Aria's Quest - Full to Overflowing

Section 4

Getting to Know Each Other

Part 2

Full to Overflowing

Aria ended up spending the rest of that day just following Joey around as he worked and talking with him. He seemed to drink up her stories of fairy life, and she in turn was fascinated by his stories, both about the church and about his own life. She agreed to meet him back at the next day and flew home with a mind that was full to over flowing.

Flying back home, Aria thought over her conversations that day with Joey. She had learned a lot, both about Joey, and about human life in general. Sometimes she learned the most just by the questions he asked her! The things that amazed him seemed common place to her, and she would usually turn the questions around eventually to find out how things worked in his world.

Most of what she had learned so far was surface stuff though. That was frustrating, but building relationships takes time. Aria was a little bit worried that she wouldn’t be able to find any way to help Joey, but she tried to stay confident. After all, don’t most people have at least one thing in their life that they need help with?

When Aria got back to the apartment she had a pleasant surprise, Robyn had come over for dinner! “Robyn, Darryl, Gina! Wait until I tell you what happened today!” Aria said once she got done saying hi to everyone.

“Did you drink more coffee?” Robyn asked, teasing her.

“No silly!” Aria said giving him a little shove, “I finally met a true believer!”

“Congratulations Lassie!” Darryl said with a big grin.

“That’s wonderful Aria!” Gina added, “Now all of you gather round the table before the food grows cold and Aria can tell us all about it.”

Aria had a lot of fun that evening telling her friends about Joey. They were all really excited for her, although she noticed that Robyn got a weird look on his face when she mentioned that she’d met a male human. She didn’t really know what to think about that, so she just shoved it to the back of her mind. She could have probably talked all night, but she said her “good nights” early, she wanted to make sure she had plenty of energy for what ever the next day had in store for her!

Aria's Quest - That First Day

Hi! Welcome to my story - Aria's Quest. If your just joining in here's what you need to know:

Aria is a Woodland fairy on a quest in the city. She must find a human and find a way to make their lives better. Aria decided this would be easiest if she found a true believer, someone who already believed in fairies that she could easily converse with, and so the first part of her time in the city was taken up searching for one of those. She's finally found a true believer and now she's getting to know him and trying to figure out how she can help him.

If you want to read the back story just follow this link: Aria's Quest

Section 3

Getting to Know Each Other

Part 1

That First Day

Aria spent a long time that first day simply listening to Joey talk. They moved from the mural of angels to talking about some of the other fascinating pieces of art in the church. Aria loved to learn, so it was no chore to listen to him talk on and on.

On Joey’s part, he found himself caught between two loves. He loved to tell stories, especially when they were true, and he’d always wanted to talk to the fairies again. After awhile though, he started to feel embarrassed, he’d done all the talking! She seemed interested, but what if he was really boring her to death? They were up in the front of the sanctuary looking at an ornate carving when he finally said, “I’m sorry, your probably getting bored listening to me tell all these stories.”

“Not at all! They are very interesting. I’ve always loved to learn new things. How do you know all these stories anyway?”

“Well, I’m the janitor here, and I listen a lot. Mr. Jacobs, one of the ushers, was here when this church was first built and he loves to tell the stories behind these pieces. He comes in once a week to make sure that the pencils in the pews are sharp. Takes him a few hours because he’s moving really slow these days. I always make sure I have work to do in the sanctuary while he’s here so I can listen to his stories. Plus, well, people tend not to notice the janitor. So I sometimes learn things just as I work.” He blushed a little,” Some of that I don’t really want to know, but some of it can be pretty interesting.”

Aria laughed a little at his embarrassment, but she understood! “Back home I used to spend a lot of time reading, like I said I love to learn, and people would forget I was there because I was being quiet, so sometimes I’d overhear things that I didn’t really want to hear either!”

“So you’re not from the city?” Joey asked, curious about his new friend, although he wasn’t sure if he had the right to call her that yet.

“No, I grew up in the woodlands. I’ve only recently come to the city.”

“What was life like in the woodlands?”

So Aria began to tell him all about her woodland home, and the fairies that lived there.

Aria's Quest - Robyn has an Idea

Welcome to Aria's Quest! If this is your first time here this is what you need to know. Aria is a young woodland fairy on a quest in the big city to find a human she can help. If she's successful she can return to her tribe as a full adult. Aria's chosen to look for a true believer (one who already believes in magic and fairies) because she thinks that will make her quest easier...but finding a true believer may be harder than she thought! Read the rest of the story here. 

Section 2

Searching

Part 8

Robyn has an Idea

It was tempting to head back to “Brew it Up” again to watch the people, but Aria knew she’d become too fascinated and forget to work on her quest again. So she flew in the opposite direction today; looking for anything that might catch her eye. It was hard to know what to even look for. How do you identify a place a true believer would hang out?

True believers really weren’t that different from regular humans. They ate the same food, lived the same lives, they simply also had a belief in magic and all that accompanies that. If anything their lives were richer and full of wonder, but they still had the same needs for food, shelter, and security. 

It was a long fruitless day for Aria. She was feeling slightly discouraged by the time she got back to Gina and Darryls, but she quickly perked up when she saw who was sitting on the breakfast table. “Robyn! How are you?” She exclaimed.

“I’m doing great! How’s your quest going?”

“Well…” Aria tried frantically of a way to put a positive spin on the situation.

“That well eh?”

“Well it’s not that it’s really going bad, I just haven’t found anyone yet.”

“And that’s not bad?”

“Well, ok, yeah it is, but I’ve been learning a lot and figure that has to be good right?”

Robyn laughed, “That’s a great way to look at it! What have you learned about?”

“Coffee!!!”

Robyn started laughing so hard he fell from the edge of the table and hovered next to it, still shaking with laughter. “And what did you learn about coffee?”

“Oh it’s wonderful! Your Mom made me some for breakfast this morning. Well not for breakfast, there was food too, I think.” Aria broke, off slightly confused, “I know I ate something! Anyway, it was really good, and humans drink it all the time! I don’t know why we don’t drink it back home.”

“Coffee’s a good thing to learn about I suppose. I certainly enjoy my coffee! So what are you going to try next?” Robyn asked as he settled back down on the table.

“I don’t know. I flew all over today and tried so many strange buildings. No one noticed me though. No matter what I tried. I know I should have some sort of plan other than just flying aimlessly, but I just don’t know enough about the city, so tomorrow I guess I’ll just look for more places I haven’t been.”

“Have you gone to any of the pubs?”

“What’s a pub?”

“Well you woodland fairies have ale right?”

“Of course!”

“Pub’s are places humans get together to drink ale and other strong drinks.”

“Why would I find a true believer there?” Aria asked with her nose wrinkled up in confusion. Robyn paused for a moment, distracted by how cute she looked when she did that, and then answered her.

“Well some of the pubs are designed to reflect the old countries, like Ireland, and the Irish are famous for their belief in the ‘wee folk’ as they like to call us. So stands to reason that you might find someone there.”

“Oh, well, can you tell me where some are? I’ll check them out tomorrow!”

Robyn shook his head at her. “Not tomorrow, tonight. Pubs aren’t open during the day. And I’ll do you one better than telling, I’ll take you myself.”

Aria's Quest - Finally Searching

Welcome to Aria's Quest! If this is your first time reading the story, or if you missed a few weeks, go here to catch up! 

Section 2

Searching

Part 5

Finally Searching

Aria woke the next morning, a little disorientated by her new surroundings, but refreshed from a good night’s sleep.  It would take some time for her to get used to living with the dwarves, but since Robyn had grown up with them they were accustomed to having the much smaller fairies around, and so they quickly made her comfortable. She was glad that she seemed to be settling in quickly, because she wanted to get started on her search!

To complete her quest Aria would have to find a human who needed help or who’s life she could improve, and then do so. The task sounded simple enough, but Aria knew from the stories that other people had told that it was often hard because people may say that want change in their lives, but they often resist it.  Aria had decided her task would be easier if she could find a true believer to help. True believers already believed in the magical world. Because of this it was much easier to take off the normal magical cloaking of invisibility and make yourself seen. You could still do it with non-believers, but it was much harder to convince them that their mind wasn’t just playing tricks on them. 

The night before Aria had talked with her new friends about her ideas for searching out a suitable human.  Unfortunately they weren’t used to thinking of humans in the terms of new believers. Robyn rarely ever saw a need to interact with humans, and Gina and Darryl didn’t need to worry about whether or not a human believed since they themselves could pass as humans. Despite this, they had managed to come up with a few nearby places that Aria would be able to find on her own. 

So that morning, after a pleasant breakfast with Gina (Darryl was already gone for the day), Aria set off.  Her first stop was a little shop of Celtic jewelry that was only a few buildings down from the apartment building. She planned to go in, drop the invisibility that usually surrounded her, and see if anyone noticed her flying around. 

The shop, Celtic Treasures, was full of beautifully wrought jewelry and other items. Aria was so fascinated by the knot work that she almost forgot what she was there for! She quickly came back to her mission though and dropped her invisibility. There weren’t many people in the shop, just a clerk and a couple of customers, but she hoped that their interest in things Celtic would make her more easily seen. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case.  She tried sitting on objects they were looking at, and even flying right in front of their faces, but nobody as much as blinked.

Aria was disappointed, but she knew that she would have been extremely lucky to find a true believer on her first stop.