Karena the Fairy

Chapter 1 A fairy named Karena sat by a river as she soaked up the warm spring sun. The splashing waves reflected in her blue eyes and the spray cooled her soft white skin. She was now twelve and was as tall as a dandelion. Her dark brown hair flowed to her waist as she sat with arms locked around her knees. Her net-like wings shimmered like gold petals in the sunlight as she watched the waves. They rose and broke like tiny steps in a mysterious journey. Mesmerised by its force, she had the urge to step in, but her mother’s voice rang in her ears like an alarm clock. ‘The river will wash you away and that’ll be the end of you!’ With a sigh, she spread her wings and headed home. Within minutes she reached Adelida, a small fairy fort with neatly cut grass that surrounded a handful of ash trees. Some fairies lived in homes that had been carved into the bark of ancient trees by their ancestors. Others preferred modern houses, made from the wood of fallen branches. Karena’s father was one of the carpenters who built houses, usually for fairies who were recently married. Karena flew past some fairies who were gathered around a small stream that flowed through the fort. The older ones were busy filling containers while the children splashed and played games. Karena didn’t bother to stop. Since turning twelve, it seemed childish to play in the stream. To her, it was like taking your mother’s hand when you know perfectly well how to follow her by yourself. The fairies in Adelida knew each other well and had everything they needed within the fort. Everyone played his or her part in maintaining it and considered work to be a good thing. Nobody ever dreamed of leaving as they were all content to live from one day to the next without too much fuss. Sometimes, on a Friday night, they heard stories by the flicker of a campfire about witches and humans and other strange creatures. Karena relished these evenings. When she returned home, she would ask her parents to tell her more about such characters. They would dismiss them as fantasy, impatiently throwing their arms up in the air and wiping her images away. They, like many fairies, were afraid of the outside world. They felt that such things were better left in the tales of the aged than to be experienced firsthand. As Karena was now twelve, they felt it was important for her not to take such stories seriously. After all, she was becoming a teenager and would have more important things to worry about, like one day finding a husband and taking care of her own family. When Karena arrived home to one of the old houses that had been carved in the bottom of an ancient tree, she saw her mother frantically sweeping outside. Her plump body shifted from side to side as she blew the hair from her wrinkled face. ‘Where have you been?’ she said very loudly as her daughter approached. ‘I need some help here.’ Karena hesitated before deciding to tell the truth. ‘I just went to the river,’ she said casually, as though it was no big deal. ‘Alone?’ ‘Ye…es,’ she said, resisting the urge to lie. ‘That’s it!’ Her mother swept a little harder then looked up. ‘The river is very dangerous. I told you not to go alone and you disobeyed me, so now I’m forbidding you to go there at all.’ She bent her back and resumed sweeping. ‘But…’ ‘No buts. Now go to your room,’ she said as her face scrunched up around her nose and her mouth tightened into a little button. Karena went inside and slammed the door. She fluttered upstairs thinking that as she was twelve, she should be able to visit the river alone. She threw herself on her bed and gritted her teeth at the thought of how her mother wanted to wrap her up like a caterpillar until she was 18. If she ever challenged her decisions, she would always hear the same replies. ‘When you’re eighteen, you can do what you like,’ or ‘One day you’ll be a mother and you’ll understand.’ Karena didn’t care about being a mother and telling her kids what to do. She just wanted more freedom. Later on a voice came from downstairs. ‘Dinner’s ready!’ Karena dragged her body off the bed and flew down. Her face was puckered as she had decided to carry on sulking. When she reached the kitchen, she saw her sister Julia, who resembled Karena, but was slightly more plump with crimson hair, like a leaf in autumn. She was sitting at the wooden table in the small kitchen with her back to a cabinet stocked with plates and ornaments. Sitting at the head of the table was her father, a small, thin fairy with receding grey hair and a long nose. Her mother stood at the stove, pouring soup into bowls with a silver ladle. ‘Hello Jul’ said Karena as she brightened up and sat beside her sister. Julia had been married a year ago when she was eighteen and lived just a few doors away with her husband, Sonny. She and Sonny picked and sold tulips for a living. There’s a lot a fairy can do with a tulip. It can be used as a container, an ornament or an air freshener. A special powder was sprinkled on the flowers to make them last a long time. Sonny’s parents and grandparents were tulip pickers and the secret recipe for the powder had been passed down from one generation to the next. Julia was now a part of that tradition, and she and Sonny would someday pass it on to their children in turn. Karena’s parents were happy knowing that Julia would always have a steady income and hoped that Karena would have the same when she was older. ‘Guess where Madam’s been today?’ Karena’s mother took her seat after serving everyone. Karena looked at her with her best sulky face that was getting red with anger. ‘Where?’ Julia lifted her spoon to blow on the hot soup. ‘To the river. Alone. Probably swimming,’ said her mother as she scanned the table for the salt. Julia swallowed her soup then frowned at Karena. ‘You know the river’s dangerous. Why don’t you play near the stream instead? Why do you insist on worrying mother?’ ‘I wasn’t playing.’ Karena shook her head mockingly. ‘I know that the stream leads to the river. I was just wondering where the river leads to.’ ‘It doesn’t matter where it leads to,’ assured Julia in a grown-up tone of voice that she liked to use with her little sister. ‘Don’t go anymore, in case anything happens.’ Her mother nodded at Karena as though she was right and Karena’s cheeks grew hot. She looked into her bowl and quietly swallowed her soup and her anger. Her father also ate quietly, choosing to stay out of the dispute. Her mother and Julia continued chatting over a dinner of sweet potatoes, peas and cauliflower, all smothered in hot gravy. They talked about the various goings on in the fort such as which fairies had just been married and who had new babies. Karena, indifferent to the usual chatter, slipped into a daydream about the river. She wondered about the millions of tinkling droplets. Why were they travelling? Where was their final destination, and how long would it take them to get there? She also pondered why so many fairies were afraid of it. She thought it to be a beautiful, infinite and mysterious thing like the sun or the moon. She had been brought up to fear the river but instead, she was drawn to it.