#08 Crown

“Hold your head high, Titania,” Mother instructed, as she dips her delicate fingers in nectar and runs them through the golden and midnight blue wisps of her daughter’s hair. Though the nectar is perfect for styling hair as it runs thinner than honey, its consistency still makes a mess. Titania cannot help but rub the sticky substance off her forehead before it drips into her eyes.

Having only completed her emerging ceremony three moons ago, the young fairy is impatient to have to go through fussing of another ritual again. She held on tight to the small bouquet of yellow cinquefoils her Mother had asked her to gather earlier that evening. Her emerald moth wings continued to quiver in irritation, as she stares at her own reflection in the gold coin gifted to her family by her fiancé. She raises her head slightly, keeping her face stern to emulate a make-believe sense of regal sophistication. Titania wonders how long it will be before she can finally feel comfortable in her own skin again when it won’t feel as though she had shed and scrubbed it raw like she had when she emerged from her cocoon. She’s not sure she’s ready yet to become a queen.

“Heavy is the head that wears the crown,” said Mother, her voice cracking slightly as she adds the last finishing touches to keep the hair in place. “And yours will be the heaviest of all.” Mother picked up the flower crown and began weaving the stems of cinquefoils into the crown, careful not to let her tears wet the flowers. She was used to the preparations of a daughter’s wedding, having had three daughters become queens to the trees, the crows, and the dragonflies. But Mother had not expected her youngest to be married so soon, at the turn of a century, and to the elven King of Fairies, Oberon.

Mother placed the finished flower crown on her daughter’s head.

“Things will not be easy, but I know you will be a wonderful queen, Titania.”

*****
I love A Midsummer's Night Dream and really wanted to explore the stories of the fairy royals. Also cinquefoils are known to mean ‘beloved daughter.’

Hope you’re warm and safe in the typhoon 🌀