A Fairy Story by James Gerard (100 books to read in a lifetime TXT) 📕

 Loxie remembered how he wanted to return to Solange, but he could not.

 All the energy he spent during that very, very bad day had drained the very power of the pixie dust.  His wings became useless.

 Not being able to see the tree pained and angered him all the more.  With the hope that his fellow fairies would return to the land he had rebuilt, he figured Solange would be the first to come back.  She never did.

 Loxie had no idea what became of Leena, but he hoped she too would return.  She never did.

 Now, finally after finishing just the day before, a building process that seemed to have taken a thousand seasons to complete, he stared at the work just completed.

 All the flowers and fruits and vegetables that had grown from natural seeds that the garden fairies had stowed away in safe places in the event of an emergency, rested in meadows everywhere he looked.

 Being a master tinker he had logically planned out everything to restore the pristine setting of the land he loved and for his fellow fairies that he loved as well.

 He remembered how he first concocted the pungent pest perfume to keep all the mad and mean insects and birds and animals from attacking him as he worked.

 Images of constructing dams to keep out any surface water from coming in the land of fairies flooded the memory.

 Homes of his fairy friends were rebuilt with the broken wood and shattered stone and stringy straw that was strewn all about as well as with new materials he chopped down, uprooted, and picked up from all over the place.

 Loxie believed there simply had to be a reason for all that he had done.

 Just as he was about to walk back down the mighty branches of the pixie tree he had re-grown from a natural seed, sunlight poured through the dark and dreary sky.

 Flakes of yellow pixie dust glittered as they gently fell upon the resurrected garden creation.

 Loxie fell to his knees as everything around him began to sparkle.  Even the fields of wildflowers sparkled with the brilliance as that of fine yellow pixie dust.

 Suddenly a blue bird glided in and landed next to him.

 Fear passed fast as he looked at the bird.  The beautiful creation was chirping happily.

 He sniffed the air and noticed the pungent pest perfume was gone.  The air smelled crisp and clean.

 He smiled for the first time in a long time and wondered what was happening.

 With the yellow pixie dust falling upon his wings Loxie moaned in pain as the sleeping muscles were stretched out wide.  With grunts and roars he tried and tried to flap his fairy wings but they would not flutter.

 Disappointed, he could not understand what had happened to the yellow pixie dust.

 Then again, Loxie looked at the bright blue crystal sky, the bubbly little blue bird chirping happily beside him, and somehow knew that the darkness from that very, very horrible day was coming to an end.

Like a seed from a daffodil drifting lazily in a gentle springtime breeze, the white and delicate petals attached to the end of a sturdy stem came floating towards a land far away from the garden creation.

 Upon touching the ground the petals faded away and revealed a fairy crouching low on the bare soil.

 The brand new fairy stood up and looked around and whispered, “Where am I?”

 He expected to see fields of fresh yellow and blue and red and purple flowers, groves and groves of mighty maple trees, mellow meadows with plentiful plants, many mice, rabbits feeding freely on fresh carrots, buzzing bees, lazy ladybugs, beautiful butterflies and furry and flying creations of all kinds, but none were seen.

 “You are where you are,” a powerful voice answered from the crystal blue sky dotted with fluffy rain clouds.

 The boy fairy looked up and instantly recognized the voice.  “Who am I my Father?”

 “I name you Foster.”

 “And what is my talent?”

 “Talent?” the voice rumbled.  “That is a question you must find the answer to yourself.  For you are not like your fairy brothers and sisters.  I created you for a special purpose.  The talent you discover is a talent I give only to you.”

 Foster walked around in a circle.  He wondered if he were just presented a riddle, and in solving that riddle the answer to his talent would be discovered.  But the words spoken by his Father did not sound like a riddle.

 “Father, I am confused.  What do I do to find out about my talent?”

 Foster looked up to the sky and listened for the answer.  He caught something out of the corner of an eye.  It appeared to be a cloud glistening with glints of yellow.  “Father, what is that?”

 “That my child is where I have kept my pixie dust safe from the creature.”

 “I want to fly.  I want to fly high in the sky and touch the cloud.  Will you please sprinkle my wings with your dust?”

 “No, my child, I will not.  Foster, I brought you into the world I created for a reason, and that reason is for you to discover.  If you desire the pixie dust, then you will find a way to get it.”

 “But how can I do that?” asked Foster.

 “How you will do so my child will be by your choice.”

 “I do not understand Father.”

 The voice did not respond.  The crystal blue sky dotted with puffy rain clouds was silent.

 Foster stared at the cloud glittering with glints of yellow pixie dust.  He pondered the choices at hand to attain what he desired.

 He realized if he were a light fairy he could bend the light and knock loose crystals from the edge of the cloud.  The same could be done as a water fairy shooting streams of water up into the cloud or as a wind fairy sending swirls of spinning air up to the cloud to do the same.  But looking around the barren landscape, Foster figured he could not have any of those talents.

 Foster closed his eyes and thought that if a fairy needs pixie dust to fly, then I need pixie dust to fly.

 Holding onto that thought Foster stretched out his wings and started flapping furiously.  As if by magic, the wings fluttered.

 Fluttering wings kept him hovering just above the soil.  Looking up at the glittering cloud, Foster rocketed up as fast as the fastest wind fairy.

 “Wow!” Foster giggled, “I am a wind fairy.  That is my talent.”

 Now hovering atop the cloud glittering with glints of yellow, Foster stared down at the bowl of pixie dust.

 All of a sudden a funny feeling came into the mind.  He did not know how, but it was as if someone or something was whispering softly in his ear, “You need to take some pixie dust.”

 “I can fly without it and I do not need it for my talent,” Foster responded.  “Why do I need the pixie dust?”

 Whatever or whoever had whispered into his ear whispered no more.  Confused, Foster just hovered above the dust.

 He looked down on it and somehow knew he did indeed need some of it, but did not know why.

 Then the funny feeling returned but this time spoke to his heart without a word being uttered.  Foster did not question the feeling. 

 Realizing he had no pockets anywhere on the plain, white clothes he was born with, Foster soared down to the barren ground where there was not a leaf to be found.

 “There has to be some dried old leaf buried somewhere in the ground,” Foster reasoned.  Without thinking he put his hand into the soil and like magic a green seedling came sprouting up.

 “Wow!” a surprised Foster shouted, “I am a garden fairy too.”

 Giggly as he could be Foster flew circles around the little seedling but it would not grow any further.

 He pointed to one of the puffy rain clouds just overhead and shouted, “If I only were a water fairy.”

 “I cannot believe it,” hollered Foster as rain came raining down on the seedling.

 “And if I were a light fairy,” cried Foster as he flew over to a beam of bright sunlight and put his hands around it, “I would give the seedling lots of nourishing light to grow.”

 As if by magic again, light flooded the seedling.

 “I am a light fairy as well!” giggled Foster as he did somersaults in the air.

 The seedling grew high up into the air as green and luscious leaves sprang from its sides.

 Quickly, Foster yanked one the biggest of the leaves off the stem and rocketed back up to the cloud glittering with glints of yellow pixie dust.

 Handfuls of dust was scooped up and dropped into the leaf.  With a smile on his face and in his heart Foster tied up the ends of the leaf and floated back down to the ground.

 Without warning a very deep and painful sorrow hurt his heart.  He looked down and somehow knew it was coming from the ground.

 Foster looked at the plant and reasoned the soil was crying out for company.

 Just as he was about to open the leaf and sprinkle yellow pixie dust all about he stopped.  “I do not need pixie dust for this.”

 Setting the pixie dust wrapped securely in the leaf on the ground, Foster, as fast as the fastest wind fairy, flew just above the ground touching the barren soil as he zipped by.

 Every spot he touched the seedling of plants and trees started to sprout.

 As fast as the fastest wind fairy, Foster launched up to the sky and flew around all the little rain clouds.  He flew so fast that a wind swirling around all the little rain clouds brought them all together.

 Fast as the fastest wind fairy he flew just under the clouds and touched them as he passed.  Rain came pouring down.

 Fast as the fastest wind fairy Foster then flew about the sky and thought like a tinker.  Finding the brightest and longest and strongest sunbeams, he took it by the end and flew in circles wrapping all the other beams of light into one.  With an adjustment of the hands, he then shot the light over all the land.

 Oak and Spruce and Pine and Maple trees and trees of all other kinds grew tall and mighty.  Fruit trees with delicious orange orbs and fruit with sweet delicious cores popped up everywhere.

 Plants with all kinds of nutritious and delicious vegetables such as red carrots and green bell peppers and yellow corn grew and were ready for the harvest.

 Then, even to Foster’s surprise, purple petunias and red roses and yellow daffodils and blue violets flourished in fields amidst luscious green grass.

 In awe of his Father’s creation, Foster floated down to the ground.

 To his surprise bunnies came hopping up to him and nuzzled warmly against his body.   Mice came scampering in with eyes filled with love and warmly rubbed their noses against his legs.

 “Am I an animal fairy too?” laughed Foster.

 As happy as he was, as happy as he felt in the new garden creation, something from underneath let its pain be known.

 Foster did not know the pain, only that it was seeking him for help.

 At the same time he felt a sense of joy coming from just behind him.  He did not know its source but