The little fairy, engl.

 

The little fairy

by Joana Angelides

 

 

Deep in the great fairy-tale forest, right where the lake lies between the trees, the little assistant fairy Silja was sitting on a stone with her head resting in her hands and sighing deeply.

 

Her face was reflected in the water and she thought that she was not pretty at all. There was also no one who would have ever said it to her.

This was mainly because she had not yet been accepted into the circle of forest fairies. She did not yet get a white veil robe and small golden wings therefore she could not fly.

All this had to be acquired first.

 

 However, as long as she had not proven herself, there was no thought of it at all. She had to perform small services for the forest fairies, had to wash and iron their veil dresses and clean their wings, comb their hair and always be there for them.

Today little Silja was already quite tired. She laid her head on her arm and almost fell asleep when the voice of the forest fairy Fari startled her.

 

"Silja where have my golden shoes gone, I can't find them anywhere." The forest fairy Fari hovered over the lake and looked quite frightened.

Silja jumped up all startled.

"I put them down, right next to the dress!"

"But they're not there," Fari cried bitterly. If she lost the shoes, then she was punished and had to give up her wings and the veil dress and had to start all over again and another fairy moved up to take her place.

"Maybe someone has made a joke," said the little fairy Silja and got very big round eyes

"Not a good joke, please help me find her!" Fari said imploringly to Silja.

 

Silja closed her eyes and began to think.

 

Once there was the sly fox, always nimble. No, it wasn't him. What should he do with shoes!

The little bunny family was too busy watching over the little bunnies so that they wouldn't fall in somewhere.

The big brown bear had been lying in his cave for days, reading an interesting book about winter supplies, it wasn't him either.

The squirrels had a visitor from the other fairytale forest today and had been collecting nuts all day. They had no place at all in their cave for shoes.

The owl was a big lady, she was the principal of the fairytale forest, always friendly and helpful. She already sat all day at the big tree and knitted, it was certainly not her. She also loved her slippers, and the fairy's shoes were much too small for her.

The frog was lying in the water on a leaf of the water lily, waiting for flies. That's where the shoes would be seen.

Birr the snake lay lazily on a branch and had only one eye open, so that she would not miss anything.

 

"Hello Birr," little Silja called up to the branch, "did you see who took Fari's shoes?"

 

Birr now opened the second eye and swayed back and forth on the branch. She almost fell down.

"Such small delicate shoes, golden and very shiny?"

"Yes yes," Silja and Fari exclaimed almost simultaneously.

"No," she said, closing one eye again.

"Please, you must have seen something," Silja pleaded, "how do you know they are golden and shiny?"

"The magpie was there earlier and collected everything shiny, so she probably took the shoes too. She must have hidden them at the top of the big tree, where she hides everything shiny. You'll only get them back if you bring her something else shiny, but it has to be nicer than the shoes!"

"Oh dear, where are we going to get something like that?" Sighed the little help fairy Silja.

At that moment the wood elf Mo floated past and landed very gently on the ground.

"Open your hair, Silja, and lie down on the meadow, your hair is so beautiful and shines golden in the sun like I've never seen it before! The magpie will come and try to take it away from you and meanwhile I'll get the shoes out of the nest!"

"You think my hair is beautiful?" Silja blushed and didn't know which way to look.

"You are the most beautiful fairy in the whole forest!" said Mo.

"Go on," Fari nudged her impatiently.

So Silja, the little fairy helper, lay down on the forest floor and spread out her hair. The other two hid behind the bushes.

It didn't take two minutes before the thieving magpie flew down from one of the tall trees with an astonished caw and landed next to the little help fairy's golden hair and immediately tried to take some of the hair away.

At that moment the wood elf Mo rose and swung himself up to the tall tree.

"I've got her, I've got her," he shouted at the top of his lungs.

The magpie was so startled that she let go of her hair and jumped up in irritation.

When it realised that it had only been fooled, it flew away scolding and hid in the hollow tree.

 

Overjoyed, the forest fairy Fari picked up the shoes and kissed the forest elf Mo and also the little assistant fairy Silja.

"I will never forget this," Fari promised and flew up to the fairy castle.

 

The little assistant fairy and the wood elf Mo sat down on the stone at the edge of the lake and looked together into the water where they were reflected.

"Oh," said the wood elf Mo," look how beautiful you are, how the gold dust swirls around you and you suddenly have wings too, just like me!"

He jumped up and looked at her all admiringly.

 

Little Silja stood there, a white veil dress flattering her, her hair shining even more golden because of the gold dust on it and her little wings were transparent and golden like dragonfly wings.

 

She bent down to the water again and looked in.

 

"I am a forest fairy, thank you Fari!" she exclaimed with joy.

 

 There are numerous short stories, several novels and poems by Joana Angelides! Almost everything summarized in e-books! Delight to read for little money!  Download from amazon, Thalia, Kobo etc.

https://www.bookrix.de/-joanavienna/