Usually at this hour, I was curled up in my rented pop-up trailer—my temporary home away from home—with a book, my cat on my lap, and a hot cocoa. To be out here now, with the rhythmic sound of chirping crickets, the tree limbs bending and creaking in the breeze, and the empty expanse of the parking area, made my steps quicken.
Something moved behind me, and I rounded. The nearest lights were at the gates, which glowed so faintly that I had trouble seeing anything.
Reports of assaults.
Suddenly, the crickets stopped chirping. The wind stilled. My elven senses gave me heightened hearing, and somewhere down the road, I heard the sounds of breathing.
“Is someone there?”
I reached out with my magical senses, only to find a blurry area centered around a group of police cars. With chills prickling the back of my neck, I approached the cars. It was too dark to see anything, so I let my magic guide me. The air grew ice cold. I had to force myself to move closer to the cars. As I reached them, I found nothing, and even the magic I’d felt disappeared.
Footsteps came from behind me, and I rounded, readying my magic in case something tried to attack. Once again, I found nothing.
Behind me, the forest loomed, dark trees against a star-flecked sky. Deep within the woods, something moved. I focused and discovered a pair of reflective green eyes in the underbrush. Panic welled inside me.
“Who’s there?”
Almost as soon as they appeared, the eyes blinked, then disappeared. My heart pounded in my chest as I watched, listening for the sound of footsteps or breathing, but when nothing happened, I took a deep breath.
“It was probably just a raccoon,” I said to myself, then turned away from the forest.
I continued walking through the parking area, and soon the campgrounds appeared up ahead. Almost everyone participating in the festivities stayed here at night and during the weekdays. Making the two-hour drive from Galveston hadn’t been practical for me, so I’d opted for a vacation at the Ren Fest. It was a festival unto itself, though I usually avoided the parties.
Still a little spooked from my encounter in the woods, I rushed through the lines of tents and camper trailers. I got a few hellos but mostly avoided the campers until I spotted my little silver trailer.
My trailer sat away from the others. I’d picked this spot specifically because I’d wanted to be alone. There was a big empty field near my trailer, and beyond that was the forest. Most people didn’t want this spot, preferring to be closer to the action, but it suited me perfectly.
I’d rented the camper trailer for the festival, resorting to borrowing money from my dear mother in order to afford it. It had been my abode for the last month, and it felt as homey as my apartment ever had—which wasn’t saying much.
I found my keys, unlocked the door, and stepped inside. Shutting the door behind me, I sealed off the distant sounds of drifting conversations.
My cat, Han Solo, greeted me with a mewl as he sat atop the counter, but he didn’t bother to jump down and brush against my legs as he usually did when we were back in the apartment. Typical cat. He hated it here.
I found some lunchmeat in the mini fridge and made a quick sandwich for dinner. As I sat at the bar and ate my dry bread and cold turkey, my mind wandered over the day’s events. Who had I seen at the parade? The most logical explanation was that I’d seen a group of barbarians and they had reminded me of people I’d once known. My increased stress levels had caused my brain to misinterpret information.
And then there was the question of my mirror box. Who had tampered with it? And why wasn’t I able to touch it? That bothered me. If I couldn’t touch it, then I would never be able to return to Faythander.
Han finally deemed me worthy of his attention. He nudged my fingers, sniffing the lunchmeat, when my trailer lurched, making him hiss as he leapt off the bar. I grabbed the counter’s edge as a bright light flooded the room.
What was going on?
Thunder rumbled, making the floor shake and the lights rattle in their fixtures. I grabbed Han and ran for my door.
As I pushed the door open and escaped outside, I stumbled, and Han saw his opportunity. He leapt out of my arms and scampered back inside the trailer as the world continued to rumble around me. What was happening? An earthquake? Did Texas have earthquakes?
Finally, the rumbling stopped, and slowly, a thick fog gathered around the open field near my camper. Outstretching my hands, I felt magic in the gathered fog. Using my magical senses, I detected a faint pinkish color, but soon the pink mingled with blue, making a pale purple.
Purple magic? Pixies used pink, and elves used blue, which meant that this magic was a blend of the two.
Fairy magic?
It was the only explanation. But what was fairy magic doing here on Earth?
A flitting form flew past me, followed by a trail of purple sparkles that danced in swirls and eddies in its wake. I walked deeper into the fog, my heart pounding, my mind trying to make sense of the situation.
A large, hulking shape formed in front of me, and as I took another step forward to inspect it more closely, I realized it was a tent. As the fog burned away, I circled the tent. It was white and yellow striped, the kind of thing you’d see at a circus. Scanning the field, I wondered if perhaps the fog had disoriented me and I’d found my
