10 Days of Spring Fantasy Contest Book

Upset of a Spring Regime Day 8

The following picture of a bracelet puts me in mind of a fairy playground. To you it might look like a wood imp made it for his fairy queen. Let your imagination run wild and use this bracelet as the focal piece in your short story or poem! http://janedean.deviantart.com/art/Vintage-flower-garden-bracelet-145702865

**

The twelve-moon-cycle trek through Ferwood Forest had wrecked the newborn fairy. Desdemona crouched, quivering, behind an ancient evergreen, watching a boy hunting pine cones and plucking flowers. The human with sunshine hair was blocking the path to the sacred citadel where Queen Fariah’s necklace lay.

The fairy envisioned the legendary talisman. Mushroom-shaped fuchsia and ivory seashells, kaleidoscope shards of glass whipped smooth by winter’s tongue, and above all else, the bell that tinkled, heralding the beginning of spring and renewal. A pearly tear spiraled down her face. Whoever wore it reigned over their kingdom.

“Move!” she shrieked at the human.

The boy paused, as if he was listening.

Looking over her shoulder at her bare back, she lamented. “I must retrieve the sacred talisman the sand nymphs cobbled up during the cold seasons."

The distance to the hallowed site was approximately twelve wood imps laying head to toe. An eternal stretch for Desdemona. Another human shouted, and the boy looked away.

Desdemona made a wild dash toward the quarry. Half-way there, the boy turned back to his bucket of pine cones. Desperate, the fairy splatted straight out in a patch of moss and lay motionless.

"Hey, what's this?"

Even with dirt plugging her ears, the human's voice deafened. Desdemona watched the enormous hand overshadow her being. "This is my death and Queen Fariah’s triumph.”

The boy was surprisingly gentle, grasping her between two fingers and holding her aloft.

Desdemona's feet thrummed the air. "Let me go!" she shouted.

The boy turned his bucket of pine cones upside down, cushioned the top with moss and gingerly set Desdemona on top. Holding his breath, he hunkered down in the pine needles, elbows bent, head cradled in his hands, eye-level with the fairy.

"My name is Daniel. I won't hurt you." The boy’s lips quivered as he struggled to keep his voice low enough so as not to topple the fairy. "Until the day he died, Papa read to me from an ancient tome. The story foretells a wingless fairy would venture into the human world and retrieve a treasure. I saw the picture of a sacred necklace worn by the fairy world’s queen. It was our family's destiny to assist."

“Is that why we can communicate?” Could I be the one? Desdemona dared hope.

Daniel nodded. "What's your name?"

“Desdemona. Fairies have a similar legend. Are you part of the clan named Morning Glory?”

"Papa spoke of a mythical woman who bridged the fantasy world to the human realm. Her name was Morning Glory. You can find the sanctified amulet?”

Desdemona bobbed her head in a flurry of flaxen hair.

“Where are your wings?"

The budding pixie hung her head in disgrace. "Fairies earn their wings. In the last ten thousand years, one fairy flunked flying school. Me."

“Will you be winged if you return with the necklace?”

“Yes. But we must hurry. Wicked Queen Fariah's reign should be over, and my kin are poised for Ascension. She sent me to fail. Surely, a pledged guard has been dispatched to secure the necklace.”

"Together, we can fulfill the legend."

Daniel’s enthusiasm excited Desdemona, and she began a merry dance, until she looked toward the path leading to the necklace.

“Why the sad face, Desdemona?”

“The way is strewn with pine needles and wild flowers. Without wings, I’ll flounder and suffocate.”

The boy held up one pudgy finger. “It would be my honor to clear the passageway."

As Daniel shoved aside the encumbrances, Desdemona, perched on dainty feet, followed behind the boy’s finger.

“No one can see where the nymphs secreted the necklace. I’m sorry, but you must close your eyes.”

“And, rightly so.”

Desdemona activated her inner light and the cave lit up. She caught a glimpse of something sparkly. "Gems! The presence of gems evinces a new regime." The fairy flicked off her beacon and moved toward the necklace. Triumphant, she emerged from the gloom to the sunshine day.

"It's gorgeous. “I’ve been thinking. Why don’t you don the necklace?”

Desdemona’s mind whirled. “Upon return to my world, wearing the numinous amulet, I shall be queen! How can I thank you?"

Daniel knuckled away a tear. “No need. Somewhere, Papa is smiling."

w/c 703