The full version kind of parodies the incomplete nature of the current education system.
For example, the apprentice will be further into their education (might even have them having finished) yet still within the debt of someone else. Still unable to make the decisions needed, to have used their initiative. The language will hint at the idea of debt and service throughout.
I guess I should ask if you think it's a metaphor Barmy, what for? As literature is a notoriously tricky thing to decipher, even if you wrote it
There is also the obvious surface issues of not judging a book by the cover in regards to the fairy who sacrifices herself and the basic and simple power corrupts.
In the longer version, she has obviously discovered that in harvesting other fairies tails she in turn grows stronger, but what isn't really explained is why she cracks? Is she driven by a desire to gain power, or by the desire to be able to be the person people have always told her she must be. What corrupts her?
Anyway, I read the version I uploaded again, and it's full of a few errors that jar the reading a bit, so sorry about that!
Mainly it's a modern day fairy tale. I liked the idea of punning the Fairy Tail moniker into a Fairy's Tail, and though initially aimed at children (a fairy who loses her tail and with the help of friends regains it) it became a darker subject area whilst trying to maintain a vaguely comical aspect.
I have to accompany it with a 7,000 word research companion, so any input from what someone else sees within it is helpful. Genre it is obviously fantasy, and for me creating the fantasy world I've taken the approach of blending their world and ours.
Also, you'll notice my fairies have removed the religious aspects that fairies gained in the 17-18th centuries where they started gaining wings in regards to being considered as incomplete angels.
