Everyone knows fairies can't fly 3/9

Dave stood there fascinated; it was rather like watching a bird learning to fly; only this particular bird was an intelligent person.

Fern continued, experimenting with her wings swept back for more speed, then doing rolls and spins, until at last Dave saw her dive to gain speed before pulling up to perform a rather ragged loop.

She landed with a broad smile on her face and then rather unaccountably started to cry. Dave didn’t know what to do; he looked round to see if there were any of the village ladies nearby to help calm her down.

He was amazed to find that all the sailors and most of the workmen had laid down their tools and were watching in as much surprise as he’d been. Thankfully one of the ladies in the crowd went over to comfort her.

“Well I’ve never seen the like!” said one of the sailors standing near Dave. “Everyone knows fairies can’t fly. Mind you she does get quite a bit of practice falling out of the rigging!”

Fern had had a wonderful time flying properly for the first time in her life since she’d grown up. She remembered some of the aerobatic tricks that she used to get up to when she was a child.

She’d rolled and spun before eventually trying a loop. It wasn’t very successful but then she hadn’t been able to practice for years and years. Her wing muscles were also beginning to ache from the unaccustomed exercise, so she’d come in to land, feeling rather surprised as she saw the large crowd that had gathered to watch her.

She suddenly thought of all the other fairies that she knew, still working hard at the Wish Warehouse and having to rely on the Mary Bell crèche to keep their children safe. She felt so sorry for them after her recent wonderful experience that she burst into tears thinking that none of them would ever be able to fly.

At last the crowd went away and she was able to get on with her work. Fortunately she’d finished the rigging that she’d been working on and could get on with the much less stressful task of making all fast and shipshape. The thought of all the other flightless fairies was still worrying her, and then just as she finished the last knot the idea came into her head. Now that she knew the simple spell required to make herself lighter, she could see no reason why she couldn’t teach it to all the fairies she knew.

She’d wanted an excuse to visit Lieutenant Moonshine and show her how well she was now getting on and prove that she was no longer the useless fairy she had once been. She made up her mind that the very next free time she had, she’d go to the Wish Warehouse and do a bit of showing off.