In the Forest

• Fifteen years later •

Music flew high and loud in the air, and it was always a wonder that it never disturbed the rest of the forest. The faeries spun and moved their bodies gracefully to the music. Carissa played the fiddle intensely while she kept her eyes on the princess, Keaira, who was among the faeries dancing. She was not as graceful as they, yet she was still completely entranced by the sweet music that was playing.

The dancing flowed naturally from the faeries. Like leaves twirling in the wind, so the faeries moved, with no set choreography hindering their expression. It was pure and in the moment dance, yet each dancer swayed in harmony with the rest. It felt like nature to them.

Even though she did not possess this same kind of lithe rhythm, Keaira too felt one with the music. She moved and swayed, and did not care that she wasn't as elegant as the faeries. She had the same passion, the same joy as them.

While the faeries could go on through all the night, Keaira could not. When Carissa noticed that Keaira was beginning to slow, she nodded to the faerie beside her and quickly passed the fiddle to her, so there was almost no halt in the music. Carissa walked towards Keaira, weaving through the dancers. She lightly grabbed Keaira's hand and led her out of the circle of dancing.

"I'm fine, really, Carissa. I can keep dancing," Keaira said, breathing hard.

Carissa laughed. "That is what you say every night. You need to rest now." She gently led Keaira to the house they shared together. Keaira simply yawned and allowed herself to be taken home.

Inside, Keaira turned to Carissa before heading towards her bed. "Goodnight, Carissa." Keaira hugged her, and then left for bed. Carissa began to feel a joy inside of her, which she quickly dispelled. She had too much affection for the girl. It wasn't healthy to feel this way.

A knock on the door interrupted her from her self-chastisement. She opened it to find a tall figure standing outside.

"Carissa."

Carissa looked up in surprise and bowed low. "Queen Maeve. It is an honor. I did not expect to meet you here." She quickly moved outside and shut the door, so she would not wake Keaira.

Queen Maeve smiled softly. "No, of course not, which is why I came. How is Keaira doing?"

Carissa looked away from Queen Maeve's discerning eyes. "She is beginning to notice more differences between herself and the faeries and it worries her," Carissa answered. "And myself. She continues to ask questions and I am running short on answers for her."

"That is all to be expected. She is human after all. She is nearing sixteen. We will not be able to keep her here much longer. Therefore, we must act soon."

Carissa looked back at the faerie queen. She appeared so elegant, a vision really, with golden hair and bright blue eyes. Yet she also appeared cunning and intelligent. "Perhaps we could explain it all to Keaira," she said slowly. "If she knew the truth, maybe…"

Queen Maeve stepped closer to Carissa and looked down at her with those piercing eyes. "I think you have become too attached to the girl, Carissa. That is not what you were assigned to do. I should not have allowed you to get so close to the girl. You will say nothing to her, and when she has turned sixteen, we will finally have our revenge. Am I understood?"

Carissa looked back down. "Yes, Your Majesty."

The queen nodded slightly, turned, and left Carissa shaken and a bit angered.

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The next day, Keaira walked through the forest, happy to be alone to her thoughts. For nearly a year she had begun to feel a sense of disconnect from her friends and community, making her less comfortable around them. She had begun to prefer to be with herself than with those who made her feel like she was abnormal.

Yet, she had always known she was different; her appearance made that very clear. The faeries, regardless of their hair color, which varied greatly, all had pale skin and light, bright eyes, causing them to look even more perfect in Keaira's eyes. Her skin, on the other hand, was dark, and appeared even darker when she was near the faeries. Her eyes and hair were almost black. All of these elements were just the beginnings of her differences.

Every day for almost a year, Keaira cursed her anomaly. She was not quite certain what began these sudden insecurities of her differences. She only knew she did not feel at home anymore.

She had tried to talk with Carissa about it, but Carissa simply brushed off Keaira's insecurities and told her she was being ridiculous. There were things Keaira could see that Carissa was not telling her, but Keaira never pressed Carissa, because she trusted her.

Carissa is my friend, she would tell herself. She's looked after me and protected me my whole life. She wouldn't lie to me.

But now, Keaira had her doubts. She often wondered lately where she came from. Carissa only said that the fairies had found her one night, all alone. Lately, that hadn't been a good enough explanation.

Keaira so wanted to be alone that she decided to leave the land of the faerie and enter the human world. Carissa had forbade her to do so, but Keaira needed to be as alone as she could be. She entered the cave and found herself in the human world. It looked much like the faerie world. She decided to wander the forest.

So lost in thought, Keaira didn't notice until it was too late the man standing in front of her. She stopped quickly and stared wide-eyed at the man who stared back at her. He was young, and she could tell he certainly wasn't a faerie by his dark skin tone and dark eyes, so much like Keaira's. Keaira could hardly act, she was so shocked.

The young man cleared his throat. "Hello."

Author's Note: This is a story that has been running through my mind for quite some time now, but I never got around to writing it down. When I learned about the legend of changelings, I knew I wanted to write this story. If you do not know what changelings are, they are basically fairy children who are switched with human children by fairies. The reasons are normally because the fairies love the child, because they want the child as their servant, or because they seek revenge or malice. There is a great essay which I took much of my inspiration from by D.L. Ashliman, who compiled information on the legends of changelings. I also took inspiration from this essay on Shakespeare and the poem Sir Orfeo, which both describe the habits and land of faeries. From all of this, I decided to focus on the side of the child who was taken, as there are not many stories written about the humans stolen. I wanted the faeries to take Keaira because they wanted revenge on her father (which will be explained later). I really wanted to create the land of the faeries without that being the main focus (if any of you all have any suggestions or see any mistakes with my faerie land, please let me know, as I am not completely learned in the legend of faeries). I also plan on editing this down, but for now this is the direction I want my story to go in.

Image information: "Magic forest" created by Selene Regener, 2013. Web source: DeviantArt

Bibliography: "Changelings" by D.L. Ashliman. September 3, 1997. Source link: Changelings

"Folk-lore of Shakespeare" by T.F. Thiselton Dyer, 1883. Source link: Sacred Texts

Sir Orfeo edited by Anna Laskaya and Eve Salisbury, 1995. Source link: University of Rochester