[Anninja]: 428.14th of April.Chapter 3

...A moment later she felt her father laying heavily on her shoulder. Neva hadn't expected it, so she fell on the floor. "Oh, sorry," her father said. While sitting on the ground, Neva looked up in her father's eyes with a big smile. Father, too, smiled. But right after he got serious. "I've waited long for this moment. The director looked me up in the hospital. He let me tell you everything I know." Neva prepared for a long story.

"You should know a bit about fairies. We are guardians, only our men. Our family has long been guardians for the family Vitols. I guarded their child Krista, but I lost my powers, as you know. There is no free male fairy in our family anymore, so, I guess, you'll have to become her guardian in my place. You won't be either the first or the last girl fairy to be a guardian. The girls aren't worse at all- Jeanne D'Arc- a girl well-known to humans- had a girl guardian... Krista is a lot like you, Neva.She is good at everything that concerns brain at most. But what she likes is art..." They both smiled. Neva really loved to play flute, but in all the concerts or competitions she was the best only among the pupils of her teacher. Ligo had a bit more to tell his daughter, but he decided to wait. "Come," he said, "We have to establish a connection between you both. Show me a place you like the most. Without many humans." Neva smiled a devilish smile. Her father knew. "We better go there by car, besides, your powers have to have a more intensive training since now on." What he meant by training, Neva understood when she saw a pile of scrap metal in the garage. "An approximate shape and an ability to turn the lights on should do. Hand management would be nice, too. I'll drive," Her father said, as if testing. Neva had no objections to manipulate scrap metal. She hadn't done anything like that before, except blending some pieces of "lego" in one. This shouldn't be different...

Exhausted Neva and her father had driven to the beach. The sea looked beautiful, despite what had happened. The sun had just set and the clouds were deep red. Beautiful!
"Such a nice place," Ligo said, "I, too, used to come here. The nice sight will help you. Calm down. Call for Krista, not aloud. When she notices you, make her know you will guard her." Further explanations weren't needed. Neva looked at the horizon and stopped moving.

Krista was sitting at her desk, drawing- she had just returned home from the art class. There were many thoughts in her head. This time she couldn't concentrate thoughts on her work. Perhaps that's why she will never be like Vita. Krista thought that wonders were an arm's reach away. She thought that something serious depends on what she's thinking. When thinking of miracles lately, all that came in her head was Neva. "But what if she's not an elf?"- the thought stroke her out of nowhere -"Perhaps she is a different magic being? Or perhaps she is my guardian? It could be..." Krista returned to drawing, her head clear of all the disturbing thoughts.

Neva woke up. It was darker, seemed like she had been away for long. "What time is it?" the fairy asked. "Six o'clock. In the morning. You fell asleep. But I understand you. Yesterday must have taken all your energy." "Did you sit here all night?" Neva asked. "I brought you home," father smiled, "I slept, too, but I got enough sleep in the hospital. I woke up an hour ago. Come, I made breakfast for you. It's quite tiring the human way..."

On the table were pancakes and sandwiches. Only now Neva realised what had happened in the last day. All the food disappeared as if it was never there, with only a little help from the elder fairy.

"Father, when I was in Krista's thoughts yesterday... Are all mortals like that? And what exactly is the job of the guardian fairy?" Neva questioned. Father replied: "Many mortals are like that, but almost all of them get over it. That Krista wants to believe in wonders so badly is nothing uncommon, but it won't change if you don't interfere. From this moment on you must become Krista's Sanity. You can contact her, get to know her, even be friends, but she must not know too well that you really exist, or where do we live. You can tell her anything the others may know. But she must still believe that you, perhaps, come from her imagination. From now on you should devote all your free time in making Krista's mind better. Hers is good to handle. In these thirteen years I have succeeded to turn at least a bit of her consciousness down to earth. Until then she thought politeness and order were the best things ever, and that she shouldn't even talk with people not like that. But you have more time. Good luck in school! Try not to fall down the chair!"

The last words made Neva's head spin. It was Monday! And, for mortals, her father was away in New York, for buisness. Why can't fairies make a school for their children? Why hide the powers- and wings, though, because of her mistake, she didn't have to worry about THAT anymore- to go to that damned school? With her talent and way of thinking Neva learnt it all fast, in the beginning. Poor Krista, she thought, I, at least, train magic in the lessons, I wonder what she does? Neva dressed up, hid her wings and packed the bag fast. Then she remembered she hadn't got the wings. She yelled back a "No!" to her father's suggestion to simulate and have a rest, and was gone.

She must tell all this to Lea! Lea was the other fairy in Neva's grade. The rest were humans. They weren't the best friends, but they could still tell each other more than they could to humans. The two weirdoes of the class. Lea was the "lunatic" and Neva was the "know-all". Sometimes these names hurt, but father had said- "People that think they have judged the person from their first days' behavior, are at a lower level. Isn't it all the same what lowers think of you?"

Both Krista and Neva arrived in school. They sat by their desks that were 50 km apart, slammed the books on the table and lay their heads on the desk. Neva made a contact with Krista. Must know what she thinks. Get to know her. One can't tell everything from the first contact.

...Good. Krista's lessons have started, too. She, too, is sleeping. Imagining things. That's what she usually does. And her thoughts turn to me again...
"Krista!"
"Hi, Neva!... Those fantasies are getting wilder and wilder... Now I'm talking to myself!"
Neva turned Krista's thoughts back.
"Perhaps Neva is my guardian angel. Guardian fairy?..." Krista smiled at the thought. She tried to imagine Neva. Taller than her, eyes- yellowy brown, a peaceful smile, hair... Long, dark. And beautiful, big wings. Blue. Leather wings...

Now was Neva's turn to smile. She was lying on her desk, and all her classmates saw a girl who stood in sports lessons as the third from the shorter end, stared out of the window with her dark brown eyes, whose dark, short hair were made up in a ponytail. Now she was smiling. Neva laughed at Krista's naivity. She was her imaginary friend. She
wasn't going to change her looks in Krista's thoughts. Blue leather wings! Who'd have thought something like that! While she had ones, they were ordinary, white and feathered- as a bird's. Neva wasn't beautiful at all.

Something must have gotten to Krista.
"Yeah, I am so naive... Perhaps Neva isn't pretty at all. But still- No matter how she looks.

Krista stopped thinking. The idea of Neva made her feel safe, but sleepy. She had a feeling as if she had wings herself. Big, to cover her as a blanket. Strong as steel. But light as a feather. The girl knew she was being guarded. Although she felt self confident and able to defend herself, Krista liked the thought of a guardian fairy.
Neva wanted to yell and throw things around. Krista was awaiting too much out of her. The fairy barely could get hold of her own life...
* * *

It was Monday again. Krista went to buy a newspaper. Vita had called that she won't be walking with her and Reinis- she must devote more time to drawing. "How can she?" Krista asked herself, "I, too, must take more time for drawing... But not all day long!" "...No, I could do all day, too. What the others can do, I can, too!"