Almost a Stranger

Almost a Stranger

A man once set out from his own country, determined to find a way to Fairyland. He knew there was no entrance to that magical place near his home because, he reasoned, word would somehow have reached him if anyone nearby had seen or heard any sign of there being fairies in that land. Never had he heard of anyone who had seen with their own eyes or heard tales of others who had seen the wonderful beings and creatures that must dwell in so marvellous a place. So the gateway to Fairyland must surely be somewhere far from his present abode.

The long distances suggested by such a search did not deter the man. He had considered the journey long and hard for many years and now that the time remaining to him was short, age having crept up on him by stealth, he knew that, if he did not go now, he would never discover the land of myths and legends.

On a bright spring morning, when the world was fresh with the breath of overnight rain, the man set out into the great unknown. Over the course of many years, his travels took him through various lands, some weird beyond his imagination, and others vaguely familiar, but nowhere, in forest or desert, prairie or steppe, mountain or valley, did he find anything that might indicate a proximity to the wonderland that he sought.

He met many people, too, some who seemed strange indeed to his eyes, and others who appeared much like himself, and he always enquired as to their experience of the folk or the country he sought. All of them had tales of a place that might have been the one, but no one knew of the way to get there. Always he wandered on, still watching for any sign that he was near his goal.

So it was that, on a darkening autumn evening, with signs of an approaching storm in the air, the man arrived in a country that seemed very familiar to him. There was something in the breeze, some special quality in the light, that brightened his spirit and gave him fresh energy to continue walking into the night.

The farther he walked, the more familiar and yet magical seemed the sounds, smells and impressions he encountered. He became convinced that he had at last stumbled into Fairyland. And, when he spied a light from a window in the distance, he knew that he would soon meet an inhabitant of the enchanted country.

He arrived at the door of a quaint little cottage and knocked. A lady opened the door and, in response to his questions, assured him that he was in the land that he had so long ago departed. He was home, indeed.

The man was seeing it with new eyes now, and could appreciate its wonders as they truly always were. The land of the imagination is indeed strange but real beyond our dreams.


Word count: 496
For No Dialogue Contest, June 2023
No Prompt, word limit 500.