Butterflies

Butterflies -A short story-

Once in a far away land, the fairies lived peacefully and stressless. Not a worry in the world. They all loved to dance and sing. They made clothes and hunted for acorns and other foods. The animal caretakers, healed the injured animals and fairies. All the fairies showed off their wings, bragging if they grew or changed colour. Life was good for these tiny creatures.

Late one night, the fairies had a ceremony. New fairies would be arriving for their job assignments and homes. Clara, one of the newbies, hoped she got something she liked and a fun room mate. Clara was always curious and asking questions. She wanted to learn and know everything she could.

"Gatherer. I'm a gatherer?" Clara questioned herself while looking at the whistle she got at the ceremony. Her room mate, Josephine looked at her with surprise.

"Lucky you," Josephine told Clara, "not many fairies are picked to be gatherers. You have to have skill."

"Yeah, but why does that make me lucky?" Clara wanted to work with animals. Not hunt for food and materials.

"Gatherers get to leave camp without permission from the head leader." Josephine had a point.

"Rules state that you can't go outside the camps walls without permission or unless you were a gatherer, and permission was rarely given. More rules were given to the newbies at the ceremony. No fairy is to be out past sundown unless you are a guard. Fairies must be on time to their-"

"Blah blah blah. Like many fairies actually listen to those rules."

Clara thought about it for a while. She could ask to switch jobs if she wanted to. It wouldn't be so bad. The gatherers still get see animals and bring injured animals back to the camp.

The next day was the day Clara would go out with the other gatherers. She flew to the meeting place the instructor told her to go to when she first was assigned her job. This place was beautiful, giant plants surrounded the area except for one long road. The fairy houses were out of sight. Huge flower petals were covering the ground, showing the fairies that Autumn was to be here soon. Clara stood in place and waited for directions. Just as she was drawing with her toes in the dirt, a young male fairy approached her.

"Hey, you must be new as well." This boy was handsome. With blonde hair swayed to one side and bright blue eyes like the colour of the ocean. He was only a little bit taller than Clara. And his wings. They were wings that Clara had never seen before. They were a big and beautiful shade of navy blue. And the design was like a tree without its leaves in the winter.

"Yeah." She answered with a shy smile.

The boy smiled back with teeth that looked like the colour of the clouds. "Looks like we're the only newbies chosen."

Clara wanted to start a conversation but all she could manage was a few "yeahs" and head nods. She was too busy admiring his looks and wings. She would have remembered him if he was at the ceremony.

"My name is Oryon by the way." He held out his hand.

"Clara." Clara shook Oryon's hand and smiled.

Not too long after that, the lead instructor showed up. He was a big, muscular fairy. With sharp tipped wings like a bat's ear, showing he was a leader. All leader's had special wings that were different from every other fairy.

"Some of you are new. Most of you are not. The rules have not changed. Stay within the group, no wandering. If you see something that could be in use to the camp, take the whistle that was given to you at the ceremony and use that to signal me."