By Clarissa Janeen
When the fairy prince fell through the portal to the mortal realm, he had been presiding over the high court, discussing what was to be done about the hobgoblins encroaching on pixie territory. This was highly embarrassing and irregular for a prince of the high court. One moment he was delegating a spy to seek out the extent of the invasion, the next he was in a circle of mushrooms in a garden.
Before him stood a young woman holding a scrap of paper. She spoke his full true name, which had the power to command him. She asked him to cure her of her illness, for she was with child and needed to survive to care for her baby. And indeed, the fairy prince could sense that she was ill. But, alas, the knowledge of his name did not grant him the power to bestow wishes beyond his capabilities.
He asked how she came to discover his name and summon him from court. She showed him the scrap of paper which bore his name with instructions on how to summon the fairy prince from the mushroom circle, saying she’d found it in her grandmother’s belongings after her passing. Her grandmother had told her stories of fairies and how the fairy prince had come to aid her in times of need.
The prince asked who her grandmother had been, and the woman told him her grandmother’s name was Martha. The prince was saddened by the news. He remembered Martha and had loved her once long ago.
He agreed to take the woman to his father, the high king, in hopes that he might cure her to honor his son’s former love.
He offered her his hand, and she stepped into the circle of mushrooms with him. The prince flapped a pair of large silver wings, but, instead of lifting into the air, they seemed to merely shift from the mortal realm to the fae as though the two planes moved themselves around.
They arrived in the high fairy court, where the high king ruled over all of Faerie. An assembly of water and forest spirits, gnomes, dwarves, nymphs, and all manner of elves stood before the throne, where the high king presided.
The king demanded to know who interrupted his court. But the woman did not fear, for she was protected by the prince. She asked the fairy king if he might cure her of her illness so that she might survive to care for her baby.
“Why should I help you, mortal woman?” the king asked.
“This is the granddaughter of my beloved Martha,” the prince said.
“Ah, now I know your predicament,” the king said. “It is the curse I placed upon your grandmother when she carried my son’s child. He begged me to spare her life, which I agreed to. But I could not have her descendants—mortals—making a claim to our throne. So I forbade my son from seeing her again and cursed her line so her descendants would never live long enough to raise the children they bore.” His words rang true for the woman, whose mother had died shortly after her birth.
“Please, your majesty,” the woman begged. “Must I bear the cost of my grandmother’s choices? She no longer lives. Surely I and my child can make no legitimate claim to your throne. I have no desire to rule over Faerie. Let me be freed from my curse that my child might know me as your son knows you.”
The king considered her request. His son would not forgive him for many years if the king did not give Martha’s descendant a chance. But he could not lose face before his court and undo his curse at the demands of a mortal.
He agreed to remove her curse if she would spend the remainder of her pregnancy in the form of a salamander. If she survived the birth, he would undo her curse and bring no harm to her or her offspring. Not wanting to die, the woman accepted his condition and was immediately transformed.
The prince snuck her out into the mountains, for he knew his father would not allow her to remain peacefully in her new form. He added magic of his own, so her skin might be toxic to anyone who might touch or try to consume her so she could defend herself from predators. And, indeed, shortly afterward the fairy king sent soldiers to hunt her down. He knew she would be more vulnerable in salamander form, and her agreeing to this deal seemed the best way for him to eliminate any mortal claim to the throne, as he could take down both mother and child without going back on any previous arrangements.
During the first trimester of her pregnancy, the salamander was hunted by the king’s soldiers who scoured the mountains. But the mountains were vast, and the salamander’s black skin allowed her to blend in with the shadows and find solace in the rocky crevices, eating millipedes.
In her second trimester, the king’s soldiers had given up, needing to attend to other matters within Faerie. But, not wanting to give up the search, the king offered a reward to anyone who could find and kill the salamander. So the salamander hid beneath the stones, eating snails. A handful of pixies and goblins brought back the bodies of other dead salamanders to the king, but he would use his magic to release any illusions on them and found none of them to be the woman. Then he killed the tricksters who had attempted to fool him.
By her third trimester, most of the citizens of Faerie had relinquished their search. But the animals of Faerie never gave up their hunt. The salamander hid in a log, eating beetles, when a young snake came along and discovered her hiding place.
“Please don’t eat me,” the salamander begged. “I need to stay alive for my baby. If I can make it to the end of my pregnancy, the fairy king will restore me to my human form.”
“Why should I allow you to become human when I could eat you now while you’re small?” the snake asked.
“If you promise not to eat me, I can collect baskets full of mice for you when I am human.”
The snake, being young and trusting, agreed and defended her with her venomous fangs from other creatures and citizens of Faerie who might want to harm her. Yet, as the salamander eagerly awaited the conclusion of her agreement, she realized one final cruel trick of the fairy king as pregnancy in her salamander form lasted much longer than that of a human. She waited in hiding with the snake for over two years. As the snake grew and matured, so did her appetite, but the snake kept her word and did not eat the salamander. She had come to care for the salamander, and the two were companions, as they hunted for food together.
At last, the salamander was detransformed as the time came for her to give birth. She delivered twins, whose hair was black from their time as salamanders. As soon as they were born, the fairy prince appeared to bestow congratulations and tell her that she no longer had to fear his father who was bound by oath not to harm her or her offspring. He led her out of Faerie, back home to her husband who was relieved to see his wife alive with their two children. The woman also brought the snake back with her, who was rewarded with baskets of mice from their barn for the remainder of its life. And the woman’s family went on to live happily for many generations, their fairy heritage granting them long life.
Author Bio
Clarissa Janeen is an author, illustrator, and editor from San Diego, CA. She has a BFA in Creative Writing with a minor in Illustration from California Baptist University. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Popular Fiction Writing and Publishing at Emerson College. Her writing and illustration have been published across a handful of journals and magazines in addition to PTM, including Alethia and multiple issues of The Dazed Starling. She is the illustrator of the picture book The Squirrel and the Moon (2023). You can find her online at www.clarissajaneen.com.
