The Hunt of the Grimalkin (Erresuma Book 1) by Dani Swanson (read aloud books txt) 📕

themselves. She laid down on her stomach in the soft mossy grass and put her face down by the mushrooms. Fig perched himself on top of the boulder, staring down at the mushrooms like a vulture.  She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. There were windows in the mushrooms! Tiny, little windows with a golden light pouring through the panes. She could see shadows moving around behind those panes. She pulled her book of creatures out of her bag and flipped to a charcoal drawing in the back that had a picture of mushrooms in the same shape. ‘Fairy Circle’ was written underneath it. She smiled. “Fairies?” she whispered.

When she spoke all the movement inside the tiny house stopped. The lights went out. “Sorry. I don’t mean any harm,” she whispered as she slowly crept away from the circle. She got to her feet and picked Fig up as she slowly walked away.

As she turned to go there was a whirlwind of color swirling around her head. Her long raven hair was getting pulled every which way and over her eyes covering her line of sight. She felt short, sharp pains in her arms and legs. Her eyes got heavy and she fell down with a large thump. Right before she shut her eyes she saw a woman wearing green leaves with hot pink hair. She had a saber in her hand and silvery wings fluttering furiously. The fairy was no bigger than her index finger.

When she woke up her head was throbbing again, with a fuzzy feeling lingering in the front of her eyes. She was laying on the side of the road, with Fig asleep on her stomach. She grabbed the side of her head and winced as the trees swirled around her in a drunken stupor. “Oh my head!” she whined. Fig woke up and shook his head. He seemed cross eyed. The sun had set and it had become cold. She sat up and brushed the dirt off of her arms as Fig washed his face. She pulled out her creature book and flipped through it to the section of where the fairies were listed. She read about how they were territorial, their use of a mixture of wild lettuce and passion flowers brewed with cinnamon to subdue their enemies. She couldn’t believe what she had seen or what had happened.

She started to shiver in the cold night’s air. She moved in farther into the woods and leaned her back up against a tree. She was too afraid to start a fire, she didn’t want to alert anyone or anything that she was there, but it was too dark for them to even see the dirt road anymore. She wrapped the cloak around her shoulders and cuddled up with Fig. She didn’t bother closing her eyes, knowing sleep would evade her, and jumped at every sound she heard.

Deeper in the woods she saw the lights of the fairy circle come to life again. She watched from where she sat; she didn’t dare to go any closer and rubbed her head as she thought about the confusing experience. Unbeknownst to her, the tiny fairy with the hot pink hair was fluttering far above her in the tree, watching her watch the fairy circle.

 Fig had also been on guard all night; never leaving her side. As dawn brightened she could see a little more clearly and she surveyed the woods. She realized that some of the birds that she saw flying through the forest weren’t actually birds at all. They were little fairies soaring back and forth between the trees, racing from branch to branch.

She pulled her book out of her bag and started to study all the creatures in the book. ‘How can this be real?’ she thought to herself in awe. Her head throbbed. Her side was sore from her fall. Her stomach growled; the berries just weren’t cutting it anymore. She rested her head on the tree and watched the little fairies swoop about with the birds. They gracefully danced amongst the vines and trees. One slight fairy caught her eye; he glowed with a green hue and didn’t fly as fast as the others did. He bobbed more than fluttered. He was slowly looping down, headed towards the fairy circle, when all of a sudden he dropped hard, straight to the ground.

She immediately jumped up and ran to where the green orb had fallen; there he laid in a slump, not moving. She gingerly picked him up and rested him in her hand. She intuitively started to rub his stomach with her pointer finger. “Please wake up little guy, please?” she whispered to him. She felt a surge of electricity run through her veins and out her finger, connecting her with the fairy. The hair on her head whirled around her. For a brief moment the pain in her head subsided.

The other little fairies congregated around her as she sat with the little fairy. The green aura that had surrounded the fairy was now encompassing them both. Her raven hair blew away from her face as if a fierce wind was blowing on her. She could hear the chattering from the fairies, but all she could see was the green light. She started to feel light headed and sick to her stomach. The green light started to spin in circles around them. Faster and faster until the electricity between her hand and the little fairy stopped just as suddenly as it had started. Her hair fell limp around her face and the small faces of hundreds of fairies and one orange cat came into focus. She slumped over to her side with labored breaths. The little green fairy, still safely in her hand, lifted his head from her palm and turned to face her. “Thank you,” his small voice squeaked before he flew into the crowd.

“She… saved him,” the little pink haired fairy stammered.