Chapter 2: Born Under the Same Moon
Night had fallen over the fairy world and all the fairies had gathered around the Tree of Life in anticipation as the full moon continued to ascend over the velvet blue sky. Lapis gathered with her husband and friends up front to get a closer look at the action.
"It's almost time." some of the fairies whispered eagerly. "This is so exciting!"
The leaves on the tree began to glisten under the moon and stars and in a sparkle of light, the magical seed began to grow from the branches. However, everyone was surprised to discover that there was not one, but two seeds produced from the tree. One was bright red like fire and the other was a cool blue almost like ice.
All the fairies began to murmur in amazement amongst each other.
"Two seeds in one night?" Lapis questioned. "That doesn't happen very often."
"I know." Pearl whispered back. "I wonder what kind of fairies could be born from those seeds."
"Only one way to find out." replied the royal fairy.
The fairy princess stepped forward and plucked the seeds from the branches, dug two holes, put a seed in each one, and covered them with dirt. The patches of dirt where the seeds were planted sparkled under the lustrous moonlight and in the blink of an eye, a blue flower and a red flower sprouted in sync of each other. Their petals opened to reveal two different small fairies all curled up as if they were sleeping.
The fairy in the red flower was bulky with dark burgundy hair and scarlet skin. Her bright red wings glowed as if they were burning flames and her eyes were black when she opened them for the first time. The fairy in blue flower was skinnier than the red fairy and she had light blue skin and ice blue hair with bangs that hid her eyes so it was hard to tell what eye color she had. Her shimmering blue wings were like snowflakes falling or frost covering a window. Both fairies wore a mini dress made out of dandelion fluff as their only clothing.
As the two newborn fairies sat up, all the other fairies greeted the new arrivals warmly. Princess Lapis offered a friendly hand to each of the fairies and helped the two of them down from their flowers as the three fairy queens came to join the young princess.
"Welcome to the world of fairies, little ones." Pink Diamond said to the newborn fairies, kindly. "You've definitely astonished us when we learned that two fairies would born tonight."
"Really?" the red fairy asked, to which the four royal fairies nodded in response.
"Now, let's have a look at your wings." Lapis spoke as she traced her fingers along the edges of the little blue fairy's wings. Meanwhile, Pink Diamond ran her fingers along the red fairy's wings. The two sets of limp fairy wings perked up from the royal fairies' touch. The youngest fairies snickered and flapped their wings a little.
Then, the fairy princess took the two fairies by the hand to help them test their wings for the first time. They felt themselves rise off the ground as they gave their wings a stronger flutter. It looked a shaky and the two newborn fairies were a little nervous at first, but soon got the hand of it as they balanced themselves and flew with ease. Finally, the little blue and red fairies landed firmly on the ground again.
"I know all this might be a little confusing and overwhelming for you." Princess Lapis told the newborns. "You're not alone. I felt the same way when I was born. But then, I found a group of friends who always stuck by me and still do."
She turned to her six fairy friends who smiled and waved.
"And don't forget, you also have each other since you were born on the same night." Blue Diamond reminded them.
"Do you mean we're kind of like sisters?" the small blue fairy asked.
"It would seem that way." Yellow Diamond answered. The two small fairies exchanged a happy look.
Without a moment of haste, Princess Lapis and the three fairy queens raised their hands and showered the two newborn fairies with a cascade of multicolored fairy dust. In a twinkle of an eye, the young fairies outfits began to change. The red fairy was now wearing a red tunic made out of red poppy petals held by a maroon belt, a matching headband held by a red carnation, light red leggings, and dark red boots. The blue fairy now had an outfit that included a top made of light blue freesia petals, a skirt made out of blue anemone petals, a bracelet made out grape hyacinths, and midnight blue slippers.
"Fellow fairies, let us celebrate the arrival of our two newest fairies, Ruby and Sapphire." Pink Diamond announced with jubilance.
All the fairies in the land applauded for Ruby and Sapphire with great joy. Lapis' friends and husband came forth to join the fairy princess and to meet the two newly born fairies officially.
"Hi there!" Pearl said, enthusiastically. "Oh, you two are just so cute!"
"You know, you two came at a very exciting time." Stevonnie told the two sisters.
"Really, we did?" asked Sapphire, her and Ruby feeling puzzled.
"Absolutely." Princess Lapis answered. "Tomorrow is the first day of spring. Which means that you get to experience your very first Festival of Flowers. That's where us fairies gather together and help bring the season of spring into the world."
"Wow, that's a really big deal." Ruby commented. "Especially for really young fairies like me and Sapphire."
"Couldn't have said it better myself." Amethyst replied, giving a chuckle.
"It might sound daunting, but every fairy counts, even the ones who just came into the world." Garnet explained to the two young fairies. "And don't forget, you have the support of your fellow fairies so you should have no reason to be worried."
Lapis' ears were extra observative of the last sentence Garnet said. She decided to take the magenta fairy's words of wisdom into account. Perhaps they would come in handy at keeping the princess's stress levels low when she upheld the Festival of Flowers tomorrow, that is if she could keep her friends from suspecting that she had butterflies in her stomach.