Fairy Dust
By Thomas Wood
Her butterfly like wings beat hard against the air, carrying her faster and faster to her destination. Trails of fairy dust streaked several yards behind her before finally breaking away from their airy current and drifting to the ground. Her speed was impressive and matched the urgency of her message. Time was of the essence, and it could mean the lives of those in the valley of fairies.
The butterfly net grazed her left leg as she darted to the right. How did these leprechauns get to be so fast? She puzzled in her mind. Gossomar SilverShimmer, ordained the guardian of the valley, was the fastest fairy in the entire kingdom. None could match her in speed and agility. However, it was as if these leprechauns could foretell her movements. Barely escaping one trap after another, she darted through a patch of briars. Pitching and turning, as she narrowly missed thorn and stalk, only to barrel out the other side into a field of wild flowers.
She had the leprechauns now, they couldn’t move as fast across the open terrain. They rely to heavily on trickery and the dense forest.
Gossomar zipped across the field, creating a rooster tail of brightly colored petals behind her, only to realize she must re-enter the forest on the other side. Approaching the edge of the forest, she could sense the leprechauns in waiting just a few yards inside the border of trees. Hundreds of them. She slowed to a stop and hovered over the canopy of flowers. What was she to do? These knarled ol’ toad stools could easily over whelm her at these odds, and going around would take her hours before she could reach her village. The village must be warned. Her heart raced as she flitted from side to side looking for the answer.
In the distance she spotted a dense population of willow trees. “Hex Elfwand!” she thought out loud as she found her answer. Hex Elfwand lived at the edge of the forest in the population of willow trees. Although a beautiful area rich in color and enchantment, dark magic played there. Wisps of fog would come from no-where to confuse your feet and the movement of the willow roots - or it would seem the roots moved - and the willow trees would wipe their branches around in warning from what appeared to be sudden gust of wind. One could never really tell if the willow trees caused the burst of wind from their lashing around, or vice versa. Although, it is said that the willow trees would slowly move over the course of time in a magical dance. Not one tree would be in the same spot if ever visited again.
Hex lived alone, but she would frequent the village. Her gothic attire would draw many stares from the children as she passed by to Buttercup Hailshimmers house. Her power was only superseded by her superstition. Hex was still under the belief that no-one could see her unless they held a four leaf clover under their chins. Most fairies went along with it while others would pretend to talk into thin air in order to converse with her. Everyone loved her regardless of her habits, and she was a favorite in the village.
Gossomer darted toward the grove in search of Hex’s help. After all, she too was a fairy, and her dark power could easily confuse these bunch of lump skull leprechauns. At least enough to let her slip by and raise the alarm in the village. Hex had to help. She flit left and right, up and down, in hopes to confuse the leprechauns, then shot straight through an entire group of ten, whizzing past their eyes, ears and noses. Confused and dismayed at such an audacious maneuver; they leaped, shouted, and toppled over one another in a disarrayed attempt at capturing her. Most ensnared themselves, while others clunked heads or captured each other. The sight almost made her burst into laughter, but she held back to a chuckle by placing her hands over her mouth and belly while looking back to watch the commotion.
Poof! Through a cloud of mist she went. Bonk! And into the trunk of a willow tree.
“Ouch!” Gossomer yelped as a knot instantly grew on the back of her head.
The cloudy mist rolled on by, and the leprechauns stopped short of the willow grove. They knew the willow trees distained them and would not tolerate their presence in the grove. They would leave with whip marks, knots and bruises from head to toe if they entered the grove. None of them thought it worth it, when they could just surround grove.
“All this just for one little fairy?” came a voice from behind the willow tree. Or so it seemed.
“Hex, is that you?” responded Gossomer, “Where are you?”
“I am right in front of you.”
“Where! I can hear your voice, but I can not see you.” Gossomer shook her head thinking she bumped the willow tree a little to hard.
“Just where I had said. Right in front of you.” Hex responded like a wise sage would to a pupil just realizing for the first time what was taught to her.
“You are invisible.?.?”
“Outside the village I can not be seen . . . Well, not without a four leaf clover.”
“Wow. It is true then. But everyone in the village . . .”
“I know. The fairies in the village tease with me because they do not see me outside the village. Most of them don’t even leave the village. And I am usually wearing a cloak and hood when I come and go.” Her voice lowers to a sneaky whisper ”The draw back to being invisible is I must be naked.” With that, a cloak seemed to dance out from behind the willow tree and take the shape of a fairy - yet hallow. “Oh well, it is all in good fun, and I don’t mind them. However, the leprechauns are a different story.” She says in a normal tone.
“Oh yea, them” remembered Gossomer.
“They, being made from the four leaf clover, are sometimes harder to hide from, except for the weaker ones. My grove protects me from the likes of leprechauns.”
“OH, they are an evil sort. Only thinking of themselves.” Gossomer turns and sticks her tongue out at a now empty forest.
“What brings you, and them, here to my grove? At first I thought they were here to cause me trouble, but I see they are chasing you.”
“I over heard a group of them talking. They plan to do harm to the village. I must warn the village before it is to late. And . . .” Gossomer looks around nervously “Barley is here.”
“Hmm, that means they are definitely up to no good if he is in this neck of the woods.” Hex said with a scowl in her voice.“Well, there are to many leprechauns for me to deal with. So we must get help, if not warn the village.” Hex turned and motioned for Gossamer to follow her. “Be careful. I have placed a few guarding spells here and there to ward off any unwanted visitors, not for fairies mind you, but sometimes things go awry.” She wiggled her finger at a patch of ground that had fairy dust sprinkled over it.
Fairies use diamond dust, commonly known as fairy dust, as the main component to all their incantations and spells. The gnomes had mined the dust in the mountains east of the village. It was said to be a by product of their mining process which they had no use for - interestingly, they were the only ones that could produce it. They would trade the fairies the dust for specialty wood they could use in their inventions. However, the mines have long been captured by the leprechauns in an attempt to fetch more jewels and gold for their treasures. So, the fairy dust is beginning to get short on demand.
The leprechauns seemed to have bitten off more than they could chew, finding it impossible for them to mine the mountains effectively. The gnomish machines were too complicated for them to use, and the old fashion way of digging with pick axes, shovels, and barrels was utterly out of the question. No leprechaun would be caught dead working laboriously for their pot of gold when the natural way – and the most boastful way – was to steal it with as little effort as possible. The most gold with the least amount of effort brought a leprechaun the most fame, notoriety, and power.
“I don’t have much fairy dust, but I think I have enough to deal with these numb skulls.” Hex called over her shoulder as she walked the well known path back to her tree house.
“How will we get through them all? It is still a dozen miles to the village.”
“We will get there through secrets.”
“Secrets? How do you get somewhere through secrets?”
“Watch your head.”
With that, Gossomer looked up just in time to see Hex pass right through the bark of the biggest willow she had ever seen. It must be the grandmother of all the willow trees. She thought in amazement at the grand size of the whole thing. Following Hex’s lead, her nose and forehead slammed right into the side of the willow tree. Rebounding her backwards, and leaving another bump on her head. This time directly in the middle of her forehead. “Ouch!” she yelped. “This forest is going to be the death of me. No wander the leprechauns won’t come in here. Even guests leave with bruises and bumps all over.”
“Sorry!” came a muffled voice from inside the tree. “I thought you knew to walk over the fairy dust to entire the portal.”
“You told me to avoid the fairy dust. ‘Sometimes these thing go awry’ you told me.”
“Come on Gossomer. We still have things to do before we can leave.”
(To Be Continued . . .)
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