Competition Essays

Fairytale (Lilly)

Little Lilly's Fate

Once upon a time in the Northern kingdom lived a little girl named Lilly whose care for animals was thin. She bruised and battered any animal that'd dare cross paths with her, and she did with pleasure. The only thing she cared for in her cold and dark world were her three best friends, Lilah, Marco and Brie. Despite their disproval of Lilly's hatred towards animals, they were understanding due to Lilly's coping mechanism for her mother being killed by a bear, was it. Lilah, Marco and Brie were the only light guiding Lilly, but even their lights combined weren't enough to light the darkness left by her dear mother's death.

Lilly was no commoner. After her mother's death, her father remarried the queen of the Northern kingdom and therefore no longer had time for her. Lilly grew up cold without the warmth of parental love and the only thing that kept her going was friendship.

Therefore, on one cranky day, Lilly stormed out of the castle to meet her friends after having argued with her father. She stomped down the stone path amid large trees, announcing her arrival to the little animals prodding about. As soon as they heard her steps, they knew to take shelter and hide from her line of view. But one unfortunate bunny froze in its steps as Lilly glared at it. With one kick, the little bunny flew across the path and hit itself against an enormous tree trunk. It fell unconscious and bleeding but the stone-hearted Lilly couldn't care less. Even though a slight buzz like the flapping of wings momentarily startled her, she quickly collected herself and trodden down to the small village her friends lived in.

After her anger dissolved by spending time with her beloved friends, she started her journey back home. As she travelled through the stone path leading to the castle, she couldn't help the feeling that she was being watched. Shaking it off, she skipped the rest of the way until she came to the place where she catapulted an innocent bunny. Looking around, she wondered if the bunny was still there beneath the tree and wasn't surprised when she saw the unmoving corpse of it. She smirked an evil grin as she moved in for a closer inspection, but as she crouched near the bunny, she fell back screaming as the dead bunny resurrected with a luminous green light surrounding it. Lilly scooted backwards as the bunny opened its eyes, revealing a red hue of anger. She couldn't believe what she was seeing as she got up and started running as fast as her small legs would carry her, but alas! She tripped and hit her head on the ground. As her vision started blurring, she saw something that resembled the shape of a fairy with a pair of wings and a tiny wand. Lilly rubbed her eyes to clear her vision, but it remained blurry as the fairy-like figure waved the wand in her hand, making Lilly pass out on the spot.

When Lilly woke up, she screamed because of the thick darkness she was now enveloped in and her fear doubled every minute until suddenly the room lit up. Lilly backed against a wall when she was in a cave of sorts, and the light that illuminated the cave came from fireflies buzzing about in mason jars, hanging from the cave ceiling. The place looked absolutely beautiful, but Lilly was too terrified to appreciate the beauty of her surroundings.

Lilly suddenly heard that familiar flapping of wings and immediately snapped her head right and gasped when she saw a fairy with wings of rose gold!

"Am I dead?" Lilly wondered aloud while backing away from the tiny creature.

The fairy rolled her eyes in response before pointing her tiny wand in Lilly's face.

"Listen well, child! I have sat by and watched you bully my babies for so long! And now you have finally pushed me off the edge! I will no longer stand by and watch you abuse my family. I have decided your fate!"

Lilly wasn't one to take sass from anyone, not even from her stepmother, the queen. Therefore, when the tiny fairy with a not-so-tiny voice yelled at her, Lilly's fear turned to anger.

"You cannot decide my fate! I could squash you with my fingers and this bad dream would be over." Lilly got up and tried to grab the fairy, but the fairy was quick on her wings and immediately flew away from the angry child.

"I can, and I have already decided it. You have a day to undo what has been done. And only through kindness you could do so", the fairy said and with a swish of her wand, Lilly was glued to the cave floor while the wall opposite her started playing a video.

Lilly struggled to move her feet but stopped when she noticed the whereabouts shown in the video. It was the village in which her friends lived. Lilly froze when she saw the fairy approach Lilah, Brie, and Marco and turn them into a monkey, bunny and a bear in that order.

Lilly fell to the ground when the next part of the video showed them getting hurt. The monkey was caged; the bunny had a broken leg, and the bear was caught in a bear trap. Lilly could hear them crying for help, and her heart couldn't bear seeing her best friends hurt. She could not believe what she saw and before she could grasp the situation, she felt herself being teleported.

When Lilly opened her eyes, she was standing in front of a whimpering bunny with an injured leg. Without hesitation Lilly ran towards it, wanting to help her friend Brie, but the bunny was startled and limped away from Lilly, making her halt in her steps.

"Wait, Brie! It's me, Lilly. Please don't be scared. Please let me help you," Lilly cried, seeing the blood dripping from the bunny's leg.

The bunny fell to the ground whimpering and Lilly slowly approached it. She tore off a piece of cloth from her lilac frock and tied it around the bunny's leg. As soon as she finished it, she was teleported again.

This time she was standing in front of a circus tent. When she peeked inside it, she saw a monkey in a bolted cage. It seemed to shiver in fear, and Lilly's heart ached for her friend Lilah. Grabbing two rocks from outside, Lilly entered the tent and broke the cage's bolt, freeing the monkey but alas the circus master came in at that very moment and blocked Lilly's escape.

Lilly quickly took the other rock and hit the circus master's head with it and grabbed her friend and exited the tent. Once she stepped foot outside, she felt herself being teleported again.

Now Lilly was standing amid a big forest and in the centre of it was a massive bear caught in a bear trap. It was unconscious on the ground. Lilly tried to run to save her friend Marco, but she couldn't get herself to do it. She froze when she remembered her mother. A fit of burning anger and pain fuelled inside of her, making her turn around and walk away.

But memories of Marco and his kindness to her pooled her eyes with tears. Before Lilly knew it, she was helping the bear. She put in all her might to open the bear trap and threw it aside, but the bear won't wake up. Lilly cried, blaming herself while hugging the bear for hesitating to save her friend.

"Please Marco. Wake up" Lilly placed her head against the bear and cried but stopped when she heard a slight heartbeat.

When she looked back down, she was floating again. This time, she floated longer and longer until she fell asleep in exhaustion.

Lilly jolted awake and checked her surroundings, but was surprised to see herself in her room. She immediately jumped off her bed and ran to the village to see if her friends were okay. To her surprise, they were without a bruise or memory of what had happened. Lilly blinked rapidly in confusion until she realised,

"It was just a dream"

This very peculiar dream changed Lilly's life. Because of the fear that was installed in her after the dream, Lilly never hurt an animal ever again. Though it took many years, Lilly eventually grew to like some animals. And many years later, together with her friends' help, Lilly got over her hatred completely and adopted a very cute puppy from a shelter.

And a certain golden-winged fairy smiled contently in the shadows, after having changed the fate of one small Lilly.