"The Sidhe of the Danann" by Sara Dungavell

Robin’s heart ebbed in a tide of defeat.  She’d accomplished so much, and the sea was finally low enough to expose the path to the sidhe island, but now she stood vanquished before the rock cairn which marked the entrance to the sidhe.  She could find no entrance.  Robin and her guides Collen and Ginny had been searching for an hour.  Nothing was there.  Robin slumped on a rock near the cairn.  Despair struck her as forcefully as the waves hit the rocky path stretched between the island and the coast of Scotland.

“It’s ok, Robin.  You can go back and reread the fairy lay.  You probably have the wrong island; that’s all.  You’ll find the Tuatha De Danann,” Collen said, patting Robin’s sagging shoulders.

“The sidhe’s here!  We just can’t find the door,” Robin said angrily.  Collen backed off to stand by Ginny near the cliff edge.  They both stared out at the rolling sea that gnawed the sides of the crude path.

“. . . have to be sure. . . .”  Snatches of their conversation were flung back to Robin by the salty wind, flung back into her angular face like her goal of bringing the fairies back to the world.  Robin started to cry in frustration.  Collen came back.

“We’re thinking. . . .  The rocks!” Collen gasped.  Robin spun around and found that the cairn had disappeared.  She darted to the hole that had been revealed.

“Stairs!” she exclaimed happily, and flitted down, her small form quickly absorbed into the murky darkness.  Collen looked at Ginny, shrugged, and the two followed Robin.

Inside, the dark was chased away by Ginny’s flashlight and a huge cavern was unmasked.  Robin stood at the edge of the stairs that led further down to the vast cavern floor.  On all sides of the cave, even in the ceiling, were recessed nooks covered in gleaming crystal.

“The sidhe! And down there,” Robin gestured with her flashlight to a pillar in the middle of the cavern floor, “is the stone that’s supposed to wake the fairies.  Come on.”  There was a deep rumble as Robin put her foot on the first stair, and the stairway fell away.

“Hmm, seems there are traps,” Collen said as he grabbed Robin’s wrist to stop her from tumbling over the side along with the stairs.

“But how am I going to free the fairies if the stairs are gone?”  Robin demanded.  Collen shrugged.

“Well we could always try a rope,” Ginny said from behind them.

Soon they were down the rope to the floor far below.  Ahead of them glowed the green stone that would wake the Tuatha De Danann.  Robin once again set out in the lead towards the rock.  Another trap was set off.  A moat of flames sprang up around the green stone.

“You’re not making this very easy for me!”  Robin shouted at the crystal niches.  The sea of flames looked impassable.  As Robin stared unhappily at the fire, Collen started back towards the broken stairs.  He had an idea.  He was veiled by the gloom for a second, and when he reappeared he was slowly pushing one of the rocks that had made up the stairway.  Robin and Ginny ran to help.  Once they got the rock to the fire, Collen shoved it across the flames, making a causeway.  The three crossed easily.

The glowing green stone lay in front of them, humming.  Robin approached it cautiously, afraid of more traps.  Collen and Ginny hung back.  Trembling, Robin extended her hands to grasp the stone.  Holding her breath, she raised it from its column.  No traps went off.  In triumph Robin raised the stone above her head, and Ginny snatched it from her hands.

“What are you doing?” Robin asked angrily.

“Sorry,” Ginny said, Collen moving to stand beside her in support.  “The fairies are staying here.  The sea might not trap them anymore, but we’re destroying this stone before you can use it to wake them,” with that Ginny smashed the stone on the hard floor.  Instead of dying though, the humming grew in intensity as if released by the shattered stone.  The sound became louder and louder.  The floor began to shake with it, extinguishing the flames surrounding them.  The cave walls began to vibrate.  Collen and Ginny fell to the ground, hands clapped over their ears.  The sound was growing unbearable.  Then the crystal niches began to shatter, filling the cavern with a rain of glassy shards.  The humming stopped.  In the sudden eerie silence a host of misty forms stepped out of the crystal fog.  The largest figure stepped towards Robin.

“You have brought us back,” the Fairy King said in a booming voice.

“As I said I would, Father,” Robin said.  Ginny and Collen looked at each other in horror.  The King began to laugh as he, Robin, and the Tuatha De Danann host climbed out of the cave.