Lily

Once there was a fairy named Cerinthe.  She was a dancing flower fairy.  The flowers that she liked to dance on were lilies.  Cerinthe loved lilies so much and never danced on other flowers.  That prompted the other fairies to call her Lily.  1

“Lily, fetch me my dancing slippers,” called Elise, one of the other flower fairies who was almost ready to go dance, but her dancing slippers were in the stretching room.  All the fairies thought that since Lily was so simple in her dress and manner, and since she did not like the type of fast, hurried, ungraceful dancing that they did, she should help them with their outfits and shoes.  2

Lily slipped quickly yet quietly down the hall to the stretching room and picked up Elise’s brown and orange, long, swirled dancing slippers.  3

“Hurry, Lily,” called Elise angrily.  “We only have thirty more minutes.”  Lily ran to the dressing room, gave the slippers to Elise, and was told to do other things by the three-hundred other fairies in the large room.  4

“Lily,” whined Kanali, one of the highest fairies.  “My hair is tangled and the spider webs to wind around my slippers are torn.”5

Lily ran to the dresser that Kanali was using and brushed the fairy's short brown hair and then put clips of miniature roses in it.6

“I don’t like roses in my hair,” said Kanali in an irritated way.  “I like pinks.”7

“I’m sorry,” said Lily.  “I forgot.”8

“Well, hurry up,” said Rosalinde.  “Don’t waste those roses, put them in my hair.”   Lily ran back and forth with flowers, shoes, dew for moistening lips, berries for dyes, and other things that are used by fairies for dancing.  9

After the other fairies had left to go dance, Lily changed into a beautiful silvery-gray leotard with a silvery-white gauze skirt.  She had not had time before to change into the pretty outfit that Sileree, a flower fairy who had liked Lily, had given her.  10

Lily went outside, but before she could follow the other fairies to the dancing grounds, she saw a lovely lily.  It was the most beautiful lily that she had ever seen.  It was so large that it was three times the size of other lilies that were normal size.  It was even more beautiful than any she had ever seen.  It was a rose-gray, and large, yet delicate.  She immediately forgot about the other fairies and climbed up to the bed of the flower.11

Lily sat on one petal and put on her slippers.  They were different than the shoes of the other fairies in that they did not have wood in a thick layer on the bottom and they were smaller and not swirly.  Instead, there was a layer of cobwebs and grasses in the toe of her shoes.12

When she was done, she stood up and posed in an arabesque.  Suddenly, as though sensing the need for music, the crickets began to play a gentle, smooth, quiet, rhythm.  She began a dance that told of a quiet, still, independent fairy named Sileree, who had danced as she did, an early version of ballet.  Sileree, who had loved dancing with all her heart, had disappeared when the other fairies had not let her dance the way that she wanted to.  Since Sileree did not need her possessions any more, Lily had been given all of them.  13

Lily’s favorite of all her new things was a silver locket with a golden key inside.  Also, she loved a box that looked like it was made for a delicate crown.  14

As Lily danced on the lily, her locket came undone and slid down the middle of the flower.  Lily took out a cloth made of lily petals that was normally used for sitting on and watching one of the fairies dance.  She sat on it and pushed herself down into the middle of the lily.  As she slid down the flower, she seemed to hear familiar voices, as though someone that she used to know was talking to her.  When she got to the bottom, she saw a sign on a door that read: Those who enter will follow.  Under the sign was a keyhole.  In front of the door, lay her open locket, with the key in the middle pointing to the door. 15

She stepped carefully towards the key, and then picked it up and fitted it to the lock.  Lily turned the key and opened the door.  The sight that greeted her eyes was amazing.  For there, framed by light that came in from holes in the stem, was a beautiful room, fitted out perfectly for ballet.  A stage was in the back of the room.  When she looked behind that, she saw a barre room, and beside that a dressing room.  In the dressing room was a cabinet that held the rest of Sileree’s costumes.  In the bottom of the cabinet, were props and accessories that Sileree had used for her ballets, which the other fairies called, “silly.”  As Lily looked around, she saw that on the top of the cabinet was a crown.  Delicate, yet elegant, it was silver set with diamonds.  She carefully took it down from the cabinet and saw that it would fit perfectly in the box that she had inherited from Sileree.  16

Lily thought that Sileree was dead because the other fairies had told her that, and so she put on one of Sileree’s warm up leotards and went in to the barre room. Starting with plies and tendues, she readied for dancing.  When she finished stretching she went back to the dressing room and changed into a pale blue leotard with skirt.   17

She started to dance, with music from the spider-web harp that she played for the other fairies playing in her head.  Arabesque, plie, glissade, grande jete, over and over she danced.  Attitude, tendue, battement, she danced.  Laughing, she realized that Sileree, wherever she was, had left it all for her.  After two hours of dancing, she changed back into her normal clothes and went back to the fairies bedrooms.18

When the other fairies came back, she found out that a beautiful butterfly had come and let them put silver-water on its wings, so that when it flew around over their flowers water like a mist came down over them.  19

Lily said that she was sorry that she had missed it, but inside she was glowing. She had danced in a room, on stage, by herself, to music she loved, and in an outfit that she liked.  She was filled with joy as she went to the kitchen to fix dinner.  She fixed some soup made of dew and rosehips.  Lily added some basil and rosemary too.  The other fairies told her to use the good shell plates since they had danced with a butterfly.  20

That night, Lily went to her room in the kitchen where she had piled grass and flower petals for a bed.  She lay in bed for a while and then went out to the lily and slid down it.  When she got to the bottom, she saw something that she hadn’t seen before.  She saw a door that was right beside the door into the auditorium.  It was the same size as the other door, but it had a smaller keyhole.  Lily took off her locket and opened it so that she could go into the ballet rooms, but she saw that against the silver inside of the locket’s lid was a small silver key that was held there as though by magic.  It was just big enough to fit the door.21

Unlocking the door, she went inside.  What she saw amazed her.  Inside was a beautiful room with a bed, dresser, and pitcher full of dew, soap, brush, and mirror.  In a small wardrobe were casual outfits made of cobwebs, spider webs, and grasses.  She put on one of the dresses, a blue cobweb outfit with a silver ribbon around the waist of the dress.  22

Lily went outside by a simple door in the side of the stem.  There she saw a lovely patch of Baby’s Breath.  She walked through it, following a path made by Sileree.  Breathing in the fresh, cool, air of the valley it was in made her realize that she could not go back to the other fairies now.  Then she saw Sileree coming back to the lily, her silvery-blonde hair flowing.  She waved to her and called out, 23

“Sileree!  I found the lily!”  She walked over to her friend and gave her a hug.  Walking back to the lily, Sileree and Cerinthe, called Lily, went home.24