Xenia's Wish

Some people don’t believe in Faeries or Sprites, I can’t blame them. Some people don’t believe in something unless they have seen it. Although some people want to believe in things so hard that they make up evidence for it. 

    I am Xenia of Dustlynd, I am a student in misfortune management class. It’s not the best job but I get by. I got transferred over after screwing up wishes just to see the disappointment on people’s faces. I always wanted to be a human, oblivious and arrogant to the world not having to care about anyone but myself. But I was born a wish pixie in the garbage magic realm. All I wanted to do was reign havoc and destroy dreams, but I was born with the power to twist people’s wishes if I pleased. To twist the innocence of a human wish is strictly against the Pixie code but I feel like I was born into the wrong skin. I belonged in the Misfortune department, throwing pain and obstacles at people, it might be so they can grow and develop but seeing the pain and misery does something to me. I laugh at others’ pain and feed on tears. 

    My Therapixie says that I live out these fantasies because I have a hole inside my heart that is numb to every emotion but pain and anger and that’s why I get a kick out of the anger of others. It fuels my emptiness so I can feel something, I laughed in his face and left. That Shrimp doesn’t know anything about me, he had no right to try to rile me up he was a therapixie, not a riotpixie. 

    I never really fit in with the happy, rainbow-shooting-out-my-butt club, it honestly got on my nerves. In all my years of pixie school, I was left alone, once I have deemed a wish pixie through their “special testing” everything went downhill. I was told I had to be happy and protect the innocence of the wishes I was giving. It was a load of moth poop, I could grant a wish just fine, just because my attitude turned the wish sour down the line wasn’t my fault. The human let my attitude affect them. I’ve been a sad pixie my whole existence if they forced a human to be happy when they were sad they would resist it too. 

    Sitting in class made my head spin, I hated it here. How can pixies think they can force their ideas on others and force them to see things their way? I for one, have never looked on the “daisy side of things, whatever that was supposed to mean. But if I wanted to work again I had to sit through these classes and pretend I was making an epic turn around. 

    “So class, If the human was to wish for happiness and fortune, what would the best action be?” Miss. Catterfield sat on her stool and patted her pet ladybug, I stared holes into its blank little eyes. There was nothing behind the dead beady eyes and I knew it for a fact, pixies just thought they were cute. 

    Veria Butterwood’s hand shot up and I rolled my eyes. Talk about a teacher’s pet. Miss. Catterfield gave her a nod and Veris stood up and nodded back before turning to the class with a massive smile on her face. 

    “The Best course of action is to arrange them to meet a life partner and have them build a family together his happiness will then push him to build a career for the prosperity of his family” Veria sat back down on her stool. I couldn’t help myself and stand up. 

    “Why can’t the human be happy on their own why do we always have to pair them up? The human could find its life passion and pursue its career and be happy with itself and maybe a cat. It doesn’t need a family to be happy.” I clenched my hands so I didn’t fly off on a tangent about their family-oriented and old-school ways. 

    “Well, you see Xenia. Most humans need and crave the love of another human so we bless them with companionship and hope” Miss Catterfields eyes were ice sharp enough to cut through my wings. 

    “But some don’t, companionship can be with an animal too” I stood on my stool and crossed my arms. I was probably going to be sent home but I didn’t care. I had to make a point and stand for the wishes of the humans that didn’t fit their definition of the perfect wish. 

    “Animals don’t live nearly as long as humans do, it would be ridiculous for them to only want the companionship of an animal that is going to die long before them anyway,” Miss. Catterfield stood forcing her ladybug off her lap, it laid down on the floor and continued to stare blankly into space. 

    “Some humans have no interest in other people. Have you been listening to everything that is happening out there? There are humans with no desire to procreate, some of them are even afraid of the outside world. So why should we use our magic to force them to change their minds?” I felt my blood boil, I hated everyone here. I took off and flew away from the cluster of pixies on the oak branch. Showing myself out before being asked to leave felt like a power move but I knew that the Empress would visit me later today. 

    Once I got home I cleaned off my feet, I hated humans but I hated my fellow pixies more, they were even more arrogant than humans were. The humans outside made me realize that it’s okay that I was to be alone forever and I have no need to have a mate. The pixie population would be okay without one more pixie baby. I painted my walls with the colours of the humans that are also okay without a mate and don’t really desire one. 

    The colours made my room brighter and darker and a splash of colour made it seem more homely. Proud of my work I clean up the mess I made and made my way out to collect water for a bath. I washed the stains of the paste off in the local puddle and gathered some water and put the containers in the pulling contraption I saw a human use once. It was much easier to pull heavy things along this way and kept me from making trips. It was a truly marvellous contraption, and I was thankful that I stumbled upon it. It took me a while to figure out how to build it and get it to work. 

    The pixies in town stared at I dragged my waggyon through the town square. They were baffled that I wasn’t flying and even more so at what I was doing I smiled to myself and avoided eye contact knowing that would initiate a conversation. My contraption was having a hard time begin dragged through the grass but I pushed on. A figure appeared in front of me and I sighed. 

    “Need any help, Xenia?” Rysan asked holding out a hand. Rysan was considered to be one of the most attractive pixies in town, but ever since I turned down his offer to be mated he has been a nuisance. 

    “Rysan you can help me if it’s for no other reason than to be nice to me” I crossed my arms in front of me for the second time today. This was going to become a habit I could feel it. 

“Of course, you made it clear you weren’t wanting to be mated but you have made quite a commotion today and I was hoping to lighten the load,” Rysan winked at me. 

“Just keep your hands and comments to yourself” Rysan took the handle of the waggyon and followed her along to her house. The walk back was silent and it reminds me how long it takes to get around without wings and I wondered how humans did it. 

Once we arrived back at my home, Rysan parked the waggyon around the back and stared at me with a strange look in his eyes. 

“Don’t you dare, Rysan! I don’t have time for you today.” I scurried up my steps and into my house, he chased me. 

“Please Xenia, you are one of the most beautiful and pure-hearted pixies in town and I couldn’t think of a better mate and mother to my children. There has to be something to make you reconsider.”Rysan got down on a knee in front of my front door. 

“I am not interested!” I yelled and slammed the door in his face and dropped down on the floor and groaned. Everyone in town kept telling me I was beautiful and would make a good wife but I could care less, I wanted to be alone. I was fuming at Rysan for trapping me like that. So I thought of an idea to retaliate, I was going to write a proposal to Veria, a perfect match for Rysan. Once she accepts only the empress interfering can stop the mating ritual. I flew over to my desk in excitement and wrote up the proposal letter. 

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I woke up the next day to my first shift as a wish pixie since my last incident, obviously I was under heavy supervision. I was excited to get back to work It had been a long time since I had been to work. I found that it was strange last night that I didn’t get a visit from the Empress or her little spokesman but I was grateful I could sleep in peace. 

Everyone grouped together ready to the points on the morning meeting. I have paired up with Jezabel an older pixie that was close to retiring and a very close friend of Miss. Catterfield. She smiled at me sweetly and I returned a sarcastic smile back, the old lady was not going to like the way I was granting wishes and I didn’t care if a selfish human need to be punished I would be glad to do it. Not everyone deserves a wish, just because they know where to wish. 

“We have a special announcement from Veria today, Veria..” Miss Catterfield left the stage and Veria practically skipped up to the stage taking her time to get up instead of just flying. She was just milking her time with the special announcement. I smiled knowing what was coming and I was ready to see the looks on everyone’s faces when Rysan and Veria were engaged. 

“Hello, Everyone. I am so happy to be back with you all after my unfortunate slip-up a year ago. It is truly an honour to work beside you again. If you guys aren’t aware I have been looking for a mate and yesterday night I got a proposal from Rysan! I have formally excepted so any other that are looking to pair with him can end their advances, Thank you!” Veria bowed as the crowd clapped with a mix of confusion and excitement. Veria was finally hitched but to a man with an eye on one girl only. I clapped like I was sad and upset. Veria coaxed Rysan to the stage, he stood there awkwardly smiling. The letter I wrote had an artfully crafted signature that I copied from the official proposal Rysan gave me. I was not going to be pressure to mate him anymore. 

The couple left the stage and Miss. Catterfield sounded the horn to start the day, I took off gleefully then remembered my partner I stopped and turn back the old pixie fluttering slowly behind me. At least the grotto we were stationed at wasn’t that far from here. I waited and followed beside her. 

When we arrived at the grotto and the light was barely peeking through the trees an old broken well sat in the middle, a mermaid hugging a dolphin was carved above it. Moss covered the well but the smile on the mermaid made it seem life-like. I flew up to our station in the birch tree in what was made to look like a bird’s nest. 

Hours went by as we waited and Hertha (she introduced herself and told me her name) told me stories of the past. It was not something I was interested in hearing and did whatever I could to distract myself. 

    Bushes rustled behind the fountain and a small human broke through they had short-cut hair and a lot of pieces of what looked like a rock in their ears from what I heard they were called piercings. I wasn’t sure if they were girl or boy human but I didn’t care I had a job to do. 

    I flew down and hid around the opposite side of the mermaid. The human looked around at the statue and smiled. They laid down in the grotto and laid there in the rising sun. They seemed to enjoy it here. 

    “This place is super pretty,” They said happily, they rolled over onto their stomach and picked at the wildflowers on the ground. Eventually, they looked up at the fountain, their blue eyes sparkled. They walked up to the well and looked at it in awe, and looked down into the depths of the well. 

    I waited patiently hoping for a wish to grant. The human looked up at the mermaid, nearly where I was sitting and some tears came to their eyes. 

    “You seem magical…..Do you think you can help me out?” The human pulled a small penny from its pocket and looked at the mermaid again with some sad hope in its eyes. 

    “I ran away from home because I cut my hair and my dad went crazy. They want me to fall in love and have kids and pass down the family name…. But I don’t want that…... I want to be an artist and move to the Big Apple…... I want to live my dream but my dream is to have my friends with me and not worry about finding love. They don’t want me to be asexual and if I don’t stop saying I am they are never going to talk to me again. But I have found a place I belong and where people except me and they don’t understand it! They don’t understand me! ” the human began to cry, I could smell the sadness in the air. This human was very sad and broken, this human felt like I did and it was called...Asexual. I fluttered lower to get closer. The human wiped its tears and looked at the dolphin and smiled. 

    “You have your dolphin friend, you don’t need anyone else.” It sighed. 

    “People like me are thrown out and abused for who we are, they try to hurt us to change us and make us think that we are broken and wrong. I know that I am perfect and not flawed and I want others to see me that way too.” 

“What I’m trying to say here is I just want my parents to accept me for who I am and see that I didn’t change…. I just found….who I am” The human looked up reluctantly at the mermaid and tossed the coin in. 

    I felt tears spring to my own eyes. I wish I had people to understand and accept me. No pixie knew what I felt or wanted to try to understand my lack of need to mate. I smiled, if I can help one human live the dream that I wish for myself maybe I can help every human and pixie-like us. 

    I mustered up the power in my soul and dropped my head. 

    “Wish granted” Light shot out of the well causing the human to fall down and stare at the sky. It was only for a second and it left the human stunned. A strange noise came from somewhere on the human. They pulled out a small weird device and answered it. 

    “Dad?” The human sounded cold and bitter. I was fascinated there was no one around the human was talking to herself. 

    “Really? Are you sure?” the human had tears pouring down her cheeks. 

    “I’ll be home soon” The human’s weird block made a noise and it hugged the well. Then took off in the direction that it came from. 

    I flew back up to the tree, tried from the magic drain. Hertha smiled at me. 

    “You did a good thing Xenia, its not what they would have told you to do but it was the right thing. You saved that human’s life” Hertha gave me a pat on the shoulder and floated down to the well, waiting for the next human to come by to grant its wish. I was proud of myself. Rysan would be happier without me, and if I had to burn the world down to get them to realize that I won’t change who I am then so be it. 

    I found who I was. I was a mischievous pixie that punished the bad and helped those in need. I was Xenia of Dustlynd and this was just the beginning.