Well, almost all of us. The exception is Fnola. I'm not really sure what happened in her designing, but she's about the least attentive Fairy Godparent I know...and I know all of them. She's a great fairy. She plays with the animals all day long. She encourages the young to come out in the Spring, she settles disputes, she helps the old find hibernation holes. She's wonderful with them. It's her Godparenting duties that she struggles with. And by struggles I mean ignores. Her children are abandoned by her, and she doesn't even care.
I know she feels the wishes. She's feeling one now. I can see the shimmer of the wish brushing her ears. It wants to be heard. All wishes want to be heard. Even the tiniest wish of wonder wants to be heard. Those are the easiest to set aside. Wishes of wonder are rarely granted by any of us. But this wish for Fnola is a wish or sorrow, one of the strongest and boldest wishes in our world, and yet she just shakes it away. She doesn't even listen to this wish. How can she know if it is grantable or not? And now, pushed away, it is fading. I cannot take it anymore.
I am at her side in seconds, hovering just higher than her. "Fnola," she jumps at my voice. The kittens she has been tickling scatter away from me. "Why did you not allow this wish to speak to you?" The wish is shimmering in the space between us, its dark mist sparkling as the sun shines through it. It has regained its form at my touch, but this is Fnola's wish. I cannot grant it. I cannot even hear it. But it knows a fairy's touch.
"I don't know what you mean," she says simply, flying away from me. I follow her, guiding the wish in front of me.
"This wish of sorrow needs to be heard, Fnola. It is important. This is what we are here for. These wishes can do nothing without us." My cry is urgent, but she doesn't care.
She waves me off with her answer. "Humans can take care of themselves,"
I circle around her and dive low and close to her face so she cannot avoid my gaze. "So can kittens and rabbits and tigers. So can the wind and the rain. So can the flowers and the trees. They can all get along just fine without us. But we can make their lives richer and fuller and calmer. We can give them joy and peace. That's what Fairies are for, Fnola. That's why we are here."
"What do you want me to do, Ftari? Should I let these animals die so that a few humans can lay waste to their world? Humans are fools. They don't know what will make them happy."
She has gestured at the animals around us. I shake my head in despair at her. "Fnola, we are on a farm. These animals will not suffer if you look away for a few moments. They are we taken care of." I push the wish into her arms. "But this --this wish-- will fade and go out if you do not listen to it." She looks at the thing as if it were disgusting. "This is a wish made in sorrow. Fnola, one of your children is in need of you. You cannot be such a stoneheart that you will not even listen to her cry."
Apparently I hit a hard point. Her eyes flash and she snatches the wish away from me. "I am no stoneheart."
"Are you not?" I scold. "I have not seen you grant a single wish this season. I have barely seen you listen to one at all."
She glowers at me for a moment but in only a moment her glare turns into a sweet smile and she answers "fine. I will listen to this wish. And to prove to you I am no stoneheart I will grant it."
"If you can," I interrupt.
"If I can," she repeats. "I will grant it with great splendor. You will see. This child will get her wish. And a beautiful sight she will be."
As she spoke she let the wish in, absorbing with the wish all the hopes, dreams, fears, and tears that brought it to her, and then she disappeared.
I hope I have not doomed this child.
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