A Different Kind of Fairy

   "Oooh, I love her colors!"

   "Look at those wings, so delicate!"

   "She's probably from a royalties' laugh," Frieda muttered. Frieda's very jealous of everything. But we love her all the same.

   Everyone was in the courtyard of the big tree watching the new fairy fly in. Whenever a baby laughs, a new fairy is 'born'. Then a sorted fairy, or a fairy that already knows what they’re best at, helps the new fairy find their talent (water fairy, animal fairy, etc.). They also help find a home or apartment for the fairy to live in. A talent is what you call the fairy's job. We rotate turns to help sort new fairies, so everyone gets a chance to sort a fairy every ten years or so.

   Queen Rosetta flew to the balcony and waved for the trumpet to blow. The trumpeters blew their cool, low not that signaled everyone to become quiet. The new fairy looked confused at the sudden silence, so the Queen motioned for her to fly to her side. She obliged and daintily flew over to the Queen.

  Once she was situated, the Queen began the ceremony.  “Hello fairies of Imperia! Today we will be announcing the sorter of the newest addition to our city. As many of you know, the sorter will have to go around with the new fairy and find out what talent she has a gift for. They will also have to find a house for her, as well as introduce her to the fairies her age. This is important because…” I stopped listening. I had heard her spiel enough times. Instead I thought about what a great sorter I thought I would be.  My friends and I had never sorted before, having been too young, but now we were old enough, so we were quite excited at the idea of sorting a new fairy! Actually, as I looked around, a lot of fairies looked like they would enjoy sorting this fairy. She was really quite pretty, and she looked intelligent enough. I liked the dress she was wearing. The blueness seemed to fit her, and she had a slim, healthy figure.

  The queen was already finishing by the time I tuned back in. “…And so, now I will let Guillian announce the fairy lucky enough to get to sort Ella.” Guillian was the only announcer fairy. He was a giant fairy, two to three times larger than most of us, and had a deep, booming voice that could be heard clearly from most everywhere.

 Every fairy came into life with a scroll in the left pocket of their dress or trousers, depending on the gender. Gillian lumbered over and took the scroll from Ella. “The fairy that will be assigned to sort Ella Hawkspring is…” he said as unrolled the scroll. “…Clairette Evergreen!” Everyone cheered and clapped before I could even register what he was saying. Then I got it. He had called me! A smile formed on my lips as I made my way towards them.

  “Here you go,” Guillian ‘mumbled’ as he handed me the sheet explaining how to figure out what kind of a fairy Ella was. I thanked him and flew down to my friends as the Queen dismissed us.

  “Congratulations! Oh, I’m just so happy for you!” Morgan, a close friend of mine, exclaimed. Everyone else congratulated me pretty much the same way. “Um, guys?” I said. “It’s not like I won the lottery, it was just my turn.” But they didn’t hear me.

 “So,” I said once they had quieted down. “What do I do first?”

  Everyone turned to Nyx, the oldest of us all, who had sorted a fairy just a few months ago. Since none of us had ever been old enough to sort a fairy, Nyx was looked up to a lot from everyone.

  “Well, she said slowly. “I would take her home and find a place for her. She’ll be around for a while, since you also have to find her a home you know.” I nodded. “After you do that, then take her around until you find something she’s really good at. That’s it” She smiled and pointed to my new friend flying down to me after having talked to the queen.