The Legend of the Ancient and the Faeries

The Legend of the Ancient and the Faeries

Faeries, like flickering fireflies, visited the Ancient until he could stand. The Ancient, now awake during the day, helped these beautiful, delicate faeries in return for help that had been given so freely. The Ancient still had some nights that were very long and heavy. Dust still lay heavy in many of the cracks and crevices of the his heart and mind, so faeries continued to arrive each night, unbidden, with their magic winking wands, and like tiny archaeologists, brushed away newly settled dust from all these deeply filled cracks and crevices.  

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This long and uncertain excavation had started in the distant misty past with one lone faery. The faery had been off flying a solo trip away into the dark that she loved so very much. It was quiet and peaceful in the dark. Deciding to land and rest her wings and her energy, she chose a high mountain. Her tiny wand lit only a tiny pinpoint of light, but as she rested it glowed more strongly, spreading bright light in the forested glade.  Looking for a comfortable notch in an old gnarled tree or in a bed of spongey moss to rest, she came upon the fabled Ancient she had heard about from the elders of her faery clan. Sleeping for so long, trees with mossy branches had thickly grown around the giant. Dust of many ages thickly disguised the ancient’s features and life itself. Blowing gently from the palm of her tiny hand, the faery scattered a tiny sparkling puff of faery dust that misted across a heavily bearded face.

As the dust settled, the light from the sparkles lit up a kind, but worried, face. Breath came thin and slow from between barely parted lips. Tiny clouds of dust puffed up around the ancient’s cavernous nostrils with each exhalation.

The giant seemed to have a kind face, so the faery began dusting gently, trying to clear the Ancient's eyes in hopes that they would open. It was too big a job for just one small, and very tired, faery.  Knowing that she was too tiny to awaken anyone so very large, she stepped back until her light was strong again and in the early dawn, flew back to her faery glen, spreading word to other faeries of the ancient gentle giant that lay asleep at the edge of the mountains and near the end of the great river that flowed past the fern filled faery glen.

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It is said that since that time long ago, there have always been faeries with this gentle giant, just as there are for all the people in the land.

“I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, 
but I can do something. And I will not let what 
I cannot do interfere with what I can do."        

~ Edward Everett Hale