Fairy Rings

Chapter 1

"Don't go the woods at night and never go to the fairy rings," grandma told me, mixing the cookie batter. She barely even looked up when she said that warning as though it was common sense to avoid the mushroom patches in the woods.

"Why is that grandma?" I asked too little, to quite understand what the warning was about. Grandma had taken the dough out and gave me the spoon to lick it. My greedy hands, just waiting for the sweet taste of raw cookie dough. She gave me a disapproving look, the same one she always gave me when I was too curious.

"going into the woods is always dangerous. Whether we're talking about the wildlife or the Fey." She said.

"What are the Fey?" I asked.

"Dangerous beings. Do not mess with Fey. Some will gobble you up, and others will keep you as a pet, but no matter what, you won't be here anymore, and you won't get to lick any more cookie dough. You wouldn't want that would you?" she said, giving me a small smile. I quickly shook my head no, I would never want to leave my grandmother.

"Good, then it's decided you won't be going to the fairy rings." She said.

***

'What grandma doesn't know won't hurt her.' I thought as I made my way to the fairy circles. As I approached, the top of a head popped out from behind the bushes. He had dark hair and bright green eyes with a smile almost as wild as the woods around him.

"Emmy, your early." He said with a wide smile.

"Theo!" I yelled, running up and slamming myself into him for a broad hug.

"Emmy, there is no need to be so excited I always come." He said. We spent the afternoon playing, leaping around, and being children. It was a wonderful time. For the longest, while the fairy rings were my safe space, the place I went to when all else seemed to fail me. Theo was always there to get me to smile. The first time I ever came to the rings was four months after the car crash, and I still didn't quite understand that they weren't coming back. Something about the fairy rings had always felt magical to me, so for a while, I just cried into the abyss, sitting not too far from the Mushrooms. 

 Grandma thought I was visiting Vicki, but really I was sitting in the cold, quiet forest. That was until Theo. I was crying one day, and Theo popped out of nowhere with a big smile on his face. He played games with me to make me laugh. There was one time we stole a pie from my grouchy neighbor Beatrice. Theo was always full of just the strangest jokes. When you're five, you don't really dwell much on what's right or wrong. You only really care about what's fun. I was happy like that, until one day, as I was leaving, Theo told me something.
"Emerald, I am not going to be able to come back for a while. I'm getting sick from being here. If you need me, all you have to say is Theoden." He said. He had been looking paler lately and playing much more sluggishly.

"Don't leave Theo!" I said it's snot dribbling down my nose. Tears pricked at the back of my eyes, burning in a way that it hadn't had since mom passed.

"Don't worry, Emmy. I am just a word away." He said, giving me a kiss on my four head. That's when the memories stopped being real. The ground beneath us seemed to form into a Venus flytrap snapping Theo up. I didn't even have time to scream. It was the car crash all over again. I had lost another person I cared about. The tears stung me for months. I felt as though the life of been sucked out of me once again. I never did revisit the fairy rings. It had been our place, and as far as I was concerned, Theo was dead. Nothing would change that, not even his name.

A/N: thank you for reading the first chapter of Fairy rings! I am going to warn you that while I am getting everything set up this might be a bit slow on updating but I was excited to share it with you. I am hoping to have the next chapter up by the end of this month until then toodels.