The Dark Woods: A Fairy Named Thunder Excerpt

Chapter 2

In which Monique and James meet fairies, try a new fruit, and are judged.

“No way.” James pushed his glasses onto his nose and peered over Monique’s shoulder. The fairy’s faint light quivered.

With trembling hands, Monique picked up the fairy. Its tiny body fit in her palm. A hint of warmth kissed her night-cooled hand. The fairy shivered, then stirred no further.

Monique stood and brought her hand close to her face. From the other side, James leaned in, and together they inspected the fairy.

Two sets of leaf-like wings lay folded against the fairy’s back. Its brown, stick-like body carried patches of green moss and lichen. Minus the blue glow, the fairy looked like a stick. Up close, the fairy’s small face was visible. A flawless nose, mouth, chin, and pointy ears detailed the would-be stick as if sculpted by a master, dispelling any notions that this was a simple stick.

“It doesn’t look like the fairies I’ve seen on TV or in books,” James said, his eyes large behind his glasses.

The fairy shuddered again, pulling its stick legs to its chest.

“What should we do?” Monique asked, worry in her voice.

“Maybe it’s hungry or thirsty.” James peered around the shed and into the yard, searching for an answer. The moon, right on cue, produced a shaft of light that illuminated a low branch on the fig tree. At the branch’s tip grew a large fig. The fruit, double the size of the tree’s other fruit, as if it had received particular attention, beckoned to James.

“I have an idea.” He took Monique’s free hand and pulled her to the tree. He picked the fig, rolling it in his hand as he examined it. A deep pink color crept up the fig’s dry, green skin. “It’s warm,” James said, “like it’s been setting in the sun.” He turned back to Monique and held the fig to the fairy’s small brown face.

Its nose twitched, eyelids fluttered.

“Did you see that?” Monique said. “It’s moving.”

Before James could respond, the fairy sat up and took a bit of the fig before flopping back into Monique’s hand, still as death save for its chewing jaw.

James and Monique stood, mouths agape. Recovering herself, Monique threw her free hand over her mouth and stifled a scream.

“It’s real!” she said behind her hand. “It’s really real.”

Bit by bit, the hollow blue glow strengthened. James pulled the fig away. They watched as the fairy stretched and yawned before flashing into the air, wings humming like a dragonfly. It bowed low to James and kissed the back of Monique’s hand still clasped over her mouth. Then, in a blink, it disappeared.

They stood, thunderstruck. What had just happened? Where had the fairy gone? James remembered that he still held the fig and gave it a tentative sniff. The smell was like nothing he’d encountered before. Much against his better judgment, he took a nibble of the soft flesh.

His mouth filled with the fragrant taste of seasons past. The fragrance of dewy spring dawns, summer storms, autumn leaves, and winter winds filled his senses. He closed his eyes, savoring the effect. When he reopened them, a rainbow of lights danced around the yard. Bright spots of every color imaginable blinked and swooped.

“Holy cow,” James breathed. “They’re everywhere.”

Monique removed her hand from her mouth. “What’s everywhere?” she said. Her hand that had held the fairy was still out in front of her, forgotten.

“Fairies.” James spun around, trying to look everywhere at once.

“You see them?” Monique said, her gaze darted around the yard. Only the moon’s silver light lit the yard.

James stopped and wondered at the dazzling display before him and placed the fig in Monique’s forgotten, outstretched hand. “I think it’s magic,” he said, his voice thick with emotion.

With a guarded frown, Monique lifted the fig and bit into it. She gasped, a dreamy smile softening her face. “I see them, James,” she whispered. “I see them.”

“Didn’t I tell you they’d figure it out? You’d have the excellent sense not to doubt me in the future,” a small, willowy voice declared from somewhere in front of James and Monique.

“You got lucky,” said another invisible someone. This voice had a hollow wooden ring that reminded Monique of the bamboo wind chime her mom had hung at the house’s front.

“You wish,” said the first voice. “I knew as soon as I set eyes on them sitting in the Mother Tree, they were the ones.” One of the dancing lights slowed its darting and moved closer to James and Monique. It was the fairy they’d freed from the shed. “My instincts are never wrong. These humans are exactly what the woods need.”

Monique peered at the fairy. “You can speak, and we can understand you.” She turned to James. “A fairy is talking to us.” The biggest smile James had ever seen spread across her face.

A golden light swooped up and stopped next to their fairy and tsk its small tongue.

“I’m James, and she’s Monique. We just moved here.” James said to the fairies. It was only polite to introduce themselves.

Their fairy bowed again. “I am Thunder. Thank you for saving me.”

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