Addison groaned.

The last two realm rotations had been taxing. She had truthfully been hoping that the faeries, especially the queen, would be a little understanding. Or at the least a little distracted. Maybe too busy to make her really do very much — but even here she couldn’t argue or abstain very much. She was the least among them even though she wasn’t always the smallest.

Instead of making the little fairy do more work, or agitate the queen on her first day back, she rolled over onto her belly and pushed up off the ground. Onto her knees and then onto her feet. She brushed her back off and before she had a chance to turn around, a flutter of wings had brought her escort back to her face.

“Follow me,” she said.

“Where to?” Addison asked. She had never had to wander off before to find someone who wanted to see her.

“To the queen!” the escort chirped.

Addison couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “Not what I meant, but okay little one. Let’s go.”

If being annoyed didn’t help, she may as well be nice. Earning good favor never hurt anyone, she figured. The fairy gave a tiny nod and wheeled around, forcing Addison to turn around anyway, and they walked forward.

The spot she liked to hide away and daydream was situated in a clearing between chunks of a forest. One path led to the city with larger clearings, huts, and lights strung about as if the entire city had been made by a child. It was whimsical and beautiful, Addison saw that, but they weren’t going towards the city.

They were going the opposite direction, into a path that led into the denser forest she had chosen not to wander through. As they entered the tree line she struggled to remember if she had ever been explicitly told not to, or warned of some sort of danger. She couldn’t remember either, but she had never gone this way. She supposed that she didn’t see any of the fey wandering this way either.

The fairies sometimes flew higher in the city, and some of the other creatures and folk well…they either stayed put or scattered. There didn’t seem to be a good reason to be afraid of this part of the world, yet there she was. Walking on a path for the very first time in her life.

The forest this way was similar enough to feel familiar. The trees towered over her, splitting around the path as if by corralled by magic. It wasn’t a road and there were no stumps along the side; there simply was nothing growing in a line ahead of them. The path was a smooth stretch of dirt that didn’t hold her footsteps.

Whimsy. The entire realm was made of it. It could be worse, and she could hate it more. At the moment the wonder of where they were headed was winning most of the battles, especially as the path began to wind. It seemed as if the Queen’s headquarters were kept quite a distance away from the main living areas.

Even in a realm such as this, a Queen must keep her airs about her. She must be regal and hard to read. The path went in a slow curve — Addison felt like they were going to circle back to where they start at any moment until it began to move the other direction on an incline. They were headed deep within the woods; far enough that they came to a bridge planted in the hillside, and underneath ran a stream.

It was low to the ground quiet, but the waters ran fast, and far in either direction. Addison didn’t know where it came from or where it went, but the water was intent on getting there asap. She got an inkling in her gut that if she dipped her toes she would find the little stream deeper than the eye let on. Such was the way of this world.

The sun didn’t move from up above the trees. It stayed round and bright and directly above her head, but she swore they had walked around for hours when the little fairy finally stopped. They had come to a place where the trees thinned and converged again in front of the path.

“Are we finally taking a break, or are we lost?” Addison asked. Her patience was wearing thin and her legs ached. “Where is the queen, again?”

“In her palace,” the fairy answered. As if the little thing didn’t understand the question being asked of her.

“Isn’t her palace in the city though?” Addison probed further. She understood why the royal court would be further away, but she wondered why this was the first time she had heard of while being here.

The little fairy laughed. A spritely sound that bounced off of all the trees and slapped Addison in the face. “That's only the place she’s let you see before.”

The conversation ended, and the fairy zipped between the trees that were lined up in front of them. Not intending to be left behind, Addison wandered through as well, unsure of what she was going to see.

On the other side was the biggest clearing she had seen in all her life. In the distant horizon, she could seem more trees that vaguely curved around making a circular shape.

It was always a circular shape.

Smack dab in the middle of the grass and flowers stood a tree. It was the largest tree she had ever seen, and bigger than she had ever imagined. It was round and covered in windows and lights and little signs and had a hundred more of the little fairies flying around.

“Here we are,” the little fairy said. “Now you just need to go inside.”

It was easier said than done. As Addison walked closer she saw the real task at hand. The door inside was set at about a dozen feet above the ground.

Fairies had wings, after all.