Fairy Sara - Short Stories

Fairy Sara - Father Spring

 The good fairy Sara was a little out of sorts this morning as she tended her garden. She often cared for her garden in the evening, when her spring fairy duties were finished for the day. However, today was the first day of summer, and the council was busy rearranging the schedule. Sara had a full day planned for her annual “first summer day vacation”, which included a post gardening nap in her hammock, then whatever else she felt like after she woke up. The garden was her first order of business, as she enjoyed the pride of working on it with her hands instead her fairy magic. Unfortunately, (or fortunately depending on your point of view) Sara’s day didn’t quite turn out as she expected, and we all know how sleepy a fairy can get when she doesn’t get her nap.

 So it was, that Sara’s day took an unexpected turn while digging up a particularly troublesome weed from her favorite daisies. Plunging her shovel into the soft dirt to uproot the weed, she heard a soft clang. She poked around gently for a moment and found an edge, prying up a large coin shaped object about the size of her palm. A quick swipe of her rag easily cleaned it, revealing a dark gold medallion. It had a slight bite of cold to it as she held it in her hand. She dropped it in her pocket, and finished cleaning up the daisies. Sara headed over to the hammock to have a seat and further investigate the medallion. Despite having been in her pocket, it was still slightly cold. She could make out an inscription around the edge, but it was in strange letters that she couldn’t read. On the back was a strange design of what looked like animals and flowers. The details were so intricate that it took a moment for her eyes to focus on the scene. She brought the medallion closer to her in an effort to see more, but the harder the looked the more out of focus the scene became. She felt like she was being pulled in, but couldn’t actually see where she was going. Then suddenly, as if the earth were pulled out from under her, she felt like she was falling. Panic gripped her as she fluttered her wings in an attempt to stop herself. She felt helpless in her plunge until, with a thump, everything went black.

 She awoke a bit confused. At least, she thought she was awake. She wasn’t sure because everything was pure white. It was so white, she thought maybe she was floating because she couldn’t see where the sky ended and the ground began. She couldn’t even tell what she was standing on, although it felt cold and hard through her slippers. It was almost as if she were inside a light bulb, except that it wasn’t hot nor did her eyes hurt from the light. The sky began to change color gently above her. Well, it was changing where the sky should be, sort of like the way the sky glows when the sun comes up early in the morning. Except that instead of red or pink, it was a fantastic shade of purple. It grew darker until the entire horizon was velvety smooth, though Sara could still not tell if she was standing on her feet or her head.

 She started walking forward a bit, just to make sure her feet worked. It was a strange sensation since she still could not tell where the ground was, although she clearly wasn’t falling. Off in the distance came a hissing sound of escaping air, but she couldn’t tell which direction. It seemed to be coming from all around her, growing louder as if it were an invisible train headed straight for her. A rush of air came up from underneath her, catching her wings and blowing her into the air. With only the purple sky, she had a difficult time telling how high she was off the ground. Goose bumps formed on her arms as the cool breeze kept her aloft. Off in the distance there was movement. She couldn’t tell what it was, but it seemed to be racing closer like a giant tidal wave. A rainbow of colors began to appear in the wave as it picked up speed. Sara wasn’t quite sure if she was going to be swallowed by the wave, but she flapped her wings harder in the direction she thought was up. Sara’s goose bumps gave way to beads of sweat as the wave of color raged closer. The breeze had become hot as she fluttered her wings furiously to get out of the way.

 Suddenly the wave roared past her with the sound of a thousand popcorn kernels exploding all around. She could now see that the wave wasn’t water, but countless flowers of all shapes and colors so dense that she could not see space between them. The wave left a thick carpet of flowers behind as it charged off into the distance, carrying the sound and breeze with it. Below her she could hear a rustling as a large circular space opened up for her to land. The ground was no longer white under the flowers, but a soft blue that complimented the purple sky. She gently set down upon the fresh grass below her and moved closer to the edge of the circle. A sort of sleepy warmth came over Sara as the scent of the flowers poured over her.  She leaned in close to the flowers and closed her eyes, as if she could nap here forever. The scent of a thousand flowers overwhelmed her, but somehow she could still smell each one. It was as if time stood still, allowing her to explore every individual pedal.