Bonnie
hasn’t been herself lately either, not the happy cheerful little fairy I found
in the woods full of boundless energy and enthusiasm, and always a smile. She insists on staying close by and I keep
her with me always. All through the
Christmas break I didn’t go out of the house unless I had to, and when I did I
took Bonnie along. We didn’t have any
company over the holidays and Mom was suffering from bouts of depression, so
it’s been a difficult time for us. We
watched a lot of TV.
I’m
not complaining, I can take care of myself, but I worry about the fairy. I think she misses her own kind. I don’t dare leave her at home, what if the
gnomes came back, or the warrior fairies, or the other pixies? No telling what harm might happen if I’m not
there. Think if I hadn’t been home that
time the gnomes attacked, or if I hadn’t rescued her from the rats in the
woods, or taken her with me when the warrior fairies clipped her wings and
wanted to do worse. She needs me.
She
rides in my pocket and goes everywhere with me, to school, to scripture study,
to the grocery store, or just hanging out downstairs. She stays quiet, she’s learned the importance
of not being discovered or making a commotion, and no one notices us. At least no one I’m aware of, although I
can’t help but imagine fairies watching from every tree and gnomes in all the
bushes. We do see rats about, and the
crows everywhere.
Madison
cornered me at church after Scripture Study this morning and I finally relented
and told her all about the gnome attack.
It felt good to tell someone. She
was totally astonished. She’s been
seeing rats in her parent’s yard too, especially the backyard, lots of
them. We decided to visit the fairy
meadow and see if anything had changed. We
had to do something. Bonnie objected,
but we determined to go anyway. I can’t
stand the waiting. We picked up Westley
along the way, strength in numbers, and went directly there after school while
the sun was still high, avoiding the hours of sunset and sunrise when fairies
are known to be most active, or the night when gnomes come out.
Everything
at the fairy meadow seemed normal, at first.
The trees there are actually quite beautiful, in the day, in the
sunshine, compared to last time we were there, at night, with crows chasing us
after our confrontation with the fairy prince and battle with warrior fairies,
when I was half delirious from poison tipped arrows and spears and eating the
fairy dust concoction. It seemed so much
more peaceful. The ferns and grass and
meadow flowers and bushes were waving gently in the breeze, inviting us in. I actually felt my spirits lifting, maybe all
was not wrong with the world.
Then
Westley saw something ominous. “Look at
this,” he exclaimed, leading us to the middle of the sunny meadow. Ferns had been cut back and dead fall removed
to clear a distinctly circular path surrounding the pile of rocks nearly in the
center of the meadow. There were
mushrooms growing all along the path, lots of them, like they’d been planted
and cultivated there. Bonnie flew along the path examining them in
detail. It was the strangest thing, mushrooms
growing in this circular path around the rocks, forming a dense unnatural mushroom
ring about 40 feet in diameter. Westley
approached a big one and kicked the fungus, sending sporeous white gunk flying
across the meadow.
“Don’t
do that,” Bonnie chided, flying around his head. She looked a little comical because she was
wearing a Barbie Doll evening dress of purple velvet with sequins that
sparkled, which she had cut short to free up her legs for flying, although she
kept the high heels because she liked the way they looked on her, and had on dinner
gloves that had sleeves to her elbows, and a plastic pearl necklace.
“Leave
the mushrooms alone Westley,” I said.
“Bonnie,
come here,” Madison held a hand up to the fairy.
The
little fairy flew over obediently and sat in the palm of her hand. “Yes Madison?”
“You
know anything about these mushrooms?” Madison asked.
“Yes
Madison.”
“Well,
tell us what you know.”
The
fairy looked over at me, as if for permission.
“Go ahead Bonnie,” I said encouragingly.
Bonnie
glanced about at the trees, as if making sure she wouldn’t be overheard. I thought probably we surely were being
watched, but she seemed satisfied. She spoke
in a whisper nonetheless, causing us all to draw in closer. “It means they will be doing it soon,” she
said.
Madison
caught her breath. She leaned in over
Bonnie. “Doing what soon?”
The
fairy looked thoughtful, then responded.
“Opening the portal, they will soon be opening the portal, the gateway between
the realm of fairies and the human realm.”
Bonnie looked my way anxiously. “Oh,
Michael, you must be careful?”
“What,
why?”
“They
will come for you soon.” Bonnie fished
around in her belt pack and withdrew a small leather pouch. She stood up in Madison’s hand and held it
out to me. “Here Michael, you must take
this.”
I
accepted the pouch from her? It was made
of extremely thin and fine leather and wasn’t much bigger than a gum wrapper.
“You
must take this power,” Bonnie insisted.
“At the first sign of any other fairies, you must breathe it into your
nose.”
Madison
frowned. “What’s it for!” she questioned.
“They
come for Michael’s help,” Bonnie said. “When
the time is right, they will come for Michael’s help. This powder will counteract any pixie dust
they try to use on Michael.” At that
moment a crow squawked loudly, causing us all to crouch and turn towards the
trees on our left. “At least I hope it
will,” Bonnie exclaimed. “I have tried so
hard to come up with a proper antidote.”
I
couldn’t help but remember how weak Bonnie’s pixie dust had been compared to
the stuff that Harvey fairy had me eat that day in the woods. “Bonnie,” I spoke to the fairy.
She
looked at me anxiously. “Yes.”
“What
was that stuff the fairies had me eat in the woods?”
She
looked down. “Rheoli.”
“What
does it do?” I insisted.
Bonnie’s
brow drew in and the hair on the back of her head ruffled. “The rheoli you ate that day is still in your
blood, and will be for a lunar cycle at least.
All they need do is blow a tiny trace of additional rheoli powder in
your face to activate the effects, and then you will do whatever they wish.”
“I
can’t believe they can get control of a person’s mind like that,” Westley
exclaimed. “It’s not possible.”
“Oh
they can, they can,” Bonnie exclaimed.
“They proved it the other night.
They took Michael away from me and there was nothing I could do to stop
them.”
A
chill went up my spine. She was
referring to the night woke up in the woods with no idea how I got there. “Fine,” I tucked the small leather pouch in
my shirt pocket. “The first sign of any
other fairies and I will sniff your antidote.”
“You
can’t be serious,” Madison exclaimed.
Then she raised Bonnie up to eye level.
“What do they want with him? What
do they want him to do?” Bonnie looked
down and wouldn’t answer. So Madison gently
blew on her, to get her attention, ruffling her clothes and causing her to
stiffen the hair on the top of her head.
“We need to know. What do they
want?” Madison insisted. “You must tell
us what they want with Michael?”
Bonnie
looked defiant. “I cannot tell.” Then she rolled off Madison’s hand, fell a
few feet, and went into a swan dive, gained some speed as she uncurled her
wings, and gracefully pulled up, taking flight.
She flew up in the air between us.
“I cannot tell. I am bound by
oath.”
I
put my hands up. “It’s okay Bonnie, you
don’t have to tell us anything you don’t want too.” Madison glared at me, so I added, “But what
can you tell us? What do these mushrooms
have to do with opening a portal to the fairy realm?”
Bonnie
signed and looked about at the ring of mushrooms. “They are a condition. The portal may only be opened under certain
conditions.”
“Okay,”
Westley said. “So why don’t we destroy
the mushrooms right now and be done with it?”
Bonnie
looked aghast. “They would be very
angry. This is the only way they can
ever return Prince Vercingetorix back to his kingdom. If you destroy the mushrooms they would
consider you a threat to his very survival, a threat that would have to be
eliminated.”
“They
don’t scare me,” I said. “And personally,
I could care less if this Prince Vader fairy and his minions do get back,” I
said. “But what about you Bonnie, would
you go with them?”
We
all looked to Bonnie, who faltered in her flight, then came to rest on my
shoulder. “No, Bonnie belongs to Michael
now,” she whispered.
“But
do you want to go back?” Madison asked.
The
fairy shook her head.
Madison
persisted. “What if Michael gave you
permission?”
“Okay,”
I cut Madison off. “This is really none
of your business, Madison.”
She
glared at me again, harder, and paused as if holding back some smart remark. She straightened her hair and took a deep
breath, then said, “Well, I do think we
need to know what they want with you, Michael?
Don’t you? What is the purpose of
their expedition, we need to know?”
“It
won’t matter if we stay away from here,” Bonnie said. “And we keep them away from us.”
Madison
backed up grudgingly, then asked. “Can
you tell us when they might be coming, or trying to go back home?”
“It
all depends on all the conditions being just right,” Bonnie said.
“Tell
us the other conditions then,” Madison said curtly.
“Well,
Bonnie not know them all, but it only works at night, with a clear full moon
shining bright.”
“Of
course,” Westley chuckled. “You have to
have that full moon.”
I
scowled at him so he shut up. “Go on
Bonnie?”
“Portals
between realms are always located beneath the earth, below the surface, and surrounded
by a magical ring of mushrooms, with falling water near. These sites are most sacred and are
maintained and protected by the gnomes. Yet
it takes both fairies and gnomes, acting in concert, to open a portal.”
“But
I thought gnomes and fairies were enemies,” Westley said.
“Yes,
we are, but to open a portal we must work together. A holy truce is called and terms agreed upon
by our rulers. It must be for our mutual
benefit. Both to gain from the crossing. No blood may be spilt or the truce is violated
and the opportunity lost.”
Westley
interrupted. “That’s why the fairies during
the battle with the gnomes had covers over the tips of their arrows, and the
gnomes too. The drawing of blood would
violate the truce.”
“Yes,
of course.”
“Except,”
I broke in. “Bonnie you stabbed that one
gnome with your dagger, the ugly one with the horned helmet and the axe?”
“Bonnie
an outcast now. Not part nor portion of
the fairy expedition. Gnomes not know it
then, but they know it now. Gnomes will
kill me now, if given the chance, and none would cry foul.”
“I
won’t let that happen,” I said quickly.
The
little fairy smiled at me appreciatively, then she continued, “Fairies must bring
the sacred silver powder, the dust that burns.
Also the dagger of Goleuni Nefol, which is well protected by Little Io
flying high. The sacred dagger of
Goleuni Nefol is struck against the hammer Golau Uffern, which I assume the
gnomes have back now, although maybe Carl or Jose got to it first. Goleuni Nefola and Golau Uffern must be
struck against each other such that a spark is produced, which ignites the silver
dust that burns.” Bonnie raised her
hands above her head reverently. “The
proper words of intonation are spoken.”
“And
then what?” Westley asked, his mouth open with wonder.
“Then,”
Bonnie drew up on her tip toes. “If our
God approves, then a portal opens and a passage from the Realm of Fairies and
Gnomes connects to the sacred spot within another realm.”
“Then
the Fairy Prince and his expedition can return home,” Madison whispered.
“Yes,”
Bonnie’s eyes glittered. “But, they want
to go not without the object of their quest.”
January 3, 2013
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