{"id":566,"date":"2022-09-01T07:00:55","date_gmt":"2022-09-01T06:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anerwelten.lu\/wordpress\/?p=566"},"modified":"2023-07-16T19:04:16","modified_gmt":"2023-07-16T18:04:16","slug":"a-fairys-morning-routine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anerwelten.lu\/wordpress\/a-fairys-morning-routine\/","title":{"rendered":"A Fairy\u2019s Morning Routine"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Text by Giulia Barbarossa)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once it was barely dayspring, warm orange and pink sunrays wakened the little fairy from her\u00a0 slumber. She unwrapped herself from the pear leaf blanket and got out of her acorn cap bed,\u00a0 tiptoeing over to her washbasin. After successfully scrubbing out the sleepy-seeds from her\u00a0 eyes, the little fairy preened her moss-green cicada wings. One cannot go in front of the door\u00a0 with wings unpreened of course, now can one. She yelped out a pillow yawn before leaving\u00a0 her titchy cottage and made way to the brook.<\/p>\n

Our little fairy had quite the number of tasks on her hands this morning. First, she visited the\u00a0 honeybees to source some of their wax for candle-making. Because they were such dear\u00a0 friends to the fairy, the bees also provided her with a dollop of fresh honey. For such gift\u00a0 occasions, she carried around multiple glass containers of all shapes and sizes in her leaf\u00a0 pouch. Her second stop was the wild wheat that grew in a particularly sunny spot in the forest.\u00a0 She plucked a straw as she flew by and tucked it into her tree-bark waistbelt. While flying\u00a0 away to her next stop, she gave a wave to the ladybugs and beetles that were tucked beneath\u00a0 the tufts of wild grass, and they buzzed in greeting.<\/p>\n

When the little fairy arrived at the stream, she sat down on a lily pad for a little break and\u00a0 began chatting with the river-maidens that were bathing and playing nearby. They bubbled\u00a0 and giggled together, and the little fairy especially ringed with laughter when the river maidens told stories about all the odd sorts of fishes that had flirted with them over the past\u00a0 days. While she was at the stream, she gathered some of the river algae that would make a\u00a0 nice lunch salad. Before leaving to her next location, one of the river-maidens offered the\u00a0 little fairy a parting gift in form of an iridescent indigo scale that had fallen of her tail while\u00a0 grooming, which the fairy accepted in delirium and gently placed in her little pouch. \u201cThis\u00a0 will look great next to my tub!\u201d she exclaimed aloud, unaware of it in her exhilaration.<\/p>\n

Buzzing through the warm air on her way to the next location, the fairy came to a clearing that\u00a0 was carpeted in orange and green leafy piles. It was a small glade encircled by lofty wild\u00a0 plum trees, and the little fairy saw a snack opportunity. While she did not possess the strength\u00a0 to carry one of the fallen plums home, a few little bites could not hurt and would surely\u00a0 revitalize her for her further errands. Slovenly, she dove headlong into the first bundle of\u00a0 leaves and crashed into the wet brown nose of a forest marten. The fairy cried out a sudden\u00a0 \u201cOw!\u201d as she ricocheted and caught herself mid-air, and her cicada wings stiffened up when\u00a0 she met the hungry eyes of the feral marten now in front of her, hiding in the warm leafy pile\u00a0 expecting unsuspecting insects to crawl into its claws. And to this marten, the little fairy\u00a0looked just like such an unsuspecting insect, green wings and all. The marten outstretched its\u00a0 paw in a savage swoop, upsetting the structure of the leafpile it was hiding in, the cosy\u00a0 blanket of heated leaves dispersing on the wet, muddy earth. The fairy had only seconds to\u00a0 unstiffen her wings to fly off and avoid the ferocious pounce, and with a heavy heart had to\u00a0 relinquish a bite of the juicy wild plum. Quite shaken up, the fairy pressed on in fear that her\u00a0 opponent would retaliate, and she clutched her bag close to her chest as if it were a lifebelt.<\/p>\n

Her next task led her to the towering fir trees, climbing up the woody mushrooms that circled\u00a0 around the many tree trunks. Patches of fresh moss had been growing here, which was our\u00a0 little fairy\u2019s most beloved seasoning; not even the many-legged and long-winged bugs that\u00a0 crawled around it could scare the fairy away. The thought of sprinkling it on her lunch salad\u00a0 later or spreading it on her dinner toast made her mouth water, and the shock experienced from her recent incident with the forest marten already faded from her conscience. The little\u00a0 fairy grabbed two sizable bunches of the dewy moss and gingerly stuffed it into her pouch\u00a0 before hopping down the mushroom stairway. Back on the soft muddy earth, she whirled\u00a0 around the base of the ginormous tree she had just descended from, searching for some fir\u00a0 needles. The ones she had strung up in her home to perfume the air had lost their fragrance,\u00a0 and so she was in need of fresh needles. Unwary of the danger that lurked just below her feet,\u00a0 the fairy collected her bounty. Just as she stored it away in her pouch, a great centipede\u00a0 burrowed out of the wet dirt and leapt over the little fairy\u2019s head. Once again, she had been\u00a0 careless in her endeavours, a foe standing in her way once more. Unfortunately, this time she\u00a0 was not quick enough to fly off and evade the beast last minute, and found herself trapped\u00a0 under the many legs of the centipede. No amount of resistance would encourage the beast to\u00a0 relent its attack, and a sea of shadow cloaked soon cloaked her vision before she closed her\u00a0 eyes.<\/p>\n

When our little fairy opened her eyes again, all she could identify was a blurry mess of fur\u00a0 and leg. Once her vision resharpened however, all she could do was gawk at the spectacle\u00a0 unfurling in front of her eyes. The forest marten restrained the centipede in its sharp claws,\u00a0 and was crunching through its black armour, swallowing some of the soft bits underneath.<\/p>\n

The fairy stood frozen, in awe and in fear, until the marten finished its meal. The marten\u00a0 stared back at her with its dark eyes, and the fairy began hearing her heartbeat bouncing\u00a0 around in her ears. The beast soon grew tired of this staring contest, and sat down to begin\u00a0 meticulously cleaning its claws. Feeling the immediate threat of danger slowly fleeting, the\u00a0 little fairy also managed to calm down and fully regain her senses. She carefully approached\u00a0 the marten, stopping right in front of its wet nose before rummaging around in her pouch. The\u00a0fairy fished out a fistful of the fresh moss she had just collected, and prudently outstretched\u00a0 her arm to offer some to her saviour. The saviour in question did not seem to interested in this\u00a0 proposition, and gave her one last puzzling look before licking its nose and trotting off.<\/p>\n

Back in her cottage, the fairy slumped into her acorn bed to rest of many a shock she\u00a0 experienced today before preparing her beloved, mouth-watering salad. Preparing her meal\u00a0 managed to calm her down quite a bit, and it allowed her to assess her adventure in the back\u00a0 of her head while plating up the many appetizing ingredients. With a full belly, she restocked\u00a0 her wax supply for tomorrow\u2019s candle making, and strung up her new perfumed needles. As\u00a0 she hung up the iridescent nymph scale next to her mussel-shell bathtub, she thoroughly\u00a0 looked at her own reflection in it. She had a few scrapes on her nose and ears, but nothing one\u00a0 could call battle scars. Nonetheless, she would.<\/p>\n

And the marten she would henceforth call an unlikely ally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Text by Giulia Barbarossa) Once it was barely dayspring, warm orange and pink sunrays wakened the little fairy from her\u00a0 slumber. She unwrapped herself from the pear leaf blanket and got out of her acorn cap bed,\u00a0 tiptoeing over to her washbasin. After successfully scrubbing out the sleepy-seeds from her\u00a0 eyes, the little fairy preened […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[34,30,13],"ppma_author":[25],"class_list":["post-566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","tag-fairy","tag-fairy-tale","tag-fantasy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/anerwelten.lu\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Giulia_1.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":25,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"giulia-barbarossa","display_name":"Giulia Barbarossa","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url2x":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g2x"},"author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":"Giulia, born in Luxembourg, is a soon-to-be creative writing student that specializes in speculative fiction and writes the occasional poem. With an interest in storytelling from a young age on, it was during her bachelor\u2019s in English Studies that she really pursued writing more consistently. When she is not writing, she is most likely illustrating, playing videogames or tabletop-roleplaying games, or crocheting yet another pot-holder."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anerwelten.lu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anerwelten.lu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anerwelten.lu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anerwelten.lu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anerwelten.lu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/anerwelten.lu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1071,"href":"https:\/\/anerwelten.lu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions\/1071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anerwelten.lu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anerwelten.lu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anerwelten.lu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anerwelten.lu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anerwelten.lu\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}