Blacktail Deer Plateau By the beat of my heart

Blue willow's choice of words was unusual, because Osprey couldn't tell for sure, if "blidget" or "budget" were actual words with certain meanings or if they were something her friend had come up with at this very moment. This was not an easy task, but there was nothing else she loved more than a good challenge. She was sure to tackle it, as she always did.

"Give me a minute," she told Willow and closed her eyes. She focused hard on the words, played with them a little, added some things she had heard today and connected them with events and stories she had heard in the past. Then, when the first images appeared before her eyes, a smile appeared in her lips.

Osprey's green eyes briefly met Willow's emerald ones and then she began:
"There was once a mother wolf and her cub. The spring had come late that year, therefore the cub was the only one left and was loved and cherished by her. They spent their days in happiness and it seemed that there was no evil that could tear them apart.

However - unbeknownst to them there were someone watching them from the depths of the forest. The creature most beautiful and powerful, it could have the whole world to it's feet, yet it couldn't have one thing and these were children. It was the Fairy Queen herself. The more she watched the mother and her cub, the stronger the sorrow grew, until it transformed itself in envy, which was followed by greed.

One day, when the mother had left her cub in a safe place and gone hunting in the woods, Fairy Queen mimicked the mother wolf's voice and lured the kid out of the den. There she enchanted it and took it to her realm. The mother wolf returned a little too late to catch the Fairy, but soon enough to catch her scent and follow her.

It took quite a long time before the mother wolf was standing at the Fairy realm's gate and pleaded Fairy to return her kid. Queen's heart was not from stone, therefore she let the mother in and faced her. Yet she didn't want to give the child back, for, who was the mother wolf to take from the Queen? Therefore she offered her a deal - if the mother did three tasks, the cub would return to her. If she failed, it would stay with the fairies.

The mother had a brave heart and she accepted the quests.

"Find me a person superior in beauty, magic and wisdom to me!" she requested. The mother wolf thought a little and took her to see the stars in the night. "Each star is a soul of a living being. A life well lived is beauty, the soul's journey to the sky is magic and a story each of it has to tell is wisdom. It bears secrets of the past, present and future,"she explained. The Queen didn't like the fact, but was a fair creature and agreed that the first quest was done.

"Tell me, what withstands every storm and thunder, what gives one the greatest strength and what is the greatest weakness all the same?" the Queen asked. The mother wolf didn't have to think for long: "It is mother's love for her child. It gives her strength and determination to fight a beast far greater and stronger. It gives her power to love and care for her child no matter what happens or is done. It destroys her, if the child is lost and yet it helps her move on again."

The Queen was impressed, yet she didn't want to give up just yet, therefore after thinking a little while she said: "There are many curious things in the world. Bring me flittery blidget, flutter budget, flattery badget." The mother wolf's face changed, realizing that this would be a quest she would not be able to fulfill, yet she was desperate to get her child back and agreed to bring it in a week's time.

She traveled long and far, visited many wise wolves, but no one knew of such thing. On the eve of the sixth day she came to a clearing and lied down sobbing, knowing that she had failed and she would never see her child again. However after a while she heard a distant tinkling noise, laughter and cheerful voices speaking. She lifted her head and looked around.

There in the forest she spotted a cloud of pinkish white mist and the closer she got, the louder voices grew. Finally she was near enough to see thousand little flickering lights flashing in the mist, laughing, talking and singing. Mesmerized by the sight she asked, what it was. And a choir of thousand tiny voices replied: "Flittery blidget, flutter budget, flattery badget." The mother wolf was surprised, but her heart was filled with hope. She told it her story and asked it to come with her.

On the night of the seventh day the mother wolf entered Fairy Queen's realm with the magical cloud of mist trailing along and the deeper they went in the forest, the bigger it grew, the louder the voices became. "I have brought you what you asked for," the mother wolf said to the Queen, who was staring at her in disbelief. The very next moment the cloud of mist had covered her and there she was laughing, singing and dancing with the little lights. Faster and faster until she turned in the mist herself and disappeared along with the realm.

The mother wolf and her cub were united again and what happened to them later is another story. However, the legends tell that on clear nights one can hear the cheerful singing voices and, if lucky enough, see the Fairy Queen dancing in the mist."