My Little Faerie Girl

Air

When Anabella woke up she was lying in her bed with her bright yellow blankets surrounding her and curled up against her daddy's chest. She went to turn her face towards her daddy's but the moment she moved she felt a searing pain in her left shoulder and cried out at the pain. Zedrich, who had fallen asleep after bringing his daughter back home from what happened at the school, quickly woke up and reached for his daughter and worriedly asked, "Angel, what hurts? Did something happen? Are you okay?"

Anabella, being only four years old, could not process all of these questions that her father had asked her, and the pain she felt was the only thing on her mind. She softly cried out, "Daddy it hurts," in a tiny little voice with tears streaming down her face, that it made Zedrich's heart constrict at seeing his little faerie girl in so much pain.

Zedrich took his little girl's hands in his and asked her gently what hurt, to which Anabella only pointed to her shoulder in response. Zedrich said to his daughter with a caring smile and gentle eyes, "Okay, I'm going to take a look at it; it might hurt a little bit. Can you be a brave little faerie for me while I look at it?"

Anabella smiled at her father, still with tears streaming down her pale little cheeks, and answered, "I'll be the strongest little faerie there ever was, daddy."

The man with earth brown hair and green eyes chuckled softly at his daughter's response, and then began to carefully pick up his little faerie and place her on his lap so he could see her shoulder more easily. Zedrich hesitantly and slowly pulled back the dark-haired girls shirt from her shoulder, to gain better access to the injured spot, and closed his eyes too afraid that he would see something that would be causing his daughter to endure terrible pain. After a few moments and a few deep breaths, he finally gained the courage to open his eyes and look at his little girl's bare shoulder. A small gasp escaped his lips as he looked upon the four-year-old's shoulder.

There, on the four-year-old's flawless, smooth skin, that was unmarked by anything since the day she was born, was a burst of the most vibrant yellow the man had ever seen before.

There, on the four-year-old's shoulder was a mark, an air mark. The most beautiful air mark to have ever been seen.

The mark expanded over her entire shoulder blade in a yellow burst of colour, resembling a beautiful butterfly, its wings and body made of swirls of wind that looked like they were dissolving into her skin.

Zedrich had seen many marks in his life ,but every one he had seen was just a spot or a blot that maybe you could say looked like a butterfly, but he had never seen one that made such an identifiable image, much less one so intricate like Anabella's. Zedrich was completely awed by his daughter's mark but it just went on to prove what he had already known in his heart since the day she was born; Anabella is a truly wondrous and special faerie.

The shocked faerie was brought out of his thoughts when he felt his daughter shifting in his arms and heard a small sniffling sound. Zedrich looked down at his daughter, surprised to find her crying and forgetting completely about the pain that the newly formed mark may be causing the little four-year-old faerie. Zedrich himself could think of nothing to cry about or even be mildly upset about but rather could only think of joy; she has a mark, a beautiful, colourful and flawless mark. So, stuck in this train of thought that is completely consumed with the yellow mark more than the person the mark is on he asks, "What is wrong, Anabella? Why are you crying?"

Anabella looked at her father and bit her lip, hesitant to tell her father she was crying because it really hurt, since she told her daddy that she would be the bravest little faerie. But, deciding that it hurt too much and really just wanting her daddy to take the pain away she says between the tears and sniffles and deep breaths, keeping the pain at bay, "It... it hu... it hurts." With those words said another wave of pain hit her shoulder and she cried even harder, her breath turning heavy and seemingly painful as every time she breathed her shoulder moved causing more pain, continuing on in a never ending cycle.

Hearing Anabella's little voice that seemed to hold so much pain in it, Zedrich was finally pulled from his joy-filled haze and reacted quickly to Anabella's statement by slowly placing her back on the bed face down and telling her, "Shhh. It's okay. Everything is okay, Angel. I'm going to leave for one second but then I will be right back, okay?" and without giving the dark-haired girl anytime to respond he quickly ran, or rather flew, out of the room and down the stairs to the kitchen, now only thinking about making his little faerie girl feel better.

When he got into the kitchen he quickly went over to the right hand side, by the other door that led outside, and towards the cooling box they used to keep some foods fresh. The cooling box was just that, it was a box made of branches with a leaf lining that held ice - that some water faeries had conjured up - and it was used to maintain certain foods like vegetables or meats that they had not eaten yet. Reaching the cooling box he lifted the lid that was on it to keep the coolness inside and took out some of the ice. Once he had the ice in his hand he quickly moved to get some soft leaf to wrap it up in, to stop it from melting so quickly. Once he had the ice wrapped in the leaf and it was tied up he flew out of the room and up that stairs to Anabella's room. As he rushed in he noticed that she had fallen asleep on her bed, still with a pained expression on her face and drying tear tracks along her little cheeks. Not wanting to wake her up, yet still wanting to try and soothe Anabella's pain, the worried father walks up to his daughter and gently places the ice onto her newly formed mark, hopefully giving Anabella at least some small amount of relief from the pain.

Finally, knowing he had done all he could for his daughter at that moment he allowed himself to think back on the day and understand what this truly meant.

A mark. His daughter, who had been mark-less and white since the day she was born now had a large spot of yellow on her shoulder. It was truly remarkable; there has never been a record of something like this ever happening before. Marks were given at birth not as one grows older yet, Anabella was not born with a mark, and she only just received one. How? What did she do that gave her a mark? Does this mean that she may get wings as well?

Zedrich had so many thoughts swirling around in his head, all centring around what it could mean that his daughter got her mark, today. Of all days, today. Not her birthday but the day after, and on the fourth year, not the first or the second her fourth. Was there even any meaning behind it at all? All these questions left unanswered and no way to find an answer.

Realizing asking questions is not going to help anything; Zedrich turns toward his slumbering little girl and sees that her hair is moving in her sleep, almost as if it is being pushed around by the wind. He then hears a tapping sound at the window to his right but, when he turns he sees nothing there. The tapping continues, so he decides to open the window as maybe there is something that he simply cannot see from where he is standing. When he opens up the window a burst of air hits his face and tousles his brown hair.

The wind blows past him and towards the sleeping girl in the bed and it begins to swirl around her and grow stronger.

As she sleeps, not woken by the wind blowing and dancing around her, she seems to grow stronger and looses the pained expression that was on her face but moments before.

Zedrich stands at the window and watches in awe as his daughter seemingly draws energy from the wind and as the wind begins to move around and through her almost as if she is wind herself. And in that moment he began to understand what Anabella's teacher had told him about what had happened earlier and in that moment he began to grasp the true wonder and magic that his daughter was.

The wind around Anabella's sleeping body begins to glow yellow and move faster as it carried the scent of cool earth and all Zedrich can think about his daughter is, She will be as powerful as the North wind. She will be as harsh as the South wind. She will be as persistent as the West winds and as free-spirited as the East winds.

Staring at his daughter and seeing the wind glow yellow with Anabella's powers he says to the room, "My little faerie girl, you are the wind. You are free to go anyway you want and be anything you want, because you are the wind and nothing can hold the winds back. You, Anabella, are my little faerie girl and you are now a faerie of the wind."