The Green Stone

 It was good to read.

She had made a full childhood of it. 

She had read when she lived with her parents. 

And after they had died,

and she had been sent to her great aunt's home to live,

in her solitude,

she read all evening

every day.

She knew every book in the ancient stone house,

hidden in the folds of the Hilltop Woods. 

She even knew the worn,

leather bound book with etchings on the cover,

silver and deep violet, 

a moonlit picture of a star covered field.

The one secreted away in the niche in the wall,

behind the great wooden book case,

carved from a single grandfather yew tree.

She had leaned against it,

just so one day,

and it had opened,

like a door,

unhiding the book. 

And the book, 

had taught her about them. 

In a curving, flowing, script that glowed:

red by firelight, 

silver by moonlight,

and blue of the bluest Sea

by the light of the noontime Sun,

it had taught her about the Fey.

It had taught her how to see them

when no one could. 

And with that knowledge,

she had learned to watch them coming, 

to and fro, 

as they walked the nighttime forest

on their mysteries,

wandering the roadless fields.

By her thirteenth birthday,

her aunt had died as well,

leaving her all alone in the house

in the folds of the Hilltop Woods.

Now in those days,

a child of thirteen was often out in the world

just like those fully grown. 

So, it was not thought unusual that she was on her own

and living in the house all by herself.

With no family any more,

she was left with little to do beyond tending the gardens,

making meals for herself, 

and patching her clothes as they needed repairs. 

With so little to do,

She found herself thinking more and more

about the Fey. 

"Where do they come from?".

She wondered about this for a long time. 

She made a map of the Hilltop Woods and the fields that wound about them. 

And no matter where the Fey went,

their wanderings always came back

to the narrow paddock by the shallow brook. 

They always came back to the Barrow.

"Beyond the Barrow must be where they come from" she thought.

"They must walk straight through the tunnel

that comes into the barrow on the forest side

and opens out into the paddock."

"If I follow them in,

I can see where they go in the forest beyond.

I could track them to their home and see where it is."

Finally one day,

she waited 'til evening and then set out

to the side of the shallow brook,

and waited.

And there they were. 

She catlike crept behind them at a distance

as they soundlessly crossed the summer-grassed, starlit paddock

and made their way back to the barrow door.

They moved confidently and without haste,

knowing that human eyes looking directly at them

would always see nothing.

Only by watching out of the corner of her eye

could she see 

their wispy shapes,

their fluid movements, 

and their shadows,

just as the book had described.

She'd watched them go through the barrow before,

and this time,

she would follow them. 

This time,

she would find out where they came from.

She would find their world... 

She crossed the paddock just in the same place where they had passed.

Not a blade of grass had been disturbed.

There were no footprints at all.

Passing around the edge of the barrow, 

A pale sunset-like light washed from within the frame of the rounded door.

Quickly, she dashed through the doorway

and followed the light down the passage way.

Her footsteps found cold stone which soon gave way to dry sand.

She felt a sudden change to the cold night air.

It had become warmer,

and still.

The light grew brighter as she walked through a bend to the left

and suddenly stepped out onto...

a beach.

Standing with the barrow now behind her

she could see the light in the passageway

had indeed been from a sunset,

now gloriously settling into a smooth, deep green sea.

Looking along the curve of sand she saw them again.

But this time, to her surprise, she could see them directly.

There were three of them,

tall and dressed in soft grey robes,

standing in a trio.

Two were reaching out to touch something small in the palm of the third one's hand.

As soon as they all three made contact with the stone,

there was a bright green flash,

The three of them vanished,

and the stone fell down to the sands where their bare feet had just been. 

She ran to the spot. 

Here and there, nestled in the top sands along the trailless beach

she could make many such stones out

as they softly glowed to match the afternoon light

from a sun much redder than her own.

She picked up the one that she had seen fall

and held it between thumb and forefinger,

red-gold light shining through.

There lit up an entire galaxy protected inside the single green gem.

"Was this the world of Faerie?",

"Is this where they came from?" She pondered.... 

"Was it this gem they passed through?"

There were scores of them,

scattered across the sandscape,

with no tracks or signs at all.

If she proceeded,

if she chose to enter through,

her choice could be right...

or random.

She let the gem roll to the centre of her palm.

It glistened with the potential of worlds unknown. 

She reached out with the ring finger of her left hand

and touched the wee stone.

The gem fell to the sands below her feet.

And to where ever they had vanished,

she vanished too...