A Purple Lesson

      As the moon was casting its gray glow among the various houses through town, I lazily half walked, half floated in between them, watching my purple glow illuminate the walls of the homes. I thought of all the owners who were asleep then, and thought of how heavy 236 plushies are, even when condensed by magic. I then toyed with the idea of turning the blue Uni plushie in my bag into a real life Uni, one that would be able to fly me home effortlessly. And just as I decided that a free ride home was worth the magic, I heard an alerting gasp escape from a nearby house.

      I jolted to my right, startled by the only sound I had heard in hours. I squinted my eyes and saw the perpetrator of such an interruption; a young boy of about thirteen years in the window of one of the homes. He had one hand covering his mouth in disbelief, and was pointing a shaking finger at me with his other.

     Dropping my satchel, I sighed. "What?"

     "You're... you're..." he began to tremble.

     "I am just passing through, kid. Go back to bed."

     I reached for my bag.

     "You're evil!!! A dark, dark Faerie of bad magic!" His voice quivered.

     Urgh... not another one. I took a deep breath, tried not to laugh, and began to walk towards his window.

     "...Really?" I asked, offended. "And how exactly do you know I am evil?"

     He swallowed hard. "Purple light. It means you are bad; it means you are a Dark Faerie."

     I began to laugh at him, trying to keep in mind that he was still a child.

     "Look, kid, just because we are born with different energy as a different type of Faerie does not mean that all Dark Faeries are evil. And what's wrong with being purple?"

     "I bet you are here to rob us all and turn us into... Quiggles!" he shot back to me.

     "Annnd why would I do that?" I was becoming increasingly frustrated. "Here, look," I said, trying to dig one hand into my bag, "do you want a plushie to keep?"

     I forced a smile and went to hand him the blue Uni plushie. He looked at me in disbelief.

     "Why would I take anything that your evil purple power has touched? Get out of here, you wicked being, you!" he yelled, stepping away from me.

     I dropped the Uni plushie, and my temper began to rise.

     "Purple is NOT BAD! It's just a side effect of the magic I was born with!" I shouted back.

     "I have a bottled Light Faerie, underneath my bed, and I'm not afraid to use her!" he threatened, stepping slowly towards his bed.

     "Pfft! I probably know her! Look, you just can't—"

     In the middle of my sentence, he dove underneath his bed, grabbed a glowing glass bottle, and began to swing it in front of himself, like some sort of make shift shield. The Light Faerie was being tossed and smashed inside the bottle.

     Bonk, bonk, bonk.

     "Stop it! You have no idea how much that hurts!"

     "BEGONE, EVIL ONE!" he said, moving towards me, twirling the bottled Faerie around him.

     It was in this moment that I realized I had three choices. The first choice was to walk away and let this kid grow up believing the Dark Faeries were bad and that the color purple was in some way evil. The second option was to unleash all of my magic upon him, actually turn him into a Quiggle for life, and plead innocent when Fyora came to ask me where I was this night and time. And the third option was my only compromise between leaving him unharmed and teaching him a lesson.

     I chose option three.

     "Put the Light Faerie down and no one gets hurt!" I demanded.

     This just made his erratic swinging faster. Bonk, bonk, bonk, bonk! I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and channeled all of my power and magic into the moment. I pulled magic from the night itself, from the air, and from the moonlight. The power began to grow and I could feel it gather in my hands, waiting to be released.

     Bonk, bonk, bonk, bonk!

     And finally, when I felt I could store no more magic, I placed my hands in front of me and whispered "Stop." The magic burst out of my hands, and like a shockwave, the power ripped through the air.

     When I opened my eyes, I saw that the boy was temporarily stunned in place, but I knew it would only last a minute or so. I ran towards him and snatched the bottled Light Faerie out of his grip, and began to twist the tightened cork to let her out. I took advantage of his temporary state of silence.

     "You should know better! Not all Faeries are bad or evil, even if we are purple!" I began to lecture, feeling the cork grow looser in my hands.

     "And if you only got to know one of us, or even greet us without a stereotype, I am sure you would grow quite fond of us!" I continued, finally pulling the cork free from the bottle.

     A yellow light sprang from the bottle.

     "You don't have to be afraid of us. We will not hurt you!" I said to the boy, whose paralysis had begun to wear off.

     "Speak for yourself," said a low voice to the left of me. A Light Faerie had emerged from the bottle with her hair tangled, clothes ripped, and teeth gritted. She had a firm grip on her wand, and had the most vengeful look in her eye.

     "Wooooooow. Are you my Light Faerie?" the boy asked softly.

      "I belong to no one!" she replied, raising her wand towards the boy.

     "Uhhhh, maybe he learned his lesson and we should go," I tried to reason with the Light Faerie. She did not hear me.

     "You need to learn something about FAERIES!" the Light Faerie said, moving toward the boy. "Yes, we are here to protect you! But we will NOT be treated like servants or swung around in our bottles like some kind of magical Nunchuck!"

      Before the boy could respond, the Light Faerie had swung her wand at the boy, and a dark purple cloud had formed around the boy. It cracked in the air, with beams of light swirling around him. Within a few seconds, all magic had dissipated except for a purple glow on the boy's skin.

      "AHHHH, PURPLE!" the boy screamed, running for the door in his room. He opened it with haste and ran through the rest of his home screaming. I watched the windows light up throughout the house, and looked at the Light Faerie.

      "Time to go!" she said, winking.

      "What did you do to him?" I asked, grabbing my bag and throwing it over my shoulder.

      "I just made him face his fear!" She smiled. "And maybe gave him a couple of weeks to know what it feels like to have to be purple."

      A few seconds went by before we both erupted in laughter. The Light Faerie walked over to the boy's window and picked up the Uni plushie I had dropped. She walked back to me, and handed me the toy. I thanked her kindly, and she nodded in an understanding.

      "No one said it was easy being purple," she laughed.

The End