The fairies

I was five years old when I started seeing the fairies in my grandmothers garden. My grandma treated her garden like it was magical, and oh how full of magic it was! She took years to build this mystical place and I admired her dedication to it all. She would explain to me how she learned what strains of mushrooms to grow and the benefits from them. She had a huge lavender patch that was used to make the most delicious lavender and mint tea, she would have me drink it whenever I had a tummy ache or was restless and couldn't sleep. She had so many different flowers, in every color of the rainbow! Instead of buying flowers for Mother's Day, we would just go to her garden and make a bouquet together for her. She loved that part more than just receiving flowers and said it made it more special. I had to agree.
But my favorite part of her garden was the small pond that sits right underneath the willow tree. The shade of the willow tree made me feel protected and calm. The shade was cooler, darker, and more safe to me than the blasting and bright sun. I've always found comfort in the dark more than I've ever felt in the light, which I guess explains why it's my favorite spot. The water from the pond is always so calm and seemed to help me feel like I could be too. I struggle with that a lot, feeling calm I mean. I get bullied at school and come home sad and angry but hearing the soft twinkle of water, the soft croaks of toads and frogs has always made me feel like I could breathe again.
One day I was " Water Painting" with a long stick in the pond. Water painting is when I take a stick ( my paintbrush ) and glide it across the surface of the water to make swirls and different shapes. While I was making a cloud in the water I noticed a weird noise that I have never heard before. It was an odd mix of a ringing sound but also a buzzing? It sounded almost like a bug but not quite. The noise would come and go and it seemed to be coming from the willow tree that loomed over my grandmas pond. I was an adventurous and curious child so I decided I wanted to find out what the heck kind of bug made that noise, or if it wasn't a bug what is it?
I stood up from my crouched position by the pond and tiptoed very slowly towards the noise, as for I didn't want to scare away the strange bug. As I got closer to the trunk of the tree I could see these brightly colored things flying around the branches and dodging into the hairlike leaves! I've never seen such bright and beautiful bugs before so I decided to get closer and what I saw next made my eyes turn into the biggest saucers you would have ever seen in your life!!
These weren't bugs...these had to be real life fairies! They were small little human looking things except instead of regular skin it was this colorful shimmer that illuminates and glowed. They didn't have typical fairy wings but more like the wings a housefly would have and their faces weren't the prettiest either....almost resembling a bat. Their noses boney and oddly squished to their face with big gaping holes. They all had yellow eyes that glowed like lightbulbs and lips that were thin and black. Although they looked a little scary that's not the feeling I felt when I saw them. I wanted to know about them and why they were here. So I furrowed my little eyebrows and asked the small creatures:
" what are you doing here?"
A purple little being swirled around my head making that weird noise that lured me over and centered itself right at the tip of my nose.
" We have been watching you grow like the flowers grow in this kingdom. Although young, you have magic within. We are here to protect you. "
When the fairy spoke though, its lips didn't even move. Instead the glow in its eyes pulsated and I could hear the voice in my head. It was comforting to me more than ever.
I needed protection. I needed protection from the girls at school who threw spitballs at my coils and laughed when I struggled to pick them out. I needed protection from being tripped in the aisle on the bus and getting rips in the clothes my grandmother could barely afford. We are so young and have such great imaginations...but all I can imagine is never being happy. So I looked into those pulsating yellow eyes and I said: " okay. I trust you."