Chapter 58: 46. Theories Abound

"Everyone just calm down ok?" Brooke said in a quiet but firm voice. "The terrain is hilly, there's lots of plants and trees around us. That's probably going to muffle any noises from the road, and we're at least a quarter kilometre away from it anyways."

She added, "The lack of other hikers could be as simple as the fact that it's a Tuesday afternoon right? Serious hikers would probably be looking for more challenging trails, and casual hikers might be at work or something. Or worst-case scenario, folks are staying away because they've heard about the disappearances."

"Right," Paige nodded. "So let's just keep going, we're almost at the top of the hill. Then it should be easy enough to get our bearings and find what we're looking for."

That helped the rest of us feel a bit better, and we all started moving again. At the top of the hill we found the other trail, where we turned to the right and half a minute later we were at the base of the communications tower. It stood in a small clearing, with a maintenance shack next to it. The trail was a lot wider from there onwards to the north, where it probably connected to that main road.

"Perfect," Marissa stated. "So now we can retrace our steps south, stick to this path, and we should find that little pond on our right after about two hundred meters. Right here's where the horseback rider realized his girlfriend was missing, and the last place he knew for sure she was with him was at that pond."

Melanie pointed out, "We know there's at least one fork in the trail between there and here. She could have headed down the hill on the path we came up on."

The young blonde shrugged "Sure. But why would she? And where'd she go after that? She's still missing, so's her horse."

"I'm just pointing out there might be a non-magical explanation," the wolfgirl replied. "Let's go see if there's a magical option the cops missed."

The seven of us all turned around and set off back to the south. We passed the way we came as we continued towards the pond, and after another half minute Melanie stopped.

"There's supernatural scent here," the wolfgirl stated as she looked around with her nose twitching. "It sort of reminds me of that Brian guy, but not quite. So probably some kind of fae?"

Marissa asked, "You're sure it's not him?"

"Positive," Melanie nodded. "If it was his scent I'd recognize it. This is similar, but it's definitely not him."

"Lead the way Melanie," Paige said. "But be careful ok? Everyone keep your eyes and ears open."

Our resident werewolf continued guiding the rest of us south. The trail had a slight curve to it then opened up again, and we spotted the pond up ahead on the right. We didn't get that far though, as Melanie stopped again then turned to the left.

Just off the trail the trees sort of opened up into a small grassy meadow. It was only about five or six meters across, with bushes along the edges just inside the trees. Everything was green enough it was almost hard to see from the trail, despite being only a couple meters away from the path.

The wolfgirl led us between the trees and some bushes, then all seven of us emerged into the tiny meadow. And right there in front of us, plain as day was a ring of toadstools sticking up out of the ground.

"There's faint magic on those," I warned as I pointed to the toadstools. "I can just make out the glow."

"Seriously?" Marissa grinned. "Magic mushrooms?"

Melanie rolled her eyes, "Do not go picking them Marissa! I don't care how important shrooms are to your Touhou idol, you're not her and wild mushrooms are dangerous."

"I know I know," the brash young witch replied as she rolled her eyes. She seemed disappointed though as she stared at the magic toadstools.

Meanwhile the others started looking around the meadow, and Paige pointed to the far side. "We're right near the edge of the hill here, and there aren't that many trees over that way. I'll bet at night we'd be able to see lights from all the houses to the east from here, which means they'd be able to see any lights going on in here."

"Agreed," Brooke nodded. Our former leader added, "Let's spread out and check around the meadow, but absolutely do not step inside the ring of toadstools ok? Better still stay clear of them, we don't want to risk even touching them."

I asked, "What would happen? Would we get whisked away to fairyland or something?"

"Probably not," Kaylee replied. "Definitely not in the middle of the afternoon like this. But you might make the fae angry, and I don't think any of us want angry fairies or pixies after us."

"Oh. Ok," I shrugged.

It was hard to feel scared of fairies though, especially considering I still thought of them as tiny people with butterfly wings. Plus having a couple powerful angels for parents and a demonic half-sister made me think the fae would probably have second thoughts about coming after me. On the other hand I couldn't be sure they wouldn't go after my friends too if I upset them. And there was no point in needlessly antagonizing anyone, so I made sure to stay clear of the mushrooms as I wandered around the little clearing.

Nina and Kaylee both sort of stuck near me, my little sister was by my left and my girlfriend on the right. Meanwhile Melanie and Marissa went to take a closer look at the toadstools, and the other two girls went to the opposite side of the small meadow to verify that they could see the houses off in that direction. And everyone pulled out their phones to take pictures and stuff, like of the ring of toadstools and the clearing in general.

After a minute or so of quiet Kaylee spoke up. She sounded a little uneasy as she asked, "Anyone else feel like we're being watched?"

"Yeah," Marissa nodded. "I didn't want to say anything incase it was just me."

Brooke agreed, "I feel it too."

"There's no other scents around," Melanie stated. "I mean, nothing fresh? No humans, even the fae scent is old. Apart from that it's just the normal forest smells. And sounds, these big fuzzy ears aren't just for show."

After another few seconds our ex-leader nodded, "We might just be over-reacting. Or maybe the residual magic of the fairy-ring is messing with us a bit, making things seem creepy."

Everyone was quiet again for a bit as they thought about that and continued to look around.

Then I asked, "So what's our next step? I'm guessing we've confirmed this is a club thing right? People are being kidnapped and hauled away to another realm?"

"Yeah," Paige sighed. "Monora Forest is definitely not safe for mundane humans. Dawn and dusk will be the most dangerous, but honestly if the fae have claimed these woods then it's really not safe at any time."

Brooke added, "That might explain the lack of any trail signs? If the fairies have decided this is their place they could have removed anything they felt didn't belong."

"So they got rid of a bunch of little unobtrusive trail markers but left the huge steel communications tower?" Melanie asked.

That made the tall blonde grimace, "Yeah ok, good point."

Kaylee suggested, "Maybe the communications tower's too big for them to move or get rid of? If they've claimed this area that could explain the lack of cell service and the weird compass readings. Like they couldn't get rid of the tower so they've disrupted it instead?"

"Maybe?" Paige shrugged. "I don't know enough about fae to say what they can do, let alone guess their motivation."

Marissa asked, "So what do we do about it? We've got an Incident on our hands. Are we here to kick the fae out and make the forest safe for people again, or do we need to somehow convince the town to seal off the woods as a safety hazard?"

Melanie frowned, "How would we even do that? Tell the mayor there's fairies lurking in the woods? That's not going to go over well. Anyways we're supposed to keep the supernatural secret right? If we go making a big deal about this with normal people we'll get that stupid council coming after us."

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Kaylee sighed, "This is the sort of thing we really need May's help with, isn't it? We'd let her know and she'd talk to the council, or maybe she'd know someone else who would handle it."

"Or she'd take care of it herself," I said with a frown. "She's a goddess, she could probably boot the fairies out herself. Or ask them to go? I wonder how many times she handled stuff herself but told us the council did it. I wonder what really happened to Mrs. Reeves."

Everyone else was quiet at that point, and both Kaylee and Brooke looked uncomfortable. Melanie and Marissa had thoughtful expressions on their faces, while Paige frowned like she wasn't sure what to do next.

Then to everyone's surprise, Nina spoke up. Or at least, she spoke. As usual her voice was soft and she sounded quiet and shy as ever.

"Marissa?" my little sister asked the young blonde witch. "You said the lights here started at the vernal equinox right?"

"Yeah, that's what folks were saying on the local group chat," Marissa nodded. She gestured towards the houses to the east, "Some of the people living over there started reporting dancing lights in the woods here in the second half of March."

Nina sighed, "I think Brian's involved after all. Maybe he hasn't been here recently, but this is probably where he crossed over."

"He came at the vernal equinox," she added as she looked to me. "He was supposed to start preparations for the last part of Socha's plans for you."

Kaylee and a few of the others looked uneasy about that, but I just frowned as I thought back.

"The first time I saw him was that triple-date night," I said after a few moments. "That was towards the end of March, so definitely after the equinox."

Brooke pulled out her phone and scrolled back through her calendar app then announced, "The equinox was on the twentieth, our date night was the twenty-third, so that checks out."

I looked over at Marissa and asked, "You said one of the disappearances was in early June right? What day exactly?"

The young blonde nodded, "Sunday June sixth, that was the first disappearance. The guy who was hiking first thing in the morning. Why?"

"That was the day after you and Melanie kicked his ass in my hospital room," I replied. "May's magic put me in the hospital on Friday June fourth, Brian tried to attack the morning of Saturday June fifth. Now I'm thinking he took off back to wherever he came from the very next morning. And maybe he ran into some innocent bystander and took the guy with him for some reason?"

Melanie frowned as she looked to Nina and asked, "Would Brian have taken a random human with him? What do fae do with people anyways, after they kidnap them?"

"I don't know," Nina replied awkwardly. She added, "He was probably angry about being beaten up by a couple high-school girls but I'm not sure he'd take that out on some poor hiker."

Marissa prompted, "And what would he do with a human after kidnapping him?"

My little sister looked more awkward, like she didn't really want to answer that. So my girlfriend spoke up and saved Nina the trouble.

"It depends what myths or stories you read," Kaylee responded. "Most of them say fae are tricksters or pranksters, but their games can be lethal. And whatever games they play are usually rigged in their favour, so they're definitely not to be trusted."

She looked awkward too as she added, "Basically they use humans for sport or entertainment, and the humans rarely if ever live to tell the tale."

We were all quiet again for a few moments, until Marissa came up with a question.

"So the theory is Brian opened a door or portal here in March when he arrived, and that he took the hiker with him when he went back home in June?" she asked. "The problem with that is the second disappearance happened two weeks ago, and the dancing lights are still happening. Does that mean Brian came back? Or how do we explain the rest of the problem? Because this Incident is still unresolved as far as I'm concerned."

"Dancing lights means fairies or pixies," Brooke replied. "Even if it was Brian who opened the door in March, maybe he never bothered to close or lock it behind him. Now we've got other fae using it. And they're probably behind the second disappearance."

Paige stated, "They might be behind the one in June as well. We're only speculating that Brian left the day after he was beaten at the hospital, but there's a problem with that part of the theory."

"If he's the one who's behind those enchanted plushies," she continued, "Then he was still in town by mid-June when they all disappeared from the vending machines. May and Melanie both confirmed the machines were emptied about two weeks after that encounter. So Brian couldn't have left on the sixth after all."

I pointed out, "He could have come back again afterwards. If this is like an open door now he could come and go as he pleases."

"He hasn't been here lately," Melanie stated. "His scent would be around if he was here any time in the last week or two, and there's no trace of him. There's something fae in the air, but it's not him."

At that point it seemed like everyone started talking at once. Or almost everyone, me and Nina were quiet. Kaylee was debating with Paige and Marissa, while Melanie and Brooke were arguing about whether or not fae could hide or disguise their scent and if werewolfs could be fooled by scent-altering magic.

My little sister and I both sort of wandered a few steps away from the others just to get away from the noise.

"What do you think Nina?" I asked her quietly.

She shrugged and replied just as softly, "I don't know Cass. I think Brian's the reason fae are here, but I don't think he kidnapped the humans. He never did stuff like that before, as far as I know."

I thought about that for a moment then asked, "Do you think he's given up and gone home? Or back to wherever he came from?"

Nina seemed to consider that for a few seconds. Then she grimaced, "I think he's gone, but he'll be back. I think he'll try again to finish Socha's plans. He'll be eager to show how he's still loyal, and to tell her I've been helping you. He won't try again right away though, it'll take him a while to figure out a new strategy on his own."

"We should probably tell my parents about that," I suggested.

Before she could respond Paige suddenly raised her voice over all the talking.

"Ok we're not getting anywhere standing around arguing with each other. And we're not going to accomplish anything right now," our new club leader stated firmly.

She glanced around at the rest of us to make sure she had everyone's attention then continued, "So what we're going to do is head home, and do some research. Everyone's welcome to do some digging, but I'm going to be looking to Kaylee and Marissa and myself to find some solutions. Kaylee since it's your specialty, me because I've helped you with that in the past, and Marissa because this is your find."

"What are we looking for?" Kaylee asked.

"How to close this portal and make sure it stays closed," Paige replied. "I don't want to get into a confrontation with the fae, so our best bet is to just lock the door so they can't come over anymore."

Then she looked at our resident wolfgirl and asked, "Melanie? Please lead the way back to the car. Everyone stick together, let's not have anyone get lost."