Across the Green Grass Fields

★ ★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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Regan slowed again, suddenly eager for her journey to take as long as possible. Maybe that was why the shape in the nearby growth caught her eye, and she stopped abruptly, sending a pebble clattering into the creek as she cocked her head and blinked at what was surely a trick of the light.

Two trees had grown around each other, branches tangling and twisting like the wicker of a basket. They looped in and out of one another's embrace, until they formed what looked almost like a doorway. That was interesting, but not unique; branches often grew together, and the shapes they made in the process could be remarkably architectural. She'd seen castles in the trees when she was little, castles and dragons and all manner of fabulous things.

But she'd never seen a doorway before.

ACROSS THE GREEN GRASS FIELDS

excited

...and there were people. Centaurs like the ones Regan knew. More delicate centaurs with the lower bodies of graceful deer and the spreading antlers to match. Satyrs and fauns and minotaurs and bipeds with human torsos but equine legs and haunches, like centaurs that had been clipped nearly in half. It was a wider variety of hooved humanity that Regan could have imagined.

ACROSS THE GREEN GRASS FIELDS

It had been more than five years since Regan ran away from school on purpose and ran away from home by mistake.

ABC After School Special

* Readers of a certain age might want to consult with a parent to fully understand that reference

Across the Green Grass Fields

The Wayward Children