Lights and sound grew brighter and louder the farther he walked into the center of the city. Beautiful, unearthly music echoed through the forest, and the rush of faeries flying overhead was like a flock of hummingbirds around a thick bloom of honeysuckle. Osric obscured himself behind the immense tree trunks and hoped he would remain unnoticed.
The city center was beyond the extent of Osric’s imagination. A bare, bark-stripped tree trunk, devoid of any limbs or leaves, stood in a circular clearing. A ring of faerie musicians orbited the natural column as they played. The music resembled pipes and flutes, but the sound was one unmatched by anything in his world. Hundreds of faeries, each adorned in brightly colored clothing, flew in and around the clearing, their wings throwing off sparks of every color imaginable.
The music increased in tempo and volume, and the rest of the faeries flew in formation, a wild aerobatic dance that filled the forest with light and color. Osric wondered if he was the first human to witness whatever this event was…a festival? A ritual? A celebration?
The music changed, slowed, retreated into a stately march, not sad, but not nearly as jubilant as before. The faeries flew to the edge of the clearing, arranging themselves in a stack of circular rows from just above the ground to the treetop canopies above. One by one, they approached the column and touched it, leaving behind an imprint with a distinct shape, color, and pattern.
Comments