Aria Rainbow: A Fairy's Tale
"Where have you been all my life?" He said from the other side of the bar.
I turn my face away and I feel my face glow. "Neverland, probably." I reply, and giggle to myself. This guy, Eron, had been chatting me up for the past hour tonight. We had met quite a few times this month at the same bar.
"Do you think we could hang out again? Maybe without the influence of alcohol? I err… really like you…" He trailed off, scratching the back of his head and turning his head a bit to the side with the cutest bashful face I'd ever seen.
I thought it over. I really didn't think I had the time for anything other than my job in Neverland. As head of the Tinker fairies, I hardly ever had time for anything other than tinkering and helping other tinkers. But… this guy… he was more fun than anyone I had ever met. He even had a few rough edges, which put him a step above my lifelong friend Pan.
"I think I'd like that Eron. Any um… ideas on what you want to do? Or when?"
His face lit up with a dashing grin. "Could I surprise you? How about tomorrow around noon? Meet me at the Frell Mall Center?"
"Yeah, sure." I try to hide a smile from him. I love surprises. He already seems so perfect.
"Okay, well, I should probably get going. I have to work in the morning Aria. But, I'll see you there, alright?" He said as he got up from the stool and slapped a galleon on the counter.
"See you there. Can't wait." I give him one last dazzling smile as he turns away and heads for the door. I turn back to the bar with a stupid grin on my face as the barkeep comes by and sweeps the galleon into her apron pocket.
"You sure caught yerself a looker there girlie." She said. The sweet twang in her voice just made you want to be her friend.
I direct my gaze towards her and give her a smile. "I sure have, much lookie-er than I could have ever imagined myself catching. Haha!" As I said it, I thought over all the things that made me a 5 out of 10. My shoulder-length dark brown hair, my dark brown eyes, my round face, and my chubby tummy. A pretty plain-jane fairy, with no defining characteristics.
"Oh, don't be so hard on yerself darlin. There ain't no one in this world that is you the way you are you. Would you really rather be anyone else? Yer beautiful darlin. You could probably catch anyone worth catchin!"
I let out a scoff and roll my eyes. "Thanks for the encouraging words Jeana, but words don't change how I look. I'll always be the brown-haired button from Frell that no one ever notices. Well, almost no one notices." I fluttered my wings for a moment to jump off the stool and flicked a few sickles in her direction. "See you later Jean."
"See you later darlin." She said, shaking her head and giving me a look of motherly disapproval, and catching the sickles as they fell towards the counter.
I leave the bar and walk to the closest bakery. I needed some muffins to surprise GreenLily with. She was my neighbor and her birthday was tomorrow. Food is her favorite thing in the world, and I'm not any kind of cook. I can burn water…
As I walk in I close my eyes and breathe in the heavy scent of all the breads and cakes. I sampled a few of the different flavors and decided on the Rose-n-Berry muffins. I ordered a half dozen and a soft pretzel for myself. I was in need of some sobering up. I stayed and ate my pretzel in the bakery at one of the tables. It started raining before I was finished and I resigned myself to taking a Taxi Bug. No flying tonight, I thought to myself.
I caught a cab and sighed as I jumped into the back. "To Pixie Hollow, Neverland, please." I directed. "South Quarter." The cabbie nodded and headed off. We arrived at the main square nearly a half an hour later, and the rain had subsided. I paid the cabbie and walked to my house, a few blocks away.
Humming, I flew the last few inches to my door and deactivated the security system. Wondering what time it was, I placed the muffins in the bread box and headed to my bed. The stopwatch I now had was broken. I hadn't had any time to work on it yet, and one of my fellow tinkers had my old one. A quick change of clothes and I jumped into my bed. Hoping it wasn't too late, I let myself fall into my dreamland.
My neighbor Aura Catcher woke me in the morning, pulled me out of bed, and dressed me. She was ready for the party at Green's place. Her gift for Green consisted of many different half-prepared meals. Homemade soup mixes, pie crust pastry, fresh fruit jams and jellies, and a few quickbread mixes. Aura had me swept out of my house before I could even inspect the outfit she had me in. I barely had time to grab the muffins.
"Comeoncomeon!" She was so excited. Green was her best friend and she wanted everything to be perfect on Green's special day. It was the kind of friendship that comes along once an era.
I felt a rush of wind across my legs and looked down at them as Aura pulled me through the air to GreenLily's house. Oh, dear. I thought to myself. She had dressed me in one of my old skirts. A skirt I bought for my body about two ounces ago. It was a bit tight, but it would have to work for the party. The shirt she had picked out was nice though. A flowy long-sleeve, decorated to look like a green lily. It covered all my chubby bumps really well.
"Green! Green! Green! Come on out! We're here! Open up!" Aura spouted, jumping up and down on the top step of Green's porch. A sleepy-eyed fairy opened the door and was promptly attacked with vicious hugs. Still in her night gown, Green led us to her table and put on a pot of tea.
"Sorry you two. I just got up. I had a late night!" She beckoned towards her workbench and we saw her latest project. A beautiful music box was strung out all across that side of her house. "It took me forever to find a perfect sized gear to replace the broken one. I just couldn't go to sleep without finding it. Haha."
"It's okay Greenie!" Aura jumped up to help Green with the tea, then followed her to the dresser to dress her too. When they emerged from behind her screen they nearly matched. Both wore light blue dresses with daisies on a sash around the waist. Green's dress reached all the way to her feet, while Aura's only reached her knees.
"And the birthday girl is drop-dead gorgeous as usual." I commented as they came back for tea. I poured a few drops of the boiling water into each cup and put a spoon of honey in each. Aura pulled the spoon out and licked the honey off before it had a chance to melt into the tea. Green sat down and stirred the honey in and sipped it happily.
We all drank our tea and discussed the plans for this morning. By the time we all finished it was time to leave to go to Party Point. We grabbed our gifts and the birthday girl and flew off to the celebration. As we raced past blades of grass I scooped up a few dew drops and sprinkled them through my hair. I love the feeling of water running over my back as my wings beat away at the early morning sun-kissed air.
We arrived at the party just in time for the dance to start. Aura and I dropped the gifts off at the table and jammed all morning long with Green and nearly all of the South Quarter of Pixie Hollow. At the end of the celebration we had muffins and ice cream as Green opened all her gifts. (Which ranged from new tools to food to talent-related gifts.)
At a quarter to eleven the party was cleared out and cleaned up and Green, Aura, me, and a troupe of our friends carried all her presents to her house. After we said our goodbyes and our final "Happy Birthday's", I headed back to my house, where I changed my skirt, tossed my hair into a bun, and headed out for the Mall in Frell.