The Radish Flower Fairy

The Radish Flower Fairy awoke to the smell of mist and sweet wildflowers.  The ground was warm and slightly damp, as it was when a low thick fog hung off the coast all night.  She had fallen asleep in a small glen and woke just as the first birds started singing. Before the sun was over the mountain–the mountain she called home.  She knew she should sprout her wings and hurry back home, but she was in a field full of radish flowers.  Her special namesake.  They would only bloom for a few months at a time up where she lived, but down here they were always in bloom.  

The Radish Flower Fairy had wandered here yesterday afternoon. This place wasn’t exactly a part of the mountain, rather, it was more of a pocket world inside the mountain.  A small hidden realm that she would visit from time to time. To get there you first find the cave covered by thick wisteria vines.  The wisteria looks different throughout the year so being able to spot the entrance was sometimes tricky. Today for instance, the early summer blooms and wide green leaves left only the tiniest fairy sized gap for her to fly through.  She moved along the tunnel passageway, dark and full of smooth round rocks the color of the night sky. After a bit of walking and climbing, she had come up to a spot where the cavern roof was split and revealed dappled sunlight that seemed to drip to the rocky path beneath her feet.  A few steps up some moss-covered stairs that felt like they were put there centuries ago led her the rest of the way into the Radish Flower valley.     

Here in this place, the radish flowers flourished all year long and the green seed pods were giant and crunched so loud that the ladybugs’ legs quivered like they’d heard thunder. The Radish Flower Fairy laid for a moment more, savoring the last minutes before sunlight, reveling in the smell and the sounds the earth makes when it first wakes up in the morning.  One final exhale and she was up, hands running through what seemed like endless flower bushes.  She dug her toes into the dirt and stretched her arms as far as they could go in opposite directions and in each hand grasped a seed pod.  She paused with a brief moment of appreciation for the plant before plucking them off and biting into them ceremoniously.  The crunch was the first thing that tickled her senses.  It boomed in her ears and made her delighted to be alive.  The corners of her lips curled upward and she danced as she crunched on more, letting the peppery and earthy taste fill her mouth.  After filling up on the seed pods, the Radish Flower Fairy shifted her attention to the flowers, picking one of every hue from deep amethyst through faded blush and all the way to palest moonlight.  She laid them out on her hand to sample. Each one must taste different, she reasoned, but by the time she popped the second flower on her tongue, she realized their flavors were all the same. However, if she closed her eyes, she could see with her mind’s eye which color flower she was eating. In fact, if she focused just enough she could see the color of the petal in her mouth exploding in a firework display.  Not a particularly helpful bit of magic, but a bit of magic nonetheless, she thought. 

After indulging in a few more handfuls of flowers as the sun peeked over the mountain, she decided her time in the valley had been well spent.  She weaved some of her harvest of radish flowers into a garland for her brother who was leaving  on expedition. From her studies on plant lore, she knew that blooming radish offered its wearer protection and she’d hoped it would do the same for her brother.  The garland looked fit for a prince, she thought and tucked it away safely.  

 The Radish Flower Fairy had spent a lovely and peaceful morning in the valley, but it was time for her to head home.  She knew the next time she visited, the radish flowers would still be ready for her.