"Oh, where is it?" Mildred muttered to herself as she bustled about her home, rummaging through cupboards and drawers. Each unsatisfactory search seemed to deepen the lines of her weathered face. Her once bright, green eyes had grown cloudy as age set in, but even time couldn't dull their sparkle. She had always been a smaller woman and had become stooped with age and had taken to using a cane, which clacked against the floor with each step.
The door of her cottage suddenly crashed open as a mass of bouncing red curls and a flurry of freckles bounded in.
"Good morning, Grandmother!" shouted Isa, a broad grin lighting up her fair face. "Mother said that you wanted me here today?" Isa, the smallest of her five siblings, was petite and could look her stooped grandmother in the eye.
"Don't shout! I'm old, not deaf!" old woman grumped, though there was a hint of fondness in her harsh words.
"Yes Grandmother." Isa stood a little straighter.
"Now where is it...." Mildred muttered as she resumed her search.
"Is there something I can help you find, Grandmother?"
"Ah, well- found it!" Mildred thrust a golden object she'd pulled from a drawer into the air above her head. Isa fidgeted, waiting for her grandmother to shuffle across the floor and settle into her overstuffed armchair before bounding over to sit at her feet, as she had done countless times before.
Mildred sat in silence for a spell, turning the golden object- the shape of which Isa couldn't quite see- over in her hands, a thoughtful look on her face. Just when Isa thought she would explode from curiosity, Mildred cleared her throat.
"Isa my dear, I called you here today because I have something I must give to you before I pass on." Isa tried to interrupt, but Mildred held up a hand. "There's no use denying the inevitable. I will be gone within the week."
Isa gasped. "You're not sick! Only the fae folk know-"
"Aye!" Mildred interrupted, her wizened voice suddenly loud with power. "Only the fae folk know when their time has come."
Isa looked bewildered. "But Grandmother, we're human.”
"Are we m'dear? Are we?" A twinkle lit Mildred's eyes, suddenly making her look younger. Isa nodded her head, curls quivering.
"Well, yes! We're-"
"How old am I?" The question caught Isa off guard. She hadn't realized before that moment that she had never heard her grandmother's age before.
"Beg pardon? Grandmother, I don't-"
"I'll be 253 this summer," Mildred said, her tone nonchalant. "Well, I would be." Taking advantage of Isa's uncharacteristic speechlessness, she plowed onward. "This is because I am part fairy, as are you and only you- none of your siblings inherited the gift."
"Me? But how-"
"Haven't you ever felt different? Like you don't quite fit in? Like there is so much more to what you are?"
Isa blinked. "Well, yes, but-"
"But nothing!" Mildred shouted, hurling the golden object in her hand straight at Isa's head. Isa held up her arms automatically, closing her eyes. After a moment, she realized that nothing had hit her and she opened her eyes.
In front of her was a golden, metal scarab. Its wings fluttered as if it were alive. It had a subtle aura about it that made it look like it glowed in the subdued light.
"What-" Isa begin, but Mildred once again interrupted her, a sense of urgency echoing in the air.
"You must go and you must go now!" the old woman declared, picking up a hefty backpack and thrusting it at the startled girl. "I had hoped to be here to guide you when you manifested on your birthday, but when the crow came last night to tell me of my death, I knew I had to send you away to manifest with our own kind. You show so much more potential magic in your blood- you will need guidance, guidance that I will no longer be here to give you."
Isa gaped at her grandmother. She wanted desperately to tell her that she was mad, that this was impossible, but the golden scarab still hung in front of her eyes, calling to her, whispering secrets in her heart. The truth shimmered and glowed in its golden depths. Her eyes filled with tears as her new reality hit her all at once and she rushed forward to embrace her grandmother.
"I don't want you to die." She shuddered, a barely suppressed sob racking her body.
Mildred held her close. "I will always be with you, my child. I love you. We are connected in ways that our human family can only dream of."
"My parents-" Isa began.
"Will believe that you are off on a long errand for me. None may know the truth. Follow the scarab- it will guide you to Yurdrek, the dwarf who guards the lands of the Fae. The scarab will unlock the door. There you must seek out Petal Dancer of the fairies. Tell her I sent you and show her the scarab. She will understand."
Mildred draped a heavy cloak over Isa's shoulders and pinned it with a crystal flower. Isa, still stunned, said nothing as her grandmother kissed her forehead and shoved the backpack into her arms. A click resounded through the cottage as Isa felt fate fall into place. Mildred froze.
"You may be manifesting early.” She dragged Isa across the cottage and pulled open her door, shoving her beloved granddaughter outside into the strengthening light of the sun. The scarab whizzed by them and waited, almost expectantly, at the end of the property at the head of the trail that lead into the woods.
Isa turned to her grandmother, tears running down her pale cheeks. "I love you, Grandmother." The tug of the scarab was so strong that Isa had to fight against it to stay focused on her grandmother, knowing that this was the last time she would ever see her alive again. Mildred sniffled.
"I love you too, my dear, but you must leave now. Danger will seek you out now that I will no longer be here. Go forth and discover your destiny. I believe in you."
With a final hug and kiss to her forehead, Isa set out after the scarab down the forest trail. She kept looking back until she could no longer see her grandmother's cottage. The reality she had suddenly been thrust into was insane and unbelievable, but she could not deny what she felt inside and knew that this was the right path. She followed the scarab all day as if compelled, only stopping when the scarab paused in front of a large, hollow log at sunset.
"Seems as good a place as any to sleep for the night," Isa said to the scarab with forced cheer as she began to set up camp.
***
Mildred bustled about her house, tears staining her cheeks and a deep sorrow bowing her back more than normal. She looked out the window to see the last ray of sunlight die.
"I had to do it," she sobbed, collapsing into her armchair, cane clattering on the ground.
As she wept, a shadow flitted under her door to streak across the house and rest at her feet. Distracted and unaware of the shadow, it grew in both size and darkness until it became corporeal. Quick as a whip, it slithered up her body to wrap around her throat and lift her into the air. Mildred's eyes bulged as she struggled, her sobs cut off. A faint, raspy voice came from the shadow.
"Gone is your protection, the scarab. Where is it? Where is the girl?"
"I'll never tell you," Mildred managed to gasp out, grasping at the shadow. Though it could touch her, her fingers went right through it.
"Such a pity.” With a sharp crack, Mildred's neck snapped and the shadow allowed her to fall lifeless to the floor. "No matter," it said, taking on the form of a gorgeous, raven-haired woman. "The hunt is far more fun." She laughed as she slipped out into the night, leaving the cottage door open behind her. Mildred's sightless eyes stared after her, a single, final tear falling to the floor.
After a moment, the tear began to glow. A shimmering light emerged and floated out of the cottage, following the same trail that Isa had taken just a few hours before.