Chapter 1

Jason Bjornsson stepped off the bus and took in a breath of fresh air. He always loved the smell of the mountains whenever he got near them. The crisp and clean air that rolled off the slopes always got his blood going, but he never really knew why. He closed his eyes for a moment and just let the wind wash over him. Taking another deep breath, he then opened his eyes and brought his mind back to what he was doing.

He walked over to where the Greyhound driver opened the baggage compartments and kneeled down to where he had stowed his rucksack. Spotting the green bag, he retrieved it, dragging it out from the metal compartment. Once it was clear, he hoisted the bag onto his back and set it so it wouldn’t slide off his shoulders. After thanking the driver for the stop, Jason was on his way down the road.

He was thankful that he didn’t have to go far to reach the park where the hiking trail started. As he walked into the park, he noted a few other groups of campers, but they seemed more interested in seeing some easier to access campgrounds. He walked on by them, picking up a few admiring glances from the fairer sex. Jason couldn’t help but smile to himself as he moved along to find his friends.

He supposed that with the surge of that new TV show, Riverdale, redheaded guys were becoming a thing again. He not only had the hair, but the Nordic features to go along with it and bright green eyes. Standing at five-foot-eleven, with a solid and rawboned shape, he supposed that he had a Viking-esque sort of look about him. Sadly, he didn’t have the full musculature to go along with it. His legs were built and toned from his day job as a landscaper, but his upper body was still weaker than he liked.

Despite that, he was slowly making progress on filling himself out, even if it was a long ass grind in the gym to get there. His outdoorsy hobbies though, had kept him from putting on too much extra weight, as he loved walking, hiking and running. Jason enjoyed cycling from time to time but found using his own two legs to get around much more satisfying. He loved the feel of the ground beneath his feet.

He located his friends and made his way towards them. They were easy to spot, mainly because most of them looked quite out of place here in nature, despite their dress and packs. This was something that Jason could see and knew it wasn’t the case for him. Oddly enough, Jason found himself more at peace, almost attuned to nature whenever he went out into parks and such. It almost felt like he could sense the way it was feeling. Shaking away the thought, he saw that Jack had approached him and was looking as ready as he’d ever be.

“Ready to go, man?” his friend asked.

“Absolutely! Been waiting for this for a while now. Is everyone here?” Jason wondered.

“Yup! We were just waiting on your slow ass to arrive,” his black-haired friend joked.

“Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up, fuzzball. Come on, let’s get going!”

Not needing to be told twice, Jack shouldered his rucksack, as did the rest of the men and women in attendance. Turning to the trail, Jason started heading on up, eager to be out and about in the forest. He stepped lively, happy to be in a place where he felt like he belonged. The rest of the group followed along, a little less enthusiastically, but still happily. Everyone else amongst the group looked at him as though he was daft, but they let him be, as he was a good man.

On more than one occasion, one of those present had needed help with some situation or other. A little shy on payday, needing help in moving things, they could always call on Jason for the kind of help they needed. He was the kind of man who would never leave someone in the lurch or in some kind of unpleasant situation. This led to him always being the one to call when things needed doing.

Jason almost never minded helping someone out when they needed it, but that didn’t mean that he was a pushover. If you looked after him when he was helping you out, usually a large pizza or a sixer of beer did the trick. He was always there for you, no matter what. That and he was pleasant company to keep, provided you didn’t mind the weird quirks and oddities he did. Most people didn’t, and they often were happy to have him around, even if it was just for the company.

The group plodded along for almost half an hour when they came to a fork in the road. Jason pulled out the map he grabbed while entering the park and consulted it. He could see right off the get go that a new trail opened up recently, apparently designed for the more advanced hiker. He looked at it with significant interest, thinking he might just go down it to see just how advanced it was.

“Looking for some adventure, Jay?” Jack queried when he came up alongside him.

“Well, it is a new trail, so it has my curiosity piqued. When did they open it?” he asked.

“It’s something brand new that they cut not too long ago. Supposed to be more of a footpath than an actual trail. Like how it was, before man tamed the wilds,” his friend answered.

Jason liked that notion a lot, but scoffed quietly at the human species taming the wilds. There were far too many places that were too harsh to tame. He thought he might try it and head down the trail. There was also the fact that his pace was much faster than everyone else in the party. After looking over the map and mulling it over for a few minutes, he decided.

“I will try it. It’s supposed to be a much faster trail, with a fair bit of climbing involved. Something I’d definitely want to try out more of,” Jason enthused as he stowed the park map.

“You sure, man? Some people who’ve gone on it have picked up some strange feelings going down that trail, man. Like something was watching them, and they felt it wasn’t friendly,” Jack warned.

“Pah! Like some heebie jeebie ghosts have ever stopped me before?” Jason scoffed.

Jack had to bow his head in acceptance as there was little that could phase or shake Jason up. There were many occasions where Jason did something that everyone else said was reckless or crazy and were aghast when he did it. Jason stated that he at least had the balls to do it and that people should stop hiding in their little shells, like turtles. That they should get out there do crazy shit as it was the only way to live.

“Well man, good luck on that, then. If you get to the camp before we do, would you mind cleaning up and setting up the fire pit?” Jack asked him.

“Sure thing, man. Hey, would anyone like to join me on this new trail?” he challenged the collection of people that were assembled. Everyone else took one look down at the trail and shook their heads vigorously. Shrugging, Jason just readjusted his pack and set himself before walking.

“You got your radio, Jay?” Jack asked him.

“Right here!” Jason said as he held it up for everyone to see. “I’ll be on channel six if anyone wants to reach me! Last chance if anyone wants to come with?” he asked once more. Everyone present shook their heads, a little more vigorously this time.

“Suit yourselves. I’ll see you all up at Teardrop Lake!” he called over his shoulder. He could almost see the lot of them muttering to themselves and shaking their heads. Likely mumbling about how crazy he was. Jason was cool with whatever people thought of him. He didn’t care one whit what they thought because, to him, the only person whose opinion mattered was his own.

It didn’t take long before he ran into the area where the trail went over some steep and rocky outcroppings. They weren’t too bad, as Jason had traversed them before long and was making his way up the mountainside. Another ten minutes saw him into the forest itself, and he followed the footpath as it lay out in front of him. Because of the amount of vertical movement he was doing, he was sure he’d make his way up to the campground at least four to five hours ahead of everyone else.

Jason was really having a good time traversing this new trail, and he picked up some snapshots with his new phone. He checked them out after every shot and was pleased with the image quality and clarity. Taking another deep breath, he knew this was where he wanted to be. Being out in the wild made him feel alive somehow. He couldn’t explain it, but there it was.

As he progressed, he noted another fork up in the path ahead of him. He frowned momentarily as he saw the trail and thought it wasn’t on the map. Pulling it out once more, Jason saw he was right. It wasn’t marked on the map. He looked down at it and saw it looked more inviting than he initially surmised.

He was so far ahead of everyone else at this moment; he thought it couldn’t hurt to take a quick little walk down it and see where it would lead. Putting away the map once more, Jason started down the fresh path, eager to see what lay down it. It was a strange thing, seeing this fork here, almost as though it had appeared out of nowhere.

The density of the bush here was more pronounced, almost as though it was placed there to keep intruders out. The path seemed to reveal itself to him, almost as though it was inviting him in. Once he passed the dense foliage, he saw that there was a level of greenery here that was beyond what he thought could grow up this high. Jason looked at everything there and though he was a seasoned woodsman, there were even some plants and trees he could not identify.

Everything he was looking at was beautiful in its own way. There were many wildflowers that dotted the trail, and though they appeared to be wilting, they still held an ethereal beauty. Jason thought if he was here to see these flowers in full bloom, that they would be among the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful ones he’d ever seen. Though the Earth was explored and charted, there were still many places than man had not trod yet. He was glad to be among the first to have come this way.

Suddenly, the hair on his neck rose in warning. Jason learned long ago to trust his body’s instincts, as it was usually telling him something that his mind or eyes weren’t seeing. The icy feeling that dripped down his spine was one he knew well. He wasn’t alone up here, and he had the distinct feeling he was being watched.

Looking around carefully, the young man searched the immediate area surrounding him. Initially, he saw nothing out of the ordinary, just various flowers and plants that still pulled at his attention. He searched around a little, trying to spot anyone or anything that would look out of place. But he still found nothing but motes of light dancing on the sunbeams that poked through the canopy.

He was about to give up when he did a double take at one sunbeam. In the middle of the beam itself was a mote of light that stood still. On closer inspection, he saw that the mote was large, maybe an inch in size, which was odd. As he approached it, he saw that it was a small ball of light that was just as bright as the sun itself. The odd thing was that it seemed to pulse.

As he closed in on it, he heard what sounded like a peep and a squeak. Not even a second later, it took off like a shot, streaking away from Jason. Startled at the action, but not dumbfounded, Jason gave chase, hurrying after the flying ball of light. He followed it along the path, hoping that he could catch it and see what exactly it was.

It dipped and turned, trying to lose him, but Jason’s eyes were as sharp as an eagle’s, so it would not evade him that easily. If he hadn’t been in such good shape, Jason would have lost it long ago, but he kept pace with the flying light, though just barely. He followed it along the trail for a good fifteen minutes as it wound further up into the mountainside.

The trail continued to grow wilder and less trodden, almost to where it was a newly blazed deer trail, but Jason didn’t notice. He was too focused on finding out what the ball of light was. The trail eventually ran into a small and rocky crevasse, almost like a miniature canyon amidst the trees. After reaching the middle of the canyon, it veered sharply to the left and disappeared into the stone wall.

Jason stopped in his tracks and took a quick breath. He looked straight at the wall and thought to himself, his train of thought looking at the situation from a logical perspective. There was no way that the little ball of light, or whatever it was, had just vanished. It had to be hiding somewhere among the rocky wall. Possibly in one of the various knife-like crevices that dotted the wall.

Steeling himself, Jason felt along the wall, seeing if he could spot even a glimmer of light. While doing what he could to keep his hands from getting cut up, he kept searching. He moved to a different section of the wall and tumbled forward, landing flat on his face. Crying out in pain, Jason picked himself up and felt his face, hoping that he didn’t break his nose. Finding that his nose was intact and feeling no warm wetness, which would have indicated he was bleeding, the young man stood up.

As his vision cleared, Jason saw he was in a circular stone chamber. He found himself face to face with a pair of what appeared to be tree people. From what he could sense, these weren’t the friendly type. They almost looked like that old comic book character, Swamp Thing. But the sheer size and demeanor of these two would have made Swamp Thing look like baby Groot. They approached him in an almost warning like fashion as though they were getting ready to throw him out.

As they drew near, they touched him to pick him up or to turn him around. The moment they touched Jason, a strange thing happened. It was like they started to ... ripple and change, and their faces showed a profound sense of ... wonder and ... relief. Almost instantly, they backed away and went to a wall of vines that hung at the back of the stone chamber.

They passed their hands over it, and the vines shifted aside, forming an archway of some sort. Once it had finished, both tree-men stepped to either side. Taking up sentry positions, they appeared to be the guards of this place, whatever this place was. Bewildered but not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Jason took a few tentative steps towards the opening. He saw that neither creature had flinched, so he took a few more confident steps until he was in the archway.

Beyond it lay a corridor of stone that was being lit by some kind of luminescent moss. This gave him enough light to see by. Confident he wouldn’t stumble; Jason walked down the passageway and followed the light at the end of the tunnel. The very rock itself seemed to breathe, but Jason brushed it off as the wind merely making its way through. Once he reached the end of the corridor, Jason was astounded by what lay at the end.

In front of him lay a glade, flush with all kinds of plant life and greenery that Jason could only imagine or dream about. Wide eyed and astonished, he took in the entire place and pinched himself, thinking it to be some wild dream. When he was still there, standing and gaping like an idiot, he took a few steps into the glade.

Now that he was no longer at the entryway, he could see that everything he had glanced at was not as green as it seemed. There was a healthy mixture of brown amidst the green and growing things. It almost appeared like the glade was fighting to keep the green things within it alive, but was slowly losing. Looking about, he could see that much of what was there was similar in some fashion to what he saw on the wild trail outside.

In the glade’s center stood a rocky outcropping, like a pillar that was overgrown with leaves and vines. As Jason approached it, he noticed the little light he had chased was resting right in front of the pillar. Though it was dimmer than when he first saw it, he could still see it. Jason kneeled to get a better look at it and saw it was a tiny woman! But that wasn’t right! No way could a woman ever be that small! And with a pair of wings, no less!

“Is it really possible? After all this time?!?” a tiny voice squeaked in hope. Startled, Jason tumbled backwards onto his ass.

“Did you just...”

“Speak? Yes, I did. All sentient beings can do that, you know,” the miniature woman said as she took several steps towards him.

“What are you?” Jason asked her. The woman looked a little miffed that she would have to explain this to him. The exasperation in her voice was clear in her next sentence.

“What does it look like? I’m a fairy, you dolt!”

Laughing out loud, Jason clutched his sides, as he couldn’t stop himself. Her! A fairy! The guys must have really pulled out all the stops on this one to prank him!

“You know, you had me going there for a moment! A fairy? The guys must have paid you a pretty penny to yank my chain like this! You are a very convincing actress, though, and that outfit you’re wearing is well made. Where are the projectors around here?” Jason wondered as he looked around for them.

As he was looking about, the look on the fairy’s face was a mask of anger. Thinking she was a fake? An actress?? If he had kept looking at her during that moment, he would have taken back every word he had said. The light surrounding her grew in its intensity, blazing to where she looked like a miniature torch. Raising her clenched fists, she flung out her hands towards him; the light extending from her to Jason.

As the light struck him, Jason felt an odd and dizzying sensation, like he had spun around on a chair too many times. Feeling like he would puke, he could barely keep his breakfast down as he righted himself. Shaking his head clear, Jason stood up and looked at her again and found that suddenly, she was human sized. He could see her much more clearly and she was gorgeous, especially with that smile on her face that almost looked like a smirk.

“Magnus, playtime!” she called out. Staring at her quizzically, Jason looked around until he saw where exactly it was that she was staring. A massive wolf spider was walking towards him, its fangs and forelegs jittering excitedly! Stuttering in fear, Jason tripped over his own feet, trying to get away until he realized something. She wasn’t big like he was! Somehow, he was small, like she had shrunk him!

Head whipping towards her, he noticed that the fairy had taken flight and was hovering at least several feet above where he could reach her. Or was it inches? Resolving to figure it out after, he looked for something to fight the spider with. Finding a largish stick, he picked it up and tried to set himself into a fighting stance.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Drop the stick or he’ll see you as a threat and try to kill you,” her alto voice sounded just above him.

“What?”

“I told Magnus that it’s playtime, not killing time,” she stated. “Drop the stick and he won’t hurt you.”

“Magnus? He? It has a name?” Jason blurted out.

“Of course, he has a name. He’s mine. Like what you humans would consider pets in your cities,” the fairy said. “Still think this is a trick set up by your friends, or are you willing to listen now?”

Seeing the spider get closer solidified Jason’s sense that this was real. The spider was moving far too naturally, and the details were way too real. There was no way that this an elaborate ruse concocted by his friends. Breathing rapidly, Jason dropped the stick and put his hands up in surrender.

“I believe all of this is real. I know that I’m not dreaming, or I would have woken up by now. Could you call off your pet, please? Having him this close is making me nervous,” Jason said anxiously.

“Why? It’s perfectly safe and he won’t do anything to anyone or anything else, until I say so,” the little woman said easily.

“Fair point, but I didn’t grow up with spiders for pets. There’s also the fact you and I hardly know each other, so there isn’t much in the way of trust between us,” Jason blurted. He hoped she’d call off Magnus, before he got too close.

“You make a fair point,” she sighed as she flitted back down to stand in front of the spider as he made it to a retreating Jason. “OK Magnus, we’ve had our fun. Back to your web now.”

The wolf spider made what sounded like petulant huffing before turning around and marching back the way it had come. Jason then turned and got a good look at the fairy. The woman had wings protruding out of her back that looked like the typical wings you saw on fairies in storybooks. The biggest difference was the way the light refracted off them and shimmered in every imaginable color under the sun.

She was taller than him, easily five-foot-eleven, with long, thick, and strong legs that fed into a round and sumptuous ass. It was round, high and heart-shaped and was one half of her hourglass figure. Her tits were sizable, more than a handful, and her shoulders were sturdy, which extended into a pair of toned arms. She wore a short dress, almost like what Tinkerbell wore, but made of what seemed to be a multitude of leaves. Each leaf was intertwined with one another, and the dress fit her like it was a second skin.

Her head was perfectly shaped and perched atop a slender neck. It was her face, though, was the most gorgeous part of her. Oval shaped with open and expressive blue eyes, a tiny little nose, a soft-pointed chin, above which rested a set of cupid’s bow lips. Framed by strawberry blonde hair, styled like the proverbial pixie cut, she was the epitome of a beautiful woman. Though her face was set in a frown and before Jason could ask, he received a full-armed slap across his left cheek.

“What in the hell was that for?” he cried out, wincing at the sting that spread across his face.

“To get you to stop staring and to focus on what I’m saying, rather than letting those lecherous thoughts run through your mind!” she retorted.

“Well, I’m a guy and it’s in my nature to look at pretty women. That I was staring should tell you how attractive you are,” Jason fired back as he rubbed his cheek. The fairy appeared to both blush and bristle, looking like she was both flattered and insulted. She opened her mouth to speak, but Jason’s next question cut her off.

“What is your name?”

The woman then blinked, and her face scrunched up in bewilderment. No one had asked her for her name. Before, in ages past, they always commanded her to give it, so she asked, “Why do you wish to know my name?”

“Because I’d like to know what I should call such a lovely creature,” he stated as he moved his hand away from his face. All semblance of insult was gone as she blushed hard, her face filling with blood. Her wings jittered as she did everything she could to stop from crying out loud.

“My name is Phalmina,” she peeped out.

“Phalmina. It’s a beautiful name,” Jason said earnestly. She blushed even harder at the compliment and shook herself to focus back on the matter at hand.

“I’m sorry that I slapped you. Please, sit. I will explain everything and answer all the questions you have,” she said to him.

“How do you know I have questions on my mind?”

“It’s written across your face plain as day, silly!” she laughed. Jason nodded and smiled like an idiot did as Phalmina bade him and sat down. He stayed quiet and waited for her to start.

“There is much to tell you and I don’t even know what you may know, so I’ll start at the beginning. I’m sure you have heard of many various types of Gods and spirits throughout the ages and humans have chronicled some of them in your histories. There are many stories about how this world came to be, but they are all false. None of those beings created the world and all the life on it.”

“The world was already here when life sprang into being here. Despite the various claims what your ‘holy men’ state is truth and fact, it is in fact a twisting of the truth. The ‘Gods’,” she said the word scornfully, “are merely pretenders. The power they wielded and the strength they had were not theirs to begin with. It all leads back to the one true life giver; Gaia, the Earth Mother.”

“It is Gaia that gives life to all creatures, both great and small. It is she who gives us the will to live our lives as we so choose. All life is sacred to her, so we hold her in the most sacred regard. As humankind rose to the point as the apex being of the world, there were some who showed her a good deal of deference. Those who worshiped her as the true goddess as opposed to those false idols that many worship today.”

“Wait, a second. You’re saying the gods and goddesses of myth were real?” Jason interjected.

“Yes, they existed, and they were real, but they weren’t immortal like everyone thinks. They were mortal men and women who were empowered through the blessings of Gaia,” Phalmina replied before she continued with her tale.

“The ‘Gods and Goddesses’ were great champions in their day. Each one dedicated their lives to an aspect of human existence. But they never really were everything they led you humans to believe. Back then, humans were far simpler, and believed what they were told at face value. Those who were venerated as Gods, were mortal men and women who had stumbled upon Gaia’s power and used it for their own gain.”

“In the ancient days, Gaia had placed nodes of power worldwide to grant those who found them, her blessings. She did this, hoping humankind would use her power to bring peace to the warlike tribes that they were. What happened was far different from what Gaia had envisioned. After the ‘Gods’ had done their damage and died, the power they stole returned to Gaia once more,” she said with a sigh of relief.

“To prevent this from ever happening again, Gaia had drained those places of power of their energies and kept her power from surfacing again. There was still power there, but in residual amounts, so she sealed them up, so none could ever find them again.”

“What happened to the ‘Gods’?” he asked.

“Like all mortals, they withered, grew old and eventually died. Though when they died, like all things, their bodies and spirits returned to the earth and, therefore, to Gaia. Her power given back to her, Gaia could prevent the rise of any additional ‘Gods’, who would try to usurp her place as those silly mortals had tried.”

“It wasn’t until several peoples, such as the ancient Celts, were besieged by oppressive forces like the Romans, did Gaia reach out to humanity again. Only this time, Gaia was far more cautious about it and went to great lengths to select only those that she deemed worthy enough. To wield her power in a proper and responsible manner,” Phalmina stated, a faraway look in her eyes.

“Among the various tribes and peoples of humanity, there were worthy individuals who were granted a smattering of Gaia’s might. Who could heal those who were sick and injured and command the elements, to a limited extent. They became Gaia’s ‘foot soldiers’ and they called these men and women the Shaman. Gaia would communicate to them through the use of animal spirits, to guide them along a balanced path.”

“They were few, but there was also another kind of individual who had a unique connection with the land and, through that, Gaia. How they could tap directly into her primordial energies and use them to manipulate the world around them as they saw fit. We called these beings Druids. The ancient Celts and Gauls had many such champions who were powerful Druids, and they did right by Gaia. They carried out their sacred duty and defended the lands, the animals and their people.”

“Despite everything they had done, the Romans were far too clever and cunning. Our once greatest champion, Vercingetorix, was outplayed and outmaneuvered, but those closest to him also betrayed him. When he was taken away, they tried to take his power, but he held fast. For years they tried, and every time they failed. When he died, the power Gaia had granted him, stayed with him and as it was with those who came before him, it was given back to Gaia.”

“I was still a fairly young fairy at the time of these events. Barely even a half century old when the Roman Empire was at its apex. Even so, I was there to see much of what had happened. It wasn’t long before others came seeking our power to force it out of us. But Gaia had prepared for this eventuality and would only allow the worthy to pass into our refuges. This ceaseless seeking of power proved to be the downfall of the Empire. As the rise of the Christians, and then the Goths, brought about their downfall,” the fairy woman said smugly.

“It was afterwards, in a time you humans call the ‘Dark Ages’, that we saw a resurgence in the ways of Gaia. Many turned to worshipping her as a goddess, hoping and praying for their deliverance from hunger and death. She guided some to safety while others, who were rotten people, were left to fend for themselves.”

“It was also during this time that the Christians decided to ‘Spread the word of God’ to the ‘savage peoples’ of the world. Through the many actions they perpetrated in the name of their God, it led the Druids to one conclusion. They weren’t spreading the word of their God like they should have. They only wanted absolute control over the people by telling them what they should believe. They didn’t want them to believe what they wished.”

Sighing, Jason interrupted, but briefly. “I know what you mean about that. I grew up around people who sat there on their high horses. Getting all preachy at me about how I should live my life. But they then thought themselves exempt from their own rules whenever they were challenged.”