Nelsia stood on her toes as she tried to reach for the wooden crooked cabinet that hung from the peeling walls. Her fingertips have barely touched even the bottom of the cabinet. When that didn't work, she tried another method, jumping. Yet every time her feet left the ground, she felt as if her jumps were getting shorter and shorter. 

She exhaled when she failed and stomped the floorboards in defeat as she scanned the kitchen. What tool could possibly be useful in this room other than dirt and moss that stuck in almost everything? It even smelled like the salty sea, unless it smelled like the sea because the window was open? Nelsia looked at the window on her left, and her thought was right. The window was open.

She quickly strode to it and looked at the landscape that stretched before her. The sage sea came galloping into the coastline and collided against the dark shore of piercing rocks like spikes that aimed at the ocean; as if guarding the island against any threat that may come. Meanwhile, the island itself was nothing but mere rocks, moss and weak bushes. There weren't living beings either. Well, except for her and her father and some fish in the sea, they were the only beings that lived on this lonely island.

She then looked up at the sky and sighed at the usual scene that floated above her. The clouds had once again blocked the sun with their presence. The only way to know if there was daylight was to see if the clouds had brightened their minty hue. If the skies darkened, then night has fallen. And she wondered when will she ever see the sun or the moon that her father spoke of. 

Before she could delve deeper into her thoughts and daydreams, the floor creaked and moaned as footsteps descended the stairs, bringing Nelsia back to reality and remembering the task she was supposed to complete. 

She hurriedly walked to the cabinet again and jumped, and then she remembered about her wings. But her father told her that she was prohibited from using her fragile wings within the household. She exhaled again and thought quickly. The chair, why hasn't she thought about the chair earlier? She ran and snatched the chair and pulled it to the cabinet, then jumped on it and finally managed to open the stupid cabinet. But a hand grabbed her wrist.

A small gasp escaped her lips as she turned to the one who caught her, and emerald eyes stared back at her. 

"Again?" he said as his slightly thick brows narrowed. 

"But dad--"

"How many times did I tell you? You shouldn't go to the kitchen by yourself! You could burn your wings!" He gently pulled her hand down so she could follow his direction and jump off the chair. 

"But I didn't even open the fire! I was trying to reach for the fishies!" Nelsia hopped off and her father dragged her out of the kitchen. 

"First of all, you meant to say you didn't open the furnace, not fire, you have to say light a fire or ignite a fire. Secondly, fish are not called fishies, they're fish! God Nelsia you're 12!" He brought her to the small dining room.

"I know, but I like to call them fishies so they could sound... Uh... Funny," Nelsia answered as her father finally let go of her hand and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Do I have to remind you a million times, Nelsia? You can't change the name of things just to sound 'funny' to you? Or to sound better for you? Or to not enter the kitchen where you could hurt yourself by accident?" He sighed then asked. "Why didn't you wake me?"

"I didn't want to because you... Always worked a lot. So I thought I'd make breakfast for us. So... It would've been rude too." She fiddled with her long sleeves. 

Her father stared at her as he raised one eyebrow. 

"Nelsia, don't tell me that you didn't wake me so you could delay my lessons?"

Nelsia looked around. "Um... No?"

He continued staring. "Did you?" He laid his hands on his hips and tapped his foot.

"No..." She repeated, trying to avoid his piercing eyes.

"Nelsia," he called her name.

She kept trying to avoid him and his tense questions, but to no avail, his eyes were already working on her, scaring her. Perhaps it was too scary for her that she has finally admitted.

"I'm sorry," Nelsia finally spoke in defeat, her shoulders slumped along.

"Well then, since when did I teach you to lie?" He tapped his foot again.

"You didn't teach me," she spoke again.

"And why did you lie to me?"

"Because I study these lessons every day, and I... I got tired of them and I wanted to do something else." She rubbed her forearm.

Silence sat between them, a silence where they stared at each other and waited for each other's response. The father was the first to reply.

"Well, you think my lessons are boring?"

Nelsia cocked her head at him. "Boring? What does it mean?"

"It means something that isn't interesting nor fun to you, so it's called being bored." He crossed his arms, then he added.

"And since you lied to me, you're going to study two lessons in one day. And as punishment, you won't go out with me to catch more fish, also," he turned to the doorway of the kitchen. "Starting today, you will never and won't be able to enter the kitchen except for me."

The father raised his arm in the air, and the green auras of a dragon swirled around his hand. Yet a moment didn't last for the small dragon on his palm went charging at the doorway at incredible speed, then it blew up into a small dome that covered the entire door. Now there was definitely no way Nelsia could go in, and that left her in awe of defeat.

The father turned back to the girl. "Now, you sit here and revise while I'll make the food. Once we're done, we'll start our class right away, understand?" 

Nelsia did nothing but nod without looking at her father.

~~~

Her entire day was filled with her usual tedious work, and that work was her class that she couldn't find any interest in. She wished and wondered if there could be anything else done besides studying and revising the lessons that were taught by her own father. And after learning this new word boring, she couldn't agree more with its meaning. She felt as if this particular word had expressed what was inside her.

Hours went by as her father kept demonstrating and explaining using his magical abilities of illusions, and the more he spoke the more she became bored with his class. What was her lesson about? Well, it was about the history of the world and where magic was found and how it was produced. Why should Nelsia care about it anyway? Why does she need to know these things if she's going to remain in this house that is rotten with wood? She never knew the answer, she never knew at all.

"Magic cannot be easily possessed," he twirled his hands as green auras floated from them and formed into a figure of a person. "Nor it is easily or quickly found. In order to find and contain magic, you need to find what resonates with you." He used his other hand to summon another form, yet this form kept shifting from an orb to a dancing flame.

"The element that resonates with you could be water, ice, earth or even possibly fire. Once you find the element that fits you, that's where you begin practising with it and learn its spells," he added. 

"Hey, Dad?" She called.

"Yes, Nelsia?" His eye twitched.

"Why do I need to learn all this stuff? What will I learn from it?"

He stood silent for a moment. "Nelsia, learning about magic is a must in this world, especially for you since you're a Faery. Faeries cannot live without magic that gives them the energy to survive."

"How so?"

Her father sighed. "They are born with it, but as I said, it can't come out immediately nor it will be easy to find. So I'm teaching you about how the system of magic works here, so you can find a way to find what resonates with you and summon it to use it."

 "But why do I need to use it? And what for?"

The father did nothing but facepalm and the figures faded away. 

"You need to use it to survive, and you need to use it as a way to find other sources of the element that fits you so you can absorb it and survive that way... Just like food and water, you can't survive without them. Do you understand now?" Her father explained, and Nelsia sat there, blankly staring at her father.

"I don't get it," she said. And her father facepalmed yet again.

Before he spoke, he sniffed the air and blew it out through his mouth. "How are you not getting it?"

Nelsia looked around before she responded. "What do you mean by other sources? Do you mean I can have more than one magic? And what do you mean by absorbing?"

He stood there staring at her with her strange questions, her questions that seemed like she wasn't paying proper attention. But he didn't mind repeating his demonstration, even though it was a pain. This time he tried to make it brief. 

"Let me make this straight, since you are a Faery, you are like a butterfly. Butterflies drink from flowers to survive. And they must find more of the same flower to drink from to survive, do you get it now?"

Nelsia hesitated for a moment, then nodded at his response. Her father was about to let out a sigh of relief when Nelsia asked again.  

"But I have one question, if I'm a Faery, then am I the only Faery? Or are there other Faeries like me?" 

From there, her father fell silent as sweat began to form and fall from his forehead. Nelsia sat on her chair and waited for his answer.