A Fairy Tale

Chapter 1 River

Throughout Fairyland every creature heard the laugh of a newborn fairy. The sun shone brighter as she took her first breath. All creatures felt a light within them glow. The young fairy had long, straight pitch-black hair, blue-green eyes and pure white skin. Her eyes sparkled as much as Tulip Falls, the place where she was born. Her father, Joshua, loved her very much and called her River. River was an elemental fairy, a kind of fairy that could use the elements of the world in magical power. But River never knew her mother; she had disappeared soon after River was born.

When River turned three, she and her father moved to a village very far away from Tulip Falls. The village was called Rosetta Gold, legendary for its incredibly large plants, specifically flowers. The most famous of them is the Great Golden Rose. An earth elemental had planted a yellow rose long ago, and to make it grow faster, cast a special spell on it. Apparently the spell made the rosebush turn to gold and grow to hundreds of times larger than a regular rose bush. Eventually fairies hollowed out the gold flowers and made them into homes. The only other place where fairies used flowers as homes was Pumpkin Meadow, where they also used pumpkins.

River and her father lived in a small, cozy rose. River made beds and other furniture out of flower petals from the inside of the rose. River also made dresses for herself with cloth that she made. She even made clothes for her father out of leaves and grass so he would be camouflaged while he worked in the swamps of Dragon Pool, the place where dragons laid their eggs.

Joshua worked in the swamps to find the magical dragon eggs to be taught to fight for fairies in battle. Sometimes River would come and she would always find the most magical eggs. And once she found a dying dragon hatch-ling and nursed it to health. Later it had helped drive goblins out of the Golden Mountains, the home of the gold fairies.

River was very beautiful but sometimes she was made fun of because her clothes were always simple, while most fairy clothing was fancy with lots of bows, ribbons and lace. Other fairies also made fun of River because of her pale white skin and because she always wore a small braid in her hair on the side of her head, but really they were just jealous of her. She was the cleverest and strongest fairy in Rosetta Gold.

Even as a young child everyone around her could see by her kindness and grace that she was special. She could find the answer to even the hardest questions and she was the only child able to ride the deer that lived in the woods. And when she went swimming in the stream, River could do tricks while riding dolphins. River was the only child strong enough to climb trees without the assistants of her wings. River loved climbing trees. She was one of the few children brave enough to try to get a hawk feather. All the other children tried to sneak up to the hawk nest and steal a feather. No one knew it but River got a hawk feather by being kind and the hawk would give her a feather. But every child was jealous because she always got the best grades in fairy school.

River always had a kind word and she was always the most polite of the children. Even though she was the smartest fairy in Rosetta Gold, River was always learning new things. As she grew she became even more clever, kind and graceful.

Joshua was very proud of River.

When River was ten, Joshua adopted a baby fairy named Megan. Megan always tried to be like River. Megan had short brown hair and brown eyes. Megan's wings were still growing and didn't have much color. Megan always got into River's school and drew on the pages, took off River's answers and sometimes she tore out the pages. But River never got angry; instead she came up with little rewards for Megan if she stayed out of her school stuff. If Megan forgot and messed with it, River would tell her not to and ask her to say she was sorry. After a few months, Megan stayed out of the schoolwork because her sister was so kind and patient.

Even though River was kind and gentle, she was also firm as a tree. She would stay at whatever decision she made and no one could make her change her mind. River also was very brave. There wasn't anyone who could deny that.