Growing up in the forest I had always dreamed of earning my wings like the others. It seemed like an unrealistic dream for a girl from the southern edge to chose there wings over there magic.

My family told me that to become a warrior for the kingdom of the great tree in the northern edge was to dream of something impossible. They compared it to a fish wishing to walk or a bird dreaming of the ocean.

A girl of the south was given a life and that life was one that lead them through the wing trials. That was what I was planning on doing until I realized what that meant. The wing trials could kill me just as much as they could win me a life of greatness.

I walked from my mushroom house and into the tall grass that lead to the center of town. The walk was often relaxing but currently my blood was frozen and my breath rapid. I was nervous just like I was supposed to. The Queen wished for her people to fear her in ways that the late king did not.

I stepped into the town and heard the faint clatter of music. The mushroom homes around me towered far above. My eyes followed the bright colors into the blindingly bright blue sky.

I stepped further into town and saw the Queens warriors. I stepped up to the soft purple petals of a lushes flower and placed my card into the hands of a soldier. I admired her intricate pink wings and dreamed of what mine could look like when I earned them. If I earned them.

I looked to either side of me at the large flowers that where spread several feet away from each other. I began to lose all hope that I would succeed but a voice in my head, that of my late grand father Remi who told me to never give up. I never did.

I ran up to the starting mushroom platform and prepared myself for the perilous journey ahead. I would be challenged to leap from flower to flower and swing across vines to the final destination at the far end of the forest where the Queen was resting. The other fairy girls beside me readied themselves and the man from the tree towers beside us called for the countdown and before I knew it we where gone.