"So this flower will turn me into a fairy?" I wondered as she approached it.
"As per the council's conditions for granting you and Starla mercy," Queen Amethyst answered, "by becoming a fairy yourself, our secret will be your secret. I know you have stated that you would consider suspicion as insulting, but the council has also voiced the concern that while you might not betray your friend, you could reveal the rest of us. By their wording, by becoming a fairy, if you reveal us, you will be revealed as well... and will be treated by humans how they wish..."
"I see," I commented, "I'm not entirely opposed to the idea... Starla and I have shared every secret but "this" one. The concept of sharing that secret is a bit exciting."
"Then step into the flower," Queen Amethyst gestured with her staff/scepter, which I now noticed the star shaped crystal was made of the gemstone Amethyst.
I reached out with a toe and touched one of the petals with it and then retreated it when the petal almost seemed to "breathe" the way an animal would when touched.
"But how does that work?" I asked, "Couldn't you or Starla do that by magic?"
I asked the question remembering the magic that was used when you were captured by Crocus and his "men", as well as the mentions of magic in the sense of the spell Starla had been using to retain human form and the queen's personal bodyguards had used to keep you and Starla from escaping the chambers. If magic could do all those things, surely this flower wouldn't be needed.
"I am afraid, Ms. Rosetta that magic does not quite work the way you think it works," Queen Amethyst explained, sounding quite patient and tolerant... very different from Crocus, "Starla and I could give you a fairy's wings and the proper muscle groupings to use them... but in order to give you fairy magic... or at least access to it, we would need to literally transfer our power from our bodies to you. Otherwise you would merely be a human with butterfly wings."
"When I take human form, my wings are pulled into my back," Starla added, "casting a spell that gave you butterfly wings wouldn't work. You wouldn't be able to hide your wings at any time, regardless of your size. Humans would see them and either see you as a fairy or as some sort of genetic experiment. And without any magic of your own, you would be defenseless."
"Oh... but how does the flower work?" I then wondered, deciding being caught by someone who wouldn't understand would be difficult. I remembered nearly getting into a fight in high school when some boy picked on Starla over something.
"This flower, and a handful of others like in in the Fairy world operate along the principles in the natural exchange of magic," Queen Amethyst explained, "every being naturally has some magic within it... and with every individual, it can vary. Fairy's by nature, produce and absorb large amounts of magic. Allowing us to fly, cast spells and other things... most humans produce and absorb magic to a minute level. Some feel it more then others, and thus the existence of a witches and wizards among human society... but to our knowledge they are few in number."
Queen Amethyst stepped forward, and gestured to the flower with her staff.
"But you can still absorb magic," Queen Amethyst explained, "and that is where this flower comes into play. Most things in the Fairy world are scaled to our size. It would mean that if you were your full size, this flower would look to you as any other flower would and the "normal" flowers of my realm would appear to be minuscule, only the beginnings of a flower to your eyes."
"Uh-huh," you nodded.
"Now because the fairy world is populated by fairies, it receives a lot of the magic that we produce and do not use," Queen Amethyst continued to explain, "as a result our world practically swims in magic and these flowers seem to have absorbed and concentrated it the most within their cells. As a result, they've grown far larger then they normally would in the Fairy world... so much so that they could encase a fairy within them... or in your case a shrunken human. But because they have absorbed so much of our magic, they have begun to also release in much the same way we do. When the petals close, the flower will begin to release the fairy magic within it. To a fairy, they might feel stronger then before... but for you... the fairy magic the flower produces will be absorbed and metabolized by you. It will change you... and ultimately, you will begin to produce your own fairy magic and will feel stronger by being in the flower. As any other fairy would by being inside it."
"Wow," was all you said after a moment.
I were about to enter the flower when another question seized me. When I'd discovered Starla was a fairy, she seemed certain that something bad would happen to me in the fairy world, and Crocus's behavior reinforced that. Yet Queen Amethyst's behavior and statements, and the ultimate solution to the "problem" was not what I expected, and it seemed to contradict what Starla had expected in the beginning.
"You'll have to forgive me if I'm being too bold," I began, "but why have you been so kind to me? I know Starla would be kind. We're like sisters... but..."
"I know," Queen Amethyst gave a motherly smile, "your friend, Starla Windrider, likely reacted in fear from her knowledge of our laws and her education growing up in the fairy world when she was very young... this is the first time that I have actually met her or anyone from her family. Governmental things with the council and looking after my people keep me busy and I am not able to socialize with all of my subjects. My power level is high enough that I can know and sense what is going on with my subjects... but that is about it..."
"So our trial..." I began.
"Was decided before you even found out about Starla," Queen Amethyst nodded, "I knew you were good friends and would never betray each other. As I told you earlier, some of our laws are a bit archaic. There are some other things that I personally will require of you and Starla, but that can wait until you are a fairy, yourself."
I slowly nodded and began to step into the center of the flower. It seemed to be a cross between a daffodil, a tulip, and a rose. As you made it into the center, I turned back to the queen who had moved to stand beside Starla. As I turned you saw the the petals rising up, beginning to close and encasing me like a giant cocoon.
"Some things may be a bit disconcerting, but do not be troubled," Queen Amethyst called to me, "according to Wendy Darling, the last human transformed into a fairy in one of these flowers, the transformation is painless."
And then the petals closed, hiding me in near total darkness. But even without light, my other senses weren't gone. I could feel a strange energy going into you. It seemed to go like a pulse of a beating heart. I could feel it the most in your feet, but I felt it in other places too. After a few moments, though I began to feel something else happening. The muscles in my back were changing, moving, altering. I could also feel two slits forming in my back. It didn't hurt, but you could feel something was changing. After what felt like a few moments, I felt pressure building on your back and something was slowly pushing out through the slits that had just formed there.
I could also feel something that felt like my ears stretching a little. Reaching behind myself, you began to feel around your back and found what I figured to be growing there. Wings. I was growing fairy wings, just like Starla and the other fairies. They were pushing out of my back. A sign that I was turning into a fairy. After a few moments I almost instinctively felt them begin to beat behind me.
"I'm..." I began to speak when a flash of light suddenly erupted in front of me.
It was then that my eyesight was somewhat restored to me, but I saw a lot of odd things. I could see Starla and I playing, chasing each other around the guest chambers we were put in and then I almost saw myself in my normal clothes, but with the obvious addition large butterfly wings behind me. I then saw what looked like the Rosetta stone fly at me. As it got closer it then exploded "pummeling" me with rose petals.
"I'm... I'm.. I'm Lillian Rospetal," I said slowly, "I am Lillian Rosepetal."
And then I began feel additional strength while inside the flower. It felt like I was getting stronger and the energy seemed to buzz within me. And by then, I knew that my transformation was complete. I was now a fairy, and it was then that the flower's petals then began to go back down, exposing me to the light of the room around me. I found that Starla was there waiting for me, alone.
"Oh... Lillian... Lilly, you're so pretty," Starla said slowly.
"I am?" I asked.
I began to slowly walk forward toward her. I then noticed that she had a handheld mirror. She nodded the affirmative and held up the mirror. I looked at it and found that many things hadn't changed. I was still in the shorts and tank top I had hastily put on see what was wrong with Starla when the day began. My facial features hadn't changed and were still cute. The only that was different was that I could see the tips of my ears poking out through my hair. And my hair was something that had really changed. The tips of my hair was an orangish-yellow-white. Going from the tip and toward my scalp, it then began to shift to a pure white, then to pink, and then to red. All the shades and colors that rose petals were found in. I then glanced back to see that my wings were the same color as my hair.
"I am," I said slowly, smiling a little.
"And now we share everything, Lillian Rosepetal," Starla came and gave me a hug.
"So we can go home?" I asked.
"Not yet," Starla said slowly, "you are a fairy now and have fairy magic... but you don't know how to use it yet. We'll be staying here in the Fairy world for a few days, at least, while I help you learn how to use your magic. Once you're ready to cast the spell giving you human shape, we'll go back to the human world. And don't worry about time... time passes slowly in the Fairy world in comparison to the human world. A minute will still be a minute, but for every year that passes here, only a few seconds pass in the human world."
"So we could live a hundred years here, return home and it'd still be today there?" I asked.
"Yes," Starla nodded, "and we don't even need to stay that long for you to learn your magic... or at least learn it enough that we can move back "home"..."
"And the queen?" I asked.
"Queen Amethyst would like to speak with us again about something, but she told me that that can wait until you're settled into your new form and your magic," Starla answered.
I smiled again then pulled Starla into another hug. A good part of me was now overjoyed to share every possible secret with my best friend.