My Little Faerie Girl

Healing Earth

After the incident with the fire, more people looked at Anabella as an outcast and even more looked at her with fear in their eyes. Yet still, her father and mother stayed by her side and the friends she made stayed loyal, not afraid of her new powers but rather curious as to why she receives new powers and marks, especially when she had been born with none.

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Four years passed, Anabella was now fourteen years old and her power over fire was as great as her power of the wind and she could use them together in perfect harmony to do her bidding. She used her powers over the wind to help clean up the forest floor and fly through the sky like the other faeries. She used her power of fire to keep people warm at night who could not keep themselves warm and to light the way for those travelling in the dark of night. Her powers were not used for evil or wrongdoing but rather to help others. Never again were her fire powers used to destroy and harm, only to protect and help.

Although she only used her powers to help others, there was still a painful reminder of what her fire had done. In the clearing where her fire first manifested itself, the earth was still charred and the trees grew with few leaves on their branches and still there was always a faint scent of smoke in the air.

The thought that she had done that to the earth hurt Anabella because she never wanted to see someone harmed and to her, the earth was a person, which grew and lived and died as any other would.

So, four years after the incident Anabella wandered over to the clearing and looked around at the scars she had left on the surface of the earth; scars that ran much deeper than they showed. She wore only an earthen green dress that moved with her as she walked and that reached down to her knees, her midnight black hair neatly braided down her back, no shoes on her feet, as she approached the broken area of earth.

She closed her eyes and remembered what happened that day and remembered the words that her father had spoken to her two days later when she returned again to the clearing to look at the damage she had caused. On that day, where her smile was dim, he had said to her, "Think not about the damage you have done, my little faerie. Think only about the healing you will one day bring and about the healing you can do now."

Opening her eyes again, she gazed at the blackened earth and the leafless trees and took one deep breath and as she let it out she pictured the same clearing but with green lush grass and brown dirt beneath it and tall, bright, healthy trees. As she pictured this she felt a pull at the bottom of her feet so she looked downwards and laughed happily. Spreading from her feet green grass started to grow and the once black earth turned brown and became covered by the emerald green grass. Seeing this she looked up and smiled brighter. As she watched, the trees above her head grew taller and their leaves returned, more colourful and luscious than ever before.

Overcome by joy and happiness, Anabella began to spin in circles with her arms out and her head back, laughing and dancing. She then called upon her wind to raise her up to the tops of the trees. The wingless faerie rose to the very top of the tallest trees, where she watched down on the clearing where the grass was still growing and new plants were springing from the earth. She watches as pixies, elves, and nymphs come from their homes and see the reinvigorated earth and smile at the new plants. She watches as the people look up to the trees and see the new leaves and the new heights. And finally she watches as they catch sight of her up in the air, floating above the trees with a huge smile on her face.

They beckon her down, calling her name loudly, but not in voices of hate but rather in voices of awe and friendliness. In voices that she had not heard for a long time - other than from her parents and handful of loyal friends.

When her feet once again touch the ground she is met with smiles and thanks from many people. She brushes off their thanks and says, "It is only my right to heal what I myself have destroyed. I do not deserve your thanks but thank you that is very kind of you."

After everyone has smiled and thanked her and have turned to play on the new grass and sniff the blossoming flowers, Anabella turns to go back to her house when she once again feels a tug at her feet. Again, she looks down and sees a lone vine of a rose crawling its way up her right ankle, twirling around it as it grows. She reaches down to touch the vine gently and the moment her fingers touch the forest green vine with dark violet rose buds on it, it glows a bright green and dissolves into her skin. She flinches slightly in pain as the thorns prick her leg and draw blood, but she does not try to stop the vine, already knowing what is happening. She is receiving a new mark. The mark of an earth faerie.

Once the vine had completely dissolved into her skin and left behind the mirror image of it wrapped around her leg, she returned to her home where her father was waiting and told him all about what she had done and showed him the new mark crawling up her leg.

He was happy to see his daughter's new mark and learn of the healing she had done on the earth but, he was most happy to see that radiant, true smile return to his little faerie's face for it had been gone for too long.