The Fairies Wake Up Spring

A seasonal fairy story for my daughter.

The Fairies Wake Up Spring

Once upon a time in the magical world of Terra, the Spring Fairies were all asleep, cozy in their underground tunnels. It was the time of year called winter, and the fairies had learned to hibernate from the great bears of Terra. Having learned such an important secret to survive the cold winter and return in spring, the fairies flew all over the land of Terra and taught the fruits and vegetables, the flowers and the plants how to hibernate for winter. When they had put the last tree and last blade of grass to sleep, they dug tunnels into the soil and settled in for their long winter nap.

They would need all of their energy for the work coming in spring, for just as they taught the plants to sleep in winter, they had the job of waking everything up for the spring. When the sun got high enough in the sky and bright enough to shine even into their tunnels and warm them up, Demeter, queen of the spring fairies, and her daughter, the princess Persephone were the first to wake. Before they could do anything else, they had to remove the soil and rocks that were covering the doors that led out of the tunnels. They went and got help from some friendly squirrels to open up all of the doors to get back out into the open land. Then they set about waking up the other fairies. Persephone was a very clever fairy, and had learned to make a buzzing sound with her wings. She got a reed from the pond nearby and combined it with a hollow twig to make an instrument that could amplify the sound of her wings so that all could hear it. She used the sound just like an alarm clock to wake the other fairies up.

The fairies began to stretch and wiggle their fingers and toes. Then they rubbed their eyes and wiggled their wings. “Good morning, happy spring!” they began saying to each other. They got outside and warmed up in the sun, then waited for Persephone and Demeter to give them their orders.

“OK spring fairies,” Persephone said. “Shake off any cobwebs you have left over from winter, because spring is here!” All the fairies cheered the arrival of spring.

“But remember,” continued Demeter, “It is only spring for the rest of Terra if we make it so. Terra is counting on us to start spring.” The other fairies nodded and fluttered their wings. “Every fairy is going to need their full bag of magic spring fairy dust, and we are going to need to make it last, so try and use only one grain of fairy dust per plant you need to awaken. Fairy Squadron A, you are going to wake up the grass. Squadron B, you wake up the vegetables. Squadron C, you have the fruits. Squadron D, you wake up all flowering plants. Lastly Squadron E, you will wake up all other trees and plants. Any questions?” The spring fairies all nodded their heads and indicated they were ready to go on their mission.

Every year the spring fairies started near the middle of the land of Terra, where it stayed warmer than most of the rest, and they traveled north into the cooler parts of Terra, spreading the magic fairy dust of spring a little bit at a time as they went. They stuck together and worked together. They woke the crocuses and daffodils, then they woke up the pea shoots and radish sprouts. They woke up the strawberry plants so they could grow into juicy deliciousness. And they woke up the tomato plants so they could capture the sun and turn it’s energy into little miniature sun fruits, in all the shades and colors of the sun, from red to yellow to orange and even purple like the sun at twilight. Everywhere they went, the fairies sprinkled their spring dust and encouraged the plants around them.“Wake up little plants! The land of Terra is ready for you! You can come out and start growing now!”

Although it was a lot of work being a spring fairy, they all loved their jobs very much, and when they were finished, they had a big fairy party. The party was adorned with all of the beautiful flowers that had grown throughout spring. There were more fruits and vegetables than all of the spring fairies could eat, and so they invited their friends the butterflies, the squirrels, and other forest creatures to join them in the feast. The birds appreciated all of the seeds they got to eat because of the work the spring fairies had done, so the birds provided the music for the party, singing beautiful ballads about the wonder of spring. The final treat for the fairies were juicy pomegranates that the other animals helped crack open. Each fairy got their own pomegranate seed, which was as big as a watermelon for a fairy.

After they finished the feast and some end of summer laziness, Persephone and Demeter led all of the spring fairies south back to their homes near the center of the land of Terra, to the forest city of Equatoria, where they watched the flowers and seeds fall to the ground. They opened the doors to their underground tunnels and got ready to go to sleep once more.