Wings

When Mariposa was seven years old, she felt her wings break.

She was in her room, reading when she was suddenly unable to move. Then the pain hit her. She had no idea what was causing her so much pain. All she knew is that she wanted it to stop.

It was only then that her parents told her about soulmates.

Knowing that it wasn't her pain she was feeling made her feel a little bit better about feeling it. But also knowing that her soulmate, the person she was fated to be with, was in that much pain arguably hurt her a little bit more. However, her parents assured her they would be alright. And, after a while, the pain disappeared. So Mariposa thought that their wings were healed and hoped that they were more careful while flying this time.

That's what she assumed happened, for she never felt any pain from her wings again. She only ever felt what she considered to be paper cuts on her hands from her soulmate after that.

And, after that, she rarely thought about her soulmate. That was until she met Prince Carlos. She will admit that she may have had a small(read: Huge) crush on him. But that wasn't important at the time. She had to focus on getting the antidote for the Queen. She couldn't let a cute boy get in the way of that.

It wasn't until a few days after the ceremony when she started to think about her soulmate again. But this time, she had a face to match it to, hopefully. Whenever she thought about her soulmate, she imagined those greenish-blue eyes, that coffee-colored hair, and those long petal-shaped turquoise wings. She began to hope, wish, plead, whatever that it was him.

But it seemed that the universe was against her.

She was sitting with Carlos in the library, reading one of the new books that had just arrived when she got a paper cut. "Ouch!" She yelped in pain.

Carlos immediately looked over. "Are you okay? What happened?" He asked, concern in his eyes. But he didn't look like he felt any pain at all.

"Oh, it's just a paper cut. Nothing to worry about." Mariposa replied, pressing into her paper cut subtlety. She flinched imperceptibly in pain but watched Carlos see if he had any reaction to it.

When he didn't even glance down at his hand, Mariposa knew that he wasn't the one. She went home that night and cried against her pillow.

But she got over it, it took a few weeks, and some encouragement from Willa, but she got over it. Mariposa knew that her soulmate was still out there, and she wanted to find them.

She gave up on finding them Flutterfield after a few weeks. She had looked everywhere and watched everyone's reactions when she pinched herself, but no one ever reacted. She had thought she had found them a couple of times, but when she double-checked, it always turned out that it was a false alarm, either the person's pain or from their actual soulmates.

Mariposa started to entertain the idea of her soulmate maybe being in one of the far-off fairylands, like the Magic Meadow. And the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. Even though she was an outcast for the majority of her life, she still knew almost everyone. Maybe not by name, but she knew them. And she could not remember anyone her age having broken their wings, a memory she remembered very distinctly.

She got her chance to check out one of them a few days later when the Queen had decided that she would be an ambassador for Flutterfield to a place called Shimmervale.

Mariposa was hesitant to go at first, not believing that she was right for the job. But after a little bit of encouragement and a gift from Carlos, she agreed and went home to pack her bags.

As Mariposa was packing her bags, she was telling Willa what she needed to do for her while she was gone, making sure to go over everything and anything.

Willa also had to help get Mariposa's suitcase altogether, as she had packed her books, but as Willa pointed out, not any clothes. It took both of them, with a little help from Zee, to get her suitcase closed and clasped shut all the way so that she could travel with it.

Mariposa made to way to the edge of Flutterfield and said goodbye to everyone, and began to make her way to Shimmervale.

She had a good feeling about that place. Something significant would happen there; she just knew it.