Wind Dancer

The clouds looked tumultuous, but expanses of blue autumn sky broke through allowing the sun to shine serenely on the multi-coloured leaves of the woodland ahead.

Penny stepped into the woods onto the mulch of leaves that carpeted the path. The trees crashed and swayed around her filling the wood with noise and motion.

The air was cold and bracing and made Penny feel alive. Her feet crunched over acorn cups while squirrels chased and busied themselves over the leaf litter. She smelt the earthy cinnamon scent of autumn mixed with the fresh cold air of winter. It wasn’t long off now, maybe only days in fact if this wind kept up.

The leaves raced away up the path in waves, tumbling and turning over themselves like acrobats. Penny loved to watch the leaves blowing in the wind. They looked so alive, at this almost the moment of their death. It was as though they were celebrating one last joyous time before lying down to sleep.

As she went deeper into the woods she noticed more and more of the trees were already bare. Maybe winter would be sooner than she had thought.

Waves of leaves scurried up the path before her to the clearing. Here at least the trees were still clinging to their covering. The circle of trees was jubilant with every shade from green to red, scarlet, russet brown, fiery orange, golden and lemon yellow and every hue of autumn in between.

It was a marvel to behold. Penny stood at the edge and gazed upon the sight. The colours blurred together like an oil painting leading the eye up and up to the circle of clear blue sky visible beyond.

Leaves jostled and cluttered around Penny’s ankles before sweeping past into the clearing to join the mounds and swirls already there. The whole clearing was packed with leaves as though it were a gathering place for every leaf in the wood.

Penny watched mesmerised as they danced. Groups would step out from the leaf piles and parade around the centre in lines then circles, then swirling tornadoes, before settling back into their mounds only for others to take up the dance.

All around the cacophonous roar of the leaves in the trees rose and fell in time with the dance.

It’s like a ballet, she thought.

And as she continued to watch, she realised it really was a ballet, for they weren't leaves at all, they were tiny people, clothed in delicate, leaf-like clothes. She blinked and looked again, sure it must be a trick of the light, or her over-active imagination.

But nothing changed, they were definitely people. She stared, enchanted as they leapt into the air on almost invisible insectile wings letting the wind catch them and raise them up high off the ground while those below them danced and tumbled in a chaotic acrobatic display.

She became aware again of the noise from the trees. Looking up between dazzles of sunlight, she saw the leaves here were not leaves either, but were also little people. They were all cheering and applauding and swinging about on the branches, making the most uproarious racket.

They couldn't be fairies, that was just silly there was no such thing.

As she thought this a tremendous gust of wind blew. Everything around her shook and twigs and leaves and fairy people blew up all around her. She was forced to shut her eyes tight against it as spots of icy rain dashed her face. She could hear the trees groaning and creaking and far off she heard the crack as branches snapped and fell. The wind tugged and pushed at her and she fell stumbling into the clearing.

Until now the tiny creatures hadn’t noticed her watching them, but now they turned as one to stare at her.

The wind had momentarily died to silence.

Everything was holding it’s breath.

Then the wind returned, playfully teasing at the leaf clothing of the fairy folk. Their concern about her presence immediately vanished. They clasped hands and began dancing again. Their faces, now she could see them closely, were split with wide grins and she could hear giggles and laughter as they danced.

The wind brings joy to their hearts just like it does mine, Penny realised and she was grinning herself. They danced around her in rings and then she was dancing too with a freedom she had never felt before. She felt as small and light as the leaf fairies around her and laughter bubbled from her.

Moment by moment more and more of the fairies were joining the dance, first the ones standing round the edges of the clearing, and then the ones in the trees came down to join them. Penny could no longer see the trees beyond as fairies danced round her so densely that all she could see was the blurred colours of their clothing, a whirling tornado of orange and yellows of which she was the centre.

The sound of laughter and rustling movement rose and rose until the roar in her ears was almost deafening.

Even the sky above was obscured now. Penny felt like she was flying. Maybe she was, her vision was so obscured she would never have known but for the way her feet seemed not to be dancing on solid ground. And then she knew it to be the truth, a gap opened momentarily in the murmuration of fairies around her and she looked down, far down and saw the distant woods below her.

The gap closed and she felt herself falling, but she wasn’t afraid. The sensation changed to that of swooping like a bird, and then she saw again through the whirl of tiny bodies the village, distant but clear, the church spire shining in the yellow autumn light. Then they were off again and the next thing she saw was the river, flowing strongly and clearly after recent rain. Her next glimpse of the world was Mr Kobolds farm, his cows grazing contentedly on the pasture. We’re travelling the bounds of the wood, Penny realised when she had a moment’s thought to spare between the fantastic sensation of flying and admiring the stunning views. The next sight she saw was the old mound on the south side of the woods, the one that had supposedly had a standing stone on it in Neolithic times.

She watched as it grew tinier and tinier as the fairies took her higher into the sky. The feeling of joy and excitement was reaching its apex; she could feel it inside herself as well as emanating from the tiny creatures all around her. The whole mass of them seemed to be vibrating with energy. Then she was smothered once more by their bodies and felt the familiar plunging feeling as they dived back earthward. She had a fleeting glimpse of the mound and then felt like she was flying through earth and darkness. The fairies flickered and vanished from around her as she ploughed on into the mound until she was left alone, still and silent in darkness.

This is what it’s like, she thought, to be a leaf fairy, to lie dormant in the dark under the mound all the long winter, with only the joy of the autumn parting to sustain you until the budding leaves of the long awaited spring herald rebirth.

She awoke lying in a bed of leaves that really were just leaves. They crunched and rustled as she stretched and yawned, and then shivered. She was in the clearing in the woods looking up at the sky through skeletal branches. Huge clouds swelled grey and brooding, threatening rain, maybe even some snow. The chill of winter was in the air.