Fairies of Light

by J. E Hanson

  The big woman looks me over, “She has human bugs in her hair. She reeks of smoke, alcohol, and vampire.”

  The older skinny woman with red curly hair quickly brings out bottles, “Skylar, I need your help to bathe her. We need to get these nasty bugs out of her hair.”

  The bigger woman with curly red hair smiles at me, “I’m already on top of that, momma! I have her water going right now.”

  My uncle looks over at the other men, “We will leave the women to clean, and heal Rosalie properly. I need to talk to you about something else too.” he says, and then the strange men leave.

  The women take my clothes off me. “We need to make your blood change back over. You must keep drinking these,” the older woman tells me. She keeps handing me, clear bottle after another. They carry me to the bathroom, and their bathroom is huge.

  One of them snaps their fingers, and a scrub brush magically appears out of thin air. They’re doing neat magic tricks!

  “I’m your Aunt Skylar, and I’m the little sister to your mommy. The other woman here is your Grandmother Titania. We will fix you, and you will feel better in no time,” she tells me.

  My body still has these warm tingles. “Where are my mommy, daddy, and Jazzy?” I asked without thinking.

  She looks at my grandmother. “After you heal for a little bit, I will tell you about your mommy and daddy. I want to make sure that you’re well, before we talk about her and your father. Uncle Oberon will take care of Jazzy,” my new grandma answers.

  I have a few questions that I’ve always wanted to know, “Did my parents leave me? Did they forget about me? Did they even love me?”

  She starts to cry, “Oh, my goodness! They would have never abandoned you in a million years! Your parents never forgot about you either! Your parents loved you very much, and you were their pride and joy! They loved you so much, Rosalie.”

  The new name startles me, “Why is my name Rosalie, and not Rose? Where are they, if they love me so much?”

  My grandmother starts to cry again, “Your name is Rosalie, because your parents gave you that name. Your parents on the other hand, well… they are both dead. They died, when you were only four months old. We tried to find you, but the mortals must have taken you. We searched everywhere for you, but we couldn’t find you. We have no tracking abilities like... well… like, the vampires do. But, we never gave up! I have sent my best men searching for you night and day. I never wanted to tell you this until you were feeling better.”

  I start to cry, and she holds me tight in her arms, “I’m so sorry little one! You have been through enough pain. Hey, look at me. We will heal you right now, and make all those nasty scars disappear. We will also make all those nasty little bugs disappear too.”

  They help me into the bubble bath. I take a bubble bath for the very first time, and these bubbles make me so happy, “I have bubbles!”

  Skylar smiles at me, “Yes, you do, and you will always have bubbles.”

  I even blow the bubbles in the air, “I can? I have never had bubbles before!”

  I think I make them feel strange. They have tears falling from their cheeks. They scrub me hard with a brush, and they keep saying sorry to me. I understand that I have a lot of dirt on me. I tried to get it off me, but the dirt wants to stay.

  Grandma kisses my cheek, “I loved your mommy very much, and when she died it made me sad. When we thought, we lost you for good it was almost too much for us to bear. I have to put shoo powder on your head to kill all those nasty little bugs. Human bugs are disgusting little vermin.”

  She sprinkles the dust on my head, but I have to sneeze. They hand me more clear bottles of elixir to drink. All of the sudden my heart stops beating, “Am I dead? God has finally taken me! My heart is no longer working!”

  Grandma feels my heart, “Honey, your heart is not supposed to beat, because you’re a fairy. You should have your fairy blood flowing through your veins now.”

  Skylar flips my wrist over, and my blue veins turn to a bright yellow color, “You’re not dead sweetie, and you’re a fairy.”

  I make an even louder sneeze from the second round of dust. She scrubs my head good, and it makes my head feel like a rug burn, “I’m so sorry Rosalie, and we are almost done.”

  They take off all the yucky dirt, and grime that was stuck to my skin. Skylar unplugs the water, and she lifts me out with a towel. Grandma Titania snaps her fingers, and two hair dryers appear out of nowhere. The hair dryers are flying wildly in the air, and my hair dries with these magical hair dryers.

  Grandma searches my head for any eggs and dirt. Two hours later, they give my head the final okay. Grandma sprays my hair down, and she rolls my hair in large curlers. She sprinkles another coat of that sneezy dust in my hair, “This dust will keep your curls forever, and your hair will never look that nasty ever again.”

  I thought they would give me clothes. I stare at my strange looking bathing suit, but my outfit isn’t really a bathing suit. They give me a blue skirt with a blue top. The top wraps around my neck, but my belly remains hidden unlike the older people. They finish fixing my hair, by taking out all the curlers.

  I stare at my odd clothes, “I’m sorry to ask this, but what am I wearing? Why do you wear yellow with gold, and I wear the blue with gold?”

  My grandma hugs me, “Never ever apologize for asking questions. Fairies wear these outfits, because in Avalon, it stays hot here. The heat allows us to wear clothes like these. You are wearing a skirt with shorts underneath. The top you are wearing is a halter top. We wear different tops, because we are adults. We wear what humans call bikini tops. You are still a baby, so you will wear more than we will. Pregnant women will wear sashes that attach their tops to their skirts. That informs us that they are expecting a little one. The boys don’t need to wear shirts, so they only wear longer shorts. The adult men like your grandpa, and uncles, will only wear loincloth shorts.”

  “Your last name is an aquatic name. Since your last name is Ocean, you wear the color blue to inform everyone that you’re a water fairy. We wear the color yellow, because our last name is a sky name. The gold trim on our outfits signifies that we are royalty, and we are also the ruling fairies.” Skylar answers.

  They confuse me, “What does a ruling fairy do?”

  Grandma smiles and leans down, “We make important laws for all the fairies to follow. If fairies refuse to follow our laws, then they could face punishment. Fairies are in charge of the summer and winter solstices. We handle the fall and spring harvests too. Fairies can help mortals fall in love—or break up. We are also in charge of weather changes for Earth, and food for mortals. Another thing we are able to do, is make spells both good and bad. The Creator and his angels assign us important jobs. The angels handle more of the physical things, such as babies and deceased mortals of all ages. Angels only step in, if the Creator makes a last minute change for all mortals. We work in perfect harmony to insure the needs of our Creator. You are a water fairy, so water fairies handle everything that pertains to the water. Once again, we handle everything that pertains to the sky. This means that we are in charge of the sun, moon, stars, clouds, and storms.” grandma explains it to me.

  She hugs me again, “You have nothing to worry about, because you’re still a baby. You will never have to do any jobs either, but you will have to attend fairy school. They will teach you how to fly, make potions, cast spells, defense, and offense. At the end of your schooling, you will be able to fly. You are unable to fly until you finish fairy school first.”

  Grandma pulls out a mirror, and I cry nothing—but happy tears. They squeeze me tightly, and they cry happy tears with me.

  Skylar kisses me on the cheek, “I promise that you will never ever have to go through that again. I’m so sorry for what you’ve been through.”

  Grandma carries me out of the bathroom, and the three funny looking men stand up. All of them are wearing yellow with gold loincloth shorts. I hold on to grandma’s neck tightly. Jazzy
eats a huge steak, and he seems just as happy as I am.

  She holds me tightly to her chest, “She seems a little confused. Can we wait for two weeks until we deprogram her from her mortal life? I think she’s a little scared.”

  Uncle Oberon shakes the pink Ian teddy bear in front of me, “I washed the vampire scent off it. I promise you that those mean people will never hurt you again. I’m so sorry that I didn’t come sooner. I want you to know that I promise to keep you safe always. You will never have to meet mortals like them ever again.”

  The bear stays in my arms, “You promise? Are you going to burn—or hit me, if I do something wrong?”

  The man with the long grey hair, who looks exactly like Uncle Oberon kisses my cheek, “I’m your Grandpa Oberon, and I’m the father to your mom. I promise to keep you safe from harm too.”

  Grandpa Oberon walks over to me, and he holds his hands out to me, “I promise you, if anyone hurts you, I will personally handle them. There were no excuses for experiencing all that evil display of humanity. Normal mortals would never hurt you either. I want to make it clear to you that there are bad fairies and good fairies; there are also bad mortals and good mortals. I never want you to fear mortals. They are still a young group, and they still have lots to learn. We have been around for thousands of years.”

  I hold on to his neck, “Can I have hugs, and stories read to me?”

  Grandpa smiles at me with his big brown eyes, “Why of course! Why would we not? We love you very much. You better be prepared for lost time.”

  I squeeze grandpa tightly, and he really feels strong with all these huge muscles. Grandpa passes me back over to grandma.

  Grandma points at the man with the green hair and eyes. That odd man has a long face, and he also wears yellow with gold, “This is your Uncle Everest. Your mommy was my second child, and her name was Rosebud. You have her middle name too. My third oldest, is Oberon Pine Jr., and this is your Aunt Skylar. We are your family, and we will take care of you. You will no longer have to live in fear. We want you to feel safe and loved always. Here in Avalon, we talk about our problems. In our family, we never hit, or hurt each other. You will learn to trust us in due time. Right now, Uncle Oberon wants to give you a tour of the new school.”

  I squeeze grandma tightly, and kiss her soft cheek. She quickly passes me over to Uncle Oberon.

  He laughs loudly, “Come on, squirt! There is more to show you here in Avalon!”

  My small hand takes his huge hand. He takes me outside the gigantic house, and Jazzy follows right behind us. My feet feel weird, because they have never been out of shoes before. I step on the ground slowly.

  “Come on, squirt. I promise that you will love it here.”

  I take another step—but slowly. The other fairies point at me, and they are whispering. I stay close to my uncle, and I still hold his huge hand.

  A young boy with blonde hair is bigger than I am, and he starts to walk towards us. The boy looks odd in just his red shorts. He looks like he stayed in the sun too long, “Is this Rosebud's daughter?”

  I try to hide behind my uncle, but he pushes me forward, “This is her one and only daughter.”

  The boy bends down, and he smiles at me, “You look like your mom. I haven’t seen your mom, since I was three. You must be five years old.”

  I look up at my uncle, “Rosalie is indeed five years old. She turned five a few months ago.”

  “Oh cool! That means she will be starting kinder fairy this year.”

  I slowly peek at him from underneath Oberon’s huge arm.

  “You’re very pretty for a young princess. You will love it here.”

  He squats down, “This is Jesse Hurst, and he is three years older than you are. His last name means fire, so he wears red. Do you understand?”

  I still suck on my thumb, and I’m scared. I still hold my teddy bear close to me. I give a quick yes. Jesse has long blonde hair, which is odd for a boy. I look around to see that almost everyone is skinny with huge muscles. Jesse runs off to play with a group of boys.

  My uncle picks me up, and he carries me. A few pretty girls look at my uncle, and they make silly faces at him. A beautiful woman with long silky brown hair and brown eyes walks over to us.

  “Who is this gorgeous little girl?”

  His face turns bright red, but he seems very happy, “This is my niece, Rosalie. Rosalie this is a very good friend of mine, Brandy.”

  Brandy seems very nice, and I like her a lot. She kisses my cheek, “I can’t wait to see, if she will be anything like her mom.”

  “I know she will be above and beyond her mom. Do you know where Puck is?”

  “His mom has him under lock and key, but he will be teaching the kinder fairies this year.”

  “You mean to tell me that he will take over the kinder fairies this year?”

  “After he graduated, he took over for Mr. Bird. I thought you knew this?”

  “We will have to replace him in the FOL, because I’m impatient with him as of late. So, I take it that Puck will be teaching the kinder fairies instead?”

  Brandy shakes her head yes.

  His face is still bright red, “I will see you later, and I need to show my niece around.”

  He carries me down the dirt road. Two odd looking men with white shorts, white hair, and grey eyes walk over to us. The first one smiles at me, “Who is this little one?”

  “Rosalie, this is Snow Winters, and the other goofball is his brother, Ice Winters. This is Rosebud’s daughter, Rosalie.”

  I want to know, because they look different from the others, “What are they in charge of? They look so white.”

  Snow sticks out his tongue, “I’m in charge of cold weather. We are natural disaster fairies.”

  Ice kisses my cheek, “I know we appear odd, but you’ll get used to us. You’re a very pretty girl,” he stops, and he talks to Uncle Oberon, “I’m happy to see that you found her, Oberon. I assume it is back to business as usual?”

  He shakes their hands, “Yep, business as usual. We need to think of a replacement for Puck, since he wants to teach now.”

  Snow tickles me, and makes me laugh, “I got you now, pretty girl! Here, let me give the pooch a treat.”

  Jazzy jumps up and down in front of them. Snow takes out his fingers, and he snaps a huge dog bone out of nowhere. The dog bone lays on the ground, and Jazzy picks it up with his mouth. They are both pretty tall and full of muscles. Snow and Ice have long bony faces. They still look very odd to me, but even they are nice to me too.

  “I need to show Rosalie around. I will hold a meeting later, and we can discuss possibilities about a replacement for Puck.”

  Ice sticks his tongue out at me, and he makes me laugh. He is so funny! Snow even makes funny faces at me too. Snow bends down, and he kisses my cheek, “I have a few ideas, but no rush, dude. Puck said that he would stick around the Enforcers for a little while longer. If it becomes too much, he said that he will step down. We will discuss it later, man. Have fun showing Rosalie around.”

  They walk away to talk to two other unusual men. He carries me to a huge building with white stones, and this building also has a gold roof on top.

  “Uncle Oberon, what if it gets cold—or rains?”

  “You’re in Avalon, but there are dark places to which you’re not allowed to visit. Even though we have night here, your body will never tire either. You don’t need sleep unless you want to. It does rain here, but it never gets below a certain temperature.”

  “Without any sleep, how will I grow?”

  “Your body will change every day without sleep. Every year you will grow until you’re sixteen years old. After that, you will be considered an adult fairy.”

  He takes me through a few doors, while I still hang on to his neck. He walks through the last door, and he puts me down on the white floor. I watch him put a finger to his lips. He sneaks in behind a short blonde hair man. I giggle at my uncle.

  “BOO!”


  The man has his back turned, when he did that. I watch him jump, “Shit, man! You scared the fuck out of me! Oh, I’m sorry, man. I wasn’t aware that you had company with you. Who is this gorgeous little lady?”

  Oberon pushes me forward to the man with the yellow loincloth shorts, “He won’t bite, Rosalie. He will be your teacher, and his name is Mr. Puck.”

  I shyly stare at him. Mr. Puck squats down in front of me, and I notice what he wears by pointing, “He has a sky name, Uncle Oberon.”

  Mr. Puck grins, and he shakes his head yes, “You are very smart, little one.”

  “I want to introduce you to a certain child, who you are finally meeting for the first time. This is Rosebud's child, Rosalie.”

  Mr. Puck stares at me strangely, and he stares at my face. He starts to cry.

  “I’m so sorry, Mr. Puck. I never meant to make you cry!” I felt sad for him.

  Mr. Puck wipes his eyes, and he picks me up, “I’ve been wondering if you were still alive. Your uncle and I have been searching for you for a very long time. I’m so glad that you’re finally here. You bear a strong resemblance to your mother, and you even act like her too. I’m a very good friend of your mother, and I loved your mommy very much.”

  “What was my mommy like?”

  “Your mommy was the most beautiful fairy of all. She could charm any male fairy, and she was exceptionally intelligent. You appear identical to her, and I grew up with your mommy.”

  I hug Mr. Puck tightly. He has bright blue eyes, and his eyes remind me of the clear blue sky.

  He seems so sad, “I should have known that one day you would bring her home. I never anticipated for it to be today.”

  A strange voice yells loudly, “I love what you did with your classroom, son!”

  Oberon looks behind him, “I see that your mom still hasn’t let you out of her sight yet.”

  “Thanks to my two idiot brothers, my mom has been up my butt for the past eight years. I hope my idiot brothers return home soon.”

  She has beautiful golden hair with bright blue eyes. The pretty woman points to me, “Who is this gorgeous little girl?”