flight of the wingless pixie

flight of the wingless pixie (3 of 3)

This Pixie was in love with a man, and the notion of his death scared her in a way that nothing ever had. She couldn’t stand the thought, and the pain she glimpsed whenever she thought of it tore at her little heart so greatly she would break down in great sobs. Her despair was alarming, so much so that any creature who heard her would come to her aid, but she could not be availed. So our Pixie did the only thing she could, she sacrificed herself for Anders.

One night as usual the boy snuck out of his house and went to the Pixie’s cave. He found the fire nearly out and her body laid out on some covers, motionless. There was blood everywhere, purple blood. Anders panicked, he rushed to her. He grabbed her motionless body and lifted her off the ground. Then he screamed. As he lifted her he realized the source of the blood, her wings had been cut off. She was not dead, though she seemed to be dying.

Anders was a smart boy and he remembered the ingredients and the recipe to make the potion he had helped her make earlier to mend the broken wing. He also knew that there was more of the potion she had created for him when he was drowning. He worked furiously, mixing, grinding and boiling the plants and powders until he had achieved a result nearly identical to that which she had prepared. He smeared the first potion over the jagged gashes where the Pixie's wings once were and poured the other potion into her open mouth. Then he waited. She lay motionless and Anders could not tell if she was alive or dead but he did not dare move. The sun rose outside, traced an arc across the sky and set behind the distant mountains, and still he stayed. He knew his family would be looking, he knew he would be made to pay for his absence, but he didn’t care. What seemed like eternity passed by without change and Anders was at his wits ends. Without realizing, he had been scratching methodically at the hard stone of the cave's wall until his fingers bled. He was examining his raw fingertips when suddenly one of the Pixies eyes fluttered, and then the other did too. Anders gasped as he watched the tiny creature move, ever so slightly. Hoping he had not simply imagined this or fallen into a delirious dream he froze watching her raise her head slightly, he watched her shake it as if to clear her mind and then he watched the realization in her eyes as she felt the lack of her wings. He watched her cry. Then he watched her notice that he was sitting there.

“You should breathe” she said, her voice changed somehow. Her face twisted slightly at its sound, but the message was no less true. Anders only now realized that he hadn’t actually dared breathe since he gasped and found himself struggling for air between the fits of joy at the knowledge that she was alive.

“What happened to your wings?” he said finally looking at her. “Who did this to you? Tell me, I’ll find…” he never finished because she held one of her slender fingers up to his lips to silence him.

“I cut them off myself Anders. For you. Pixies don’t age, we don’t die, your life would be but a flash before my eyes before you were old and dead and I would be left here alone with no hope of ever seeing you again. So I did what I had to. I…I cut my tie to mother Gaia” As she said the last thing she broke down and she began sobbing once more. Only then did Anders realize the true extent of her sacrifice. She was no longer a Pixie…she was mortal…she was like him. He wondered then at the immense feelings of sadness and at once love and joy that swirled around inside his soul. She had given up her life…for him…to be with him. And he promised himself then that he would be there for her always, no matter what obstacle, no matter the odds. He swore it to himself.

But this isn’t just a story about a Pixie and a young man and their love. This is a story about Pixies and this is a story about people. And people are evil creatures. Anders had been going to meet the Pixie for months, almost every night. People knew what purple dust meant, and after the night that he returned naked and confused they knew that a Pixie had bewitched him. So they spied on Anders. Usually he was too quick, he knew the forest too wel,l and in the darkness he lost those who spied on him without even knowing it. But this time, because he emerged from her cave after dawn they were able to follow him, they were able to see where she lived. They knew where she took him after she brainwashed him, but they didn’t know what horrible things she did to him in that cave. They were not willing to wait and find out. As Anders left, they tore into the cave.