Fairy Judgment
This post is a response to an assigned writing prompt for my local writing group. We had to respond to the question “In what way do you judge strangers before getting to know them?” through the eyes of characters in our writing. I answered this question using some of the characters from the novel that I have drafted and am currently working on editing.
“Fairies are always so judgey,” the creature complained.
“We are not ‘judgey’!” Maeve argued. “Judgey isn’t even a proper word. How would a groundling like you even know what fairies are really like? I can’t imagine that you have many fairies visiting you in this…place.” Maeve said as she looked around at her dark and dingy surroundings. A look of disgust crossed her face.
“Seems pretty judgey to me,” the creature mumbled to himself.
Magnus snickered to himself and Maeve immediately turned and glared at him, ready for a fight. “What do you find so funny?”
“Well Maeve, you do have to admit that you are prone to being more than a bit judgmental.”
“Really?” Maeve asked coolly, her voice daring him to continue.
The small creature looked to Magnus and smiled, feeling validated. He continued his earlier complaint. “I’d say fairies are probably the judgiest beings in the whole Realm, always thinking they are better than everyone else, like there is some sort of ranking, and if you aren’t the right kind of creature or don’t have the right kind of magic, they don’t care about you one bit.”
“That is not even remotely true!” Maeve cried indignantly. Magnus gave her a knowing look, and she started to second guess herself. “Okay, so maybe I do judge creatures a little bit based on their magical abilities and where they fall on the Realm’s hierarchy, but I certainly don’t think I am better than everyone else. It sounds like you had bad experiences with some fairies, but that doesn’t mean we are all like that!”
“I’m having a bad experience with you, fairy,” he grumbled. “Here I am trying to help you lot and you start calling me names like groundling and insulting my home and speaking. I’d say you are exactly like the rest of them judgey fairies.”
Maeve could feel a warmth rising in her cheeks, she was embarrassed. The creature was right, she had judged him unfairly and been rude. “Okay, I apologize for my comments. I suppose you are right and I do judge creatures a bit without getting to know them, but there are a lot bigger problems out there than whether or not I am judging people. What does it matter if I judge creatures based on their magical abilities or social status? What matters right now is finding a way to stop Cathbad.”
“It matters if you expect me, or any other ‘groundlings’ as you call us, to help you. I’m just fine with things the way they are, I’m not wasting my time helping someone who thinks she is so high and mighty and better than me.”
