Chapter Text
I opened my eyes, feeling the soft padding on my back. I blinked as my eyes adjusted to the moonlight, slowly raised my head and sat up, then blinked again this time in disbelief. My body was resting on a giant sunflower. I looked down at my body. Tiny arms, tiny legs, tiny everything.
Of course, this was compared to the sunflower.
‘What?!’ I looked around. I could feel the panic rising. Everything was way bigger than me.
‘Did I fall into a world of giants?’
I closed my eyes and lay back down. Trying to remember anything that could have led to this situation. My worries intensified when I realized, I couldn’t even remember my name.
A throbbing pain originating from my back yanked me out of my thoughts. It was like when you sleep in a weird position and wake up sore. I sat up carefully and tried to look over my shoulder and then paused.
‘Insect wings?’ There really were wings sprouting up from my back.
‘Fairy. A two-year-old fairy.’
I wasn’t sure why I knew that, but I was sure that’s what I was.
‘I suppose I flumped back onto the sunflower too quickly and hurt my wings.’
Suddenly, my stomach rumbled.
‘Welp. I guess I’m hungry. What do fairies eat? Nectar?’
I had no idea. I stood up cautiously and fluttered my wings. I didn’t even have to learn how to use them, it came naturally, like an instinct.
I hovered off the sunflower and properly looked around. I seemed to be in a well-maintained garden. There was a large building nearby. All the lights in the building were off except one dimly lit room. I flew towards the window emitting the light, hoping to find a kind person to feed me.
But my wings failed. I guess even with instinct, I still had to practice. Luckily, I landed on the headpiece of a passing maid. I decided to rest there and wait. She would get into a building at some point, right?
She seemed to be in a rush so I was holding on carefully, I couldn’t afford to fall. She stopped behind a fence and someone in a hooded robe was waiting for her. No words were exchanged. She handed the person an envelope, and she was given a small pouch, probably money. It all seemed shady.
Immediately, I decided to get away from these dangerous looking people. Before I could move, the cloaked figure looked up towards the maid’s head in confusion. I crouched down further chanting ‘don’t let them see me’ in my head over and over. My eyes were clenched shut but after a moment and nothing happening, I opened my eyes again. A small gasp escaped me.
My arms had become transparent. I could see through them to the top of the maid’s head.
‘Insect wings and the abilities of a sort-of-chameleon?’ I chose to ignore it for the moment, deciding it would be better to escape. Carefully hovering a few inches above the ground, I moved towards the direction of the window I had seen. I needed to figure out where I was and whether the people around me were good or not.
I made it to the wall of the building and decided to fly up slowly along the wall. In case my wings got tired again, I could easily rest on the crevices in the wall.
Luckily, I made it to the open lit window.
There was a guy with beautiful blonde hair sitting on a desk covered in stacks of paper. Even from the back he looked exhausted. I took a moment to pity him before I saw the jar of cookies resting on one corner of the desk.
‘Jackpot!!’
I confirmed that I was still transparent and quietly flew over to the cookie jar glancing at the man every few seconds.
I got to the cookie jar and carefully picked one up. It was the same size as I was, but it wasn’t heavy. I hovered out of the jar and landed beside it. Carefully sitting down and nibbling one corner.
The taste was so heart stoppingly beautiful, I forgot about my surroundings. When I looked back up, bright blue eyes were staring at me. Equal amounts of caution, incredulity, and amusement.
I stopped nibbling on the cookie and carefully hovered off the desk towards him. I offered the quarter-eaten cookie to the man. Hopefully, he would let me taste these cookies again if he thought I was a generous person, well, fairy.
He chuckled in disbelief before lightly patting my head with a finger.
“You seem hungry, just eat it. I’ll pick my own from the jar.”
I sighed in relief. Thank the gods he didn’t kick me out or worse.
We sat in a comfortable silence, eating our cookies. When we were done, he smiled brightly and asked in a voice that made me feel a little iffy.
“So, may I know who my little guest is?”
I hovered closer to introduce myself.
“I’m a fairy! I’m two years old!”
I was excited to introduce myself. He fed me. Anybody who gives you food is a good person.
“I was hungry and saw the light, so I came to eat!”
His smile turned gentle at my introduction and his voice softened as well.
“Hello Miss Fairy. I’m Alberu Crossman. The Crown Prince of the Roan Kingdom. What should I call you?”
I hesitated for a second. I didn’t know my name. Well, I could always get one.
“Hi Beru, I don’t have a name. Since you gave me food, I will give you the honor of choosing a name for me.”
It’s better to pass on hard things to someone else, was my shameless conclusion.
He looked a little startled by the nickname but kept up his smile.
“I’ve never met a fairy before. I’ll make sure to find you a name as cute as you.”
I could feel my face flush at the complement. He smiled even more brightly. Clearly amused at my reaction.
“Alright little one. It’s late and little kids should be asleep. Let’s get you ready for bed.”
I flew to his extended hand and sat. He cradled me carefully and walked towards the bathroom. He placed me on the bathroom counter and started rummaging around.
I saw the mirror and hovered towards it then gasped in shock.
When he said I was cute, it was a gross understatement. I was about 3 inches tall. I had beautiful deep brown eyes and shiny golden hair like his. My wings were blue at the root and gradually turned pink.
I was freaking adorable!
Alberu was watching me with interest. Having returned with what looked like a sugar bowl filled with water.
I flew towards him in excitement.
“Is that me Beru? I look adorable! My wings are so pretty! We have the same color hair!”
I continued to flatter myself as I flew around him in circles. He just watched with barely concealed amusement.
My wings gave out and he lurched forward to catch me before I could hit the counter.
“Don’t do that! You could have gotten hurt! Clearly your wings are weak since you’re young.” He scolded
Seeing my wings drooping sadly at being scolded, he added with a soft smile.
“I’m not angry with you, I was just worried. And you’re right about being the cutest and most adorable.”
I perked up at the praise as he gently patted my hair. He helped me out of the dress I was wearing. It looked like it was made of two leaves sewn together. I had a softer layer of clothing inside. Alberu paused.
“I’m not sure if you’re comfortable with me being around as you wash up, but I’m too scared you’ll drown to leave you alone.”
His tone didn’t leave much room for argument.
“It’s okay Beru. You can stay here. I don’t mind.”
He chuckled and nodded. I heard the sound of water running and saw him fill up his bathtub.
We took our baths in a comfortable silence and then Beru carefully cut a small square out of a spare towel and wrapped me in it. Carefully carrying me back to his bedroom.
He quickly put on his pajamas and then took out a handkerchief from his closet. I watched as he made a hole in the middle of it before carefully adding two other holes.
“I’m sorry, I don’t have any clothes in your size.”
He helped me put my head and hands through the holes, smiling in satisfaction when his estimations were near perfect. My wings felt stifled.
“Beruuu… My wings…” I whined.
He had a moment of realization before asking, “Can you fold them?”
I tried rolling up my wings like a newspaper and it worked. I nodded. He took off the handkerchief and made two more holes. After I put on the makeshift nightgown, he cut out a strip from the extra length and tied it around my waist like a belt.
I glanced down at myself before hovering in his face.
“Thank you Beru! You’re a genius!”
He smiled and carefully plucked me out of the air.
“Let’s go to sleep.”
***
Alberu was losing his mind. The last thing he had expected to see when he finished his work for the day, was a tiny butterfly human nibbling on a cookie at the edge of his desk. He almost thought he was hallucinating from overwork.
When the little creature introduced itself as a fairy, his brain almost shut down.
And then he found out the fairy was just a starving baby, his heart softened. It couldn’t hurt to take care of it for a while.
He turned over to study the baby fairy that was laying on one of the pillows in his bed. He wondered where she came from. He knew nothing about fairies. If he was being honest, he thought they were myths. He chucked softly.
‘A name huh?’ He already had an idea of a name that suited the little ball of energy perfectly.
For the first time in a long while, he drifted off to a deep peaceful sleep.