The Faerie 'Blessing' of Aëlífa - (Another Dread Fairy Tale - a Prequel)
A very short tale, created to touch hearts during this magical Season of love and compassion. It is born out of that time when childhood deserts us - and a few years before Aëlífa saw the man from Earth, named by her Torimái, who won her hand against the wishes of her people.
It was the season, that one evening when stars glitter like silver dust and the moon glows with a gentle haze spread around it. The hunters knew, this is the time for the magic of purity in a daughter to gain them the horn of a silver unicorn.
Aëlífa, at the tender age of eleven, was chosen as the fairy-girl to entrap the unicorn. They gave her a rope with a noose, made from the manes of unicorns trapped in the past, and a whistle for her to blow once she holds a unicorn to her side.
Aëlífa is not a common girl of the fairy people, for her mother is the queen, yet she is no great beauty, slim of form as all princesses are supposed to be, but her face is of that friendly and gentle plainness that earns friends, but is not meant to stir strong passions.
It is not her face that matters, for it is her heart that shimmers with a rare beauty. Aëlífa walked in the forest with fear in her eyes, for she feared a unicorn might come to her and she did not want it to be so; she did not want the blood of a unicorn to taint her soul.
Softly she sang, the melody keyed to repel all creatures of magic and the words a warning. When she reached the heart of the forest, ancient trees stirred and opened a path for her, and the path closed behind her so that no hunter may follow.
As Aëlífa arrived in a small sunlit opening, she saw a rabbit with a bloodied paw, held by a trap. It feared her and would have torn its foot to the bone, so Aëlífa sang of gentle love and it calmed. It did not shrink from her as she carefully pressed on the vicious metal to open the jaws and release the tiny foot.
She then held the foot and placing her other hand over it, she sang of healing and her hands glowed for a second. She opened her hand and sadly gave the rabbit a wistful smile, encouraging it to run back to its family.
It seemed that a cloud of fireflies hid the rabbit from her vision and as it drifted apart, she saw a tiny winged faerie. A real faerie, not of her kind, but a true faerie of the secret heart of the forest! Aëlífa was enchanted and it was as if she floated in a dream.
“Child, faerie blessings only remain blessings for as long as the heart remains pure and true to itself. This then is my blessing: Whenever you sing from your heart, all who hear you will see in your face the beauty of a true faerie and the memory of your beauty will last a lifetime. As love spreads from you, so shall it be attracted to you. Treasure it child, so that you never lose it.”
And Aëlífa returned to the palace and when asked about unicorns, she sang a song of her love for unicorns and never again were they hunted. But the queen mother saw how her people responded and awoke to the beauty in her and became very protective of her little princess daughter who has the heart of a true queen.
Αλέξανδρος Ζήνον Ευσταθίου
(Alexander Zenon Eustace)Written: 23rd December, 2018
- posted on Steemit 23rd December, 2018
If the name in the title seems vaguely familiar, I wrote some stories about her a few months ago...quite a few...
Here is the first post:
https://steemit.com/sfandf-fiction/@arthur.grafo/my-aelifa-is-dead-a-dread-fairy-tale
I did not end the story I was writing, as I saw there were no readers interested in it. Even the person who had suggested I write it could not be bothered to call in...so I gave up on Aëlífa and her family.
As you see, I may give up on my characters, but sometimes they insist on coming back to life...who knows, maybe I will be forced to write the last chapter someday. All I can do is wait and see whether I should.