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Andy walks through the park at a leisurely pace, lost in her thoughts.
She doesn't know what she wants in life. Her boyfriend - now ex-boyfriend - had meant it as an insult when he had shouted as much at her the last time they talked, that's for sure. But she doesn't see it as an insult now, just a fact.
26 years old, a degree she could use in a number of ways under her belt, family in one state and friends and relations in a few others giving her many options for places to live without being all alone, an apartment in New York City she can more or less manage to keep paying for on her own with her current low paying job, and she drags herself through life day by day, has no idea what she wants to change and in what direction, just that she can't keep going on the way she does now, not forever at least.
Behind a corner in her path, hidden from three sides by trees and shrubbery, a circle of light grey mushrooms gleams eerily in the light, surrounding a seemingly unopened chocolate bar wrapped in red plastic.
"A fairy ring?" Andy chuckles, looks around to see whether any children are hiding nearby, trying to play a practical joke on passerbys. She can't spot any, but in the dim light that doesn't mean much, they might have climbed a tree or are hiding behind the bushes...
Still, Andy walks closer, actually willing to fall victim of a prank to make the kids' day and alleviate her own boredom and suppress her darker thoughts and existential dread.
"Maybe it's a real fairy ring, huh?" She says just loudly enough someone hiding in the nearby plant life might hear. "It does look pretty real... I've never seen mushrooms like this before." Then, more quietly, she adds, "and if I get sucked into a fairy tale I might not have to worry about career choices anymore, right?"
She sighs.
Steps into the ring, a tingling feeling running down her spine as she crosses the mushroom barrier, anticipation perhaps she supposes, or a reaction to the cooling temperatures...
The grass seems to shiver in the wind, more than a moment before. Andy tries to think nothing of it.
A sound from behind her - a child giggling? It's silent again too quickly for her to be sure.
Andy picks up the chocolate bar. It's the good kind too. "Well, either this is soap or something equally nasty for the amusement of seeing me do a spit-take, or I'm about to be sucked into fairyland, right?"
She opens it, nibbles carefully. Just chocolate, a rich taste, dark and sweet on her tongue.
Giggling again, louder this time, then a second voice joining the first.
"Come, come!" Footsteps running, coming closer, past her -
Andy steps out of the fairy ring, and only sees small white dresses and red hair before the children disappear behind the treeline.
She doesn't know quite why, but something draws her to them, compells her to follow, and she runs after them.
Has the park always looked like this? The path still follows the familiar slope, but the grass seems more lush and the stars are brighter than she is used to, she can make out whole constellations even though the sun hasn't entirely set yet. She can't usually see than many stars in the dead of night here! It's one of the downsides to living in a big city, light pollution making stargazing impossible.
Maybe it's earth hour and she has missed the announcement?
The giggling, running children are always a few twists in the path ahead of her, until suddenly they turn left and disappear behind the treeline, the white of their dresses barely visible in the darkness, popping up again here and there like flickering lights as they disappear deeper behind rows and rows of trees.
A little apprehensive now, Andy still follows them, careful not to stumble over the tree roots. If anything, she can't leave two small children alone at night in the park! What are their parents thinking, letting them out this late in the evening? Or did they run away from home in nothing but their nightgowns?
...did the trees in central park ever grow this high and close together?
Maybe she's dreaming all of this. Yes, that sounds like the most obvious explanation to all this strangeness
The cool air and the smell of damp moss, however, feel all too real to her.
"Twins?" A voice comes out of the darkness, quiet and beautiful in a way Andy can't describe. "What do you bring me from your exploits this time? Or shall I say, whom?"
Giggling, twin redheads poking each other, each trying to get the other to talk before finally one of them speaks.
"She wanted to follow us, mother! We didn't have to do much, we didn't give away the secrets and now she is here with us anyway. And you were lonely, we thought you'd like the company. You're not angry with us, are you, mother?"
A woman steps out of the darkness, walking down steps made of tree roots from what Andy thinks might be a throne grown directly out of oak branches, and she quickly hides behind a tree trunk, peeking around it just enough to still see what is going on while hopefully staying hidden to their eyes, no matter that the three people in the clearing ahead clearly already know of her presence.
The woman looks ageless, white hair shining in starlight, a red tint from the last sunrays of the day remembering a time when her tresses were as red as her daughters', her dress white as the ones the girls wear but with blue and silver undertones sewn into the fabric, flowing around her like water and ice. With her pale skin and white hair, she almost looks translucent, and yet she seems more solid and real than any woman Andy has seen before.
"I am not angry at you, girls," the woman sighs. "But I am afraid a mortal who will miss the life they were torn from will not be the best company for me.
"Will you not step out into the light?" She calls out to Andy, who flinches and pulls her face back behind the tree, though really she wants nothing more than getting a closer look at the ethereal woman in white.
"You have eaten my daughters' offering, I can already tell, it is pulling you in" the woman says, not raising her voice but her words are still carrying towards Andy without effort. "By the rules of my land, you need to pass a quest set by me or be held captive here forevermore. But worry not - I have grown sick of petulant prisoners, and the quest shall be an easy one, and once you pass you can return to your life, never thinking back to this day as soon as you step out of the circle you came from."
"Oh, mother! Don't send her away so quickly!" One of the girls pouts, her voice slightly higher than her twin who spoke earlier.
The woman sighs. "Oh, I won't, and even if she passes her quest I will allow her to stay, but that same way I will allow her to leave. Now, run along you two! You missed your assignments by the river during your exploits, don't think I do not know."
"Sorry mother." "Sorry but not sorry we found you a companion. Hope you will be here to-morrow still, human girl!" And the two run off between the trees, bare feet seemingly knowing just where to step to avoid any roots or sharp stones.
Slowly, Andy dares to peek around the tree, recoiling a bit when she immediately meets the gaze of the woman in the clearing, ice-blue eyes staring at her intensely, as if looking into her very soul. But if the woman speaks the truth, she will make it easy for Andy to leave... And if she lies, there is little Andy can do about it anyway, if what she is slowly coming to terms with is true and she has somehow found her way into the realm of the fay.
Besides... Staying here might not be so bad. Less decisions about which awful office to spend her every waking moment in, more gazing at starlight? Though she supposes there must still be jobs that need to be done, just maybe in a nicer atmosphere.
Trying to be brave, Andy takes a few steps closer to the edge of the clearing, stumbling a little when she looks away from these blue eyes only to be taken aback by the woman's beauty, her dress not the loose, flowy knee-length fabric of the twins but long and clinging to her every curve, leaving little to the imagination.
The woman reaches out, catching her by the elbow before she can fall even though she stands much too far away to touch Andy physically. Andy shudders a little at this first obvious display of something supernatural, then feels herself blush as she imagines more such gentle touches directed her way.
"Um, hello." She stops herself short from giving an awkward wave.
The stranger smiles. "Hello - Andie?"
Andy gets the feeling the woman can somehow vaguely tell how her nickname is pronounced, but not the spelling of it.
"Uh, yes. Andy. Andrea, actually, Andrea Sachs... Um, and you are?"
"𝓜𝓲𝓻𝓪𝓷𝓭𝓪, 𝓢𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓻𝓮𝓲𝓰𝓷 𝓸𝓯 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓵𝓶."
Her voice dances around them both, light and power, power and knowledge and magic of the fay.
"Step into the clearing, Andréa, she who my daughters found." Only a hint of her power is left in her voice now, but still enough of it Andy feels herself step forward immediately, her feet carrying her until she is directly in front of the other woman.
She's shorter than her, and Andy supposed if she took off her shoes to be as barefoot as Miranda, they would still be about the same height. Still, the fairy Queen seems larger than life.
"So... About this - quest? Challenge?" She might want to stay, but she's not stupid, if there's a way out she wants to keep it open for herself, and after all Miranda had said she could still choose to stay longer after passing the quest.
"You already passed it."
"What?" Andy stares at her, dumbfounded.
"I ordered you to step into the clearing." The fabric of her sleeve ripples with reflected starlight as Miranda gestures to her path. "Any person who makes their way into this realm and is connected to it by taking from our food and drink, our essence, must obey the first order I give them or be stuck here forevermore. Nobody ever set a rule for the order to obey to be an especially hard one, though. You have passed, you may leave now." Her eyes look sad.
"But... I could also... stay?"
The fay raises one eyebrow, appearing a little disbelieving. "Yes, for as long as you wish, as long as you do not take the same path back that you came as that would erase all memory of us and our realm. But don't be fooled - just because here in the greens, the paths are similar to those of humankind made over that same area, doesn't mean the rest of our realm bears much resemblance to the world you are used to. Few who aren't raised in it can fit in - and those who stay too long despite it have trouble going back to what they knew before, no longer belonging into the human world despite having their memory of the fae erased. You risk ending up stuck between worlds, part of neither, and resenting everyone."
Andy shrugs. "I've never really fit in with other, uh, humans either. And I dunno yet what I'd have to do here if I stay, but I mean, I'd like to try? I don't think I could ever resent you," she blushes, stumbles over her words, hurriedly continues: "I mean, you offered me to leave, so even if I end up not liking it here it's not like it's your fault? I'd really like to try and stay."
The piercing gaze of those blue eyes is back, pinning her in place, until Miranda blinks and the connection breaks. She reaches out her hand, and after a moment of hesitation, Andy takes it, the warm contact of her skin feeling even more wonderful than her earlier contact through the magical touch.
"Try, yes... I suppose you could try."