Something magical came from story-telling practice. When a fairy could hold the same image in the air over the circle for long enough, she could sometimes inhabit the image. One fairy who told of an octopus made the image so real to the others - and to herself - that she could see and feel the world around the octopus. She could sense what it was really like to have tentacles and suckers rather than arms and hands, wings, legs and feet. The story that day stayed in the minds of all the fairies for many weeks, it was so vivid. And the fairy who told the story knew she was ready for the next level of education. This story-reality turning point was called a pinnacle and making a good one was the first major step toward becoming a creator fairy.
Malificent ached to have her pinnacle. But for three centuries already, she had been excluded from the circle by the fairies who were two or three times her own age.
"Why don't the girls let me in the circle?" she asked Stelila, who sometimes had more patience than the others.
"Dear little Malificent, none of us even knew a circle existed until our half-millennia mark. And we didn't enter a circle until we had mastered the simple forestry you're working on. How are your mushrooms? Last I saw, they were nearly right."
"They're ok," Malificent said glumly. She twitched her wings in a fairy-shrug.
"I can help you perfect the growth magic if you like," Stelilia offered.
"Well, my mother says I have to practice breezes for the rest of the day," Malificent said. She kicked a grain of sand like a sad human child might kick a pebble.
Just then, Fauna and Merriweather called to Stelila that robin-hatching time had finally come. "I'll check with you tomorrow, then," said Stelila to Malificent, and the two touched wingtips and noses to say goodbye.
Malificent walked home to waste time. Flying was easier and more enjoyable, but she was in a sour mood, and didn't mind suffering a little if it meant putting off breezes practice.
"Mother, there's two hundred more years until I can even think about joining the story circle. By then most of the others will have moved on to their next level. It's just not fair."
"Ah, my dear. It's not the size of the circle that matters, only the quality of the thought."
"I know." Malificent rolled into a tiny ball and rolled her wings entirely around herself, feeling very much like a caterpillar in a cocoon that would never open.
"Sulking only spoils your appetite. And it doesn't get you out of practice." Mother's tone of voice was not one to argue with, and Malificent groaned as she slowly uncurled from her self-made confinement.
"Yes, mother."
As if to cheer her, mother offered, "You may have some free time down by the pond if your breezes come out properly ten times in a row."
Malificent wanted to make a hurricane - one enormous breeze to end all breezes - so she could be through with all the practice. But air was hard to direct, and ten times perfect was quite a difficult standard. She said, "Yes, ma'am," and got to her practicing.
Miraculously, the first ten breezes she swished performed exactly as directed, and Malificent was free for nearly an entire afternoon.
"That was splendid, dear," mother said. "And I have a special treat of morning-glory nectar for you to enjoy down at the pond."
This was a treat, indeed, and Malificent cheered up. "Thanks, mother. You're a wonderful fairy." Zooming faster than a dragonfly, she was by the pond and enjoying her snack before mother had finished her response - whatever it might have been.