The Keeper And The Firefly

By GeAnn Powers

In a world where learning and reading are forbidden, the fairy princess Ariel is taking huge risks to explore the knowledge avaliable among the elves she’s befriended on the other side of the valley.

As she becomes more entwined in their world, Keeper the patriarch of her new band of friends, warns Ariel of the dangerous path she's on and reveals a shocking truth about her own family.

Ariel is left with a difficult choice. Should she return to the barbarian, illiterate security of her colony, or continue risking everything in her attempts to quench her awakened thirst for knowledge?

In this captivating tale of alliances and self-discovery, Ariel and Keeper form an unlikely pact that will change their lives forever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Next Chapter
• Release date: May 15, 2023

Book preview

Types of Elves and Fairies

Hopper: 5-6 ½ inches tall. Type of pixie. Has pointed ears, and travels by leaping (or flying on birds). Can read others by sense of touch.

Flyer: 5-6 inches tall. Winged fairy. Has antennae and wings that retract and fold against the back.

Wood Sprite: 6 ½-8 inches tall. The giant elf. Has a spotted body. Can read plants and the earth for tracking purposes. Also phases into items and travels through organic matter, but not rock or metal.

Water Nymph: 5-6 ½ inches tall. Travels in water. Has fur, gills, whiskers, webbed fingers and toes, and a serpentine tail. Can talk to fish and aquatic animals.

Gnome: 5-6 ½ inches tall. Does not have pointed ears. Can talk to most animals and uses them for transportation (generally flies on birds).

The Two Communities

Plains’ Keepers: Elves who make up the main community. These peaceful elves have an alliance to work together and protect the valley. Most are on friendly terms with fellow elves of all types.

The Colony: The flyer clan which are Ariel’s people. This barbaric community lives together in an old barn on the outer edge of the Plains’ Keeper territory. The women and children in the clan have few rights. Reading, as well as socializing with non-flyers, is strictly forbidden and punishable by death.

The Main Cast of Characters

THE RAPHA: (THE HEALERS)

Basil: 20. General practitioner Rapha. Hopper. Best friend to Dill.

Dill: 22. Surgeon Rapha. Hopper. Best friend to Basil.

Thyme: 25. Physical therapist Rapha. Water nymph. Lives with his widowed sister, Aquilla and her children Abraham (Brahm) and Sarah.

Rosemary (Rosie): 26. Pediatric Rapha. Married to Sage. Gnome.

Sage: 26. Geriatric Rapha. 2 nd in charge of Raphas. Wood sprite.

Keeper: Rapha leader and head of the Alliance Council.

Peter: 15 Keeper’s apprentice. Hopper.

OTHER PLAINS’ KEEPERS COMMUNITY MEMBERS

Tanner: Leather smith. Wood sprite. Best friend to Keeper.

Grandma Rachel Love: Seamstress. Gnome. Friend to Tanner and Keeper. Aunt to Rosemary.

Hope (a gnome 9) and Faith (a hopper 7): Grandma Love’s apprentices.

Hallow: Council Member. Hopper. Antagonist to Keeper.

The Widow Weaver and her children: Ezekiel, Rachel, Johnathan, Samuel, Eve, Timothy, and Jacob.

THE FLYERS: (WINGED FAIRIES)

Ariel: 15. student to Basil and friend to the Rapha. SkyKing’s unmarried, youngest daughter.

SkyKing (Beetle): Leader of the flyer colony. Father to Ariel, Breeze and Windy. Widowed.

Breeze: 19. SkyKing’s oldest daughter. Married to Thorn, mother to Sky (2) and Storm (6 months)

Thorn: Husband to Breeze. Next in line as leader of the flyers.

Storm: infant son to Breeze and Thorn. Heir to kingship over flyer colony. Sickly.

Windy: 17. middle daughter of SkyKing. Married to Monarch, mother to Moon (3 months).

Monarch: Married to Windy. Third in line as leader.

Dragon: Ariel’s would-be suitor.

CHARACTERS FROM THE BOOK OF ELYON:

Elyon: The Most High God of all. Greatest of The Three Great Ones

Logos: The Word and Elyon’s Son. Creator of everything. Second of the Three Great Ones.

Spirit: The Giver of Life. Third of the Three Great Ones.

Guardians: Servants of the Three Great Ones, created to care for all of creation.

Balial: The deceiver. Former head of the guardians who led a rebellion against the Great Ones. He and his followers (1/3 of all the guardians) were cast down to earth as punishment.

Man: Greatest of The Great Ones’ creations. Has the ability to reason.

Ariel and the Bee

Chapter 1

A Flyer Named Ariel

3RD WEEK OF MAY

What will I learn today? Ariel wondered.

It was a question the young fairy had asked herself every day for the past month and a half: What will I learn? Oh, what will I learn?

She’d rarely asked that question before. In her fifteen years living in her colony, she couldn’t remember ever waking up excited for the new day. Usually, she’d open her eyes knowing the dawn only brought hunger and dread. But since she’d met Basil…

Oh, Basil! The clever young elf who had risked his life getting her out of a spider’s web and gotten bit himself! She’d rescued him and helped him get home. In exchange, he’d taught her to read. NO ONE in her colony could read. It was forbidden. But SHE knew how. She had to keep that treasure hidden from the others, but oh! What a wonderful treasure to have!

Ariel belonged to a tribe of Fairies. They were tiny folk, only about five to six inches in height, and the whole colony lived together in the abandoned barn on the back corner of the buffalo ranch. Flyers they were: fairies with wings and antenna. But, other than their similarity in size, they were very different than the friends she had met mere weeks ago.

So, what will I learn about today? she wondered again. Ariel rolled over and stared out of the gap between two boards in the wall of the dilapidated old barn. It was still dark outside. Much too early to leave, but oh! She was too excited to go back to sleep! What will I learn today?

Her thoughts drifted to Basil. Basil wasn’t a flyer; he was a hopper who traveled in leaps and bounds instead of flying. That was, until he got bit. He flew a lot now by riding on meadowlarks. Ariel’s colony didn’t know how to tame birds like Basil could. Wonderful Basil who taught her to read and cook and even to make fire! How Ariel LOVED cooked food! Her colony didn’t know how to make fire and they rarely had enough to eat.

The tiny sparrow-sized fairies would scurry to find enough: roadkill mice and birds, small rodents the hunting parties might take down – if they were lucky that day – and the scraps found in the human trash bins behind the farmhouse. That was her colony’s existence. But Basil! Basil and the other elves – most were no bigger than the fairies, but how different their lives were!

Ariel closed her eyes and tried to imagine Basil’s home under the sandstone slab by the river. Labels for each item jumped into her mind: table, chair, dishes, fork, spoon. Fireplace, bed, pillow, quilt, rocking chair, cupboard, closet, clock. And her favorite word of all: book! Six weeks ago, she had no idea what these things were, but now! Now…oh what will I learn today?

Ariel thought about Dill, Basil’s best friend. He was a hopper too. He and Ariel hadn’t liked each other at first, but he’d helped her with her reading too. And he’d taught her how to make something called lasagna.

Basil had other friends: Rosie the gnome was Ariel’s favorite. She was married to a huge tree sprite named Sage. And they all had another friend named Thyme who was a river sprite.

Basil, Dill, Rosie, Sage, and Thyme.

Those were the friends, and they were all medicine men.

No, that wasn’t right. They were healers. No. What was the word? Rapha! They were Rapha! She’d only been away from them for a few hours, and she’d nearly forgotten the word. Rapha, Rapha, Rapha. She said the word over and over again in her mind so she wouldn’t forget it again. They were the Rapha, the doctors for the plains people. His people. Not hers, though. Not for the flyers.

Ariel lay there on the rabbit pelt she and her father shared as a bed. That was one item the two of them owned. Her father had a knife. Ariel had a pocketknife Basil had given her and she kept it hidden in her sash. There was the bead necklace from Basil’s friend Tanner. Her father and she each had a spear. And that was it. That and the hollow cinderblock they called their space was the total of their possessions. And Ariel’s father, SkyKing, was the leader of their colony. Leader of a ragged band of fairies who were so poor they owned little more than the clothes on their backs.

Oh, when will it be morning so I can leave? the princess pleaded to the dark blue sky. She had no friends here. When you were hungry, friendship was a luxury that was too risky. Loyalty could be bought with a chunk of meat and as easily broken for a crumb of bread. But Basil’s friends had fed her well every day. They had plenty of food! And they didn’t dig through garbage. They knew how to cook and store food and there always seemed to be more than enough when they invited her to join their meals.

A streak of violet bordered the horizon. Dawn would finally break soon.

Get out quickly, Ariel reminded herself. It’s easier to slip away without any questions.

The young fairy stealthily rose from the rabbit pelt, careful not to disturb her father. She picked up a scrap of mouse fur and began tying it around her foot. She wished she had real boots, like Basil had. His were leather with soles and boot hoops. They stood up even when no one's feet were in them, much more appealing than the hides Ariel wore, tied to her legs with rawhide strips.

Where do you go every day?

Ariel froze immediately. She recognized her father’s voice. The question had been hardly above a whisper, but she’d heard it clearly. Slowly, she resumed tying the laces.

Ariel? There was a hint of warning in his voice. He expected an answer.

The girl shrugged.

I don't go anywhere in particular, she lied. I just like to go exploring.

You're gone all the time, Ariel! her father chastised. You leave with the sunrise and are not even home for meals! The women are starting to talk. They are beginning to think you’re odd!

Again, she shrugged. I don't care what they think. I like being on my own and I can find my own food. She felt to make sure the pocketknife was hidden in her sash. Every time she felt it, she was reminded of how kind Basil’s friends were and how self-absorbed her own colony was.

No one really misses me here anyway, she commented.

Her father propped himself up on one elbow and stared at the girl.

I do, he finally admitted.

Ariel hadn't expected that response. She turned and looked longingly at the flyer leader.

Do you really, Daddy? she asked. At times, she missed him.

He scoffed and sat up. You’re the only one around here I trust.

Ariel stared at him, open mouthed. He caught her expression and shook his head.

Look around, Ariel, he growled in a low voice. The elders only want to control me; the young men want to replace me. The women are so conditioned by their men they don’t even dare look at me, and the kids fear me. Who does that leave I can talk to?

She was staring at him again, her eyes so wide she feared they might fall out.

But… she stammered. I’m just a girl. I’m a nobody.

He nodded and grinned at her.

And that’s why I trust you.

Ariel's face fell. So, his trust was only because she was safe. Not because she was his daughter. Not because he loved her. Ariel wished she could tell her father about Basil and learning to read, and all the wondrous things she. She longed to trust him and make him a safe place to share her secrets. But no, she was learning things that were forbidden. No one was allowed to read, least of all an underaged girl. Her dad, the leader of their colony, would probably be the unsafest place of all.

I wish I could take you with me, she finally said.

And where is that?

Someplace very special, but no one would understand.

SkyKing looked at his youngest daughter. He remembered the steal knife she’d brough him – so unlike the glass shard ones their colony used. She wore a beaded necklace she’d claimed to have found. No one else in the colony had anything similar. She was never home anymore. The starved, hopeless look so common to the youngsters in their colony had disappeared from her eyes, and she appeared as if she was getting enough food for once. Where was she going? What was she doing? And why wouldn’t they understand if she told them? A warning went off in SkyKing’s mind. He realized he didn’t want to know what his daughter had been doing after all. For some reason, he knew it was safer if he didn’t know. Instead, he nodded out into the barn, and she followed his eyes. The colony around them was beginning to stir.

If you’re trying to get away unnoticed, you should probably leave, he cautioned.

She nodded.

I'll see you tonight, Daddy! Ariel promised, and with that grabbed up her spear and left.

He stared after her as the girl snaked through her stirring cousins to an open space where she could spread her wings and take to the air. The princess flew up to the hayloft door, past Dragon who stood on duty there, and was gone into the sunrise.

Dragon watched her for a few seconds and then flew down to his leader.

Should I follow her, Sire? he asked, hopeful.

SkyKing stared at Dragon. Of all the members of the tribe, he was the most likely to be married off to the king’s youngest daughter. What was Ariel doing? Would her potential husband approve? SkyKing didn’t even have to consider this. Just about anything Ariel did would not be approved by the likes of one such as Dragon. In a little over ten months, Ariel would be sixteen and he would have to marry her off to such a brute as Dragon. Then she would be subject to her husband’s whims. But that wasn’t happening for nearly a year. For now, she was still under his protection.

SkyKing shook his head. Go back to your guard duty.

Dragon was disappointed but obeyed.

Whatever it was that his youngest daughter had found out there, she was looking happier than SkyKing had ever seen her. No, it was better for now to not know. He trusted his daughter. At this time, his trust would have to be enough.

Chapter 2

The Second Spider

3RD WEEK OF MAY

Ariel landed outside Basil's door as the birds were awakening and the shadows were contemplating creeping off to bed. Above his door was the word Rapha. Ariel went through the door and ran down the entry hall. The door at the other end was open, but the princess knocked anyway. That was part of their agreement: a respect for privacy. It was a bizarre concept to Ariel who lived in a world without doors and people were coming in and going out without thought, but she agreed to it and was even remembering to knock without him having to send her scampering back out when she forgot.

Come in, Basil called out. Hello Ariel!

The flyer stepped into the room and leaned her spear against the wall by Basil’s coat hooks. Since she’d brought Basil home, she hadn’t hunted for food even once. But the spear continued to come with her anyway. She knew if she left it back at the barn, it would arouse suspicion.

I made you some breakfast, the homeowner said, pointing to a stack of hot cakes set at the corner of