Flower Fairy in the Snow

Anna Bella shivered under the ice-laden jonquil. She wished she were a leprechaun, with a sturdy green coat or a brownie wearing a snug coat of mouse-fur.

She was a flower fairy, wearing a jonquil bell skirt, and jonquil petal shirt with hyacinth sleeves. She tucked her bare feet more tightly under the dubious protection of her skirt, and shivered as the wind dashed a swirl of snowflakes into her inadequate den at the roots of the flower. Perhaps she could manage to cuddle a little deeper under its leaves and sleep till the sun shone again.

Anna Bella awoke to a rumble of human voices. They muttered and mumbled in her ears, but if she strained she could make out the sound. "...another one. Don't know if we can save it, but the snow blanket..." Something tugged and jostled her world, and she found herself rising with the flower she had been hiding under.

"...save the bulb at the very least..." There was motion, and then a burst of light. The plant was tucked into warm dirt, and drenched with tepid water--which, of course, meant Anna was also drenched! She gasped, then realized that the air around her was warm. Instead of sitting in a flower bed on the south side of a house, her plant was in an earthenware pot on a shelf with other plants.

The humans rumbled away, and there was a sound of a distant closing door. Anna Bella swung herself up onto the rim of the pot, and dangled her feet over the side, reveling in the warm air. She wrung out her sopping wet hair, and fanned her wings to dry them. She shook herself all over, causing the last droplets to fly off her clothing.

Now that she was warmer, her small stomach reminded her that she was hungry. All about her were flowers in varying stages of thawing out from the untimely spring storm. There would be plenty to eat if only the blossoms held. She fluttered about over the drooping posies, scattering her built-in pollen over them. Revived by her reminder that spring was truly here, the posies lifted up their heads in the warm greenhouse air.

Anna Bella took a sip of nectar from each, then settled back inside her jonquil for a well-earned nap.

She awoke again to the rumble of voices.Now that she was warm and fed, she was much livelier than she had been the night before. "Oh, look!" one of the voices said, "The flowers are all beautiful again."

Anna Bella fluttered up from her hiding place. "And there's a firefly! Don't think I've ever seen one this early. Do you think it'll stay?"

"Dunno," said the other voice, "But it sure is pretty. Good thing it isn't outside this morning."

Looking out through the glass, Anna shivered. She was glad not to outside today, too. The voices rumbled and muttered around her in a pleasant way as the humans watered and tended the plants. Anna sprinkled a little pollen on them as a polite way of saying thank you.

"Global warming, my sainted Aunt Hattie!" one exclaimed, while opening the door to the Outside.

"Doesn't look very warm today," the other voice replied. And they both laughed a hearty, gentle rumble, and went out, closing the door behind them.