The Search for a Queen

The Search For a Queen

By Madison Nef

Glenson was a small fairy world.  It had, for many centuries, been the happiest place on Earth. But that was when there was a queen. The queen of Glenson had disappeared into the vast, unexplored and dangerous jungles of Vamomore a year ago, in search of a healing fruit for her dying daughter. She promised to be gone only a week, but after a month without any word from the queen, she was announced dead. By this time, the princess had died, which meant the queen left no heir behind to inherit the throne.

  The queen’s head advisor before she died, Kimball, took it into her hands to find a new queen.  Kimball interviewed only the most high and prestigious fairy ladies she could find, but could not find anyone within the village that would serve as a noble queen. Every fairy she interviewed was high class and snobby, and only cared about where they would stand in popularity by becoming queen. After months of searching, Kimball gave up. She couldn’t find anyone! She would have taken the job herself, only there was a rule that no one who worked for the past queen could take the job, to avoid evil fairies trying to kill the queen to take her position. 

Kimball finally decided that she would go to the King of the Dragons for help. The King of the Dragons was always willing to help the fairies. Surely he would know where she could find a worthy queen. The trip would take Kimball two days, one day to get to the Dragon kingdom, and one day to get back. She figured that nothing bad could happen within that time. Kimball packed a small bag with a sandwich and a change of clothes in it, put a thick jacket on, and set off. Now, it was no easy thing to get to the Dragon kingdom.  In order to get there, Kimball needed to get through the Mushroom woods, The Thorn Patch, and worst of all, the Plant cave. First, Kimball came to the Mushroom woods. The mushrooms were very pretty during the summer. The sun also made it easy to distinguish poisonous mushrooms from good ones. The sun melted the evil mushrooms and always allowed the good ones to flourish.

 There was only one or two bad mushrooms here and there. The rest looked magnificent. They glistened bright and beautiful colors and dripped off magical dew that had different magical properties. Kimball knew that the innocent look from above would not stand once she landed in the woods. Sure enough, she was right. As she flew down to the mushroom-line, she saw the most annoying part of the woods- the fiendish imps that lived in them. The imps always set traps for any fairy that traveled the woods, like nets in mid air, ropes that snapped on a fairy’s wings, and dangerous rock catapults. 

Fortunately for her, she dodged all traps but one- she set off a rock catapult. Luckily she realized her mistake just in time to dodge a boulder that was launched at her.  Once she was out of the mushroom woods, she came to the Thorn Patch. The thorns extended up just far enough where she couldn’t fly over them. It was very dangerous to go into the thorn patch alone, because if a thorn pricked you, it would knock you unconscious for an amount of time. Depending how powerful the thorn was, it could knock you out clean from 5 minutes to 5 days. No one who got pricked by a thorn ever lived to tell of it, because once you were pricked, unknown beings came and carted your body off.

 Kimball knew she had to be especially careful here. It was very dark and dreary in the patch. Not a ray of sunshine could get through the thick thorns, so Kimball had to resort to magic for her light. She heard a rustle close behind her, and fearing it was a monster, she ran away. It was a good thing she had her light on, otherwise she would have run clean into a large thorn that jutted out right in the middle of the patch. Soon, Kimball was out of the thorn patch. She was starting to get hungry, so she pulled out her sandwich and ate it. As she ate, she watched the sun setting slowly. She had picked a wonderful place to eat her lunch, at the top of a cliff looking out towards toward the Plant Cave.

 The view was incredible from where she sat. She could see all of Glenson from there. The breeze rustled through her hair gently.  The sun set and disappeared quickly, making it hard to see. Soon, the moon came around and the sky lit up with stars. It was peaceful and no noise was heard. The sky seemed to come closer, and closer to Kimball. Slowly, she drifted off to sleep and had a wonderful rest. However, she knew that she had to keep moving if she wanted to make it back by the next day. She used her magic light as bright as she could make it. 

The Plant Cave, while it might sound like a wonderful, nourishing place where flowers grow, was the exact opposite of that. Fairy and beast alike feared the cave, for it was a soggy, disgusting, ugly place where water leaked and created mold and horrible plants worse than you could ever dream of grew. The plants that grew in the cave, no one could tell what they were. They were big and carnivorous, and some made you hallucinate. The plants were big enough to swallow a human being whole if they wanted to. Kimball slowly made her way into the cave. She felt very afraid that something would reach out and snap her up.

 She slowly made her way through the cave. As she flew, she got thirsty. She had forgotten to pack anything to drink, and she longed for water. She grew groggy and tired as she flew, and the cave just kept getting darker and darker, until not a ray of light was seen. As she got groggy, her magic dwindled, leaving her in the cold cave with no light. She suddenly saw sunlight ahead, and as she moved closer, she saw an underground lake flowing through the cave. As she drew near to the lake, she lowered down to the ground.

It felt mushy under her delicate feet because of the dripping ceiling. She realized it was a hallucination as she moved closer to it. Had she tried to drink any water, she would have scooped up bones and mud. She quickly flew up in the air again. The ground felt disgusting. She knew her journey through the cave had only just begun. According to the book she had read on the cave, the hallucination plants always came before the carnivorous ones. As she walked on, she started to smell an awful stench from somewhere below her. 

The ceiling of the cave got lower, forcing her to drop to the ground and walk. Every step she took made her feel sick. The mushy ground combined with the intensified stench of rotting flesh did not make a pretty pair. At times, her thirst almost got the best of her. She knew water dripped from the ceiling of the cave, and at one point almost tilted her head back to catch a drop as it splashed down. However, to Kimball, the drop was gigantic, and instead of dropping in her mouth like she planned, it splashed down all over her, soaking her to the skin. There was a small draft in the cave, and it sent chills down her spine when the wind hit her. It was so cold due to the water that it almost felt tingly and warm. 

She knew she had to keep moving. Soon, she saw a gap that she was sure was not a hallucination. She flew up it and out into the moonlight. Even though it was still nighttime, it felt good to be out in the “light” and the fresh air. She heard rushing water, and looked to the side. WATER! She flew eagerly to the stream. She cupped her small hands and filled them with the cool water. She gulped it down. It was cold and very refreshing. She looked up, and saw that she had to climb a hill. The grass was cold and wet with dew, and felt good on her feet. While it was much like what the cave had felt like, it was more comforting to her to see what she was walking in.

 Her wings were tired, so she decided to walk up the hill. When she reached the top, a glorious sight greeted her- the dragon castle. In reality, the only thing glorious about it was that she had FINALLY REACHED IT!!! The castle was giant, dark, and cast a shadow over the barren wasteland that surrounded it. Dragon nests lay scattered all over the wasteland. There weren’t any trees or grass, just dusty dirt. A few tumbleweeds occasionally tumbled by. 

Kimball excitedly flew up to the castle doors. A sleeping guard, surprisingly her own size, was sleeping near the door. She tapped him on the shoulder and he awoke with a jump. “Excuse me sir, I would like to talk to King Murphy please.” She said politely. “Of course,” said the guard. “Can I ask you a question while I am here?” said Kimball. “Shoot,” the guard said. “Why does the dragon king have fairies for guards?” she asked, trying to make the question sound as polite as possible. “BECAUSE HE KNOWS HE CAN ROAST EM’ AND EAT EM’ IF THEY ARE UNLOYAL WORKERS! NOW DO YOU WANT TO SEE THE KING OR NOT!?” roared the impatient guard.

 Kimball hurried into the castle. The interior was surprisingly clean, and the marble floors shone. This cleanliness only lasted to the throne room.  The throne room had no windows, and was dark and messy. It also smelled disgusting, like the Dragon King ate rot and then didn’t bother to clean up. “Who is visiting?” a booming voice roared. The dragon’s breath was so strong and bad smelling it almost blew Kimball out of the room. “It is I, Kimball of Glenson.” She said. She then proceeded to explain her dilemma as fast as she could. The smell in the room was far worse than the Plant Cave.

 As she was half-way through her story, a small fairy peasant came into the room, dragging a huge piece of meat. She bowed and dropped the meat. Kimball looked at her carefully. The girl was younger than she, and looked to be of very low class. She probably thought she had no chance in the world. Something deep down in her heart told Kimball that she had found the new queen of Glenson. She asked the king if she could possibly make the peasant their new queen. “SADIE?” boomed the king. “HAHAHAHA! IF YOU WANT.” He said, laughing so hard it made the castle shake. Kimball went over to Sadie and explained. You could never have seen a happier look on anyone’s face than the look that crossed Sadie’s when Kimball told her the news.

 Sadie immediately packed her bags, and was ready to leave the palace forever. The trip back passed quickly, as Kimball got to know Sadie better. Sadie came from a lowly family in Glenson, and when she had been little, her family had been killed by dark fairies. She had been sent to live with the dragon king, who made her his personal assistant. However, the happiness did not last long. For when they rounded the bend to see Glenson, they saw a horrible sight. 

Glenson, a once lush town, was now a grim and ugly hole. Dark fairies flitted in and out of broken down cottages, and sat around fires that were started out of fairies’ old possessions. The fountain that had once stood in the center of the village was broken into rubble and was far beyond repair, with a lonely stream of water spurting up out of the ground where the piping had used to be. Kimball was horrified. The dark fairies must have come shortly after I left! she thought.

   She hung her head in shame. She knew it was her fault for leaving in the first place. Suddenly, she smelled something familiar. Something that smelled rotting. “Don’t worry, Kimball, we are here,” said the dragon king as he looked down upon Glenson. Kimball looked behind him and saw that 3 other dragons were standing there at the ready. “I sent a scout after you to ensure you had a safe trip, and when he informed me, I came at once,” said the king. 

The dragons burned out the fairies and the remainder of the village, and then flew away. Once the dark fairies were gone, the fairies that had not been killed came out from hiding. It took about a month, but soon, Glenson was fully repaired. Sadie was a wonderful queen and reigned for 70 solid years before passing away at 90 due to old age. She left the throne to her son, who was in full health and 40 years old at the time, and from that day on, the throne was left to family only, and to no one else.