Stardust on the Seashore

“Stardust, stardust, little silver shimmers, Stardust, stardust, piece of moonlight’s glimmers,” sang the fairy, looking over the seashore in the moonlight. It was a dark night, with just the faintest hint of moonlight as the moon entered the waxing crescent phase, and the stars shone like diamonds against the smooth, soft dark velvet of the night sky. The breeze blew gently in from over the sea and lifted her hair into a beautiful wave of ebony behind her, and she closed her large violet eyes in ecstasy as she breathed in the delectable aroma of sea-salt and the flowers of far-off lands.

She loved coming here, to the sea. Here she could let her imagination traverse the oceans of space and time and feel herself carried into far off places and times. She loved to be alone here to enjoy the quiet solitude and serenity of the sea. Indeed, she needed this time alone to escape from her waking world.

Her delicate wings fluttered softly and she involuntarily lifted herself just slightly off the ground in her joy. The little flecks of silver light spun around her head and came to rest softly on her pale skin, where they glittered like the sky-diamonds from which they had once come.

The little fairy spun around and then skipped lightly out into the very edges of the waves. Her body trembled as she thought of how incredible it was, how old the atoms of the very water she was standing in were and how many, many miles they had traveled before they came to that one spot, just for her. She knelt in the water and skimmed her fingers gently over the surface.

“So lovely,” she thought, looking out at the reflection of the stars on the water. “I could walk on that, to wherever I want to go. Even all the way to the edge of the sea, and then cross into the sky and touch the beautiful diamonds and roll over the soft velvet, if I wanted to.” She looked around her, drinking in all the loveliness with famished eyes. “And there’s no one else here but me. All this, just for me!” She giggled in her delight and spun in the air again. She darted down the beach, half running, half flying, savoring the sensation of the quartz sand crystals beneath her feet. She kept running/flying, blissfully enjoying the freedom of running along the moonlit shore under the starry sky.

She didn’t know how long she had been running when she saw the most beautiful thing yet. A pale blue flower was quietly blooming in a dark corner under the dune. She hovered above it, looking down, and then knelt beside it and softly touched a petal. She inhaled the fragrant essence and closed her eyes in bliss, then curled up beside it and went to sleep, dreaming of little star-children taking her by the hand and dancing over the waves, pale blue flowers falling from their hands and turning into butterflies as they touched the waves.