Dance in the Circle Chapter 3
#3 of Dance in the Circle
June's mother goes looking for her daughter after her disappearance, which everyone else in the village seems to pretend had never happened, just as they had with her first husband's disappearance.
Eveline had often be regarded as... eccentric within the town. Poor thing had never quite been right since her first husband had disappeared. As much as most people had, for the most part, blanked out his disappearance, Eveline had never been able to, and that had set her apart. Few remembered him, or how much of a pillar of the community he'd been, and it had always driven her mad.
And then her daughter, June, disappeared, and she could see the same thing happening to her. Even her husband and her children seemed to be quickly forgetting the fact that June had been part of their lives. She'd actually gotten into quite a fight with him over June's disappearance, but it seemed as though he lost even the argument quite quickly after it had finished.
She had to get out of town for a minute after all of that, walking out toward the woods and stopping dead in her tracks as she got to a field and saw a pair of shoes sitting in a fairy ring. Her eyes went wide and her face went white as she ran over to the shoes, recognizing them as June's. She snatched them up and began to sob. Not June... not June too... those bastards.
She howled in fury, gripping the shoes in white-knuckled hands while she began to curse the forest, curse the fey, and unleash every ounce of the spite she felt for their kind. She screamed at the woods until her voice began to go hoarse, at which point she collapsed to the grass, just sobbing away.
"That's quite some anger, there," a voice said, a young man standing there over her.
She hiccuped and rubbed her eyes as she looked up at him, cold fury burning in them. "Damn right it is," she spat, half bearing her teeth in a snarl. "I lost my husband years ago to these woods... and now it's taken my daughter as well. Damn all of them. Curse them all for what they've done to me. I've always observed their rites, and this is the thanks that I get? To lose the people who mean the most in the world to me? They can go fuck themselves. I hope they all burn for what they've done to me!"
She didn't know who he was... or perhaps more to the point, what he was, which was probably a significant part of why she didn't just lunge at him, screaming in fury with every intention to tear him apart with her bare fingers. Still, he was entirely unmoved by any of what she'd said as he laughed and shook his head.
He smiled down at her... just that infuriatingly as she was still coursing through her rage and grief. "Mmm. And just who took your family?"
"The damned fey... I'd suspected it with my husband's disappearance, but THIS... " she said, shaking her daughter's shoes at him. "People are already acting like she never existed... and then I found THESE here in this damned fairy ring."
"Mmm... faeries? Quite an interesting idea there."
"Don't you take that tone with me, young man. I know you think I'm crazy! No one believes about the fey anymore, but I know... I KNOW!"
"Mmm... and what would you do if you had a fairy right in front of you?"
"Oh, I would kill them... I would make them pay for what they've done to me!"
He looked down at her, chuckling a little. "I know where a few of them might live... perhaps you'd like to have a look."
She glared at him, but he could see the wheels starting to turn in her head. "I don't know... if I should believe you... but if there's a chance of getting my hands around a fairy..." she said, grinning broadly as she rose, still holding June's shoes.
"Mmm. Well, in that case, come along with me," he said, starting to lead her through the woods. She was rather on edge as she walked, jumping at every little sound and movement. There was no peace for her right now. In time, though, they started to approach a large tree, one that seemed to have a house built into it. There was a fierce light in her eyes as she crouched down and started to approach, leaving the man who'd guided her here behind.
As she approached, a half-man-half-fox came out of the house, puttering around like it was nobody's business. She tensed, not caring that she didn't have the claws or the teeth to take on a creature like that, she had all of the rage her system could handle.
She stalked as close as she thought she could, crouching down in the undergrowth, even wiggling down a little bit, waiting for just the right moment before she pounced, screaming as she dashed at him, tackling him down to the ground. "YOU! Your people have wronged me for the last time!"
The fox was properly caught off guard by the sudden attack, and as he stared up at Eveline, his shock only grew. Good, she had really surprised this one! This really was her best opportunity to take her revenge! Though, not that she was thinking about it, she didn't actually have anything that could harm a fey. Not even a scrap of cold iron anywhere on her person. Still, she wasn't thinking about that, just thinking about the satisfaction of tearing him apart with tooth and nail.
As she shouted at him, another fox emerged from the house. She paused for a moment in her frenzied assault before her brain registered the clothes that the fox was wearing. This fox was wearing her daughter's clothes! She howled at that, snatching one of the shoes that she had tucked in her pocket and hurling it at the young vixen, who looked at Eveline with even more shock than the older male fox.
She launched herself up from the one she had on the ground and ran at this new arrival, filled with blood fury which only just registered the vixen exclaiming, "Mother!" Eveline registered that it was her daughter's voice, and as she was rushing toward the vixen, she tripped, stumbled and took a proper tumble on the grass.
The vixen rushed toward her, dropping to her knees and reaching out to her, checking that she was alright. She had hurt herself rather badly, but at least it was nothing life-threatening. Still, all of the fire had thoroughly gone out of her as she stared up at the young vixen, horror on her face. "M...my daughter's voice... her clothes... why do you have my daughter's voice? Mother... you called me mother..." she stammered out, the panic bubbling up in her veins.
June looked down at her, fear on her face as she saw her mother lying there like that, feeling her terror. "Mother... mother, it is me... I was foolish... I danced... in that ring... as many times as you told me not to, I believed that... nothing would happen... but it did... everything did... " she said, tears running down her cheeks as she reached down to stroke her mother's cheek.
"June... no... no, no, no, no..." her mother cried, reaching up to her daughter and pulling her down into a tight embrace. "They... they were forgetting you already... I couldn't stand that... you... my beautiful girl... what have they done to you..." she whimpered out, just clinging to June and pressing tight against her.
The two women were just sobbing away there in the clearing, letting it all tear through them before June pulled back, looking down at her mother. "Mother... you... won't believe it, though... I found father!" She said as the fox that she'd first attacked came to kneel beside her. She stared up at him uncomprehendingly for a long moment before what her daughter was saying clicked just right in her brain.
"James?!?" She was shocked into silence again, reaching up to touch him. Despite the fur, she felt the same sense of connection to him. Impossibly, this was her husband.
The fox smiled sheepishly at her, his ears folded back as he knelt there beside her. "It's... good to see you again, my rose..." he said... and for as long as it had been... it was Jame's voice. "I... was a fool... and all of us paid for it... I'm so sorry, my love..." he said to her, nuzzling into her hand.
"James... you silly man..." she said, not even able to feel anger for him at the moment. She slumped back on the grass, just struggling to grasp it all. "So... you... and June..." she said, looking to one and then the other, "Are... fey now? And... you two are... safe?" She was rather intent on that last detail, still somewhat wary of the fey.
June smiled and stroked her mother's head. "Yes, mother... we're safe... and we're together at last... I know... that it isn't how we'd wanted things to be... but... they really aren't so bad... and I already have a friend..." she said, glancing back toward the front door, where the Caroline was still standing, half hiding behind the door jam. She'd not been able to keep from watching, but she hadn't wanted to interrupt, either. Still, now that she was seen, she came out more into the open.
Eveline looked up at the squirrel and laughed softly, shaking her head while the stag who'd led her here walked closer. She looked up at him as well, blinking and tilting her head a little. "You... you knew... " she said, though there wasn't any anger left in her at that point, "And I'd... you... I knew what you were... didn't I... " she said, just processing through her thoughts. She looked to each of them in turn, thinking intently. "What... what happens now?"
James shook his head, letting out a tired sigh, "I... honestly don't know, my love..." he said to her, looking sadly down into her eyes. "You've just found us again... but..."
Eveline shook her head, her hands moving to grip both of them. "But what? I... I don't think that I could go back... live in a town where everyone has mostly forgotten both of you... where I'd have to pretend that neither of you exists..." She started to shake a little at that thought, thinking about what that kind of a life would be like.
Johnny smiled and chuckled as he looked down at the trio. "I might have a solution," he said calmly, with all of his noble bearing as a stag.
Eveline looked up at him in surprise, tilting her head to one side. "What do you mean?"
Johnny spread his arms wide, encompassing the forest with the gesture. "Live here," he said simply, "Together."
They were all stunned into silence, looking to one another as they seemed to wordlessly debate it before they all started to laugh and hug one another tightly. "That... might just be crazy enough to be a good idea..." Eveline said, sighing heavily as she rested her head against her two foxes. "Though... I'd be... somewhat out of place... a human among foxes..." she said, her eyes darting across to Caroline, "And a squirrel."
Johnny grinned broadly at that, laughing as he said, "A simple fix..."
Eveline felt a rush of power flowing through her and let out a cry of surprise as she felt herself begin to change. Her transformation was certainly easier than her daughter's had been as her face grew out into a muzzle, fur spreading across her body... though rather than the rich red of her husband and daughter, her fur was a beautiful, striking silver. When her feet started to change, she made a yip of surprise and quickly moved to pull her shoes off, laughing as she pressed her feet into the grass, shivering at the feel of it all.
When it all finished, she twisted around, looking at her beautiful, bushy tail. She couldn't help but laugh at it as she hugged first her husband and then her daughter, each in turn, squeezing them tightly. She even laughed softly and whispered softly to June, "I know why you left your shoes behind now..."