Pea Pod sprung out of a flower and fell onto dewy grass one summer morning. She looked up and the first thing she saw was a pea pod and she thought it was the most marvelous thing in the world, so she named herself Pea Pod.
She danced in the damp and fragrant valley of her origin, playing with the other fairies or traipsing around on her own. All kinds of strange and interesting beasts would wander through. Wisps, birds, and a wonderful variety of cute but slimy monsters would wander through her valley. Sometimes they were looking for trouble, but usually they simply wanted the charm and joy of a fairy dancing on top of their head. Some of them liked to play games with the fairies, and were amazed at how strong and resourceful they were with their otherwise subtle magic. Pea Pod played and danced in her glade for a very, very long time.
However, one day something changed. She no longer took so much joy in her dancing. She was finding the other fairies tiresome and boring. She asked a passing toad:
"dearly beloved toad, what lies beyond this valley? surely you have traveled far with those big strong legs of yours"
The toad gave her a lengthy answer, but I don't know what he said because I don't speak toad. Presumably he told her the way to the human realm and the way back, so she could come and go as she pleased just like the beasts.
Pea Pod set out on her journey. As she traveled away, she felt an awful tugging at center of her chest. It pulled her back towards home, and became so strong she couldn't move forward even though she trudged her feet and beat her wings as hard as she could. She looked up at a flowering pea plant and asked of her:
"oh pea plant i can't move forward even a single flutter. a vine has grown between my heart and my home. may i twine it around your lovely stems?"
The pea plant knew it was being grifted, but Pea Pod had asked in the proper way so it bowed its flowers in assent. Pea Pod lifted the strands from her heart and twined them around the pea plant's stems. The pea plant held strong, but started to look heavier. Its flowers matured and closed, forming dozens of huge and full pea pods. The pea plant had looked so light and free in her spring, but now looked burdened and tired.
Pea Pod knew she needed to return to this place before the pods dried and fell about the ground, or she would never see her home again.
Free of her burden, she could see the way into the human world. She wound and weaved her path about the branches and brambles, and her stomach twisted as she tumbled headfirst through the portal. She found herself lying in a pile of leaves that were much too small and plants so small she could step on them if she wasn't careful. She felt dizzy, more dizzy than even the most spinful of dances that she had even spun. "my dear toad didn't mention that part..." she muttered to herself as her insides slowly reoriented themselves back to normal. With wonder she looked around this strange new world. Fully grown trees so small she could wrap her arms around them. Not a single bug big enough to eat her. But the strangest thing of all was the sun that dominated the sky, alone and full and moving in a perfect arc. She had never seen such a lonely thing in her life.
She danced from place to place, soaking up everything this world had to offer. She stumbled often, since the dances here were so very different from any she had ever known before. Most challenging of all, she couldn't seem to stay off the ground. Her wings were barely visible in this sun's weird and piercing light. The sun would hide from her for hours and she would nestle herself into the warm hollow of a tree until it came back again.
It wasn't long before she met a human. It seemed to be spending all of its energy resisting the dance of the forest around it. Plod, plod, plod. It marched a monotonous rhythm and never once stopped to listen. With a giggle she scampered behind it and marched to its boring rhythm. Plod, plod, plod. Its rhythm was so predictable that her footfalls were never too early or too late and so it never heard her. She felt so absurd that she fell to ground laughing.
The human screamed. Pea Pod looked at it, a little bit hurt and a lot bit confused.
"Who the hell are you?" it demanded.
"who the hell are you to you too" she replied as she curtsied respectfully.
"Were you stalking me? And what's so funny?" The human was turning red and mean and getting all covered in droplets.
Pea Pod did her best to look serious. She had met creatures that were mean and timid before, but never anything this mean and this timid. She couldn't help this one and just needed to move on. She hummed a little tune and the human looked oh so sleepy, yawned, and curled up on the ground. She wove flowers in its hair, left a kiss on top of its head, and wandered up the trail back the way the human had come from.
What else does this strange world have in store?
As Pea Pod wandered up the trail she started to dream, and she also started to dread. She recited everything she ever heard about humans:
"one. humans rule the human world. except... that one didn't seem to be ruling much of anything."
"two. humans cover the human world's entire. except... i've been here a while and i only saw one."
"three. humans can destroy anything. i can't say for sure but i don't think that human would be able to destroy much of anything, much less all of it."
After some thoughtfulness, she decided she didn't know a single good fact about humans.
Reaffirmed of the importance of exploring about, Pea Pod galloped and skipped and twisted through the forest until she came to an opening. There was a great road, and there were several machines arranged alongside it. They had all kinds of colorful bits and bobs inside each machine, but no humans.
She stepped onto the great road and walked along it, since such a majestic road surely connects two important human places. She walked and rested and walked. The great road had no dances at all save for walking, so she would sometimes dance through the forest when walking had become terribly tiresome. Sometimes the machines would whirr along the road at her and she would hide, afraid of their terrible noise and terrific speed.
"if there were humans inside one of those, surely they would be too scrambled up from such terrifying speed to be of any use anymore," Pea Pod wondered aloud.
Then she came to a house. It was all square angles and grandeur, harder and fiercer than any house she had ever seen before. She crept up the trail to the house, looking around for any humans.
She started to get nervous about where they all went. A hundred of them could fit in there with only a little bit of smooshing. But she didn't see any out here. She spotted a door and scampered up to it, and stared through the window next to it. She saw a human inside and it glanced at her before calling out,
"Henry, mail is here. Be a dear and go get it would you?"
"I didn't hear anyone knock."
"Someone was there just a second ago..."
Pea Pod darted away from the window and worried.
"mail, mail, where do i get mail?" she muttered to herself, trying to figure out what custom these humans expected of her. She scurried to the nearest tree and begged of it
"oh dear tree, please show me something that will make these humans be kind to me"
The wind blew through the tree's leaves, and one tipped and dangled and fell down into Pea Pod's cupped hands.
"thank you." she said and blew a tiny kiss to the tree before sprinting back to the door.
The door opened and a human stood there, eyes wide with surprise.
"Did you... do I need to sign for something?"
Pea Pod curtsied respectfully and replied, "the signs have already been made," as she presented the leaf.
The human took the leaf. "Thank you very much ma'am have a good day," he said as he closed the door.
She pressed her ear to the door and listened.
"No, just some girl with a leaf. Must be a prank or something." Henry said, sounding tired.
"Let me see that." the other human said.
There was a long pause before the other human said in a quiet voice,
"I think we should go talk to her"
"What? The post girl?"
"She's obviously not with the postal service! And she's still out there so keep your voice down."
After that they only spoke in shushes and shishes that Pea Pod couldn't make any sense of.
Footsteps approached. Pea Pod arranged herself to appear dignified but unthreatening, hugging her arms around her and looking up to the sky, smiling and wistfully thinking about how kind of a tree she had just met.
The human opened the door slowly. Henry was nowhere to be seen, nor were the countless other humans that were surely in the house.
"Would you like to come in for a cup of tea, dear?"
"dear, tea would be lovely." Pea Pod replied as she smiled broadly and took cautionary steps into the human home.
Inside, there were all kinds of dancing. The human stepped softly and regularly, careful and cautious. Pea Pod made careful waltzing steps, pausing to listen to the strange rhythms that held together a human house.
"Well make yourself comfortable, I'll get us some tea from the kitchen."
Pea Pod nodded to the kind human and went about making herself comfortable. The room had a small table and three chairs strewn about. A deep smelly smell came from one of the chairs, so she took the threads of the smell and tangled them up so they wouldn't infest the room anymore. The next chair used to be someone's favorite possession but now it wasn't theirs anymore, so she sent the chair her regards for its mourning, which calmed it significantly. The last chair was completely fine as it was so she sat down in it.
Just as she was about to get comfortable, she noticed something subtle and terrible in the corner of the room. She strode over to the bookcase and listened. Uncalmness echoed around inside it and was heading right for her when she snatched it out of the air and broke it in her hands. Sand spilled to the ground out of her clutched fingers, and the uncalmness was gone from the bookcase. She smiled and brushed the sand into the corner before settling back into the one completely fine chair, feeling very comfortable.
The other human walked into the room and sat down in the chair that had just found some solace from its mourning.
"Oh me, my manners. My name's May. I hope you like spearmint, it's the only tea I had on hand." May set two mugs on the small table. "So how are you liking the neighborhood?"
Pea Pod placed her hand around the mug, then shrieked and pulled her hand away as it scalded her.
"Jesus christ girl the handle! You never had tea before? Goodness gracious let me get you something to cool that burn."
May returned with a cool rag and applied it to Pea Pod's hand,
"thank you. i will repay this favor three times over"
"Well no need for that! It's just a wet rag. Now," May left the rag with Pea Pod and sat back down, "so what are you doing here? I don't think I've seen you around."
"i came to your world to learn about humans," Pea Pod replied.
"Oh goodness me!" May laughed and laughed. Pea Pod laughed too, laughing with humans was fun!
"So, you're from outer space, of course girl, whatever you say. What do you do for work?"
Pea Pod thought back to her time so far in the human world. She danced in the sunlight and hid from the cold. She danced around trees and over flowers and twigs. But she hadn't worked.
"i never worked, not even for a single moment. your forest is so kind. do you know if the sun is always this lonely?"
"So you live out there? In the woods? Is that even legal?"
Pea Pod laughed. Legal to live in the woods? What a silly question. She had heard of some worlds having rules and laws but no one could ever make it illegal to live in a forest.
"how could it not be?"
"Um I don't know, it just doesn't seem normal. What do you eat out there? Do you need somewhere to stay?"
At that Pea Pod grew anxious.
"no. i'm sorry but i can't stay. i have to leave. i can't stay here too long or i can never find my way back."
"That's okay deary, no need to have a fuss about it. I just thought I'd ask, you look rather disheveled."
"how does one become sheveled?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"pardoned."
May paused for a long second.
"Wow you city folks are strange. What else did I expect." She picks up her tea and takes a sip. "So where are you going after this? It's only a few hours till it gets dark. If you need the daylight to do whatever it is you do, you better get moving."
"of course." She did need to get moving, after all. It was strange to be motionless for so long. She stood formally, then swooped in a long and delicate bow to the floor before waltzing and skipping about the room. A house! A human house with so many dances in it! She spun and crept and pounced, skipped and swooped.
May watched in bewilderment. Then slowly she smiled and stood up.
"Well why didn't you say you were a dancer? It's been so long, but..."
May stepped and hummed. Pea Pod slowed her dance and the two each made their own slow circuit about the room to May's gentle tune.
May sat back down, gleeful and content.
"Girl what's your name? You're welcome in this house any time, I don't understand you for a moment but that's..."
May stopped and looked around. The window was open and Pea Pod was nowhere to be seen.
Pea Pod hummed softly as she walked through what was quickly becoming her favorite meadow. The flowers here weren't too loud about being pretty and there were lots of odd little bugs always trying to gobble the place up. She hunched over a flower, dreaming of being back to normal as a bee bumbled about. If only, if only... if things were like they were back home, she and the bee could play tumbleweed all afternoon and into the night.
Suddenly she felt a great sorrow. I should say, she felt a pretty normal sorrow but to her it was a monumental and delirious sorrow. Never in her life had she felt such a sorrow. She looked on in dread and envy at all the little things flitting about, glitter wings and pollen sparks moving in careless lurching arcs.
Pea Pod had never felt so alone in her entire life. Well, she had never felt alone at all until now. She looked over her shoulder to the barely visible outline of her wings. Seeing this, she wept. She threw herself to the ground weeping. She lay face down in the grass, holding her face in her hands and then clawing at the earth. Every plant that touched her withered and rotted.
She lay on her back and looked up at the blue sky for any hint of why, why, why.
It was a very human feeling, a terrifyingly alien feeling to her sparkly, chitin-crackle heart.
Stems and leaves fell onto Pea Pod as the withering spread in a brown splotch around her. She cried and cried, unable to face this feeling of longing. Through the fog of her jealousy, all of the flitting, floating and rustling things of the meadow seemed to be mocking her earth-bound and water-heavy existence.
She was so blinded by her tears that she didn't see the changes going on all around her. The dead plants that littered her body had stopped withering, having withered as much as they could. Their crispy brown changed to the rich dark colors of decay, punctuated with flashes of moldy greens, pungent blues, and fuzzy grays. Soon her skin was littered not with stems and leaves but drenched in an outpouring of the deepest, richest soil. Earth spilled from her as she sat up. It stained her clothes. It collected in the creases of her skin and stuck under her fingernails. To all appearances she was bleeding earth.
Pea Pod dabbed her eyes dry and looked around her. A gurgling bubbling sound caught her attention and she look right in front of herself to see water, fresh water, gushing up from the ground. She sat and watched as the water became a puddle, which then became a pond.
Cattail seedlings grew from the edges of the pond as the water continued to bubble upward. Pollywogs wriggled out of the water and onto the muddy ground; then hopped away. Pea Pod wept again, but this time with joy at what she had found. Finally she burst out laughing, a silver bell deep belly laugh at her own foolishness. Her laugh went on and on until the pond and its rich mud extended all around her. She sat humming in a dreamy trance in the basket of the wetlands as starlight showed her all the secret ways of wet and fragrant earth.
Pea Pod woke up still sitting in the shallow pond. Fog was all around her and a very tiny rain was falling, only slightly wetter than the fog.
She slouched around in the mud and rain. Everywhere she went, frogs and snakes and worms amassed in front of her, rudely blocking her path.
She stumbled and slid and tripped. Her path was blocked by ants, a proper royal procession, one that took eleven forevers to pass.
She crept and lingered and loitered. Her travel was slowed, the path here was so well grown that limbs from both sides of the path now embraced.
Finally the fog and rain cleared. She stood in a sunbeam, deep in the forest where the tall trees took up nearly all of the light and nothing grew on the ground but springy leaf molds and some very determined patches of clover and moss.
Pea Pod sat and marvelled at the dance of dust and light around her. Pea Pod marvelled at the heavy substance of the old trees and the tireless earth writhing about them.
The sunbeams slid and shifted for a long while. Then, a march arrived. Five dancless walkers walked together between the trees. Pea Pod watched as they trampled each and every leaf they stepped on. Every creature fled and Pea Pod thought she should too.
"Sand on the floor. Not dirt, sand. I'm telling you something was going on."
At Eadsville Inn, it was a typical Saturday night. Cigar smoke made a comfortable haze in the air, mingling with the smell of beer and spilled liquor.
"I tell you, something was very wrong. This girl just shows up holding a leaf like it's a map to the promise land. And do you know what May goes and does? She smiles and lets her right in."
"Well just because she's a bit odd doesn't mean you can feed her to the wolves. Tom's wife's been mad for years and you don't hear a peep from me about it."
"That's not what I mean, dammit. I got out of there as soon as I could, went upstairs. Thought I could have some peace to myself. Well I did get myself up to some eavesdropping but couldn't make any sense of what this girl was going on about. She got May on her feet though, dancing, so that's a blessing I can't complain about."
"So this weary thing shows up on your doorstep and your wife has tea with her. Are you really getting bent out of shape over this?"
"Jean, I swear if you would just listen. She would rummage about when May was out of the room. She did something unholy. The books, half of them are blank. The covers look just like they used to but every single page is blank."
Henry pulled a dusty book from his coat. It bore a heavy leather cover and its edges were trimmed with gold leaf. Jean's disinterest evaporated. Henry opened the book for Jean to see.
"Christ. You weren't joking"
Another patron of the bar leaned in to catch a glimpse.
"If this is a hoax I'm going to kick your ass. Doing this kind of thing to a bible just ain't right."
"No, I'm not messing around. This twig of a girl shows up like Buddha on the road and then disappears just like that. By the time she's gone she's bespelled my wife and turned my bible into blank paper."
At that, the bar grew deadly quiet. Henry took a deep breath and let out a weary sigh.
"I'm not saying she's of the devil, I want to believe she's just another vagrant. But it's all wrong, all shadows in the corners and too bright in all the wrong places. I got May to promise me she'd turn her away next time, needed some kind of assurances from her so I could get some sleep. Keep an eye out is all I'm saying. Don't want to hurt nobody."
The next day, Pea Pod was wandering about. She was humming to a tree when she realized she had met this tree before. She cupped one of its large flowers in her hand and whispered a bell-sparkle whisper into it. The flower crinkled and crangled and curled. Now Pea Pod held a fine little brown pod in her hand. Inside, there were hard little seeds which rattled around exquisitely as she she shook it with delight. Pea Pod stopped what she was doing.
"finest and dearest friend," she asked as she leaned in reverently, "to what season do i owe this sound?"
The tree bowed one of its many glorious branches and let a few leaves wither and fall to the ground. Pea Pod understood immediately. She scrambled away, only stopping to blow a quick kiss farewell.
Pea Pod wandered up and around, sniffing the earth and looking at the underside of many, many leaves. Every toad she asked for help only hopped away, the rude little things. As a last resort, she sat on the ground and looked at the clouds for answers.
She once again heard the bizarre monotonous stepping stepping of human feet, but this one was interrupted by frequent stops here and there. There was even the sound of rummaging! She said a silent goodbye to the clouds and crept over to where she had heard the human.
She watched as they were tap tap touching the flowers and leaves and smiling at the many bouncy dances that each plant was showing off. Pea Pod made her way to the human trail. Pea Pod had come up with a clever gambit to keep this one from getting so frightened. After what had happened the first time she encountered a lonesome human, she needed a way to make sure that they thought she was just another human. She got on the trail downwind of the human, out of sight, and imitated the heavy steps they like to make on their paths.
Stomp, stomp, stomp. Pea Pod had to keep from laughing. Especially now, for it seems that outrageous laughter is another source of fear for these odd creatures. Stomp, stomp, stomp. She was nearly upon the human and they looked over at her.
"Hey there." they said as they smiled shyly. They stood upright and turned away from the plant, embarrassed to have been caught having fun.
Pea Pod held strong, and kept herself from bowing. "greetings. you look well."
"Um. Thank you."
"i'm looking for a toad, about this big and with a face like this..." Pea Pod said as she scrunched up her face and bulged her eyes, showing the appearance of the toad who had told her about this place.
They smiled. "Oh, well... I did see a toad back there, but I don't think he's the one you're looking for. When did you last see him?"
"so long ago. more days than anyone could be bothered to count." Pea Pod said as her face grew sullen. "i need to get home. i'm not from here."
"I'm so sorry you're lost, it's a really easy trail though. I can show you how to get back to the trailhead.
"no, i think the way home is closer to its feet. or maybe its belly even."
"Umm... I don't know anything about finding a trail's belly, I only know where the trailhead is. And this is a loop trail so there's only one trailhead, even if you get lost you'll end up back at the same place. But if your home is somewhere else I guess I could help you with that. I think I even have phone signal so you can see a map if you'd like."
"you are very kind, stranger. can i have your name?"
"No." they said, and smiled.
"since i can't have it can i at least hear its sound?"
"It's Faucet. What's yours?"
"pea pod." she said, giving quick curtsy.
"It was so nice to run into you but I really want to continue my walk. Feel free to walk with me if you'd like."
After walking along with them, Pea Pod decided that she was all wrong about humans. This one wasn't confusing and rude like all the others. They didn't harbor mysterious ailments in the air about them. They didn't insist on Pea Pod being anything except what she already was.
Something stirred in the woods. Pea Pod stopped and listened. There was another human, but this one wasn't on the trail. Pea Pod scampered up a hill to find a small human on the ground, tearstained and breathing in painful gasps.
She didn't look up at Pea Pod as she approached her carefully.
"human, are you asleep?"
"human, i know you are hurt. i cannot heal you but i must do something."
Pea Pod drew shapes in the air with her finger, not taking her eyes off the girl. She reached through empty air and pulled out a small and slender knife made of bone. With both hands she swung it down in the air between her and the girl. The sound of crunching leaves and crashing ocean waves roared out as this world was split open.
The threads were all exposed. The girl's heart was plainly visible as a bright constellation of multicolored light. Pea Pod spotted a thorn trapped in her heart and pulled it out, blunting its tip before casting it aside. She followed the thread that ran from the hurt, and pulled and pulled until it was taught. She pressed the knife firmly against the thread.
It snapped like a bowstring.
And miles away, a man fell dead.
Leaves were falling. Pea Pod knew she didn't have much time left. Hurried and harried she crashed through bushes and brush until she came to a familiar house.
"Oh lordy girl what the hell!" May exclaimed, dropping her rake as Pea Pod burst out of the woods and fell into her arms.
"i have to go home now."
Further in the woods, May could hear clambering and shouting.
"the people, they all got together and they're chasing me. they say i hurt someone.
"Well did you?"
Pea Pod didn't answer, but pondered the question deeply as if it were some high philosophical quandary.
The mob was at the edge of the clearing. Henry spotted May from the other side of the thick foliage and called out to her,
"May, get away from her! She's a cold blooded murderer!"
The angry townspeople were almost upon May and Pea Pod when they were tripped and snared by thick vines and brambles at the edge of the clearing.
"Come on, I know where we should go." May said, taking Pea Pod's hand and leading her away.
The mob did not catch up to them. After a while, they didn't even hear that awful uproar anymore so Pea Pod and May slowed their pace. After a while, what started as a mad dash became an enjoyable saunter.
They walked for hours, May leading the way the whole time. Sometimes they were on a trail, but mostly they were not.
As they walked under a large oak tree, Pea Pod gave May a sly smile.
"you have crossed the gate of lying."
May shrugged her shoulders and kept walking.
They walked across a wide field, grasses golden with the fall and only a few hardy wildflowers still holding on to life. They walked through a low and wet forest, thick mud trying to swallow their shoes. They walked into a high and shadowed forest, thick blankets of pine needles covering the ground.
In the depths of this forest, May led Pea Pod to circular clearing. In the middle of this clearing, there was a large flat stone, like a refrigerator tipped on its side.
"I found this place when I was a girl. I wasn't much for friends. Well... I didn't have any friends. But I would come here, and dream up all kinds of fanciful things. Talking animals, tiny people with wings, silly stuff like that. I even imagined that I saw one that looked just like you. I would stand on top of this stone like it was a stage, and dance to my heart's content."
May awkwardly climbed up onto the stone, wincing as she stood up. She smiled, and extended her hand down to Pea Pod. Pea Pod took her hand and climbed up easily. May raised their hands and Pea Pod twirled under. She turned and let go and spun, Pea Pod walked around the edge like a balance beam. May giggled and Pea Pod laughed and with profound joy they danced atop the stone.
Overhead, the one was gone, replaced by several smaller suns and a spattering of moons. The dappled shadows on the forest floor sharpened and sparkled, and May and Pea Pod both laughed outrageously until they were crying. By now, Pea Pod's wings were clearly visible.
"it is time for me to leave. goodbye May."
May watched as Pea Pod stepped down from the stone, and for a moment she seemed to be gone. Then she squinted and could see a tiny, tiny person leaping across the forest floor, wings flittering, hair flying.
The pea plant was extremely grateful to see Pea Pod and justifiably upset after holding such a heavy burden for so long. Pea Pod untwined her home from the plant. Pods ripened, stems withered, and fall felled the pea plant so that more could come again in the spring.
Pea Pod held her home in her hands. She longed to return, to belong. But her heart had shifted and changed so much since she was away. In place of this one single and simple vine, a hundred tiny threads wove from her heart out into the world. To go back as she had left would be to lose all of them.
So she let it go. As it whipped and snagged through the world, a warmth filled her chest. She knew she could go home any time she pleased, and home was a place she loved. In fact, she decided she should go there now.
THE END