Joy of the Forest (Fairy TF/TG) (Patreon)

Patreon commission for ShadowPlay, continuing off their previous comms "Call of the Forest" and "Heart of the Forest" 

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“Achoo!”

The young man covered his nose, as he sneezed again, and then a second time. Gods above, this was why Alistair hated the outdoors. Or maybe just one of many, many reasons, too numerous to count. He’d much rather be cooped up in his favorite library, reclining in a chair with his favorite book and a spell on the door to make people screw off and leave him alone. If it wasn’t for his immense academic curiosity, he wouldn’t have left even to investigate this enchanted forest.

It hadn’t been on any maps, nor had it been in the memory of any locals. But nonetheless, it was there, and Alistair could practically feel it’s magic from two countries away! What kind of scholar of magic would he be if he didn’t investigate? It was a wonder he was the only one (that he knew of) that was! All the others said it was just another forest.

A scent on the wind drew him further. The echo of a song, that he couldn’t so much hear as feel, dragged him closer. He could no more avoid the forest than a man could go without air. Whatever happened, he had to go there. To see what it was. He looked up at the ancient oaks around him, so high and dense with foliage that only the barest glimmers of sunlight broke through the canopy.

Right now, it seemed that the forest mostly contained a lot of trees. And pollen.

Alistair came to a stop, leaning against a tree as he caught his breath. He’d been walking for hours, longer than he had in a while. This was more physical activity than he’d had in ages, and indeed further from his home city than he’d gone since that day…

His breath caught as the sudden memory hit him. A spell flying wide of it’s target. A woman’s cry of pain, a sickening wet crunch.

No, that was the past. He was… he was past that, now. It had been his fault, and those lunatics going running off into dungeons were better off without him. Or whatever it was they were doing now. It wasn’t his concern, anymore - all they were was a distraction from his studies.

Taking a few deep breaths, Alistair pulled himself off the tree and looked around. He could hardly see where he’d been, but there was a relatively tree-free path forward. Or at least, a path where the roots that were thick across the forest floor were fairly level and he could walk on them. He kept moving through the forest, not noticing the trees pulling closer together behind him as he went, blocking his path back.

He walked for what felt like eternity, but was closer to an hour, before without warning there was a break in the trees, and the near-level path of roots on which he’d been walking. He stumbled into the sudden clearing, nearly falling flat on his face as he tried to catch his footing.

As he managed to recover, just barely, a soft, feminine giggle came from up ahead. Alistair reacted with the trained speed of his former adventuring career, summoning his staff from it’s magical storage instantly and putting it between him and the foe even as he began to channel magic.

“Touchy, touchy! Sorry for laughing, Mr. Mage, but that fall was just too funny!”

As it turned out, there was not a cackling witch descending on him to make him into a stew, but simply an elven woman sitting on a large root, beside a brown-skinned woman covered in flowers. The two were watching him, but not moving towards him - not threatening.

The mage dispelled his staff and dusted himself off. “I apologize for that, ladies. You simply caught me a tad off guard, is all…” he said, trailing off as he looked up. It was a massive tree. The root that the elf and the other woman were sitting on was connected to the biggest tree Alistair had ever seen, bigger than any man-made castle or tower.

And now that he was paying attention, he could feel the immense magic of the place. The whole forest had been magic, so he hadn’t realized at first, but this tree had enough that he wouldn’t be surprised if the rest of the forest was magic purely because of its proximity to the massive tree. The tree wasn’t the only thing that was magic - both the elf woman and her compatriot were powerful in magic, comparable to a high level mage.

“It’s rude to stare,” the flower-covered woman said with good humor in her tone and a half smile on her face.

Alistair blushed. “My deepest apologies, I was just… taking it all in, is all.” he said. “I’ve never seen a place like this, or felt this much magic in one place…”

“Understandable, friend. Welcome to our lovely home, our forest.” The woman said.

Alistair coughed a bit. “Where are my manners? My name is Alistair. A pleasure to meet you both. You are…?” Right, be polite to the powerful magic women. He took a deep breath, taking in the pleasant wood-scent of the clearing.

The women looked at each other, and Alistair could see the Elf seemed like she was about to laugh again. What was so funny about his name? But the dark-skinned woman spoke up first. “A name for a name. You may call me Danai.” The flower-covered woman said. “I am the tree, and it is me - I am what you’d call a dryad, and a servant of the goddess Gaia.”

“And I am the lovely Lady of the Forest, Leona~” the Elf added. “Always nice to have visitors! Especially handsome ones like yourself, ehehe~”

Alistair walked a bit closer to the root, trying not to stare too hard at the immense height of the tree. “Right. Nice to meet you.” he repeated. Somehow, they felt… familiar? He couldn’t begin to place why. “I didn’t come here to enjoy the scenery, as lovely as it is. May I ask you two something?”

“You may,” Danai said.

“But it’s up to us if we answer~” Leona continued.

Right. That sort of thing. “This forest is… powerful. Huge. There’s no way anyone living nearby could miss it. And yet, it’s on no maps, nobody has heard of it. Where did it come from? Why is it here?”

“Are we allowed to tell him that?” Leona asked Danai quietly, in a mock-whisper that left her still clearly audible.

“Of course. There’s no reason we can’t.” Danai said. She turned back to Alistair. “We may answer your question. But knowledge doesn’t come for free.”

Yep. It was that kind of situation, to be sure. “What’s your price?” he asked. It wasn’t like he cared too much what they asked of him. The pursuit of knowledge was all he had left anyway.

“It’s simple,” Leona said. “Dance with us. Dance with us, and we can tell you.”

An odd request, but not totally unreasonable. “...Very well then. I warn you, I am not a good dancer.” he said. Sure, why not? It reminded him of when that group of idiots would drag him on adventures, somehow.

The Lady of the Forest clapped with glee, leaping to her feet. The dryad took a more sedate pace, standing. “It’s fine, it’s fine~” Leona insisted, “We don’t need anything special from you. All you have to do is enjoy yourself.”

“Indeed. Feel the song, and simply express yourself in whatever way it makes you desire.” Danai said.

On cue, Leona began to sing. As she did, Danai stepped forward, and took Alistair’s hand.

At first, Danai took the lead. It was a simple dance, and Alistair was focused mostly on not stepping on her feet. But as it went on, it grew more elaborate, and Alistair found his body moving on instinct rather than thought. Step this way, spin like that, step back. He found himself switching partners more than once, and Leona continued without so much as a hitch in her voice as she danced with Alistair.

He was deep in the moment, feeling the song across his whole body, the magic of the forest seeming so very close. He was so focused on the moment that he hardly noticed he’d gone from a little taller than Leona, to a bit shorter. His steps grew lighter as his enthusiasm for the dance grew, his masculine figure receding while his short brown hair began to grow.

He felt… happy. For the first time since that day, he felt happy. It hadn’t been a short time, but through it all he had simply been going through the motions, only showing enough manufactured emotion at the desired moments to keep people from worrying too much. Alistair hadn’t felt any true joy until this moment, dancing beneath the tree. He could enjoy this. He could get used to this. Why leave, if this was the kind of life waiting for him-

“No!” he shouted, shoving away his partner (currently Danai) suddenly and leaping back. Those weren’t his thoughts! For one, he hated the outdoors - he would never voluntarily stay in the outdoors, would he? For two, he could feel the swirling magic around them - it had been so all-encompassing, it was almost hard to realize it had a target. Him. “What are you trying to pull? What are you doing? This wasn’t part of our deal!” he said, staff summoned to his hand and it’s tip ablaze with magic. He doubted he could beat them, but…

Even recognizing the magic, it was difficult to resist it. He hesitated to start blasting, to risk burning down that magnificent tree.

“We want you to be happy, that’s all.” Leona said.

“So much anguish… regret… guilt…” Danai agreed. “We can make it go away.”

“You’re so lonely. We know that. We’re so sorry…” Leona continued.

“Would you really rather live like that forever, when we could be together again?” The two said in unison.

Together… again…? Alistair looked between the two of them. There had been something familiar about them before. He remembered a hot-headed warrior. A devout cleric. The image of them in his head wavered, and he could almost see… “It’s… it’s you? How…? Why?”

“Does it really matter?” Leona asked. “You’ll know, once we dance a bit more. It’ll be fun, especially once you stop being such a stick in the mud~”

“Come, Alistair. Join us, and you’ll understand.” Danai agreed.

Alistair hesitated, for just a moment. But the magic of the forest, the song and smell permeating his very being, pushed him. He didn’t verbally agree, but he put his staff down, and extended a hand to Leona.

The dance and song resumed, and this time, Alistair embraced it. He let the magic in, let it remake him as it saw fit - he wanted to be a part of this forest, wanted to join his friends and be happy again. This time, he took the lead in the dance, speeding his own transformation and laughing joyously (in an increasingly high-pitched voice) as he did.

His hair grew out further, further, all the way down until it began to pool at his feet and threaten to trip him up. It shifted in tone, glittering like the night sky as it turned a vibrant purple hue. He continued to shrink, his figure becoming thin and dainty as he did, and small bumps appearing on his chest. He laughed with joy as ‘he’ became a ‘she’, continuing to shrink smaller than even a child. When she opened her eyes, they were pure blue without any whites, glittering brightly with magic.

Her clothes shifted to match her new form, going from a clumsy robe to a pretty dress, with two conspicuous holes in the back. Their purpose was made clear as thin, shimmering gossamer wings almost bigger than her body sprouted from her back and she took to the air. She was too small to properly dance with either of her friends, now, hardly reaching to one of their knees, but she flew and spun through the air with glee in her own dance.

Danai extended a hand, and the newly minted fairy finished her dancing and landed on it, laughing with a mischievous grin. “I get it now! I get what you were talking about! I love this place, and I love the both of you! We’ll have so much fun together, forever and ever!” she said, her mouth barely able to keep up with her rapid-fire words.

The dryad smiled serenely. “That’s right, Alana. We’re together forever now. Just a bit more, and we’re all going to be together again. Just one more friend left to bring back.”

“Oh, that’s right!” Alana said, fluttering into the air. “I almost forgot about her, I was so busy dancing. She’ll come too, won’t she?”

“Of course. We’ll bring her here together.”