Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 Author: Invid Fan
Title: Aether Ever After
Summary: One upon a time, there was a blue skinned little girl named Ai,
who loved to pick flowers.  A Children's story
Keywords: No Sex

   **** Aether Ever After By Invid Fan (c)2012

   **** Once upon a time, there was a young girl named Ai.

   Ai lived in a magical land, which was only right as she was a magical
girl.  She had bright blue skin, short black hair, and black eyes that
danced when she laughed.  Not that she laughed often, for Ai was a quiet
girl.  She liked laughing, and dancing, though.  Sometimes she would do
both at once.

   What she liked most, though, were flowers.

   Every day, after she woke up, put on a pretty dress, ate her breakfast
and brushed her teeth, Ai would leave home and follow the path into the
woods.  She would walk under the tall, green branches, sheltered from the
hot day's sun, and look for pretty flowers growing by the path.  There were
so many!  Yellow daisies, red roses, blue violets, and many she couldn't
name.  Ai considered making up names for those, so she could call them
something besides "those pretty light blue flowers", but in the end she
didn't.  Someday she'd learn their real names.

   Ai would spend all day in the woods, eating from a picnic lunch her
Mother had made for her when she got hungry, drinking from a cool stream
when she got thirsty.  As she followed the familiar paths, she'd pick the
pretty flowers, making bouquets she could carry, or twisting the stems
together to make flower crowns and jewelry for herself.  As the sun began
to set, Ai would arrive back home, a flower princess back at her castle. 
Over dinner, she'd show her mother and father her new flowers, telling them
tales of her adventures.  Afterwards, her mom would tuck her into bed, kiss
Ai on the forehead, and tell Ai that she was more beautiful and precious
than any flower, and that her mother and father loved her.

   Ai slept, dreaming of flowers.

   ****

   There came a day, one summer, when Ai couldn't find any flowers.  She
looked, and looked, but there were none to be found near the path.

   "What could have happened?" she asked herself, a blue hand pushing aside
nearby bushes to see if any pretty plants were hiding under them.  There
were none, though.  Just grass, and mushrooms, along with worms and bugs.
Nothing pretty.  Finally, as Ai reached the stream where she often ate her
lunch, the answer came to her:

   Ai had picked all the flowers.

   Plopping down on a rock, tears started to come to her eyes.  All the
flowers were gone.  There were no more pretty petals to make into rings, or
put in her hair, or...

   She saw it, across the stream.  A house.  Had it always been there?  Ai
wasn't sure.  But, there it was.  A small, pretty, yellow house..  with a
garden full of...

   "Flowers!" Ai jumped up, eyes aglow, happy once again.  There were
flowers across the stream!  Now, her parents had told Ai to stay near the
paths, not to go deep into the woods, but they hadn't said anything about
not crossing the stream!  Grabbing the basket with her lunch tightly, as it
wouldn't do to drop it and get it wet, Ai raced into the stream.  The water
was cold, but not deep, barely up to her ankles.  Ai's bare feet (for she
never wore shoes) came down on small smooth stones, making her think for a
moment she might slip and fall.  But, Ai had good balance, and in a few
moments she was up onto the dry green grass and skipping up towards the
house.

   The house, now that she was closer, wasn't quite as pretty as Ai had
thought.  The paint was a bit faded, the windows were a bit dirty, and the
fence around the garden was missing a gate.  This she didn't mind: with
barely a pause, Ai walked through the gap in the fence and stood among the
flowers.

   They were so pretty!  Much prettier than those she had picked in the
past, she thought.  They had unusual colors, too!  There were purple roses,
yellow violets, red daisies...  oh, Ai just had to make a pretty crown out
of those daisies!

   Humming to herself, as she often did in the forest, Ai set about picking
flowers.  She would slowly walk alongside the rows of plants, until she saw
one that struck her fancy.  Ai would kneel down in the dirt, her knees
getting nice and dirty, lean down and smell.  If her nose approved of the
flower, with a grin Ai would reach down and pick it, putting the flower in
her basket.  Ai would then stand and find the next one.

   She did this for half an hour, happier then she had been all day.

   ****

   "WHO IS PICKING MY FLOWERS?!?!"

   The voice came out of nowhere, and everywhere.  Ai shot to her feet,
basket of flowers spilling to the ground.  She whirled around.  There,
standing in the door of the house...  was a witch.  A green, ugly witch,
with a purple nose and one tooth.  She wore a black dress, and a pointed
black hat, with a little black pom-pom at the end.  She was staring right
at Ai.

   Ai was frightened.  She knew she shouldn't have picked the flowers, at
least not without asking.  Knew she was in trouble.

   "Please," she begged, "don't tell mommy and daddy!  I'm sorry!  I'll
plant new flowers!  Honest!"

   The witch looked at her, at the trembling little girl with the blue skin
and wide, black eyes.  Slowly, she smiled, a smile that Ai did not like at
all.  It was not a happy smile.

   "Oh, you're sorry, now, are you.  So sorry!  Well, there is only one way
to punish a little girl who has picked my flowers.  I'm going to have to...
PICK YOU!"

   With that, the witch reached out for the girl.  Ai turned, trying to
run, but before she had even taken a step the witch grabbed her, and...!

   ****

   Ai opened her eyes.

   It was nighttime.  She was sitting on the rock by the stream.  It had
been a dream.  That's all.  She looked across the water, and didn't see a
house, or a garden, or a witch.  All she saw was a field, with bushes and
trees.  She had dreamt it all.

   An owl hooted.  With a start, Ai realized how late it was.  Her parents
would be looking for her!  She jumped up, looking around for her basket. 
She couldn't go home without her basket!  She saw it, a few feet away. 
Walking over, she bent down and grabbed the handle.

   Her hand went right through it.

   Ai's eyes widened in fear.  She tried again.  She reached down, closed
her fingers around the wicker handle, and once again her hand went through
it.  The basket wasn't there!

   A cold chill went through the girl.

   No.  The basket was there.

   But she wasn't.

   Ai looked down.  She was wearing a simple white dress, not the pretty
red one from that morning.  She could see the ground through her feet, the
grass through her dress.

   She was a ghost.

   "No!" Ai plopped down on the rock again, crying.  She didn't want to be
a ghost!  None of her friends were ghosts!  She'd have to go to ghost
school, play ghost games, have ghost parents...

   Her parents!

   Ai jumped up, and ran down the path towards home.  Her parents would
still love her, still take care of her!  That's what Mommy's and Daddies
did!  She ran as fast as she could, not tripping because her bare feet
passed right through any rocks or sticks on the path.  Soon, she could see
the house where she lived.  There were no lights, but maybe her parents
were asleep.  She'd surprise them!  Run into the bedroom, jump on the bed
between them, and...

   Ai slowed down as she came to her house.  Something was wrong.  The
grass around the house was tall.  Daddy had not cut it in a long time.  The
windows were broken, something Mommy would never have allowed.  The front
door, which always she had seen as something comforting, protecting, was
now faded and scratched, half open.  Beyond it, darkness.

   Nobody lived here.  Nobody had lived here for a long time.  Ai began to
cry.  How long had she been gone?  Had her Mommy and Daddy missed her?  Had
they waited for her, gone out to look for her...

   ****

   Ai walked through the dark house.  She could see in the dark, because
she was a ghost.  The house was empty.  Her parents were gone.  She did
find one photograph, by the fireplace.  It showed her parents, but they
were much older than when she had seen them that morning, and looked sad.
They had stayed here, growing old, waiting for her.

   And she never came.

   Ai put the photo down, looking around the empty room where she had
played, and read, and sat in her parents lap.  Crying, she sat down in her
Daddy's favorite chair.  She could stay here, she supposed.  Ai could haunt
this house.  That, after all, is what ghosts did.

   However, that is not what Ai's do.  Ai's go out and look.  She was good
at that.  Good at looking for flowers.  Only, now Ai didn't need flowers.
Ai needed...

   Friends.

   Yes.  That was it.  Ai would go out into the world, and find friends. 
She did not want to be alone.

   ****

   You can not make friends if nobody can see you.

   Ai walked alone through the world.  She went to cities.  She went to
little towns.  She went up into the mountains, and down by the sea. 
Everywhere she went, Ai tried to say hello to the people.  Tried to make
friends.  But, everywhere she went, she was invisible.  Nobody saw her.

   Ai walked for a long, long time.

   ****

   One day, Ai was walking down a winding street on a hill.  There were
nice houses around her, one or two stories tall, made of wood or brick. 
There were families, and kids.  Ai would stop and wave, but, as always,
they didn't see her.  With a sad sigh, Ai kept walking.

   Near the end of the street, on one of the curves, was a white house.  In
front of this house were two large maple trees, towering up over the roof.
They had low, thick branches, perfect for climbing.  As she came closer, Ai
looked up.

   There was a boy up in the tree, sitting on one of the branches.  He
looked to be about her age, or the age Ai still thought of herself as. 
While many years had passed, Ai still looked like the little girl who had
gone picking flowers.  The boy had messy brown hair, brown eyes, and a nice
smile.  Ai thought he was very handsome.  Smiling, she raised her hand to
wave.

   The boy looked down.  To Ai's shock, and delight, his eyes widened.  He
saw her!  The boy saw her!  Ai waved more, jumping up and down!  Maybe he
would be her friend!

   However, seeing a blue skinned girl (his own skin was sort of a pinkish
brown) surprised him.  The boy leaned forward, to get a better look.  As Ai
watched, he lost his grip on the branch...  and fell!

   Ai screamed as the brown haired boy fell to the grass, going "thump" on
the ground.  She had to help him!  Had to see if he was OK!

   "Bill!"

   A voice yelled from behind Ai.  Turning, she saw a young girl running
towards her.  The girl was short, shorter than she was, but Ai sensed she
was as old as the boy who had fallen.  She had very long brown hair, and
was very pretty.  She ran right through Ai, as people sometimes did,
running up to the boy.  She was crying.

   "Bill!  Bill!  Are you OK?"

   The boy, Bill, groaned in pain.  The girl cried some more, yelling for
help.  Adults came, and doctors, all gathering around the boy.  They took
him away in a white car with flashing lights, leaving the girl and Ai alone
under the tree.

   Wiping her tears away, the girl walked across the street.  Upset, and
not knowing what else to do, Ai followed her.  She followed the girl into a
yellow house, down the hall, and into a pretty pink bedroom.  The girl
threw herself onto the bed, and cried.  Ai cried, too.

   "Oh," Ai said, sniffling, "I hope the boy's OK!  I hope she's OK, too! I
want to be friends with them!"

   "Why can't you?"

   Ai turned, startled.  Who could be talking to her?

   "Who said that?"

   "I did," said a voice.  Ai turned some more, and saw a large stuffed
frog.  The frog smiled.  "I'm Horsey!  Julie's best friend!"

   "Hi," said Ai.  She had never spoken to a stuffed frog before, and
wasn't sure what to say.  "I'm Ai.  I want to be her friend, too.  And
Bill's!  But I don't know how."

   The stuffed frog looked closer at her, squinting, which is hard to do
when your eyes are just felt circles.  After a moment, he nodded.

   "Oh, I see.  A witch cast a spell on you."

   "Yes!" Ai said, happy to finally find someone who could help.  "She made
me a ghost!  Can you help me become real, so I can have friends?"

   "You don't have to be real to have friends," he said.  "Look at me: I
have friends, and I'm just a stuffed frog!"

   "But Julie can hug and kiss you," Ai said, sad.  "Nobody can do that
with me."

   "That is true," Horsey admitted.  He thought.  Ai thought, too.

   "What," Horsey asked, "did you do wrong?"

   "Wrong?"

   "Yes," Horsey said.  "You must have done something to make the witch
mad. What did you do?"

   Ai tried to remember.  It had been a LONG time ago, after all.

   "I didn't do anything!  I never did anything wrong!  All I did was pick
flowers...  oh!" Ai remembered!  "I picked the witch's flowers!  That's why
she was mad!"

   "Why were you picking her flowers?  After all, there are lots of
flowers."

   Ai shook her head.

   "No.  There were none.  All the flowers were gone.  I had picked them
all." Suddenly, Ai realized what she had done wrong.  Her eyes got wide. 
"I didn't just pick the flowers!  I killed them!  Flowers that are picked,
die!  Oh, why did I have to kill them!" Ai cried again.  It was her fault!
The witch was punishing her for killing the flowers!

   "There, there," said Horsey.  "Don't cry.  After all, now that we know
that, we can make you real again."

   "You can?" Ai stopped crying, and looked at the stuffed frog.  "Oh, that
would be wonderful!  What do I have to do?"

   Horsey told her.

   ****

   A few days later, Bill was back from the hospital.  The boy had a bump
on his head, but was all better.  Julie was waiting for him when he got
back, wearing her best dress with her long brown hair freshly brushed.  She
rushed up to him.

   "Oh, I'm so glad you're OK!" She gave Bill a hug, which made Bill blush.
He had never been hugged by a pretty girl before, apart from his sister,
who didn't count.  Julie let go of him, smiling.  "Let's go into the field
and play!"

   That sounded fun, so Bill led Julie into the field behind his house.  It
was a big field, with tall grass, some trees, and lots of wild flowers. 
Julie saw a patch of pretty blue ones.

   "Oh, Bill, look at those!  Let's pick them!" With that, Julie knelt down
in the grass and reached her hand out towards the pretty flowers.

   "No!"

   Bill and Julie turned, eyes wide.  There, coming towards them, was a
girl their age with blue skin!  Bill blinked, pointing.

   "I saw her before I fell!  I thought I was dreaming!"

   Ai came closer, waving her hands.  Both children were surprised to see
they could see right through her!  She was a ghost!

   "Don't pick the flowers!  Please!"

   Julie snatched her hand back from the flowers, quickly standing up next
to Bill.

   "Are the flowers poison?" she asked, frightened.  "I've picked flowers
here before."

   Ai came to a stop before them.

   "Picking flowers kills them," she said.  "I was made a ghost by a witch
because I picked all the flowers."

   "I don't want to be a ghost," said Bill.  "I don't think we should pick
any flowers, Julie." Julie nodded.

   "I agree.  I won't pick any more flowers."

   Suddenly, there was a flash of light!  Both children blinked, and when
they looked at the stranger again, they saw she was now real!  She stood
before them, no longer a ghost, but a very pretty blue skinned girl!

   "Wow!" Bill said.  "You're real!"

   "You broke the curse!" Ai rushed to Bill, hugging him, then turned and
hugged Julie.  She was so happy!  She could now hug people, and play with
them!  Julie hugged her back.

   "Will you be our friend?" asked Julie.

   "Yes," Bill said, "be our friend."

   "I'd love to!  Oh, my name is Ai!"

   ****

   "And Ai, Bill, and Julie went and played, and were best friends from
that day on.  The End."

   Violet looked up from the book, a smile on her face.  The half dozen
children sitting on the rug in front of her laughed and clapped.  That was
good.  She had been unsure about this, despite Cynthia's constant praise
and help.  Sure, she had always entertained the younger siblings for as
long as she could remember, but writing a book?  That was something else
entirely!

   She saw La jump up, running on her bare blue feet over to Ai.  The girl
practically threw herself against her mother's legs, hands on Ai's knees.

   "Mommy!  That girl had the same name as you!"

   "Yes, I know." Ai smiled, ruffling La's long brown hair.  La jumped away
again, running back to sit next to her twin brother.  Chris shot a hand
into the air, waving it.

   "Aunt Violet!  Why could they see her, at the end?"

   "Because she was trying to save the flowers!"

   "Yeah, but..."

   "OK, kids!" Martha stood in the kitchen doorway, grinning.  "Who wants
ice-cream?"

   "MEEEE!!!!!!!"

   With a sudden stampede, the rug emptied, the three and four year olds
rushing towards the kitchen.  Lisa, however, quickly came over to Violet
and hugged her leg.

   "I loved the story, Mommy!" She was then off, catching up to the others.

   "It was good," Julie told her, walking up to Violet as the Mayan stood
and put the book on her chair.  "I'm glad you were able to work Horsey in."

   "He was obviously the real hero," Bill added, grinning.  He picked up
the book, flipping through the pages.  "Who did the illustrations?"

   "Cynthia."

   Bill blinked.

   "You're kidding."

   "Nope.  She figured out a way for Ro to draw what she was thinking, be
her hands.  She's incredible!" The pride in her voice was evident.  Bill
just shook her head.

   "Well, what do you know..."

   "Bill!" Julie grabbed his hand, pulling.  "I want ice-cream!  Hurry!"
Laughing, she tugged hard, small body knowing just how to control her
husband.  Her other hand shot out to Ai.  Violet watched as the three mates
headed towards the chaos of the kitchen.

   Violet bent down to pick up the book, flipping through it herself. 
Cynthia would be here soon, Bill's parents bringing her back from a
shopping trip (probably to buy Violet Christmas gifts).  Violet would have
to talk to her about the next book.  She had ideas.  Oh, so many ideas...

   ****

   Edited by SciFi Nut

   Comments more then welcome.  invidfan@localnet.com
http://storiesonline.net/library/author.php?id=6389
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