My Little Faerie Girl

And She Was Born

          

Many years ago, on this very land, there was a time of enchanted forests and mystical creatures that lived within. All these forests were filled with the most wondrous, beautiful, enchanting and magical plants ever known to the earth. Within the safety of the forest lived a civilization. A civilization unlike any other known. A civilization of things found in myths, dreams, stories and nightmares. For, within the forests lived the Fair Folke. In the forests lived families of elves, pixies, nixies, sprites, mermaids, nymphs and so many others.

            Now, within the oldest enchanted forest, Blackbird Forest, in a house carved into the trunk of a tree, to a small family of faeries a little girl was born. A very small and special faerie, unlike any other. Her name was...

            "... Anabella. Her name is Anabella," the mother cried as she looked into her daughter's dark blue eyes for the first time. The new mother continued to talk, saying, "She shall grow up to be the most graceful of faeries, so her name shall be Anabella."

            "Anabella is a most wonderful name, my dear" a man, the father of the newborn Anabella, agreed with his mate.

            "Darling, can you come check her mark for me? I am afraid I am too tired to even lift my arms to check" the woman asked him, for she truly was tired to the bone after delivering her precious child.

            The man nodded his head and walked over to take his child from the tired woman's arms. He then proceeded to look for the mark that showed what her powers would be.

            You see, every faerie is born with a mark upon their skin that told what element or part of element they would grow up to control; Air, Fire Water, Earth. Each faerie could control at least one of the elements to some degree, though some with more power than others. The mark was different for each faerie and in a different place each time but, was recognizable by the colour of the mark. Red was Fire, blue was Water, yellow was for Air and green was for the Earth; the lighter the colour was of the mark the weaker the power, and the richer the colour the stronger the power. Some faeries are born with more than one mark but all are born with at least one. Just like every faerie was born with a pair of wings upon their back so they could fly through the clouds and sky at any time of the day. All faeries are born with at least one mark and with wings upon their backs. Never has there been a faerie born without them because every faerie was born with at least one mark and had wings upon their back. Or at least that has always been the case until...

            "Mae, Darling? Are you sure that this is our child?" the man asked after having checked every inch of his child for a mark.

            "What do you mean, 'Are you sure this is our child?'" the woman snapped back at her lover. "Of course I am sure she is our child. Why wouldn't she be ours?" Mae asked.

            The man hesitated for a moment, then looking into his mate's eyes he said as calmly as he could, "She does not bear a mark anywhere on her, not even a dot of colour."

            Mae lifted her head to look at her mate's face, searching, searching, every inch of his face for signs that he was lying, joking. She found none, not one sign that he was kidding. So, after assessing her love's face she continued to deny the possibility of her daughter having no mark and said to him, "What do you mean she has no mark? That is not even possible; you must have just missed it." Feeling adamant that Zedrich just simply missed it she demanded, "Give her here, I will look and I will find her mark."

            Zedrich replied to his mate saying, "I did not miss it. Her skin is as white as the moon; I could not have possibly missed any speck of a colour on her."

            The very second the last word fell from the man's mouth the woman began to shake her head profusely, insisting that it was not possible; every faerie is born with a mark.

            The new father interrupted his mate's ramblings and in an irritated tone of voice said, "I know every faerie is born with a mark but there is not one on our daughter."

            Mae refused to accept this and asked, "Have you checked behind her wings? Maybe her mark is hiding beneath them," and gaining more confidence that this must be the reason Zedrich could not find the mark she began to relax into her bed and said to him, "Yes, that must be it. Check under her wings."

            In a bored tone Zedrich replied, "I would check under her wings if I could my Darling but I cannot therefore I won't." Although he says this in a dry tone he is not able to hide the look in his dark green eyes, the look that says something is wrong, you will not like this, I don't know what to do. Prepared to explain to his wife what he meant he began to say, "Mae, my darling, she – she does..." and then cut off looking to the right, left, up and down; anywhere but at his love.

            The woman, tired of her husband's hesitancy and just wanting to know what exactly her husband meant, simply raised one delicate earth brown eyebrow; silently urging him to continue. Continue he did, looking into his wife's eyes he said, "I would surely look under her wings if I could but..." he takes one deep breath in, steeling his courage and lets it out in a rush with his words by saying, "but she does not have any wings."

            "What do you mean she has no wings, Zedrich?! She has to have wings, she is a faerie!" With the raise of Mae' voice Zedrich flinched, not wanting his mate to be upset and not wanting to frighten the little faerie girl in his arms with the loud sounds.

            Running a hand through his muddy brown hair in frustration Zedrich snaps back at Mae, "I know that Mae. Do you think I don't know that?" all the while holding the new born faerie close to his heart, comfortingly.

            Mae looked at her mate that was still holding their child so tenderly with a look of pure love on his face despite the differences the child has and knowing the complications they might cause, and right there she stops denying, stops fighting and accepts it. In a voice so quiet that Zedrich would not have been able to hear if he did not have fae hearing asks, "What are we going to do? What can we do?"

            Zedrich turned his eyes from his precious daughter to his wife and smiled a little sadly but, with a firm and certain voice says, "I don't know. I don't really know what we're going to do or even what we really can do but I do know that this is our daughter and we will raise her as our daughter and as a faerie to the best of our ability. She is a faerie in heart and soul, a lack of wings or mark does not change that. Now, you rest; I can see you are exhausted. I'll take care of Anabella and we will think of what to do later." With that said Zedrich takes Anabella out of the room to let his mate relax and rest.

            Taking Anabella to the room they set up as a nursery for her he laid her down in a crib that was ornately carved from one of the oldest trees in the forest, sighing as he did so. And quietly, oh so quietly, he finally let himself think of what this all could mean and whispered to the silent room, "What are we going to do?" Looking at his small newborn baby he said to her, "You are a faerie, you are our faerie and you will grow up to be the best faerie this forest has ever seen, my little faerie girl."