Faris and Jack

by Melanie Cusick-Jones

  Chapter 5 – Holly-Hob

  Faris awoke slowly. His mind was empty after sleep and beyond his closed eyelids he could tell it was light but he was still so tired. Just another minute… He rolled over onto his side and snuggled into his warm, furry pillow.

  TAP! TAP! Faris opened his eyes with a start and blinked in the bright light and shut them again.

  “What’s wrong with the work bell?” He muttered as his sleep-confused brain worked slowly to catch up with events of the previous night.

  Faris opened his eyes more slowly so that they got used to the light. As the white spots in his eyes cleared he saw two large black hooves moving around next to his face. Each time a hoof moved it banged loudly on the floor. So that’s what the noise is… Faris groaned and closed his eyes again.

  Wait a second! Hooves? Furry pillow?! This time Faris sat bolt upright, his eyes wide and awake as the events of the previous day flooded into his empty head.

  “There we are! Good morning Mister Sleepyhead. Its time to rise and shine… Meet the new day and all that!” Jack whinnied cheerfully as he stood over Faris, grinning with his big white teeth and stomping his hooves loudly on the floor of the cave.

  “Mornin’ Jack,” Faris mumbled as he sat up. He rubbed his tired eyes with bunched up fists, which sent bright spots across the insides of his eyelids. He yawned loudly and stretched out his arms. Faris thought he’d slept surprisingly well on the hard floor, but when he looked down at the ground he saw that soft, lush grass had grown up beneath him while he slept with an especially comfortable mound for a pillow. Faris was very confused. “Jack…what’s happened to the floor? Where did the grass come from?”

  “Ah, that’d Holly-Hob’s work. Good girl that one. She must have come in while we were asleep. She’ll be back soon so you can meet her.” Jack answered without looking at Faris. He seemed distracted by something in the corner of the cave. Faris rolled onto his feet and wandered over to Jack.

  Jack was using his long nose to push large pieces of carrot into two piles on a small simple table made from the trunk of a tree. There were some other fruit and vegetables in piles and a single cup, made from a large hollow stone, filled with water. “There we go,’ Jack said. “Breakfast is served.”

  Faris sat eagerly on the (now) grassy floor of the cave. He hadn’t realised how hungry he was until he had seen the food. He couldn’t work out how long it had been since he’d last eaten. Not that they ever got to eat much at the Foundation anyway.

  “Jack? Do you know,” Faris paused and threw a large chunk of carrot into his mouth, “whoot ‘ime ot essss?” He swallowed the carrot and drank half of the water in his cup, coughing slightly he repeated himself. “Sorry,” he grinned, “I meant to say do you know what time it is?”

  “Fat’s OK – rie rounder-rood,” Jack replied, nodding his horsy head up and down with his own mouth full of carrots, which sprayed out little pieces as he spoke. Finishing his mouthful, Jack went on. “It’s probably past lunchtime. Maybe getting towards two o’clock, I’d say. We didn’t get here ‘til after three o’clock in the morning and judging by what Holly’s done, she’s been here at least four or five hours.”

  “You mentioned Holly before. Is she another horse?” Faris popped some more carrot chunks between his lips before reaching out for a bright green apple. He opened his mouth to take a huge bite and crunched thoughtfully while Jack spoke.

  “Nah – well – kind of…” Jack pulled some strange faces as he thought very hard about how to describe Holly. “Holly’s sometimes a horse but then sometimes other things. Mainly she’s a faerie.”

  “A faerie? What’s a faerie?” Faris was confused again and he’d only been awake a few minutes.

  “You know – pixies, elves, dwarves, gnomes, elves, leprechauns – they’re all faeries…” Jack replied, his voice trailing off as he saw the puzzled look on Faris’s face. “Right, you don’t know…”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Faris said as he munched away on the sweet apple. “I never went to school or anything, Jack. You’re lucky I was able to read the note you sent me…Hey! That’s a thought – how the heck does a horse write a note? Especially one so small?”

  “Ahhh – perfect example my dear friend. You know the pigeon that brought you the message?” Jack asked.

  “Yep.” Faris nodded.

  “That was Holly!” Jack said.

  “So Holly’s a bird then? Is a bird a faerie?” Faris asked.

  “Sometimes I am, but I am not just a bird.” A small, voice spoke from a doorway behind Faris and he twisted around to see who was speaking.

  At first Faris could see nothing and then he looked closer at the floor. A tiny creature, no taller than a pencil, stood in the large opening to the cave. It was the tiniest thing Faris had ever seen: she had small golden wings growing from her back and hair that was snow-white and fell in waves around her shoulders. Her skin was the same golden brown colour as her wings.

  “Ah! Right on time Hol!” Jack smiled. “Faris – this is Holly-Hob – Holly – this is Faris.” He nodded to each of them in turn as he introduced them.

  The tiny creature flitted into the cave and landed on the small table, her golden wings shimmering as they moved. Holly stood on her tiptoes and held up a tiny hand to Faris for him to shake.

  “Nice to meet you Faris,” she said.

  A little scared of hurting something so small Faris held out his smallest finger and shook her hand with it. “Nice to meet you too, Holly-Hob,” he smiled.

  “You can just call me Holly, everyone else does.” She sat down on the edge of the table picking up a piece of carrot (that was like a giant dinner plate to her) and took the tiniest bite out of the edge of it.

  “I was just about to tell Faris how you helped me to get him out of that horrible place last night.” Jack said as he picked up another chunk of carrot with his large teeth and started crunching it. “I’ll bet you didn’t recognise her, eh Faris?”

  “You’re right. I’m sorry I didn’t recognise you. Jack told me that you’re a faerie?” Faris was uncertain as he spoke – he still didn’t know what exactly a faerie was.

  “Faerie by name, faerie by nature – that’s me!” Holly said smiling at Faris. He returned the grin with a bemused half smile and she knew that he had no idea what that meant. She realised it was up to her to explain it.

  “A faerie is a magical creature – usually small but not always – and they live in secret in the everyday world of men. You see Faris there’s lots of different types of faeries in the world – some good and some not so good – and we all have different skills or powers to do magical things. I’m a Figlia faerie.”

  “A fi-fig-li-a faerie?” Faris stammered.

  “Yes – Fig-li-a,” Holly repeated slowly, nodding that he had said it right.

  “What do Figlia faeries do? I mean – how were you a bird before?” Faris asked.

  “Well, that’s one of the powers that I have, or rather that my type of faerie has. The Figlia faerie clan are some of the most powerful faeries in the world and we mainly work to protect other important magical people and creatures.” Holly smiled at Jack, who grinned toothily back at her. “Figlia faeries have many powers to help them protect their charges, including the ability to shape-shift into animal form. This gift has been very useful in the past few hundred years since magical creatures have been forced into hiding in the world. We can turn into everyday animals in the blink of an eye and escape to safety with no one realising they have just seen a faerie.”

  “So that’s why you can turn into a bird then?” Faris thought out loud.

  “Amongst other things!” Jack said interrupting loudly. “One of the things that makes Holly-Hob so very special is that she can shape-shift into many different animals – including a horse! Very few Figlia faeries could ever do this because it means increasing to over three hundred times their normal faerie size! The largest animal most could m
anage was a rabbit or small cat. But I think now – well because there’s less faeries – I’ll bet you’re the only one who can do that aren’t you Hol?”

  Holly nodded her head slowly a deep sadness appearing in her eyes. “A lot of good faeries…a lot of good people have been lost…” Holly’s voice trailed away into silence and she rubbed her eyes quickly. Jack looked down at his hooves and didn’t speak. Glancing at Faris, Holly saw that he looked rather worried by the whole conversation. Holly forced her voice into a happier tone and went on. “Anyway, I think there is only me who can do the horse thing now. Do you want to see?”

  Faris nodded his head eagerly up and down, happy that Holly had cheered up. He certainly did want to see this tiny creature become a horse, although he somehow still couldn’t believe it was possible even after everything he’d seen in the past few hours – she was tiny!

  “Not a problem.” Holly didn’t have to make herself sound happier now, as she grinned at Faris’s excitement. “OK then…here we go…”

  Holly screwed up her eyes and wrinkled her small nose in concentration. There was a bright flash of light and a small popping sound and Holly disappeared. In fact, from what Faris could see, everyone had disappeared. The force of the transformation happening so close to him knocked him over onto his back and he was looking up at the ceiling! He pulled himself back up into a sitting position and was shocked to see a large golden brown horse stood next to Jack. Holly’s long white hair had become the wavy white hair of a mane and tail, which she swished into Faris’s face as she tried to make some room for herself in the now, very small cave.

  “Sorry about that,” the brown horse grinned toothily at Faris. “Always forget how much room I’m going to take up when I do that!” Holly’s voice sounded exactly the same to Faris as it had when she was in faerie form and the size of a pencil.

  “Ffllllllphhh!” Faris said, pulling Holly’s tail out of his mouth. “No problem… Fflllllmmph…very impressive. I didn’t even see it happen.”

  “That’s because it happens in the blink of an eye – you must have blinked!” Holly laughed. “Wanna see something else?”

  Before Faris had time to say anything there was a smaller flash of light and a soft swishing sound and the horse had disappeared and a pigeon sat in its place on the edge of the tree trunk table.

  “Coo, cooo, tweet-coooo, cluck-tweet?” The pigeon said.

  Faris looked at Jack and shrugged his shoulders. Jack rolled his eyes to the ceiling as though this happened a lot.

  “Hol – you know neither of us can speak Squawker – you’ll have to translate or change again.” Jack said.

  The pigeon nodded its head and there was another swishing sound and the faerie Holly reappeared, perched on the edge of the table. She picked up one of the pieces of carrot that she hadn’t squashed when turning into a horse and popped it into her mouth, crunching it slowly. “So what do you think? Not bad, eh?”

  “Not bad!” Faris exclaimed. “I’ve never seen anything like it in my life!”

  “Told you our Holly was pretty impressive didn’t I?” Jack said, grinning at Faris’s obvious excitement.

  “What did you say when you were a bird? I couldn’t understand anything.” Faris rushed on.

  “Yeah – me neither mate,” Jack agreed.

  “Sorry about that, I just forget sometimes when I change from one to another. You can understand me as a horse, because you’re a Hoofer. But, you can’t understand me when I’m a bird because you’re not a Squawker.” Holly said.

  “A Squawker?” Faris asked.

  “Same as you, but they can talk to anything that flies – mainly birds.” Holly answered, still munching on her carrot.

  “Right…” Faris said, nodding his head slowly but with a completely lost look on his face.

  Holly watched him closely. “Faris, has Jack explained what being a Hoofer means?”

  Jack suddenly appeared uncomfortable and he looked away at the opposite cave wall as though he hadn’t heard Holly’s question.

  “Er, sort of,” said Faris, casting a cautious glance at Jack, who was now pretending to whistle, but having problems with his large horsy teeth.

  Faris didn’t want to get Jack into trouble, although the look on Holly’s face suggested that it might already be too late for that. He just really wanted to know more about what was happening. Perhaps there was a way he could ask without making it obvious that Jack hadn’t really told him very much after the whole you-can-talk-to-horses bit.

  “It was very busy last night,” Faris told Holly. “There was the escape and everything, so we didn’t really get chance to talk about anything and...”

  “That’s true – that’s exactly how it happened.” Jack interrupted nodding his head heartily in agreement. Holly stared at him and he quickly looked back at the interesting spot on the wall, avoiding further eye contact.

  “Hmmm,” was all Holly said, as she looked from Faris to Jack and back again. She did not seem convinced. “So, Jack didn’t mention that it wasn’t only horses you can talk to? He didn’t mention that as a Hoofer you can communicate with any animal with hoofed feet?”

  Faris shook his head slowly from side to side, his eyes widening with interest, although he didn’t say anything out loud.

  “Well, who wants to talk to the others anyway?” Jack grouched. “It’s all moo-moo-this and baa-baa-that. They never have anything interesting to say – the cows and sheep and … and…those others!” Jack’s voice was rising to a squeak as he spoke. “They’re just…they’re just…BORING!!” He finally managed to say. A second later as an after thought he nodded his head firmly as though that was enough to prove his point.

  “That may be so – in your opinion.” Holly said pointedly.

  Jack opened his mouth again as though he was going to say something more, but the angry look Holly shot in his direction obviously made him think better of it. His lips closed with a quiet clicking of teeth.

  Holly wasn’t very angry. She understood why Jack was acting the way he was, but she also knew that leaving Jack to educate Faris wouldn’t be fair either. After all, Faris was new to their world, it would be best for everyone if he knew exactly how his powers worked – not just that parts that Jack liked!

  It didn’t take much to convince Holly she was right and so she carried on, and ignored Jack’s sulky face. “Like I said Jack, it is just your opinion that the other animals don’t have interesting things to say. It is important that Faris knows what he can do with his powers – who he can communicate with and where he can learn more. You can’t have him only relying on horses. And anyway, you never know when you may need their help – ” Holly’s voice was cut-off by a loud snort from Jack.

  “The day I say moo and ask for help from a sheep you can cart me off to the funny farm!” Jack was definitely sulking. “It’s been a long time since there’s been a Hoofer around and it was nice just getting to know Faris.” Holly opened her mouth to speak but Jack went on quickly “Before all the others turned up and took over.”

  Faris grinned at the large sulking horse. “Thanks mate.”

  “You’re welcome…” Jack said smiling – a little reluctantly – back at him.

  “So…” Faris said slowly. He was thinking carefully about how to ask more about his powers without offending Jack.

  “…What exactly can you do?” Holly finished his question for him.

  “Yes.” Faris smiled sheepishly.

  “You see that?” Jack shouted. “See what you’ve started Holly-Hob? He’s already starting to smile like those silly, woolly jumper growers!”

  “Oh Jack – ” Holly said wearily.

  “Don’t you ‘oh Jack’ me! Hmmmmpppphhhh!!” With a swish of his tail Jack stomped out of the cave into one of the passages and disappeared into darkness, not even bothering to stop and put on the magic lights with the hoof switches.

  Faris and Holly sat in the cave in stunned silence, while the soun
d of Jack’s hooves clip-clopping away grew fainter. Faris looked at the floor, suddenly uncomfortable.

  “Should I go after him?” he asked, finally looking at Holly when Jack didn’t come back after a couple of minutes.

  “No,” she sighed. “He’ll be OK. This is probably just a little hard for him. The last Hoofer, Marshall, was Jack’s best friend and he died nine years ago. Jack thinks that Marshall would still be alive if he hadn’t been trying to protect the sheepherders living outside The Core. But, that’s not true. Bad things had started to happen and Marshall was just very unlucky – no one was to blame except the person who killed him.”

  Faris swallowed. There had been someone like him before, and he had been killed… Before he had the chance to ask anything about this, Holly jumped in and started talking again quickly.

  “Don’t worry about it, you’re not in danger,” Holly tried to sound reassuring. “That was a long time ago and Marshall was a full-grown man, who’d known about his powers all his life. He was just unlucky.”

  Unlucky. She had said it again. Was luck really all there was to it? Faris wondered. Perhaps, she was right. Luck was why he was sat where he was right at that moment – hadn’t he been lucky that Jack and Holly had rescued him from Grimbaldi’s Foundation?

  “I think that losing Marshall is one of the main reasons Jack has worked so hard to find you. We’ve spent most of the past nine years searching for the next Hoofer – when none appeared in the realms at The Core, we had to come to The Surface and explore further afield.”

  The Core…The Surface It sounded to Faris like Holly was talking about another planet!

  “That’s why Jack’s tried to keep you to himself a bit, I expect. After nine years of searching he wasn’t going to be happy sharing your friendship with the other animals. He’ll be fine though, you’ll see. Just give him a little time.” Holly hoped that she sounded more convinced than she felt. She wasn’t too sure how well anything would turn out in the dark times they were facing.

  Faris was a little surprised at what Holly had just told him. He had thought that being a Hoofer made him part of something, that there would be lots of other Hoofers, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Not if Jack had spent so long looking specifically for him, as Holly said.

  “Holly?” She looked up when he spoke. “What am I meant to do as a Hoofer? And what are these powers that I’m supposed to have?” Faris still barely knew anything about the new life he had jumped into the night before.

  “The basic thing you’re here to do is protect the animals you can communicate with – you know horses, cows, sheep, goats, deer…basically if they’ve got hooves then they’ll talk to you!” Holly said, happy to be moving onto a nicer subject. “But then you’ve got to remember that there are two types of animal in this world – just like there are two types of people. You’ve got the magical animals, who know of the old world and have some connection to it, some of them even have powers of their own. Jack is this type of animal.”

  Faris nodded. That kind of made sense to him – Jack certainly didn’t seem like any animal he’d ever met before, not that he met much of anything at the Foundation. “What other type of animals are there?” he asked Holly.

  “Well, the others are pretty much, normal regular animals. No magic in them and no knowledge of that world: creatures who have never had contact with the old world where Jack and I came from. They’re not so different to the humans that live on The Surface – we have humans back at The Core, who would be identical to the people that live in the world you’ve grown up in. The only difference is that they’ve been raised in a world with magic, whilst the people on The Surface haven’t.”

  “How is it possible for two worlds to sit alongside each other, without people knowing?” Faris may not have seen a lot of the world outside the Foundation walls, but he knew enough to know that humans had explored pretty much every corner of the globe.

  “It’s easy to hide when you have magic on your side,” Holly said, with a shrug of her shoulders like it wasn’t a big deal. “The humans and the animals of The Surface have been out of the knowledge for so long, that they don’t even know that the old world exists. You can talk to them all – but the intelligence you get from any of the Surface dwelling animals will vary greatly.”

  “OK, let me check I’ve got this straight,” Faris said, holding up his hand. “You’ve got the new world, which I was part of before, with the Foundation and South Appledale village and everything…right?”

  Holly nodded. He nodded back at her and counted off one finger on his hand.

  “Then you’ve got this other world – the old world, that you call The Core. And that place existed before all of the world that I know, but still exists today just hidden from everything else?”

  Holly nodded again. So did Faris and counted off finger number two.

  “And there are creatures from both worlds – but only those from the old world are magical or special?” As Holly nodded for a third time Faris held up his third finger and felt that he was finally beginning to understand what was happening a little more. He just had a couple more questions…

  “So the old world is the one in the pictures on the walls?” Faris asked, gesturing to the cave around them

  “Yes, they are of the old, world. The magical world.” Holly replied.

  “OK. So, talking to hoofed animals is what I can do,” Faris checked and Holly nodded. “And the new world is where I’ve come from, but I fit into the old world because of the power I have.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Finally then – do you know what I’m here for?” Faris had kept this question to last, even though it was probably the most important.

  “I do know…well, kind of.”

  That didn’t sound like a very clear answer to Faris. “Why can’t you tell me?” he asked.

  “It’s not that I can’t tell you, Faris. I just think it might be better for you to see for yourself.” Holly shifted very suddenly from her seat on the table, flapping her wings as she jumped to land on the floor.

  There was no easy way to explain everything Faris would need to know. And they didn’t have time to spend going through everything. Seeing is believing, she reminded herself and showing him would be the fastest way to help Faris.

  “I think I can hear Jack coming back,” Holly said. “When he gets here we should get moving, we’ve lots to do.”

  “But…?” Faris began.

  He had a lot more questions to ask: where are we going, what are we doing, were both high up on that list. But it was no use, Holly had already fluttered away leaving him alone in the cave.

  “Well, that’s just great…” he muttered as he dropped his chin into his hands.

  There was a loud snort behind him, which made Faris jump out of his skin (and his sulk).

  “You do know that talking to yourself is the second sign of madness, don’t you?” Jack said, as he clopped into the light of the cave.

  “Really?” Faris said turning to look at him, wondering if Jack was still angry. “What’s the first sign of madness?”

  “Talking to horses you crazy Hoofer!” Jack said with a laugh. “He-haw-haw, he-haw-haw.”

  Faris grinned back. Jack was obviously happier than he had been before and he was glad.

  “Has Holly finished telling you about the joys of talking to cows and sheep then?” Jack asked, pulling a face as he spoke that suggested it would be the most boring thing in the world to do. Before Faris had chance to answer Jack suddenly looked uncomfortable, as if he realised how childish he sounded. Jack looked away from Faris and started glancing around the cave, and then down at his front hooves as though they were the most interesting things in the world.

  “Yes, she has,” Faris said quietly, not wanting Jack to get mad again. Jack looked up at him and opened his mouth as though he was going to say something else, but then he dropped his gaze away from Faris and back to his feet. Perhaps he w
as going to apologise, Faris wondered. Before Jack had chance to say anything Faris spoke again. “I’m sorry about your friend, Marshall.”

  Jack looked up at Faris sharply, then a second later the expression on his dark face softened. “Thanks. It’s OK – it was a long time ago now. It’s funny though…”

  There was a long silence.

  “What’s funny?” Faris prompted when Jack didn’t finish his sentence.

  “…You look just like Marshall did when he was a boy.” Jack said. Then he smiled. “You all look the same you Hoofers!”

  “We do? How many Hoofers are there in the world Jack?”

  “Far as I know, just one Hoofer at any one time and at the moment that’s you! There used to be a lot of Hoofers in the old world, but not any more. I’ve known quite a few over the years…been around quite a while has old Jackie boy.” Jack gave Faris a big wink – as though being around a long time meant that he knew some fantastic secret or something.

  Just at that moment Holly-Hob walked into the cave. At least Faris hoped it was Holly, in the form of the brown horse again. Faris found it hard to keep up with her changing shape so often, but he supposed it was something he would have to get used to it.

  “We’ve got quite a walk ahead of us Faris,” the brown horse said, in a soft, warm-sounding voice.

  It was definitely Holly, Faris decided. She sounded the same as a horse as she did in her faerie form.

  As though reading his mind, Holly said, “that’s why I’m a horse again – these hooves were made for walking!”

  “We’ve got a long way to go?” Faris guessed.

  The brown horse nodded and flicked its mane away from its face. “It gets quite tiring flying all the time,” she said, as she turned to look at Jack. “Are you both ready?”

  “Yep. All breakfasted up and full,” Jack said. Faris nodded his head in agreement.

  “Good! Let’s get going then.” Holly turned and led them out of the cave, into one of the other passages that led off the small space.

  As Faris began to follow Holly, Jack nudged him in the arm with his long black nose.

  “Always wants to be the boss, she does,” he whispered to Faris out of the corner of his mouth.

  Faris smiled and let Jack walk ahead of him and then followed them both out of the cave. He turned back to look at the pictures on the walls of the cave one last time before it disappeared from sight. He might not have learned much about horse history, but it looked as though he was going to be part of horse future. This was going to be his first ever adventure. And Faris couldn’t wait.