The Silver Swing

Up two flights, down the hall, turn right, 6 doors down... 4, 5, 6. This one has to be it.

Ella opened the door and walked into the guest room. Well, what she was told was the guest room. It appeared to be completely empty and there were no lights. Figuring she must have made a mistake in the directions, Ella turned back to leave the room, but the doorway seemed to have disappeared. She couldn't see a thing, so she ran her hands along the walls, feeling for a doorknob.

After many hours of fruitless searching, she sank down in defeat; her legs were pulled up to her chest, her head buried in her knees, and she silently cursed out the evil woman who had tricked her into trapping herself. What is going to happen to me? Will I starve here? Will someone come to kill me? Does anyone even know I am here? Where even am I? Am I ever going to get out of here? Ella thought, putting down her little hope of escaping this room.

A silent tear trickled down her face. No sooner than she had released her tear, she noticed a faint light glowing beneath her eyes. A silvery mist formed from her tear and started swooping around in the darkness. It swirled a few feet away from Ella. The mist morphed into a silver swing and settled right in front of her.

Cautiously, she stood up and moved around to the front of it and placed her hand on the swing. The mist was solid, yet light and disconnected from every other particle. She grabbed one of the glowing ropes and pressed on the swing’s seat. She slowly sat onto the seat, astonished that it could hold her. Suddenly, it glided forward. Ella swung her arm around to grab the other rope, but she missed and fell backward. Her bum slid off the seat and she felt herself falling backward. Only she wasn’t. Tiny particles of silver mist were supporting her from every angle, preventing her from falling off. She was guided up and up, with a mysterious floating sensation inside her.

Ella was a few minutes into the ride when she looked down towards the guest room on the ground. She could not see anything below her. She wondered if anyone could see her or the glowing mist, as high as she was above the ground. A tiny golden light appeared far in the distance. Ella stared at the dot, wondering how far away it was, when the dot suddenly bumped into her chest. No sooner than it had hit her chest, the dot enlarged itself to become a beautiful, sparkling fairy. It was emitting a faint, yellow-gold light.

The fairy hovered over her lap as Ella watched it, curious of the beautiful creature, so unlike all those bug-looking fairies she had seen in her mysterious creature books.

The golden fairy glided up to her face and laid one of her tiny, warm hands gently on her nose. Ella felt a warm, tingling sensation spreading from her nose down to her toes. A bright, golden light flashed before her eyes, and they were forced shut. The light faded away and she was left in darkness once again. The warmth left her body and the tingling dissolved as she felt cold, hard ground beneath her body. She was unable to move, or even to open her eyes so she could see. Ella attempted, one more time, to move around before she allowed a sudden wave of deep sleep to wash over her as she drifted off into an unconscious slumber.

When she woke up, she was lying on a comfy bed of moss at the edge of a beautiful, crystal clear pool of water. The rippling surface was emitting a slight blue glow and, although the dark sky, dotted with stars, indicated nighttime, everything was visible due to various sources of light. The trees were shining with magical lanterns dangling from every branch. The bushes had bright, golden orbs in the center, casting a magnificent glow on the stone pathways that wound between them. The ground was covered in enchanted flowers. Every petal cast a colorful, delicate light on the misty steam swirling below.

Ella stood up, taking in her surroundings. This magically illuminated place was much better than the pitch black room she had just come from.

"She's awakened," a tiny voice squeaked from nearby.

"Pari's right! She's awake!" came another quiet voice. Hundreds of hushed voices came from all around.

"Shayla, come look! It's a human!"

"Did Tania really bring her here because she pitied her?"

Ella tried to block out the voices, but the whispering came from everywhere.

"Look, Ilayda is flying over the Shimmering Sea!"

"She's spinning the Sea, Tryamon must be coming up to see the human girl."

Finally, the hidden crowd silenced. Ella turned away from the voices to gaze into the shimmering, crystal blue waters. She watched as a blue fairy twisted the waters to push a giant shell to the surface. It was a perfect white color, with shining opal lining the edges. The waters were still as the shell floated on the surface. Then it started to open. Pearly bubbles foamed up and poured out, bouncing off the water and popping at shore. Mystical lights shone from hundreds of real pearls decorating the interior. A beautiful fairy was sitting in the center of the shell atop dozens of white and pastel pink pillows. She was wearing a pastel pink dress with pearl jewelry, and her hair was done up in an elegant bun with lots of pearls and sparkles decorating it. She wore a dazzling crown, showing her status as royalty.

Princess Tryamon raised her hand slightly, and stared out at the treeline. At this gesture, hundreds of fairies poured into view. They lined up behind Ella and bowed.

"Her Royal Highness, Princess Tryamon of Mysticalia," a chorus rang throughout the rows behind Ella.

Princess Tryamon lowered her hand as a stunningly beautiful woman flew from somewhere above and landed gracefully in the shell beside the princess. She, too, raised her hand slightly indicating to the fairies behind Ella.

"Her Royal Highness, Queen Tania of Mysticalia," the chorus broke out again.

"Thank you, my wonderful fairies! As you can see, we have a visitor here today. Her name is..." said Queen Tania, gesturing towards Ella.

"I- oh, I- I'm Ella," Ella answered. "Y-Your majesty-- I mean Highness. Your Highness."

The queen let out a small laugh, then she said, "Fairies, you are all dismissed to resume your usual activities and tasks. Ella, come with me." The queen led Ella down the stone path that weaved between the bushes. "This is Mysticalia, a home for fairies all over the world."

"It's very nice," said Ella.

"Yes," said the queen.

"I- Why am I-- May I ask you a question? Your Maj- Highness"

"Of course."

"Why am I here? I am a human, not a fairy..."

"Ella, you are here because you are a fairy."

"That's impossible! You guys are at least 10 times smaller than me!"

"Who is your mother, Ella?"

"I- I don't know. She left right after I was born."

"How about your father?"

"I didn't get to meet him. He put me in a box and left me at an orphanage door. I have a card from him, but all he told me was that he is my father, he loves me, and he wishes he didn't have to do it. But I don't know what the 'it' is. I've always just assumed it was leaving me at an orphanage."

"Did he mention his name?"

"Actually, he did. He signed the card as 'Oberon'"

"Ah, here we are. Come inside, Ella."

Queen Tania led Ella inside a giant dome with white siding and a reflective dome roof. When they reached the inside, there were four rooms. The first room was packed with crystal orbs filled with some sort of wispy smoke. The second was full of different representative objects such as leaves, stones, water, and flowers. The third had a sun and a moon on the farthest wall, with different picture dials lining the side walls. The pictures displayed different types of weather such as rain, snow, clouds, and sunshine. The fourth room was a steel vault with a ton of security features lining the vault door. By the time Ella had finished exploring the first three rooms, the queen had opened the vault. Queen Tania beckoned Ella inside, so she followed the queen through the door.

The fourth room was much different than the others. It was very dark, and only had a few brownish gold wisps swirling in clear orbs for light, appearing to be magically mounted to the walls. The queen herself seemed to glow a slightly darker gold while in the fourth room.

"This," Queen Tania said, picking up a picture frame, "was King Oberon."

"King?!??" Ella exclaimed. "Was my dad the king before you became queen??"

"No," Queen Tania walked over to a large black veil covering something mounted on the wall. "We were King and Queen of Mysticalia. Together." She pulled off the veil.

"Wha-" Ella gasped. "You were married to my father?? And you guys had a baby together??"

"We did. Unfortunately, we couldn't bring the child up the way we wanted to. There were complications between the fairy world and the human world, meaning she couldn't be brought up in the fairy world."

"But- How did you get Tryamon back to the fairy world? And how did my father leave the fairy world to have me?"

"Did I say Tryamon?"

"Well... No... I- I assumed that was Tryamon; she's your daughter..."

"Yes, but she's not the daughter of Oberon. She's the daughter of my second- and deceased- husband, Brucie."

"So that baby was- Wait! Was that me? Am I your daughter??"

"You are. And I think it is time for you to return home."

"But- But I don't know anything about the fairy world! Or how my father died, or Tryamon-- Is she technically my sister then?"

"Ella, there is much for you to learn, but now is not the time or the place. I assure you, I will answer all of your questions-- that is, if you accept to come live with me."

"Of course! I was struggling to find a place in the human world anyway-- I was trying to settle into a guest room! I didn't even have an apartment!"

"Alright, it's settled then. You can stay with me." said Queen Tania and she led Ella out of the vault and locked it back up. "First, we will inform Tryamon of your decision, and the two of you can get acquainted. Then we can go and reverse the effects of the human world and turn you back into a real fairy. Once that is finished, we will have a royal ceremony to celebrate the return of my daughter, and you will find your true fairy power at the Selecting Ceremony."

"I can't wait to live here!" Ella exclaimed. "It's going to be so great!"

-----

If only I could tell her she was wrong. If only I could tell her she has been told lies. That she won't be made a fairy. That the queen wasn't her mom. That the ceremony isn't what she thinks it's gonna be. If only I could tell her. But I can't. I'm stuck in the vast, empty darkness of this guest room, alone with my own thoughts and nothing else. It's not a great end to my life, but I refuse to cry and allow the mist to come and take me away to those evil, deceiving fairies. So I guess this is my fate. Stuck here. Suffering in this empty, pitch black guest room until the day I die.