Allie’s Fairy Tale

“What you got there, Allie?” Dob asked the girl who skipped past him, waving a bright sparkler.

“A fire fairy,” she called back and stopped. The sparkler crackled loudly and dropped bright white bits of fire on the ground around them both.

“What rare magic! You must be the fairy queen”, he said and she nodded. He stepped on a few fast fading embers that landed near his feet. “You better get home. Night’s coming.”

“I’m going to the docks! My fairy wants to see the hay barches! She pointed toward town and sparks arced toward the edge of his field. He quickly tamped them out.

“Be careful”, he warned. “It’s mighty dry out here! And don’t you worry about those barges. They’ll be there in the morning!”

“Maybe not, Mr. Dob!” Allie giggled and waved the sparkler. It seemed for a moment to burn more brightly and he could have sworn it briefly flickered from bright white to angry red. He blinked and it looked normal again, fading from view as Allie ran toward down.

He stood, thinking about the last thing she had said. What an odd thing for her to say. Then, another thought. Where did she get a sparkler, way out here?

Allie ran down the hill from Dob’s farm toward the docks of Seven Landings and the barges loaded with dry hay. The fairy on the end of her stick whispered hungrily, “Burn it all, my Queen!”

Her laugh in reply was wicked and old.

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I didn’t write a story last week, due to a whole bunch of stuff earlier in the week that wore me out. This week was better, in a lot of ways. As a result, it’s story time!

Play along with the prompt here!

(Photo Credit: Pexels on Pixabay)