A Fairy’s Tale
Between the realms of the real world and the imagined, there lies a mystical place where energies and spirits and creatures of all types exist. There is no name for this place, for humans cannot tread there. It simply is and feeble minded humans are none the wiser, going about their days never knowing the magic that surrounds them like so much stardust in the universe.
Our story happens in that very place, a true battle between pure innocence and untethered greed. Fairy versus Witch. Not just any witch, but the greediest of all witches, the dark witch. And, not just any fairy, but the most pure and innocent of all fairies, the tooth fairy.
I’m sure you’ve heard of a tooth fairy from your parents or other good natured adults, playing a fun little game with their young. That is not at all the fairy I’m referring to. Although a true tooth fairy does take children’s teeth after they’ve fallen out, the fairy does not do this simply to collect teeth. She does this to maintain her magical qualities, her innocence, and her life. There is no greater source of pure innocence in all the cosmos, human or mystical, than a human baby tooth. It contains all that is sweet and joyful in the universe. Fairies collect the teeth, leaving behind a bit of gold or silver in its place, in order to grind the little teeth into an exceptionally fine powder that they dust themselves with every day. This helps them maintain their magical fairy wings and telekinesis along with their incorruptible goodness.
I’m equally sure you’ve heard of a witch, both good and bad, but we are not talking about the evil witch from classic human stories. A dark witch is the most corrupted, vile, depraved creature in all existence. She will stop at nothing to get what she wants, which is usually power.
Her greed and selfishness knows no bounds. There isn’t anything she won’t do to gain power over every other creature around her, including other witches. Dark witches are known as such because of the darkness of their hearts, which beat only for themselves. The magic they wield is not their own, but stolen from other creatures unlucky enough to cross them. A dark witch’s favorite target is a tooth fairy, for the purity of their magic. Only a tooth fairy is able to turn human baby teeth into the magical dust they cover themselves with. Therefore, the dark witch must steal a tooth fairy and shake all the dust from her, thus killing her. Tooth fairies cannot exist without their fairy dust but that never stops a dark witch, not even for a moment.
And now it’s time to speak of Brook, so named for the babbling brook in the place where she flickered into existence. Fairies are not born to other fairies. Fairies are a collection of positive energies that happen to collide in just the right amount and at just the right momentum. A truly marvelous event, indeed! If all the stars are aligned, another fairy will be nearby to sprinkle a bit of fairy dust on her so she survives to be taught to find the baby teeth she needs to create her own dust. In our dear Brook’s case, the stream she spawned by was frequented by fellow tooth fairies. And so began Brook’s journey in this world!
Brook’s days were spent gathering gold and silver trinkets the humans dropped, mostly coins, and then using those to buy the baby teeth she needed to survive. A fairy is pure of heart and would never steal anything from anyone, hence leaving the trinket behind. Luckily, humans caught onto this and began leaving their little teeth out for the tooth fairies to take, excited to see what shiny thing they might leave in its place.
All was well until one fateful night when Brook entered a small cottage located deep in the woods. It seemed an odd place to find a child but she felt the undeniable pull of the tooth’s energy so she explored it, none the less. As she entered the sparsely lit room through a window left ajar, her dust covered body illuminated the room as if the moon had risen unexpectedly, from low in the sky to high above for all to see. The low and steady hum of her fluttering wings broke the silence in the most beautiful of ways. Brook’s long, strawberry blonde hair flowed gracefully as she swept through the air, keeping to the perimeter until she could get her bearings in the darkened room.
Seeing a bed in the corner, Brook cautiously approached while looking for a tooth on the furniture around this sleeping human. She spotted her prize on the desk beside the bed and went to it, drawn in by the childlike laughter she could still hear echoing from deep within the tooth. She manifested the silver fragment she’d stored away. Just as she reached out to trade the silver for the tooth, Brook heard a loud clank and found herself trapped in a cage as crystal clear as the water she was named for. She tried to fly away but there wasn’t even enough space to spread her iridescent wings and flee.
A blackened figure arose from between the table and the bed, slowly and menacingly. Brook knew exactly what the figure was when she saw the dark mass in the center of its chest and the hateful look in its eyes. A dark witch. You might imagine that her first thought was for her own survival but you would be wrong. Brook’s first thought was wondering if there really was a child under the covers. She hoped there wasn’t but urgently began thinking of ways that she might lure this dark creature away, if there was in fact a child present. She was relieved when the dark witch raised a hand and all the candles in the room lit up, revealing a blanket stuffed with pillows.
“So easily tricked.” The dark witch cackled as she spoke. “I have a special job for you, my sweet little fairy. You’ll create dust for me until your tiny little hands break!”
With that, the dark witch scooped up the glass jar Brook was trapped in and rushed her to the other side of the room. There was a terrible darkness there, almost like a void, that she dumped the precious fairy into. This was an especially wicked spell cast on the space to keep the fairy from escaping. Now that the dark witch had Brook properly trapped, she poured from her twisted hand a little pile of baby teeth. Brook instantly sobbed at the thought of how the dark witch came upon so many baby teeth.
“Stop your blubbering and get busy! Those teeth aren’t going to turn themselves into fairy dust. That’s what you’re here for.” The dark witch plopped herself into a nearby chair and stared at the little tooth fairy, impatiently waiting for Brook to begin her work.
“If you don’t do as I ask, I’ll assume those teeth aren’t fresh enough and gather some with blood still dripping from their roots.” The dark witch snickered and waited for Brook’s reaction, knowing Brook would, without hesitation, give her own life to save that of a child.
Brook examined the teeth, one by one. After choosing the tooth that pulled her to it the most, she held it in her itsy little fairy hands. Brook closed her eyes and gently rubbed the tooth, turning it over and over in both hands. As she did so, her body and the tooth glowed a breathtakingly pearlescent blueish-purple color, like the inside of an abalone shell freshly plucked from the ocean. The rubbing caused the tooth to slowly turn to powder and float onto the little fairy, sticking to her skin.
The dark witch’s grin grew even bigger when the tooth fairy finished with that tooth and immediately picked up another and repeated the process.
“That’s it, my little workhorse! Make so much fairy dust for me that no other can ever challenge my greatness! Those other witches will bow before me!” the dark witch bellowed.
Brook finished with the second tooth and picked up still another. She was feeling heavy with dust and knew it was too much for her but she had a plan. Once she finished with the third tooth, the dark witch could wait no longer and snatched the little fairy up out of the dark void she’d been trapped in. As the dark witch held the sweet little tooth fairy above her head, preparing the shake the dust from her onto the witch, a strange thing happened.
Having been taken out of the black void, Brook had the ability to use her magic to its fullest again. She used every bit of the magical dust now covering her to burst the most brilliant, pure white light from her tiny fairy body. The magical light was so bright that it shown straight through the evil, dark witch and pierced her black heart. The dark witch let out a shriek so loud and so long that every bird within a five mile radius startled and took flight all at once! Having burst her heart, the dark witch dissipated as if she were never there at all. Her wicked spells were also all undone and anyone she’d ever cursed was free once more.
As she disappeared, the dark witch dropped the now exhausted little tooth fairy to the floor. Although she knew she had no strength to save herself, Brook settled onto the wooden floor and smiled knowing that children were once again safe from the terrible dark witch.
That should’ve been the end of Brook, our tiny tooth fairy, but something amazing happened! As fate would have it, there was another tooth fairy within those five miles that also heard the dark witch meet her end. This tooth fairy knew it takes a brilliant mystical light to end a dark witch and the only creature able to do that was a tooth fairy. As the other fairy rushed to Brook’s aid, she wondered how Brook was able to summon enough magic to create the light needed.
The other little fairy grabbed a baby tooth from the spot Brook had been trapped and began creating the dust needed to save Brook’s life. As the dust encompassed her, Brook looked up and smiled at her fairy sister, looking forward to explaining how they could defeat other dark witches and keep their precious human children safe.