Mystery grumbled sourly as a pair of hands shook her insistently. "You just woke me up from the best dream I've ever had," Mystery growled groggily as she slowly opened her eyes.
She blinked as dozens of reporters stood around, their eyes gleaming greedily with eagerness. She blinked again after looking around and realized she was lying in a bed of ferns. "Where am I?"
"Your plane crashed on the inside of the fairy ring," the dark-haired woman who had shaken her awake said hesitantly.
Mystery jerked upright with a gasp. "It wasn't a dream?" She quickly looked down at her left leg and nearly fainted with relief when she saw that it was still healed.
"What did you see inside of the ring?" one of the reporters asked intently.
"More than you could possibly imagine," Mystery whispered distractedly. "Where is Rhapsody?"
"Is Rhapsody the fairy?" a reporter asked, pushing a microphone toward her.
Mystery nodded wordlessly, feeling a sense of loss at the thought of the beautiful fairy. Her sense of loss only lasted for a moment after noticing her completely formed left leg again. She stood up quickly, euphoria flooding her system as she reveled in her newfound balance.
"What's the matter?" the dark-haired woman asked with concern in her voice.
Mystery realized she was crying. She smiled hugely as she replied. "Rhapsody healed my leg. It was amputated below the knee twelve years ago."
"How did she heal it?" one of the reporters asked in fascination.
"I have no idea," Mystery replied with a wondering laugh. "There were lots of red and green sparks, and then it just grew back."
"Were there any other fairies inside of the ring?" another reporter asked quickly.
"Not that I saw," Mystery replied slowly. "I need to get home. Where am I?"
"We're a few hundred yards away from the wall," the woman informed her helpfully. "Do you need a ride?"
"I would be eternally grateful," Mystery smiled warmly.
The other reporters were glaring daggers at the woman as she led Mystery to the road, where a small army of news vans were congregating like some kind of cancer.
"What was your name?" Mystery asked the woman as she walked easily through the thick foliage.
"Eileen," The woman replied. "Thanks to all of the attention you've received from the media, I already know that your name is Mystery."
"I didn't realize a small plane crash was such a noteworthy event," Mystery replied with a frown.
"It is when you crash inside of a fairy ring that nobody else can get inside of," Eileen said with a chuckle. "There are literally thousands of people trying to find a way inside of the ring right now. Once the world finds out that you've been inside, you are going to be a very popular person."
"I don't suppose there is any chance of telling everyone I jumped out of my plane before it crashed and never made it inside the ring?" Mystery asked with a sigh.
"Not unless you want to go back and kill all of those reporters," Eileen said dryly. "I promise I won't tell anyone if you do. Those asshats have been harassing everyone in town for the last forty-eight hours."
"You live here?" Mystery asked with a raised eyebrow.
"All my life," Eileen replied with a nod. She looked at Mystery curiously. "Were there any other humans inside the ring?"
"Yeah, they were with Rhapsody when I crashed," Mystery answered, trying to remember their names. "A woman named Harmony with her two daughters and mother, I think."
"They are actually her nieces," Eileen told her with a rueful smile. "She's their legal guardian."
"I thought she was a bit young to have two teenagers for daughters," Mystery noted. "So, you know Rhapsody?"
"I've never met her, but Harmony told me a little about her," Eileen replied thoughtfully. "She started visiting them a couple of weeks ago for some reason."
"So, you don't actually know her?" Mystery asked with a questioning look.
"I know of her," Eileen replied with a shrug. "She's been in our local legends for centuries. My husband's grandfather claims he even met her when he was just a boy."
Mystery struggled to make sense of the past twenty-four hours as Eileen drove her back to her house almost an hour away. The fight she had with her boyfriend before the fateful flight was almost forgotten as she tried to make sense of a world full of mythical creatures. In the bright light of the morning, it was hard to believe any of it had happened.
Then there was the problem of how she was going to make a living. After three years of running an air-tour business, she hadn't even come close to paying the Cessna off. Without the remains of her plane to inspect the insurance company wasn't likely to flip the bill for the remainder of her debt without a fight. This next month is going to be an absolute nightmare.
Mystery barely recognized her street as they pulled on to her road. There were news vans clogging the shoulder of every available parking space, including the entrance to her driveway.
"It looks like they beat us here," Eileen noted dryly.
"Damnit, this is just ridiculous!" Mystery fumed as they stopped in the road in front of her house. "Can't they go find some stupid celebrity to fawn over?"
"They already have," Eileen said with a grin. "You."
Mystery sighed in annoyance. "I'm going to call the cops and get some of these morons towed."
"Good luck with that," Eileen said with a snort. "The cops will probably be waiting in line to ask you questions as well."
"Thanks a lot for the ride, Eileen," Mystery said sincerely as she opened the car door. "Would you like to come in for something to drink or eat?"
"Thanks, but I've got to get home to my kids," Eileen declined quickly as she gazed at the reporters lining the sidewalks like they were some kind of nasty parasite. "Have fun with the circus though."
"Thanks," Mystery muttered sourly as she closed the door and started walking toward her house.
She had to struggle through rank upon rank of obnoxious reporters to get to her front door, ignoring all of their insistent inquiries as to what happened to her inside of the fairy ring. All she wanted was a hot bath and a warm cup of tea.
"Hey baby, I was so worried," her ex-boyfriend, Todd, said in a voice dripping with sincerity.
"What are you doing in my house?" Mystery demanded irritably. "I thought I made it clear that you aren't welcome here anymore."
"Oh, come on, Misty!" Todd replied plaintively. "Every couple has their spats. We can work through this!"
"Apparently we have very differing viewpoints on what a spat is," Mystery growled angrily. She felt the blood vessel on her temple throb as the memories of the morning before her crash sharpened. "Coming back to my house to find you telling some cheap whore that you are only staying with the gimpy woman because she is a sucker for hard luck cases goes way beyond a spat, you piece of shit! Now get the hell out of my house before I call the cops!"
"You're blowing the whole thing out of context!" Todd yelled back at her as his face turned an uncharacteristic shade of red. "She was just having a bad day and needed someone to make her feel wanted. I couldn't tell her how I really felt about you without making her feel like a total loser."
Mystery shook her head disbelievingly as she walked over to her phone and began dialing 911. Tod was always good at coming up with B-grade stories to cover his ass, but that was just pathetic.
"911, what is your emergency?" a woman's voice answered briskly.
"This is Mystery Donovan, and there's a man in my house who is refusing to leave," Mystery replied tightly. "Can you please send someone to 490 Melrose in Lithia to have him escorted off of the premise?"
"Misty, come on!" Todd bellowed in outrage. "You are being absolutely ridiculous!"
"I'll dispatch a unit immediately," The dispatcher replied curtly. "Please remain on the line with me until they arrive."
"Copy that," Mystery responded without bothering to look in Todd's direction.
"Do you know the name of the person in your house?" the dispatcher asked.
"Todd Acorn," Mystery replied grimly. "My ex-boyfriend."
"Stop being such a frigid bitch!" Todd shouted in frustration. "Hang up the damn phone and talk to me!"
The line suddenly went dead. Mystery turned around and glared at her former lover as he stood glowering at her with the disconnected phone cord in his hand. His blue eyes were wide and filled with. frustration.
"I already told you, there is nothing to talk about," Mystery replied in an ice-calm voice. "Unless you want to spend some time playing soap-on-a-rope with someone named Tyrone or Bubba, I suggest you leave before the police arrive."
"You know what?" Todd snarled as he took a step closer and punched the wall near her head. "I don't give a shit. I've put up with your gimpy ass for three years and not a single day has gone by that I haven't asked myself why the hell I stay. All you care about is your damned airplane and your worthless music. I used to feel sorry for you, but that stopped when I realized that even without your accident you
would have been a self-absorbed bitch. Good luck finding someone else willing to tolerate your crazy mood swings."
He pulled his fist back again, his eyes filled with fury. As his fist flew toward her face there was a sudden wave of overwhelming malevolence that filled the room. It was wholly directed at Todd, who staggered back in sudden terror. As quickly as the presence arrived, it left, leaving Todd looking shaken.
He glared at her before he suddenly spun and stalked out the front door, kicking a display table with pictures of her family so hard that several frames fell to the floor and shattered. Just before he left the front porch, he turned around for one last barb.
"By the way," Todd declared with a malicious glint in his eyes. "If all cripples are as bad in bed as you are, the world would be a better place without you."
Mystery just raised an eyebrow as he waited for her to react. She refused to give him the satisfaction. With a derisive snort, he stormed past the wall of reporters that were lining the road in front of her house, intent on their conversation. He had clearly meant to humiliate her in front of the press, but all he had really done was kick a hornet's nest with his last damning statement.
She calmly walked over and shut the door before carefully cleaning up the broken shards of her family pictures. The prick didn't even notice that my leg was healed.
She frowned as she worked. Where had that malevolent presence come from? She would have assumed she had imagined it if Todd hadn't looked so terrified. Was Rhapsody still watching over her, even here? She looked around her house, unable to see the spirit of Azeban as he watched her clean.
After she finished cleaning up the mess, Mystery went into her front room and sank into a plush chair. With a deep sigh, she laid her head back and closed her eyes. She still couldn't believe she had actually been inside the rings; let alone the things she discovered there. There had been so many revelations, ranging from mildly bizarre to utterly terrifying, that she still questioned whether she had survived the crash. Maybe this was some kind of afterlife.
She tried to remember all the events of the previous night, but the longer she was awake the more dreamlike it became. The only memory that remained crystal clear was the jubilant face of Rhapsody as she led them around the lost forest inside the ring. The small woman had exuded an infectious energy as she flitted around them, her wings shimmering like the aurora borealis as her larger-than-life eyes sparkled with excitement.
A loud knock sounded from her front door. Sighing, Mystery stood up and walked over to the door, peering through the spyhole. She groaned when she saw her bother on the porch, looking harried as the reporters tried to get his attention.
She opened the door to let him in and he rushed past her, hurriedly closing the door behind him.
"Man, what a freakshow," Michael exclaimed as he waved a hand toward the closed door. "You couldn't stay out of trouble for three days, could you? I hadn't even landed in Salt Lake for thirty seconds before I saw the news about your plane crashing. Are you trying to give me a freaking heart attack?"
He had pulled her into a fierce hug halfway through his tirade, his voice breaking.
He was five years her junior, with his 22nd birthday only a week away. He was several inches taller than her own 6'4" with jet black hair and piercing blue eyes. He had been handling the administrative side of her small flying tours business while she handled the flying. They had been operating for almost 2 years and business was just starting to pick up. She had been hoping to make enough to pay off her plane within the next year or two.
She pulled back to stare up at Michael with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. Leaning back on her left foot, she lightly kicked him in the butt with her right foot.
"What the hell are you doing?" Michael demanded indignantly as he looked at her fully functional right leg. He stared at it for several seconds before suddenly gaping. "That's not your prosthetic! Holy fudge monkeys, I thought the news stories were exaggerated! Your leg really grew back?"
"Yep, it really did," Mystery confirmed with another light kick.
"So, you really were inside that ring that melted all of the military equipment?" Michael's eyes were wide with amazement. "Well spit it out. What was inside the rings?"
Mystery closed her eyes as she took a deep breath, her lips curling into a smile. "You seriously wouldn't believe me if I told you. There were so many crazy myths running around that even I can't believe it, and I was there."
"Try me," Michael said firmly.
"Well, the first thing I saw after I crashed my plane into the lake that is inside the rings was a dozen mermaids," Mystery told him, watching his expression for the disbelief she knew she would have felt. "They pulled me to the shore where an honest to god fairy, wings and all, was waiting. Her name was Rhapsody, and she had some other humans with her who apparently live near the wall. I tried to convince them to get my prosthetic from the plane before it sank, but she just laughed and said she would make me a new one. I totally thought she was going to make me a peg leg or something. After a few minutes of magical sparks flying everywhere, my leg grew back."
Michael was staring at her with wide eyes. He slowly blinked them several times before repeating, "fairy?"
"See, I told you that you wouldn't believe me," Mystery chuckled. "But it only gets crazier from there."
"Wait a minute," Michael held up a hand. "Did you say you crashed in a lake? That ring isn't big enough for a lake to fit in."
"You have no idea," Mystery breathed, with a far off look in her eyes. "Apparently, it's like a Tardis, and is bigger on the inside. It would have to be, considering that's where Yggdrasil lives. It is as big as a bloody mountain and towers up above the clouds. I thought it was a mountain at first. Rhapsody said that all the fairy circles had world trees before they were destroyed. She said that's where most of our mountain ranges came from."
Michael squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them when a knock sounded at the door.
"It's probably those damn reporters," Mystery said with a sigh. "Maybe I can get enough to pay off my plane if I give them the full story."
Michael was in front of her in an instant, grabbing her by the shoulders so he could stare down at her. "Don't you dare tell the reporters about what you found inside the rings. Do you know what would happen if people knew Yggdrasil was inside of that ring? We'll have half of the world camping outside of the fairy ring trying to get in. It would only be a matter of time until they figured out how to get inside."
"Yeah, that's not going to happen," Mystery smiled dangerously. "There's a dragon that lives in Yggdrasil that's nearly 500 feet tall. Not that it would matter, since they would never get past Rhapsody. Human technology is so far behind what Rhapsody can do that the entire world could unite and they would still never get in."
Michael blinked and mouthed the word "dragon" in wonder. Mystery walked past him to her door and looked through the peephole. Two men in suits wearing sunglasses stood waiting on the other side.
She opened the door a few inches. "Yes?"
"I'm Agent Michaels," the taller of the two told her curtly. "This is Agent Davis. We are with the NSA. We would like you to come with us please."