The Winter Fairy

Blossoming

A little girl was locked in a cage. When she touched the bars, it hurt. She stayed away from them. She looked around with the other slaves. She was alone. Scared. She didn't know what was going on. They just dragged her away from her mother. Her mother's screams, clawing her way and fighting the men with her fingernails, trying to get to her.

The room she was in was filled with sobs and agonizing screams. Soon, she was dragged out...then felt something hurting on her back. She didn't know what it was.

There were agonizing screams of a small child...searing pain...a white feather with blood.

Colleen snapped awake as she slept outside in the tree, drenched in a cold sweat. She could never remember why this had happened. She always hated nightmares. This was so real though.

She had many questions about her former life. Her mother didn't really tell her much. She only said the family had secrets and that no one was supposed to speak of them for fear of someone finding out. Yet since she had been enslaved, she learned a few things about herself.

Not wanting to think about her past much, she decided to put her mind on something else. She wanted to think of the happiest place on earth. A place she could feel safe. Closing her eyes, she began to think of her mother. She hummed her the special song that helped her sleep. That made her happy.

I know you/I walked with you once upon a dream/I know you that look in your eyes is so familiar a gleam/And I know it's true/That visions are seldom often seen/But if I know you/I know what you'll do/You'll love me at once/A way you did once/Upon a dream...

Yet, no one was safe within the walls of the King's castle. She was trapped there, along with all the other enslaved. The girl looked towards the Moors longingly as she hummed her lullaby. She wanted to leave this dreaded place. The enslaved were treated worse than animals. She had seen the King sell them away, their clothes were rags and they were starving. And they were often punished.

Baiting was the worst of all: the enslaved would be stripped naked, chained up in the middle of the room with shackles while being prodded with iron instruments. They would scream and hiss in pain while the King's guest would laugh and jeer at them, calling them demons until the enslaved became weak. Some even died.

Colleen cursed. She scratched her leg furiously as she sat beneath the tree. She was chained up outside this time. Usually they wouldn't do this, but today was different.

The maids had caught her. They told on her. She was beaten and left outside. Colleen wanted to cry, but tears were useless. She hated it when they chained her up. The metal was just unbearable. It burned. It made her leg flare up.

It had always bothered her for as long as she could remember. She didn't know why, yet she was reminded on a daily basis that she was a demon. She thought about it at times and wondered if she was one of the fair folk. But she knew it couldn't be possible since her mother was a human. Her mother didn't speak of her father. She only told him he left to fight in a war and never came back.

She had to keep Jack away from here. She knew that the chain would hurt him. For it was made of iron. Iron burned fairies. Colleen had listened to the King rant to his people about the demons and told them to wear iron jewelry to protect themselves since it was their weakness.

The King was full of secrets. He even had a room that was full of them. A room that seemed to flutter like the sound of wings. The King would forbid all servants and slaves to enter that room of secrets.

The King himself would even allow his nobles to do the unspeakable things to the enslaved. She remembered the Unspeakable when she was small: the searing pain on her back, the sounds of her own screams...and blood. The blood just everywhere. Her tears and sobs as they finished. She nearly fainted from the pain...she had no idea what they had taken from her at the time.