1 I. Counting Down

Months before my God-parenting rites, I spent my time hanging out with my best friend, Alva, at our favorite coffee shop in the town of St. Francis, Spokane, WA. "Tomorrow's your big day, Alva. Are you excited?", I asked.

"Excited and nervous. The old fairies don't say anything about how the rites go. The only thing I know, and all fairies know, is that we will be accompanied by Alfred, Chief Sindri and our parents to the human baby's house at twilight and proceed with the rites.", she then took a sip of her smoothie.

"Are you girls talking about the rites?", Kailen's voice came from the shop's door. He was wearing a black shirt with a guitar design on it and a pair of khaki shorts that came with his favorite grey sneakers.

"Yes, we are, actually. And it's a day off for you, right? What's with the bow?", I asked him eyeing his bow and arrows issued by The Queen.

Kailen's part of The Queen's Army and just a year old in the job. The Army's Head, Warren, chose new warriors every year from all fairies that just turned 100 years. I always dreamt of joining the army instead of being a Godmother to some human baby. "Yes, it is a day off, Lila, I was just bringing them to the armory shop to be renewed. I just got a new effect for them from Warren. The incantation needs to be activated or something like that. Mother just asked me to buy eggs for her pie.", he explained while taking a sit between Alva and me.

That's why I really wanted to be in The Queen's Army. The Army Head gave warriors additional magic effects on their weapons when they're really good with their performance. But my parents didn't agree with this idea since they believed that female fairies were to be good Godmothers to their charges and not for battles. Sigh. Kailen patted me in the shoulder. They knew how much I wanted to be in The Queen's Army.

I was really good with daggers and spears. My father taught me that when I was young, back in our old home in The Philippines. He only did that in case I encountered some encantos or dwendes around town. Since his charge died of old age and mother's migrated here in the US, we need to move. The Queen of Paradiso gave us a note before we left the country for us to give to The Queen of Elphame. I still trained with spears and even learned daggers since they were more convenient to carry around. Father even trained my little brother, Kahel.

As time passed, he felt comfortable and safe in this town and did not see the need for weapons training anymore. So I ended up dreaming of more training and being chosen by Warren. "Want to hunt later?", Kailen's offer made me smile again. Hunting in the forest was the best activity in my life.

"There's our girl!", Alva smiled as well. 

I saw Kailen sitting in the branch of our favorite tree in the woods when I arrived. I was in my hunting cargo pants, long sleeved shirt and boots for today's hunting activity. In my bag were my best set of daggers I kept from my parents. Only Kahel knew I still keep them even though father said we had to discard our weapons. I whistled our "hunting whistle" and his face turned to look at me. He smiled and last rays of the sun setting hit his blond hair making them glow. He opened his silver grey wings and flew towards me. "Ready?", he asked without taking off his smile.

If I were any other girl, like the girls at school, I would have melted. But I was not any other girls. I was his best friend. Alva and Kailen were my first friends when we arrived here in Elphame. I met them at school, to be exact. Alva was the student assistant who helped me around campus and Kailen was the student council president. I recognized right away that they were my kind through the fairy auras around them, and I thought they did the same with me.

Young fairies went to the same school as humans did. Humans were not aware that we exist, I mean truly exist, since they believed in the Tooth Fairy. "As I'll ever be. We can just walk, you know. Humans might see us here. You might lose your job and be a God-father instead.", I replied as I checked around for signs of any human. We went to the human world through the Doorway.

Fairies went to school, work, shops and stores in the human world. We blend in well with them since we were bigger in their world than in our Kingdom. "Sorry.", Kailen hid his wings and walked towards me.

"Let's go hunt. I want some rabbits this time.", I said as I ran into the wild with him behind me.  

I woke up the next morning with the sound of my cellphone ringing. I reached the side table and grabbed the thing. It's Alva. "Hey, Alva." I said sleepily.

"Lila, please go to my place now. I have a big disaster and I don't know what to do. Please help me!", she sounded really alarmed on the other line. What could have happened?

"Please calm down, Alva. I'll go down there, just give me 10 minutes.", and I hung up. I rolled over and grabbed the best pants I could find in my closet and put on my sweat shirt. I put my hair in a pony tail and wore my running shoes.

Life in the fairy kingdom was very much the same as the human life. It's just that, we were tiny here. I was about to open the front door when my mother called my name. "Lila. Where's the fire, dear?", she was making breakfast.

"There's an emergency at Alva's. I think it's for the rites tonight.", I opened the door this time.

"Oh.", she said."Do you have anything to wear for the party?". I never thought of that. Everyone celebrated a fairy's God-parenthood just right after the rites. The Queen gave all the town's needs for the celebration; food, security, lights and sounds. Everything. It's a very big deal for our kind. And I was really not sure why. 

"I'll arrange that later. I have to check on Alva first." And I just walked out the door.          

Alva was sitting on their porch when I reached their house. "What happened?", I was really worried this time. She looked worse in person than on the phone. It's like her long time boyfriend broke up with her or something. Not that she has one.

"It's my dress. I was trying to add some sequins in them by using a spell and I really don't know what happened it just ripped itself off!", and that's when I realized she was crying the whole time. Unlike me, Alva was really looking forward to this event. She dreamed of becoming the best Godparent ever. She had her incantation written a year ago. As much as I hated the rites and this phase in a fairy's life, I don't want to ruin hers. I grabbed her hand and got to her room.

"Please give me a pen and a sheet of your notebook.", I said as I saw what happened to her dress. It's like a dog mistook it for another dog who took his dog biscuits. She probably messed up the spell. She's a good student, really. She got her frost powers well managed and all. It's just that she's not that good with using spells. 

Fairies were all healers, all of us could fly and we could use magic using our mana with the aid of a good incantation. I wrote a quick spell on the paper she handed me and erased some words that I don't like. Alva just stayed sitting on her computer chair making no noise. She would trust her life on my magic. I just hoped I got enough mana to fix her gigantic dress. I picked a few fairy dust in my pouch and threw it in the dress on the bed as I start to chant.

"Dress that's white, dress that's bright.

Be back to what you were last night.

Bind the strands untouched by hand.

Remove the torn parts, this I ask from the stars".

The fairy dust swirled around the dress and in a few seconds, just like in my spell, the dress went back to its original state. Alva stood up with her eyes wide. She took the dress from the bed and hugged it. She hugged me after and jumped happily. "What would I do without you, Lila? You're really the best!" I crumpled the paper and put it inside my pants' pockets.

"Gee, thanks. That's nothing. The spell doesn't sound good, kinda impromptu." I hugged her once more and I excused myself and told her I have to take care of my own dress. I wished her luck and told her that I'll wait for her in the party.

*March 11, 2020