The Ascent

There once was a beautiful little girl who lived in a fairy tale book only ever seeing the beauty in this desolate world we call home. She had all the fine traits of a woodland creature, a changeling baby swapped at birth with her cascading chestnut locks, shining doe eyes and whisper of a name. She was the princess from every fairy tale, the girl that would one day be admired by all, but unfortunately, this fairy was never destined for a happily ever after.

With life comes change and with change comes loss, an emotion that quickly filled her life as the kingdom she loved so much as a child began to fall apart. Soon, as time rolled on, life began to move at a pace that was too fast for the little fairy to fly alongside and so slowly, but surely, the little fairy's wings began to falter. Time after time she would get back up after her wings had given way, time after time, but no one would dust her off, fix her hair. Again, she fell.

Eventually, all the scrapes and bruises began to add up until the weight upon her tiny shoulders became too much to bear. In dark times, the little fairy turned to English, crying verbs, nouns and adjectives when she was sure no one was listening. She turned to Physical Education by pushing everyone away, not allowing anyone to see her astonishing hurt. But at the fairy's darkest moment, she turned to Maths remembering that a negative take away a negative gives you zero. Zero pain, zero loss, zero. Taking her negatively filled life away from this now negative world, she became zero. Zero the fairy, zero warmth on her marble skin, zero.

As the little fairy ascended on her long journey home, she happened to glance down and see her kingdom rebuilding itself right before her very eyes. As her delicate fairy wings began to widen and stretch, she saw the broken kingdom, flowing with tears but being enveloped with love and support. As the first downy white feathers began to appear, her kingdom had created an everlasting bond that surrounded them in a mist of gold and as her halo shimmered angelically above her, for the first time in a long, long time, the angel smiled.