Strange Beginnings
the wee ones.” She put the note back in Derry's pocket. “And they chose their verse well. Come, I have something to show you.”
Bridget took Derry by the hand and started leading him out of the clearing and down the path.
“Where are we going?”
“Oh, we're going to the real festival.” She glanced back at Derry with an impish grin. “I want you to meet my friends!”
Derry chuckled. “Alright, then.”
For a few minutes, Bridget led him down the long and wandering path. When she turned left at a big oak tree and started leading Derry off of the trail, his heartbeat picked up and his stomach churned with a twinge of anxiety.
This patch of woods was small enough that Derry had walked every path at least several times during his explorations back in college. However, he hadn't strayed very far from the path, except for one or two spots near the big festival field. Was there some hidden hollow he wasn't aware of? Maybe there really was an underground festival off in the woods.
As Bridget led him further from the path, Derry soon lost his sense of direction. For a moment, he considered asking her how much farther it was to the other festival. But then she glanced back at him with a warm smile and started singing a soft, sweet tune in time with their footsteps. There were no words to this tune; only a “woo” sung at different pitches to carry the melody. Derry found her voice enchanting and soothing. In spite of the lack of lyrics, he soon lost himself in the melody and the charming rise and fall of her voice.
When her song slid to a smooth finish, Derry found himself hand in hand with Bridget, looking into her eyes with a soft smile.
“We're almost there, my love. But before we go over the last hill, you'll need this.”
Bridget reached down to a long green cloth that was tied around her waist and started untying it. When she raised the cloth to cover Derry's eyes, he instinctively held out a hand to stop her.
“Is that a blindfold?”
Bridget smiled.
“Yes.”
As Derry looked into her eyes, he noticed that her face was already shaded by the onset of dust. Had they really been walking all day?
Bridget stood on her toes and leaned forward, giving Derry a long, deep kiss. She wrapped her arms around him and pressed her body against his, melting into his embrace as their tongues danced together between their lips. Before Derry had time to catch his breath, she slid the blindfold over his eyes and tied it behind his head.
“Now, we spin three times, and take thirteen steps back through the gate.”
Derry's eyes were still open, but the blindfold was thick enough that he could only see the slightest hints of light along the edges. He felt Bridget's hands slide up his arms, coming to rest on his shoulders for a moment before applying swift pressure to spin him in place.
“One. Two. Three!”
As Derry spun in place, he felt mildly dizzy. After a moment's pause, Bridget's hands slid to his hips, and he felt a tug on them, leading him to start stepping backward.
“One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Eleven. Twelve. Thirteen!”
Bridget's hands slid from Derry's hips and grasped him by the shoulders, spinning him around a half-turn to face the direction that she had led him. After another pause, she gave him another kiss, running her fingers down his back as their tongues met again for only a moment. Then, she stepped behind him to untie the blindfold.
When the blindfold dropped to the forest floor at his feet, Derry was stunned by what he saw.
The sun had finished setting, and twilight was giving way to night. The clearing before him, however, was illuminated by a broad circle of eight torches planted in the ground on long wooden posts. At the center of this circle sat a ten foot long table covered with plates and bowls full of fresh figs, cherries, persimmons, grapes, almonds, walnuts, olives, avocados, and more exotic fruits and nuts that Derry didn't even recognize. Several wooden chalices and large clay mugs were nestled among the overflowing heaps of fruits and nuts, and several wooden bottles and caskets sat on the forest floor surrounding the table.
Even more striking, however, was the curious crowd of several dozen people gathered around the table.
There were no chairs, but the table was low enough to the ground that a person of average height could sit on the forest floor and comfortably partake of the feast. However, most of the people in the circle were not of average height. A few were Bridget's height, but some were the size of toddlers or infants even though they were clearly adults. A few on the far side of the circle loomed much taller than Derry even though they were seated. Some of them were men, but most were women. All of the women were young, with bright eyes and long flowing hair, all wearing green or brown dresses similar to Bridget's, or in some cases nothing at all.
For a moment, they all simply smiled at him, their eyes widening in anticipation. Then, they started beckoning him forward and chattering amongst themselves. Derry glanced back at Bridget for a moment, and she laughed.
“Go ahead, silly! Join us in the feast!”
Derry took a few hesitant steps forward into the circle, and some of the littlest people rushed forward to greet him, taking his hands and tugging at his jeans to lead him onward. Once Derry had taken a seat on the ground at the table, one of the impossibly large men at the back of the circle nodded in approval and raised his arms high overhead.
“Let the feast begin!”
The creature's voice was a low, deep rumble that shook the very earth as he spoke. For a moment, the sheer force of it startled Derry – but the warm tone and good company set his mind at ease. A few of the pint-sized people started hopping around the edge of the table to snatch figs and berries, but the bigger ones waited patiently for Derry to take the first bite.
Derry picked up a grape and popped it in his mouth. Maybe it was just his imagination, but he was absolutely certain that this was the juiciest, sweetest red grape he had ever tasted. He tried one of the green ones, and it had just enough of the sour green flavor to complement its mild sweetness perfectly.
Bridget plopped down by Derry's side, and the two of them started feeding each other fruit and nuts from the table. After a few moments, one of the tiniest people of all – no bigger than a squirrel, really – hopped onto the table and lifted a plump fig in Derry's general direction. Derry chuckled as the poor fellow struggled a bit under the weight of the soft, wet fruit. He lowered his lips to pick up the fig with his lips and teeth, then ate it whole. The little man who had handed him the fruit clapped and giggled and scampered away over the mountains of fruits and nuts and berries on the table.
After enjoying the feast for a while, Derry turned to Bridget.
“Are you a fairy?”
Bridget smiled.
“What do you think?”
Derry chuckled.
“I never knew that fairies worked in Accounting, though.”
Bridget laughed.
“Some of us are more Fae than others. Some of us live in the woods, and some of us live in town. Even accountants need a little magic in their lives, yes?”
Derry was just starting to contemplate her answer when she leaned in suddenly and kissed him. Her lips tasted like honeydew, and her fingers were cool and soft as she traced them down his arm and across his open palm. A few of the smaller people at the table laughed and giggled, and a few of the larger ones smiled and nodded knowingly. One of the littlest people pretended to cover her eyes with her hands, but peeked through her fingers.
After finishing one last fig, Derry looked Bridget in the eyes, ran his fingers down her cheek and neck, and planted a long, deep kiss on her lips. Their eyes closed for a moment as their lips and tongues met, and he ran his fingers through her long red hair, tracing his fingers down her back until his hands came to rest on her hips.
Everyone in the circle started hooting and hollering and clapping and giggling in approval. Bridget wrapped her arms around Derry, and the two of them kissed again, their eyes consumed wi
th a wild look as their breath deepened and their hands explored the curves of each other's bodies.
Soon, everyone in the circle abandoned what remained of the feast and surrounded Derry and Bridget to join in the fun. Derry felt many hands of all shapes and sizes pulling off his jeans and lifting his shirt overhead. Bridget slipped out of her dress easily with the help of her Fae companions. Someone started extinguishing the torches at the edges of the circle, and soon Derry and Bridget found themselves in the midst of a heap of writhing, moaning bodies making love to one another. The full moon rose high overhead, kissing their glistening flesh with moonlight, caressing their undulating bodies with a silver sheen that seemed to make the ecstatic mass of flesh shine with an inner radiance.
At first, Derry and Bridget remained in each other's arms, delighted in the rapture that surrounded them, but focusing on each other's pleasures. After their lovemaking had reached its peak, however, they were easily swayed into the company of other lovers, seduced by the glow of fiery eyes shimmering in the moonlight, the caress of fingers and tongues across their skin, the sting of playful slaps against exposed flesh, the surprise of eager nibbling in tender places.
Every moment brought Derry deeper into the throes of ecstasy, filling him with an energy that allowed him to continue for hours into the night, far longer than he would have imagined possible. But even so, he eventually found himself lying down on the cool forest