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Haruhi Fujioka, a common peasant, was going to be killed by fairies. Haruhi Fujioka also did not believe in fairies. Not one bit.
Apparently, the mere fact that she was stuck in a fairy ring wasn’t enough to convince her of the existence of fairies. One moment, searching the forest floor for a very specific mushroom for tonight’s stew, the next moment caught in a snug little circle of mushrooms and tiny, white flowers.
Being surrounded by the soft, pale yellow sunlight peeking through the trees wasn’t so bad, she thought to herself. The lush green grass at her feet wasn’t so bad either. It was soft and easy on her tired feet.
“Although I guess I won't be able to enjoy it for much longer, if a fairy is going to make me dance until my feet fall off,” she thought smugly to herself.
“For someone caught in a fairy ring,” A voice from somewhere in the area (although she couldn’t exactly pinpoint one area) called out.
“Almost for sure waiting for a slow and terrible death,” continued another almost identical (but not that similar) voice.
“You don’t seem all too scared,” The two voices spoke in unison.
To literally any other person, this would be (at least) mildly concerning. But to the common peasant (who was, in fact, trapped in a fairy ring), this situation was completely and utterly foolish.
“Why should I be scared?” The commoner answered, “There’s nothing real to be scared of here, anyway.”
This, understandably, caused the sound of shocked laughter to ring throughout the forest. The sound of two laughs in unison seemingly danced around Haruhi’s head, bouncing from tree to leaf to grass and finally back to her ears.
“Nothing real to be scared of you say?” One of the disembodied voices said. Haruhi was beginning to feel some annoyance with the voice.
“How could we not be real when we can do this?” Completed the second (slightly different) disembodied voice. Before Haruhi could even refute what had just been said, two figures materialized right in front of her.
Two identical boys stood before her. Both looking to be around her age, but much, much taller. The figures were dressed with the richest, most luxurious fabrics she had ever seen. The one on the right was wearing a soft, light blue color and the one on the left wore a dusty, muted orange. Their hair was easily the most vibrant shade of orange that was naturally possible.
Still, she stood her ground, refusing to show any amount of amazement (or fear) in her face. She breathed in and out as calmly as she could, and spoke.
“So?”
The two boys briefly looked shocked, but they quickly rearranged their features to look amused (one could describe it as mischievous).
“Well you’re in luck then! You’ll be spared from dancing until your feet fall off to do something very special!” The one in blue announced.
“You, dear commoner, have been chosen to serve our most wonderful king!” The one in orange said, “Afterall, who better to serve the Fairy King than someone who isn’t afraid!”
This understandably concerned her, only slightly. After being trapped in a fairy ring and then witnessing two figures (fairies?) materialize out of thin air right in front of her, it was a little hard to be surprised at this point. She took a deep breath in, slowly breathed out and spoke as clearly as she could:
“No, thank you.”
The two red-headed fairies looked shocked for a moment, almost as if this was the very first time anyone had ever thought to refuse them of anything, but then their features warped into wide grins (one could call me mischievous).
“Well then,” the one in blue said.
“I guess we’ll have to let you go then,” the one in orange finished.
A faint, cool breeze blew through the air, accompanied by the faint sound of little bells ringing and the far off rustling of leaves. A certain energy was now gone, only a small hint of it was left, and Haruhi found that she was able to step out of the fairy ring.
She stepped out of the ring carefully, walked a couple of steps forward before turning back to face the two fairies. But before she could open her mouth to say thank you, the two fairies said in unison.
“We’ll be seeing each other again soon, naturally. Our King still needs a servant,” The two fairies winked, and disappeared like they were never there (the only indication that anyone was there was the soft smell of pumpkin and the feeling of confusion).
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When Haruhi had decided to go into the market in the early morning, right as the sun was just beginning to rise, she had set out to shop without the business of midday (and to hopefully get a good deal, being the first customer of the day).
When she had set out, she had expected to arrive home with a basket full of produce, and maybe a good portion of meat if she was lucky. She expected to walk into the kitchen and set down the basket and begin preparing lunch, then once that was all said and done she expected to finish her chores and maybe sit down and read a book (if she was lucky).
What she hadn’t expected when she got home around midday was a tall, raven haired man sitting at her dining room table. In one hand, he held a book (the same book she had been looking forward to reading that day) and the other hand rested on the table. His posture was perfectly straight, but not stiff, and his glasses reflected the light in such a way where she couldn’t even see his eyes.
The man had an air of mystery around him, the muted purples of his outfit and his dark, raven haired contrasted starkly with his pale skin. The way the glare of his glasses shielded his eyes made Haruhi shiver, something told her that she should be a bit more careful around this fairy in particular. His demeanor, his choice of clothing, and the way the light danced around him made alarm bells sound in her head, completely different from the feeling of annoyance she had felt from the previous fairies.
(Although the feeling of annoyance wasn’t completely diminished.)
Without looking up, the man greeted her, saying, “You’re finally home. You are Haruhi Fujioka, yes?”
“Uh, yes? And who might you be?” And why are you in my house?, she thought.
“The reason why I’m in your house is to persuade you to come with me to serve the fairy king. To answer your previous question, I’m the King’s advisor. Please do sit so we can discuss things,” He replied. She found it quite odd (i.e terrifying) that he somehow managed to answer the question she didn’t even say out loud.
He worked with a deadly efficiency, with the chair adjacent to him being pulled out with a wave of his hand and a sleek, black notebook appearing on the table. A pen also appeared in his hand (at least she thought it was a pen, she couldn’t quite tell what the slender piece of black bark was) and began to take notes.
“Uh, sure,” she stuttered out tentatively as she sat down on the chair opposite to him, “I appreciate the honesty, but I can’t just leave to serve the fairy king or whatever. I have,uh, chores and stuff,” she finished lamely.
“Chores and stuff?” He mocked. He spoke with such elegance and eloquence (with just a touch of pretentiousness) that Haruhi almost forgot that he was mocking her (and that he had broken into her house). “You can’t compare measly human chores like cooking and cleaning to the grand task of serving the fairy king.” The way he said that last part almost seemed to be a joke, like he was poking fun at the king’s reputation.
“Well,uh, sure I can. I mean I’ve never even met this grand fairy king you speak of. For all I know, you guys could be making him up to lure me into dancing my feet off or whatever you fairies do,”
“I thought you didn’t believe in fairies?” He said with a satisfied (smug) smirk.
(Haruhi had no rebuttal for this, so she did not address it.)
“But anyway, the point is that I can’t just abandon my life here for some far off fairy world. As much as this fairy king seems like an interesting character, I have responsibilities here. I know people here, I like my home and my family and my friends here,” She paused and took a breath. “I don’t see why I should leave it all behind for some fantasy, no matter how interesting it might seem,”
He seemed almost impressed (although he was hard to tell with the glare of his glass). The man opened his mouth to speak again, “I’ll give you this, Haruhi Fujioka, the twins weren’t lying when they said you were interesting. You are quite interesting, in your own way.” He finally looked up at her, the glare of his glasses disappearing to reveal warm, dark brown eyes peering down at her with a hint of amusement.
Haruhi couldn’t help but smile slightly at that comment. “Well you’re rather interesting, too. In your own way of course.”
The strange man (fairy?) smiled to himself, and slowly stood up from the table and dusted his coat a bit. The muted violet and lavender coat he wore shimmered as he brushed the nonexistent dust off of it. He then looked up at her, put the book down on the table, and spoke.
“I guess that’s my cue to leave now. The offer still stands, naturally. The fairy king waits for you with open arms,” He smirked, “And also,” he gestured to the book on the table, “the heroine saves the prince at the end.”
With that, he vanished in the blink of an eye, like he was never there in the first place. A soft breeze flew through the open windows, causing the pale colored curtains and ruffle. The midday sun shone high in the sky and came through the open window, illuminating the tiny kitchen. There was a faint, barely there, you-can-only-hear-it-when-you-focus sound of a pen scritch scratching on parchment (the only indication that anyone was ever there in the first place was the smell of citrus and the feeling of mild annoyance).
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She had to admit, the appearance of three fairies trying to get her to serve the oh so high and mighty fairy king on two separate occasions was a bit unnerving. But not because of the fact that they were literal fairies (even though she did in fact believe in fairies now, she still refused to fear them, especially now that she knows that all they are are a bunch of obnoxious boys), but because of how persistent they were.
A clear example of their sheer persistence was the fact that when she woke up this morning and went to open up her curtains to let the pale yellow sunshine of the early morning in, she saw two fairies. One fairy was quite small, dressed in similar outfits to the other three that she had met, with the addition of a thin sword, metal plating on the shoulders, knees, and elbows, and what looked like a pink stuffed bunny. This golden hair fairy was sitting on top of a branch, and was looking down to talk to the second fairy, a tall, serious looking man with an almost identical outfit (minus the stuffed bunny).
She had been staring at the two for so long she almost didn’t notice that the fairies saw her staring and were beckoning her to come over. Although she had had 2 experiences with fairies already, her curiosity eventually got the better of her as she began walking towards the tree, where the golden haired fairy jumped down (with so much grace that Haruhi was almost convinced that he had floated down, which wasn’t exactly the most outlandish given her current circumstances).
“You must be Haruhi Fujioka! The commoner that the king wants to meet! It’s so nice to finally meet you, we’ve heard so much about you,” The little golden haired fairy exclaimed. Being so close to the fairy, Haruhi realized that he was tiny, standing a few inches shorter than her. The other fairy, however, towered over her. He stood taller than any of the other fairies she had encountered.
“We’re both knights of the fairy king, we’re trained to protect him at all times, but with so little people even knowing about fairies, much less the king, we don’t really have to do any defending,” He said, and the tall fairy just hummed in agreement.
“Well I guess that explains the metal plating, although it doesn’t look like enough to protect anyone,” she thought to herself.
“That’s what makes you so special! The fairy king rarely pays any attention to commoners, but for some reason he has taken an interest in you! Which is why we really, really need to get you to come with us, miss,” he finished. The tall fairy, again, hummed in agreement.
“Yeah, so I’ve heard. But that still doesn’t explain why he’s taken an interest in me of all people,” she replied.
The blond fairy thought to himself for a moment, looked to the tall fairy (and the tall fairy nodded in response), and finally spoke, “Well, it’s hard to say exactly why, our king has always been a little weird,” he giggled a bit before he began again, “But he’s smarter than he looks, you know. I think he knows what he’s doing, and I trust his judgement a lot.
I think at first, when you were first caught in the fairy ring, he was a little intrigued by the fact that you didn’t even believe in fairies. In the ring, you know, he can see everything that goes on in the ring, and he knows about everyone who manages to get caught in a fairy ring. As you argued about fairies to the twins, I think that when he first got interested, which is why he sent the advisor to come and get you.
When you rejected the advisor, I think that’s when he reeeeally got invested. The advisor came back to the palace explaining what your house looked like, what your village looked like, the conversation you had and everything! The king’s never been to the human world before, and he was so excited listening to the advisor about what it was like. I think he also thought your reactions were funny based on what the advisor said, because right when he heard it he sent word for us to find you right away!”
“Huh,” she said after a moment, at a loss of what to say, “I sort of assumed this king of yours wanted to kidnap me to enslave me for the rest of my natural life as punishment for walking into the fairy ring. I guess what you said seems a whole lot nicer, huh,” She smiled a little after saying this, partly from embarrassment and partly from being slightly charmed with the explanation.
“Of course the fairy king didn’t want to kidnap and enslave you! He’s much nicer than that, even if he is a little weird,” Her statement apparently was extremely silly, as the little fairy broke out into a huge smile (bigger than the one he already wore) and the tall, serious fairy had a small smile on his face (at least that’s how she interpreted his slight change in expression).
“So, will you come with us to meet him?”
Haruhi had to stop and think for a moment. While she didn’t exactly have the time to give up her life and prance around with the fairy king, the offer didn’t seem all too bad anymore. Maybe it was the idea of seeing a place like the fairy realm, a place where no human had ever seen and returned to tell the tale. Or maybe it was the fact that the fairy realm was just outrageous enough to give her a break from her ordinary (i.e bleak) life in the village. However if you asked anyone else, her reluctance to outright refuse to go meet the fairy king like she had done twice before could be chalked up to the fact that she no longer believed that the fairy king meant her any harm, and that maybe he was just a tad eccentric.
And maybe (a very strong maybe), Haruhi was charmed by the way the tiny, golden haired fairy described this oh so high and mighty fairy king.
“Can I have some time to think about it?” She answered, replying quietly, almost uncertain that this was the right answer to give.
The golden haired fairy looked up and smiled at her. The smile he gave her was different from the wide, bright and cheerful smile that he had worn throughout their conversation. The smile he currently wore was smaller, more subtle, and filled with understanding, filled with a sense of knowing.
“Of course you can,” he smiled, “You know where to find the ring when you make your decision,”
And with that, the two fairies disappeared like they were never there in the first place. The sweet, quiet, early morning breeze moved through her hair, rustling the leaves of the trees ever so slightly. The soft mist seemed to cool down the air around her, floating around in the atmosphere and gently settled itself on the blade of grass beneath her feet, unchanged and undisturbed by the disappearance of the two fairies. The only indication that anyone was even there in the first place was faint laughter like little bells, and the faded smell of strawberries and the sea, and a feeling of fondness.
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As she walked through the damp grass and leaves of the forest floor, she scolded herself quietly for not choosing a better time to trek through the forest (and for not buying those new pairs of shoes she saw at the market the other day).
The faintest hint of sunlight was just peeking out through the thick canopy of leaves in the forest. The bite of chilly, early morning air was still present, not enough to warrant wearing a coat but strong enough to send a chill down Haruhi’s spine.
Although that chill could have also been caused by the nerves she felt and she sought out the same fairy ring that had trapped her a few days earlier.
As she walked across the forest in search of the familiar circle of mushrooms, tiny white flowers, and brighter than usual grasses, she allowed her thoughts to wander a bit. It was surreal that just a few days ago, she was convinced that the existence of fairies was just a story made up by village folk to deter children from exploring too far into the forest, and now she herself was exploring the forest to seek out the fairy king himself.
She began to be consumed by her thoughts, until she realized that she wasn’t walking anymore. She glanced at her feet to confirm that yes, she was surrounded by a circle of mushrooms, tiny white flowers and unusually bright grass. She had once again been caught in a fairy ring.
Haruhi turned around to try and make sense of her surroundings (she was slightly lost, which is what happens when you let your thoughts wander as you stroll aimlessly into the forest), and she was greeted by the face of a fairy. The fairy king, to be exact.
The fairy in front of her was obviously (painfully so) the fairy king. His outfit, compared to the five other fairies she had encountered, was much more extravagant. He wore a creamy, white coat that seemed to glow in the faded early morning light, that was laced with intricate gold detailing. His hair was golden, but not in the way that the tiny fairy from the day before hair had been. The fairy king’s hair was bright, so bright that he appeared to shimmer and shine in the faded tones of the forest (or maybe the fairy king just naturally emitted an iridescent glow). It seemed that every part of this fairy was luminous in stark contrast with the muted blue and green tones of the forest around them.
He was practically shining, in stark contrast with the dull brown and green tones of herself. Standing in front of the fairy king almost made her self conscious, with her dusty brown tunic looking shabby and worn out in comparison to his gleaming coat. Her dark brown hair seemed lackluster to the fairy king’s hair, which shone brightly, illuminating the forest slightly.
His eyes widened with pure joy as he exclaimed, “It’s you! Oh, I’ve been wanting to meet you for so long, and here you are! You have no idea how nice it is to see you up close instead of my court describing you. I’ll say, you are much lovelier up close, although you could do with a longer hairstyle. You have to be, by far, the most interesting human I’ve ever seen in my entire life, and I’m immortal. I’ve looked forward to meeting you since you first set foot in this very fairy ring, right when you stepped in I could tell that you would be interesting!”
He took her hands in his and continued to speak, now standing even closer to her, “Oh you really are lovely, just imagine what it would look like when you’re dressed up like an actual fairy! Not to say that you don’t look wonderful right now, I must say that there’s a certain charm in the clothes of a human…”
The fairy king continued to ramble on, but Haruhi was barely listening in favor of observing the fairy king. When he spoke, it almost sounded like bells with the way his melodic voice rang out throughout the quiet forest. His eyes sparkled with interest and he continued to babble on about whatever he was talking about. The fairy king was accompanied by the smell of white roses and fresh tea, and being around him brought out a feeling of weightlessness, a carefree feeling that made Haruhi think she could be floating.
In fact, she was floating a couple of inches of the ground. Her feet were hanging down slightly, and her skirt was puffing up in response to not being weighed down by gravity. Her hair was also slightly out of place, but the fairy king’s appearance was untouched and as pristine as ever. The sheer absurdity of this entire situation triggered a peal of surprised laughter from deep in her chest.
“Tell me, miss commoner, is human life hard? It seems dreadfully tiring to not have any servants, or a court of fairies to aid you and, oh you’re laughing. Oh, we’re floating!” Upon noticing that they were both now several inches in the air, he brought them both down to the forest floor once again, “I apologize for that, miss commoner, but as I said I’m so excited to be speaking with you! I’m very happy you decided to meet up with me in the end, despite those troubling twins making it seem that I wanted to enslave you. But anyway, I’m still so terribly curious about human life…”
The king trailed off again in a endless stream of (slightly stupid) questions when Haruhi, still holding his hands said, “I know you’re curious, but I think I was promised a trip to the fairy realm?”
The fairy king looked surprised for a moment, but then his face morphed into a large grin as he nodded and Haruhi could feel a rush of cool, sweet wind swirling around her and the king as he transported them to the fairy realm.
The pair seemingly disappeared into thin air, with the forest remaining cool, muted, and quiet with slightly more sun peeking through the canopy of leaves and falling onto the forest floor. The fairy ring was now empty, with no hints of any human (or fairy) interference, like no one had ever set foot into the fairy ring in the first place. The sound of a breeze moving languidly through the leaves echoed throughout the forest.
The only indication that anyone was there in the first place was the smell of sweet roses, and a feeling of gratefulness for the undetectable nature of fairy rings and for the persistence of fairies.