By Cathy Lichty

Once upon a time in a lovely, little glen in a valley nestled up against the Rocky Mountains there was a Fairy Village.  The fairies in the village were responsible for taking care of the trees, flowers, and shrubs throughout the valley. Fairies have a special understanding of growing things and they take their work very seriously.

In this village there lived a young fairy by the name of Cela.  Cela worked hard to care for the plants and growing things in her assigned area of the valley. Cela spent every day walking to her area of plants, tending the plants and walking back.  Other fairies would fly to their assigned area, spend some time on the plants and then fly off to have fun doing things with their fairy friends. But Cela couldn’t fly.  Cela was born with one normal wing and one wing that was very tiny and never grew much bigger. So, she could manage, just barely, to get into the air but then she just went around in small circles like a person rowing a boat with only one oar. That was why she always had to walk to and from her plant area.

Flying was such an important part of fairies’ lives, that other fairies never thought to try and include her in any of their activities or games. Cela was the loneliest of fairies.

One day Cela was tending to her plants when a little piece of fluff floated in front of her and landed on the leaf she was tending. When she looked closely at that little piece of fluff, she saw that it had a tiny little seed attached. Cela looked behind her to track the path of the fluff. She couldn’t tell anything at first but as she looked a little breeze went by and when the breeze moved the branches of a cottonwood tree in front of her an explosion of fluff balls erupted from the tree. Cela was delighted to watch this puff of fluff balls catch the breeze and begin to float on the air and scatter over the area.  Oh, she thought this is how the Cottonwood scatters its seeds so more Cottonwood trees can grow. She watched the little seeds dangle from the fluff balls, and slowly settle to the ground. What a lovely sight she thought and what fun for the seeds to fly that way. She was envious of the seeds they could fly but she could not. It did look like such fun!

As she watched an idea began to form.  What if she caught ahold of one of those fluff balls? Maybe she could fly just like the seeds. She would have to make herself small – she could do that with some fairy magic. She would have to make herself very light – she could also do that using some fairy magic.  Then she could fly just like a seed.  Oh, but first she had to get up into the branches of the tree.

She began to climb the tree. She could pull herself along pretty well with her hands and feet. Occasionally she could use her wing to get just a bit of lift to rise to a higher branch. As she got higher, she had to make herself smaller and lighter so that the branches would not bend under her weight. She climbed way up to the very tips of the tall branches. She looked around and found a fluff ball with a seed attached. The seed was just barely still attached to the tree waiting for the right breeze to come along. She spotted another one thinking she might need to hold onto two to handle the extra weight. She knew she would have only an instant to grab the seed and fluff ball just as the breeze broke it loose from the tree.  She waited alert and ready to jump.

NOW – she grabbed the end of one fluff ball in each hand as they began to lift in the wind. And then – she was flying. WHEEEE! It was wonderful as she floated through the air, so quiet, so easy, sooo HIGH!   But she didn’t drop, she floated slowly, gently to the ground and made a soft landing in the petals of a Rose of Sharon bush.   When Cela landed she let out her breath. She realized she had been holding her breath for the whole ride. Then she looked around. She was alive, she was safe, and she had flown!  She could not wait to do it again!

Cela made herself normal size again and ran back to the Cottonwood Tree as fast as her legs could take her. Then she repeated her climb and her flight.  Oh, she loved it! All the rest of the afternoon she flew again, and again, and again. Finally, when the sun started to set and the breeze died down Cela walked back to the village and home. She had a secret smile on her face and her thoughts were still flying in the breeze.

The next day Cela hurried through her chores of tending the plants. As soon as she could she headed to the Cottonwood tree. To her surprise there was another fairy standing at the base of the tree when she arrived.  Cela wasn’t sure what to think. “Hello”, she said. 

“Hello, my name is Violet like the flower. What’s your name,” asked the fairy?

 “My name is Cela. What are you doing here? This is my area to tend,” said Cela.

“Oh, I know that. I saw you yesterday, floating from the fluff balls. You landed in one of the Rose of Sharon bushes in my area. I saw you get big and then run back to this tree. I followed you to see what you were doing.”  Cela didn’t know what to say or how to react. She thought maybe she was in some sort of trouble.

“I watched you climb up the tree and catch a ride on another fluff ball. It looked like such fun.  Do you think I could do it with you today?” Cela was dumbfounded. No one had ever asked to join her in anything. She couldn’t speak for a moment. Then she stammered, “Aaaaah, well sure, I guess. Just do what I do.”

Then, Cela started her climb up into the Cottonwood tree with Violet right behind her. Cela instructed Violet when to start getting smaller and lighter, and then directed her into the high branches where some fluff balls were just ready to break off.  She explained how to wait for the breeze to catch the fluff ball and to grab hold just as it took flight. Together they waited, together they grabbed for a fluff ball, and together they floated through the air. Violet squealed with joy!  Cela returned the squeal! Then they squealed together as they floated through the air and down into a patch of clover.

When they both made themselves return to normal size, Violet jumped up and down and hugged Cela making her jump up and down too.  “Oh, that was such fun! Do you do that every day,” asked Violet?   “Let’s do it again.” 

As Violet turned back toward the Cottonwood tree she flapped her wings to rise into the air, ready to fly back to the tree.  That was when she noticed Cela’s tiny wing and realized why Cela was still standing on the ground. Violet dropped to the ground, then she took ahold of Cela’s hand. “Let’s walk,” Violet said. 

Cela and Violet spent all the rest of the day floating from the tree and walking back. At the end of the day Violet walked back to the Village with Cela.  When they got to Cela’s house, Violet gave Cela a big hug. “Thanks for the great day. We are going to be great friends! I can just tell. Bye,” called Violet as she walked away toward her own home.

Cela walked into her house for the second day in a row with a secret smile on her face.                                                  FINI