Before a Once Upon A Time

The Evil Fairy - A Passing Dream

Story 1-The Evil Fairy

Part 2- A Passing Dream

The girl woke slowly, warm in her bed. She rolled over and almost decided to go back to sleep when she noticed a shadow creeping towards her. Sitting straight up she lunged for the sword her father made her keep at her bedside and until now, she had thought silly. She wrapped her fingers around the hilt just as a hand wrapped itself around her mouth. She tried to bite at the fingers but an urgent whisper stopped her." Shh...sh...Child be calmed. I am not here to harm you. I simply need to speak with you. It's about Markus. Calm down."

She titled her head towards the voice. A woman. Interesting. And about Markus? The grip relaxed a bit as she released the sword and turned to face her attacker.  "What about Markus?"

The voice became thick with sorrow. "I am Esmeralda and I am a fairy with strong healing powers. I came to this village because I felt a great sickness here and I was worried for the poor soul who carried this illness. And then when I was here, I discovered you. I am so sorry, but Markus...he is sick. It will kill him soon. He lacks magic in his blood. And I wish I could say that I can heal him...but I can't. Even the greatest of all of us have yet to discover how to cure a deficiency of magic in the blood. It just can't be done. But I'm telling you this because I know you love him dearly and I want you to treasure every moment you have with him before his time comes and so does yours."

"What do you mean, so does mine? I thought Markus was the one you said was sick?" The girl silently denied this fact. Markus  couldn't be sick- she wouldn't let him. He was kind and sweet and generous- helped her with her work and most importantly, loved her in the same way she loved him. How could fate be so cruel as to take him away from her? It couldn't be, could it?

"Simple. When Markus dies, I want you to come with me. I told you I am a fairy, right? You know what that is, of course."

The girl tried desperately to remember but came up with a blank. She wasn't very quick witted and this was all much to fast for her to process it properly.  She had no idea what a fairy was, truly (And you do! Now don't you feel so much smarter? No? Well, I guess it's not that much of an achievement, being smarter than the slow girl. But still. You should feel a little happy.) and no idea why that would be important. But the fairy in front of her had not meant the sentence as a question and was so continuing on with her speech as planned, not noticing the fact that the longer she talked, the more the girl in front of her shut down.

"Well, when I came here, I sensed your magic. It is very powerful, you know. I think you could be a great witch- even achieve fairy level some day, if you focused enough. It doesn't seem an impossible goal to me at all in fact. And so, I wish for you to come with me when you no longer feel attached to this place- come with me to court where you can be trained to be a great witch and bring to realization all of those talents I see hidden away in your mind, so far back even you can't see them."

The girl looked at her. And then, her simple, sweet stubborn self came to a decision.

"No."

The fairy almost reeled back in shock." No?"

"No. I won't come with you. I don't plan on living in that way, ever. I plan on living here for the rest of my days, and no, not alone. I will live with Markus until I die and when we do die, we will be surrounded by lots of our children and grandchildren who all came to see their poor sick grandparents who love them so much. And we will die together, for neither of us can bear to live without the other. Love does that."

The fairy looked at her with eyes as deep with infinite sadness as could be. She had once had dreams like that- and then they had been crushed under the heel of the boot of the one who she loved, who she dreamed about sharing that life with. She knew the pain the Great One would have to face and tried to make it as simple as possible." No. Love doesn't. True love does. And even then, it often doesn't. And I know you think that you can't live without your true love, but trust me, it can be done. And it will hurt a lot but you will do a lot of good for the world if you bear the pain and a lot of bad to it if you succumb to it. With my word as a fairy, I promise you this. But I have taken much of your time and you won't believe me one way or another anyway. So I will leave you to your rest. In fact, I will induce your rest so that you may actually enjoy it. But please do not forget what I have told you. And, when what I say will come to pass has, I want you to know that I truly am sorry."

The fairy waved a hand at the girl, weaving a complex sleep spell over her in seconds, a spell that she had learned for the sole purpose of using in circumstances such as these, for when she had been so tormented in the night that she could not find peace even in the depths of sleep. The girl slowly moved back to recline on the bed and her eyelids slid creakingly down until she softly and soundly feel asleep. Esmeralda looked at her with the same doting expression of a mother hen- she had so much to learn, so much pain to face. And it was the kind of pain that she would not wish on anyone. For if whoever it happened to was not the right kind of person, it would drive them insane. So much pain, so little time. For even after the girl had suffered such a blow, she would not be able to have a moment's peace to rest and recover from it. She would immediately be sent to court, if not by Esmeralda then by another fairy or several fairies working together if need be. A girl with as strong of magic as her could not be left to her own devices for long, not after finding out she had it, not after something so emotionally scarring as losing someone so close to her.

The fairy sighed and glided off into the night. Even though she was tired, her work was not yet done. She still had a report to file to the court reporting what she had found, her plan and how well it was going so far. She dreaded having to do any of these things but what she hated the most was the thought that if the court thought her inadequate they would replace her with another fairy, perhaps one less sympathetic, one that would rip the girl away from her true love without a thought, without pondering what might happen to the girl's magic if she was forced into using it, forced into using it with ways that would make her bitter and evil. Especially if those same people that had kidnapped her and forced her into using magic kept her from being with her true love in his last moments-that would be the last straw .She could destroy the entire court in one sweep if she felt the need to. So it was probably best not to make her ever feel the need.