Fairy Dust

The Train

Absently, the girl followed the raindrops running down the window with her finger. She liked the way they slowly rippled downwards, playfully racing each other to the bottom, each like a tiny entity of a waterfall. She liked how they had no worries. Their only aim was to reach the end of the window and win; the kind of simplistic life she longed for. 

Her hand dropped. The clouds were dark outside, casting a sombre shadow into the train carriage, and she felt a trace of doubt simmer in her mind. Was she doing the right thing? Was she making a mistake leaving her family behind? 

It was too late now anyways. The girl watched the stretches of bare countryside sweep swiftly past her, pulling her further and further away from home; every blink and the range of unfamiliar land was different than the previous. 

Tearing her eyes away from the window, she sighed, closing her eyes and tilting her head back against the headrest. Her mind was a turmoil of emotions, her mother's heartbroken face burning through it like a hot iron wound. 

"Hello" a high pitched voice interrupted the gentle sounds of rain fall. The girls' eyes shot open and looked over at the doorway of her carriage. Her eyes met with another girl, not much older than her, with short brown hair, half tied up in green ribbon. The other girl looked at her expectantly like she was about to laugh while waiting for her to respond.

"Can I sit here?" the other girl asked before the girl had the chance, but she was already entering the carriage to sit down anyways.

"Of course," she smiled. The girl felt slightly better that she didn't have to sit alone with her own thoughts. She watched the other girl intensively and wondered if she was going to the same place.

"My names Blue." Blue spoke as the other girl took a seat opposite her by the rainy window. Her eyes trailed down to Blue's chipped blue nail polish humourlessly. People always commented on how unusual her name was, but if the other girl had any thoughts, she kept them internal.

"Alara." The other girl responded, adding on the same smile she had given Blue before; a rehearsed yet genuine smile that we all muster in scenarios like this. Relaxing into the seat opposite her, she looked out into the window, mirroring what Blue was doing before. 

"Are you travelling to Whitmore K-" 

"Um," Alara hushed in a whisper-shout, before Blue could finish, "not so loud are you crazy?" Her body tensed and she erupted forward. 

"Oh sorry, I didn't know we weren't supposed to talk about it," Blue had completely forgotten that the two worlds conflict against each other like they do. 

"Well, obviously. We don't want the humans finding out about our world - thought that was obvious," Alara looked her up and down and narrowed her eyes, "where are you from, Blue?" She seemed almost suspicious of her naivety. Alara thought that maybe she was a human who had stumbled upon the secret by chance.

"London" Blue replied timidly.

"Ah, a townie." The way the words left her lips made it sound like that was something to be ashamed of.

"What's wrong with that?" Blue defended, a little surprised by her rudeness. She felt energy coursing through her arms and into her palms. The familiar feeling building. Just then, the train went through a tunnel and their carriage fell dark.

"There's no way you could've done magic in a large city like London" Alara said matter-of-factly, "what were your parents thinking?" Blue relaxed slightly at this. She didn't know why she was brought up in London, or why she had to leave it. All she knew was that it was very important that she got on this train.

The train left the tunnel and light swarmed in around them. They could see the misty hills that blanketed Ireland and the rain that had seduced the ground giving birth to luscious green grass.