When Isla stepped into the fairy’s burrow, she expected there to be an abundance of trinkets and leaves, and so wasn’t prepared for the little hollow saturated in sap, pollen and petals. It wasn’t just a little bit of it, but the walls, floors and ceiling was dripping with sap pouring in through the tree, directed by vines to stop it from just dropping everywhere, even though it spread onto the floor anyway. Isla had to find stones protruding in the sea of sap to walk around without getting stuck to anything. The pollen made her nose crinkle, scattered and stuck in the pollen all over, with buckets of it in petals. The fairy flew around, not bothered at all by the sap, and dropped into a pile of different coloured petals, snuggling into them as she waited for Isla to get close.

There were a few trinkets scattered amongst the sap, but the Fairy seemed to be comforted by the glittering of the sap, the smell of the pollen and the softness of the petals. Isla slowly made her way over, jumping from stone to stone to the Fairy’s bed. She noticed that some of the pollen was collected in clumps and some of it was dusted over the sap. It was like an art exhibit but all around her. The sap looked like honey, bathing everything in amber light that bounced as the result of a small orb of light that hovered in the top of the hollow, fuelled by the magic of the Fairy.

The hollow grew narrow at the top, reminding Isla of bulky flower vases. She imagined that if the tree was clear, the Fairy’s home would look amazing as a vase. She reached out and touched some of the sap, surprised that it was hard in places, like cold taffy. She fought the temptation to lick it, guessing it probably wouldn’t taste as sweet to her as it looked. She wondered how many of the items, petals and pollen were locked in the sap forever, seeing different time periods in all of the layers of collected items. It was like a personal time capsule the Fairy had created for itself. At this realisation, Isla felt moved for having been invited and allowed to witness such a beautiful sight.