She wore flowers in her hair

Author's note, since I thought I was going on the 4th I'm going to try my hand at this one even though I really liked Chrissie's. I had some ideas just no time for the 4th. And if I get a chance maybe I'll swipe Chrissie's entry for today ;-) So here we go:
----------------

Sally Nelson had always had time to stop and smell the flowers. As a girl she would spend endless summer days behind her house, exploring the fairy trails her uncle Max had called them. Most of the trails led to the creek about a quarter of a mile away from the back yard. In the summer, sunlight would dapple the moss covered rocks. The creek almost tried up would be a haven for tadpoles. All around morning glories would climb up the trees turning the green moss covered bark of ash and brown bark of cedar blue with their trumpet blooms.

Those flowers were most coveted because Sally's favorite color was blue. For most of the year she would have to settle for a dandelion behind each ear. When her brown hair was long enough to be styled into a bun, she toyed with the idea of a lone stalk of lupine rising up like a feather, although when ducking under branches to follow the fairy trails, dandelions were more robust.

Every once in a while she would run into Jeremy and his older brother Louis and their gaggle of friends. Sometimes she would play capture the flag with them, but usually she would sneak off on her own.

Her uncle Max had said that some fairy trails will put you to sleep. And some will take you to far away lands, but above all you should always be polite and courteous to whomever you meet because you never know if they are a prince or princess who are in need of help.

The thought of meeting a princess always excited Sally. A magic princess would be best of course. Maybe a princess who could teach her to fly, or one who could snap her fingers and her trusty steed would appear from behind a tree.

Usually when she was "'splorin" as she told her mom, she would try to gather up a handful of other flowers, just in case she met the fairy princess that day. Today was a wonderful flower day. A dandelion behind each ear, a tiger lily from mom's front yard tucked in the bun behind her head (and fastened with hair scrunchi's) and a handful of dandelions, bachelor's buttons and straw flowers she had taken from behind the lot where that new house was going up, she felt ready to meet any traveler along the fairy trails.

She heard the gaggle of boys cruise down the dirt trail on their bikes. She hid behind a tree as they went by. Only Chuck huffing and wheezing in last place might have seen her, but if he did, he was too intent to catch up to his friends to say something.

Today just felt different. Maybe the sun coming through the trees was a little more green. Maybe the thunderstorm from last night had made the creek run just a little higher than normal. She wasn't sure, but there was definitely something in the air.

Sally chose a relatively unused left fork today and came down to the bend in the creek. Her slip on shoes made very little noise as she walked through the brush. The smell hit her even before she made it to the clearing.

She had never smelled anything like it and held her handful of flowers up to her nose to try and mask the scent. She could barely describe the smell later to her mom. It was a mix of that time they had gone to Uncle Max's cow farm and the time the neighbor's St. Bernard Duke had gotten stuck under the house and was covered in leaves when they got him back out. The smell almost made her eyes water.

Bursting out of the trees she was intent washing her face with creek water because even that would smell better. She stopped short of the creek, nearly dropping her bundle of flowers. A bear was lapping water from the creek not 8 feet away from her. Sally stood still, terrified and looking at each matted hair of the bear that appeared to have not noticed her. Seconds crept on and curiosity overtook fear. It wasn't a bear. It was alternately lapping up water like Duke, and cupping its hands to drink. Suddenly, whatever it was, stopped drinking and crouched,looking around intently. Thick matted brown fur covered almost every inch of its body, except for its face, hands and feet. The face was almost human, the hands and feet definitely were.

It looked right at first, and Sally thought about running away, but then remembered what her Uncle Max had said.

"Excuse..." her voice gave out and the meek word died on her lips. The thing's head whipped around on a thick neck and it looked at her with golden eyes. It stood up suddenly, but wasn't much taller than Sally's 4 feet. Quickly it turned to face her full on, she could see the muscles bulging under the fur, its breath picking up. Its mouth opened slightly and she could see long pointed teeth in four corners of its mouth.

"Excuse me." she said trying to find any shred of confidence, as she knew she couldn't run faster than it. It sniffed the air the way Duke did with rapid short sniffs, but its eyes never left hers.

She slowly brought up her bundle of flowers and held them out as much of a shield as it was an offering. "Are you lost? Would you like a flower?"

It backed up a step as her arms came out, but then began to close the distance between them. The entire time it was sniffing the air. Step, sniff. Step, sniff sniff. Sally's eyes began to water when it got within four feet of the creature. It was the worst smell she had ever experienced. Even worse than the time her grandma had cooked liver and onions and lima beans. Her arms lowered slightly and the tears in her eyes turned from the pungent smell to fear.

In a heartbeat, whatever it was and plucked out three bachelor's buttons and all the dandelions from her bundle and retreated a few feet away. Before she could protest it had popped all the dandelions into its mouth and seemed content to chew them while examining the bachelor's buttons.

A few seconds later it stood up and darted back to her. This time it got so close its breath tickled her ears and ruffled her hair.

"Stop that!" she giggled and moved back up the trail. It moved back a few feet and watched her.

"Would you like some more dandelions?" She pulled the dandelions out of her hair, fear abating somewhat. And held them out. Like lightning it swiped the dandelions out of her hand and popped them in its mouth. A crack of the brush across the creek whipped sally's attention from the thing in front of her to the much larger thing across the creek. She had decided that the thing next her was a gorilla, escaped from the zoo, but the the thing across the creek was so much bigger. That "gorilla" was several feet taller than her dad. Its hand grabbing a tree branch so high off the ground it would have taken Jeremy and Louis all day to devise a way to climb up to it. The near "gorilla" looked over then loped its way towards the other one. Seconds later both had disappeared into the trees.

She left the rest of her flowers next to the creek and came back later that day with an armful of dandelions. The next day she came back to see the dandelions still there. Thankfully at this time of year, it was easy to replace the old harvest with new. She added a few flowers too, to see if they were taken. Her mom told her that night that roses, nasturtium and a whole lot of other flowers in the garden were edible and much to her mother's chagrin, the next day most of the edible ones had vanished from the garden to be bundled into a little package.

On the third day when she went to check on the flowers, there was no sign of her bundle. The dandelions, roses, nasturtium, all were gone. In place of the package was a single flower with multiple shades of blue, some shades she had never seen before and it smelled so sweet she just had to take out the dandelion she was wearing and put the new flower in her hair.