Beautiful Lily

Feed The birds

...back in Fairy Tale Land...

Decades passed after her encounter with Rumplestiltskin. Decades of traversing to different realms, gathering strength from various followers she found herself guided by the Wind back to the Enchanted Forest again. When she landed, she found herself in an unfamiliar kingdom. But like any new area she moved to, she investigated, assimilated, and acclimated to the new environment.

On each day she visited the new village she observed the trafficking of its people. In the morning, before the sun would rise the merchants would make their way to the main road to set up their shop and sell their wares. Parents would rouse their children from a cold slumber to panhandle the royal staffers that would make their way down from the castle to purchase supplies. Other orphaned children would slyly evade capture and steal from the pockets of others. One day she discovered a young pick-pocket and she followed the child to its 'home' and to her horror discovered the child's deplorable living conditions. The child stole to survive and her discovery instantly changed her perspective on thieves and the poor. It broke Mary's heart to see these children each morning and felt compelled to do something.

She looked upon the hardened faces of the village children and felt obliged to soften their faces with small increments of kindness. Every once in a while an apple would fall off a cart and magically roll itself over to an emaciated child who had probably seen better days. Occasionally, the young pick-pockets would discover no room in their pockets to conceal the stolen loot because they were already filled with rolls of warm bread.

No matter how much she did these unrecognizable acts of kindness, it still didn't fill the void that ached her heart. She needed to see and feed all of the children all at once every day. She reasoned that if she could know that all the children had at least one good meal a day, then she could find solace in that knowledge and that ache in her heart could finally disappear. But how could she accomplish this without drawing attention to herself? Mary had to think of a clever plan and so she did.

The following early morning, she set up shop with the other merchants on the street and began selling bags of bread crumbs. The other villagers gawked and scoffed as they passed her spot on the road, but the children that passed weren't as dismissive like the other adults. They didn't take heed of the product she was selling because they were more enchanted by Mary's hidden beauty. Mary knew of adults inability to see pass the ends of their noses and she took advantage of that knowledge. However, with the children... she also knew they could see things most adults couldn't, possibly because of their short stature, but mostly because of their unbridled curiosity and unformed prejudice towards objects and people that were different from themselves.

Mary knew of children's instinctive ability to sense magic. Beneath the dirt and raggedly torn clothes Mary was wearing the children saw through the bags of crumbs what she was selling. They saw magic. Of the curious children that passed Mary by, only one little girl with golden locks and fair skin stepped forward.

"Excuse me?" asked a little girl curiously to Mary.

"Yes, my little duck. How can I help you?" Mary replied sweetly.

"Why are you selling these bags of bread crumbs?"

"I'm selling these so that you and I may feed the birds."

"Why would I want to feed the birds?"

"...Because the gods look kindly on those who care, especially with those who are most helpless."

"By selling these bags, how would you be feeding birds?"

"Birds come in all shapes and sizes, but typically, small. Like you, duck. And a duck is a kind of bird, is it not? And you like to eat, yes?"