“OH MY!” shouted a surprised giant. “I am so sorry, tiny creature! I am afraid my feet are too eager and my eyes are too weak.” The voice of an elderly woman rumbled high above, and all Lynn could see were two huge stalks with feet, and a shadowy mountain. But then the woman stooped low, and Lynn came face-to-face with a large round head frosted with fluffy white hair, and big brown cow-like eyes which looked kindly at her behind spectacles the size of window panes. “I am following the magical path to the Great King,” she said in a whisper that nearly blew the fairy away. “Have you met him? Is he as good as I have heard? Does he… help people?”
“Oh, yes!” Lynn said, and she enthusiastically shared with the giant the beauty and glory of His Majesty.
The giant sighed whimsically. “I’ve wanted to meet him for so long, and I think I might be getting close.”
Lynn encouraged her, “You are quite close now! Do you know in which direction to go? Those woods can be confusing.”
“Of course I know where to go!” the giant cried, and in her excitement the ground shook. “I didn’t know for a long time, and I could not have found it alone, but as I said before, I am carefully following the magical path-”
“Magical path? What is this path?” The fairy questioned the giant’s meaning, for besides the tug in her heart, she’d had no guide, compass or path to lead her.
“Why, that path!” she pointed with a large stubby finger. “It’s the one that I found a few days ago, and it was so pretty and intriguing, I had to follow it!”
The fairy peered around the giant and found, on the dark grass beyond, a path made of twinkling lavender spots, just the size of a fairy’s footprints.
“The path is tiny, but bright and constant enough to guide anyone – even a great old ogre like me!” The woman laughed heartily and stood up again. “I must be off, tiny creature. There is not a moment to lose! Good-bye, and thank you for telling me the truth!”
The fairy barely heard the traveler leave, because she was staring at the lavender spots, then at the lavender shoes on her feet, then behind her, at the giant, lumbering down the long, glistening trail. “How remarkable!” she thought. Then, as she turned around again, she saw in the distance the silhouette of others coming down from the forest. Rabbits and squirrels, knights and ladies, giants and dwarfs - creatures of all sizes and shapes, lands and languages, abilities and disabilities - were walking the same marked path.
Could it be true? It seemed that the slippers of Mercy had paved the way for others to find the Great King. Was this the role she was meant to play? But this was more than a drama, a play, a story; this was real – amazing, baffling, and thrilling. How extraordinary were the plans and dreams of the King: that such a small creature, with such a small dream, was called to be part of something so much bigger, so much Greater, than tiny fairy wings.
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