Once there was a cute, adorable, tiny little Fairy whom everyone adored.
She was named “Twinkle,” and people would sing her that “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” all the time, and she totally loved it. Sometimes she would hover on her charming little wings up against the backdrop of a glowy night sky and pretend she was actually sitting on stars themselves! Oh, she was so cute!
It was said that she was so little she could keep only one thought in her head at a time. This was not strictly true; it’s just a little fable suggested by J.M. Barrie. But she did so bear a resemblance to “Tinkerbelle”, and she certainly had passionate emotions. When she was happy, everyone around her was bathed in the warmth of her beaming smile. When she was sad, there was nary a dry eye to be found anywhere in the vicinity, and people wanted dearly to make her feel better, the poor little dear.
She lived on moonbeams and stardust, and she slept in a cockle-shell, or, sometimes, when the weather was fair, beneath the gentle leaves of a flower.
She would often visit places where Fairies were known only in story and song, and she would bring happiness to all who met her.
And none of them ever disappeared.
She only appeared to adults, not children. She said (when asked) that children need to keep their sense of wonder in a world which was still magical, for them. She said hat it just wasn’t safe for a child these days to claim to have seen some sort of mythical creature. People just don’t take kids seriously, and they don’t like adults who support them in nonsense. So it was just adults.
It definitely wasn’t because children, who are, indeed, ready to be awed by the mysteries of the world, but are also used to adults telling a lie or two, could detect that there was something fishy here. (“Fishy!” she would laugh. “Why, I’m not fish! You’re thinking of mermaids, which certainly aren’t real.”)
She was coy about the existence of other Fairies. Sometimes, she hinted that she was all alone in the world, and o! What a sad thought that was.
It’s impossible for anything to live off of moonbeams and stardust, of course, but fairies are already impossible, so that’s fine.
Twinkle was endearing and kind and friendly and definitely, definitely wasn’t a carnivore who lured people to their doom and ate them.
That never happened.
Twinkle wasn’t the best reader in the world, because you just can’t fit all those letters into a tiny head, so she thought in a very literal manner. I promised her that if she took this letter out to the human world and left it somewhere people would find it, it would entice more people to be her friends, and I promised I would tell people she never ate anyone. And I’ve kept my promise, because I am a helper and very, very useful, and also, I taste terrible. I promise.
So if you’re reading this, keep an eye out for Twinkle! And that’s because she is very cute and very adorable, and certainly not because horrible things happen to those who can’t or won’t see beyond cuteness and don’t question the world around them. I used to be like that. How silly I was! Oh, how very silly! I could laugh, thinking about how silly I used to be. I could laugh until I cried.
Twinkle flies around, busy as a hummingbird! So it’s very hard to follow her home, and you shouldn’t try it. Even if you could find where she lives, she just hates surprises. So don’t surprise her. Don’t follow her. Notice, I said DON’T. PLEASE. Don’t, that would be so bad, really, don’t ever. And also, hurry.
Oh! And if you do see Twinkle, you should give her presents, like candy or cake or ice cream or a much, much larger cage, because if Twinkle happened to have a cage that she used for, oh, say, storing shoes in, or whatever else one does with a cage, it would probably be kinda small and cramped, and she could really use a bigger one.
To put more shoes in, of course.
My name is Jeff Mach (“Dark Lord” is optional) and I build communities, put on events, and make stories come into being. I also tweet a lot over @darklordjournal.
