Meyv stretched out underneath the canopy of trees. Bored, the only activity that seemed appealing to her was to complain about how bored she was. Unfortunately for her, there was no one around to whom she could complain. Bayn was out doing some errands, and the fairies would just try to get her to join some of their games. It’s not that she didn’t like games; it’s just that she needed a break from them time to time, while the fairies never seemed to do anything else.
Sighing, she let her mind wander back to Bayn. He was a strange one. He claimed that he came from another world: one where fairies didn’t exist! He certainly looked like he came from another world. He had short silver hair and clear blue eyes, so that he gave her the impression of being extremely old, and extremely young. Now that she thought about it, she didn’t even know how old he was. It had just never come up.
“Why are you just lying there?”
“Bayn!” She shouted, leaping to her feet and embracing him. “I’ve just been so bored! There’s nothing to do! Did you bring me anything? How about those cheesy things? Or maybe that ‘pennant butter’?”
“Woah woah!” Bayn said, fending off the young girl with one hand. “As a matter of fact, I did bring something. Everyone’s had their dinner, right?” He waited until she nodded. “Good, because in this bag I have some popcorn—”
“POPCORN!” Meyv shouted, and she quickly reached in the bag and threw a handful into her mouth. As soon as she took a bite, she cried in pain and spat the orange-ish brown orbs onto the ground. “You lied!” she whined, rubbing her sore jaw.
The man smiled apologetically. “I’m sorry if you hurt yourself, but that’s what you get for not listening to me. As I was saying, I have some popcorn kernels. We still need to cook them before we can eat them. Now, this time I brought enough for everyone, so I’m not going to start until all the fairies are here.”
“I’ll go get them!” Meyv said excitedly, running off into the trees.

When everyone arrived, it was past sundown, and Bayn had already set up a blazing fire. Elaura, the queen of the fairies, flew to Bayn and asked, “Bayn, my child, why have you summoned us all here?”  
Bayn bowed his head to the small figure and replied, “Please forgive me, my lady, for disturbing you. It’s just that I happened to find a bag of popcorn kernels, and it reminded me of my family. I used to eat popcorn with my family around a fire, and I felt nostalgic. I thought that I could recreate the tradition with you, my new family.”
Elaura nodded her consent, and left to go mingle with the other fairies.
Setting to work, Bayn took a large pot and covered it with a thin layer of oil. He then placed a layer of kernels on top of the oil. He covered the pot, leaving room for air to escape, placed it above the fire, and sat back down.
As usual, the fairies began to whisper among themselves.
“What’s in the pot?”
“Why does Meyv look so happy?”
“Why can’t we eat now?”
Frustrated, Meyv shouted, “QUIET!” Immediately the whispers fell silent. Meyv continued, “the best part is coming up, and we need to be quiet when it happens!” For once, the forest was silent as all the fairies stared intently at the pot. Suddenly, a POP was heard, and the fairies burst into chat again.
Meyv stomped her foot and restored order. Soon after, another pop was sounded, and then another, and then two more, and then four more, until the air was filled with unending sound. Finally, the pot’s cover was lifted by the slowly rising mass of popcorn. The fairies quickly flew by the pot, catching bits of popcorn as they launched out of the pot. Murmurs of appreciation rippled through the fairies, until they all were clamoring for more.
Bayn took the pot off the fire, lifted the cover, and sprinkled some salt over the food. Without pause, Meyv quickly used two hands to scoop as much popcorn as she could to her face, and was presented with the difficulty of fitting it all in her mouth.
“Easy there,” Bayn cautioned. “Don’t choke!”
Unable to get some popcorn due to Meyv’s darting hands, an exasperated fairy asked, “Why can’t we just cook the “popping korn” without a cover? That way, when they popped, we could just catch it and eat it right away.”
“You don’t know?” Bayn asked, with a twinkle in his blue eyes. “Why, it’s because popcorn is cursed, of course!”
Meyv nearly choked, and the rest of the fairies stopped eating at once. “Cursed!?” Meyv sputtered.
“Oh no, I don’t mean it’s dangerous!” Bayn quickly said, eating a handful to prove his point. “What I should have said was that a magic spell was placed on it, so that popcorn will never pop if somebody’s watching it.”
“Really?” the fairies asked.
“Really,” Bayn confirmed. “Would you like to hear how it happened?”
“Yes, yes!” urged Meyv, who had returned to eating the popcorn as soon as she learned it was safe.
“Very well!” Bayn got to his feet, and walked around the fire, looking at all the people gathered. In a calm, quiet voice, Bayn began his story:
“Once upon a time, long, long ago, when popcorn had first been found, people used to eat it exactly as you suggested. They would cook it without a cover, and whenever the popcorn would pop, they would try to catch it with their mouths. However, no one knew how the popcorn popped, and though many people tried, none could figure it out.
“One day, a powerful wizard heard of this strange and intriguing food. Now this wizard was extremely knowledgeable, and had figured out the answers to most of the questions in life. He knew why the sky is blue, how love works, and,” Bayn’s voice dropped to a whisper, “some even say that he even knew all the secrets of the fairy world.”
An awed silence came over the crowd. Truly, this wizard must have been extremely powerful!
“As you can guess, when the wizard learned about this bizarre food, he just had to know how it worked. So he took a pot, just like that one, and poured oil into it, just like we did, and put the kernels into it, just like we did, and put it on the fire, just like we did.
“As he waited for the kernels to pop, he looked at them. Unable to find out how they worked, he looked closer.” Playing the part of the wizard, Bayn also looked closer into the pot. “Still unable to find anything, the wizard looked even closer. Finally, the wizard looked so close that his face was in the pot.” Peeking out of the pot, Bayn checked to see how his audience was doing. He was delighted to see that they were hanging on his every word. Even Elaura, the reserved queen, had an eager look on her face. Smiling, Bayn prepared for the next part.
Clutching his eye, Bayn stood up and yelled. The fairies audibly gasped, and Meyv was about to see if he was okay, when Bayn continued to speak, “As the wizard was staring at the popcorn, a kernel popped and flew up against his eye, burning it! The wizard stood back and howled with pain. As he tried to treat his wound, the popcorn continued to pop, and by the time he returned, he had missed everything. Angered by his failure, the wizard placed a curse on the popcorn, making it so that popcorn would never pop while someone was watching. That way, no one would ever succeed where he failed. And that is why we cover popcorn.” Finishing his story, he took the remaining popcorn and finished it as well.
There was a moment of silence, followed by general approval of such a good story. While some of the fairies blamed the wizard for making it impossible to find out the secret of this delicious food, others felt pity for him, and understood his actions.
Realizing how late it was, Elaura decided that it was time for everyone to go to bed. As the fairies went to their beds, each knew that she would not get any rest. How could she sleep after such a terrific story?  
Satisfied with a job well done, Bayn put out the fire and proceeded to clean the pot. Meyv approached him and asked, “Bayn? Was that a true story?”
Smiling, Bayn responded, “That depends. Do you want it to be true?”
“Well, I sort of want to know how popcorn pops.”
Bayn laughed. “Let me tell you what happened to the wizard. Even though he figured out more and more things, he never did find out how popcorn pops. And you know what? He was happy.”
“I thought he was angry that he didn’t find out.”
“He was, at first. But then he realized that magic—true magic—only comes from things we don’t understand. He was glad that, in the end, there was still some magic left in his life.”
Meyv thought very hard. The question she finally asked surprised Bayn.
“How old are you?”
Bayn winked at her. “I’m old enough to know that there are many things I don’t know. And my life is truly magical.” Taking her by the hand, he tucked her into bed. As Meyv fell asleep, she realized that he hadn’t answered either of her questions. Yet, it didn’t seem to matter as much anymore.