Made of Magic and True Grit

by Landry-Daniel Lié

  “I don’t like you, you’re ugly, you make fairies look bad, now go away” Pinly replied. Lofo and Miki covered their mouths in an attempt to stifle laughs. At the same time, Pinly heard Lion chuckle from inside the hole and felt quite proud of his joke. Voly’s face turned red with embarrassment and anger as he raised a hand, ready to strike Pinly down. Lion rushed out of the hole.

  “If you dare touch him, I’ll kill you where you stand.” Lion stood tall in front of Pinly to face Voly.

  “Tell your brother to watch his mouth then,” Voly replied.

  “Stay out of his way and he won’t have to,” Lion said. Voly flew away, his face still red as he glared at Pinly, who hid behind his big brother. “But seriously, Pinly…” Lion turned around “you have to stop provoking him. That was funny though,” he chuckled. The two brothers knelt by the hole, where the foxes were patiently waiting. Lion snapped his fingers and a bowl of milk appeared in front of the foxes. It startled them; he clearly had never used magic in front of them before. Sun and Moon sniffed the bowl before dipping their tiny tongues into it.

  Pinly quickly glanced outside as he closed the kitchen curtains to keep out a bright orange sun giving way to the moon. The forest was darkening and nocturnal animals began to call. In the village most families were still awake. The lights inside houses shone bright through most windows. Shadows were perceivable as they passed by their windows or closed the curtains. Pinly shut his, and turned to join his family around their small round dinner table, just big enough to fit the four of them.

  “How was your first day out?” Nema broke the silence.

  “It was okay, it’s good to be out again,” Pinly replied before dumping his bread loaf in his bowl of soup.

  “What did you do?” Kwassy asked.

  “Not much, we just flew around,” he replied with his mouth full. “I still can’t use magic; it’s like it has completely left me,” Pinly replied.

  “It will come back when you get your strength back,” Nema said. Kwassy remained quiet.

  Lion patted Pinly on the shoulder “For sure it will, right, Pa?” Lion asked, Kwassy didn’t say a word.

  “Papa?” Pinly dropped his spoon and waited for his father to answer. Kwassy’s silence made Pinly’s insides turn.

  “I don’t know,” Kwassy said softly. “That spell disturbed everything inside of you. I can still feel your powers, but it’s like they’re locked away.”

  “What does that even mean?” Pinly shouted and threw his bowl against the wall. It shattered and left a bright orange running stain.

  “Pinly!” Kwassy banged his fist on the table. Pinly did not look away, he held his father’s gaze. Never in a million years would he have ever dreamed of acting like that around his parents, but this time it felt justified. All the rage that suddenly mounted in him had to come out one way or another. The young fairy walked out and slammed the door behind him. The door opened again to reveal Lion.

  “Leave me alone!” Pinly shouted at his brother, but Lion stayed. Not saying anything, he just looked at Pinly with a sadness that he couldn’t bare. Pinly walked down the bridge. The anger had made him forget how weak he still was, until his legs gave up. He crumbled on the bridge and started crying. “Stay away from me!” he screamed as Lion attempted to put him back on his feet. Everything inside of him was hurting. He let out screams of pain and anger; he began pounding at the floor with his fists until they hurt even more. He stayed there for hours. After a while, all the houses in the village had turned off their lights, eventually going to sleep one after another; even Lion, who was sitting next to him, had fallen asleep. Only the light from his house stayed lit, waiting for them to come home. Pinly watched the stars and thought about his shattered dreams of ever attempting to fly as close to them as possible. What would he do without powers? Go live with humans? He hated himself for performing that spell and wished he could go back, put that cursed book away—even better, burn it so that no one could ever go through what he was going through. The silent night was suddenly disturbed from down below. He could hear the baby blazing foxes crying.

  “I’m coming,” he said as he weighed his options to get down to the ground. Jumping was out of the question; it was way too high. Walking was impossible, and so was flying. He could still move his legs and arms, so he decided to crawl. That too turned out to be harder than he thought it would be, but it was the only way to get through the three bridges that led to the ground. Pinly never realised how dirty the floor was until that night. He poked himself with stones and splinters all the way down. After the first bridge, his hands and knees ached, after the second one they burned, and after the third one his whole body was ready to give up. The soft and wet leaves on the ground were most welcome when he reached down. Pinly even rolled in them before crawling into the hole at the bottom of the tree. The foxes were happy to see him and started to wag their tails. The light they produced drew Pinly’s shape against the trees like a giant.

  “Stop,” he said, blowing on their tails as if trying to put out a simple fire. “You’re going to get us caught.” He took them in his arms, and they stopped wagging their tails. After a few minutes, the foxes laid comfortably on him and they all three fell asleep.

  “Pinly! Pinly!” He heard his mother call out several times before he realised he had spent the night in the hole, but most importantly, the foxes weren’t there anymore. The panic made him look in places he knew they couldn’t be. Pinly saw his mother’s feet fly by. He waited for her to go away before crawling out of the hole.

  “I’m here, Mum,” he said, and Nema turned around. horror was written all over his mother’s face when she saw that he was covered with dirt from head to toe.

  “Where have you been? And where is your brother? He was supposed to bring you back,” she said as she dusted him off the best she could. “You had everyone worried…”

  “I know, Ma, I’m sorry,” he said, not really paying attention to her. His eyes darted in every direction as he tried to find the foxes. They could have been anywhere.

  “Are you listening to me?” Pinly felt his mother’s cold hands grabbing his face and was forced to lock eyes with her.

  “Yes!” he insisted. Nema grabbed his hand and started flying up to their house. As he dangled under his mother, Pinly thought about excuses to stay behind and look for the foxes, but what could he come up with after staying out all night? That was when he noticed nearby bushes started moving. Pinly recognised his brother holding the two foxes. Lion ran into the hole with them. He looked up and showed him the foxes. Pinly let out a sigh of relief before his view of the ground was blocked by the edge of their porch. Nema landed and let go of his hand.

  “Go take a shower, you dirty boy.” She held the house’s door open for him. Pinly stepped in. He was expecting to see his father sitting by the table with a severe or disappointed look on his face, but Kwassy wasn’t there. He noticed the shattered pieces of the bowl he had smashed against the wall the night before were piled up in a corner of the room, only the soup stain was gone.

  “I’m sorry about yesterday,” he said.

  “It’s okay, now go,” she said. Whilst walking to his room, Pinly realised his legs were getting stronger, not running or jumping strong, but stronger than the day before. He walked into the bath, undressed himself, and slipped in the bathtub. He painfully picked the splinters off his palms. The house door opened and closed. The footsteps were energetic as they moved from one place to another.

  “Lion!” Pinly recognised his brother. Lion stepped in the bedroom.

  “What?” he answered.

  “Come into the bathroom, please,” Pinly said.

  “Can’t it wait until you’re done?” Lion asked.

  “Not really, no,” Pinly replied. Lion sighed and opened the door.

  “What do you want?”

  “I need to go back to the library.” Pinly was scrubbing his arms in his bubbly bath. Lion hurried to close the door behind him.

  “H
ave you lost your mind?!” Lion shouted.

  “Keep it down!” Pinly dropped the sponge and raised a finger in front of his lips.

  “What’s wrong with you? Do you want Dad to kill us both?” Lion asked.

  “You have to help me! There must be a book there to help me, anything so that I can get some sort of power back” Pinly said before picking up the sponge again

  “Just give it some time and they’ll come back” Lion said

  “No they won’t, not by staying here doing nothing” Pinly said. Lion put his hands over his head.

  “I can’t believe what you’re asking me,” he said.

  “I can’t ask anyone else…” Pinly said "please!" He pleaded.

  “What about the foxes? Who’s going to look after them?” Lion asked.

  “We’ll take them with us…” he replied. The door swung open and their mother stepped in the bathroom

  “What is that I’m hearing about the library? She asked, they stayed quiet “You boys better not put one foot in that library you hear me?”

  “Yes” they both replied

  “And you brought foxes in this house?”

  “No, they’re not in the house,” Lion replied

  “Where then?” Nema asked but didn’t get an answer. “Where?” she insisted

  “They’re outside, in the tree hole” Lion replied

  “Is that why you stayed out all night?” she asked Pinly

  “Maybe” he replied

  “You’ll return those foxes where you found them” she said

  “But ma…” Lion protested

  “No but, they don’t belong here” she said before leaving the bathroom.

  “Are you happy now?” Lion asked. Pinly stayed quiet. “Hurry up, you need to help me find a place for them to stay.”

  Chapter 4

  The silver soldier

  and the skull army

  A fter bathing, Pinly was ready to go out. He opened the front door and stepped on the porch to find Lion waiting for him. Pinly didn’t have to ask if Lion was mad at him, the frown on his face spoke plenty.

  “Hop on” Lion stood up and turned his back to Pinly but didn’t lower himself to make it easier. They flew down to the hole, picked up the foxes and began to look for a place for them to stay. It was a quiet ride as Lion flew back to where they had taken the foxes.

  “Let's go to the library” Pinly said. Lion flew down and sent. Pinly tumbling on the ground.

  “What’s your problem?!” Pinly shouted as he picked himself up. He was covered in mud, he even had to spit some out.

  “How selfish can you be?” Lion shouted

  “Me? Selfish?” Pinly screamed

  “Yes you! I have to send the foxes back because of you, they’ll die on their own out there and as if that wasn't enough, now you want to get us both in trouble?” Lion said

  “You don’t know what it’s like to be powerless! Literally! I’m like a human now, I can’t do anything! I crawled all the way down from our house to the ground yesterday, like an animal!” Pinly screamed with rage, he felt his heart wanting to burst out of his chest. Every time he thought about never having his powers again, he was taken with that uncontrollable rage. Being a fairy was everything to him and he was not a fairy if he didn't have powers. Lion looked at him for a minute “I’ll do it alone if I have to, but I need my powers back” Pinly said

  “Ok… I’ll help you, but if we do this, we have to come up with a plan” Lion said

  “We need to get to the library without getting noticed that’s the most important thing” Pinly felt his heart calm down. The beating returned to normal.

  “Yes, but how? Everyone knows us there” Lion said

  “What if we wore the green cloaks Miss Poli made us? No one would be able to tell who we were” Pinly suggested

  “Ok then let’s say we fool everyone and we get inside the library, what then?” Lion asked

  “I don’t know, we’ll figure it out, we’ll have to improvise, no plan ever goes accordingly anyway” Pinly said. Lion sighed, picked up the foxes and turned around for his brother to jump on his back. The worst was to fear. If their father was to catch them in the library. There was no telling what their punishment would be, but Pinly would never be able to be at peace if he didn't even try to get his powers back.

  Pinly and Lion were at the edge of Soubrey square, hiding behind a tree. "Do you think you can do it?" Lion asked. Pinly instantly knew what his brother was talking about as Lion began rubbing his hands together. It was the one spell Pinly mastered better than anyone he knew. It was similar to regular conjuring except that with the Recalling spell, fairies could make appear and disappear objects that they owned, like a magical storage. All they had to do was think about it and rub their hands together in a circling motion. Pinly began to rub his palms together, but nothing happened. He tried faster again and again, but still nothing, "don't worry, I'll do it" Lion began to rub his palms together and two green cloaks materialised at their feet. It startled the foxes who began to bark until they saw the boys picking the cloaks up. Pinly felt a bit jealous, he was always the one recalling things and to have to let go of the one thing he was great at, slightly hurt. Lion grabbed both foxes and put them in the large front pockets of his cloak. The boys nodded at each other and stepped into the forest square. Fairies were flying everywhere— high and low as they went on with their daily routines. They came in and out of the buildings built on the side of the trees all around the forest square. The massive sphere that was the library, sat in the middle of it all.

  “What are we looking for?” Pinly asked as they circled the sphere.

  “The spell you cast last time broke quite a few windows, hopefully they weren’t all closed up” Lion replied

  “Up there, look!” Pinly pointed at a hole in one of the library windows.

  “Nice, let's go” Pinly jumped on his brother's back and they soared to the hole. They had to hide their faces as Voly and his family passed by. Voly was begging his mother for something and failed to notice them pass by. They reached the sphere and waited to be sure that no one was looking their way before flying through the tiny hole and since Lion was the only one able to fly, they had to all squeeze into it then leap over to one of the floating book shelves. They crawled on hands and knees to the other end of it. Pinly watched the grey robed fairies flying around as they rearranged books or dusted them off. The library was a lot busier than usual Pinly thought. He noticed a couple of fairies hiding behind a shelf, kissing. but also the echo of loud children who didn’t know any better.

  “If I carry you around they will know it’s us. We need to walk all the way there, if we want to blend in” Lion whispered.

  They discreetly flew down on the side of the aisles. The boys walked with their heads down. Taking detours to avoid being seen by the fairies who knew them best. The librarians were too busy helping others to notice them. The green cloaks also camouflaged them against the vast collections of green and brown books, it was the perfect garment. Pinly was well aware of how big the library was, but having to walk through it made him appreciate it even more.

  He pulled his brother “I need to rest” he said and leaned against a shelf, his legs trembled and ached.

  “Don’t worry, we’re almost there” Lion smiled and put a hand on Pinly’s head.

  “Thank you for doing this with me” Pinly said

  Lion shook his head “Anything for my best friend and annoying little brother”

  “Best friend huh?” Pinly smiled

  “Alright, don’t make a big deal out of it…” Lion turned around and put his head past the shelf “Let’s go” he grabbed Pinly’s arm. When they finally arrived, the restricted area was cordoned off with several thick ropes. They stretched in every direction possible. Pinly and Lion ignored them and stepped through.

  “Which aisle was it in?” Lion asked

  “720 I think. It’s even darker than before, I can’t see a thing” Pinly said “
Get the foxes out, they can light up the way”

  “Ok but not too long” Lion took the foxes out. He called them to follow him. The foxes, excited, began to wiggle their tails. They walked to aisle 720. Pinly picked one of the foxes and walked down the aisle until he found the golden book, it was still there, at the same place. They didn’t even care to lock that book away, thoughts and feelings of anger ran through his mind as the book rested in front of him, he stared at it for a long time before picking it up. Pinly sat on the floor and began flicking through the pages in the hope to find an answer, anything. “Someone is coming” Lion whispered, Pinly grabbed the book and put it in his front pocket. Lion grabbed the foxes, he put one in his front pocket but as he tried to put the other one inside, it was too late. A tall, familiar figure was standing by the aisle’s entry. Their father’s face was lit by the fox's tail.

  “I can’t tell you how disappointed I am” He looked down at them, Pinly didn't dare look up, but he could feel his father glaring at him.

  “Are they here?” Nema’s voice resonated in the background before she appeared next to Kwassy

  “Really! After everything we’ve been through, you were about to put us through it again? I almost lost my position here over this!” Kwassy raised his voice “Most importantly, you almost lost your life…”

  “I told you boys not to come here, didn’t I?” Nema asked. Before they could answer, they were interrupted by a clattering sound, like thousands of small stones striked together repeatedly. The four of them froze to listen. Pinly had never heard such a noise, it was frightening and it approached closer to the library, drowning any other noise. The foxes barked then whimpered as the noise only got closer and louder

  “Run!” a voice screamed outside

  “You stay here!” Kwassy said, before flying away at a speed the boys had never seen him fly that fast before. It lifted all the dust around them.

  “Look after your brother,” Nema said before following Kwassy at the same speed. There was a second of unnatural silence. Then something powerful hit the side of the library, it made the whole place shake and tilt to the side, before falling back into place, Pinly looked up and saw the glass all around beginning to crack.