Moon Flowers (Book 1 of the Flower Trilogy) #Wattys2016 #Featured

CHAPTER FIVE - HALIA (Edited)

HALIA'S POV

I held Phi's hand tight in mine as the ritual began. Under the sky's myriad of stars, I twirled and stretched in slow and fluid movements. The moon was above me. Its light touched my skin. My body, like those of the other fairies, blossomed. We looked like flowers, like moon flowers.

I had never been this happy. I had been right. I had felt the change before the queen, and people finally believed me. Now with this sense of accomplishment, the weird, sickening feeling in my gut was silenced. I smiled at Phi, but before I knew it, she'd let go of my hand and we were separated, although I still felt the pressure of our fingers intertwined. Her face read bliss before disappearing in the crowd.

I had lost her comforting presence, my rock in all that hustle, but I was fine. Everything was fine under the hypnotic light of the crystal moon.

Soprano voices echoed in the night. It was not the usual melancholic chants about the Golden Days. Instead, the Elders were singing something more joyful, songs that were unknown to me.

The dance was different from what I was used to as well, but since I did not sing, I could focus more effectively on the steps, arabesques and battements. I danced like a flower caught in a stormy wind. Danced until I lost track of time and Tönx whispered at my ear. Only then did I notice he hadn't left my side, like a protective shadow.

"Look," he said, poiting at a bent creature that came to pull me out of the fairy ring.

It was Cailleach Bheur, a fairy with snow white hair and a wrinkled face. The word has it that she was born old, the daughter of winter. We also affectionately called her Grannie because she was the oldest creature among King Siegfried's people. She was also a good friend of Phi's grandmother.

"She wants to tell us a story."

The bony fingers of one of her hand clutched the end of a twig she used as a cane while, with the other she gestured for us to follow her. I followed her as she shuffled to a wooden coil and sat down. Her straggly white hair hung past her shoulders.

"Children, come closer," she said to the other Last-borns she had also fished out of the crowd. Her voice sounded like the cry of an old goat. Shaky and brittle.

Three will-o'-the-wisps came around us to keep us warm. The truth is that they, too, enjoyed Grannie's stories. She understood the art of sound, voice, and words. Her stories were magical.

"You have all heard of our curse," she started, "how we must live in the shadow of the humans; and it has become more and more difficult to hide from them. We are not household spirits to share their homes. We were forced to live away from them and, to crown our woe, because they can't see us, they no longer believe in us." She always started her story this way, as if reminding us of our curse was essential to understand where we came from. "You all know this, but do you know how the curse started?"

We all shook our heads.

"Is that so?" she asked. "None of you?" She mimicked a surprised tone. "Yet it is the most important story of all. Haven't you ever wondered where we came from and why we are the way we are?"

I giggled. She'd told this story for centuries. Grannie laid her cane aside and wrapped herself in her shawl riddled with holes. She then took a deep breath and began her story.

"Once upon a time, there was a supernatural being that intended for everything to exist in the universe. It created the stars, the sun, the moon, and the four elements: the fire, the air, the water, and the earth. This being is known to us as the Mother . . ."

I glanced over at Phi, who had by then joined my and Tönx's side. She had begun preening her feathers. I was not sure if she was paying any attention to Grannie's story. She was stunning with her dark gray wings, somehow full and vibrant even in the dark alley.

I listened to the story again, of how the Mother had come to visit Eve while the latter was washing her children in a nearby river, and as she had not finished washing them all, she hid the unwashed ones from the Mother's view.

"The Mother was not duped, however," Grannie said. " 'What man hides from Me, I will hide from man,'the Mother said, and the unwashed children disappeared forever in the darkness of night, forced to remain invisible to the other children's eyes. From these are the magical folk descended,"

The old fairy went on to say how the Mother eventually favored us to our distant relative, the humans, and brought us and our innocence closer to nature even as men tried to destroy both And the promises. Oh the promises of Mother. So much faith. I understood what was going through Grannie's mind. I understood why she chose to tell us this story instead of any other. She and other mind-like fairies had hope that this change I had felt coming our way, a feeling confirmed by the Queen of Complaints, was in fact the Mother's promise being answered. I wished with all my heart that they were right, that soon we were to lay eyes on our mythical promised land.