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Category:
Fantasy
Type: Fiction
Copyright: November 1, 2017
The story of an unlikely couple -- one, a mortal man, the other, a half-fairy. The attraction is obvious, but a past filled with anger and sorrow threatens to derail the budding romance.
Stephon is on a quest with his friends to defeat an evil wizard. While staying in the tiny fairy kingdom of Garsland, he meets a lovely, waif of a girl named Marguerite. She is a half fairy, the first child of a mortal/fairy marriage. But Marguerite doesn't seem to fit in either the fairy or the mortal world, and lives alone, isolated and angry.
Can Stephon break through the emotional wall she has built to protect herself?
Excerpt
Stephon knocked on the door, and after a moment, a lass of great beauty answered it. At first, he thought she was a fairy, as she was so petite and delicate, but she had no wings and her thick, raven hair was unlike the pastel shades of the hair of Gar’s fairies. Stephon looked past her into the room, which was clean and unadorned, with a fireplace, a table, two chairs, a bed, and a loom, which was the source of the thumping noise Stephon had heard.
“Yes?” she asked in a musical voice.
“Good day, fair lady,” Stephon said, clutching his hat. “My name is Stephon, and I come from the castle of your ruler, King Gar. I am sorry to disturb you, but I have come to ask a great favor. We are organizing a rebel army here in Garsland to take on the army of an evil wizard. As the soldiers will be coming from far-away places and there will likely be many of them, we are asking everyone who can spare a bed or a bit of floor please help lodge these men. There may be women and children refugees as well.”
“I see.”
There was a pause as they looked at each other. Stephon became inexplicably nervous. “So…would you be able to help?” he continued.
“Well, my house is quite small. I don’t see how I could—”
“Others with even less than you have offered to help,” he blurted. He saw her eyes narrow.
“Oh, yes, I am sure the good people of the community have graciously tendered their humble homes to such a worthy cause,” she snapped in a sarcastic voice.
Stephon was stunned at her tone. “I am sorry…I shouldn’t have pushed. It’s just…that is…you’re the first person who wasn’t eager to help,” he finished lamely.
“It is only that I deplore hypocrites. I fail to see how Gar and the rest can hug perfect strangers to their breasts and at the same time turn their backs on—” she broke off. “No matter! Please leave—I just want to be left alone!” she shouted, slamming the door in his face.
“Good-bye,” Stephon called through the door. He walked a few steps away before returning to the door. “Uh, may I call on you again?” he called. When there was no reply, he left.
Stephon walked back to the castle slowly, pondering his encounter the beautiful maiden. Her soulful, pretty face had touched him, although her rude behavior had taken him quite off guard. Despite her strong words, Stephon had the feeling she was very lonely.
“Ho there, Stephon,” called Gar, riding up on a horse. “How goes the quest for lodgings?”
“Well, Your Majesty, quite well. We have contacted everyone in your kingdom and have been met with success on all but one score.”
“Oh? And who might that be?” He dismounted and the two men began walking back towards his castle.
“I know not her name, Your Majesty. She lives in a cottage in the meadow in yonder wood.”
“Ah, I see. That one. Well, I did warn you that it was not worth your time to ask at that particular abode.”
“So you did. Could you tell me something about the maiden who lives there?”
“She is very beautiful, is she not? Her name is Marguerite. Unfortunately, some years ago, she divorced herself from associating with me and all the others in our kingdom.”
“But why?”
“She thought us shallow and unfeeling, and rightly so. You see, Marguerite is a ‘half-ling.’ Her father was a farmer and her mother was a fairy. A union of that sort had never happened before. Or since, come to think of it. When Marguerite was born, she had very small wings, which were never any good for flying. As she learned to talk, she tried to rhyme like all my other fairies, but her rhymes were always imperfect. She became the source of a great deal of ridicule, and unfortunately, I did nothing to stop it. No one meant anything by it, really. We were only amused by her futile attempts to be like the other fairies, but…I’m afraid things got out of hand.”
“But I didn’t notice that she tried to rhyme her words, and I did not see any wings,” Stephon said.
“When Marguerite finally gave up trying to be a fairy, she decided…well, at her insistence her father clipped her small wings, and she altered her speech patterns to sound as much like a human as possible.”
“But then, couldn’t she live in your kingdom as a mortal?”
“She could, but I am afraid the wound is too deep. I am ashamed to admit that our ridicule of Marguerite led to a rather unfortunate incident. After her father cut off her wings, he left my kingdom. He loved his wife, but he did not want to have any more children. He feared they would be subjected to the same treatment as Marguerite.” Gar sighed. “Unfortunately, he had forgotten that fairies are quite prone to broken hearts. Their emotions have direct control over their physical wellbeing, and such was the case with Marguerite’s mother. When her husband left, the poor thing became very ill, and died within a couple of weeks. Marguerite also took ill, but she managed to recover, since she is half human. Now you can see why she shuns us. She blames us for her mother’s death.”
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