Highly Commended Story - The Queen's Ring

“The Queen's Ring” by Mridhula P.R., St.Patrick's Academy, Bengaluru, India, is the Highly Commended story in the senior category of the first biannual Short Story Contest 2019.

Mridhula studies in Grade 7 at St.Patrick's Academy, Bangalore. She loves travelling and has visited several interesting cities across the globe. Her hobbies are drawing, writing and creating short animation videos. Her ambition is to become an architect, designing unique buildings in popular landmarks all over the world.

The Queen's Ring

Daisy was the daughter of two world class detectives, Mr and Mrs Smith. She was interested in investigating and solving mysteries. Mr and Mrs Smith, however, already knew that Daisy was gifted.

So, they trained Daisy’s mind with mental exercises starting from when she was just 1 year old. She was 15, with her understanding levels sharpened and the brain younger as ever. She was a bright student in class.

One fine day, as Daisy was explaining an important theory in science to her fellow mates, she felt like someone was spying on her. She had always felt it.

Daisy thought to herself, “Who could it be? Why do I always have this feeling? Is it destiny?”

Her thoughts were cut short when her friend Emily called her. Emily said to Daisy, “Your parents are waiting in the visitor’s room. They want to see you now”.

Daisy was curious and she immediately went to the office room .Her parents seemed to be waiting for her.

Mr Smith said to Daisy, “This is an important case. I trust you are the rightful person to solve this. The queen of fairies wanted to meet you. She entrusts only you.”

Daisy willingly agreed and she was informed to meet the queen in the “Black Seven Jungle”.

Daisy took leave of her parents and ventured into the forest with her bicycle the following day. After a while she stopped only to see two fairies asking her to follow them to the queen.

She followed them and reached the old town hall of the city. The queen seemed to be waiting for her. Daisy saw her for the first time and was stunned by her beauty.

The queen said, “Hello Daisy, nice to meet you. I am Rosa, the queen of fairies. You must be wondering why I wanted to meet you. I’ve heard that you solve mysteries. Is it true?”

Daisy replied, “Yes, I do” “Then come with me to my castle.” A carriage was arranged for Daisy. But before she could board, the fairies blindfolded her.

The fairies accompanied Daisy in the carriage. Daisy asked the fairies, “Why did you blindfold me?” Before she can utter another word, something magical happened.

The fairies took the blindfold from her eyes and to her surprise, she saw the shinning magical fairy’s castle.

She was overjoyed. This was once in a life time opportunity. Upon reaching the interiors of the castle, the queen said to Daisy, “You are indeed a person of talent and skills. That’s the reason I chose you.”

Daisy asked, “How do you know that?” The queen replied, “You may have felt that someone was spying on you. Well, that is actually my trusted fairy.”

Daisy looked puzzled and asked, “So, what is the case?” The queen replied, “It is about my lost ring.”

Daisy was surprised but the queen continued, “It is not an ordinary ring. The person who possess it, will gain undefeated power but the truth is only those with the royal blood can gain those powers.”

Daisy was thrilled and began her quest the following day. She started by enquiring the fairies and servants. But did not find a clue.

She was thinking hard but couldn’t find anything. She checked all the rooms of the castle, but still no clue.

The last room to check was the queen’s room. She began to check it carefully.

Something grabbed the attention of Daisy near the window. She wanted to take a look at that small shiny piece of cloth.

And there she saw, a torn piece with pure diamond embroidery. She immediately rechecked all the rooms and found scarfs like the same kind inside the drawers.

She knew what to do. She searched for the scarf which was torn. She was successful in finding the torn scarf in the trusted fairy’s room. She was shocked as she never thought a trusted fairy can do this.

She checked the room for the ring and found it inside the stitched pillow.

She immediately went to the queen and narrated the entire thing with evidence. The queen thanked Daisy and put the fairy behind the iron bars.

Daisy suddenly heard the sound of waterfalls. She did not know any waterfall near the castle. Turns out she was actually dreaming. The sound was from the alarm.

What an amazing dream Daisy had! Daisy was happy she solved her first case in her favorite fantasy world.