HENGE

It was the perfect Spring day for a picnic and it was with this air that Queen Elizabeth’s court left their carriages and walked up the hill to the standing stones. Despite their jovial facade the first sight of Queen Mab and her court caused a ripple of anxiety to run through them. Even though they had been told no weapons, especially not their steel swords, many had still bought some form of charm or ward of protection with them. The blacksmiths had recently found a thriving trade in iron crosses on iron chains, and a few of the court fingered horseshoes in their pockets. But when Queen Elizabeth stepped forward to hug her sister-Queen it was clear that there was no turning back.

The strange procession began their three turns around the stones, the courtiers bunched together behind the two Queens as a handful of fey folk danced their way around them. The first turn saw no change and by the second some thought they may have had a lucky escape, but on the third turn they rounded to the stones to where they should have seen the carriages and were confronted with the bare green plain.

“Welcome to Arcadia” spoke Queen Mab clearly, and a few gasps and moans escaped the noblemen.

“Magnificent” said Elizabeth, took Queen Mab’s arm and began marching off in the direction the carriages should have been. Where the road had run in England, a small hill rose. Soon the two queens stood upon its low summit and the court fanned out around the base.

“Mr Bacon, if you would be so kind” called Elizabeth. A somberly dressed courtier came forward flanked by two lackeys. From one he took a shovel, the head of which shone silver. He was about to begin digging a hole when Elizabeth grabbed the handle. Startled, Bacon finally relinquished his hold and Elizabeth began digging a neat square hole. The second lackey came forward with a small sapling oak. Elizabeth took it and held it upright while the others pushed dirt back into the hole.

“Today,” she proclaimed, “we plant this sturdy English oak in Arcadia. It is the same oak we used to construct the ships that saw off the Spanish marauders, with the help of our dear friend Queen Mab. We plant this as a symbol of our friendship. Two worlds, two rulers, but one common purpose.”

“And may that friendship grow,” spoke Mab, moving towards the sapling and waving her hands in wide circles over it, “as this tree grows.” The small branches writhed for a moment but then shot out straight, and they kept extending, getting longer as the trunk grew thicker, rising up over the heads of the queens and continuing upwards. The now great branches extended up and over the small hill until they were shading the nearby courtiers. “May the sight of this great tree, at the entrance to our world, always remind humans they are welcome in Arcadia.”

The courtiers stood in dumb silence until Queen Elizabeth began slowly clapping. Realising their cue they began, hesitantly at first but soon with raucous cheers.

The cheers reached across the plain to a copse of trees where Hob Robin watched disdainfully. The human ruler looked squat next to the lithe form of the Queen. Gems sparkled on its garments in an effort to make it seem more interesting but the splendor of the Fae Court made it seem cheap and ugly. Its accompaniment of fools and their thrice-cursed iron stood at a respectful distance but even then, the air warped around them and sourly hummed.

From the trees behind him a silver shape darted, moving from tree to tree until it hovered above his shoulder. “Oh my, they have no magic about them at all do they? Totally and utterly mundane! How fascinating! How do they function? Also what is mother wearing and why is the human's hair so red and frizzy? I suppose she is a human and not some sort of monster the queen is testing...”

Hob swatted at Trixie who barely seemed to notice but darted off towards the Queen Mab and humans. He couldn't understand the Court's new fascination with all things human, or rather, Mab's fascination. There were dirty, smelly, uncultured swine-like parasites who couldn't even be eaten for food. All they were good for was sport and even then, they didn't last very long.

He hadn't been around humans in a long time, even for a sidhe. They hadn't changed much as far as he could tell as a species. But their new... technology was unsettling. They smelled wrong and sounded wrong, with their iron and science. Perhaps they were not as primitive as he suspected.