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

 Foster turned and glided towards the ancient tree.  The oak tree, the bark peeling from the trunk, was worn with age.  The branches, twisted and knotty, held onto a sparse covering of stems that held onto a little bit of leaves that were brown and dry.  But life still existed in the ancient tree; for a few acorns grew.

 As Foster neared the tree Leena shouted, “There.”  She then pointed, “Right there.  Do you see Foster?”

 Foster looked and could see something, but that something was not Solange.

 “The barrier,” said Leena.  “Do you see the barrier?”

 “I do.”

 “Loxie must have built that.  But I wonder why?”

 “I do not know,” answered Foster as they both came to the barrier and looked into the darkness.

 Foster and Leena wrapped their fingers around the thick stems and pulled as hard as they could while flying backwards, but the barrier would not budge.

 Then the thought of yellow pixie dust came into Foster’s mind.  He took a pinch of the dust and blew it onto the barrier.  Without warning the barrier went crashing to the ground.

 The light from the sun flooded the hole in the oak.  Foster looked to the back.  As tears came trickling out of his eyes, Foster walked over to the silent and still Solange.  She lay limp in the bottom of what remained of a sparrow’s nest.

 Foster climbed in and fell on his knees and slumped over Solange.  He saw the dry trail of tears running down her cheeks.  With a hand trembling he took hold of her hand—the hand was cold to the touch.

 “What do I do?” cried Foster.

 The answer came in trembling hands clutching the bag of pixie dust.

 Foster opened the bag and hands shook the dust all over Solange.

 He stared straight into her eyes but they sparkled no more.  The pixie dust did not have the power to bring back life to her.

 Foster began to weep bitterly.

 “What is wrong my child?” a voice rumbled.

 “I failed Father.”

 “How is it you failed Foster?”

 “You sent me to find my fairy friends who were lost and because I delayed in doing so my fairy friend Solange has died.”

 “Foster, I sent you to find my lost fairy children, and that is what you did.”

 “I do not understand Father.”

 “For now my child, you do not need to understand.  What you and Leena must do now is take Solange back to the fairy kingdom I created, back to the village that I gave you and all your fairy brothers and sisters as a home, the village that Loxie, my child, has rebuilt.”

 “Yes Father,” wept Foster.  “We will obey.  But Father, what about Solange?  Is her death for forever?”

 “Foster my child, do as I have said: For I created you as a finder fairy.  You have found she that was lost.  What I created you for is complete.  Now, you and Leena take Solange back to the village.”

 “Yes Father.”

 With many a tear dripping onto the lifeless body Foster and Leena took hold of the silent Solange and flew back to the village.

 Even before they landed, Foster saw Loxie racing towards them.

 Once on the grounds of the fairy village, Loxie came running up and shouted, “Leena and Solange I knew that one day I would see you again.”  But as Loxie came up to embrace his fairy friends he stopped and stood still.  “What…what is wrong with Solange?”

 Leena let go of Solange’s limp arm and ran to Loxie.  She hugged him hard and cried, “She is dead.  Our fairy friend is dead.”

 “She is dead?” cried Loxie.  “No…no she cannot be dead.”

 “Loxie my fairy friend,” Foster said while weeping, “it is true.  Our fairy friend is indeed dead.”

 Foster laid Solange onto the soil.  In a matter of seconds a host of cute baby bunnies and mama mice and squealing squirrels and chirpy chicks and red Robbins and blue birds and buzzing bees and wet wiggly worms and many another furry creature and bird of the air and insects surrounded the fallen Solange.

 “If only Cambria were here,” cried Loxie, “she would be able to comfort our broken hearted animal and bird and insect friends.”

 “What do we do now?” wept Leena.

 “I suppose,” cried Foster, “we must bury her.”

 “Are you sure?” asked Loxie with a trail of tears trickling down his cheeks.  “This is the first time a fairy friend has died.  Are you sure we bury her?”

 Before Foster could answer a glow from the crystal blue sky covered them with yellow light.

 “What is that?” asked Leena.

 “That is the cloud that our Father made to keep his pixie dust safe from the creature.”

 “The creature?” asked Loxie.

 “The creature that was responsible for destroying us and the—”

 “Foster,” a voice rumbled.

 Foster looked to the cloud.  “There,” he said, “that is where we bury our fairy friend Solange—in the cloud of pixie dust."

 Leena stepped up to Solange’s still body.  “I will help you Foster.”

 “No.  No Leena.  This is something that I must do alone."

 Foster stepped up to Solange and scooped her lifeless body into his arms.  With an unfamiliar strength suddenly coursing through every fiber of his fluttering wings he flew Solange up to the cloud and laid her atop the yellow pixie dust.

 Leena and Loxie gasped in fear as the clamorous clap of thunder filled the air.  The animals and birds and insects suddenly scampered away.

 As if with the light of a thousand suns, a bright, brilliant, blinding light fiercely flashed.

 Leena and Loxie covered their eyes.

 In seconds the sky was quiet.  The bright light disappeared bringing back the brilliant, crystal blue sky.

 Leena and Loxie came from behind the tree while all the furry little creatures and birds of the air and the insects came scampering back in.  They looked up and could see Foster floating feeling in the crystal blue sky.

 “Wait,” said Leena as she wiped the tears off her face, “what is that?”

 Loxie looked up and answered, “I do not know.”

 “I created some of my fairy children to rescue,” a voice rumbled, “but I created you Foster as my one and only finder fairy.  Now my child, your fairy sister sleeps.”

 Foster opened his eyes and saw Solange, her eyes closed, fluttering her wings furiously.

 He darted to her and whispered, “Solange, it is time to wake up.”

 Pressing his hands to a hopeful heart, the tears trickling down the cheek, Foster floated backwards and watched as Solange’s eyes popped open.  After a yawn and a big, big stretch of arms and legs, she looked down and screamed.

 In an instant Solange soared towards the ground.  “Leena, Loxie my fairy friends, I thought I would never see you ever, ever again.”

 “Oh how we missed you,” Leena cried as she and Loxie ran up to her with open arms.

 “I am so glad you are alive,” cried Loxie as he and Leena gave her a great big hug.

 “Where are all our other fairy friends?” asked Solange.

 “Oh, oh,” whispered Foster as he floated high in the crystal blue sky.  “I can sense the humans.  I can sense a great sadness.”

 He looked down at Solange and Leena and Loxie and feared the future.

 “Is it happening again Father?”

 Solange fluttered about the garden creation.  As happy as she had ever been she floated about adding special touches to the red and yellow and blue and purple petals of the plentiful plants Loxie had tinkered with.

 Leena and Loxie were also excited.  They hopped and skipped about the mellow meadows helping Solange as best they could.

 Following her directions, Loxie and Leena sweetly spoke to the buzzing bees and wet wiggly worms and lovely ladybugs.  And while each of the special helpers had trouble responding to the directions of a tinker and wind fairy, the garden insects nonetheless went happily about their tasks.

 As for Foster, he fluttered high in the bright blue sky looking down upon his fairy friends while pressing a hand against a joyful heart.  The sight of his fairy friends and their garden helpers brought a smile to his face.  In his finder fairy mind, however, it was as if there was a nagging gnat gnawing at the sweet scene below.

 Foster again could not be sure who or what was whispering in his mind, but the words were heard.

 The whispered words spoke of trouble.  And this time foster felt, he would not find the trouble but the trouble would find him.  Worse, Foster believed the trouble once again would hurt the fairy friends he loved.

 As Foster looked down upon them all, he knew Loxie and Leena and Solange knew the truth about that horrible, horrible day.   They knew not only because they were there that horrible, horrible day, but because of the tale as told by the human woman and from Father mentioning the creature.

 Foster remembered how Loxie and Leena and Solange sat with legs crossed all giddy and giggly over story time.  He remembered how their eyes were glued onto every move of his hands, their ears hanging onto every word coming out of his mouth at how the new human king had told his human subjects about a better future.

 Foster smiled as thoughts of his fairy friends whispered “ooh” upon hearing how the new human king spoke of the human and fairy kingdom working together for a better future came to mind.

 Upon hearing how the new human king chirped cheerily like a chick on a springtime morn, had a smile as bright and light as the widest sunbeam, and eyes that sparkled with green and gold they whispered “ah.”

 They gasped in horror, however, as he told them about the mean and nasty things the king had done.

 Loxie and Leena and Solange trembled over hearing how the human woman had said something went terribly wrong.

 Foster remembered his fairy friends cupping their ears with their hands over hearing how her human ancestors became fat eating bad food.

 Foster remembered his fairy friends saying “yuck” over hearing how the new food turned the good and moist and fresh soil into dirty dirt.

 Foster remembered his fairy friends saying “blah” having heard that the once crystal clear and clean water turned to a bitter taste. 

 Loxie and Leena and Solange certainly understood all the terrible, terrible things the new human king had done to both fairy and human.   But Foster remembered that while his fairy friends understood that horrible, horrible day, he found it odd that what was more important to them was the pixie dust.

 Foster remembered that while his fairy friends understood how the Father kept the pixie dust safe from this creature he had spoke of, they did not understand why.  And more than that, they wanted to know from Foster why the Creator had done so.  And even more than that, Loxie and Leena especially, wanted to know where the pixie dust was.

 Loxie and Leena had seen the cloud of pixie dust.  They also had seen Solange put into the bed of dust, heard the thunderous boom and the blinding flash of white light, and saw how the cloud of pixie dust brought back to life Solange.  But now they could clearly see it was gone.  More puzzling, Foster figured they wondered why Solange was able to fly and not them.

 But as Foster contemplated all that his fairy friends wondered about, a feeling of wickedness nearing stopped the thoughts.

 Foster flew higher into the crystal blue sky.  He