Far, far off the coast of any shore you, my dear reader, have ever visited or seen, lies an island untouched by the hands of men. Many wonders abound on this island of fanciful intrigue; places and creatures beyond your wildest imaginations.

A waterfall, far too tall to ever see the top of, and if you were to brave flying up along beside it, it would vanish into the sky, far above the land below, as if the cascade of water did in fact come from the very clouds themselves.

Goblins, of all different tempers and sizes. Some as tall as a tree and some as small as a baby's pinky finger.

Caves that are hidden in the sides of coastline-cliffs that, when the day rolls into night, glow iridescent from the inside out.

And flowers that, when they feel so inclined, uproot themselves and walk freely like you and me.

Yet all these curiosities and more pale in comparison to the wonder in the center of a rather large hollow at the northern edge of the island. For here stands a large oak tree, regal and demanding, surrounded by varying trees and plants of many different species, riddled with the life of many small creatures and the like.

But what, you ask, makes this single oak tree so much more wonderful than all the mystical places and creatures of the rest of the island?

Well, as I mentioned before, plants on this island are very different from the plants outside your window. Though the plants and trees in your yard are no more than aspects of nature with no will of their own but their want of survival, some plants on this island of wonder are actually grown with a conscience. Our walking flowers for example. Though this gift is set apart for a single few, there was one exception. Our oak tree.

The young oak was planted with a conscience as well as an unknown purpose. It grew and grew, getting stronger each day, constantly searching itself for this unknown purpose. Until, one day, it found something within itself that it had never known before. Something that opened its mind to the purpose it was intended for.

That day, from the very trunk of the Tree, burst a small trickle of shimmering, golden dust that shown with the evidence of the magic hidden within its crystallized forms. This trickle quickly grew into a steady stream that amounted into a pool of shimmering dust harbored in a deep nook positioned safely between three of the Oak's largest branches.

Then, through the magic provided it from the dust, the Tree split the hollow around it into four equal parts. The climate of each section changing to fit one of each of the seasons of our natural year: Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring.

However, as the great oak looked out upon what it had done with joy, it realized that it could not do what needed to be done on its own. For though the Tree had a conscience like the flowers, unlike the walking flowers, it could not move, and so it needed helpers. Many little helpers to full fill its purpose. And thus, from the stream of dust, the Tree made one last thing: a small body that formed from the dust in the pool.

This body formed into a baby girl much, much smaller than any human baby, and from her back sprouted small, delicate wings that she was still too weak to move. The Tree was delighted with the sight of this small creature and it named her species "Fairy" and gave her the name Rose.

The Tree sustained her on the magic of the dust until she was old enough to leave the pool and take care of herself. The older she got the more the Tree told her of its purpose and hers. Of how the fairies would be the caretakers of the seasons, charged with bringing each one safely to our world on time each year, in order to protect the balance of nature. It explained how each new fairy would be born of a newborn child's first laugh and would then need to be sprinkled with the magic dust to bring it to life.

But you, the Oak Tree told Rose, are special, because you were born of pure magic dust and thus you are set apart to be a just ruler over all the fairies.

A short while after the Tree explained these things to her, a dandelion seed came floating onto a branch of the tree one day, hosting the life of another fairy. Rose followed the Tree's instructions and sprinkled the dust over the seed, watching it transform before her eyes into another young adult fairy that the Tree deemed a fairy of the air.

Seven followed after this fairy, one of light, of plants, of animals, of water, and of snow, frost and ice for the winter season. Each fairy set out on the jobs that their special talents laid out for them and, as days went by, more and more fairies joined their number.

As the hollow developed before its trunk, the Oak Tree was filled with the joy of seeing its purpose in motion and through its joy and pride, it gave Rose more and more knowledge about the magic in the dust that had come to be known by the fairies as Pixie Dust.

Soon, through the knowledge the Tree had given her, Rose, who was now Queen over all the fairies of the Hollow, strengthened in power until her own magic was more powerful than all the other fairies' combined.

It did not take long for the power she held to get to her mind. Greed overtook her and she demanded the Tree give her more of the knowledge that fed her power. The Oak Tree, struck by the realization of what it had done, became sad and then angry, turning its conscience away from Rose, ignoring her demands for more power.

This only fueled Rose's anger and want for power and since she could no longer direct it towards the Tree, she let her fury fall on the rest of the fairies, demanding they obey her and take her as their highest sovereign ruler.

Since none had the power to stand up to the Fairy Queen, the Hollow Fairies were forced to suffer under the enslavement of her rule. Their original tasks of the seasons were forgotten and all that came to matter was the Queen's own demands.

For nearly a hundred years this went on with no one standing in the way of the tyrant queen. However, as the Tree watched from a distance the ruining of all it had created, it began to pull away from its saddening anger and formed a plan to restore what had once been and free the fairy people from the monster it had created. It was a risky plan, the Tree knew, but it could reason no other way around the problem, and so, the Oak decided upon its path.

It would form another fairy from the Pixie Dust. Destined to rule with great power, this new fairy would form in the dust pool just as Rose had, but this time, the Tree would be careful. Though it realized that in order for this new fairy to defeat the Queen it would have to be more powerful than her, the Tree vowed that if this fairy showed any signs of turning like Rose had, it would stop everything it was doing with the fairy to hopefully save the Hollow Fairies from another monster of its own creation.

However, if this fairy were to show of true goodness in its heart, then the Tree vowed to share all of its knowledge with the fairy in order to make that fairy so powerful that no other could ever stand in its way.

And thus, the Tree formed another fairy from the dust and when Rose saw what the Tree was doing, she tried to kill the child herself, but the new fairy was protected by the Tree and she could do it no harm.

So the child grew under the hopeful eye of every fairy in the hollow and, as it developed under the watchful care of the Tree, the Tree came to see that this fairy was indeed made of pure goodness, more pure than Rose had ever been, and it warmed inside with glee at the developing new fairy in its cradle.

And so, with the true joy and hope that it felt for this young fairy and the rest of the hollow, it named the fairy child Clarion and began to explain the magic of the dust to her.

Soon Clarion was old enough to leave the dust and the Queen, furious with the presence of the child, tried once more to dispose of the young girl. But the Tree continued to protect Clarion and Rose's attempts yielded no fruit. The Tree provided Clarion with a hidden place among its branches to hide from Rose and taught her how to provide for herself.

The young Clarion continued to grow older, hidden away from the eyes of the fairies as the Tree taught her more and more of the magic around her until the day came for her to fulfill her destiny.