"Are you sure that we are awake? It seems to me that yet we sleep, we dream." – William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream
Date:
June 21st, 2017 (Northern Hemisphere)
December 21st, 2017 (Southern Hemisphere)
Occasion: Summer Solstice
Country: Worldwide
■ □ ■ □ ■ □ ■ □
XX | Firefly Hour
The woods were still. Not even the wind dared to breathe as feet scurried through the clearing, and fading giggles trailed through the air as children left the forest.
At last, the area was deserted. The humans had left the woods to join their own celebrations. Upbeat music, though faint, could be heard from miles away.
The forest, however, stood silent. There were no birds singing trill tunes, nor the faint buzz of insects. For one second, the longest second one could experience, everything was frozen.
Then, the air quivered.
A faint rustle, which seemed to come from a nearby bush, broke the silence. The wind carried the sound through the forest, while the leaves began to whisper.
The transparent tip of a wing poked out from behind a maple tree. A tiny figure, to which the wings were attached, stepped out and glanced around for any sign of movement. After seeing that no one else was present, she turned around and let out a whistle.
At her signal, a crowd of various beings poured out from their homes. Animals, fairies, and everything in between, were peeking out of their hiding places.
Some of them, the more cautious ones, looked left and right to make sure no humans were there, while others muttered to one another in low voices of anticipation. Tiny birds, the size of large walnuts, fluttered down. They twittered excitedly and began to fly circles around the trees.
The woodland creatures usually kept to themselves. They stayed out of sight of humans, who were unaccustomed to seeing thousands of animals residing in one spot, much less the creatures whom they believed were fictional, such as fairies and talking gnomes.
However, on the day of the summer solstice, they couldn't help themselves. On the longest day of the year, the creatures would meet up and throw a festival. The party often lasted hours into the night, though, to be frank, there was far more light than darkness during this time.
The creatures had to make sure humans were out of sight and earshot, for fear of giving away their location, so they always chose the heart of the forest as their party site. With hundreds of thick trees obscuring them from view, there was no way any human would venture so far into the forest, especially when they were busy celebrating midsummer on their own.
Five gnomes ambled out of the large tree stump they had fashioned into a cottage, each carrying a pickaxe. If it were not for the fact that their faces were permanently stuck in a frown, they would be grinning at the chance to put their pickaxes to use.
"Gnomes!"
A silvery voice rang across the patch of forest on which they walked. A fairy with icy blue wings fluttered towards them, landing on a golden leaf without a sound. She was carrying five woven baskets, stacked on top of each other. After separating them, she handed each gnome a basket.
"What're these for?" a particularly stout gnome asked her, his squashed face collapsing in on itself in confusion.
"You've been assigned to collecting berries," she replied, her crystal eyes sparkling with amusement as the gnomes burst into protest.
"What? I ain't got time to pick berries!"
"Shouldn't you fairies be doing that?"
"I sharpened my ax for eight hours, and I don't even get to use it?"
"The other tasks are already taken," the fairy said, with a finality in her tone. "Now, hurry up and start picking, or you'll delay the whole celebration."
With that, her wings began to flutter until they were a blur. She soared into the air to greet the birds, who were carrying nuts in their beaks, and directed them towards a large pile that sat at the center of the forest clearing. The birds glided downwards with a soft swoosh, and dropped the nuts on the pile.
"What does it matter if the celebration gets delayed?" the tallest gnome grumbled from the ground, where he and his comrades had been watching the birds and making rude gestures at them. "It's the longest day of the year! That's the point of this, innit? We're supposed to get an extra long party."
"We always get the stupid jobs," another gnome muttered, his brown eyes fixed on the fairy. "No one even eats the berries! They just throw them at the performers."
"Humans do that with tomatoes," the stout gnome said. "Why can't we throw tomatoes at the performers? It would be way cooler."
"Plus, we'd have to sneak around the humans to get tomatoes. Much more fun than picking berries," the tall one added, his eyes following several butterflies which were carrying pixies across the clearing.
"Well, no point complaining about it now," another gnome pointed out to his friends. He began walking to the berry field at the edge of the forest. His basket dangled from his left hand, and his pickaxe was slung on his back. "We should do our job, or those fairies will have our heads."
With a reluctant murmur of agreement, the other four gnomes followed.
Meanwhile, the pile of nuts was growing larger than ever, such that it blocked half the clearing from view. Dwarves marched around the pile, also grumbling about how they were forced to whittle instruments for the fairies to play.
While the dwarves carved unhappily, fairies were darting about, stringing rows of lanterns from tree to tree. They emitted a warm glow which provided light for the evening.
"How many strings do you have left?" called one fairy to another as they passed each other, narrowly avoiding a pair of hummingbirds as they swooped down, delivering nectar they'd collected from various trees.
"Just one," the other fairy replied, and with a swift dive, she tied off the last string of lanterns on a nearby oak tree. A faint snap came from above, and an acorn fell on the fairy's head, knocking her two feet downwards. "Ouch!" she cried, glaring up at the imp who fumbled it.
"Sorry!" the imp called down, not sounding sorry at all. As the fairy glided away, still rubbing the spot where she'd been hit, the imp giggled mischievously under his breath.
After hours of preparation, the sun began to fall in earnest. The gnomes returned with hundreds of berries in their baskets, at which the imps clapped and cheered with delight, eager to begin throwing them. The lanterns hung high above them, the nuts were stacked in a neat pile, and the instruments had been whittled to perfection.
A pixie with rosy pink wings picked up a flute and blew. A collective sigh issued from the crowd at the beautiful note, which rang through the clearing and faded away.
The fairy with blue wings clapped her hands in delight. She'd been checking the lanterns, the nuts, the berries, and had just deemed them all perfect. "Right, I think we're ready to start the festival!"
A cheer burst out from the horde of creatures, and the party began.
To begin the performances, a group of birds flew an impressive routine of dramatic loops and dives, which was met with cheers.
The imps tap-danced their way through the crowd, pickpocketing gleefully as they went, and when their routine was finally concluded with a standing ovation, their pockets were jingling with gold.
Soft music from various woodwind instruments accompanied the dancing fairies and pixies, while the gnomes and dwarves stood watching them, downing jugs of mead with gusto and getting drunker by the minute.
As a fairy pulled off an impressive pirouette, one of the gnomes let out a whistle of appreciation, while another clapped enthusiastically. The fairy flushed, looking pleased, and curtseyed in their direction.
"Pass me some mead, sweetheart," a dwarf grunted at one of the sprites, who had taken a break from dancing and was pouring herself a glass of nectar.
She poured a jug of mead and held it out to him, but before his stubby fingers could close around the handle, the sprite suddenly drew back and downed the whole jug herself. The dwarf looked affronted, but impressed. She winked at him. "Too little, too late, sweetheart."
The dwarf, who looked ready to drop down on one knee and propose to her, poured another two jugs of mead and offered one to her. She took it with a raised eyebrow. The dwarf hiccoughed slightly and said, "the first one to drink five of these, wins."
"What do I get as a prize?" the sprite asked, looking amused.
"Me," he replied, unaware of the fact that most sprites were repelled by his stoutness and alarmingly thick eyebrows.
This sprite, however, simply shrugged. "Fine by me," she said, and the two began to drink.
Meanwhile, the birds and butterflies were soaring across the field, basking in the fiery gold and pink glow of the sunset. The sky was slowly turning purple, meaning night would soon come. Even so, the party would go on, for the lanterns were there, glowing brighter in contrast to the darkening sky.
The paper lanterns were soon joined by fireflies, which darted around the heads of fairies and gnomes alike, glowing cheerfully and doing loop-de-loops around the lanterns.
The happy jig that the fairies were playing on the wooden instruments during the day, was soon replaced by a slower, calmer tune, which echoed through the clearing. The trees seemed to be swaying to the music, while the dance floor was full of slow dancing fairies and dwarves. The dwarves had to lean on each other, since they were too drunk to stand upright.
The chatter eventually diminished among the creatures. Many nodded off to sleep as the lanterns began to dim. The only remaining lights were from the fireflies and the pale moon, high above them, casting a silvery beam on their clearing.
The fairy with blue wings stepped onto a podium. "Excuse me!" she called.
A dwarf awoke with a grunt, while a sprite stirred. The gnomes nudged each other awake while birds swooped around, chirping in the ears of imps to wake them.
"I know you all want to sleep. I promise I'll keep this short," the fairy started off, speaking more slowly than usual so they caught her every word. "I'd just like to thank you all for your contributions to this festival. All of you did a wonderful job."
"I would've done a better job if I'd had a chance to use my ax," the tall gnome muttered.
"As a thank you from me, I will make sure that each of you gets the task you want next year," she continued, with a pointed look at the gnome who spoke. He flushed pink at being called out, but mouthed a thank you at the fairy.
"No more whittling instruments!" a dwarf exclaimed in delight. "Good riddance, I almost cut my pinky finger off earlier."
While the crowd murmured their approval, the fairy held up a hand to silence them, though she was smiling as widely as any of them. "The summer solstice gives us a chance to savor the day. It's an opportunity to dance our hearts away, to chatter and mingle, and to drink until we flirt with everyone in the vicinity."
"Hear, hear!" the stout gnome shouted.
Though several people laughed, the fairy pushed on. "So, I'd like to propose one last toast." She held up a glass of mead, as did everybody else, the dwarves with more enthusiasm than any other. "A toast to the midsummer, a time of joy and mischief, of love and laughter, to everyone who lives in this wood. As the sun lives on, so shall we. Make the most of it."
As the woodland creatures clinked their glasses together, and the midsummer breeze trickled through the trees, the fireflies fluttered above, keeping the light alive, as the sky deepened to a velvet midnight.