by Carolyn Paradis

Created on: April 10, 2009

MOKI and ALIA

When you think about fairies, you probably imagine tiny beings dresed in cherry blossom petals with shimmery wings. They flit about in moonbeams and in the daytime they nap in curled up leaves, rocked by breezes. Well, most fairies are just like that.

If you sit very quiet and still in a meadow, late in the afternoon when the light is golden and hazy, with dandelion fluff floating by and little white butterflies dancing away from clover blossoms when the honeybees come to collect the nectar; if you squint your eyes almost shut and wait, you might see a fairy just waking up from her nap. Just a quick little twinkle there where the grass is moving in the wind, or over by the bluebells, or - quick - down by the brook.

A dragonfly is hovering there, glinting blue and green. His wings hide a fairy. Her name is Alia. Alia is a little bit different from the other fairies. She rides a dragonfly because...well, because she is a little bit plump. A wee bit wider than she should be. This doesn't bother Alia at all, except that it makes it hard for her to fly. She knows she should not visit the wild honey tree every morning with her little acorn shell pail, but she loves wild honey. Loves it. If only she could stop after one sip; then she could fly on her own.

Her dragonfly steed, Moki, gets cross with her, as it is hard work carrying her each morning all the way across the meadow to the honey tree. And do those honeybees welcome their visits? Oh no. They do not like to see Alia scooping up their honey. They buzz around and tell Moki to Get Lost! Moki would dump Alia into a stinging nettle patch if she hadn't put a fairy spell on him. He must do whatever she wishes until she decides to release him from the spell. And that won't happen until she somehow becomes tiny like the other fairies.

One day Moki decided to seek help from Ysabo, Queen of the Fairies. Ysabo was Queen because she was very old and wise. Each day, at sunset, she received visitors in the fern patch, dressed in silvery robes of spun spiderweb, seated on her golden mushroom throne, her hair like wisps of smoke. For a crown she wore a wreath of tiny purple hummingbird feathers.

Moki hovered before her and waited until she nodded her head graciously.

"Queen Ysabo," he whispered, "my wish is for Alia to become thin so she can fly, and release me from her spell. I want to dance over the pond with the other dragonflies."

Queen Ysabo thought for a moment. "I'm sorry, Moki. Alia must decide that for herself.

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