Fairy Child

Moonlight glinted in the night. The sparkle of wings that were invisible except for the cascade of colors that they splashed across the trees lining the grove. She held her breath, holding perfectly still under the bushes. Legends said that you could become a child of fairy if they trusted you to appear. Legends said they would grant you magical abilities. And everyone told her the fairies didn’t exist but she knew the legends were more truth than the feeble world they could see. Silver moonbeams shifted across her hazel eyes from the edge of the toad stools that grew in clusters among the roots. They were right at her fingertips. “Please let me see you,” she thought so loudly she was sure that they had to hear. She knew that legend said if you entered the toad stool ring- you gave the fairies power over you. But it was also probably her best chance to see them. She scanned the toadstool, still hardly breathing. Her eyes traced the full circle until she found herself staring down at her hands. Watching her left-hand lift, trembling. Almost without her consent it rose slowly over the toadstool and with a resounding motion it landed inside the circle. She leaned across the toadstool line, acutely aware that the glimmer of lights had sparkled across the circle far from her as they could. There she froze- unable to leave, but too scared to push farther. Glancing to and fro at the glinting lights that were slowly, but very certainly moving closer toward her again. “PLEASE,” she screamed in her head. Then she felt tiny feet walking up her ring finger. Hardly daring to look, she peaked down at her hand. There stood a small human-like creature. Its wings looked like sparkling glass, etched with lacy designs, shifting from blue to green that almost glowed with its own bit of moon light. Its facial features were shifted to a beauty that outpaced human features; long, slanted, almond eyes, narrow nose, and full lips. As she stared, it flitted its wings, and with a twirl grew to her size, sitting cross legged in front of her. Its nose pushing gently against her own. Its hair twisted around its face and a jeweled golden circlet rested across its brow.

“Little child,” its voice rang in her body, musical and resonate. “You desired to be a fairy child and even risked crossing into my fairy ring… Unique to be sure, I could kill you or keep you.” Dorothea let a small fearful whimper sound in her throat, but she held her eyes locked on its brilliant green eyes. “But, today, I am feeling generous and curious. You get your wish though you may come to regret it. Go now, leave me in peace- but return on the next full moon.” With that, it raised its head slightly and kissed her forehead. Heat seared through her and she was lifted, as if she were but a leaf in the wind and cast out of the circle. Slamming back to the earth 50 ft from the fairy grove, she lay in the underbrush, unable to move as the fairy fire spread through her body. Then she slept.