Into The Faerie Woods

Story By CalexTheNeko

Art by BlueMoonKin

“Ugggggh.” Calvin let out a loud yawn as he walked. “Can’t believe I’m burning my day off on this. How much further is it?”

“I dunno, probably another mile or two.” Jimmy responded. The two boys were currently following a thin trail through a dense forest.

“This is taking forever…”Calvin whined. “And my feet are hurting from all this walking!”

“Maybe you should wear proper shoes for hiking through the woods then.” Jimmy responded in a matter-of-fact tone.

“NEVER!” Calvin spared a look down at himself. Despite their location he was completely barefoot. He wasn’t wearing much of anything. He had a pair of cargo shorts and that was it. He had shoes and a shirt in his possession. They were currently stored safely in his backpack. “What’s the point of having a magical wilderness adventure if you’re still going to dress like you live in the city!?”

“Well… Not having your feet hurt for one…” Jimmy responded. “Or your back covered in scratches for a second.” Jimmy was dressed much more sensibly for the hike. He was wearing a shirt, shorts and pair of boots.

“Bah! Minor complaints! I’m fine!” Calvin puffed out his chest and tossed his long red hair over his shoulder. “There’s nothing to worry about.”

“Good, then you can finish the rest of the hike without complaint!” Jimmy responded.

“Ugggh,” Calvin grunted. “That was a dirty trick Jimmy!” Calvin was faced with a dilemma. He could be properly dressed or he could complain. He had let himself be trapped in a logic box where he couldn’t do both!

He supposed there was only one thing to do.

Calvin continued on for the hike in silence without changing.

The two had been out in the woods since early morning. Supposedly, there was a camp site they were heading to. The trip had sounded like a really fun idea at first. Go have a grand forest adventure! Get back to nature! See sights you can never see back in the city!

So far the grand forest adventure turned out to just be a lot of walking… And a lot of annoying insects. Hours seemed to pass and the forest took on a golden glow as sunset approached. However they still hadn’t reached their destination.

“I think we might be lost…” Calvin spoke up.

“How?” Jimmy asked. “The trail only goes one way and we’ve been on it the entire time! There’s not really anyway to get lost!”

“And yet we’re clearly not there.” Calvin looked down the trail. Something felt really odd… But it was hard to say what. “Hey you got a knife in your bag?” He asked at last.

“I think so…” Jimmy responded before grabbing a small pocket knife. Calvin snagged it from him immediately. “HEY!”

“Just testing something…” Calvin responded as he stepped towards a tree. He took out the knife and carved the shape of a star into the trunk of a tree. He took a step back to examine his work before giving the knife back.

“What was that all about?” Jimmy asked.

“Just… The trees all look the same.” Calvin shrugged. “This helps me feel a little less lost. And on the way back it’ll let us know how much more of a walk we have.”

“I guess that makes sense.” Jimmy shrugged. He felt fine, but he got the idea that for as much as Calvin liked to act like some kind of wild child he probably hadn’t ever spent much time in the woods camping.

The two continued on through the woods. Another couple of hours passed and they still had not reached the actual campsite. The sun was now beginning to set and they were in danger of being in the dark soon.

“AHHHHHHH!” Calvin shouted.

“It’s just the sun going down sheesh! It comes back up in the morning.” Jimmy rolled his eyes as his friend screamed. “Now calm down you’re going to scare off every animal in a mile radius! I’d like to see some wildlife while I’m here.”

“It’s not that!” Calvin pointed at a tree along the side of the trail. “It’s that! Right there!”

Jimmy looked to the tree Calvin was pointing. Then he felt himself sweat as he saw what had Calvin so excited. There was a carving a star in the tree’s trunk. It was identical to the one Calvin had made.

“I knew it! I knew it!” Calvin shouted. “I felt like all these trees looked the same since we got here! They do! We’re lost! We’re been going in a circle!”

“That’s physically impossible!” Jimmy was trying to convince himself as much as Calvin. “We’ve been on the trail the entire time. We never left it once. If we went in a circle we would have passed the start of the trail. It’s not as if this place could just magically change.”

“And yet we’re back at my carving!” Calvin insisted.

“Maybe someone else also carved a star into the tree…” Jimmy reasoned. “I mean… I’m not 100% sure that one is identical to yours! I mean how well did we memorize the shape? It could just be another star and the mind is filling in the details so you think it’s identical!”

“Do you really believe that?” Calvin asked.

“Mmmm…” Jimmy hesitated. “Maybe… We should camp here for the night. It’s dark… And we can try to go back the way we came in the morning.”

“So you are worried too.” Calvin sighed. “Fine whatever… We’ll sleep here in the dirt like animals.”

“Don’t have to sleep on the ground!” Jimmy smiled. “These trees are pretty big! We could probably climb up there to sleep for the night and that way we’re out of the way of any animals that pass through. Plus in the morning we’ll be able to see more of the forest to find out where we’re at!”

“But what if I roll out of my sleeping bag and fall from the branch?” Calvin whined.

“Just tie yourself to the tree so you don’t move around at night!”

The two made their way up a tree. Calvin went first and Jimmy tossed his pack up to him before climbing up himself. Once they were up onto a sturdy branch they unrolled sleeping bags from their backpacks against the trunk of the tree. By the time they were set up, and had tied themselves in place, the sun had set. Silence fell over the forest… But as it did… They started to see small lights floating in the distance.

“Huh… What are those?” Calex asked peering at them through the darkness.

“They look like fireflies…” Jimmy responded. However, most fireflies he had seen only glowed yellow. These lights were about the right size… But they were in blues, greens, reds, oranges and even purples. “But not any breed I’m familiar with…”

“It’s pretty though!” Calvin chimed in. The two watched the light show dancing through the forest before slowly nodding off into sleep. Neither of them was awake when a one of the lights, a light purple one, landed on the branch next to them.

“Jimmy! Jimmy!” Jimmy awoke groggily in the morning. He thought he head Calvin’s voice… But it was off. It was like it was higher pitched.

“Ugh Calvin…” Jimmy complained. “Morning already? Why are you waking me up?” Jimmy slowly blinked his eyes and looked around. It was still dark it seemed… And then he saw Calvin, who was standing before him… And looked kind of weird. Jimmy was too tired to quite figure out what… Though he did notice that Calvin was now completely naked. “Where are your shorts? You ditched those too now?” Jimmy’s own voice sounded high pitched to him too.

“I guess…” Calvin said. “But so did you I mean… Just! Wake up dang it! Things are happening! Look at yourself!”

“Hmmmm?” Jimmy looked down at himself. The first thing he noticed was that like Calvin he was naked too. This was enough to wake him up to realize what was odd about Calvin. It was odd about him too. They still looked like themselves… But much smaller! Their limbs were shorter and they were more round! They both looked like kids! They couldn’t be older than seven or eight! “Whoa what!? How… and where are we!?” Jimmy looked around. He discovered that the reason it still felt dark out was that they were inside something. It looked like some kind of tent… But the fabric had caved in almost everywhere except where they were.

“You should um follow me…” Calvin replied. He turned and began to walk away from Jimmy before dropping onto all fours to crawl beneath the fabric of the tent. As Jimmy watched him go he noticed Calvin’s back was now free of scratches. Apparently, whatever had turned them into little kids had also healed the scratches.

“I’m coming.” For now Jimmy was calm. Truthfully… Being a kid again was hardly a terrible thing to have happen. It was the kind of thing he would normally dream of. But why it was happening was probably worth investigating. Jimmy followed Calvin out. Eventually they reached the end of the tent and he emerged into the bright light of a morning sunrise. Jimmy turned around to look at the tent behind him and froze. It wasn’t a tent.

It was the shirt he had been wearing the night before! He looked down at his feet. He was currently standing atop the sleeping bag he had been sleeping in. As he looked around he could see his pants laying across the bag as well. Then beyond the edge of the giant sleeping bag were the branch of the tree! Whereas previously it had been just wide enough to lay on now it was big enough to run laps back and forth. On shaky legs Jimmy approached the edge of the branch and looked down. He could see the forest floor to be what looked like miles away! Looking down… He could see his shoes which had apparently fallen from the tree and landed on the ground overnight. They looked like they could be houses.

They hadn’t just turned into little kids. They had been shrunk! They were now no bigger than insects!

“So… This is a thing…” Calvin walked up next to Jimmy to look out from the branch with him.

“What… happened?” Jimmy sat down on the branch staring out in wonder.

“I don’t know…” Calvin muttered as he sat down with him. “But um look at the bright side!” He smiled. “Being tiny little kids like this I don’t think anyone is going to care if we run around naked now!”

“That would be your silver lining!” Jimmy stuck his tongue out and shoved Calvin on the shoulder. The truth was Jimmy didn’t mind that aspect much either. He just wasn’t as gung ho about it as Calvin.

“Well I mean there are other things!” Calvin stood up. “Like… The fact you’re now it!” He tagged Jimmy on the side before taking off running across the branch.

“Hey get back here!” Jimmy couldn’t help but laugh. For all of Calvin’s faults… He did find a way to seem to have fun in any situation.

“Not till you catch me!” Calvin chided as he ran across the branch. “Besides who knows when we’ll get another chance to play shrunken tag!”

“Possibly every day if we don’t find a way to reverse this!” Jimmy shouted as he chased Calvin.

“Ohhhh wouldn’t that be a hoot!” Calvin laughed. He ran out onto another branch. This one at his normal size could easily have been ripped off and just been a stick. At their current insect scale sizes it was still large enough to run and climb on.

“You’re gonna run out of branch soon!” Jimmy shouted.

“AM NOT!” Calvin replied then paused as he reached the end of the branch. “Or maybe I will.”

“GOT YA!” Jimmy tackled Calvin as they both rolled back down the branch. They both began to laugh and giggle as Calvin was pinned down.

“Okay. Fine. You win.” Calvin laughed. “But only cause I picked the wrong branch to run on!”

“So what you’re saying is I only won because you’re bad at this.” Jimmy replied slyly as he let Calvin up.

“Yeah!” Calvin then waited for a moment. “Wait I mean! NO! It was um! Best two out of three!”

“Technically think you have to chase me now…” Jimmy responded. “I mean I haven’t played tag since I was a normal kid but pretty sure that’s how it works.”

“FINE!” Calvin jumped up. “I’ll be the greatest tagger to ever tag!” He then paused as there was a loud rumbling noise coming from his stomach. “Ugggh after food.”

“What do we even eat while this small?” Jimmy asked as he looke around. He then looked directly above them. From a higher branch on the tree there were small berries hanging above them. “Those will do. Got enough energy to climb?”

“You bet I do!” Calvin replied as he followed Jimmy to the trunk of the tree. They began to climb higher. Though the distance felt greater than it had the previous night the climb itself was easier. It was easy for them to find handholds at their current size! Then since they weighed so little it didn’t require much strength to pull themselves up. They reached the higher branch where the berries were without any trouble.

Walking across to the berries they had to climb down the branch slightly to reach them. Once they did… Each berry was more than twice their size. Digging with their nails they managed to tear off pieces of the berry and dragged them bag up on the branch. There they sat and feasted on the delicious fruit. Small pieces of torn berry lay all around them as they each ate their fill.

“These were pretty good!” Calvin smiled.

“So now what…” Jimmy asked.

“Well I guess…” Calvin looked around. “Whatever happened to us will wear off or it won’t… So why not enjoy it for now?”

“You think it’ll wear off?” Jimmy asked.

“Dunno!” Calvin marched down the end of the tree branch. “But… I dunno… I wouldn’t mind if it didn’t. I feel this would be a far more exciting life than I had back home.”

“It’s weird…” Jimmy muttered. “But I kind of feel the same way….” He then smiled. “Now then… With breakfast over… I believe we have a game of tag to finish!” With that Jimmy took off sprinting across the tree branch.

“HEY NO FAIR!” Calvin shouted as he gave chase.

They played the game for the entire day. They only paused when they grew hungry again and needed to feast on more berries. As the game went on it became impossible to keep score of who had tagged who how many times. By the time it was getting dark again they were both insisting that they had one and the other hadn’t gotten them even half as many times!

The two climbed back down to where their discarded clothing and sleeping bags were as night drew near. Neither one was concerned about falling out of the tree as big as it was. They just thought the fabric would make a softer bed than tree bark. As they reached that branch the lights from the previous night began to appear.

“The fireflies are back!” Calvin shouted. Now the lights were much bigger though! Some of them were bigger than the two shrunken kids. Others were about the same size.

“You know… I don’t think they’re fireflies…” Jimmy muttered. The two were both exhausted though. Soon they were asleep… And again neither noticed was one of the light purple lights landed on the same branch.

Jimmy and Calvin awoke the next morning to find themselves unchanged. They were still children and still the size of insects. They weren’t alone though. A young girl around the same age of as them was standing near the edge of the branch. Like both Jimmy and Calvin she was naked. Unlike them though she was clearly not human. A large pair of nearly transparent butterfly-like wings stuck from her back. Then her hair was purple and she seemed to radiate a purple light. It was a faerie!

“I’ve been watching you two for the last two days!” The faerie girl laughed. “Most humans wind up more panicked we get them lost in the Faerie Woods.”

“Faerie Woods?” Calvin spoke first. He slowly stood up and looked at her. “Wait… A faerie!”

“Wait…” Jimmy looked at her. “Did you turn us into tiny kids!”

“Maaaaaybe!” The faerie child gave a knowing smile. “Was just supposed to be a fun prank! I was going to reverse it… But then you two seemed like you were having more fun like that than you were the first day I saw you.”

“Admittedly… Being a kid again is a lot of fun.” Jimmy looked aside blushing a bit.

“And the world seems more adventurous when you’re tiny!” Calvin added.

“Heh… You two really are adorable you know that?” The faerie responded. “So much… That I kind of just want to keep you!” Suddenly she flung her hand out at them as dust flew over both Jimmy and Calvin. As it did the two boys began to shrink again. This time it was only in age. Their legs became unsteady and both of them fell on their bottoms as they shrunk back to a mere two years old. As the changes finished the faerie walked forward and scooped both of them up off the tree branch. She held Jimmy over one shoulder and Calvin over the other.

“Wh… whaaaat!?” Calvin squirmed a bit.

“We’re so tiny!” Jimmy squeaked. “You should warn us before you do something like that!”

“I notice neither one of you are actually objecting to the spell itself.” The faerie smiled.

“Um well…”

“The thing there…” Both toddlers blushed a bit at that.

“You two are having fun with this aren’t you?” The faerie smiled. “But that’s what makes you such great pets! Ah… But you’re a bit difficult to carry and fly like this! Just… One more adjustment…” The faerie’s hands began to glow as both toddlers shrunk even more. This time they stayed two years of age but each of them shrunk until they were small enough to fit in the palm of the faerie’s hand. Once both of them were done shrinking the faerie passed them both into the same hand and looked down at them smiling.

By this point, Calvin and Jimmy had more than embraced their fate. Getting even smaller didn’t seem to deter their spirits. Instead… The two were focused on burning some of their excess energy. The two toddlers began to roll around in the faerie’s hands wrestling as they resumed their rivalry from the day before.

“Ohhh you two are going to kill me if you keep acting that cute.” The faerie smiled as she flapped her wings and took flight. She closed her had slightly around the two toddlers to make sure she didn’t drop them. “And you can relax. You’ll never have to worry about growing up or big things ever again. I take good care of my pets.”

It wasn’t much time later the faerie child made her way back home. Her parents were rather shocked to see the new pets that she had acquired… But considering what they had already experienced they couldn’t exactly send the two humans home. They seemed harmless enough and so the faerie was allowed to keep her two new human pets. She often took them with her everywhere even to school. She loved showing off her tiny pets to all of her friends.

The End