Losing Fairy Wings

Some fairies are very shy around humans, even if they know the people are friendly toward fairies. Thussar fairies are just those sort of very shy fairies. Thussars are wondrously beautiful and humans have trouble leaving them alone. Some humans, thinking the fairies are butterflies, even collect Thussar fairies in glass boxes, which is why Thussars stay far away from humans.


One Thussar fairy, Kaera (Kay-ruh), doesn’t listen very good to her parents and grandparents. She doesn’t even listen to her aunts or uncles! Her Hada (fairy father) lectured her every day saying, “Kaera, you stay hidden away from those humans. They’re dangerous folk to be messing with and you are one of the most lovely of all the Thussars. They would surely like to keep you forever in a little glass box so you can’t get home. Then, you lose your wings and, worse yet, you would have to marry the human who lets you go! You can’t come home until the human lets you!”


“Oh, Hada,” she moaned at being told the same thing over and over again. “I know all that!” She started wagging her finger in the air, very disrespectfully, at her father, “Don’t do this and don’t do that. Stay away from humans and human things or you might get stuck in a box. You’re going to lose your wings and get married. Well, right now, I’m going outside to play my violin.” She taunted him just as she went out the door, “Maybe a human will come and listen to me play!” Then she quickly slammed the door and flew off before her Hada could catch up to her.


Kaera flew to her most favorite spot on a hill overlooking a huge butter-yellow house. She loved the house because it had a little house in a tree in the back yard. Sometimes, the children who lived there went outside and played all sorts of wonderful games there. When the children were away at school, Kaera flew into the treehouse and played her violin there. It was peaceful and out of the wind. Sometimes, the children even left some of their toys in the treehouse and she loved looking at the odd things human children played with.


She made sure that the sun was up high enough in the sky that the children wouldn’t be coming out before she flew into the little treehouse. Inside, it was peaceful and she was delighted to find the little girl had left one of her dolls outside. Kaera used her magic and set the doll up so it sat in one corner of the treehouse and Kaera sat in another corner. “Now I have a guest to play my violin for!” She brought out her bow and violin. She loved her violin, it was so dark purple it looked black.
She closed her eyes and began to play. She played so sweetly that the boy, who wasn’t in school that day, stopped playing upstairs in his room and began to listen to the sweet music.


The little boy decided he needed to find where the music was coming from, so he went downstairs. He looked at the stereo, but it wasn’t on. He looked at the television, thinking that perhaps Nanna had left it on accidentally. The television wasn’t on, either. The music played on, so he kept looking. He heard it outside and thought that maybe Grandpa was playing his violin. The boy had never heard Grandpa playing the violin that nicely and he wanted to watch while the instrument was played. He went outside and looked all around the house, but there was no Grandpa playing his violin. The boy listened real hard and followed the lilting sound. He walked over to the tree that his playhouse was in and wondered how Grandpa had gotten way up there. The little boy climbed up the rope net to see who was playing. It looked like a butterfly playing a tiny violin. He was sure his sister would love to see this, so he brought out his bug-box to catch this marvelous butterfly.


Kaera was so involved playing her violin that she never even saw the little boy! She was practicing the Fairy Queen’s Waltz so she could play at the Autumn Ball this year. It was a hard piece of music to master and she played it everyday through the whole Spring and Summer. She almost had the tune perfected when she heard a loud THUMP all around her. When she looked, she saw that she was in a little box and there was the boy from the house staring down at her through the glass! It was very frightening and she was so afraid. Hada was right and now she would lose her wings, have to get married, and never be able to play at the Autumn Ball. “Ooohhh,” she wailed, “Please let me go!”


The boy couldn’t really hear what she was saying and only heard a sort of high pitched kind of singing. He thought this was strange behavior from a butterfly. Of course, it was pretty weird that a butterfly would play the violin, too. He couldn’t wait to show his sister when she got home from school! She’d never believe him if he let the butterfly go before she could see it. He put the bug-box into his jacket pocket and climbed down the rope net. Nanna was calling for him to take a nap and then Sister would be home! He considered showing the butterfly to Nanna before the nap, but thought it better to save the surprise so everyone could see it at the same time. Besides, she might make him let it go before he could show Sister.


As he was going up the stairs to his room, Nanna told him, “Good night, my little man. Your Uncle is coming today. He should be here when you wake up. Have
a good nap and be sure to dance with the fairies while you’re sleeping!”


The little boy was really excited now! He’d be able to show the violin-playing butterfly to lots of people when he got back up from his nap. He went over the list of who would be there: Sister, Nanna, Grandpa, Papa, his Aunt and his Uncle. They would be so surprised!


Kaera sat in the boy’s box. She was miserable and she was beginning to feel a little sick to her tummy. Hada would be so worried. She thought about what she said just as she was leaving her house earlier, “Maybe a human will come and listen to her…” Before she started to feel too sick, she decided she had better try to escape. But, just when she was starting to examine the catch on the box, the boy’s hand reached down and his fingers wrapped around the box. He pulled her out of his pocket, then she watched him throw his pants on the floor. He crawled into bed and put her and the box on the pillow next to his head.


She felt so overwhelmed with fright that she just sat down and started to cry. The boy still thought she was a butterfly, but he whispered to her, “Don’t worry. I’ll let you go after I show you and your music to my family.” He stroked the little box until he went to sleep, trying to soothe his butterfly.

Inside the box, Kaera wondered if he could marry her, since he was so young. What would happen to her then? She would have a five year old husband who couldn’t take care of her! Oh, the other fairies would come and laugh at her then, for sure. She decided that she would just make the best of it and took out her violin to play a nice tune for the little boy who was trying to reassure her. She played from her heart and the song sounded mournful and sad to her.

After a very long time sitting in the box beside the sleeping boy, Kaera heard some noise from downstairs. It sounded like someone arriving. The boy continued to sleep. Kaera just sighed and waited for her fate. Suddenly, the noises started getting louder and the boy started to wake up. The boy’s door burst open and a tall young man with dark hair walked in. He put his hand on the boy and started shaking him awake. When the boy finally woke up enough to see who was waking him up, he exclaimed, “Uncle! Yay! I’m so glad you’re here! I have something wonderful to share with everyone! When did you get here? Did you bring your dogs? Do you like butterflies? Is sister home?”


There were so many questions all at the same time that the boy’s uncle didn’t know where to start answering. His dogs came barking in the room, jumped up on the bed, and started sniffing at the bug-box where Kaera was. The Uncle saw the lovely butterfly in the box. Then he shook his head at the boy and told him, “We don’t sleep with bugs in our boxes. We’re only supposed to catch them, look at them, then let them free. It’s very scary for the bug that we catch and we want to make sure that they know we don’t want to hurt them.”


“I know! But this one plays music! I caught it up in my treehouse and I wanted to show Sister and Nanna and Grandpa. I want it to play the music for you,” he explained.


The uncle thought this was a strange story, musical bugs. “You can show it to them, but I’m sure it’s too afraid to make music now. Let’s go show them now so we can let it lose.”


Happily, the boy grabbed the box and ran downstairs. He exclaimed, “Everyone! Everyone! I have a butterfly that plays music! Come listen!”

The adults looked at each other, then shrugged their shoulders and gathered around the little boy. They didn’t really think that he had a musical butterfly. But curiosity got the best of them, so they all had to see what the little boy was up to.


He pulled out the box and held it proudly up for the adults to see. “Ok, butterfly,” he told Kaera, “You can play your songs now. Play the one you played upstairs for me, please?”


Kaera was scared to death with all those human faces looking at her. She was so frightened that she just sat there and didn’t do anything, not even fly around trying to escape! Fortunately, the Uncle felt sorry for her and told the little boy, “Yep. I hear the music, don’t you?” He looked expectantly at the other adults, who nodded their heads yes. “Ok, Brother, it’s time to let the butterfly free now. Let’s go outside so we can put it in the flowers.”


“But it didn’t play the song! It didn’t make music yet,” the little boy complained.


“Well, we’re still going to let the butterfly go. It needs to go to it’s home and see it’s children,” said the Uncle. They walked outside to the deck. Then the uncle said, “Let’s put the butterfly way up high so it gets the breeze. Let’s put it here,” he pointed to one of the hanging pots. “Hand it here and I’ll open the box so it can get some food.” The little boy handed the box to the uncle who flipped the clasp on the bug-box and put it into the hanging garden.


Kaera got sick and felt dizzy. She felt her wings get hot all of a sudden and then didn’t feel the weight of them any more. The little bug-box was suddenly getting small and she watched all the world grow smaller and smaller. She closed her eyes so she couldn’t watch. But then she heard a yell and started to feel herself fall, then PLUNK she fell on the deck.


The Uncle couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He put a butterfly up in the flowers and a girl comes falling out of the same garden!


Kaera knew that she was human now and had to marry the man who set her free. She knew that she had no wings left. She knew that she would be trapped in the human world until this man said she could go home. Kaera told him, “You freed me, so you are to be my husband.”


The little boy’s uncle wasn’t ready to marry anyone yet, especially not someone who used to be a bug! He asked her to stand and told her, “But I was just being kind. We don’t have to wed.”


“Yes,” she said, “the fairy laws are clear. Unless you tell me I can go home, we must marry.”


“Unless I tell you,” the Uncle repeated, “that you can go home? Well, you can go home!”


Just as suddenly as she grew, Kaera began to shrink. Her wings grew back quickly and she was able to fly about again, looking like a beautiful butterfly once again. She flew up to the bug-box and retrieved her violin and bow. Then, she began to play for the family. She played the Fairy Queen’s Waltz and played like she had never played before. After her song, she flew up to the man who freed her, then freed her again, kissed his cheek and flew off to home.


Later that day, the family found a sparkly, rolled up paper near their front door. When they unrolled it, they learned that they were the first and only humans invited to the Autumn Ball. They were guests of the princess of all the Thussar fairies, Kaera, the fairy the Uncle freed twice. From then on, the Uncle always had the best of luck thanks to the fairy’s kiss.