The Water Fairy

(The following is part 1 of a short story I'm writing for my daughter. Until noted otherwise, the posted material is in its rough form. I will edit and rewrite when the entire story is finished)

It was said that water fairies only come at night and they only let those they trust see them. They lived beneath the waters in the forest spring that fed into Alsher River where they would play their fairy games and perform fairy magic. When winter came and the water froze, they would find shelter in the trees above until spring thawed the ice and brought life to new fairies, and then the fairies would fertilize the forest with their magic so that the trees could grow tall and beautiful.
         
There wasn’t a child who hadn’t been told of the water fairies. It was an important tradition of the forest people that their children knew the ancient stories to keep them alive. Although there were legends of trolls, ogres, and evil sorcerers, the favorite tale was definitely of the water fairies. Nobody had ever seen a real life fairy, but they did exist, at least for the children.
         
Wendy wanted a water fairy for herself. All her life she knew that one day she would visit the spring, and the fairies would appear so she could pick one and take it home. She had even asked mother and father if they would take her to the spring so she could catch one, and they laughed. Her father patted her on the head and said she was his special little girl, and that she would grow up to be a wonderful young woman. Wendy didn’t like him talking to her like she was a baby – she was eight years old, which was old enough to be treated like an adult.
         
When Wendy was two, father had brought home many jars of sweet jam and honey. He had purchased them when visiting one of the far away cities because there were no places nearby to get jam and honey. Wendy had wanted a water fairy even then, and she knew she would use one of the empty jars to catch it. While her father wasn’t looking, she stole a jar and hid it in her room, behind some of her toys, where it sat for six years.
         
One warm summer night, Wendy decided she was going to sneak out and go to the spring with her jar. Mother was sleeping, and father was away somewhere in the East, so Wendy knew she could sneak out. She prepared herself a lantern which she carried with both hands. The jar was in a pack slung over her shoulder. When she left her room she could hear mother snoring. She crept out the front door and headed for the forest.
         
The moon was full and Wendy could see the forest edge. The trees loomed over the small village. Some trees were tall as mountains. The forest was thick with trees and shrubbery, and as Wendy wandered through it she sometimes had to extricate herself from the tangling grasps of the strange plants that covered the forest floor. The spring wasn’t too far inside the forest – in fact she could already hear the water trickling down the stream and new she was almost there. A small veil of mist surrounded her, and she could feel vapor condensing on her face. The cool mist felt good in the night’s heat.
         
Within minutes, she stood by the water’s edge. She had set the lantern on a nearby rock. The spring was silent except for the gentle trickling of water, and Wendy couldn’t see anything. Fairies were supposed to emit light, but instead there was total black over the water. She sighed when no fairies came. She had hoped the fairies would be here so she could catch one and return home before mother found she had gone. Instead, nothing happened for over an hour, and she decided to leave without her fairy.
         
All her efforts were for nothing, and she wept as she picked up her lantern. As she was about to head back into the forest the small flame in the lantern flickered out, and she was surrounded by blackness. There was a tingling sensation in her stomach, and she grew afraid. What was she to do now? She couldn’t navigate the forest in the dark. She checked the lantern. It still had oil and shouldn’t have gone out.
         
She looked up and gasped: a single twinkling light hovered over the spring. It shone bright blue, and it quickly approached her. Wendy had to shield her eyes because of the light’s intensity, but she felt herself drawn toward the light. It was beautiful. The light came within ten feet of her, and she jumped in excitement – it was a fairy!
         
A fairy had decided to come to her! Wendy dug in her pack and grabbed out the jar. She took the lid off, ready to catch the fairy, but it stopped just outside her reach.
         
“Here fairy! Come to me,” she said. The fairy didn’t move, so Wendy inched forward. “Be my friend please. I only want to play with you.”
         
The fairy glowed even brighter, and she had to cover her eyes again. It made a buzzing noise, similar to a bumble bee, and it floated high in the air above Wendy’s head. Wendy could make out its features; it was shaped like a tiny person but burned as if on fire. Its light, however, caused Wendy’s skin to cool, and she felt goose pimples poking up on the skin of her arms. 
         
“Can I hold you?” asked Wendy. “Look, I’ll put down the jar.” She set the jar in front of her and showed the fairy her empty hands. The fairy still didn’t move, and Wendy grew impatient. “If you don’t want to be my friend, then I’ll leave!”
         
Then something miraculous happened. Another light tinkered on and twinkled over the spring, and then another. So many lights appeared that they shone as bright as day. There were hundreds of fairies now, and they flew over to Wendy. Their lights were many different colors: some were blue, some red, others white, and one was a bright pink. They flew in a glowing vortex around Wendy. She giggled as some graced her skin. 
         
As the fairies danced around her, Wendy picked up her jar. She decided now would be the perfect moment to catch one. She would take it home and show mother. She swiped at a few unsuccessfully but then managed to catch a green one. She quickly put the lid to prevent the fairy’s escape. The movement of lights stopped. All the fairies glowed more brightly, and Wendy could feel tension in the air. It was time to go, she decided.
         
The fairies flew above her all the way out the forest, but when she stepped beyond the trees their lights suddenly went out and they were invisible once again. The fairy in her jar still glowed green, and she used it to light her way home. She couldn’t wait until the morning when she would surprise mother with her new fairy. After she got back, she took the jar out and set it by her bed. The light glowed pleasantly, and she climbed in bed and quickly fell asleep. 



(The following is part 2 of four)

When Wendy woke the next morning, the fairy was gone! The moment she opened her eyes, she couldn’t wait to see her prize from the night before, but instead there was only an empty jar at the foot of her bed. The jar was still sealed, so there was no way the fairy could’ve escaped, but sure enough the jar only held trapped air. Wendy sobbed, wondering if she really had captured a fairy or if last night had just been a dream. It must’ve been real, because never before had she taken the jar from its hiding place, even in the last six years she kept it.
         
Breakfast with mother that morning was dreary. Wendy’s disappointment showed, and when her mother asked her about it, she just said that she didn’t feel very good, but that she was still tired. Mother seemed satisfied with her answer, and they finished breakfast in silence. After breakfast mother reminded Wendy that today her friends would be over for a few hours, and that Wendy needed to preen herself so the other two girls wouldn’t think she was a slob. Wendy went back to her room and dressed herself in her prettiest dress, although she felt she’d rather spend the rest of the day sulking alone without having others around to annoy her.

Wendy’s friends, who were daughters of men her father walked with, arrived around noon, and they spent most of the next three hours playing make-believe in Wendy’s room. There was Sasha, an unusually tall girl and timid girl who was afraid of everything, and Mary, who was pudgy and had an attitude that frightened every boy in town. Wendy didn’t really like them much, but they were the only girls her age that lived in this part of the forest. Also, because father was such good friends with their dad’s, many times they came over because their own parents had other things to do in which little girls would only get in the way.

In the middle of their game, where Wendy was pretending to be a ghoul while Sasha and Mary were maidens waiting for their princes to come save them, Sasha accidentally knocked over Wendy’s jar, which she had neglected to put back in its hiding place. The jar fell over and rolled across the floor, and Sasha fell over backwards on her rump, and all three girls laughed. Mary went over and picked up the jar, and then asked “Wendy, what’s this?”
         
Wendy hesitated, and then said, “It’s my fairy’s home, leave it alone.”
         
Both Sasha and Mary sniggered. “A fairy house? But I don’t see any fairies living in it,” teased Mary.
         
“It was a fairy house, but my fairy went away this morning,” said Wendy. She could feel herself growing tense.
         
“When did you get a fairy?” asked Sasha.
         
“Last night,” said Wendy. “Las night I snuck out and went to the magic spring, and a bunch of fairies came and I caught one in my jar.”
         
“Those water fairies are children’s stories our parents tell us because they don’t think we’re old enough to hear grown up stories,” said Mary.
         
“I swear, I caught a water fairy. And it was green and beautiful,” said Wendy.
         
“Then where is it?” demanded Mary. “All I see is an empty jar and a foolish girl’s imagination.”
         
“Maybe it doesn’t like the light,” said Sasha.
         
Sasha’s idea surprised Wendy, and she got an idea. “I wonder if that’s why we can’t see it – the fairy is hiding from the light?” said Wendy. She could feel herself growing excited, as if the fairy were the most important thing in the world.
         
“Oh please,” said Mary, mockingly. “You are both little girls who will believe anything you’re told.”
         
Wendy didn’t pay her any attention. “Let’s go into the cellar and see if the fairy will appear. No sunlight gets in there, so it’s the perfect place to try.”
         
Mary gave the jar to Wendy and said, “Fine. And when no fairy appears you’ll both have to do what I want for the rest of the day.”
         
Wendy and Sasha both agreed, and they took the jar outside and went to the old cellar door. It was made of cracked wood, and it opened into a small cavernous hole dug into the side of a hill next to Wendy’s house. It took both Wendy and Sasha to pull open the door because it was so heavy, and afterwards an earthy dank smell filled their senses, and all three of them covered their noses. Father stored all kinds of old things down here, and Wendy guessed not even he had been in here for several years. Wendy liked to play in the cellar occasionally, especially when she wanted to get away from her parents. Father usually left the door open, but he probably had closed it before he went away.
         
Inside there was a winding staircase that led down into the cellar. The sunlight only penetrated deep enough to light the top three stairs. Beyond them the rest was dark, and at first Sasha didn’t want to go in. Wendy had to calm her, and after a minute of soothing speech, Sasha agreed, only as long as Wendy would go in first. Wendy skipped down the stairs gracefully, and the other two followed; Mary came last, still doubting that anything spectacular would happen.
         
When all three were finally inside, Wendy held the jar in front of her. She couldn’t see anything, and the jar didn’t light up with the fairy’s glow. After a moment, Mary said, “Well now we see what’s come of this little plan.”
         
“Wait a little bit,” said Wendy, remembering her disappointment last night when the fairies didn’t show up right away.
         
They stood there for another five minutes, and still no light appeared in the jar. Finally Sasha said, “I’m sorry Wendy, but this place scares me. I’m going back outside.”
         
“Yeah, it stinks down here, and I don’t want to get dirt all over,” said Mary.
         
“Go ahead. I’ll follow you out,” said Wendy. Sasha was the first to leave, anxious and afraid of the dark. Wendy heard Mary follow, but Wendy didn’t immediately trail behind. She was still holding the jar in front of her, exasperated that nothing had happened. Obviously there was no fairy in her jar. Wendy stayed there another minute until Mary shouted, “Hey come on! You have to do what I want now, remember?” Wendy lowered the jar to her side and scuttled up the stairs.