She’d locked the door that led to fairytale castles, of dark green lustrous forests where sun shone brightly. It was all a dream, after all, her getaway into the beautiful island only pierced her for it wasn’t real. Even the little hopes and dreams that wandered and swayed in the misty blue air surrounding her magical land were arrowed down to the burial grounds. The fairy in her had long faded.
Rattraps and jail rods fell from the sky, enclosing her restless soul, within which she chose to stay in, shutting herself in the rapunzel tower, cutting her long hair of memories and fantasies. She worked like an old worn rusted machine where life froze to silent muggy stillness. The dark black fumes of despair circled the stoned tower. Enveloped in a dusted mesh, not a single soul lurked near the drenched darkness.
Not far from the castle, was a dense forest. One day, a wanderer lost his way and fell through a spacetime warped rabbit hole that spaghettified him through warps of life, onto the darkness of a black hole. Deranged by the sudden fall into bleak uncertainties, he stared at the empowering silent darkness that covered him.
What he saw from his distant forest was a faint starlight that twinkled afar, and was calling out to his conscience. He followed the only little star on the horizon and awakened to the dawn of a dream; where the sun uncovered its light, and he could hear tiny chirps of birds and, feel the soft wind that whispered to him of existence, and a castle opened its archway for him.
Inside it, the ballroom hall sang of invisible footsteps tapping to humming melodies of a girl. He heard her tinkling laughter behind him. But the laughter was walking away, inviting him to follow. Mesmerized by the softness and sweetness of the laughter that lingered, he trod his path at her voice’s will. But the laughter hid in the graveyard.
The cold gray stillness overwhelmed his burning heart. He dug open each grave only to find voices that recited to him, her story. The stories sang of the past where the girl had once lived as a bright, pure, jovial soul. He was swept into a time-locked land, each grave spoke of the buried memories that she had once lived.
He heard them in silent amazement as they took him to magical lands: one was of the fresh red rosed flowerbed where lingered the sweet scent of the girl who used to play there, the other was of the magical waterfall that healed all pain with its assuring waters, and another was of the mysterious cave laden with sparkling crystals. And, there was one, where the green sweet forest was enraptured in the soft hum of songs and sunshine sneaked in through its dense green covers.
But, the sweet happy memory strands didn’t last long, the darker ones had started to reveal themselves. He now heard the wolf howl in the moonless nights and he heard the cry of the girl who’d once laughed before. Through memory strands of dark, directionless, endless night walks, and severe sobbing of the girl’s heart, he wanted to reach out to her faster, but he wasn’t able to track her down.
After he dug out the last grave, he saw a little fairy with her wings clasped and frozen.
He gently picked her up and by the warmth of his breath, the fairy opened her eyes, and as though being brought back to life, the fairy said frantically, “We have to help her out before its too late” and told him about the girl whose life he’d just seen.
The whole place was built by the magic wand of hopes and dreams, but reality had struck through the girl’s ribs; humiliating her, crushing the magical land she’d imagined and forced her to bury memories of past and lock herself in despair and silence.
The fairy unfolded her little clasped hands, in which lay a sparkling golden key. Its light was same as the distant starlight, he had once seen in the dense dark forest not too long ago. “We need to rescue her”, the fairy spoke to him as she handed him the golden key.
He recalled the night he had landed, of unnerving darkness and stillness. His heart thumped with fear and restlessness when he realized that the girl was caught up in the same.
He and the fairy rushed through the dark dense forests till they reached a tower sunk in thick, blackish-grey clouds. They opened the locked caged tower with the golden key and started climbing the endless stairs. Blackness and misted fog chocked their eyes and throat, the sounds of the howling wolves and endless sobbing was deafening their ears, but they kept walking. In the end, they reached a room that was enveloped in dust and they could hear the rusted ruins creaking.
The fairy flew and kissed the girl whose body lay numb in a corner. The girl’s hand grew warmer, color returned to her face, and she silently gazed at the fairy. The fairy blew magic into her, stringing in the buried memories of the lost magical land she had once created. The girl in dismay told the fairy that it wasn’t possible for the fairy to be real, but the human figure that stood behind the fairy looked at her with humble eyes, telling her it was true, that her land had existed for real, and magic prevailed in the enchanted land she had created. He and the fairy smiled at her reassuringly.
But, for now, they had to escape since the tower was starting to crumble down. There couldn’t be a place for the light and the dark to co-exist, it was either-or.
So they clasped the little fairy in their hands, holding together, and in a blink, they were in the green lustrous forest where the gleaming sun smiled at them. The birds chirped enthusiastically, welcoming her back, and the castle opened its archway to them. The wind blew into her, the air of life, the roses scented the beauty in her and the tree leaves swirled, dancing to her footsteps.
Her magical land was alive again, the fairy circled the two, and silently whispered to the girl that her knight had finally come, to which the girl’s cheeks flushed red and she laughed her tinkling laughter as she looked into his eyes. He looked back at her lovingly and asked her for a dance. In the ballroom, where the sun shone lightly, the girl and the knight danced to the hummed melodies that had lingered in the air all along.
The dancing shadow was embedded in the castle. Only the fairy knew, that the shadow was only one. That, the knight, had existed in the girl, all along. It was only lost and was preparing to build himself, to face her someday.
The fairy’s name was “wisdom”. And the knight’s name was “awareness”.
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