Techno Fairy [Short Story]

Life Is So Unfairy

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*I don't own any images used in cover.

Beautiful cover made by Galasriniel_00

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You set one forest on fire and all of a sudden you are assigned to the worst job in Faerie.

Mae gazed longingly at the lunch she'd so painstakingly packed that morning –a delicious berry medley, sprinkled on top with fresh cut oats—and resigned herself to the fact that it would most likely go to waste.

Josh had been talking to a girl lately--heaven knows why anyone would be interested in him--but if he followed the same pattern as the last three days, Mae knew she'd be working well into the midnight hours.

Sleep for the night? She could forget about that too.

Blowing out the air in her cheeks, she flew up to the keyboard in front of her, began firing the magic necessary to get Josh's text message going, fingertips sparking like fireworks.

Next to her, Zoria fumbled with the non-stop string of blue magic needed to keep the song playing in the background.

"I hate Josh," Mae announced for the millionth time that day. Her fingers ached. The magic --which always seemed to take a toll on her body--was slowing down a little. With the fast pace Josh was typing, she knew she had to press on, didn't have the luxury of a break unless they be discovered.

You see, Josh was her human. Unfortunately for Mae, Josh also happened to be a despicable human being.

On her spare time, say when Josh would miraculously put down his phone for the ten minutes it took to get the battery from zero to ten percent, she'd fantasize about all the ways she could embarrass him.

She could send Linda the picture he took in front of the mirror the other night. The one where he was flexing his non-existent muscles while grunting and making faces into the mirror. That oughtta get her to stop texting him for like, forever. Or she could type up a deliciously embarrassing paragraph about all the ways he was an air-headed fool and tag all his friends on social media.

But then again, Mae really couldn't afford another slip up so most nights the fantasies would dissolve to nothingness and she'd go home, sleep off the day's work for an hour or two and then be back for another round of torture.

As a techno fairy, she had no time to herself, no life, really. So immersed were the humans in their devices that the faeries like her were expected to work around the clock, never catching a break.

She'd like to blame Josh for all her misfortunes but the truth was that it was all her fault. All her and no one else.

"It's not that bad," Zoria responded, her blonde hair whipping around her face like pale razor blades. The sweat on her nose and brow said otherwise, but you could count on Zoria to make any wretched situation look like a walk in the park.

"We get to learn so much from the web. No one else knows as much as we do." She said.

Mae rolled her eyes. She'd trade celebrity gossip and the latest fashion trends for a chance to work with nature just one more time in her life. Heck, she'd give up her weights worth in gold, if only that would get her back on nature duty.

But Mae's reputation preceded her. No sane Fae Mother would give her a job in flora and fauna, not after she'd been responsible for one of the biggest forest fires in the history of the state of California.