He Could Be

Miss Sweetly pointed to a stack of loose prints.

“Each of you choose one of the pictures laying on the table, and then write me a story about it.”

David took his time as he sorted through the pile, and considered the challenge.

The forth-grader then picked out a black-and-white illustration depicting a small boy asleep in bed. The child’s head nestled on his pillow, while next to an open window, five circles of light hovered in the air. Two glowing orbs softly lit up the inside of the child’s bedroom, while three outside seemed to float in a mysterious darkened sky.

Printed at the bottom of the page, a question asked, “Is he the one?”

It took the young student longer than most to finish his chosen essay, but in the end, Miss Sweetly beamed at the boy’s imagination. David wrote,

“Once upon a time, there was a mystical forest filled with fairies, butterflies, elves, flowers, and dreams. The water was completely pure. The air smelled like roses, dandelions, tulips, and morning glories. The colors on the butterflies’ wings changed all the time, and they were born from cocoons of the flowers.

But there was only one problem: demons! Hundreds of them, making trouble everywhere. The fairies, being the guardians of the sacred forest, had to fight them off! The demons didn’t attack for fun, joy, or no reason at all, but to destroy the source that kept the fairies (only the newborn, weak, unprotected, and old) alive, and kept the demons from growing, escaping the forest, and/or releasing the greater demons.

One day, one of the elder fairies died. This meant a lot to the other fairies, and since there was no one to guard the crystal, the demons thought they could get the crystal. But when any one of them touched the crystal, the demons had a feeling of a sting, cut, shot, burn, shock, bite, and a sick-to-your-stomach feeling, all mixed together. But when they all tried together, they lifted it and took it to Shadow Forest. Then they brought it to the evil village sorcerer.

The sorcerer infected it so it would keep the demons alive and imprison the fairies, and weaken them too! Senji-make-o, the fairy village magician, used her last magic to bring Navi and Gavi, the 50% immortal, 50% mage, fairies to the mortal world to save the fairies and defeat the demons. Unfortunately, the demons had enough power to summon the most powerful demon in the universe: Omega, destruction itself!

The battle between the two was sad and obvious: Omega would win.

But very weakened (and cut in the wing), the fairies luckily knew a secret: Omega can only be beaten by the one with a pure heart.

And so their search began.

Their search took them everywhere; the Mystic Mountain, the Bottomless Sea, Moonshine Palace, and even the Never Ending Tunnels! Finally, when they thought there was nowhere else to look, they realized: We haven’t looked in the village!

But when they got there, they were too late; the village was destroyed! They searched and searched, but there was only one house standing and unharmed.

“This must be it,” Navi and Gavi agreed, entering the house.

Navi searching the right of the house, found only one bedroom. Gavi, searching the left of the house, just began his search when he heard Navi calling him.

“Gavi! Gavi! Come quick!” Navi called.

Gavi came.

Both fairies paused, making a blank silence.

Then Navi asked Gavi,

“Is he the one?”

To see the drawing that inspired young David, click on the following URL

The Mysteries of Harris Burdick