The welcome fairy
10 May 2017 | Danny RocketDanny stood in the middle of a dense fog that smelled very strongly of garlic. His head spun, and he tried to avoid breathing in the evaporated dragon as much as possible. Part of him wanted to walk away, but his legs wouldn’t react to his brain.
Is this what shock feels like?
A butterfly drifted through the fog then fluttered in a circle. Sparks appeared in the circle where the butterfly still flew, then a fairly large middle aged woman appeared. She wore a puffy pink dress, and giant butterfly wings protruded from her back. On her head, she had a tiara, and in her right hand she carried a wand with a star-shaped cutout on the tip.
Danny stood there, still in a daze. Is that tiara plastic? It looks plastic. And that wand. I’ve seen that wand before. It looks like someone took a star shaped cookie cutter and glued it to a stick.
The fairy’s smile wilted a little, but she maintained the same pose. She stood on one foot with her wand out in front. It looked like a cross between ice skating and a curtsie.
Is she posing? Danny’s face slowly shifted into something between bewilderment and disgust.
The fairy scowled, put her foot down and brushed off her dress while muttering grumpily.
She looked up at him, “Congratulations on defeating a dragon. You are now a wizard.” She held out her hand, and Danny reached to shake it. But at the last minute she pulled back her hand and lightly hit his hand with the wand in the other hand. A brochure appeared in Danny’s hand, the same one Jenny had showed him.
Danny stared at the brochure for a while. “Thank you. What do I do next?”
The fairy looked at him, “Well, I don’t know, maybe you should read the brochure and start acting like you’re part of this contest instead of stumbling in late, procrastinating with the bears ,then summoning a real dragon long after everyone else killed their test dragon. You should catch up to the other wizards if you know what’s good for you.”
“Test dragons?” Danny asked. The fairly sniffed, twirled her wand and in a shower of sparks turned back into a butterfly. The butterfly flew up and away.
Danny watched as the butterfly flew to the treetops and out over the open field. A seagull tried to make a pass at it, but instead of getting a bite to eat, it burst into flames. The dragon mist had dissipated, and he could see his friends on the other side of the field running toward him.