(Story 2 Pt 2 !) Long, long ago, in a fairy realm far, far away…   Deep down in the darkest depths of the ocean where not even the brightest sunlight could reach, a family of renowned water fairies lived. Instead of a pair of wings, they had a powerful tail to traverse through water. They were a large family, dating back eons, and were a family of archivists and augurs rumored to have great powers allowing them to be the keepers and recorders of the past, present, and future. Due to the great power they held, however, the elders of the family forbade the family from interfering in matters of the world, no matter what. They claimed the powers of fate and destiny are not to be opposed and could bring great catastrophe if done so. For many, many years, their family conducted their duties undisturbed by outside forces at the bottom of the sea. The male historians of the family would inscribe texts of events gone by onto the bones of deceased sea creatures that sank down to where their family resided, though they primarily used turtle shells and whale scapulas. The main methods the female diviners of the family used started with scattering a layer of sand and shells over a dark and massive platform, said to be made of a mythical gem with great fortunetelling power created by the very first matriarch of the family. The women would perform ritual dances on the pad, interpreting the signs made by the settled sand and shells at the end of the ritual into constellations to foretell events and omens of the future.  The youngest member of the family was a girl called Madeleine, and she was about to perform her very first ritual rites after coming of age! For two decades, she had studied and practiced the rites in her room until she got every last detail right. She could practically do the whole song and dance in her sleep at this point! She was so excited, wondering about what kinds of great and amazing signs from the future she might uncover! It was nearly time, and her sisters gathered to dress her with the customary accessories. Ecstatic, she swimmed out to the platform, surrounded by all her family members to witness this momentous occasion! By the end of the dance, everyone looked on in anticipation, wondering what sort of fun piece of juicy hot goss they might get about the outside world. When Madeleine performed the last movement, she was breathing hard, trying to catch her breath, and when the last particle of sand settled and the last shell fell, everybody gasped in shock! The tea Madeleine uncovered was hotter than even the thermal vents they use to get their summer tans… It turned out that the rowdy village of fairies up in the clouds above were about to get gruesomely eviscerated and devoured by a group of phantoms… tonight! Cheers and hurrahs from everyone filled the waters, celebrating a successful divination! However, in Madeleine’s mind, she thought there was no reason to be happy. How could she? She had just confirmed the extinction of an entire village of fairies… Out of worry, that night, she snuck out to the surface of the water with her flounder best friend and watched from below as the undead monsters started circling the fairies and were about to attack. She acted without thinking, she closed her eyes and used her mega fairy power of lullaby. Madeleine took a deep breath before belting like nobody’s business. A powerful force carried with her voice all the way to the tip tops of the clouds, immediately alluring the phantoms into a deep slumber, and without much practice or control over her power, she unknowingly knocked out the rest of the sky fairies, too. Her family members, having heard Madeleine’s voice coming from the surface of the water, where nofairy was permitted, came to take her back to the depths and put her in timeout. Just as she was about to be taken back, though, she saw the face of a sky fairy who had just gotten to the edge of the clouds before falling asleep, and she was immediately smitten. Madeleine was sent to her room to think about her actions after a fierce scolding from the elders, but Madeleine was resolute. Knowing that saving the sky fairies tonight would bring about an even worse consequence later on, she secretly infiltrated the family’s vault, where they kept all manner of interesting trinkets and doodads from over the centuries. Among the rest of the rubble was a particular artifact that trapped a fire spirit that would entice fairies who didn’t know better by promising to grant them whatever wish they wanted at a small price. The spirit was kept locked up in the underwater vault where his form would never materialize after being deemed too dangerous for fairykind, having brought ruin upon countless fairy settlements with his deals.  Madeleine made a deal with the spirit, she would trade her voice if he would show the fairies above how to survive against the ravenous phantoms. She unbound the chains that constrained the golden lantern and let it float to the surface for the sky fairies to discover. The next day, the golden lantern had fallen down to the water’s surface, so Madeleine quickly put it back before anyone noticed. Later, she performed another divination ritual and found out that the universe had smiled upon the sky village. Instead of being fated to die to the undead, their fate had flipped to be prosperous and happy! She was overjoyed, but her family had become suspicious that their daughter suddenly wasn’t talking. They discovered what she had done and now she was REALLY in trouble… She was locked in a cave to go think about her actions for 3 years. She accepted her fate and bided her time in the cave, spending most of her time yearning for the one sky fairy she had seen on that fateful day, yearning… to be part of that world. Whenever she finally got out, apparently not having learned her lesson, she snuck out yet again. She returned to the surface of the water with the golden lantern, wanting to make another sacrifice so she could fly up to the sky village. But, just when she was about to summon the spirit, a sky fairy had flown down to her… It was that sky fairy, the one she saw all that time ago. She was speechless, partly because she was so shocked, but also mostly because she literally couldn’t speak. The sky fairy had rushed down to the water because she saw a familiar luster from the lantern, but hadn’t expected to see a gorgalicious sea fairy to accompany it. Madeleine wanted to explain everything that happened, but without her voice, she could only make vague gestures that the sky fairy who had introduced herself as Marjorie couldn’t understand. Just when Madeleine was ready to give up, her family matriarch had surfaced just besides her. Madeleine thought she was going to get in trouble when she saw her matriarch, but the matriarch didn’t look angry, but she was smiling! The matriarch explained everything for Madeleine to Marjorie and told Marjorie that she had already seen all this playing out before she was even born! The matriarch allowed the sea fairy to go to the sky by gifting her a magic rug that would show her a whole new world.  After that, the two fairies arrived back in the sky where they got married and lived happily ever after.   The End.  

(Story 2 Pt 1 !) Long, long ago, in a fairy realm far, far away…   Way up in the sky, a quaint village of fairies lived on the clouds. In a way, they were a nomadic group, letting the drifting clouds guide them to their next location. Below them spread an endless expanse of empty ocean, interrupted only by the small dot of an island every so often. The fairies would play in the clouds all day, and when their cloud homes came over one of those islands, they’d eat all the yummy fruits and berries they could until their little bellies were as full as could be, and for a very long time, they lived this simple but happy life of peace and contentment. One morning, the fairies woke up to see piles of shimmering, colorful dust scattered all around the surface of the clouds! It seemed to have come from a place even beyond the highest reaches of the sky, sent from the stars themselves! Fittingly, they called it stardust, and made starcastles and starmen with the strange material. The fairies had a blast playing with the novel dust, but soon enough, it was time to take their sleepy fairy selves to sleep. As the sun sank below the skyline, stardust also started to slowly drift down from the cosmos and soon began to blanket the clouds again. The fairies waved goodnight to each other and laid down on the soft fluffy clouds and slowly descended into a deep sleep… Shrieks suddenly filled the air, a horrible cacophony of dissonant screeching jolting the fairies awake. Before them was a scene of horror and despair! Drawn to the shiny luster of the stardust all over the clouds, a group of dreadful phantoms had come to attack! The small group of phantoms had already entirely circled the villagers, giving them no place to run. The peaceful village had never been in such a dire situation, and they could only shrink closer and closer into a tighter crowd as the phantoms drew closer. Slowly, the winged beasts continued their encroachment while the villagers had no other option but to hold each other and tremble in fear. The phantoms were just about to reach a villager when all of a sudden, they had stopped. When it seemed all hope was lost, a voice from below rang out. A beautiful melody from deep below projected into the night, overpowering the sounds of the phantoms and stopping them dead in their tracks, as if stuck in a daze. The phantoms closed their eyes  and floated down to make a soft landing on the clouds. The beasts had seemingly been tranced into a deep slumber from the song. The fairies rushed over to the cloud’s edge, eager to thank their savior, but just before they could, the song came to a crescendo, making the villagers’ eyelids grow heavy. Before they were even able to thank their savior, the whole village was soundly asleep, without a single clue as to who their benefactor was. By daybreak, the villagers simultaneously awoke, and newly rested, they set out to try finding any signals as to who the mysterious singer was. An hour passed with fairies frantically flying all over the place before they finally found something. A fairy named Marjorie noticed a gleaming object reflecting radiant light off its surface. She flew down and discovered a golden lantern floating on the water’s surface, bobbing with the current. She took the precious artifact and took it back to the village, drying the water off the lantern by rubbing it into a cloud.  When the lantern was fully dry, a fire lit inside the lantern, burning bright and hot, surprising the fairy. The fire grew and grew, the shape of the flames dancing and condensing, and all of a sudden, an amorphous being of flame beheld her. It’s loud, booming voice rang out, “I am P. Matthias, a great fire spirit! I have come to educate you fairies on how to defend yourselves!” The villagers all gathered around, and the spirit taught the fairies how to use magic to make fire and subsequently use that fire to melt the stardust into starrium ingots. The starrium was revolutionary for the fairies, being both easy to work and having incredible durability and strength–plus, it looked pretty also! The fairies spent all day mastering the art of forging starrium under P. Matthias’s instruction. They used their abundant supply of stardust to make all manner of things, though mainly weapons, shields, and simple walls. Come nightfall, the fairies gathered together to wait… The first signs of stardust descended in the night sky, and with it, so too came the winged beasts with their all-too-familiar cries and wails. The fairies had a new fire burning in their hearts, a desire to protect their fair village and to never suffer an embarrassment like the previous night ever again! They stood firm, weapons in hand to defend themselves against the coming onslaught. The phantoms, drawn to the sheen of the fairies’ new toys, attacked the fairies in a frenzy, yet the fairies stood firm all the same. The superiority of the starrium tools made up for the villagers’ inexperience in combat, and soon enough, the phantoms were all defeated! The fairies rejoiced and celebrated their triumphant victory! They held a banquet to celebrate, eating only the juiciest berries and freshest fruits. Additionally, they honored the brave fairy who had slain the most phantoms, Marjorie! They wanted to invite the fire spirit that had helped them so much, but strangely, he had vanished alongside the golden lantern. The banquet lasted well into the day, and the fairies were well energized to continue the work from the previous day. They toiled and worked tirelessly through the entire rest of the day, setting up small huts to provide shelter and setting up a night guard rotation to fend off the phantoms. Years passed and the fairies had become efficient in dispatching the phantoms with ease, needing only a handful of experienced soldiers. The village decided to settle down, anchoring the clouds in place with magic, and built a great sprawling civilization with starrium, turning their humble village into a town of prismatic buildings that shimmered in sunlight and glittered in moonlight. They were even more successful and happy than ever before, but one fairy still wasn’t satisfied. Marjorie, the town’s greatest warrior, yearned to know who it was that had saved the village that one fateful day, and how that golden lantern had appeared and disappeared so mysteriously.   To be continued… !  

(Story 1 Pt 2 !)Long, long ago, in a fairy realm far, far away…   There lived an ordinary girl whose laugh was said to be able to soothe the soul itself. She lived alone in a tall tower with only her father who was always going on trips to the outside. For the longest time, she yearned to go outside with her father, to explore the vast expanses of the world, to experience what it was like to truly live! But despite all her protests and begging, her father never yielded, repeating the same lines to her. “It’s too dangerous!” “You’re too young!” Well, guess what? Her long awaited sixteenth birthday was only a week away, and she was going to go on her own adventure outside whether he liked it or not! Life in the tower had been comfortable enough, but there were only so many things you could do in such a cramped space. Spending day in and day out in this tower was sooo boring and she felt like there was this hole in her heart, that her life’s purpose could never be fulfilled by staying in this tower. But even then, she just had to bear with it and make do with what she had. She had picked up weaving as a hobby to pass the time, often asking her father to bring back some new colorful fibers and threads to bring back with him. The walls of the tower were practically covered in tapestries of animals and scenery.  Her most favorite thing, however, was looking at the lights on her birthday. She always felt a special connection to them since she only saw them on her birthday, and while she knew it was unlikely, it felt like they were even meant for her. In fact, her biggest tapestry project that she had been working on for months and months on and off was a depiction of the brightest fireworks she had seen over the years on her birthday nights. From outside, she heard the voice of her father, “Marlowe, let down your hair!” Obliging, she ran up to the window and replied, “Yes Father!” Marlowe had grown her hair nice and long to help pulley her father up and down the tower, and it worked out for her too. When her father was away, she would secretly snip her hair to use in her weaving projects. Though her hair would always grow back quick so her father never noticed anyways. After pulling up her father, he would hang his cloak as dark as midnight on the coat rack and tell her a joke, never failing to make her laugh. He would always say that her laughter is what keeps him young, which would make her laugh some more! The days passed quickly, and it was the night before her 16th birthday already! After double- and triple-checking that her father was asleep, she lit a small lantern and started putting the finishing touches on her long-term project. She wanted to make sure she could finish it before her big night, so when she came back from her grand adventure, her next work could be about the things she saw outside. Unfortunately, she was running low on the fibers her father had brought back from earlier, so she had to cut some more hairs than she normally would to finish the piece. Proud of her handiwork, she snuffed out the flame and went to bed. In the morning, her father wanted to go into town to bring back some new materials for Marlowe’s birthday, so just as she had done for forever, she threw her hair over a hook and let her father make a foothold from her hair. Just as she was about to lower her father, he lost his footing and fell from the tower.  It turns out that last night, in the dim light of the measly lantern, the haircut she had given herself turned out to be less of a moderate trim and more of an undercut, and in his morning grogginess, her father hadn’t noticed how sparse her hair had become and well… Unsure of what to do, Marlowe flew from the tower to the ground, taking a good look at her father. From her personal experience, fairies healed pretty fast, so she was pretty sure her father would be back on his feet by noon. She wasn’t sure if her father not having wings would change anything about that, but she decided that neither her father’s tiny little fall nor the growing red pool coming from his body was her problem. His limbs were in a position she’d never seen them in, but she reasoned it was probably her father trying to be funny for her birthday.  With her father taking a nap for the moment, Marlowe was free to go on that long-awaited journey! Her first destination, she decided, would be to go to find the true origin of those lights that always burst into the sky on her birthday. It was a long and tiring journey, and the sun had already retired behind the skyline by the time she saw anything of note. She was helped along by seeing the start of the fireworks in the sky but today, they seem to have stopped much earlier than usual. That should’ve been her first sign something was terribly amiss… She felt it first before she saw it. A cold wave passing over her and chilling her to the bone. In the distance, she saw the ground cracking and freezing over with ice. Something wasn’t right here. She started flying towards the source of this ice, and a large castle came into view. Marlowe hadn’t noticed it yet but the ice around her was slowly dispersing with each flutter of her wings. She wasn’t sure what came over her, be it intuition or instinct, but she felt such a strong pull to something in the area. It was beckoning her, begging for her. Her speed quickened, and she passed by statues of different fairies, different emotions in their faces, happiness, fear, sadness, and notably, none of them had any particular resemblance to her father, but that detail wasn’t important, not right now! She kept trailing the source of the ice, feeling the atmosphere get colder and colder as she kept going. She entered the castle, turned a few corners, ascended a flight of stairs, went down the hallway, and burst into a room! And it was at that moment that she saw her that she knew. This was her missing half. It clicked so naturally, for so long, she had felt a strange emptiness, a hollowness within her. She never paid much attention to it, filling that hole with tapestries and wishful thinking, but now, she knows why; she’s standing right in front of why. With slow, shaking steps, she took one foot in front of the other, and pulled her sister into her arms. She laughed in exasperation and kissed her on the cheek, “My sister… !”  Crack. Slowly, the ice around her sister started to melt and soon enough, the summer and winter princesses were holding each other in the longest hug ever. Hand in hand, together they walked out on the balcony and combined their royal fairy powers to dispel the enduring winter over the kingdom. Cheers and applause ensued as the people came to and realized that the royal family had been reunited at long last! The baddie sisters stood together, watching the rest of the fireworks display, and then they lived happily ever after.   The End.  

Story 1 Pt 1 ! Long, long ago, in a fairy realm far, far away…   There lived two young princesses. Mallory, the elder sister born on the winter solstice, whose calm disposition brought a sense of regalness to all that she did. Marlowe, the younger sister of five years born on the summer solstice, whose heart of gold and bright smile could turn even the deepest of frowns upside-down. Now, today was a most joyous day, for today was Marlowe’s first birthday! Banners of the kingdom’s symbol, a radiant sun intertwined with a piercing moon, hung high across every terrace and windowsill in the land as all the citizens came out for a day of joy and laughter! The king and queen of the palace gave a grand speech in the morning, the gentry had a grand ball in the evening, and by night, all the fairies were tucked nice and quiet in their little beds in a deep sleep. All the fairies… but two.  An unannounced visitor had intruded the princess’ quarters in the dead of night with the most dastardly intentions in mind... Shrouded by a thick, black cloak with a faceless mask, he slowly opened their balcony door, tiptoeing to baby Marlowe’s cribside, and in an instant, he swaddled the baby up in a thick, cozy blanket and fled the scene in the blink of an eye! Unknown to him, there was a witness to his crime. Wrapped tightly in her blanket, Mallory lay frozen, holding her breath as motionless and still as she could. She didn’t want the kidnapper to realize she was still awake lest she be taken by the boogeyman too. She couldn’t believe her eyes… her baby sister had just been kidnapped by a monster! She knew she should yell, to call for help, to do anything! Yet despite her best efforts to command her body to action, she was immobile, cold with sweat. For what seemed an eternity, the young girl couldn’t help but just stare into her sister’s empty crib. Try as she might, her eyes just wouldn’t shut, her body just wouldn’t rest. Her mind was uneasy, and she was scared that if she fell asleep, the same fate would befall her as did the summer princess. Everything was just so cold… Eventually, at the break of dawn, the sun’s first rays shone through that very same balcony that Marlowe had vanished into and slowly illuminated the room. Though for all the light that entered the room, Mallory’s world seemed to be nothing but darkness…  The bedroom door creaked open, and a shriek was heard all through the palace. The maid was just going about her daily routine, going into the princess’s room to get them dressed and ready for the day, but what she saw shocked her. Not only had one of the princesses disappeared, but the other princess had been literally frozen to her bed! Thick ice emanated from her body, and all along the walls of the room, covering them in a sheet of frost.  The rumors spread like a wildfire. Everywhere, people were whispering about the terrible news. The summer princess vanished in the middle of the night, and on top of that, there was something terribly wrong with the winter princess. It turned out that whenever she felt strong negative emotion, her wintry fairy powers would go out of control and start freezing anything around her. Was it a disease? A condition? Perhaps something hereditary? Yet nobody in the kingdom had ever seen something quite like this! Immediately, the king and queen put out calls to action, one to find the whereabouts of the missing princess and one to cure the other princess’s strange affliction. They set out a grand reward of five hundred thousand gold coins for any who succeeded at either! The kingdom was sent into a frenzy: search parties, laboratories, and investigations all bustled and toiled the following days. They continued on for weeks, and some for years… yet no progress was made on either front. Meanwhile, Mallory’s condition only grew worse and worse. She became erratic and anxious, unable to sleep at night and hiding herself from the public view. The monarchs tried their best to help her manage the condition, calling upon the best doctors, but it seemed a lost cause. The only ‘solution’ they were given was by an old woman who lived in the outskirts of the kingdom that told her the cure to her malady was true love’s kiss, which was quickly discounted for being nonsensical. As for her younger sister… who knew where the summer princess could be, if she was even alive or dead… Everything just seemed so bleak.  Desperate, the kingdom had started a tradition where every year on the day that Marlowe was kidnapped, they prepared a grand fireworks display, hoping the dazzling brilliance of their lights would serve as a beacon to guide the lost princess back home. Just like that, a decade and a half had passed and with no advancements being made on the princesses, the once bright and lively kingdom had become solemn and muted. An urgent diplomatic situation with a neighboring kingdom this year meant it would be the first time both monarchs had to leave the kingdom at the same time since the incident, leaving Mallory all alone.  Today would mark the summer princess’s 16th birthday. As the first firework sparked into the dark night, Mallory watched from her bedroom. She drew the curtains closed and looked longingly at the empty crib that sat opposite the wall she slid down. She was adamant that the crib not be touched even after all these years. The crib, along with the cracks, snaps, and booms that rang outside served as a painful reminder of her failure to protect her dearest sister all those years ago. With her parents away, there was nobody to help the winter princess control her emotions. There was nobody to hold her and let her know it would all be okay.  Alone, she slunk down the walls of her kingdom of isolation. The breeze outside whipped at her like a swirling storm inside. For so long, she had been concealing and never feeling. Tears formed at the corners of her eyes, and unable to hold them back, she let it go, let it go as she devolved into an uncontrollable fit of sobbing. As she crode, a ring of frost surged from her body like an enormous wave, instantly freezing over the entire room. Immediately, the sounds of fireworks outside ceased, and in its absence lingered only an eerie silence. Confused by abrupt change, Mallory wiped the tears from her face to see what was happening from her balcony. She pushed past the curtain and walked outside, and the sight that met her stopped her in her tracks. Every single thing, every single person… had been encased in ice. She knew it was her own doing. She had done this, and to her very own people, at that. A familiar sensation gripped her, a tightness in her chest and a feeling as if she had been frozen. She looked down and saw shards of ice forming at her feet, climbing up her legs, and advancing up and up… With her last exhale, she closed her eyes and accepted her last frozen embrace.   To be continued… !  

(This topic will be going over the backstories of Annie's four fairy godmothers! Pt 2 of the collection over Annie and her sibling's stories to come soon*!  Hope you baddies enjoy xoxo)