King Par’s Party
It had taken a very, very long drive for Ruby to escape the overwhelming city. Ironically, now that she’d finally arrived in the long stretches of greenery where she intended to hike, she’d give anything to find a car park. Finally, a sign pointed her to where these tiny, winding roads had been hiding one of them. As she got out, she realised that she was standing in the middle of a perfect circle of buttercups…and then the ground gave way beneath her.
Par, the fairy king, threw the very best kind of parties: dancing was, of course, encouraged, but there were also cakes, the freshest mixed juices, and boardgames of all types. King Par—short for Paranatellonta, not because these fairies were particularly into astrology but because he was named after their favourite source of short stories inspired by photos—danced and played with Ruby all night, and she forgot all about the worries in her concrete life. By sunrise, she decided to leave, and the fairy king merely smiled and let her. Oddly enough, the sign pointing to the car park looked very different in the daylight: it hadn’t been so bent before, so worn, so overgrown with moss; the houses shining their lights in the distance had changed their shapes, and the trees and flowers looked untouched by a human hand. Those of you familiar with fairy stories will know that time passes differently in the fairy realm, and that it only ever moves forward, no matter how hard Ruby tried to walk backwards into the circle of buttercups.
“Ah well,” the fairies said, holding out their hands to invite her to another dance, “what would be the point in returning to a time when ‘parking’ had to do with concrete rather than trees?”
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[Image description: A blue traffic sign pointing to the left, saying “parking”, set up on two grey poles. The sign is looking the worse for wear, overgrown by green moss and taped back together at the top. Around it, there’s a growth of buttercups, long grass, and an overgrown pollard willow. Behind it there’s a meadow, a horse in front of a shelter, and a row of houses, some of them with the lights on.]

















