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English
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Fic In A Box 2025
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Published:
2025-09-18
Completed:
2025-10-04
Words:
997
Chapters:
4/4
Comments:
11
Kudos:
32
Bookmarks:
5
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107

the Fairy and the Human

Notes:

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

There are legends about the fairy realm. Tales of wonder and the tales to scare children from the forest, where the entrance to the magical kingdom is supposed to be located.

Some believe in those tales; some don't, but no human dares to seek the truth and enter the fairy realm. Until one day, a woman running away from her past crosses the border and walks into the unknown. 

 

 

 

printable box for the game. Prepared for ledger paper, one sided, I recommend printing on a cardboard or thicker paper, if not possible glueing to one of those before folding. 

TOP OF THE BOX

BOTTOM OF THE BOX

 

 

 

Chapter 2: game

Chapter Text

Not a day passes before the woman is approached by the fairy queen. She knows the tales. If the fairy learns her name, it’s over, so she lies when asked. The fairy queen is annoyed when her spells don’t work.

Reluctantly, the woman asks for shelter in the fairy realm. The queen is lonely, so she agrees, under the condition that every day they will play a game – the loser will reveal one truth about herself or her world. The woman agrees, vowing her name would be the last secret she would tell.

The fairy brings the board, the cards, and the little trinkets, and they play.

 

 

 

This is a reskin of a game titled Matik. I played it with friends in cafeteria once, one round took us about 2 minutes. 

The game contains - 20 cards, board, 16 small items (in original version cubes in 4 different colors). At the end of this chapter are files with the cards and the board. For the preview version, I painted wooden cubes from craft store, similar to original game. I think it would be more fun to replace them with small items, something you think the fairy queen could bring and use herself (worldbuilding time!). (I'm preparing to move out, and have a lot of things packed in boxes, so for the photos in this chapter and instruction it was easier to go with the cubes. But I'll probably replace them with small stones, crystals, seashells, and some other objects later) 

Rules: 

  • Each player receives 5 cards (each card has a different picture) and a set of 4 small items, all of them from the same category.
  • First player puts one of their small items on pink square of their choice. Then puts one of their cards on one of the green squares.
  • The second player repeats the steps with their item and card.
  • The game continues untill all of the items and cards are on the board. The players count the points, person with the highest score wins. 

 

there are a 3 official variants of the game, in each the points are counted differently. (Obviously the real fun begins with coming up with your own variants ;)) 

  • playing without numbers on the board and cards with characters - you get 1 point for each different card category placed on a squares touching the square with your small item. 
  • playing with numbers on the board and cards with characters - rules are the same as in the first option, but you also get additional points for the numbers on the squares where you put your items.
  • playing without numbers on the board and cards with numbers - you add all of the numbers on the cards put on squares touching square with your small item.

 

illustrated instruction - front and back (print version in the same file as the cards)

 

CARDS

 

 

BOARD

 

PRINTABLE CARDS AND INSTRUCTION - front, back. Prepared for letter, double sided, flip on longer edge. Cut using the pink lines from the front as a reference. Back has extended "bleed" around the pictures. Best printed on a thick paper, for cards durability. If not possible or preferred - print single sided and glue both sides of a card to a cardboard

PRINTABLE BOARD (+ FICLET) - print the same way as the box for the game, cut and fold th board to fit in a box (depending on paper/cardboard thickness, you may need to cut the board like in tutorial in printable file)

 

 

Over the next months they both learn new things.

The fairy queen now knows the woman was married, that her husband died of illness, and that her rival spread gossip that it was a murder orchestrated by the deceased’s wife. She also learns the best way to brew a tea, how many stairs were in woman’s childhood home, the stories about her cat, how her sister fell into a lake when they were sailing, the colors and names of the fish in it, that she was reading in her spare time and the plot of first chapters of a book she never got to finish.

The woman learns the fairy is the last of her kind, at least in this part of her world. She turned her last two servants into small flower fairies, so they would never leave their queen. The tiny deer who woke the woman the second night was from the human world. When the queen asked it to turn back, it didn’t react, so she shrunk it too. The “trees” came from the human realm as well. They walked through the gate just like the woman did, but, unlike her, told their names to the fairy queen. The woman finds some eerie beauty in the stories they share, when she later wanders the orchard.

If she wins the next game, she will ask about the butterfly – dragon hybrid she spotted that morning. If she loses, she’ll describe the shape of a hairpin her father used to wear.

Nevertheless, she’s anticipating the next round.

 

 

 

Chapter 3: stickers

Chapter Text

some art with the girls in a fairy realm

 

 

printable sticker sheets, letter size

Chapter 4: plushie + pattern

Chapter Text

mouse sized deer, with very real frog for the size reference ;)

 

patterns, if you'd like to create your own plushie:

 

also diy note, I used some wire to make the legs more solid and also bendable. The construction hidden inside looks like this: