Once, a little boy became so determined to see the dawn fairies that he got up in the middle of the night — long before dawn, long before even the fairies were awake, because fairies sleep when it is truly dark. He crept outside and hid himself inside the hollow of a tree to wait.
After a very long time, the sky began to lighten. The gray-robed dawn fairies came slipping out of their sleeping places, laughing their quiet bell-like laughs.
Then one of them stopped.
“There’s someone here,” she said.
She caught sight of him — a large boy, tucked inside a tree, watching them with wide eyes.
“Oh!” she shrieked. “There’s a person near us!” And all the fairies scattered.
From that day on, the fairy queen has made sure her dawn fairies are never seen again. They still come out every morning, still laugh their low, ringing laughs in the gray before sunrise. But now they wear invisible costumes.
That is why, no matter how early you rise or how quietly you wait, you will never quite see them — though sometimes, if you are very still, you might catch the light changing in a way you can’t explain.
