When I arrive home I walk up to my room and plop myself on my bed. I'm shaken up by what I just witnessed. Man, I didn’t know he was that cruel. I curl up in a ball and play on my phone to desperately get that fight out of my head. After a short while, I feel something crawl off my head. I put my hand up there and pick up whatever is crawling. I'm startled to see that it's the caterpillar from school.
“What are you doing here little guy? You should be at the school,” I say, not that it would be able to talk back. It’s a caterpillar.
“You mean that building those humans walk in and out of?”
My entire body froze. I'm not at all expecting that. Did a caterpillar seriously start talking to me, or am I losing my mind? I'm seriously hoping it's the first one. I don’t want to end up being admitted to a mental institute for believing a caterpillar spoke to me in an adorable squeaky voice. Watching that fight took a bigger toll on my psyche than I though.
“What? Did I scare you? I'm sorry, my prince,” the caterpillar says.
“You're… forgiven?” I say, questioning the fact that I'm really talking to a caterpillar. I miss the part where he calls me Prince. “Am I hallucinating? Or are you actually speaking to me?”
“Don't worry my prince!! You're just fine!! After being in the human world for so long, you are just now getting in touch with your powers.”
I'm completely lost.
“Okay, what?” I ask. “Who and what are you?”
The caterpillar raises its head and introduces itself.
“I am Excalibur, the legendary sword wielded by King Arthur in the first Great War against evil over two thousand years ago. I have remained dormant until the Prince of Life was born.” The caterpillar explains.
I'm talking to a caterpillar who claims to be a sword. This is weird. I am desperately hoping that this is a dream. My anxiety has reached a point where I’m hallucinating. I had to get up from my bed to walk around a bit and clear my thoughts.
“What?” I say, really surprised. “What's the Prince of Life? And how are you a sword?”
“The Prince of Life is the savior of the realm of Fae, my home, and the home to all fairies. Màthair Nàdar, the Mother Goddess and the creator of Fae, prophesied that the Death King will return and plague the realm with the Black Death. But in the darkest of times, a savior will be born and restore all that the Death King has destroyed. He is the Prince of Life. He will bring peace and prosperity to the realm of Fae.” Excalibur says.
I'm lost, and I think math is confusing. This takes the cake. I’d rather deal with math than figure this mess out. I honestly don’t know why I continued talking. I guess it helps me relieve my stress? But this is adding more stress at the same time.
“What do I have to do with him?” I ask. Excalibur hung its head.
“You don't know?”
“Know what?” I ask it.
“You were only a baby when your mother gave you to your adoptive parents to live in the Human Realm.”
My mind is still trying to figure it out. I'm so confused. I mean, I love fairies, but I don’t believe they exist. Okay, maybe a little bit but not to that extent. There is no way this is true. Then being told I’m a prince? There is something very wrong with me.
Then, my back starts to hurt, but it's not a sharp pain type of hurt. It's like something is growing out of my back hurt.
I go downstairs to take ibuprofen. I open the bottle and take a pill out and get some water. Just as I'm about ready to take it, the caterpillar knocks it out of my hand. I'm surprised at its dexterity.
“Dude seriously!! Why?”
“Don't take human medication! It's bad. It puts poisonous things in a fairy's body!!” it tells me.
“But my back is killing me!” I retorted. “Why do you keep insisting that I’m not human?”
“Kallan. You are the Prince of Life. You need to take care of yourself,” it scolded.
“What do you suggest then?”
“Isn’t there a healing herb?”
I think about it for a moment and remember that my mom has pain killing herbs growing in the backyard. I go back there. The herbs are ready for harvest so I take a few leaves.
“Should I dry them out and put them in boiled water?” I ask the caterpillar. Why am I asking a caterpillar for advice? I'm pretty sure that I’ve gone crazy. This has to be a dream. I don't believe that I'm a fairy prince, let alone a fairy in general. It just doesn't seem logical.
“Also, I don't like Hametsu. He's really scary. Something about him seems off,” Excalibur says.
“He's a bit weird, and occasionally has some insane spells, but he catches himself and apologizes.”
“I sense a dark presence from him. You should keep your guard up,” Excalibur warns.
I roll my eyes. Hametsu may have a screw loose, but he isn’t evil. I would know if he’s evil. No one evil apologizes for their behavior unless they’ve changed for the better. I watch too many movies. Besides, he’s a good kid. He’s trying to change.
My mind turns to Roxy. I begin blushing. I am very much in love with her.
“My prince are you sick? Your face is red.” Excalibur asks, concerned.
“What? Oh. No, I'm just blushing. I keep thinking about this girl I like. Her name is Roxanne-”
“Lady Roxanne is here too?!” Excalibur exclaimes, making me jolt with surprise. That squeaky caterpillar has a loud voice.
“What?” I ask, confused.
“Lady Roxanne is your betrothed! Your fiancé! She was probably moved here along with you to protect you two from the Death King’s grasp.”
“Who is the Death King?” I ask. I grew increasingly annoyed at this fairy royalty talk, but I didn’t say anything and hid it. Although I am curious about this Death King.
“The Death King is evil. He wants to destroy the realm of Fae and make it his kingdom. He rules the Death Fairies and wants to enslave the rest of us,” Excalibur explains. “He's a bad bad man.”
If I really am the Prince of Life or whatever, then I have a huge responsibility to uphold. I don't believe any of that. But then again, weird things have been happening. I can read that weird symbol like language that I like to write in. Except, I didn't even know it was a language until that day where I fainted in the shower. So I don't even know anymore.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
I'm actually really confused now. How on earth am I a fairy?! I was raised on earth, I was born a human. I don’t have wings or magical powers. That would be awesome honestly but that stuff doesn’t exist.
“I'm going crazy,” I say silently to myself. Trying to set my mind straight.
“I assure you, my prince, you're not going crazy,” Excalibur assures me. I'm not convinced. I'm talking to a caterpillar who says he's a sword. That talking caterpillar says I'm a life prince or whatever. He also claims to be from a realm called Fae. Then he says I'm a fairy. What the heck is going on? I'm hopelessly confused. I’m trying to make sense of this and tell myself otherwise.
I decide to let the pain killing herbs dry and make tea out of it. I take some string and tie the leaves in a small bundle. I hung them inside by the window, and let them dry out in the brightest and hottest room in the house, my room. Yeah, my room gets very hot due to how much sunlight it tends to get. I know they will dry out quickly. Then I sit on my bed and stare at my wall. I admire the way the trees are painted and how some of the trees had buds on them. I like how the bushes have ripe fruits on them and how clumps of flowers are in full bloom. Then I look at that stain. That one stupid, horrifyingly stubborn stain came back and I just cleaned it on Saturday. Why does it never go away?!
I sigh. My back still burns. I decide to just do my homework to distract myself.
I work on ecology. My favorite subject. I seem to know everything about it. I get done in like twenty minutes. Then I crack down on math. That takes almost two hours to finish. English takes about an hour. Same with history. After I finish, I look around my room for a while, admiring the lifelike paintings. I've always thought it was weird how it changes according to the seasons. I eventually fell asleep.
About an hour later, I wake up with a start. A jolt of pain shot down my back. I lay back down. My back feels super uncomfortable so I turn on my stomach and run my hand down my back. I feel something like a long, thin lump. Two of them, parallel to each other. It scares me. I rush to the bathroom to take a look at it.
“What's wrong, my prince?” Excalibur asks. I show him. He didn't seem too concerned.
“What the heck is this?!” I ask, whispering in surprise.
“Your wings!” He says, excitedly.
“Huh?! What the-” I turn around, trying to get a better look. I'm so shocked. I want to tell my parents, but I don't know how they will react. My mom will most definitely freak out and send me to the Emergency Room to get it checked out and removed. My dad will be with her, also freaking out.
“Should I tell my adopted parents?” I ask Excalibur.
“If you want. I’m not stopping you,” Excalibur says.
“How long will that take?” I ask.
“Do I look like an expert on fairy anatomy to you? I'm just a sword. Well, when I hatch out of my chrysalis I’ll be able to turn into the sword,” he says with some sass.
“Right,” I say skeptically. I still didn't exactly believe all of this. But two parallel lumps are growing out of my back and they burn, so I’m starting to doubt it. Reason eventually kicks in
My mind soon turns to the herbs I left hanging out to dry. I look over and see that they are already dry. So I take them and go downstairs.
My parents come home from work when I go down.
“Hey, mom. Hey, dad.” I say.
“Hi, Kallan! How was school?” Mom asks.
“Average. Hametsu was there today. He got into a fight after school and he broke his opponent's arm and crushed the bones in his hand.” I say. Just thinking about it made me sick. I take some and boil some water.
I wait for a few minutes and the water starts to boil. I put the herbs and some cut berries in the water and wait a few more minutes. Then I get a cup out and pour some of my tea into it and drink it after letting it cool down for a bit. It tastes nice.
“Kallan are you ok?” Dad asks.
“I'm quite sure I'm going crazy but other than that I'm fine,” I reply.
“Crazy? How so?” Mom asks as she sits down next to me. She gets that look that says she’s ready to start fussing.
“I think a caterpillar was talking to me. I could be hallucinating but I don't know.”
“What was it talking about?”
I tell her what the caterpillar told me about being a fairy, a prince savior person, and this place called Fae.
Mom's face drops. I didn't take it as a good sign. She's for sure hiding something from me.
“Mom, what are you hiding from me?” I ask.
“Nothing sweetie,” she says, avoiding my eyes a bit.
“Mom. Please tell me,” I say. Honestly, I wish I would just drop the subject because I am not ready for what she tells me.
“Well, Kallan, I know your birth mother. She is a beautiful, wonderful, woman. Everyone loves her. Especially your birth father.”
“Yeah?” I say.
Mom takes a deep breath.
“Your father is also very loved. Everyone admires him. Except for certain people. They want him dead,” she explains.
“What?” I ask very confusedly. She takes a deep inhale. Dad walks up to us.
“Kallan,” my dad starts. “I think it’s time that you know the truth.”
“What truth?” I ask, getting upset and frustrated.
“The caterpillar, Excalibur… has been watching over you since you were a baby…”
“Wait, how did you know that its name was Excalibur?” I ask, getting more frustrated.
“He’s a sword that can change forms when he doesn’t have a person to wield it,” my dad explains.
“What is going on?” I ask, fed up and annoyed. They look at each other and sigh.
“Everything the sword said is true,” my dad tells me. My mom takes a minute to say the most shocking thing in my life.
“Your real parents are King Oberon and Queen Titania,” Mom finally says.
I'm utterly speechless. It takes me a full two minutes to form words again.
“Are… are you serious?!” I ask, on the brink of tears
“Yes. My husband and I work for the royal court as advisors to the king and queen. Your mother entrusted us to take care of you when the Death King attacked Avalon.”
“Do you know if I have any siblings?” I ask her.
“You have two older brothers. They both loved you so much. They have devoted their lives to protect you from harm,” my dad explains.
I'm stunned and still trying to wrap my head around everything.
“This is all one big joke. Please tell me this is a big joke right? Is it?” I ask.
“Kallan we’re telling you the truth.” Mom says.
I drink my pain killer tea and reflect on everything that was just said to me.
I'm a fairy prince. Not just a regular prince, no, I'm a savior fairy prince. I'm supposed to save an entire realm from destruction. What the actual heck?!
That caterpillar talks to me and says he's a sword. I feel like I have a strange connection to nature. I have a green thumb and brought our dead apple tree back to life a few years ago and I’m still trying to figure out how I did it. Animals love me. It’s starting to make sense. But those could all be coincidences. There is no way I’m a fairy, let alone Roxy. This is bull crap, absolute bull crap. I refuse to believe it, but part of me tells me that this is all true. I’m so confused.
My mind suddenly turns to a dream I had a few years ago. I was never sure if it is a dream or not since it feels more like a memory than a dream. Maybe it's a memory.
I was a baby, sitting in a cradle made of fancily carved wood. Two people were looking over at me smiling and talking to me, but I couldn't make out the words and their faces seemed blurry. I only see a few prominent features like hair color. One of them picked me up and I cooed and laughed. The entire thing was out of focus and somewhat blurry. I barely remember the person holding me… I only remember their dark blonde hair and they were wearing white. Another hand takes mine. I remember seeing light brown hair. I cooed and laughed. The voices were muffled, but I could tell they were talking to me. My dream self eventually fell asleep and I woke up in reality.
I reflect on all of this for a little bit while drinking my tea. The burning sensation goes away. But I'm really confused.
I stop when I get a phone call. I didn’t recognize the caller ID, so of course, the only logical thing to do is cancel the call right? Well, what I did is the exact opposite. I answer the phone despite every instinct telling me not to. I quickly regret it. I need to not be so impulsive.
“Hello?” I say.
The person on the other line laughs the inhumanly cruel laugh I heard in my dream on Saturday. Yup. Definitely should not have answered the phone. I want to hang up but I feel frozen in place.
“Hello, Aelfdene. So nice to hear your voice.” the person says.
“Who is this?” I demand.
“So demanding. Just like your pathetic father,” he says.
“Tell me who you are,” I demand again.
“Kallen who is it?” My dad asks. I shrug. Mom tells me to hang up but I’m practically frozen in place. Cold sweat is forming on me. I get the chills and feel terrified, like a dark presence is looming over me, feeding off my present fear. The person on the other end spoke again.
“Prince of Life. I know where you are located. Once I find you, I’ll kill you. Then all hope will be lost for both realms. Everything will be at my mercy.”
Before I can get another word in, the cruel voice hangs up and I'm left speechless.