Long, long ago, fairies and human folk lived side by side.
They played together and worked together and helped each other.
The fairies loved to help the human folk with their fairy magic.
But as time went on, human folk lost touch with their hearts and feelings.
Some of them became cruel and heartless. Small boys could often be found chasing fairies and pulling their wings off.
This made the fairies frightened and angry.
The fairy king wanted to have all the fairies withdraw and keep to the borders of their own land.
He wanted to hide them from the eyes of men, and withhold their magic from the world.
But the fairy queen objected.
"They are not all bad and cruel," she said. "And if we withdraw completely, they will forget us. How will the children to come ever remember there is magic in the world? We can’t leave them alone without our help."
So instead, the fairy king granted all fairies the ability to become visible and invisible at will, so that if they should ever find a human being that felt full of heart and feelings, they could appear and grant magic.
Many years passed, and the humans at first missed the presence of their flying friends.
But after a while they began to forget that there was ever real magic in the world. They began to believe that fairies were just a children’s story. And when, as happened once in a great while, someone appeared with a story of having seen a fairy, everyone just said, "he must have been dreaming."
The fairies, who shared their queen’s love of human kind, grew more and more frustrated and lonely.
How could they help and share their magic, when the humans refused to see them or believe they existed?
One clever fairy devised a way.
As you may or may not know, fairies live forever. But every so often they shed their old and tattered wings and grow a new pair.
This clever fairy, one day, looked at her old wings and thought to herself, "There is magic in them, still. I could leave them somewhere for humans to find. I will fill them with a silent song. If the human has heart to hear, they will be drawn to the song and find my wings. The magic in them will fill the human’s life and bring them joy and luck."
She told another fairy of her idea. And that fairy told another, and another and another, and so on,
until all the fairies were joined in agreement. This was a wonderful idea!
One fairy had the idea to change the form of the wings, so that they could appear as other things.
They were all so happy to have a way to help human folk again, they danced in the air!
From that day on, fairies have been leaving their wings for us to find.
Look carefully if you see an interesting seed pod, or rock. It might not be a rock at all.
 Sometimes they look like the skeletons of leaves, or brightly colored feathers.
 Sometimes they look like the loveliest of flowers.
But no matter what form they take, if you listen you can hear the fairy song silently thrumming through it. If you have heart to hear, and you find yourself drawn to some odd stone or twig, pick it up and take it home. The magic in it will bring you joy and luck.
For it is fairy magic, truly.
REMEMBER THE MAGIC!
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The Library - Fiction for the Heart 