100/100 -14-

She sat on the edge of the lagoon, wiping her eyes, looking down at the paperwork. Twenty months of waiting, and it all came down to a single piece of paper, stamped, sealed and signed. She had been to court, she pleaded her case. A rabbit hopped over to her, nudging a daisy.

“You can always reapply.” Said the rabbit. “This isn’t the only court, and you –are- a refugee. Nearly anyone from your home is a refugee. It’s why you all come here.
She nodded sadly, her antennae bobbing. “That’s the problem. Every fairy has been chased by dragons.”

100/100 -10-

Talafiara, the queen of the fairies, sat alone in the marble garden atop the Harold Washington library. At every corner of the building, the great Bronze Owls searched the city and beyond. Beneath her, the amassed knowledge of the world was stacked in half a dozen layers, hovering over a glyph that contained the city’s past and future. Her guards wandered the stacks disguised as hipsters and the homeless. She bit the nail of her thumb as she curled tighter on her throne, eyes searching every entrance. She might return. The girl who said fairies were nonsense. She just might…