WRITTEN BY:
aosfiction
His jaws clenched at the situation he put himself in to. This was not supposed to happen. This was not a part of his plans then. But a betrayal from a person he trusted most brought him to the lower depths of the palace dungeon. He spent five years in that godforsaken place but now that he was free, as much as he wanted to, he could not exact revenge to someone who owed him too much!
In exchange for his freedom, Richard was now destined to look for the Layla in the man's world and protect this creature for the rest of his life. Layla referred to someone who was a half-fairy and half-human member of the royalty, and one who was never allowed to live with them. But how was he going to find this Layla when he was blind? The council of justice was hardly forgiving when the fairies committed something against the law of the realm. They took his eyesight as part of his punishment for stealing from his fellow fairies. Although it was better than having his hands cut off, and he was able to manage during those five years of incarceration, the success of his mission to find the Layla was close to impossible.
He remembered what happened a week ago. A glowing purplish blue butterfly landed on his shoulder according to one of the prison guards. The presence of such insect symbolized that he was the chosen protector of someone from the highest beings of their realm. The butterfly never left his side. It glowed around him like one of those pixie fairies who has done nothing but to annoy you with their little voices.
Soon afterward, Richard heard that their king died. He didn't care as much until His Majesty's youngest sister visited him in his prison cell. There were death threats to the highest beings while there was no ruler in their land. This prompted the royal clan to find the magical butterflies and search for the protectors of those members of their family who did not have their own protectors yet.
The youngest princess who visited him has a daughter, and she was a Layla. Despite the circumstances of such birth, the said child was still entitled to have a protector and he, from one misfortune to another, had the Layla's butterfly. He was now given the special appointment to take care of this unique creature for the rest of his days – even if he was blind. He didn't know how it was supposed to happen. Despite the skills he gained during his imprisonment, he was grasping at straws trying to figure it out how to find this Layla in a man's world.
Immediately, after that butterfly incident, the council granted the princess' request to give Richard his pardon and was sent to the human world – that terrible place where no one in their world wanted to venture in. It was worse than the punishment he had. Who wanted to be in this world? The fairies knew well how abusive and evil humans could be. They never respected nature. They never respected the elements that surrounded them.
And as Richard traversed the forest trail, trying to figure out how he would be able to reach the Layla he was supposed to protect, he was cursing everyone in his life. A year ago, he dreamt of earning a lot of gold from the mines in the northern part of the realm. He was an abandoned child who only wanted to live a comfortable life. Like the rest of the fairies, he has powers and talents but also, like the others, there was a law in the land, and he also had to earn his keep.
Until one day, when someone Richard thought was a friend taught him how to earn something in the easiest way possible. He learned how to steal from others and he began to love what he was doing. He never cared about anyone, because nobody cared for him. His parents abandoned him and he never knew the reason. His right to live a good life was stolen from him by those fairies who never bothered to care for a child they left alone in the forest. Everything was going well until he fell in a trap set by the fairies he trusted. He was sentenced to spend the rest of his days in prison, suffering in darkness.
