The Fairies or the Faylena (a Short Holiday Story)

Happy Holidays everyone! Since there are so many holidays celebrated during winter, and I didn't want to make someone feel left out by mentioning only three or four, I decided that I should write a story that captures something that all those holidays have in common...which is love. I also decided to set it in the world of my novel, The Silver Key. By doing this, I will show how people (humans and shapeshifters) who would usually be enemies, can be friends around this time of year...at least for the time being. "The Fairies or the Faylena" is talking about winter holidays celebrated in my Fantasy world. I haven't figured out the exact dates since they don't fall at the same time as our world's holidays. But one thing I do know is that these holidays are celebrated during winter. My inspiration for the story was this song:                         

                         The Fairies they Draw Near

You can also listen to it here

I imagine songs like this played (by local musicians) during the holidays in the world of The Silver Key. Though these two holidays take place in winter in two religions that celebrate fairies or faylena, I believe there are other religions in the world that celebrate the fairies or faylena (just not at the same time of the year.)

So, let's begin the story.:

The Fairies or the Faylena 

This is the night, where many sit by candlelight 

Hoping to get a sight of a fairy in the pale moonlight 

Every child will tiptoe over to the window, hoping to see a 

fay down below. 

Far above the trees the fairies fly, into the night sky

All their voices are heard, and many rejoice at hearing a fairy’s voice. 

Round the bend they fly, and some hope to apprehend, 

In the starry sky they float, and many writers wrote about the fairies and how they were beautiful beyond compare with wild wispy hair, 

Even the bards let out a tune, about the fairies seen above the moon, 

Soon the winter’s frost is gone, and the fairies leave at dawn, to promise to return when the frost returns and laces the winter ferns. 

—Phoenix 

She sat outside on the steps of her apartment and looked down at the streets. Some houses had candles on the windowsill at this time; on others there were none, or the candles were snuffed out. Out the window of some of the houses, flowers were hanging: they were blue, silver, and sometimes even pink and yellow. While other windows had paper stars and even rainbow fabric flying out of them. 

She wasn’t sure when the fay would come, but she was excited about it anyway. Few have been said to see the fay during this time of the year. Some waited out all the night until sixteen o’clock and never caught glimpse of them. But, she had a hope they would show, surely fay would take an interest in humans, wouldn’t they? For they were said to come every year, she reminded herself, and she had heard that some passers by had seen them, once.  

She picked up her match box, and walked down the road singing tunes to herself, looking around, and lighting the matches as she went. Her daily wages she had earned had paid for them. She lit another match as soon as the second had gone out, as she ventured into the dimly lit street. Several carriages passed by her: some of the passengers looked out the window, but only for a moment, until they looked back at the driver and told them to keep going. 

She passed store windows. Some stores still looked open, while others looked closed and locked for the holidays. She stood to the side of one of them that appeared to be open, and she opened its green door, closing it once she got inside. She exhaled, glad that she could get some warmth that wasn’t being generated from her match. She walked around the store—elaborate dresses were hung there. Some had feathers sticking out of them, which had an unusual feeling to them, as if they weren’t even normal bird feathers. She eyed it for a moment, and then walked over to an another one, it was long and blue and a lot less elaborate than what the one from the feathers had, but yet intricate patterns were woven into it. 

“Do you like it?” came a voice, she turned around, she nodded her head in the spur of the moment. “Well, the reason you might, it was because it was modeled off the dress Ashalena wears.” He nodded his head, he then pointed her in the direction of the feathered dress, “and those feathers? You may be wondering where we got them, well you see, someone gave them to me, and told me that they once were owned by a shapeshifter.” She nodded and looked down at her hands, she hadn’t exactly wanted to go in and look as if she wanted to buy any of the clothes, in truth she didn’t.  

“And this.” he said pointing to a pink dress, “was previously owned by a rich noblewoman—“ 

“I’m sure that’s wonderful!” she stuttered, stepping off to the side. 

“Oh, well, do you think you would like to have a dress made to look like any of these? I’m not sure if we could get shapeshifter feathers, but we could try—“ 

“Thank you, but I am in a rush to go somewhere!” she said, feeling as if she had walked into the wrong shop. She did not have nearly enough money to buy any of these dresses, no matter how beautiful they looked. She smiled, rather falsely “I just came in…to, get out of the cold.” She put her hand on the doorknob and slowly turned it, and walked out into the cold once more. She wrapped her shawl more tightly around herself, she wasn’t sure if that would help in the slightest. She decided that she would walk to the woods in hopes of seeing a fay, even if the forest were swarmed with shapeshifters. She didn’t care as long as she had a chance to see the fay. She walked even more until she had left the city and reached the dark forest, her feet were sore, but she saw that the trees around the forest were tightly growing together and moss was around their roots.

She continued to walk. Even though she had been told many times that fairies were more likely to be seen where humans thrived, she had a sense that they would be in the forest tonight, as she had also been told they had a connection with nature. And it didn’t make sense to her for them to be in the city, even though some had seen them there. Besides not everyone in the city had seen fairies, some had said they caught glimpses of them, and she wasn’t sure if she fully believed all of them. There came a sound of something walking near her, she heard the sound of branches cracking underneath their feet, her first thought was that it couldn’t be a fairy, what she had heard of fairies was that they walked on the air and not the ground. But whatever it was she assumed it was a shapeshifter, shapeshifters were known to roam the woods and were very hostile, very, very hostile she had heard. She looked around, no thought to pray to the god of protection and safety came to mind (though that probably would have been of use). Her only thought was of the dress she had been shown and the feathers. The sparkling feathers that had been sewn into it came to mind, it wasn’t a ridiculous thought though, she knew whoever had got the feathers surely had come across a shifter and survived. Though she wondered how exactly they did that…. She didn’t wonder for much longer, for a figure appeared. They were wearing leaves, and there were a few of them in their short, black hair. But something was different about this figure beyond wearing leaves. Which was highly unusual for her to see, since she lived in the city and no one she knew of walked around wearing them or remarked on leaf-made clothes as “high and wonderful fashion." But the fact that they were not carrying a weapon of any sort brought a small burst of comfort. Even though she looked around for any sign of hostility, there was none. 

“…you’re…you’re…not armed!” she muttered out loud expecting the shifter to not understand. The shifter stared at her for a moment and then looked down at their arms and gave a quizzical look, “oh.” she muttered, “you understood…sort of.” The shifter walked over to her, or rather scampered across the ground and stood close to her, surveying her every move and staring at her with their dark green eyes. 

“What I meant, is that you aren’t carrying a weapon. You do, however, have arms.” The shifter looked at her, and let out a few sounds she didn’t completely understand. But they reminded her of the sounds wild animals made, and strongly reminded her of the chirping of birds. Then they turned and looked up at the sky as if waiting for something, something to come. 

“…I wonder if the fairies will come this way.” she thought to herself, perhaps a little too loudly, the shifter looked over at her, a look came across their face one that seemed to understand the word, but not quite agreeing with it, but now the look was far from quizzical. 

“You mean the faylena—“ they said, in a voice that still had a remnant of the bird sounds it had made before. 

“You can talk!” she nearly shrieked, she had half expected the shapeshifter to remain talking in an incomprehensible language, and she found herself to be a bit surprised that they could even speak her tongue. It was a guilty feeling surprise like she had lacked the knowledge or thoughtfulness to even believe the creature had intelligence beyond the ones of an animal“in my tongue—“ 

The shifter sighed, “yes I am able.” they replied, their voice still following the pattern of a bird’s song. “Anyway, you mean the faylena.” 

“What is the faylena?” she asked, feeling a little upset that she had been corrected on what they were called, of course they were the fairies, what else would they be? 

“They come every year from their land, where nature is ever in bloom, where nothing disturbs the peace.” they replied, the shifter looks up again, “the feylena are kind and just, and know no evil—“ 

“you mean the fairies.” she replied, feeling like she could end up teaching the shapeshifter what it really was, “they come from a land far away, where no human or shifter can go, but they return at this time of the year to bring peace and joy—“ 

“…Aren’t we talking about the same people?” asked the shifter, she bit her lip, 

“no, we aren’t.” she replied in the single moment. “Yours are obviously some shapeshifter deities that…that,  are well…related to nature.” 

“What?” 

“Yours are shifters of sorts.” 

“No, they aren’t. I mean they can be seen in different ways by different onlookers…but they aren’t shapeshifters, or gods, for that matter. They are something in between…they are the Feylena, or the fairies depending upon what you desire to call them.”

The shifter looked over at her,  looking down at the ground and then back at her, “and, besides you just said yours are from a land, faraway…“ 

“it’s probably a different land.” she muttered. “A very human-like creature land.” 

“…alright, then.” muttered the shifter, looking up at the sky once more, “they are said to arrive around this time.” 

First there was nothing the sky remained the way it was with little hints of light in the sky here and there, but a light a light like no other came across it. The light shone for a few minutes in the sky and then separated into several.  They seemed to be darting around, but not for no reason, they seemed to have a cause to fulfill. A goal as they darted around the sky. 

“By the gods!” she sighed, looking over at the shifter, who smiled back at her, “it’s really them.” 

“Indeed it is.” replied the shifter. 

“But…wouldn’t a shifters’ Feylena be different than our fairies?” she asked, “with wings and talons and—“ 

“Oh stop.” replied the shifter, staring up again at the sky, 

waiting to see what one of bright lights did. It stood there for a moment, and then slowly went down to the trees. And then something changed about it, as it went down, and emerged but in a different less loose form… 

“oh, it’s a fairy, it’s a real-life fairy!” she squealed, the shapeshifter merely smiled, “the faylena.” they both looked at each other for a moment, a small laugh escaped each others lips, any anger or disagreement that had gone on between them had slowly, ever so slowly faded away. And they both looked over. What the shapeshifter saw was a beautiful creature with wings made out leaves, and flowers blooming in her hair. What the human girl saw was a woman wearing a flowing green dress, but the hair of the fairy or faylena was of a rainbow hue. It hung about her shoulders and her wings were of bright light. She didn’t just stand there in the radiating light which shown from her body, she walked over to them, or rather floated over them and greeted them with a smile. And placed her hand, her warm hand which seemed to have an unearthly feeling to it in their hands, she looked over at the girl and the shifter surveying them both, “I suppose you are the two I was told to meet—“ she said, her voice had a soft feeling to it, but yet felt like nothing from that world, “the human and the shifter who waited to see us, in this beautiful night.” 

“…you knew about us?” asked the girl, “did the gods tell you?” The faylena or fairy looked over at her, 

“if they did, I am not allowed to exactly tell.” she smiled, 

“But I was told to present these to a shifter and a human who met tonight, despite their underlying differences…” She brought out two golden chains. They both had lockets attached to them which had something inside of them, radiating light like the one they had seen before with the fairies or faylena, “..and met to this very night in hopes to meet us.” She floated over to the shifter and placed the golden chain around their neck, and floated over to the girl and hung it around hers as well. The shifter despite the amazement of the experience, felt they had a need to ask what exactly these beautiful fairy-made or faylena made necklaces did. For they knew that whenever a fairy or faylena was to present a gift to a mortal, be they shifter or human or the gods know what, there was usually an underlying meaning to it. And it wasn’t just there for the beauty of it. 

“What exactly do they do?” asked the shifter, the fairy or faylena looked over at them. “They have two uses, one to call us for help when you are in need of it, and two, to sustain and help this friendship which you two have formed…or at least are beginning to form. How exactly it does this, this is up for you to find out, in time you will know. But you must know that this friendship must not end this night, like so many friendships between humans and shifters do, but that it must continue…” The faylena or fairy looked down at the ground as if trying to figure out how to form what to say next. “Even if others want to pull you away from it, don’t let them!” The girl nodded, so did the shifter though the entire meaning to them, wasn’t exactly clear, they knew they had to remain friends though, but they had only gotten a little bit of what was to come, at the moment they felt the current love which surrounded them that night, the night that they met the fairies and the faylena at the same time. 

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What winter holidays exist in your Fantasy world(s)? Do they have any religious reasons for happening? (Like did a god or goddess, or prophet (or another supernatural being) cause it?)

Happy holidays to everyone!
-Quinley

P.S. An upcoming post (that will probably be posted after the New Year) is one about my progress on my animation project, Pandora's Box. So be sure to keep your eyes open for that.