|
A Kiss if Ignorance {{Short Story/Folktale}}
I wrote this for a school project after we had read some African Folktales. It took a few hours to write, so if it's poor grammatically or not really creative, I apologize ; o;
If you had walked along the forest in the early hours of the morning, through the dew kissed leaves the trees lit up like a Christmas tree. If you had looked hard enough, you could see tiny fingers through the translucent green that shone above. These were the fairies; a shy species of creature that over looked a town from the protecting forest, watching over its inhabitants with good will. Each night as the townies would drift steadily to sleep, the fairies would mend the town of the harm caused through out the day, and so in the morning when the dazed people awoke, the town was just as new as the day they built upon the land by the edge of the dazzling forest.
However, not all the fairies were interested were in the well being of the town. There was one fairy in particular, Kress, who envied the way the humans lived and resented them for their ungratefulness towards the fairies giving nature. He would watch them as the children played in the forest and weave thorns among their garments so they would p***k themselves as they danced along the brush, and he would laugh as they scampered out, crying for their mothers as they bled. The other fairies scorned Kress for his evil ways towards the humans they all admired so, but even in the scorn, Kress continued to belittle the humans in such miniscule ways during the sun’s time outside. However, even Kress could not escape his duty as a fairy to repair the town during the moon’s domain.
One day in particular, a new family found their way into the hearts of the townies. The children quickly adapted to the daughter of the family, and brought her into the woods to play. Kress watched from the leaves as the children played, waiting for the opportunity to sew the thorns into their clothing until the young girl pulled out a porcelain from her pocket and presented it to the others. Kress was amazed by the beauty of the doll, believing it to be a captured fairy garbed in the human clothing. “I will rescue the fair maiden tonight at Moon’s reign,” thought Kress, “and I will take her to be my bride.”
Night fell and the fairies tip-toed out to the town to mend the broken windows, clean the dirty streets, and dance along the pillow tops of the sleeping people in the dusty town. Kress the Fairy snuck into the home of the young girl and feasted his eyes on the beautiful doll he believed captive. “Beautiful fairy,” He sang with joy as he pulled it close to his chest and tilted its white face towards the pale moonlight, “I will take you back to my home in the forest and make you my bride!” Kress took the doll’s silence as acceptance, and he hung the doll carefully from his back and carried it home in a euphoric dance of emotions.
Kress the Fairy brought her home to his little hole in a tree deep in the forest. He was careful to keep her hidden. Had the other male fairies seen his bride, Kress was sure they would revolt with envy and take his bride away from him. If the women saw her, they might feel unworthy and grow unhappy with themselves. Kress, in his selfish, greedy way, made sure that the only eyes who grew wide in dazzling awe at her beauty was him, and only him.
Morning came and Kress watched his bride-to-be in a chair he crafted from twigs. She was silent, stiff, and unphased by his advances. He brought her berries from a nearby mulberry bush, and she had hardly touched them. He sang to her wonderful melodies and plucked away at his golden harp, but she did not stir, unmoved by his songs. Lastly, he brought forth the most lavish dresses that his fairy barter could reach, but yet she did not cry.
Kress found himself puzzled and bitter over her ungratefulness. “Beautiful maiden, why do you not speak to your rescuer?” Still, the doll sat in stillness with cherry, painted lips in a shut, fixed position. Kress slammed his hand on the acorn table top. “Answer your savior!” But still, the doll did not answer. “I know,” thought Kress, “Maybe she misses her former captor. I shall bring her things from the human’s home to show her I only meant goodwill in her rescue!”
That night, as the other fairies worked, Kress crept back into the home of the girl. The room had been much dirtier than the day before, as if someone had been searching. It served the girl right, justified Kress, as she held a fairy captive! He searched the room for a gift for the doll until he saw a silver spoon resting on the dresser top, and he snatched it up. “Aha!” He shouted, holding the spoon up to his face, “It is a funny, mystical mirror that makes you look like you are upside down on one side and right side up on the other. When my bride sees this, she will marry me right then and there!” He wrapped the spoon along his back and flew back home.
As morning came, Kress greeted his pale bride with a kiss on her glassy cheek. As always, she sat silently. “You will jump for joy when I show you my gift!” He beamed as he pulled the spoon out from its concealed location. “For you, my darling, I present a mirror to show your own beauty!” Kress exclaimed, kneeling as he held the spoon up to his pale maiden. “Silent wench,” He breathed in fury, “How dare you not accept my gift?” Kress threw the spoon down and stalked out to his watching place among the leaves. “What am I doing wrong? Perhaps it was the wrong gift!” Kress thought to himself, pacing along the branches. “Yes! This must be what I am doing wrong! Tonight, I will get a new gift that will dazzle her!”
Night came once more, and Kress found his way back into the home of the captor. “What can I give to my bride?” A glint caught the eye of the fairy, and he crept over to the cardboard cube and pulled a tissue from it. “My, what an elegant fabric…I will sew it into a gown for my beloved, and then she will love me!” So Kress the Fairy began to gather the fabric and cut it into an elaborate gown for the doll in his knob of the tree.
The next morning, Kress had carefully folded the gown into a leaf from his favorite watching spot and stitched up the ends to form a gift box. He walked to the chair where the beautiful porcelain doll sat, still stubborn and motionless as the nights before. It did not matter, Kress was positive that his gift would blow the still face off his beloved. “Here you are, my darling,” He said softly, kneeling and extending the box out to her, “I have brought you a new present that surely will wipe your sorrow away!” However, the doll remained stiff and blank. “That is alright, my love, I shall unbind the box for you!” Kress tore apart the leaf and held up the carefully crafted gown. The doll’s face remained unchanged. “Ungrateful wench, how could you not cry in delight from the gift I have made for you?” He threw the gown beside the spoon and returned to his favorite watching place. “Surely I am still doing something wrong,” Kress thought to himself, “Maybe it is because I have not properly proposed. Every woman enjoys a ring to show that they are betrothed! Tonight, I shall get my beloved a ring for her finger, and surely she will love me then!”
When night came, as it always did, Kress the Fairy returned to the room with sorrow wrenching at his heart. On the window sill sat an ornate box filled with shimmering jewelry. “Something in here has to be acceptable for my darling,” he thought as he rummaged through the box. In it, he found a fake pearl the size of his hand. “It is perfect!” He exclaimed, sliding the pearl into his purse before heading back to his tree. He sat in his favorite watching spot, fastening the pearl onto some wire. It was the perfect ring, and surely the other fairy women would be jealous of its beauty. “When my love sees this, she will marry me right then and there!”
The next morning, Kress met the still bride at her chair. “My beloved,” He started, kneeling, “I know what I have done to displease you. I have not properly proposed! I wish for you to accept this ring as a token of my affection and marry me in two dawns time.” Kress pulled the ring from behind his back. Glassy blue eyes stared back at him. “What is this?!” Kress cried, enraged by the silence of the doll, “You ungrateful wench! I bring you a beautiful mirror, and you respond with unbroken silence! I bring you a gown made of fine human material, and you respond with nothing more than an untarnished stare! Now, I bring you a fine ring that other women would swoon and beg for, and yet you respond with an unprecedented lack of emotion? You have enraged me for the last time!”
Kress picked up the doll and carried her out to the entrance into his hobble. “I dare say you would not even move to save your own life!” He shouted, throwing the doll onto the ground. It shattered into pieces in the soft, grass of the morning with a loud clash! Fairies peered out of their homes and looked at the disaster below. Many rushed to the side of the doll. “Kress,” They asked, “Did you do this to a human belonging?”
“Belonging?” Kress inquired, kneeling beside the doll. He picked up a pale piece of porcelain in his palms.
“This was a human toy, and you have broken it!” The others were angered by this act. They could deal with his tricks and thorns, but this was unheard of in their community.
Giggling broke out among the fairies. “Kress,” They asked, gathering around the puzzled trick fairy, “Why do you have a human’s doll?”
“It was not a doll,” denied Kress, “It was a beautiful fairy.” This statement caused the others to laugh mockingly. “You cannot believe this is a fairy! It is broken,” They reasoned, holding up broken pieces of the doll. “It was not a doll,” Kress repeated, but slowly, it began to sink in. It explained the dolls unmoving nature, and in still beauty, she never felt warm to his touch as a real creature had.
Kress broke into tears, apologizing for his mistake and careless behavior with a human possession. His heart was broken. The woman, the doll, he had fondly cared for was not real at all. Kress the Fairy leaned forward and kissed the shattered face of the doll, meeting his lips to the glossy cherry paint that was her lips. Ashamed, he rose above the mocking shouts of the fairies and above the treetops, fleeing from ignorance and the wild taunts from the fairies below. Now, he wanders the earth, mourning the loss of his love and his foolishness. As we walk along the streets in the early hours of the day, you can see the drops left behind by the miserable fairy’s tears. We walk blissfully unaware of its meaning, calling it the morning dew, but in reality, it is a reminder of the heartache and sorrow felt by Kress the Fairy, who loved something so unmoving.
|
