The Fairies' Quest

It had been eighty years since the day Penelope entered the domain. Until that day, she had been a happy raccoon in the prime of her life, living in a place called Antelope Valley, some thirty miles north of Los Angeles. And then, one day while sitting on the limb of a pine tree, eating blackberries in the spring sunshine and listening to the birds herald the coming of summer, she suddenly heard the rustle of bushes below. Looking towards the sound, she saw three teenagers come around a bend in the trail, each carrying a long object made of metal and wood. The boy in the lead yelled out something, and before she could react he put the object up to his shoulder with a swift motion, pointing it at her. Instantly, she saw a bright flash and heard a loud crack--and those were the last things she saw and heard on Earth.

The next thing she knew, she found herself in a narrow tunnel with a bright white light at the end--so bright she couldn't see past it. Then a human hand reached out for her from somewhere on the other side of the light. Somehow, although it had been a human that shot her, she knew she had to take the hand. And then, suddenly she was here in the domain, standing in a cool grove of lush, lovely maple trees. Around her, a light breeze carried the scent of violets. And just beyond the trees, groups of what looked like humans moved about on a meadow of grass and clover. But they weren't humans. They were all different colors--many that she'd never seen on humans back on Earth--and each of them had wings that seemed to be made of a skin-like material the same color as their bodies.

Suddenly, she shuddered. Her own body felt strange to her... different, somehow. And looking down at herself, she soon found out why: she, too, had taken on a human-like appearance. But, after a moment of shock, she began to enjoy the sensation. She looked at her hands and started moving her fingers and thumbs around, enjoying the feeling of increased mobility. What was going on? If this is death, Penelope thought, it's not so bad.

And then, all of a sudden, she felt like she was being watched. When she looked up, it was at the face of a tall, bearded... well, with his long, flowing blue robe, wispy blue wings, and sapphire-blue halo, which glowed above his head like the tail of a firefly, he could only be an angel.

"Who... who are you?" she stammered.

"The Archangel Raphael," he said in a deep voice, with a calm smile that gave her a feeling of trust and love something like the feeling she had felt when she was in her mother's arms.

"Oh," she said nervously, wobbling on her new feet and legs.

Still smiling, he then waved his hand slowly above her, and she felt something spring out of her back, as if the skin had suddenly stretched. Looking over her shoulders, she saw that she now had wings of silver with a gold lining. They flashed in the sunlight and were so thin she could see right through them. Thin veins of gold radiated out from her body through the wings like a delicate spider web. Concentrating, she found she could move them to and fro, and in a moment she found herself rising off the ground. Giggling, she stilled her new wings and landed on the ground.

"Wow!" she said.

Looking up, she saw that the Archangel Raphael had grown more serious.

"Penelope," he said, "You're a fairy now. Like all the others you see. Use your new wings carefully. All of the Archangels will be watching you."

Then, he lifted off the ground and flew away in a flash.