(PORTFOLIO) Chapter Sixteen: Artifact #1

My children’s story, and first artifact, is called The Fairy and the Centaur, and belongs in my portfolio because it’s a perfect example of something I want to do with my writing: change how people think. The written word is a powerful tool for changing people’s minds, and in this story I strive both to entertain and to share a history-inspired allegory. The children who read this book won’t be old enough to remember the events that inspired it, but I hope it still teaches them to think before being afraid. To prepare it for my portfolio, I followed the advice of my classmates from our peer editing sessions and changed many sentences, in order to lessen repetition and leave out unnecessary information. I hope everyone who reads this knows that there’s nothing wrong with being wrong, so long as one learns from the experience. 

Page Number	Text
1	Copyright page
2, 3	Title page (“The Fairy and the Centaur”); Dedication page (“To everyone who was wrong.”)
4	Far away, but closer than you might think, is a great, green valley filled with thick forests, rushing rivers and crystal-clear ponds.
5	The valley is home to two kinds of people: the centaurs, half-human and half-horse, and the fairies, tiny people with dragonfly wings that zoom this way and that, leaving magic wherever they go.
6	Today, the fairies and centaurs get along very well, but it wasn’t always so. Once, not as long ago as you might think, a nasty fairy called the Lightning Fairy appeared. He had bright yellow hair that went this way and that, and angry, dark eyes.
7	The Lightning Fairy hated all centaurs. No one quite knew why, though many tried to figure it out. For whatever reason, the Lightning Fairy took a magic spell and put it in a pond where some centaurs liked to drink. He flew off, cackling away into the night.
8	The magic spell made the next centaur to drink from the pool grab his stomach and moan. A fever gripped his body, while chills shook him back and forth. Some of his friends gave him medicine, while the other centaurs wondered how he got sick.
9	“That pond has never made anyone sick before,” said the Eldest Centaur. She had long white hair, fierce eyebrows, and a strong horse half as brown as a chestnut. “Someone must have cast a spell on it!”
10	“The only people who can do that are the fairies!” called one centaur. “It was the Lightning Fairy! I saw him do it!” shouted her friend. The angry centaurs looked at their leader, and the Eldest Centaur looked back at them. “From this day forth, I declare all fairies enemies of the centaurs!” she roared.
11	Meanwhile, the fairies had captured the Lightning Fairy and taken him to their sacred home underneath a waterfall. “Send him to the Enchanted Prison!” declared the Council of Fairies. The Enchanted Prison was high up in the sky within a dark storm cloud. He wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone else there.
12	Just after the Lightning Fairy was taken away, a young fairy named the Cloud Fairy rushed in, gasping for breath. She had short black hair, and wherever she flew, wispy white clouds followed.
13	“What is it, child?” the Fairy Council asked the Cloud Fairy. She took a deep breath and said, “The centaurs are angry because of what the Lightning Fairy did! They’ve declared us their enemies!” All the fairies gasped and became very afraid.
14	Back at the centaurs’ pond, all of the centaurs were feeling very angry and, strangely enough, afraid…all except for one: the Littlest Centaur, who was feeling quite confused.
15	“Only the Lightning Fairy poisoned the pond, right?” she wondered. “So then…why are we so mad at all of the other fairies, too? It doesn’t make sense.”
16	The Littlest Centaur decided to go for a gallop in the woods to clear her head. Her tiny hooves beat against the ground. Soon she became tired and stopped for a rest near a sandy cliff overlooking a vast river.
17	That sandy cliff also happened to be the thinking spot of the Cloud Fairy, who was sitting on a rock, trying to decide what to do about the problem. How could she show the centaurs that fairies weren’t all bad? Would they ever believe her?
18	For a very long time, both of the young people sat and thought in silence, not noticing each other, struggling to come up with a good solution.
19	Twenty minutes before sunrise, when even the most playful stars were getting ready to go back to bed, the Littlest Centaur and the Cloud Fairy realized the same thing: “The centaurs are only angry because they’re afraid!” they exclaimed.
20	The Littlest Centaur and the Cloud Fairy both jumped a little, surprised to realize someone else was there. “Who are you?” asked the Littlest Centaur. “The Cloud Fairy,” said the Cloud Fairy. “I’m the Littlest Centaur,” said the Littlest Centaur.
21	“Are you centaurs really afraid of us?” asked the Cloud Fairy, once the introductions were in order. “We are,” answered the Littlest Centaur. “See, we don’t talk to fairies much. To be honest, we don’t know that much about you. So when the Lightning Fairy poisoned the pond, when he acted like he hated us…we thought you were all like that. We thought you all hated us.”
22	The Cloud Fairy listened, and thought about what her new friend had said before replying. “Well, we’re not all like him…we’ve got our bad eggs, but don’t you--the centaurs—too?” The Littlest Centaur thought of a few nasty centaurs and nodded. “Yes, we’ve got our ‘bad eggs,’ too.”
23	The Cloud Fairy and the Littlest Centaur decided they had to go explain things to everyone. The Littlest Centaur went home and told all of her friends and family to gather in a meadow, while the Cloud Fairy convinced the Fairy Council to fly there.
24	When the Eldest Centaur saw the fairies, she hissed and stomped her legs. “Why have you come here, fairies?” she demanded. “You’re not welcome here! We won’t allow you to hurt us again, not now that we know what you’re really like!”
25	The Littlest Centaur took a deep breath, then put on a fierce face and stomped her hooves to get everyone’s attention. “No,” she said bravely, “you know what one fairy is like.”
26	On the Littlest Centaur’s shoulder landed the Cloud Fairy, fluttering down and beginning to speak. She managed to be quite loud, for a fairy. “What the Lightning Fairy did was horrible,” she began, “but only one fairy did that.”
27	“He is not a good person. But that doesn’t mean all fairies are like him. We are a peaceful people, like you centaurs! We love the forest, and we love our families and friends.”
28	“Some people are nice, and some are mean. But you can’t decide someone is bad just because they’re a fairy,” the Cloud Fairy finished, gazing at the centaurs, “or because they’re a centaur.” She looked at the Fairy Council, then became silent.
29	The Fairy Council and the centaurs listened to what the Cloud Fairy had to say, and thought about it for a few moments. Then they all shook hands and decided to live as friends, not enemies.
30	From that day on, the fairies and the centaurs lived together in the great, green valley, flying and running through the woods…
31	…and it was all possible because a young fairy and a young centaur figured out something very important, and shared it with everyone they knew.
32	About the Author page.