The Little Fairy
Chapter 20

I stood outside the familiar yet alien mushroom hut that used to be my home. I took a deep breath, trying to remember how they taught us to tuck our wings in. Contract the muscles on your upper back, roll your shoulders back, and... Perfect. I slowly made my way up the cobbled steps, stopping a foot away from the door. I took a deep breath and sighed, raising my fist to the rough wood and knocking 3 times.

"Coming, coming!" I heard my mother's sweet voice on the other side and I could just imagine her bustling to the door while she wiped her hands on the linen she hung from her apron. She opened the door the smile fading from her face quickly. She turned white as her eyes rolled back into her head and she quickly fell to the floor.

"Shit, shit. Mom!" I caught her before she hit the ground. I wiped a hair away from her eyes and looked at her features closely, trying to remember every detail. Her soft brain hair, the wrinkle in between her eyebrows, thin lips.

"Honey, who's at the door?" My dad's voice came from up the stairs and I heard his heavy feet bringing him down. He stopped on the last step, seeing me slumped over his wife. I saw him mouth my name, but no word came out. He rushed over to me quickly and wrapped his arms around me, before realizing that I was holding my mom in my arms. He picked her up and carried her to the couch, setting her gently on one of her homemade pillows.

"Dad." I slammed into him, wrapping my arms around his waist tightly.

"Kreya, what are you doing here? We thought you died. We saw you collapse after your wings broke from you and the elders carried you away." He pulled me into a tight hug, resting his cheek on top of my head. "They told everyone we weren't allowed to go past the barrier anymore and any food we had had to be grown here." He pulled me past the hallway and into the kitchen, setting me down at the small table.

"I don't know. I saw the veil under the tree, stuck my hand in and here I am. I woke up to the elders. They're mad at me." I looked around the kitchen; it had barely changed since I had left. The sink faced north below the window that looked out to our backyard, the light wood countertops, and the metal wood-burning stove. It was still cluttered with a few knick-knacks and things Tyber and I had made as children. Mother's unfinished cooking still lay on the counter next to the sink.

"Why are they mad at you?" Dad put his hands over mine, making me look into his dark green eyes.

"I'm trying to change how the humans treat the Earth. They're destroying her, packing her veins and flesh with garbage. and not like ours, theirs doesn't replenish. It just sits there, for hundreds of thousands of years." I stood up and paced the kitchen, looking over to the couch every so often to see if mom would sit back up.

"Why didn't the elders tell us? Why are they mad at you for that?" He watched me pace, I knew he didn't want to stop me.

"Because they think if we just let them be, they'll just kill themselves off and we can just rebuild whatever they've fucked up," I growled, leaning my head on the wall.

"But that will take millions of years, are we supposed to just sit back and ignore everything?" This time he stood up to mimic the pacing I was just doing.

"I don't know. I don't know what their thought process is, but they want to keep everyone in the dark about what they're doing and keep everyone secluded in here." I turned around to look at him, he was running his hand through his hair and staring out at the backyard.

"There have to be other communities of fairies that are trying to help them restore the planet." He barely looked over his shoulder at me, his eyes growing darker.

"I need you to replace them. I need everyone here to replace them." I crossed my arms over my chest, leaning my still sore back against the wall.

"We'll wait for your mother to wake up and then we'll gather everyone and tell them what's going on, okay?" He walked over to me and cupped my face in his hands. "You are so brave, my Kreya. I love you so much." He leaned his forehead against mine. Love, and familiarity coursed through my body.

"I love you too, dad." We heard mom groan in the other room and walked over to her hand-in-hand to tell her our plan.

We stood in the center of town, people had come to welcome me back home, confused, but happy. We told them about the elders and what needed to be done. Most of the people agreed, but others, like the older generations decided to stay back, not only for fear of the elders but because they were too weak to go long distances.

We all set out, all of them taking off after they reached the border, hundreds of fairies littered the sky going in all sorts of directions. once I left the border, I returned to my human size, towering over my parents and brother. I scooped them up in my hands, bringing them to my eye level.

"I wish you guys would come to say hi to Don and Sarah. You would really love them." I wiped a stray tear on my shoulder.

"I would love to meet them, but we have a lot to do, and it will have to be at another time." My dad slung his arm around my mom's shoulder.

"I'm so very proud of you, my Kreya." My mom stretched out her arms and I pulled them to my face so they could give me a hug.

"I'm going to miss you." I smiled with tears still slowly making their way down my cheeks.

"We'll miss you too. but we'll see you soon, I promise." My dad shrugged out his wings, a swirl of different shades of brown and cream that reminded me of a moth. My brother did the same, his darker than my dad's, but still looked similar. My mothers were brightly colored and reflective of the sun, metallic stars dotted across hers.

"I love you," I said before they all set off to the South, not daring to look back.