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She's a four-year-old girl, and people (especially her Dad) insist she's a boy.
Not that she isn't sometimes. She is. But not today! Today she's a girl. And Dad keeps saying that's not true, that God made her body perfect and she shouldn't second-guess God's plan for her. God made her a boy, so she's supposed to be a boy. And on the one hand that kinda makes sense. God doesn't make mistakes, right? So if she were really a girl sometimes, then she'd... what? Her body would change, she guesses. But on the other hand, she knows she's a girl. She's a girl with a peepee, that's obvious. She'd prefer not having a peepee when she's a girl, but it's not the worst thing ever. And if God doesn't make mistakes, God also didn't make her feel like a girl sometimes on accident, right? It must be part of His (because God is always a He, even though God made everyone, boys and girls, in His image, he's always a He, Dad says) plan.
She tells Dad that, today, and Dad gets angry, and yells at her, and she doesn't know why he's yelling. It makes sense to her! But he won't explain why she's wrong, he's just yelling, Dad's so mean, she hates him, and she's not crying, shut up, you're crying!
And now Mum's coming and she's talking to Dad, and that usually makes Dad stop yelling and go away but he won't stop now and Sadde's angry and afraid and hurt and she's running away. A part of her thinks that it doesn't make much sense to run away, the park is pretty open and she can't really hide anywhere, and she'll have to go back because she'll get hungry (not now, though, she just ate a sandwich).
So she runs until she finds some bushes where she can hide, and she hides there, and she doesn't cry, and she spends a long time not crying. Mum and Dad don't come after her, though, and after she's done not crying she doesn't wipe her eyes and her nose, and she comes out the other way of the bushes she was hiding in.
And she's pretty sure that's not the park.
Mortal and Promise in fairyland
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not_from_here
not_a_court_jester
"Okay. I suppose we might as well explore."
She takes Sadde's hand and starts walking.
She takes Sadde's hand and starts walking.
not_from_here
They walk, and Sadde recounts what he remembers of his encounter with Briar, and she asks a few questions he hadn't thought of at the time and really wishes he had.
The thicket becomes sparser and sparser, and suddenly it's dawn, and they can see a river with what appears to be an upside-down waterfall, the river going up rather than down. Farther away, a giant tower of crystal with colours shifting like flames. It is stunning.
And somewhat closer at hand—still about a twenty-minute hike on a grassy field—is a large five-story building with what appears from this distance to be the buzz of activity in and around it.
"Ooh, there must be fairies there! We should go check it out!"
The thicket becomes sparser and sparser, and suddenly it's dawn, and they can see a river with what appears to be an upside-down waterfall, the river going up rather than down. Farther away, a giant tower of crystal with colours shifting like flames. It is stunning.
And somewhat closer at hand—still about a twenty-minute hike on a grassy field—is a large five-story building with what appears from this distance to be the buzz of activity in and around it.
"Ooh, there must be fairies there! We should go check it out!"
not_a_court_jester
"If what you told me is true, they may not be as friendly as your Briar," she says, recalling a lot of fiction and mythology involving fairies she has read about here and there and some fairly unsettling points in common amongst them.
not_from_here
"Oh."
He continues shuffling towards the building, where the buzz of activity starts becoming clearer.
He continues shuffling towards the building, where the buzz of activity starts becoming clearer.
not_a_court_jester
And eventually they are close enough that most of the fairies who can have noticed them.
Indeed they have. Several of them have stopped doing whatever it is they were doing to gape, but some of the more curious ones fly towards and around them.
"Mortals!"
"Two of them!"
"What are you doing here?"
"Are you lost?"
"What are your names?"
"Would you like some berries?"
"Would you like a candied dewdrop?"
"He's so tiny! I'd thought mortals were all big!"
"Mortals!"
"Two of them!"
"What are you doing here?"
"Are you lost?"
"What are your names?"
"Would you like some berries?"
"Would you like a candied dewdrop?"
"He's so tiny! I'd thought mortals were all big!"
not_from_here
Fairies! So many of them! Many shapes and sizes and colours and wings and patterns and fairies!
So... many of them. Not that many, but they overwhelm, and maybe it's the way Laura's hand squeezes his but he suddenly looks scared and doesn't respond.
Until, that is, he spots someone he knows over there in front of the building. "Briar! Hi!"
So... many of them. Not that many, but they overwhelm, and maybe it's the way Laura's hand squeezes his but he suddenly looks scared and doesn't respond.
Until, that is, he spots someone he knows over there in front of the building. "Briar! Hi!"
—only to see a small blue fairy startled by this, flying back into the building via a window.
The fairies continue asking things, offering things, making promises of wild dreams and fascinations, things that Sadde doesn't understand but which make his mother squeeze his hand tighter. They never touch the mortals, though, and only fly about, laughing and playing, getting bored every now and then and being replaced by others who still haven't seen the new interesting things.
Until a soft, low voice, almost whispered, coming from the front of the building, asks, "What's this?" The fairies all fall silent, fluttering in a more subdued fashion, letting one other fairy have line of sight.
She's not old—no fairies are, physically—but that's not immediately obvious. Easily the tallest of them all, at almost six feet with short white hair and a thin, austere face that looks like it should be decorated by spectacles, and large wings shaped like a butterfly's but more leathery in texture, resembling white parchment. She is, in other words, what you would expect the stereotype of a librarian to be if given fairy form.
"Oh, mortals," she sighs as she flies towards them with a curious look on her face.
Until a soft, low voice, almost whispered, coming from the front of the building, asks, "What's this?" The fairies all fall silent, fluttering in a more subdued fashion, letting one other fairy have line of sight.
She's not old—no fairies are, physically—but that's not immediately obvious. Easily the tallest of them all, at almost six feet with short white hair and a thin, austere face that looks like it should be decorated by spectacles, and large wings shaped like a butterfly's but more leathery in texture, resembling white parchment. She is, in other words, what you would expect the stereotype of a librarian to be if given fairy form.
"Oh, mortals," she sighs as she flies towards them with a curious look on her face.
not_a_court_jester
Laura meets the fairy halfway and they take the measure of each other. She feels—completely out of her depth, if she's honest. The only reason she didn't turn around and leave the moment the fairies noticed them was that she's pretty sure that'd actually be worse.
The fairy lands and peers at them, her gaze resting on Sadde's face. "Hmm."
not_from_here
Sadde wilts a bit and lowers his face, then blinks and looks up at her, defiantly. He's not scared!
The fairy smiles with the corner of her mouth and asks, "And what might your names be?"
not_a_court_jester
"He's Mortal, I'm Mother."
No time to think of anything more elaborate than that.
No time to think of anything more elaborate than that.
The fairy's half-smile widens a bit. "No, they're not."