Meadows
I remember a time where we, the fairies of a beautiful and healthy meadow, sat on the grass, the soft green swaying in the wind. I would roll down the hills while the sun blanketed us with its warmth. Me and my brother would run around the meadows of flowers, trying to catch each other, always smiling, always laughing. While the King would watch us from the towering trees, and my mom would tend to her seaming dresses, she made the most beautiful designs with her imagination alone.
My childhood years were simple, and they were fun. Yet, all things must come to an end… a very ugly end.
Thousands of fairies in that glorious meadow would be taken by surprise, the only hint was swift, too swift for anyone to react in time. Goblins, green and hideous creatures with malicious intentions ripped through us like a worm to a bird. The goblins caused immense chaos, fairies dying instantly from the strength of the Goblins or dying slowly in the flames of the scorching sun that took refuge in the grass.
One of those fairies was my beloved mother.
In all the confusion she tried to keep us close to her, guiding us with what little strength she could muster with the wounds inflicted on her aching body. I remember her face so well, fear etched on every feature as she ran with scorched feet, teeth gritting as she fought to keep both her children in her arms. I was young, but I can read her so well when I replay this memory in my mind. She knew she wasn’t going to make it, and she feared for us. How it would feel nice to be able to grab her from my dreams and tell her everything would be fine, what a dream that would be to make it real.
I don’t know which God or Goddess she prayed to, but we, me and my brother, were grabbed by caring souls, away from her doomed one. In the end, when panic ceased and that meadow was brown and smoldering. Here, I witnessed the Great Burning, an event every fairy will tell you was a tragedy and massacre.
Sorrow and hatred followed soon after. Survivors were looking to the King to seek vengeance on the Goblins, thus the imperials were formed to give us hope that we were protected, but for some this was not enough—it could never be enough. Within our species, the joyous trumpeters who had once been mischievous with their songs in the festivals of delight turned into violent barbarians with witty formations in the forests, killing goblins at random as they took their revenge. And for a time, fairies cheered on these proud performers, carrying out our envision of justice, along with Queen Tatiana who stood at the forefront each time they returned.
His royal majesty, King Oberon, however, was not delighted with these fairies, he was in fact, enraged by them for seeking out conflict. Rogue fairies he called them–Barbarians–he would soon dub them, no better than the Goblins who attacked our meadow.
Fairies were forced to choose sides by the King, where did they lie in loyalty to King Oberon? For once, every fae thought they could agree that Oberon was our one and only King, he was there to protect us.
No. The barbarians claimed loyalty to Queen Tatiana, and only Tatiana, disregarding Oberon as a coward unfit for their loyalty. The Queen didn’t hesitate to accept the barbarians as her people, further angering the King, angry enough to banish his own wife to the outskirts of their land near Goblin territory, along with her followers, the barbarians.
Other fairies sought out new territories in the name of King Oberon and new life, finding forests both light and dark. While in my colony, we remained in the burnt meadows, scavenging to keep ourselves alive, huddling together in fear that the goblins might return. A hellish start to our new reality.
You see, while me and my brother were struggling to find a decent living, the imperials and King were contemplating what steps our people would take next, and what we would be. In the years I grew up with grief, I watched a city be born in front of my very eyes.
In the beautiful and extravagant lands that we fairies call home, we were much like the human world. Always expanding, as well as evolving, our world getting bigger and turning into something much greater. Or at least that’s what the top fairies say, with all their political ambition and sweet talk, yes, they were the ones who got to have a minor say in what our world would be. As most of those decisions were made by King Oberon, along with his banished Queen, the beautiful Tatiana.
I was fifteen years of age when our home officially became “Midsummer City.”
