Beyond the Firefly Field by R.E. Munzing

walk along the branch. It was too much to take in all at once.
    They came to a smaller branch protruding from the branch they were on. It curved over them at twice their height and supported a tiny swing. A split twig—with twine fastened to each end—secured the swing to the branch above and swayed gently in the soft breeze. Penny gave it a light, longing push on her way by.
    As the branch widened to allow five or six to walk abreast, the group passed a rocking chair sitting on a raised, round lump in the branch. The rocking chair was also made of twigs twined together. A large leaf canopy was attached to the back of the chair. Acting like a sail, the leaf caught the gentle breeze and rocked the chair, which slowly circled on a track the chair's rockers had worn around the lump. No one was sitting in the chair, but it rocked happily anyway.
    Soon they arrived at a spot where another branch joined theirs to become a much larger limb. Near this spot, a smaller branch jutted from the one they'd been exploring. There, a tiny door in a knothole boasted large, carved hinges, and a rose was etched into the center. Above the rose was a window from which a light shined.
    As Penny was about to ask what was inside, they encountered a group of fairies. Three girls and one boy, all looking to be about SeeLee's age, happily greeted them. The quartet appeared to be the good friends SeeLee had wanted them to meet.
    SeeLee introduced the humans to AnDrin, MarLan, LeeLan, and NarVan. The girl fairies were dressed in SeeLee's style, but with different color schemes and designs. NarVan's clothes were like ArEnTa's, featuring straight-line designs. They all had golden or bright-yellow hair as long as SeeLee's, and wings that folded and flowed far past their hair. All had thin bodies and young, innocent, but inquisitive faces.
    Two of those faces were identical and seemed especially interested in Phil and Paul, whose faces looked “identically interested” right back at them. After an initial moment of silence on both sides, SeeLee's friends had many questions to ask the children.
    They asked questions about their human clothes and wanted to know about colors, fabrics, and stitching. They were particularly interested in shoes, as fairies didn't wear them. They also asked about daily lives, what humans did, what they ate, and how they had fun. The adventurers discovered that many of the games fairy children played were copied from watching humans. They all talked about playing these games as if they had been playing them with each other.
    The fairies had many questions to ask about television, as apparently some fairies had seen the flickering box through people's windows at night. The fairies were creatures whose days were filled with happiness, love, and a life of harmony with the creatures around them, and what they saw on television sometimes frightened them.
    Even though the seven expected to be the ones asking questions, they were busy answering them instead and explaining things seen on television.
    During all the talking, Penny had been edging closer to
    SeeLee. Now seeming to be a few inches shorter than SeeLee, Penny quickly adopted the fairy as an older sister. Clasping SeeLee's hand for reassurance, Penny gazed in awe around her.
    There were several tables where SeeLee's friends were busily making clothing. Patterns for shirts were spread out and looked almost finished. One shirt was heavily adorned with knife sheathes boasting intricate designs around each one. Penny assumed this garment belonged to NarVan. There were also piles of long, thin leaf strips of tan, brown, and green on the tables. Beside them, acorn caps were half filled with beads, stones, feather pieces, and tiny flowers. A dozen wooden knives were stacked beside NarVan's shirt.
    â€œOh, how pretty!” Penny exclaimed as she left SeeLee's side to examine the garments. The fairies started to pack up their day's work. They explained that the shirts