7. The Land of Ice

Learning to trust life. Obstacles are often a step forward once you overcome them.

A small snowflake falling on her nose makes Little Celestial Fairy open her eyes and look up. Little by little the air is filled with white clouds that are covering the landscape, and she rea-lises that she is now alone in the nest of some birds that had invited her to spend the night.

“Where are they?” she asks out loud.

“They always do the same,” she hears someone answering her. “When it starts being cold, they go somewhere else where it's warmer.”Celestial pokes her head out of the nest, looks down and sees a deer looking up with its mouth full of grass.

“And what about you? Why don't you go?” she asks.

“I'm already used to it,” he replies “and I know how to find grass under the snow. Who are you?”

Celestial takes a leap and flies down next to the deer.

“I am Celestial,” she tells him, dusting off the snow that is falling on her wings, “and I am looking for my wand. Have you seen it around here?”

“Well, no, I haven't seen it,” says the deer without stopping to eat. “If you keep flying south you will soon reach the land of ice and you might have better luck there.”

And the little fairy decides to do what her new friend suggests. She hugs his neck to say goodbye and takes off, flapping her wings hard to fly among the flakes that keep falling. 

But the cold and the snow make it more and more difficult to move forward, and after a few hours Celestial begins to be very tired. It is snowing so hard that she can hardly see, so she decides to go down and rest for a while. Luckily she discovers a small hole between some rocks hidden by the snow. She huddles up to keep herself warm and falls asleep waiting for the storm to pass.

“Come on, stand aside, now it's my turn! I’m comiiiiiiiiing!”

Little Celestial Fairy suddenly wakes up because of the noise.

“What's going on out there?” she wonders, leaving her shelter.

It has stopped snowing, and a group of penguins are having a great time jumping into the water from an ice slide.

“Wow! Now I've come a long way!” shouts one of the little ones.

Celestial looks at them amused, and notices that over there a group of children burst into applause every time one of those little animals dives.

“I think I have already reached the land of ice that the deer told me about” she says looking around.

The landscape is all white, and you can't see any trees or plants anywhere. Even the round-shaped houses behind the group of children are made of ice!

For a long time the penguins continue to jump into the water while the children look at them and play at guessing which of them will reach the furthest. They all seem to be having a good time, but when the little fairy turns her head she sees a boy sitting on the ice looking at the sea. And without hesitating she decides to approach him.

“You don't like the penguin show? Your friends are having a great time,” she says approaching him from behind.

The boy, without even turning around, answers her:

“Yes, it's a lot of fun, but I've already seen them too many times. Since I was little I have spent my afternoons watching them jump. In fact, there is not much else to do here for fun.”

“So, why don't they get tired of watching them?” she asks.

“I guess they are convinced that it is the only thing they can do” replies the boy. “It's always cold here, the winters are very long and the days very short, and we spend whole months without seeing the sun. I'm tired of it, that's why I want to leave.”

“Leave?” asks the little fairy. “And where would you go?”

“I want to go towards the sun, somewhere where it's not always this cold and where everything is full of colours, not just the white of snow and ice...” he explains to her while his eyes shine with excitement .

“So what are you waiting for? Why haven’t you left already?” she asks.

“Everybody says I'm crazy, that it's very dangerous, that I might not make it... How would I do it all by myself? Here I have my family and my friends... Besides, what would I live on? My pa-rents have a fishing boat and with the money they earn from selling fish we have never lacked for anything. Sometimes I help them when they go fishing, and in a while, when they are too old to work, the boat will be mine and I will have a job for the rest of my life...–“ he replies.

“Yes, but would you like that?” she asks, feeling sure she knows the answer.

The boy doesn't answer, but Celestial sees a tear rolling down his cheek and thinks he's sad because he's realised that's not what he wants.

As always when she sees someone suffering, Little Celestial Fairy gets worried and wants to try to help them, although she doesn't quite know how to do it.

But now she knows where to look for help. She closes her eyes and calls Sparkly, because she knows that even if she can’t see it, it is always by her side and advises her on what to do. She immediately hears that little voice, which tells her:

“Tell him about you and your wand, and your desire to be a real fairy.”

“What an idea!" exclaims Celestial in a quiet voice. And, sitting next to the boy, she begins to explain:

“Look, what I wanted was to be able to go to the Fairies’ School to learn how to be a real fairy, but on the first day of class I lost my wand and I couldn't find it anywhere. At first I thought I could never be a fairy, and I became very sad, but then I heard a little voice telling me to keep looking and I decided to listen to it.

"If I had stayed at home thinking that I could never be a fairy I would be so sad that I wouldn't be able to enjoy anything, and I would always be thinking that I wanted to be a fairy and I couldn't be. I still haven't found my wand, but on my journey I have made a lot of friends and learned a lot of things.

"Besides, being a fairy is my biggest wish, it's what makes me happy, and that's why I don't think about the problems I might encounter on the way, or if it's dangerous. I'm so sure that this is what I want, and that’s why I'm not afraid. I think that when the little voice tells us to do something we have to listen to it. It always helps me, and I don't know why, but if I encounter a problem it always finds a way to solve it.”

As he listens to her, the boy feels his heart beating faster and faster, and suddenly, he hears a voice saying to him:

“Do it, don't let your fear get the better of you! If you don't try, you will always think about what your life would have been like if you had.”

“Thank you, Celestial! I have decided! I'm leaving tomorrow! I'm going to tell everyone!

And, jumping up, the boy runs to the village to tell everyone the news.

“You're crazy, you won't make it! Don't you see that this is nonsense? Here we all live without much sun! Can’t you do the same as everyone else?” says his father without understanding anything.

The next day the boy gets up early and kisses his mother, who has prepared food for the trip in a bag.

“I don't understand you either,” she tells him, “but I love you and I want you to be happy. Your father loves you too, but he's afraid of what might happen to you and doesn't know how to tell you.”

His father has gone fishing and the boy can't say goodbye to him. A little sad but full of hope, the boy leaves the house and starts walking towards the sea. At the water's edge Celestial is playing with two seals that are having fun trying to catch her, while she flies from one to the other touching their whiskers and immediately turning tail so she doesn’t get caught.

When the boy arrives where they are, he leaves his bag on the ground and stares out to sea.

“And now what?” he asks the little fairy. “How do I cross the sea?”

“Don't worry, she tells him. You will surely find the solution. When we listen to the little voice, the magic accompanies us so that we get what we need.”

All of a sudden, the ice around the boy begins to crumble, and before he has time to jump back the chunk of ice detaches and begins to float out to sea.

“Can you see?” shouts Celestial amused. “You already have a boat! Magic is helping you!”

And before she knows it, her wings beat hard to reach the boy.

“I'm coming with you! I didn't find my wand here and I have to look for it elsewhere!”

The boy smiles happily and the little fairy is happy to have helped him.

They float on the piece of ice for a few days, but one morning the boy cries out in fear:

“Look Celestial! The ice is melting! We're losing our boat! We’re going to sink!”

“Calm down,” she tells him. “Haven't you noticed that it's not so cold here anymore? That's why the ice is melting. Look over there,” she says, pointing in front of him. “There are trees! Just trust and you’ll see that we’ll find a solution.”

And after a while, when there is only just enough room left for them to stand on, a wave pushes them to the edge of a forest. 

“How lucky!” exclaims the boy. “This is full of trees! Now we can make a boat!”

“You see?” Celestial says with a smile. “When you need help and you trust, help always comes to you!”

And while the boy begins to tie some tree trunks together with roots and stems of plants, the little fairy takes the opportunity to look for some flowers and eat some nectar before continuing the journey.

With their new boat they continue sailing towards the land of the sun. The days pass, and little by little the landscape changes. Instead of forests, it is now filled with white sand beaches and palm trees.

“We must be about to arrive,” says Celestial to the boy. “It's getting hotter and hotter!”

“Look!” he shouts suddenly pointing to one side of the boat and then to the other.

A pod of dolphins is swimming next to them.

“What beautiful animals! I've never seen anything like them before!” he shouts again going from one side to the other without stopping.

The logs keep moving, and before Celestial has time to warn him, the boy trips, falls over and disappears under the water. Celestial looks everywhere but can’t see him.

Be calm!” she shouts at him without knowing if he can hear her. “Magic will help you!”

And all of a sudden, surrounded by thousands of water bubbles, she sees the boy coming out of the sea holding the fin of one of the dolphins swimming towards the beach. The rest of the dolphins push the boat behind them, and in no time the boy and Celestial are on the sand.

“I think that we have already arrived,” the little fairy tells him. “I believe the dolphins want you to stay here.”

And taking a look around, they both discover that they have landed near a fishing village.

“Of course I’m staying here!” exclaims the happy boy. “This place is beautiful!”

And when he turns his head he sees a fishing boat with a sign hanging that says: "Help needed".

Full of joy, he jumps to his feet and starts running towards the boat. After a short while he returns shouting and smiling:

“I’ve got a job! I’ve got a job!”

Little Celestial Fairy feels happy that the boy has made his dream come true. Now she has to follow hers: to become a real fairy so she can help people, and for that she has to keep searching for her wand...

Deep in her heart she knows that magic is helping her too. 

Do you want to continue searching with her?

Imagine something you would like to do when you grow up. Maybe now you will find it very difficult to achieve or someone will tell you that it is impossible or crazy. If you really want it, trust that little by little you will discover what steps you have to take to get there. Maybe sometimes it will be difficult and there will be things that don't go as you expected, but if you have confidence and keep going you will get it in the end.

The boy decides to listen to Celestial and when he hears her voice he is encouraged to leave the land of ice. He doesn't know how he will make the journey, but as he needs things along the way, they appear and bring him slowly but surely to the land of the sun.

Many times things happen to us that seem like a problem, but often it is precisely this problem that brings us closer to what we want. What seems like an obstacle becomes a step forward. Maybe at first we can't see it, but then we realise that thanks to the problem we have done something or made a decision that has brought us good things. In addition, from everything that happens to us we can always learn something that can be useful at one time or another.

When the boy finally decides to leave all the problems he encounters are solved: the ice splits so he has a boat, when it starts to melt they find the trees and when he falls into the water the dolphins save him and take him to the beach.