fairylight
Legacy Name: fairylight

The sun had set only recently, and the sky was beginning to darken, but this was the best time, Faye had found, to find the evening fairies. Although Faye loved the daytime fairies too, she had spent her morning chasing them. Day fairies had such beautiful colors to their wings, and Faye found that not only were they most active during the day, they were more enjoyable too. At night, however, the evening fairies came alive.

She had seen them during the day too, when she slipped one inside in her fairy jar to talk to through the evening. In the morning, it was no longer flashing it’s beautiful fairy light, and it didn’t have the intricate wings that the daytime fairies had. That was before she was a big girl and knew that it was kinder to let the fairies go back to their families and jobs before coming inside for the night.

Now, she ran through the yard, briefly each minute or so, to reassess where the most likely place for the fairies to show up would be. As the sky grew darker and the crickets and cicadas began to sing, she spotted the first light floating through the air. She gave chase, swinging the net wildly toward the light in hopes of catching a new friend.

The more she ran, the more exasperated she got with her shoes, and ran up toward the house to kick them back off. Running in the field was always better when the soft grass could tickle her feet. Mum hated it when she came back with muddy feet but Faye didn’t care.

Once she had caught a few of the fairies and carefully moved them into the jar, Faye flopped down, belly laying in the grass and collecting more green stains on her shirt that would probably never fully come out, and started to talk to the fairies. They never really spoke back, not in the human way, but Faye understood them anyway. Mum and Dad said it was her imagination, but they didn’t speak fairy.

“Faye, I told you not too late. It’s time to come in and wash-up for bed,” a voice called from the door before noticing the discarded shoes.

With a groan, Faye said her goodbyes and opened the lid of the jar so the fairies could go get ready for their own bedtimes too. She then rose and skipped to her mother with a bright grin on her face.

“What did the fireflies have to tell you tonight?” her mother asked with a smile and a pat on the head.

Faye didn’t correct her mum, they were fairies not fireflies, before conveying all the adventures that the evening fairies had been up to during the day when they were hidden from the humans.

Faye’s mum simply smiled and listened to her daughter tell the stories through her bathtime and putting on pyjamas, and sliding into bed. Faye gave a yawn as the story started to end, and closed her eyes as her mum flicked off the lights.