The Tears of Aurora

The Birth of a Fairy

A long time ago, the county of Hordaland was isolated from the world, bordered by snowy forests, by dangerous mountains. Enormous icebergs, great titans of ice, haunted the sea, making it uncrossable. The inhabitants of Os, the Oslings, got their essential resources from its soil. They were of a strong constitution, and it was not uncommon to see them hard at work in the fields in their shirtsleeves in freezing temperatures. Travelers took them to be the descendants of giants, and were surprised that so many things could grow in a land reputed to be arid. They suspected the Oslings of having worked with oknytts, nisses, hulders, elves... all those creatures that Scandinavian folklore is so full of.

Time passed. The climate grew milder, the titans faded away. The country became accessible by sea. The world changed. The stories of magic and gods were relegated to the realm of legends.

However, even in the time of smartphones and the Internet, whoever may have visited Hordaland county had the impression of venturing into a fantastical place, its moors strewn with pebbles, its forest so thick with trees that they made it impenetrable, its luxuriating hills shrouded in mists, its silvery waterfalls. Everything lead to contemplation.

When Jon Skaljnes, Aurora's father, discovered the county, he immediately fell in love with it. It was also there that he met the one who would become his wife. Maeve was reading under an old pine tree lost in tall grasses. It was where they had seen each other for the first time that Jon and Maeve decided to build their home. They settled in the shade of the weathered pine for which they always felt a certain tenderness. The tree spread it branches, which long ago had been quite powerful and were now so weak, clear to the windows of their house. Under the protection of this greying giant were born first Mariann, then Vivian. While growing up, they both included it in their games, their imagined stories, the happy accomplice, hero or magician. The old pine was at first a little grouchy, but it was quickly tamed by the tempestuous little girls. Surrounded by such love, such joy and liveliness, it was preparing to become the agent of an exceptional phenomenon.

The event happened some fifteen years ago, during what they later called "the week of Jade." Incredible aurora borealis lit the North sky, so intense that even the sun's light could not hide them. Night showed a grandiose spectacle. The celestial vault ran as with lava. The lacy veils of some unknown goddess were floating in the atmosphere.

The inhabitants of Hordaland county saw good fortune in this grand spectacle. The Skaljnes family knew already the magic of nature, which gives pretty colors to an insect, an intoxicating scent to a flower, or a delicious taste to a fruit. But Nature reserved for them a surprise of another order the morning of the first day. They discovered, hanging from a branch of the old pine, a crystal shaped like an egg. Its touch was warm and soft, like silk. The auroras covered it with green moving lights. Jon and Maeve were deeply moved by it. Their daughters, all excited, treated the jewel like a new friend. Every day, they danced around it, sang it silly songs. "Ho, Pine King, whatever do you bring? If you are laying treasure, we will take its measure. Your fruit's a little hard, but we are on our guard. Your leaves do swing and sway, stop your silly child's play!"

On the last day of the week of Jade, Maeve cried out when she went outside. Under the pine branches there were some slivers of crystal, and where the crystal had been hanging was a baby all wrapped in swaddling. And from her back two brown wings were caressed by the breeze. Jon, alerted by his wife's cry, joined her right away. Enchanted, he took her in his arms, and contemplated the tiny being carried by the tree. Mariann and Vivian, never far from their parents, clung to their legs.

"It's a baby butterfly!" exclaimed Mariann.

Maeve silently approached it, while her husband kept the girls still. They had proposed to pull the baby down by her feet....

Their mother carefully unhooked the cocoon. The strange butterfly did not bat an eyelash. With its mouth a tiny bit open, it was sleeping the peaceful sleep that only nursing babies are capable of. Its deep breathing sounded like music. Maeve, under the watchful eyes of her family, unwrapped the swaddling with great care.

"It's a girl," she tenderly said.

At the precise moment when she said these words, the baby's wings fell off.

"Is it a baby sister?" asked Vivian, lifting a finger to touch the tiny foot dangling in front of her nose.

Maeve smiled. She lifted her head toward the sky, then leaned toward her daughters to present the baby to them.

"Yes. It's Aurora," she whispered with emotion.

The next day, the aurora borealis vanished.