady Fee smiled.
“Now let’s get going.”
Rosemary and Lady Fee made their way through the forest. Rosemary absolutely loved the smell of the fresh soil underneath their feet and the large oak trees around them. Growing up in the Fey world had been amazing, but Rosemary loved this as well. She thought that the Human world was amazing as well if the whole world looked like this. However, she was concerned by what Lady Fee had said earlier. About people hunting Fey for their magic. That sounded horrible. She hoped they didn’t find anyone like that in the woods.
Rosemary looked up and saw a few birds fly overhead. All of this beauty was almost too much to take in at once, but she was glad that she got to spend this time in the forest before the mission started.
“Oh my gosh!” Rosemary said out loud.
“What is it?” Lady Fee turned back to her.
“I just realized that this will be my first time ever meeting another Human, like me,” Rosemary said.
Lady Fee let out a small laugh, “Exciting, isn’t it?”
“I guess,” Rosemary laughed nervously.
“Don’t worry, they don’t bite,” Lady Fee gave her a wink.
Eventually they made their way across a fallen log which crossed a small creek. Rosemary noticed the wear on the log. She guessed that this log was probably a regular bridge for humans and animals alike. There on the other side of the creek was a small clearing with a small, log cabin. There was white smoke pouring out of the brick chimney on the far side of the house.
“Wow, so this is where Human’s live?” Rosemary asked.
“Some do,” Lady Fee said. “The Human world is full of very diverse biomes just like the Fey world. There are forests, deserts, mountains, oceans, grasslands, and many others.”
“Oh. Bell said that Humans are all alike,” Rosemary said.
“Quite the contrary. Humans are very diverse and live in a bunch of different areas. Unfortunately we won’t be able to see any of those places. Our mission is focused on this home.”
“What is the mission?”
“This family is in need of some help. There is some kind of beast that has occupied the woods and has been killing all the wildlife. The family is dependent on the deer, rabbits, and pheasants that live in the forest for food, but the beast has gotten to them before the family can hunt them.”
“Were here to fight a beast?”
Rosemary glanced around.
“Not exactly. The family has a food shortage and are having a hard time starting a garden to support them. You are here to help with that as I go check out the beast in the forest.”
“Oh ok.”
Lady Fee stepped up to the door and knocked on the wooden door.
“Hello?” A woman’s voice came from the other side of the door.
“Mr. and Mrs. Tanner. It is me, Lady Fee. Here to help you,” Lady Fee said.
The door opened and a woman was standing there with long, brown, curly hair. A young boy about eight years old poked his head out behind her. He also had similar, curly hair.
There was something about them that Rosemary recognized.
“Oh Lady Fee, I’m so glad you are here,” The woman said grasping Lady Fee’s hand.
The woman then turned her head towards Rosemary. The woman’s eyes grew large and her jaw dropped.
“Is…is that…” The woman couldn’t finish her sentence before bursting into tears.
Lady Fee turned towards Rosemary.
“Rosemary. I want you to meet some people. This is your mother. Your real, human mother.”
Header Photo Credit to Jonsmith512’s DeviantArt Page
https://jonsmith512.deviantart.com/art/Fantasy-cottage-620631194
Writing Prompt submitted to r/WritingPrompts by u/Myntrith
Allen The Writer 