The Dark Fairy

Chapter Five

The morning of the first exam soon came and Alina felt that she was ready for whatever task her mother would throw her way. She spent the rest of the school days leading up to the exam following her Mama's advice - to focus on her studies and to ignore her uncharitable classmates.

"Good luck, my light," Theia called after her child, as she left the threshold of the willow tree. "Although, I know you don't need such a thing. You are truly gifted in magic."

A beaming smile took over Alina's face.

"Bye, Mama!" she shouted back, "I promise, I'll do my best!" She gave a happy wave, then turned on the spot, opened her black feathered wings and leapt up into the air. She swooped and twirled happily towards the centre of the Enchanted Forest.

When she arrived at the Great Oak, she ignored the many eyes that fell upon her. She sheepishly made her way to her seat, but strangely, nobody said a thing to her.

They were all too nervous about what was in store for them that day. Doing well in this first exam would distinguish whether one could one day become a wish granter, and there was no fairy who didn't long for that status. Cezanne especially yearned for it, when she wasn't bullying Alina, she would be going on about that.

"Good morning, everybody," the Mother of Fairies addressed her students, with a calm, yet assertive, voice. "As you all know, today is the day of your first exam. You have been working towards performing three intricate tasks for me this very morning. We'll be covering growing and shrinking, building and summoning. One by one you'll come to the front of the class and display these magical skills."

Heartha, then took out her golden wand from inside her sparkling, flared sleeve. She flicked it delicately and upon the wooden platform that lay at her feet she made a shining red apple appear. This apple came up to her waist - for an average sized apple was that big compared to a fairy in their original size.

"The first fairy to be tested will be Audette."

Audette the yellow clad, light fairy, nervously made her way to the front of the class.

"For the first part of your first task, I want you to shrink this apple to the size of this light orb," Heartha instructed, and created a ball of light the size of a pea. It bobbed up and down in the air beside the large fruit.

Worry seeped into Audette's eyes, she rolled up her yellow sleeves and held her hands out to the apple. They trembled at the effort she put in. The apple rocked back and forth and eventually, to Audette's relief, it began to shrink. Gradually it decreased in size, but once it got to the size of a pea, Audette couldn't make it stop. Soon it completely vanished and Audette let out a disappointed sigh.

"Oh," the Mother of Fairies breathed out gently. "I'm sorry, Audette, but with no apple you cannot complete the rest of the tasks. So you do not pass this time." The sorrowful look Audette gave touched her Mother's heart. "Don't worry though, next time you'll get it, I know you will. Please take your seat."

Alina watched the rest of her classmates struggle through the tasks they were given. Those who managed to shrink their apple to the right size were then asked to grow them back to their original size. A couple of apples ended up exploding causing two more fairies to fail.

No fairy completed all the tasks successfully.

Even Cezanne and Fleurine - they managed to perform satisfactorily for most of the tasks but stumbled on the final task. This meant that they would have to repeat their failed task the next day to graduate to the next level of magic school. Cezanne was livid. She purposely made her apple explode in retaliation, before storming back to her seat.