Work Text:
Jen took another breath as she reread the invitation.
“This ok, Jen?” Ripley leaned back into her view, grinning wide. Jen’s eyes snapped back up to look at her reflection in the mirror.
Ripley put together a lopsided flower crown of forget-me-nots, and carefully tucked nearly everywhere else in her hair was the basil that all the girls had been growing in the cabin for the past few weeks.
“The basil represents goodness!” Ripley hopped from one foot to another, barely able to contain her excitement, “To show them that you’re a friend!”
“And,” April joined in, “The forget-me-nots are super important. They’re so you don’t forget who you are when you’re talking with them!”
“Thanks, girls.” Jen did her best to smile. “You really didn’t have to do this for me, you know.”
“Oh, we sure did!” April’s face was serious, but her eyes widened the way they did whenever she was about to talk about something particularly exciting. “The fair folk are NOT something you want to mess with. Just one little misstep and boom! You’re lost forever in the woods! And you wouldn’t even know!”
Jen gritted her teeth. “Thank you, April.”
April smiled, the sarcasm flying right over her head. “Anytime!”
“Do you need a refresher on how fae work?” Jo shuffled some cards around, “I made flashcards for you to study!”
“Really, all you need to remember is to NEVER give them your real name.” Mal’s face was so grim that it made Jen worry how Mal was handling the situation. “That’s how they get you. That’s always how they get you.”
Jen didn’t realize how tense her shoulders were until Molly put a hand on one of them. “You’ll do fine! They said it was friendly, right?”
“Yes. They did.” Jen cleared her throat, before reading from the ridiculously small card she woke up to find on her dresser, “Dearest Lumberjane, you have been cordially invited to a friendly cup of tea with the queen of the fair folk. Asterisk, of the Deep Woods, USA branch. The event will take place today at noon. We are looking forward to meeting you! And then there are a lot of very small signatures in very messy cursive.”
Jen looked back up from the card to see Ripley giving her gigantic puppy-eyes. “And no, the rest of you can’t come with. It’s dangerous.”
“But they’re fairies, Jen!” Ripley gripped Jen’s arm tight, her nails almost leaving indents, “Fairies!”
“I mean, we have met fairies before.” Jo tapped her chin, “But these ones do seem different. They’re calling themselves something else, too. They aren’t fairies, they’re the fair folk.”
“What, pray tell,” Mal gestured with her hands, “Would the difference even be?”
“Lots, probably! There’s a lot of different myths about fairies!” April was nearly jumping up and down with excitement, “Jen, you HAVE to learn everything you can about them. Ask any questions you can, I need this for my bestiary SO bad.”
“I appreciate the enthusiasm,” Jen looked over all five of the Roanokes, “From all of you, but I’m going to try keeping this as short as I can. The less chance for me to offend them, the better.”
“What? You’d never offend anyone, Jen!” Ripley looked offended that she’d even suggest the possibility. “You’re always super nice and cool and you’re like a superhero!”
Jo tapped her chin, the way she would do when she was thinking more carefully than usual. “No, she’s right. We don’t know what they want, so regardless of if their intentions are good, we need to play it safe.”
“So, to recap.” Molly counted off on her fingers, “We got Jen all set. We get her over to wherever this meeting is. She talks with the fair folk for a bit. We pick her up and get her home, make sure that nobody replaced her with a changeling or something. Then… profit?”
Jen nodded once. “Yes. Thank you, by the way, for the changeling-prevention.” She smiled, and rolled her eyes. “I appreciate it.”
“We made those little multiple choice test sheets, and everything.” Mal said, with a little too much pride in her voice. “Questions only you’d know the answer to, like, ‘which of us was the last to attempt snorting glitter glue?’ and, ‘if Jackalopes do exist, please give us a five-page, double-spaced essay explaining how and why.’”
“Well, that first question is easy. Jo, because April dared her.” Jen said, matter-of-fact, “And second of all, I don’t see why you’re asking me for an essay when I know that none of you would even read it!”
“See?” Molly held back a laugh, “You just passed, with flying colors! Definitely the real Jen.”
Jen didn’t realize why the other Roanokes were laughing until she saw the look on her face reflected in the mirror, which made her have to stop herself from laughing along with them.
“Alright. You win.” Jen stood up, and tried to make a counselor-like pose, “So, where am I off to, girls?”
“There’s no address on the invite…” Jo said.
“But!” April cut her off, quicker than anyone could blink, “We’re pretty sure we know a mushroom circle that seems suspicious!”
“Then let’s go mushroom picking!” Jen announced, then pausing when she saw the fearful look on everyone except Ripley’s face. “Oh, come on. What’s so wrong with that? I thought it was a pretty good action movie one-liner!”
“You neeeever mess with a fairy circle, Jen.” Molly paused to find the words, “That’s like, almost giving them your real name level bad.”
“Well, then.” Jen held a hand out for Jo’s flashcards, which Jo handed over to her, “Looks like I’ll be reading these until we get there.”
Without the rest of her cabin with her, the forest felt far more intimidating than Jen would have expected.
Sure, the mushroom circle was cute, she’d admit. The wind that rustled the leaves was pleasant, along with the sunlight that was filtering in. None of the girls were in any sort of potential or immediate danger. If anything, she should have felt peaceful.
But there was just something that felt off about the whole situation. It felt almost too comfortable.
She could hear bells.
“Name, please?”
“Oh!” Jen spun in a circle, before she looked down – a very small person, with fluttering little wings and curly antennae, was staring up at her through some very serious spectacles. They tapped a pencil on a clipboard. “I didn’t see you there.”
“Yes, we’re used to it.” They raised their eyebrows as they kept giving Jen a mildly annoyed stare, “Name.”
“I’m… you can call me Basil,” Jen said, feeling very rushed by this miniature person, “My pronouns are she/her.”
“Noted.” They scribbled something down, and then tapped their fingers on the clipboard. “The queen will see you shortly. Coffee machine’s to the right, if that’s your kind of thing.”
“Wait. We’re in the forest, how could there be a- oh!” Jen saw, miraculously, to the right of them, there really was a coffee machine, looking like something out of a sitcom TV show about life in a capitalistic setting, chair next to it, and all.
Rule number one! Don’t accept any food or drink! Rang through her head. She took a seat. No matter how badly she wanted a cup of coffee that wasn’t Rosie’s Riveting Roasted Red Ristretto, she wasn’t going to have a single drop.
“Not interested? I understand. I’m more of a tea in the morning person, myself.”
Jen nearly jumped, and when her eyes snapped back to the fairy circle, there was an entire setup – table and chairs, with one small throne with an equally small fae sitting on it. The queen, she assumed.
Jen laughed, nervously. “Yes, I’ve been learning to appreciate a good cup of chamomile!” She waved a hand in the air, “Which I don’t need any of that either, by the way, my girls made some in the morning for me. They’re very sweet.”
“Well, it’d be rude if I didn’t offer something to you.” The queen waved her scepter, and a small, wax-wrapped piece of cheese floated over to Jen’s hand – gigantic compared to the queen, but very small to Jen.
Jen held the little cheese in her hand. It looked almost like the ones her mom would buy for her & her brother at the grocery store when she was still in elementary school.
“I… th-“ Jen caught the words before she could say them. Don’t thank the fae. She gently placed the cheese back onto the table. “This isn’t mine. I can’t accept it.”
The queen smiled back at her. “You’re a very polite person. I appreciate that in a human.” With a hand-wave, the cheese disappeared into dust on the table, “Now, would you mind a short chat? I would love to talk about… oh, nothing much, mostly just sharing stories. I’ve been lacking some good stories lately. Maybe something about those girls you mentioned?”
“Hmm, you know what?” The gears in Jen’s mind turned, trying to come up with some fake nicknames for the rest of the Roanokes as quickly as she could. “I think that would be lovely.”