Fairy's Lake

As we drove by the sunflower field, I noticed that the flower heads hung down, like a vast legion of funeral mourners. The sun was high in the clear sapphire sky. Those flowers should have been looking at the sun. I stopped the car. Something was wrong. It wasn’t the first sign I’d seen that something had happened. Throughout the morning, the forest I’d been driving through seemed to be weeping.

I’d left the house early, with the sun. Igashu came with me. My loving dog was ecstatic about the trips in the car. The closer I got to the woods, the more I noticed the sound as of wind howling through eaves. I’d had the windows down to enjoy the sounds of the forest. This sound was not enjoyable though. There was no wind to make the sound in the trees. The dirt road wound itself through the forest, the trees towering high with the branches growing over the road, forming a majestic canopy. This road led through the forest and a few fields till it ended at the base of the mountains. A one-hour hike up the mountains landed you in a beautiful place. Water running off slopes much higher up, formed a small waterfall that ended in a lake. It was named Fairy’s Lake for the beauty and feeling of it. The lake was surrounded with flowers and mushrooms. I was coming to collect the mushrooms for my grandmother. When she was a little girl, she had begun making this hike with her mother to collect the mushrooms from around this lake. They were said to be the best in the area, but few ever ventured to harvest them.

The trip could take days at the time. Now, with cars, the drive plus hike only took about 6 hours. But with the return trip and the actually picking it was still a two-day trip. This, plus the fact that the area was uninhabited for miles around the mountain and that the amount of mushrooms was not enough for any commercial business, caused only people from the town of Mille and it’s surrounding area ever to pick the mushrooms.

And even of the town inhabitants few visited there. Most town people refused to go there despite the stories of the place and the pictures to support them. They said the place “bothered them”. They said they couldn’t put their finger on it but that they had the feeling they weren’t welcome. The ones who didn’t have that feeling were unable to understand. They went back and back and always felt an almost magical quality in the air. That was how it had gotten the name. It gave the few people who felt it a feeling of peace and a twinge of excitement and mystery. I loved going to collect the mushrooms and spending the night by the lake. I normally enjoyed the drive there as well. Not this time however.

Through the forest there had been no birds songs. No squirrels had played in the branches, no animals cried out at the intrusion to their territory. Only the mournful sound of what should have been wind while the leaves remained still. I had put my windows up and turned on music to avoid the chilling sound. Igashu became nervous and jumpy. He was usally a calm dog. He was one I could take anywhere and he was always at peace. His nevousness worried me. The stillness of the forest worried me. The feeling of death worried me. And now there was this field. I couldn’t figure out what was going on. It was only another fifteen or so minutes to the mountains. I continued the drive.

Throughout the fields there was no movement. Not one piece of grass moved, no flowers waved at the sun. No birds hunted game in the field. It was if all the animals had left. At the base of the mountains, I parked the car. Once outside I reached to get my pack from the trunk. The trees at the base of the mountain and up it seemed to be crying just as the others had. I jumped at another sound that joined the wailing wind. Wolves were howling. I paused. A feeling of sadness was growing in my heart. At first I had assumed it was just my nerves. Now I knew I was feeling the same sadness that was penetrating the woods and fields. Nature itself was weeping for something. I knew in my gut that I would find out what when I reached Fairy’s Lake. For a second I started to put my pack back and drive home. I didn’t want to see what this was about. It would change me. I could feel it.

I put the pack on my back. I had to go up the mountain. Whatever was happening, I felt it pulling me to see. I started hiking. Igashu stayed close to my heels. His tail was between his legs and his head was bowed. The wolves continued to howl and the trees continued to weep. I tried to find some sign of animal life other then the sound of wolves. Normally, I was good at spotting animals. Their movements, no mater how small and disguised, caught my eye. Today, I didn’t see a single insect flying or a single leaf move to reveal a jumping lizard. The forest was still. The feeling of sadness was escalating to that of complete sorrow and dread. I felt as if a close friend was in danger of death or perhaps already dead. A lump was forming in my throat. I followed a bend in the path. I stopped dead in my tracts. Animals were everywhere in the woods around the path. They were crowded together. Deer and moose were standing side by side. A mountain cat was sitting on a rock. Every leaf had a bug or lizard resting on it. Every branch was full of birds. Raccoons, armadillos, skunks, and squirrels were everywhere as well. Up ahead, around the last bend before the lake, I could hear the wolves calling. I drank in the sight. Something was wrong. A raccoon came down from a near by rock onto the path in front of me. The looks in its eyes made me want to pick it up and comfort it. To tell it would be all right. It looked further up the path, indicating to me to continue. I rounded the last bend. The wolves stood howling right before the forest’s end. Shivers ran up and down my spine as I walked past them out in to the field. Igashu stayed with the wolves, sitting keeping his head down. The sky was now clouded over. The water splashed down the mountain but made no sound, as if out of respect for some sacred event it didn’t want to disturb. That was when I noticed it. A white horse was drinking from the lake. It was a white no horse could ever boast. It was pure white. The white one imagines the angels to have. It shone even without the sun to glisten on it. The tail was the same color. It slowly pulled itself from the stream and turned to look at me.

My heart stopped. The impossibly white horse had a silver horn. It took a few steps from the lake and laid down in a field of forget-me-nots and daisies. It eyes were not sad. They held a spark in them, a joy. The spirit of this creature looked out with wisdom and love to the world. I understood then that this forest was this unicorn’s domain. The reason so few could come was because only few could feel welcome in the unicorn’s world. Only those with a love for nature and a heart of wonder could enter here. This magnificent being caused the feeling of magic and only a few could feel the pull of magic without their minds kicking in to tell them what they felt was impossible, without making them uncomfortable. I started to cry as I walked towards her. I knew it was a she. Her was name was Starlight in human. Her unicorn name was incomprehensible to me but she told me that as well. She wanted me next to her as she died. She had always loved humans. She had been born with humans surrounding her mother and father, loving her and her family as she grew up. For the hundreds of years she had lived she had been awed with their spirit. She had hoped one would come so she could leave the world as she had entered it with humans present. She told me this. I don’t know how but she did. She also gave me a message to carry in my heart. The wolves and trees went silent. I sat down next to Starlight and gently stroked her side. She smiled. It had been decades since she’d felt a humans touch. She enjoyed it. She looked out at the animals gathered. She told them thoughts of happiness and life. She told them hope. Her head dropped to the ground in front of her folded legs. She looked up to me with her eyes filled with content and happiness as she took her last breath. Her eyes closed. I removed my hand as her body started to disappear. Within in seconds it was gone.

The animals started to make noise as the sound of the water came loud and violent. Igashu ran to me. The birds took flight, flying around the area, announcing the death of the forest’s keeper. Many animals came into the field as I laid down on the place she had been and wept for her death. The animals came forward crying, some coming right up to the place I was lying. The raccoon that had come in front of me earlier leapt to my arms, hugging my chest. A few deer lay down a little in front. A wolf nuzzled me from behind. As I wept I heard again the message she had given me. As long as children’s laughter could still be heard, as long as bells still chimed and people still rejoiced at a simple sunset, unicorns and our kind would be here, waiting till we can again live with humans, instead of hiding from the world. I wept with the hope that people might once again open their hearts to the earth and to that which they can’t explain with science and reason. Such as a unicorn.