Summer camp and the Fae

Date: 10/27/2019

I had a dream where I was at this summer camp with a bunch of younger, and a couple older kids. But there was a kind of fantastical side to the dream as well. Basically it was a regular summer camp that was, in the end, a daycare. The older kids took the younger ones into the woods and played with them and watched them, and everyone came back to the small camp building to sleep and to eat. Otherwise it was just us kids though. Since I was one of the oldest I was kind of looked up to, all the little kids were all over me. Kids have always liked me and I don’t know why, it’s probably because I have a pretty young-looking face and I’m very quiet. I also tend to speak to kids like they’re people rather than puppy dogs if you know what I mean. But anyways the kids were all over me and I was trying to maintain my composure around the two or three other older girls. When we got to the woods, something weird happened. It was a very magical forest; I don’t know how but I FELT something there. Trees blew backwards in wind and when you heard leaves rustling, the noise remained and echoed a bit too long to be normal. The undersides of the canopy was a bit too light, almost like someone had dripped white paint all over the viridescent shade. The grass was blueish, like what you’d see in a game like Zelda in a magical forest. The trees were spaced far apart, like someone had taken a meadow and put just enough trees in it so that their leaves, at the very top, made a small roof over our heads. We had tons of space in between each tree though, enough to set up one or two picnic blankets in between each massive trunk and still have space. However the forest itself was so massive in size that, when you looked in any direction, all you could see was more of the same trees and grass. There weren’t many bushes and when there were, they were next to trees. There weren’t any flowers at all but rather the occasional stone, decent sized and smooth and a calming gray color, with no cracks or crevices to be seen. The bark on trees was massive and dark, but tinted just the slightest bit gray, and the trunks themselves were huge, as thick around as four or five of me and almost a hundred times as tall if not more. No fallen trees or branches were to be seen, yet oddly there were some fresh tree stumps with the smallest clustered rings, about a thousand rings to each stump, and they made for excellent seats when you found one. The few birds that whistled had sad, haunting melodies; frogs croaking sounded like age-old treasure chests creaking open; the whistle of the wind sounded like we were on a mountain. The air was cool but blew so softly against your face you wouldn’t believe it. The sunlight was there but... muted. Like we were underwater almost. And animals were nowhere to be seen. There was a point in the forest where we came to a sudden drop. There was lots of space so if you stayed away from the edge you wouldn’t fall. There was a river that trickled down to a soft waterfall which made almost no noise despite being at least two hundred feet tall, going down to a pool of water at the bottom of the cliff that was surrounded by the same type of forest. Around the stream and the pool, rocks seemed to form a natural wall, like someone was trying to stop people from going in. The water itself was completely clear, almost scarily so, and the shadows of the muted sun and trees made it look slightly foreboding. I didn’t want to get in that water; it seemed the type to be colder than it looked, the type that went through skin like thin cloth and chilled you straight to the bone; the kind of water that seemed innocent until you jumped in and found that the ground was a hundred feet deeper than it should’ve been, that the coldness was luring you do a deadly sleep in the middle of the water. I kept the kids away from the stream despite the fact that the water was actually mildly warm when the kids put their hands in it. Anyways, we’d walk everyday, all of the kids, to the edge where that cliff was, and we’d spread out far and wide, covering a space the size of a soccer field maybe with a little under a hundred kids. From there the older kids and I would watch as the younger kids ate snacks on the soft grass, smelled the sweet smell of the wind, and played quietly in the forest. It seemed to have a calming effect on everyone who entered; even the rowdiest children smiled lightly and in the dull shadowed colors of the forest, seemed wiser than their years. For a few moments when I would look at the kids, I’d think I could see the ancient legendary Fae; their eyes seemed so bright they shined, greens brighter than the forest and blues lighter than the sky, and browns a color of honey, and their pupils shrank until almost nonexistence, and their ears, in the strange lighting, seemed pointed, and their smiled seemed playfully, wickedly wise, like they knew something I didn’t. But then I’d blink and they’d turn and their eyes would be normal kid eyes, their ears round and their smiles the innocent ones of a child and I’d shake my head, wondering how I managed to see what I saw. But when the older kids and I would talk, as we watched the kids, I could tell they were a bit put off as well. Something in that forest was not normal. Not necessarily bad, but not good either. One day when we were down at that same spot, we decided to camp out. Kids didn’t even need to bring tents; the air was comfortable if not tinged with that strangeness that we felt everywhere in the forest (which, personally, I liked). My brother was a kid at the camp, so I ended up sleeping next to him. However he got really hot really soon, and the rest of the kids had an absolutely silent restlessness that I couldn’t explain; a feeling I didn’t understand. So, before it was even fully dark outside, I retreated over a little ways back, away from the rest of the group. I fell asleep quickly in the dream, with a pit of worry in my stomach- we’d never stayed in the forest after dark. When I woke up, everyone was gone. I went back to the area where everyone had been and I was in total shock. It was if they had left, and yet I knew they wouldn’t leave without me... right? The rest of the area, besides a little ways off where I had slept, was not just abandoned; it was if nobody had even been there. Blankets, snacks, and backpacks were gone, along with their owners. There weren’t even impressions on the grass like there should’ve been if somebody slept there. Now, normally, I’d think they forgot me or maybe they figured I’d gone on ahead. But the fact that I was in this forest, the feel in the air that there was something I didn’t know or understand... that made me think differently. For some reason my mind immediately went to the waterfall. I poked my head over the waterfall, staring down at the cliff. That’s when I noticed something I hadn’t before. Below me, in the side of the cliff I was standing on, there were some caves. I could see deep indents where it caved in. I decided the best thing to do was to camp out again, this time more secretly, in a tree or something. The tall trees seemed hard to climb but by the end of the day I’d figured out a way to shimmy up a few feet until I reached a point where branches started growing, which was about fifty feet high for the shortest tree I could find nearby. I set up my blanket there and settled down, as wide awake as I could be in the drowsy calm of the forest. For a few nights I did only that, every night not seeing anything, and every day not seeing the other kids, which confirmed my suspicions; they weren’t coming to the forest like normal, which meant they had never left to begin with. I came down the tree every day and hunted around for food. I didn’t really trust the forest but for some reason, I just felt that I couldn’t leave. I had a feeling that if I left I’d never see my brother, or any of the other kids, ever again. So I picked some cloudy-looking raspberries from the scarce bushes in the forest and plucked fruit from the taller trees that never seemed to rot or to fall. The fruit was similar to a pear in color, but paler, and more round, like a long apple kind of. It tasted sweet and was very soft, the texture reminded me of those sweet red apples mixed with an actual pear, while the taste was kind of just very very dull. There was no skin on the outside. And the raspberries were the same flavor but more dull, like everything in the forest was the equivalent of a soda that sat out and went flat. The fruit was good though and on the third night, after eating fruit and camping out in trees for two days, I saw something. Lights appeared from the waterfall and I heard bushes voices, they were quiet but not whispering. They sounded like girls’ voices. Then I saw someone emerge from the waterfall as if they had climbed. It seemed to be a dwarf; they were short. But their face was baby smooth and they were thin. I would’ve thought they were a child except they gave off an aura of age and wisdom beyond the years of even this forest itself. The girls and guys didn’t look very different; the only difference was the guys’ height, which was slightly taller. But their faces looked exactly like Fae, like the children’s faces had seemed a few days ago. They had angular cheeks and smooth, beautiful skin; some where white, and their complexion shone like pearls or had the smoothness of milk. Others had brown skin, and it shimmered like ebony, was as clear and smooth as melted chocolate. And some even had black skin, like not black skin as we know it but literally full black, the color of obsidian with almost a purplish tint, smooth like shale but shiny as silk. Their eyes, too, were unusual; bright colors I could see clearly even in the strange night of the forest, which was as dark as dusk normally was, colors like bright green; and the blue-green of the grass and the baby-blue of the sky; the hazel color of honey, or the orange of a sunset that’s almost yellow; the light white-yellow color of the sun, the white-blue color of thin clouds against blue skies; all of their eyes were different yet each one was as breathtaking as the last. And each one had a ring of the same color but darker outlining their eyes, bringing astonishing contrast. Their pupils were so small you would’ve thought they didn’t have pupils at all. Their ears were definitely pointed, not tricks of the light, pinched and pulled back and turned on an angle. Their hair was regular colored, but it was flowy and floated a bit, like it was suspended in water. When they moved some gravity seemed to try and pull it back. They all had empty baskets in their hands, so tightly woven it seemed impossible. There was one who seemed to be a sort of leader. She had white hair, and it was longer than all the others; it went down past her waist and to her knees. Her eyes were gray, shockingly so, with a black ring around the outside of her iris. Her skin was white, so white she seemed to glow. And she was taller than the rest. In her hand she held a basket, and in her other hand she had a lantern which seemed otherworldly. It was all glass, even the handle was clear. It was steady when she moved, it didn’t swing or move back and forth when she walked, it simply seemed to float along. The bottom was rounded, like someone had taken an ornament, stretched it out a little at the top to try and make an hourglass, stopped halfway and attached a glass handle. Inside of it there was just a ball of light, a soft white light. They were graceful when they moved as well, swift and so gentle you’d never realize how strong or agile they were until you realized they just climbed up a waterfall without getting a single drop of water on themselves, and hopped twenty feet across the stream in one go as if it were east. I watched, fascinated, as they collected fruits from bushes and pulled up grass, never seeming to take anything and yet somehow filling their baskets all the same. Then I saw my brother. He was behind them all, holding a red-tinged lantern and no basket, but his red hair, freckles, and other normal features were unmistakable. He didn’t seem too hurt or anything. I knew I had to get his attention yet that was going to be hard since my brother’s blind. So when they all turned to leave and he went last I risked climbing down the tree and calling softly to him. He recognized me and dropped the lantern down to the Fae people, saying softly to them ‘I’ll come down in a second, I’m checking something.’ I asked what happened and he said the Fae had brought the kids to their home. Apparently kids were worshipped by the Fae, or at least admired, and my brother was especially admired because he was blind. They believed the meek were the ones who would prosper. Anyways my brother told me they were being kept in the cave, and that the kids looked a lot more like Fae every second they were there. They seemed to be especially effected by the forest’s calming feel, and they were all too happy to stay, they forgot their parents and family and were happy forgetting everything else and just living as if they were floating, living in the forest forever. He said that he was feeling it too even though he was older than most of the kids, and that even the older girls my age seemed almost drugged. I climbed down the waterfall after him and went into the cave. It was smooth and symmetrical with small glowing gems and crystals embedded artfully in the walls. We moved forwards into a dark, rounded hallway and walked for what seemed like hours. Everything became timeless. My mind started to feel foggy. Then, suddenly, it seemed that we had emerged into a different world. I hadn’t seen the light coming until it was light. There was a wide area and the sky seemed to go on forever; except there was no sun. I even felt the breeze. The walls were covered by a mix of gemstones, crystals, vines and plants, and moss and vines hung from the ceiling and layered on the floor. Flowers, pale but beautiful, hung over doorways and filled the room with the sweet scent of the wind that I’d smelled previously in the forest. I went through and saw Fae, and children alike dancing. The children did look more like Fae; already their faces had changed. Luckily I could still tell a difference. Their skin was not as perfect and smooth, not as poreless-seeming. Their hair didn’t float and they weren’t as agile, although they were much more agile than they’d been when they came in. Their ears were still mostly rounded and their eyes had spots of their old color still in them. I found the older girls in the back of the room and told them we needed to go. But somehow I felt as if I had to force the words out, and the sentence choked me. I managed to say it after a few seconds and the girls seemed to be snapped out of a daze. They agreed, and their agreement seemed to clear my fogged mind. Then we gathered children, told them their mommies were waiting. The more people we gathered to leave, the clearer my mind felt, and the easier it was to say the words. There were some real Fae in the room, and they danced and laughed a little, but their faces were sharp and evil as they stared icily at me. I could feel them watching from the walls, glowering down at me, cursing me a thousand times without speaking, their power frightening. Eventually we had everyone and I started for the exit, but somehow, even though there were only two rooms, I felt lost. The vines seemed the same in every room, shadows squirmed in wrong directions and everything in my body told me to stay. Then my brother took the lead and showed us to the exit, and I remembered that he was blind and navigated based on direction, so obviously the weird things I was seeing wouldn’t confuse him. Instead of remembering something like, ‘go past the thick vine and then go past the weird spot of moss,’ he remembered ‘turn left from here so you’re facing that way, then right, then left.’ Or something like that. We went through the tunnels and the farther away we got the better we seemed. The kids slowly started seeming like kids again, and a lot of them looked confused, as if they’d had knowledge that had slipped back out of their minds when they left. It seemed as if we walked for hours, maybe days. When we finally got out we all agreed to leave the forest. We got back and counted, double and triple-checked to make sure we had everyone. And then it was time to leave camp. I said goodbye to kids who got into parents cars knowing more than they knew, and finally it was just my brother, the older girls, and I. My brother went out to wait by the car and one of the older girls, who had curly black hair and a cute face, came up to me and we started talking about what had happened. Weirdly enough I seemed to be forgetting about everything that went on; I vaguely remembered something about Fae? The girl agreed that the forest was the only place where she remembered the magical-seeming stuff that went on, and that maybe it was better if we didn’t remember anyways. For some reason I remembered more than her, probably because I hadn’t been under the Fae’s spell for as long. But then she said it was very cool of me to come back for them; that I was brave to follow, smart to escape, and kind to help. That I was determined to get through and quick-witted enough to do it fast. I blushed and felt very flattered and returned the complements, saying that she was very strong for being able to keep herself vigilant even in the Fae’s own home, that she was smart to keep away from the other children and try and keep her mind her own, and that she was cool to heed my words when I first came despite the fact that she must’ve felt the same way I did about leaving; reluctant. Then she asked for my number and I said I needed something to write it down on, we both went inside of the empty cabin and she kissed me. I was very flattered and gave her my number and we promised to hang out more... just maybe not in that forest. Then she left on a motorcycle and I felt a strange thankfulness that I was not calm. At least not calm in the same way as I was in that forest. It was a really long dream and I remember all of it which is weird. But that’s where it ended.