I dreamed of a beautiful land, with a field of endless green. Blue skies above with a beautiful breeze around me. A small form fluttered near my shoulder...
"Wyn, Wake up!" My mom called from the kitchen.
My eyelids refused to budge from the embrace of perfect slumber, of a dream not only restful but rejuvenating. "Be down in a minute!" Or ten, I thought.
"You'll be late for your date honey!"
"Mom, it’s just bowling, and besides; Sera and I are just friends." I said, blushing.
"I know, but it's fun hearing your face turn red from downstairs." My blush started to turn my cheeks to fire.
I rolled out of bed with a sigh... but I started turning my thoughts to the day ahead. It was Sera's Birthday and her parents decided to rent a few lanes at the local bowling alley. I glanced at my clock... and it's 9:30 already!!
I swiftly pulled on my usual outfit of a green shirt, khakis, and brown sneakers and ran to the kitchen. I munched and gulped through my favorite breakfast of toast and tea.
"Honey, don’t forget your present!" Mom said right before I grabbed Sera's new bracelet. I placed it in my pack and started to run to her house.
"Bye Mom, be back when I get back!"
"Have a good time Wyndham!"
Running to the Fletch house, I thought of Sera and my situation of "Birthdays". Each of us don't really have a birthday, we have finding days.
I was found first by my parents four months before Sera, with only the cloth I as swaddled in, a strip of paper bearing my name, and the pendant that now hangs around my neck. It's made with green stone in the shape of an arrowhead.
Seraphina was found the same way, except she had her earrings. They're made of a red stone, like magma before it cools. She was my best friend since I can even remember, the excited to my calm, the yin to my yang.
She's also bad at waiting. As I approached her house, I see her fuming already at me for the on-time arrival.
"What's wrong, birthday girl?"
"You're late, you were supposed to be here five minutes ago..."
"Well I needed to wrap something before I left..." I said as I pulled out the bracelet, "I hope you like it."
She snatched the gift out of my hand faster than a flickering flame.
“What is it?” she said while ripping apart the wrapping.
“You’ll see, just wait.”
A few minutes later, she finally opened the package (duct tape does wonders) and proceeded to punch me and then give me a hug.
“Ow, what was that for?”
“Punch for the duct tape, hug for the bracelet.” She said as she released me from one of her bear hugs, she may be smaller than I am, but she has one hell of a grip.
“Ready to go?”
“Well I didn’t run here to just hand you the package and leave, now did I?”
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Right as the words left my mouth, a hot wind engulfed us both, and a smell of sulfur came with it. It pushed Sera into me, and I to make sure she didn’t fall. We heard a voice, like thunder say, “Son of Wind, Daughter of Fire; Look to the Sun to save from Ire; For this land is now your home; There to stay, not here to roam.” The world turned black….
I woke up in a lush field of green, with a bright cloudless day above. As I lay there, I remember feeling better than I have in all my life, like I finally found the missing part of me.
I stood up, while noticing that my clothing changed into something out of one of my fantasy novels. I looked a bit like an elf with my shirt replaced by a green tunic, my khakis replaced by a thicker material but still near the same color, and my sneakers replaced by a type of riding boot. And then I noticed the change in my pendant. Instead of just the green stone, it gained a silver outline.
This change in the pendant alerted me to a new awareness that had formed in my mind, something familiar, yet alien to me. I was just about to mentally probe this new sense when a tiny voice sounded from my left shoulder, “Welcome to Laradin”.
I jumped forward and then turned around to face the tiny, yet all too close, voice. The holder of the voice, was a fairy. She was only about 6 inches tall, with a dress made of leaves. Her hair was the color of b, so I wondered how I missed her when I was looking around. “Aren’t you going to ask me my name, Wyndham?” she asked.
“How do you know my name, O fairy?” I asked the then glowering fae.
“ I’m Aine, intrepid traveler. Your name was written in the wind, which allowed me to find you. You must be something special, since the only people this has happened to are ancient heroes. Where are you from?” She said without taking a breath.
“Earth.”
“How are you from the ground? Half-elves are supposed to be from the mixed kingdoms, silly.”
“I’m not from the ground, my home is called Earth.”
“Well I better take you to my queen, Half-Elf Wyndham.” Aine said in a singsong voice.
My mind then realized what she said.
“Half-elf? How am I a half-elf? I look like a human last I checked.”
“When a mommy elf or a daddy elf loves a human daddy or a human mommy very much... Look at your ears, silly,” Aine took out a little rock and expanded it up into a mirror suitable for me to see my ears, “Magic is a wonderful thing, isn’t it?”
I looked at my ears, and my whole world changed. My ears came to a point! This never happened before, but maybe something changed me, or I was finally looking at myself. “Can we just go talk to your queen or something?”
“Sure, let’s see what the Queen has to say about you.”
While we walked to the fairy kingdom, Aine asked me about everything from my friends, down to my favorite color. The scenery we passed by was amazing. I could not get over how alive this world felt. It made Earth seem like a desolate wasteland. I guess everything is greener on the other side, as they say.
Awalking, I started to probe this awareness in my mind. It felt like a sixth sense, allowing me to feel around in my environment. It felt so freeing to have this awareness, like the first time putting on a pair of glasses. Just like putting on a pair of glasses, I got a headache when I pressed this awareness for too long. I said to Aine, “Is it normal to be able to feel the wind around you here? I had a little bit of this sense when I was back on Earth, but nothing like this.”
“Well maybe you hit your head too hard, Wyn, no one has been able to do that since the ancient heroes.”
“Who were the ancient heroes?” I asked the fairy.
Aine was silent for a few moments and then answered with this, “The heroes were some of the best of the races, a personification of the best qualities of the race they belonged to. Arturn, the Elf, embodied the wind. Not only was he the wisest of the elves, he was also the most powerful. Julisia, the djinn, embodied Fire. She was moved by the fire of her passions, and contrary to her race, followed the light. Tharnos, the dwarf, embodied the earth. He was the most stoic of the dwarves, though it is said he had a masterful sense of humor. There were others, but they require more of an explanation of the races, Wyn. That being said, we are here!”
We arrived… at a tree.
“Uhh Aine, isn’t there supposed to be a kingdom of fairies here?”
“Yes, silly Wynd, there is a kingdom here, you just have to see.” As she said this, Aine took some golden dust and threw it on me. “Now look!”
She was right, the dust did allow me to see… the stick.
“Hey Aine,” I said, “I still see that little stick right in front of us, and that’s it.”
“Touch it silly, it’s our version of a gate.”
I touched the little sapling and heard a voice in my head. “STATE YOUR NAME AND PURPOSE, ELF.”
“I am Wyndham, and I come to see the queen for guidance.”
“WHAT KIND OF GUIDANCE?”
“Who I am, why I came here from Earth, how the hell am I now half-elf when I was a full human two hours ago, the usual.”
“I WILL INFORM HER OF YOU, ELF. I AM SURE SHE WILL WANT TO MEET YOU IMMEDIATELY. AINE GUIDE HIM TO THE PALACE.”
“Yes, Great Tree, I will take him to the queen.” She turned to me and said, “Follow me, Silly, and welcome to the Kingdom of the Fairies, Faeheim!”