The flightless fairy

What did I do wrong to go through all this? Yes, I can’t fly; that’s a shame. Being a fairy is all about flying, but then they can’t also run like me.” yes here I am sitting by the riverside reminiscing about yesterday ″ The fairy who can’t fly″ sounds funny right?

‘The finest fairies’ or whatever they call themselves, as usual, surrounded me. It was fine until that, but they started calling me names, telling me it was not my place, and that I would never belong. They started to sing their fairy song. ″Fairy song, the essence of life on earth. It is said this was the song that created life on Earth. Such an irony, right? These so-called finest of all are using it to make fun of a fairy, thinking I am weak... poor fairies, don’t even know half of me... and they call themselves the finest kinds ...first of all, not the appropriate word for any fairy, least for them out of all″

“I felt anger rushing through my veins as I listened to their foolish song.”

Ellie is her name, bringing us fairy shame.

She can’t fly, she can’t sing.

Oh, she is the witch of the West Wing.

Her hair is white like shining moonlight.

Of course, she is the goddess of night,

We poor fairies praying to light.

Oh, the lord take her away from our sight.

I have had enough of their nonsense. I knew these fairies had no brains, so I smirked and said to them,

‘Oh, the finest fairies! I know you all are the greatest of all, I know I am so bad at flying; I can never beat you at the bounded blood race.’

The stupid fairies discussed among them, I didn’t try to listen but they were too loud, and I caught their words... Ah! Avery was speaking, her fierce voice, usually harsh and mocking seemed now totally amused, with long blue hair, and big black eyes, who can say that this beauty is the biggest bully, a forced leader, always dominating others, with two minions of her, always following her...

’finally, we got the perfect chance to show her real place. Thankfully, the leader went to the east. Otherwise, he never favored these kinds of things. What does he usually say, yes, “When the promise is made in the name of blood, the one who loses the race has to fulfill one wish of the other. If they don’t, they can lose their wings and never fly, even with magic, and see my young fairies, it’s so dangerous that’s why we will never allow it'' she completed with the bad mimicry of our clan leader.

By the looks of them, I got to know my arrow had perfectly hit the target; I smiled, looking at their faces. I had nothing to lose, as I couldn’t fly even with wings. It was them for whom everything was at stake. As I planned, they agreed. Little did they know about my speed. The race started, and I stood at my place, letting them think they were winning. I started when they covered half of the journey. And when they reached, I waved at them. I was so happy to look at their faces; they were shocked and startled. How can a fairy run like that without her wings?

I circled them around, enjoying their afraid faces. And then I said, ‘Now I can ask for one thing, right?’

They gulped as they knew I could ask for anything.

“Don’t worry, I will not ask it today. Let the right time come.” I continued with my overly sweet smile, And then with my hands folded backward and whistling, I moved forward, enjoying my favorite enemies stagnant at their places

‘No,’ I thought, “not enemies, though! As they are not my level, they are nuisances like pests.” I chuckled at my thoughts as I saw their faces in the reddish clouds floating in the sky, Yes, lizards, exactly! The perfect name for them. No, a lizard is still okay. I mean, they look smooth and cute! How about chameleon? Yes, chameleon is perfect! I reached the conclusion thinking about how elegantly they act in front of the leader.

As I saw the birds now returning to their nest, their home, and clouds floating back, drowning in the darkness my mind spilled out its deepest question, its deepest mystery, Who am I? No, as if contradicting itself, it reframed the question, what am I?

As I was lost in my world, thinking of the possibilities, if I could just fly... if I had wings, how different my world would have been... I heard a voice I can never forget even after my 1000 births...

‘Hey Ellie, what are you doing here? Are these again the finest kinds? You know I swear I hate these finest kinds the most. What do they think of themselves just because they can control more than one element at once? It doesn’t make them the best.’

‘Oh, leave it, Ethan. You know how they are, You know what happened?’ I then narrated to him what happened yesterday so I could calm him...

Yes, he is the nicest dumbhead young boy when he is calm, but not when he is angry and why would he not be like that? he is the fire fairy, the reason for light and energy on Earth, but when not in a mood can burn everything. He was always there for me since my childhood. When others called me a freak, he would make them run away using simple fire tricks.

As I completed mocking the finest fairies, scrunching up my nose, and enlarging my eyes, he laughed hard, totally rolling over the grass, Yes,'' the grass of light,″ as our elders have named them, as they are the reason for the light in fairyland, the place where fireflies lay eggs, out of which comes out the fireflies, they take care of them, protect them, and nourish them like a mother.

‘See Ethan, small fireflies are being born. That’s why these grasses lately stopped singing at night.’ I said

Ethan nodded his head and we looked around. The sight was enchanting, with grass unfolding its curls and fireflies taking flight, coming out of their eggs. Light was everywhere, not the slightest sight of misery in nature.

Grasses were waving goodbyes as fireflies gleamed as if saying: “We will miss you too, take care and don’t worry., we will be fine.”

“You know, what, Ethan...” I paused trying to control my emotions but my voice and heart rebelled, and words took their path out of my mouth, “Even fireflies know what they are, who they are, what am I, Ethan? Will I never get to know?” as I completed my sentence, my eyes full of tears I found him, coming towards me, and then he slowly touched my flowing white hair strand and tugged it beside my ear and just hugged me, and before I could control I started to cry, but with him being there, no, it isn’t possible, he said something that made me chuckle hard and angry at the same time,

“You know, you are too much a devil for this little fireball to handle,″ he said and then pinched my cheeks,

'You wish for a death now?' I said rubbing my cheeks

''So now spill the fairy dust, from where you got that speed?'' he asked now all in his serious tone, and now is my turn, to get revenge, I maniacally silently laughed,

“It’s a secret, I will never tell,” I said in a sing-song way and ran away from there, with Ethan following me. Then he caught me (it was more like I allowed him) twisted my hand and asked,

“Tell me, or you know what I am capable of.

What can you do?” I asked innocently,

“Don’t act dumb, Ellie. You know my tongue has become involuntary lately. It may let slip a few words regarding you stealing leaders—” he paused showing his ugliest mischievous smile...

“Okay, okay, I’ll stop, I am telling you... you... little devil fireball,”

I sighed knowing there was no way out slowly I got glimpses of the night before my birthday, ‘You know, the night before my birthday...,’

″It was three days ago yes... what happened?″ he intervened...

Let me finish first, fireball, don’t interrupt me understood...?″ I said with an evident anger in my voice...so ...Where was I yes... I had a dream of hearing a voice telling me to follow them. I was afraid, but that voice said they were waiting for me, and they said, ' I am not aware of what I am capable of’. Then it was like my brain neurons stopped working as I followed it involuntarily. After a few moments, I found a glowing light from a big tree with golden leaves. looked around myself, I observed, you know Ethan, ... it was neither Earth nor Heaven. I visited the latter when I was a child, you remember, that trip, as you know heaven is more lively, but that place was surrounded by clouds and that tree. As I touched the tree, I woke up and found myself outside my room. At first, I thought I must have been sleepwalking. However, upon looking around, I realized that I was about 100 km away from paradise. I panicked and started running, only to find that I returned here in 10 minutes.″

“That’s crazy,” he exclaimed.

“Yes, it is indeed,” I agreed, mentally calculating the speed,

‘very crazy’ I added.

“Do you think we should inform the leader?” he asked, in his very timid voice,

“Let’s wait for now. Don’t tell him,” Also he is not in paradise right now, I added, thinking, that’s what The Finest Kinds said...

Then we sat together as Ethan started humming slowly and I got lost in his beautiful voice as he was singing the real fairy song unlike the finest kind ones, that sings about life and love and happiness, which can lift the mood of even whithering flowers, filling them with hope and life, I started to listen, the song was going like

As the sun kisses the river,

making her shiver,

As the wind blows toward the east,

sending fresh love to Fairie’s heart,

As fireflies fly away from the grass,

waving goodbyes to home abode,

We sit by the river,

singing nature’s song

I felt sudden calmness as I got lost in his voice, I wondered how it would have been if Ethan hadn’t been in my life. It would have been disastrous, however, he is very annoying I thought caressing my cheeks... the only one who looked past my white hair was him and a sudden smile came onto my face...

He asked ’What happened... meus Albus... ′ I shook my head in a no, not before, chuckling at his words meus albus... the words were enough to make me blush to resemble the rose-tinted peach blossoms beside the river that separated our paradise from the mountain, beyond which lies the ocean and we just sat together till our hair got all shiny in the moonlight sky... As I gazed at Ethan’s face, I couldn’t help but compare it to the moon. I wondered who shone brighter - the moon or his face...