Experiments

BRING!!!!

The school bell signalled the end of the school year, which was both good and bad for Lei. She loved math and science, and school was her life. In the faerie kingdom, you grind hard in school for 10 years, then you find a job that you like after that. There are HUNDREDS of jobs in the kingdom, cause different faeries like different things. There are the moonlight collectors, the mushroom house gardeners, the dragon trainers, you get the idea. Lei was hoping to become the next big scientist that specialized in moonlight and faerie-creating. When you hear faerie-creating, that might sound a bit weird, but when two faeries get married, they summon from moonlight from within themselves, and the light merges to create---VOILA! A baby faerie! Moonlight is tricky to catch from inside you, but it’s there because that was how you were created in the first place. Faeries also use moonlight for healing, and baby faeries drink it like water so they can become stronger. 

Lei just finished her 10 years of school, so she wanted to become a moonlight scientist as soon as possible. Just one bump on the road: she didn’t know where to go, if even IF such an application center existed, because so far, there has been no moonlight scientists. Except for the Queen. She visits the moonlight collectors every few weeks because she used to be a moonlight scientist, but asking her would not help, cause the Queen got trained, when was it? 300 years ago? 400? The kingdom has changed a lot in 400 years, so the place where the Queen was trained probably got renovated 200 years ago. 

Lei stuffed her tablet and lunch into her bag and headed out the door. Lei didn’t exactly have friends necessarily, cause she spent so much time on school that she didn’t have time to socialize. She didn’t mind having no friends though. When she got home, instead of going out to the movies, or a fancy restaurant with her non-existent friends, she sat down and did her homework. Except since school just ended, she didn’t have any homework to do, so when that happened (which was mostly on weekends), Lei jumped on her hammock and started writing. Writing was Lei’s way of communicating without talking (if you haven’t noticed, talking isn’t really her thing). She wrote about whatever she felt like writing about; today it was snowy owls.

 Lei has never seen snowy owls since the faerie kingdom is in eternal summer, but her class studied them, and they were gorgeous. They had snow-white (what did you think?) plumage, with a little tiny beak, complete with two black beady eyes. Everything in the faerie kingdom was wood or green, so the bright white of the owl made Lei curious. She wrote about its fluffy feathers, its knowing eyes, the gracefulness of its flight. When they had to pick a creature to do a report on, everyone else chose an animal in the kingdom; squirrels, deers, birds, so they didn’t have to do a lot of work to get a good grade. Lei, on the other hand, wanted more work, so she chose the snowy owl. Not surprisingly, she got an A+ (the highest grade). Finding sources for the project wasn’t hard since there’s only one record of snowy owls in the kingdom. 

Anyway, Lei finished her writing session and set out to find a job. You might think, “ Who would try to find a job the afternoon after their school end?” Faeries had a habit of finding jobs very quickly because they like to be kept busy. If they don’t have something to be occupied with every minute of the day, they will go crazy, so Lei stepped out of her house and ventured out to find a job.

She visited the moonlight catchers HQ and met a faerie named Moon. How fitting. She waved Lei over to the latest group of moonlight catchers that were about to take off. It was about 5 pm, so they were getting ready for when the dark came. Moon explained what they were doing. “Everybody has to line up single file because moonlight is easier to capture when someone leaves and someone else comes up right after. Since we only can capture the light at night, we have to get as many faeries up into the sky as possible, so we can capture more.” Lei nodded, watching a faerie with shimmery wings fly up into the sky. “If you like, you could come with us,” Moon asked, gesturing to the bundle of faeries at the launchpad. “That would be great!”Lei responded, still gazing up at the sky. Lei never really got the chance to fly since she was always caught up in school, so she was excited. Moon told her to just follow what the other faeries were doing. So Lei did that.

Lei watched a faerie with pink iridescent wings walk up to the stack of bags. She picked one up and then lined up with all the other faeries. Once she got to the front of the line, her pink wings fluttered slowly, then quickly, until she lifted into the sky. Now a little pink bug in the twilight sky, Lei saw her snatch a moon ray whenever it tried to peek through the clouds. The moon ray wriggled in the faerie’s hand like a snake, but she shoved it into the bag, tied it up, and floated back down with a glowing bag. Moon gestured to the stack of bags, so Lei walked over.

While Lei was in the air with about 6 other faeries, she realized that the bags were plastic and from Walmart. Interesting. Anyways, she realized her comparison from the light to a snake was real. The moonlight beams were white glowing snakes, slippery as a salamander. Lei already tried once, but it slipped out of her hand in about 0.7 seconds. She had to watch a few rounds of more experienced faeries like the one with pink wings to actually get the hang of it. Lei saw a moon ray charge at her, so she readily prepared for its impact. When it got in arm’s reach, Lei snatched it out of the air while it writhed around, trying to escape. Lei held it away from her face like a dirty sock, then stuffed it into the bag, tieing it up. Lei flew down, her navy wings tired from all that flying. She noticed all the bags were being dropped off at a kiosk that looked suspiciously like a smoothie stand. After Lei dropped off her bag of moonlight, it was probably 8 pm, and while she was walking home, someone ambushed her from behind.

“Hi!” a feminine voice said, making Lei jump around. The faerie had sparkly purple wings, with aqua tips. She wore a blue and black dress, with teal high heels. Her eyes were a bright maroon, speckled with orange. “If you’re wondering, I’m the Queen,” she said. Lei’s eyes widened in surprise. “Why are you here?” Lei asked. “When you were in school,” the Queens started. “You said you really like math and science, and you wanted to be a scientist.” Lei didn’t tell her that now she actually wanted to be a moonlight collector (since it was so fun), so she just nodded her head. “I have a special job for you,” said the Queen, smiling her queenly smile. Lei didn’t have any idea why the Queen would need her, but she followed the Queen to the palace. 

“So,” the Queen said, leading her to a lab-sort type of room. “Scientists like experiments, right?” Lei nodded her head. “We have a top-secret missi--erm, experiment, that we think you would be perfect for.” Lei nodded her head once more. The Queen gestured to a giant mason jar that was the size of the room. “Your mode of transport will be this.” How will a mason jar used to store tomato sauce be her mode of transport? Lei wondered. She asked the Queen this question. “Oh, we have special technology to transport you, don’t worry,” she replied. Lei was trying not to ask this question, but she had to. “How much am I getting paid for this?” The Queen said, “Hmm, about 400 Elivins a day.” Lei’s eyes shot open. 2 Elivins were about 1 CAD dollar. God that’s a lot of money. “When do I start working?” Lei asked. “Tomorrow, if you’re available to do so,” she replied. Lei smiled. “I accept this job,” Lei said, holding out her hand to shake. The Queen shook her hand firmly, smiling that smile again. As Lei left the palace, the Queen called out,” See you tomorrow!”

The next day, Lei went straight to the palace after breakfast. She met the Queen in the lab room with the mason jar. “Ok,” she said. “Just step inside here, get comfy, and you’re good to go.” Lei opened a little glass doorway built into the jar, closed it, and sat down in the middle. The Queen looked at her from a control panel outside the jar. “When you get there, take lots of observations, and try to stay alive.” Lei kinda panicked when she heard “try to stay alive”, so she put her hand up to pause the Queen, but a cold darkness washed over her.

When Lei woke up, it looked like she was still in the faerie kingdom. Long, thin trees, bushes, the noises of little creatures in the woods. The only thing that was different was that there weren’t any faeries. Then Lei heard something. 

Crunch.

Crunch.

Crunch.

The sounds got closer and faster every second, until something picked her up. It looked like a baby faerie, except with no wings, and it was HUMONGOUS. It smiled, made some unknown sounds, then ran with Lei through the woods, almost dropping her about 12 000 times. When the faerie-with-no-wings gave the jar to an even bigger non-winged faerie, Lei had a devastating thought:

Today was gonna be a long day.