Chapter Text
“Who are you? Where are we? Oh fuck what did you do to me?
The faerie, the only other being in the corridor, scoffed, “Who am I? Who are you? How do I know you didn’t do this to me?”
The human wanted to argue the third question, but got caught up on the second, “Who am I... Oh no, who am I?”
The human racked their brain trying to remember their name, or anything about their life, but they were coming up completely blank. They weren’t helped by the sweet smelling fog surrounding them which felt like it was permeating their mind. All they knew about themself was the situation they were currently in and the things in front of them. One: a faerie, tall, dark, with fine clothes seemingly made of solid silver-grey light with hair and eyes to match. And two: a corridor, smooth tall walls covered in overgrowth and reaching up to the pinkish orangish sky. It ended behind them, and stretched out an unknowable distance ahead of them. They were at a literal dead-end, their surroundings telling them nothing about who they were and how they ended up here.
“Who am I?” they muttered. They felt like if they could just figure that out, everything else would fall into place. “Who am I? Who am I? Who am I?”
“Why don’t we just call you Sunny? If it’s that important to you.”
The human looked back at the faerie, “What?”
The faerie was too busy putting on a performance of boredom to look at the human as they explained, “Because you’re from the Sun lands. We’ll just call you Sunny, since you’re so insistent that we have something to call you.” They only looked away from their silver nails and at the human after one incredibly incredulous look. “Oh, so because I’m from Faerie-land, I can be called a faerie, but you can’t be called Sunny since you’re from the Sun lands?”
“Should I just call you Faerie?”
The faerie laughed a single dry chuckle, “Of course not. You shall call me by my name, which I have managed to hold onto unlike some people.”
“And what name is that?”
“...Airy.” Another look from the human, “That’s just a coincidence! It’s short for my full name.”
“And what’s that? Airyland?”
“Oh you would just love my name, wouldn’t you? Well you’re gonna have to work pretty hard to get that.”
“Fine, be secretive. It’s not helping your case that you’re the one who put me here and took my name, neither is your calm demeanor.”
“Oh please, my evidence is air-tight. If I put you here or knew where we were, I would have left by now. If I wanted to eat you, your soul and dreams would all be mine. You are nameless, completely defenseless, a fact you loudly and immediately shared for the entire land to hear. I could have taken you for a meal, or a toy, or much, much worse, and there’s absolutely nothing you could do about it. Instead, I do the impossibly polite thing and I give you want you ask for, a name. That is more than enough evidence for me, don’t you think, Sunny?”
Sunny had to relent. They wanted to argue, but couldn’t find anything wrong with the logic. If they could get out of this fog and think clearly, they might be able to, but it was hazing their thinking too much.
“And as for my demeanor,” Airy continued, “I dunno, if you live in Faerie-land long enough, which I’m pretty sure I have. This kind of thing just happens every now and then. The whole land is a maze, sometimes it just decides to be more literal than usual. If you really want to leave and get away from me, we’re going to have to find a way out of here.”
Sunny looked down the one-way corridor, obscured by fog.
“Alright, let’s go.”
-
The first trial was impossible to miss. There had been plenty of twists and turns before this point but no actual branching paths forcing Sunny to make a choice. They were starting to feel like they would be walking down this glorified hallway forever when they came across it. It was a simple T-intersection. The easiest choice, left or right. While walking the single-pathed labyrinth, Sunny had already developed, or maybe remembered, a strategy to always turn left first, and then backtrack and turn right as needed. An easy strategy to help Sunny keep track of where they’ve already been. Airy certainly wasn’t going to help keep track. They were letting Sunny take the lead, constantly walking behind and getting distracted by the vines growing up and down the labyrinth walls, the bugs scuttling or flapping past, or the flowers and weeds growing up from the cracks; although several times, Sunny looked back to find Airy’s silver eyes watching them before going back to their distracted ditz routine. Each time, Sunny would blush a little and turn back to face the path so at least someone was paying attention to where they were going.
At the current intersection, Sunny made sure to pay extra attention after turning left, ready to build a mental map. But that wasn’t necessary. After only a few paces, they could see through the fog a table at the end of another dead-end. It was spread beautifully like the most extravagant feast Sunny had ever seen, and the smell overtook Sunny’s senses. Roasted game bird, steam still coming off it, candied vegetables, buttery rolls, potatoes, baked and mashed, soup kept warm over a tiny fire right on the table, and a set of breads and toppings to go with them, cheeses, jellies, jams, fruits, spreads, olives, mushrooms, seemingly anything Sunny could ever want. There were also flowers and live bugs Airy eyed hungrily. After walking up to the table and looking to see if there was anything else behind or underneath it, Sunny turned around and walked back the way they came.
“Hey. Hey!” Airy called after, “You’re not even going to consider having some. We don’t know when or if we’ll be able to eat again.”
Sunny’s stomach growled loudly in agreement, but their mouth retorted with, “Oh come on. That’s the most obvious trap I’ve ever seen. A glorious table spread with any food we could want. Even if this wasn’t Faerie-land I would be suspicious, and since this is Faerie-land, it is a guaranteed way to become trapped here forever.”
Airy looked back longingly, “Yeah... I guess it is a little obvious…”
Sunny snapped in their face to get the fae’s attention, “Hey, if you want it, go for it, but I’m going this way, where there’s a chance of figuring my way out.”
Airy continued to look back, but still followed Sunny as they went down the right corridor. This one was also a short path until it came to a dead end. But here, instead of a table, there was a cave opening, really just a divot in a rock wall. Within the opening there was a perfect circle, perfectly dark, and above the opening there was an etching that read:
To pass through and see what’s next
First you must pass this simple test
Only when your heart and sole are bare
Will you be able to pass through here
“Wow, a faerie maze that sucks at riddles and can’t even rhyme,” Sunny said, already removing their shoes.
“What?” Airy asked, lost.
“Next. Test. Bare. Here. They’re all slant rhymes. And ‘sole’ spelled like the sole of a foot. We have to be barefoot to pass through, see?” They tossed their shoe at the perfectly black hole. It clattered across and rested on it like it was stone. But when Sunny stepped on the same spot with their bare foot, it passed through without even a ripple of disturbance. They gave Airy a smug look before sitting on the edge of the hole and lowering both feet into it. They were able to pass through easily until they came up to their slacks, which began to bunch up around their calves.
“Yeah, it also says heart— heart like in your chest, not hart like a deer— and that doesn’t seem to be bare to me,” Airy jested.
Sunny gave them a snide side eye, and dropped it to look back at the hole. They knew Airy was right. They already weren’t thrilled to go without shoes, but that was worth it to show up the dim faerie. There was no upside to going through the rest of the labyrinth completely naked, except maybe…
“You know you’ll have to be bare as well,” Sunny pointed out to the fae.
Airy showed worry for one second before their airs returned to them, “What, this? This is just a glamour I forgot I had on. Faeries are much less concerned about our forms than humans are.”
“Then get rid of it,” provoked Sunny.
“Fine,” they said, and after a pause, made a brushing aside motion with their hand, and the silver-grey clothes fell away. Their previously done-up hair fell around their face and shoulders. Besides their surprisingly soft face they were long and angular, flat chest leading to flat stomach leading to a little patch of silver-grey hair and a little slit Sunny quickly down from to look at the long, lean legs below.
“Oh don’t be so modest,” Airy leaned over and tilted Sunny’s head up, making them look at the faerie’s shining eyes. They both stared for a moment before Airy’s face cracked a smile and they said, “It’s your turn.”
Sunny wished they could magic their clothes away, instead of having to remove their clothes piece by piece while the faerie watched. They were opposite to Airy in almost every way. Where Airy was flat in their chest and stomach, Sunny was round. (Their nipples and belly button felt extra noticeable compared to Airy’s non-existent ones.) Where Airy’s limbs were long and lean, Sunny’s were short and fat. The brown hair on their head was fashionably short, while the brown hair above their own vulva was long and wild.
The human and faerie just looked at each other for a moment before Sunny (blaming the fog for their slowness) turned around and back toward the dark hole, their shoe still siting on the apparent void. The prospect of entering a dark hole of nothingness in the ground of a faerie maze was much more daunting now that they were completely nude. And now they were realizing that they probably should have been this daunted the whole time.
“Well, hurry on with it,” Airy said, suddenly behind Sunny, giving them a gentle push. Sunny jumped and found themself submerged before they knew it, the void covering their eyes and leaving them blind. It was only through the many touches on their skin that Sunny knew they weren’t falling through a cave a rock, but being passed through a passageway of hands. All around them, identical hands with long fingers assisted gravity in bringing Sunny down, down, down through the darkness. Sunny struggled at first, but the more they struggled, the harder the hand gripped, and the slower they let Sunny descend. Shortly Sunny surrendered, and the hands gently moved them along, their body becoming titillated at the endless caresses.
One hand reached out and ran a finger up their exposed slit as they passed Sunny along. “Hey-” they started before another roughly twisted a nipple, causing them to cry out. The hands were all getting antsy at this point, the caresses turned to petting, the grips almost as tight as when Sunny was struggling, especially around their hips, ass, thighs and belly. They were just about to struggle again for real, when they were suddenly out of the cave, standing under a twilight sky. The hands were gone, but their body still responded to the feeling of them.