Aim to Engage 2023

21 Dellia

This book, what was it about this book? 

 I've been reading about this fantasy world for several volumes already, and now a fairy princess has caught my attention. There's something about her that appeals to me. A sense of humor and determination is more important to me than pure beauty.

Her crooked smile and the dimple in her chin add a certain sweetness. Her sisters do not compare. I dream about her nightly, and there are times when I wonder if it's more than just my mind creating the girl I want in my life. Are we really having those intense conversations about how we need to save her world before the war there spills into mine?

Do I really know enough about wood working to help the with ships to put to sea and kill off the pirates who target their wings, grounding their warriors? I'm studying to be a shipwright. Dellia tells me they can provide the weapons, but only if the ship hides them.

Today was graduation day. Once again, my family has abandoned me. Stepping against my father's insistence of choice for my career has caused much strife. I will work at the Maritime History Museum in Bangor, Maine. Tall ships are their specialty, and exactly what Dellia and her kingdom need to defeat the galley propelled pirates who row into harbors with flaming arrows all along the coasts.

I sat sketching and drafting the keel of a copy of Blue Nose. The fastest racing schooner known in her time. Knowing the span of Dellia's wings was important. I couldn't have her warriors hindered by tight quarters. Humans can slip through narrow passages, fairies not so. However, they can fly straight up through open holes with no ladders or stairs. Another surprise attack avenue if they are boarded.

I needed to dream. I didn't want to stop with the design work, and I picked up the measuring tape. Fiddling with it, I tried to remember how wide the average wingspan of a fairy was. I extended it past my outstretched arms. Shaking my head, I knew it wasn't right. Fairy men were bigger, and they were the mainstay of the fighting force.

"Maxwell."

I heard her voice and pinched myself. Okay, not sleeping.

"Turn around. I finally found the spell that let me through."

I turned my chair, spinning on slick wheels to find her there in all her glory.

Her wings fanned her corkscrew curls of pale brown hair. She stared at me with her startling eyes. One deep sea blue, the other gold like my sister's cat, they reflected love and terror as she landed beside my bed.

"H-h-h-ow?" I stuttered for the first time in my life.

"Doesn't matter. We need to get back. Our master mages have frozen the seas. The pirates are held away from our shores. We have but two months to build your ship. Come with me my love." She held out her hand.

I slipped mine into it, pulling her toward me. Reaching up to cup her face with my hands, I asked, "Love? I never hoped for it. We are from different worlds."

"Ah, but love is what it took. And willingness to sacrifice myself for it and my world," Dellia whispered as her lips found mine.

My heart thundered, as I tasted her for the first time. Nectar of the Gods is all I could think. And my soul knew peace in spite of the turmoil surrounding us.

"I love you, Princess Dellia. I'll come with you. I'll leave this world behind to fight with you and yours. My family will only understand their embarrassing son is gone." I squeezed her hand and sat down at my desk. Rolling up the plans spread across it, I tucked them into an aluminum tube and handed it to her.

"One more thing. A note to tell them I've gone to build a tall ship. No need to tell them where, they'll only say good riddance."

I picked up my pen and grabbed the notepad from the corner of my desk. As I wrote, Dellia caressed my shoulders, easing the pain of their rejection.

"Done. I'm ready to go. Do I need to bring anything else but the plans?"

"No. We can provide anything you need. Just help us to conjure the ship and the rest is of no consequence. Are you ready? The journey is rather vile."

I took her slender hand in mine. "Lead on, my love. We'll win this war, if it's the last thing I do."

"You have no idea how true that might be."

The tears glimmering in her eyes pulled me with her through wind's howling and light's absence. I knew I would give my life to save her and hers. At least they needed me.