Stephanie Allen Crist

Once upon a time, a very long time ago, there was a world so full of magic that it brought forth creatures great and small, mighty and masterful, of so very many kinds that no one kind could hold on to power for too very long. The magic that filled this world demanded balance. While great power was often placed in the hands of a mighty few, there were always many others whose power seemed too small to matter, and yet, in time, the many would come together and displace the powers of those few with something new.

This game was played again and again, over billions of years, with creatures of all kinds. In every era, one race would dominate all others and yet, in doing so, each one brought about their own fall. Each era the races must learn their own lesson, for they would not learn from those who rose and fell before them.

In this world of magic, fairies were small creatures contending against great powers that often overwhelmed and subdued them. For millennia, these beautiful beings were forced to do the bidding of the Faire Folk, who dominated all others until, at last, the fairies and leprechauns put aside their differences and joined forces to demand their freedom. Of course, it was a battle they couldn’t possibly win. But it was inspiring. The gnomes, whom nobody liked, but nobody disliked enough to kill, joined in. That’s when the battle changed.

Gnomes had never been considered a threat by anyone. All they ever really did was tend their gardens. The greater beings had to bully them into doing anything else. It didn’t take much. Destroy their precious garden once, then allow them to replant it, and they would run just about any errand you asked to keep you from destroying it again. Gnomes never fought back! They were gnomes. Fighting was not in their nature.

Gnomes ran every errand they were asked to perform, just as they’d always done. So, the greater beings were unaware of the change in their allegiance. With one small exception. After they ran their errand, before they raced back to their garden, they popped in on Grandma Meadowedge, told her their errand, and then went on their way. Then, once a day, a leprechaun or a fairy would stop by for tea. Such a simple thing was beneath the notice of the powerful few, so nobody noticed if the fairy or leprechaun got an earful along with their tea. But all those little secrets made a world of difference. Beneath the Faire Folk’s very noses, the smaller folk worked together in secret to pull off a great surprise. The Faire Folk were defeated at last by the least of their subjects.

Now, this might seem like the same old game. But this time things would be different! They wouldn’t treat those they defeated with contempt. They wouldn’t bully all the other creatures just because they could. Fairies, leprechauns, and gnomes would work together to make sure every being, great and small, had an opportunity to live in peace together. But theirs was not the only surprise.

Man spread so quickly nobody really understood the threat they posed until it was too late. They’d been so busy fighting amongst themselves, they’d barely noticed the interloper at all. Man was weak! Too few of them had any real power for them to make a difference in the grand scheme of things. And those who were powerful died so quickly, with their short human life span, that they died before ever really tapping into the depth of that power. Nobody considered man a threat. Even gnomes could best men more often than not.

None of the races understood the strength of man, any more than the greater beings had understood the strength of those smaller beings they used so thoughtlessly. Men lived their short lives with such ferocity that their impact was undeniable, but they never lasted long enough to actually make an intentional difference. We never imagined what our magical world would do to balance that. So many of the great beings had been great because of their longevity, they didn’t really understand that the balance to longevity was fertility. They saw that it was so, but they did not understand the advantage of fertility until they were already overrun.

Man did not need intentionality to thwart the beings who had fought so hard to be free of oppressive power. Man did not have to try very hard at all! Man lived, bred, and died so quickly, they covered the earth, destroying the places others had controlled for millennia by their numbers alone. They were like reckless children that never grew up and yet they seemed to reproduce in the blink of an eye.

Ever before, all beings coexisted. Not peacefully, of course, but enduringly so. The era of Man was different. So the whisperers said. Man would come to within a single breath of destroying everything for everybody. Nobody knew which way they would tip in that breath. Enduring that was pure madness! Or so the whisperers claimed.

Fairies weren’t alone in their concerns. Everyone knew that man was not yet ready to share their world with them. Nobody had prepared for their rise. Man would destroy them all because men had never learned to share. They didn’t seem capable of it. So, all the kinds gathered together and demanded intervention. Man must be stopped.

The Goddess smiled upon them, but the sad glint in Her eye reminded each of them that they had not been keen to share either. “The will to choose for yourselves is Our most powerful gift,” the Goddess said, “which means it is also the most perilous one. We will not deny Man that gift, any more than We denied it to you. Nevertheless, We do not take your gift from you, simply because We also give it to another. What would you choose?”

Nobody knew quite what to say to such a grand offer. They took their time and conferred amongst themselves and amongst each other, breaking off into groups when they encountered a different way of thinking. In the end, there were many clusters of people, but most of them were divided into two larger camps, each with its own cluster of folk that didn’t quite agree with either side. The Goddess was not surprised to see this, nor was She surprised to see that nobody had sorted themselves by kind, only by desire.

“So, tell me,” the Goddess said to the largest of the groups, “what do you choose?”

An especially inconspicuous gnome was pushed to the front to face the Goddess. He dug the toe of his shoe into the dry ground until Grandma Meadowedge nudged his shoulder with the tip of her rose thorn cane. He shook himself and looked up into the face of the Goddess. “I, um, I mean.” He squared his shoulders and with a jaunty two-step, he bowed before the Goddess. “Pardon me, Beloved Mother, for the weakness of my words. But it has been pressed upon me to petition you for our own world, some place we can wait out the humans. We’ll come back and help clean up just as soon as they destroy themselves. Shouldn’t take but a few centuries, I imagine. Until then, we want to spend our days out of their way altogether.”

The Goddess scanned the large camp of denizens who nodded in agreement with the little gnome. “This is possible, though not quite as you might imagine. There is no other world in all of creation that can support all of you. The world that will sustain the mighty dragons will not be hospitable for any of the little folk. In fact, there is no world where two races can endure together to wait out the humans. You will all be in a world all of your own.”

Many in the group marveled at the thought with delight sparkling in their eyes. A small number glanced hesitantly at a friend or lover, but resigned themselves to the loss. A few others slipped away to join a different group, in the hopes that they might stay together.

Those who agreed with the Goddess’s terms lined up to take their trip according to their nature. Fairies went to Fairyland. Dragons went to Dragonworld. Leprechauns, Gnomes, and Sprites each got worlds of their own, as did each denizen according to their kind. And it was done.

The Goddess turned to the next largest camp of denizens. “What is it that you choose?”

A unicorn bent a knee and touched the tip of its iridescent horn to the earth. We want the means to hide that no art of man may ever find us, the unicorn said in its mind so that it might be heard by all. We will not be driven from our world, as those others were, yet we want to be free of men until their time passes.

The Goddess nodded Her respect to the unicorn. “Your request is wise, but it is not an easy gift to grant without hindering the free will of men. If you wish to hide from men, you must take no part in their affairs. You must not involve yourself in any way in the activities of men, for once you do, you will be knowable to them. If one who is knowable ever provides man with proof of its existence, man will try to find a way to find all others and We will not hinder them. Do you accept this cost?”

For some, this seemed like an easy restriction to abide by, and they readily agreed. They wanted nothing to do with men! But others understood that man would cover the earth in time and staying uninvolved would become nearly impossible. A few found the idea of doing nothing in the face of what they feared men would do too appalling to agree to, so they slipped away.

The Goddess blessed each of those who remained with the ability to hide from Man, each according to their nature, until they all faded away unseen.

The Goddess turned to each of the smaller groups in turn. One by one, their requests were granted, and they went their way. Each choosing their own way to endure what was to come.

Finally, the Goddess turned to a little undine who stood all alone. “What is it that you choose, young one,” the Goddess asked.

“I want to be different,” the little undine said in a cool, rippling voice. “I don’t want to have to see what men will do and do nothing. I don’t want to have to hide from them either. I want to pop up when they least expect it to remind men how little they really know about their world, so that maybe, just maybe, they might not destroy it all after all.”

“Very well,” the Goddess said. “I give you stewardship of the platypus. This simple creature will defy the laws of men, without defy any laws at all. Guard these creatures well that they ignite the memory of magic in the minds of men. For the time will come when Man will forget his Mother and the magic that makes him possible. And yet the platypus will remain.”