This is it! The last story for the NaShoStoMo Challenge! That makes it 30 stories in 30 days (with about three hours to spare...).
The Fairy Ring
It is not fair. Not only am I an orphan (living with aunt, uncle and a cousin who are like a brother to me), but I also live on a farm, have had a good and loving upbringing, but also inherited a sword from my father. A heartless and oppressive dictator rules our country which is part of a large and great empire. He has many non-human minions at his command. He even has a couple of dragons in his command. But he never sends any of them this far into the rural countryside. There has been no excitement in this part of the country for two hundred years (when a robber was apprehended not far from here). There is a legend about a hero that will one day save the town from a dragon (or a draconian ruler, depending on how inebriated the teller of the tale is), but even that doesn’t help me at all. Because, you see, I am a girl.
And not just any girl. A girl that will never be wed. Apparently my father made a pact with the Fairy Queen that I will serve in the Fairy Queen’s Court from the age of sixteen. And once you go to the Fairy Court, you never return. Apparently my dear father had a way of gambling away everything he owned and then some more. Apparently he had won the sword off some down on his luck soldier that wandered the lands. It was the last thing he won before his heart gave out. If I never wed, I will soon be an old maid and not even fit for dragon fodder if one of the beasts should happen to come along. I will have an unexciting life and probably just as unexciting a death. And the worst part of it all is that I am turning sixteen in only two hours. My bags are packed and I am ready to leave for a life of servitude. I haven’t slept a wink and I am already sitting on the edge of my bed with my bundle next to me.
The Fairy Ring had started to grow three days ago. It usually only takes a few hours, but I squashed it a couple of times in the hopes that they would get the message and leave me alone. But then the stupid ring just starts growing in another place. The current ring is in the middle of my bedroom floor. I had thought that it could only grow outside, but apparently the wooden floor of the house is good enough for fairy magic to do its thing. The ring is glowing slightly and I can already hear the beautiful fairy music.
Then the Queen is standing in front of me, in the centre of the ring. One moment she wasn’t there and the next she was. She is more beautiful than anyone I have ever seen (not that I’ve seen too many people, mind you). Her skin is without a blemish, her dress of sapphire and her wings like those of a dragonfly. She smiles at me and then speaks.
“You are Erelanda?” she asks and I wonder if she thinks that I’m not good enough for the fairy court. I can’t find my voice, so I only nod my head.
“Good, I was hoping you weren’t going to turn out to be some flimsy girl too scared to get her hands dirty.”
And now she’s rubbing it in my face that my hands are all calloused.
“Do you still have the sword your father left you?”
“Yes, er, Your Majesty.”
“You will need it for your training, so bring it along. Fairy swords aren’t suitable for beginners.”
“Swords?”
She crossed her arms, exasperated. “Haven’t they told you anything?”
“About what, Your Majesty?”
“Your mother? The reason why you have been called to Faerie?”
“Uhm... my mother is dead and I’m going to Faerie because of a bet my father made?”
“O dear. Well, now, that is not quite what happened.” She smiles and then sits down on a chair that suddenly appears.
“Your mother was one of the Faerie Dragon Guards – like you will be. It is in your blood to keep Faerie safe from dragons. Erelanda, you are part Fairy. You will get your wings on your sixteenth birthday and then you will no longer be able to live in the human world.”
I grin from ear to ear. Maybe it’s not so bad to be a girl... I pick up my bundle and the wrapped sword. And then I step into the Fairy Ring.
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