3
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“Raegan is not going to be pleased, Killian,” Niamh huffed from where she watched us as Killian offered me a hand, pulling me up to my feet.
“Who is Raegan?”
All three of them ignored me, Killian going so far as to ignore Niamh, too. Instead, he turned to face me and frowned. “You truly know nothing of pixies?”
“I know that they are not real,” I grumbled, then straightened my back and used a cough to cover up my ignorance. “And that they wear green hats, are the size of a mouse, and act as mischievous little gremlins.”
“Wow.” Shea grinned as she stepped to Killian’s side. “Not a single one of those things are factual.”
“Maybe one of them,” Killian said, his grin so mischievous that I didn’t have to question which he referred to.
Folding my arms over my chest like a petulant child, I matched the frowns on each of their faces. “Who are you all? Really?”
“It might just be easier to show you.” Killian winked as he extended a hand to me.
I glanced over my shoulder, to the absence of human life that surrounded us. If these three were indeed psychopaths — and that was looking more plausible with each second that ticked by — I would be murdered on this hillside and no one would know for days. Weeks, even.
Wasn’t that the statement of my life?
With that thought in mind, I pulled my chin high and let my fingers touch his. As I did, the space around us erupted with a burst of purple dust and the world changed.
Instead of standing on a hillside beside St. Michael’s Mount, the four of us were placed in a forest composed not of towering bark and tangled, green canopies, but of straight emerald trees.
From the base of their roots to the sharp tips that hovered overhead their shapes were continuous and straight, the shade of green not changing from one end to the next.
They were everywhere. It was as if we had been deposited in a maze of the strange, grass-like trees around us.
Something far too similar to a gong rang out, forcing my hands to either of my ears as the vibration rattled my entire being.
Along with the sensation was the physical shaking of the earth I stood on.
A shadow built over my whole body, forcing my attention to what, exactly, had hit the earth with such vigor.
It was a spoon. Not just any spoon, but a spoon larger than a car. It rebounded off of the ground ever so slightly, before it finally settled behind us and crushed a collection of the trees.
On the tip of the spoon was…
“No,” I spat out, my eyes widening as I looked at the metallic sheen that had been interrupted by dried porridge. “No way.”
“Yes.” Killian squared his shoulders as he watched me blossom with realization.
The world hadn’t changed around us — we had. Killian, somehow, had shrunk us all down until we were no bigger than–
Pixies.
I was the size of a pixie. So was Killian, Shea, and Niamh.
The massive trees that surrounded us were not trees — they were blades of grass.
It’s just a dream. Just a dream. Just a dream.
“Where are you taking me?” I whispered, far too afraid that my voice may shatter the absurdity of this dream. And afraid to bring an end to a moment that felt so much like a fairytale.
Killian regarded me, his eyes gleaming. “The world is much bigger than you realize. One only has to be small enough to see it.”
Shea let out a piercing whistle using her fingers and her lips, the four of us remaining stationary as we awaited whatever she was calling. Flexing my hands repetitively at my side, I hardly noticed as Killian stepped alongside me and glanced down his nose.
“Breathing, human?”
“Olivia.”
“Olivia.” His stiff face broke for a moment to let through a cautious smile. Then he leant in conspiratorially, his body warm against mine. “We are going to have to go even smaller to fly.”
“To fly?”
Just as I croaked out my disbelief, their mounts arrived. Without awaiting my answer, Killian shrank us even more until we were a suitable size to ride said mounts.
There were a thousand things I wished to never see in my life, and the true face of a hoverfly up close was apparently on there.
The yellow-and-black striped bugs settled evenly over their legs in front of us, their tremendous, textured eyes whipping from each of our bodies until they let out a soft purr as Shea stepped towards one of them.
Shea, her arms stiff with impressive muscles and her hands lacking any knowledge of softness from the tense way that she held them, slid her fingers along the hoverfly’s settled, transparent wing. “Caraid?”
The bug somehow understood her question and pressed his fearsome head against her torso, nearly knocking her over in the process. Once she found her balance again, she simply turned to Killian and nodded.
Killian and Niamh let out a relieved breath as if there was any sense to what was happening. I didn’t have time to ask them what, exactly, all of that meant because Killian grabbed onto the bend of my elbow and pulled me towards the first of the buzzing insects.
Stepping behind me and placing two hands on my waist, his words breezed over my ear. “Don’t worry, he won’t bite.” With a hoist, he lifted me into the air and invoked a screech from my lips before I settled on the beast's back.
Just a dream.
My inner chant began to sync up with the rapid beating of the bugs' glass-like wings. Seconds later a mass pressed against my back as Killian seated himself behind me.
“He might not bite, but I might fall,” I snorted.
Killian’s breathy laughter pushed at my hair on all sides. “Don’t worry. I won’t let you fall.”
His words were like fire, searing at my bloodstream and daring me to believe him.
Running a hand down the length of the bug’s side, Killian wrapped his free hand around my waist and leant against my back. “Hinge at your hips, lay as close to his back as you can.”
Obliging – because what choice did I have – I grimaced as Killian’s weight pushed against me as he, too, leant forward. I felt his thighs tighten around the hoverfly, and then I was left swallowing sea-breeze as the creature pushed off of the ground.
We were completely vertical for several minutes.
If I wasn’t swallowing mouthful after mouthful of air, I would have been screaming.
Wind tore around us like a weapon as we climbed and climbed, until the grass beneath us looked a normal size once more.
Not because we were back to regular sizes, but because we were now soaring through the air.
Killian pressed his lips to my ear. “You can sit up now.”
My back snapped straight immediately, nearly dislodging him entirely as we both found balance over our tailbones.
The view was magnificent. While everything was the same as I left it, the world had become so much bigger.
The possibilities and the mere vastness of the earth I lived on became increasingly apparent as the hoverfly glided along, his stunning wings reflecting small prisms of light in all directions as the sun caught them.
The cloak that had dragged at my neck could not catch up to me, to the height that I now found myself at.
A pooling of darkness was left behind, freeing my body for a few moments as I realized exactly how my own skin felt against my body.
For that reason, I tore my arms from the death-grip they had around my stomach and unfolded them on either side of me, letting the wind tear at my face and pull the brightest of smiles forth.
Killian’s chest beat against my back in suggestion of a laugh as he watched me from behind, but I didn’t care how ridiculous I looked. I was flying.
After several dozen minutes of remaining in that state, pretending that I was the one gliding through the sudden appearance of trees on all sides, Killian tapped my thigh.
Trying my best to figure out that wordless command without having to ask him, I curled my body forward once more and took a fistful of hoverfly-pelt in both of my hands.
Killian folded over top of me seconds later, and my intuition was proved correct when we all suddenly soared towards the ground.
I had thought take-off was stomach-churning and gut-wrenching, but I was wrong.
Descending was. It was far worse than taking off had been, and I actually felt my stomach lining dislodge from my abdomen and punch up to my throat, where I fought with all of my might to keep that one bite of porridge within me.
“Only a few more seconds,” he whispered in my ear as my whole body tensed against the hurtling towards the ground.
But he was right, only a few seconds later we landed.
I wished I could have dismounted any way but the way I did — rolling to the side and crumpling against the ground as I heaved.
Niamh and Shea landed ahead, snickering amongst themselves as they strode towards us with straight legs and unwavering bodies. Killian landed with a thud, brushed off his pant legs, and moved towards me. With yet another hand outstretched, I grabbed on to him and let him toss me upright.
When Killian finally released my trembling body, I groaned. “That was both the best and worst thing I’ve ever done.”
All three of them shared in a tight laugh as they watched my body uncurl itself, until strength resumed in my spine and I was able to stand fully.
Just a dream–
My reminder to myself was cut short as I finally got a look at where we were.
The elm trees of St. Michael’s Mount were grander than mountains all around us, their canopies so high into the heavens that the only evidence of their existence was the sky being green instead of blue.
We were in the roots of the trees, where anybody who walked by would mistake the foliage and bushes for nothing more than exactly that. Yet here, in this size, I saw the truth that lived amongst the wilderness.
A kingdom. Naturally carved into the roots of the trees, into the overgrown bushes and debris of nature, whole cities and towns had been erected of wood and leaves. We were standing on the outer-entrance, the pathway broad and far too large for us as it led down into the village beyond.
Purple mist burst all around us as the world seemed to shrink just a bit.
No, not the world — us. Killian had set us back to the size we had been before the hoverflies had appeared.
“My bad,” he chuckled to me as he made to pass, two hands pushed into his pockets as he glanced over his shoulder. “Are you coming?”
I wasn’t sure what to say. It was all just a dream.
My frozen state made Killian pause in his strut. He tossed his chin down the roadway as he walked past Shea and Niamh. “You two go on. I’ll catch up with you later.”
They muttered something to one another before rolling their eyes and trotting down the road.
Killian back-tracked until he was at my side. “You wanted to see something magnificent, right?”
With doubt in my eyes, I looked up at him. “Yes.”
“Then, my dear Olivia… Welcome to Choilltean.”