Made of Magic and True Grit

by Landry-Daniel Lié

“Yes, that's what I mean, why?”

  “Who is she?” Pinly asked

  “Caleen… she is my promised”

  “Why aren’t you talking to each other then?” Vince asked

  “She is from Cammo’s family. We have to be discreet, they would not let her be with me, a fairy without a family” Ayloo began to blush,

  “Nonsense, you have us” Pinly grabbed the set of big black wings and pushed Ayloo towards Caleen. The winged boy stumbled clumsily making his way to her. There was nothing left of that strong fairy the boys were used to. Ayloo looked powerless. When he reached Caleen, Ayloo took the few pink feathers off her head, they laughed timidly and exchanged for a while. When he was done with Caleen, Ayloo turned back to the boys who were closer than he thought

  “So?” Vince asked eagerly

  “That was quick” Pinly said

  “I will meet her tomorrow at the young ones first flight”

  “What's that?” Vince asked

  “She takes care of the young fairies and every year, the younger fairies fly for the first time. The whole city goes to see our young ones fly. That is the only tradition the Kahoories share with the rest of the fairies in Mendy”

  “Oh that's not good, all the little ones will be in the way” Vince said

  “You do not understand. It is also the time for other fairies to find a partner and take flight with them…” Ayloo said, but before the three could celebrate, Meno was towering over them, backed up by a few of other fairies

  “What do you want?” Pinly asked

  “You are just visitors in this village so maybe you do not know, but you have to show some respect to your elders” he said looking down at them

  “Mate you're barely older than we are, just go away” Vince waved

  “I am 102 years of age” Meno said seriously, Pinly and Vince looked at each other then began laughing. Meno's face wrinkled in confusion and anger. He obviously wasn't expecting that reaction from them.

  “He's older than my dad” Pinly said, the boys were laughing even harder, Ayloo joined them

  “I understand now, it is funny because he is old!” he laughed with them

  “So old” Vince cried out. Meno, outraged, flew away from them. The boys were wiping tears of laughter.

  “But wait, how old are you?” Pinly asked Ayloo

  “Fourteen years of age” Ayloo replied, Vince gasped

  “Wait how old is Cammo?” he asked, Ayloo shrugged

  “We are not allowed to ask the elder’s age, but he has lived more than a thousand years”

  “Now that's old” Pinly said.

  The night fell on the village and most fairies were in their Booleafs, the orange petals closed around them, high and low as they told each other good night. The three boys were standing in front of Ayloo's booleaf, their arms were crossed as they stared at it

  “Really Ayloo, we don't mind just sleeping on the nest” Pinly said

  “No, no one sleeps on the nest, you are not pets, we are going to sleep in the booleaf” he replied

  “It’s too small inside, we were so crowded last night” Vince said

  “I have planted your booleafs, they will be ready tomorrow night” Ayloo said

  “Why can't we just sleep outside?” Pinly asked

  “You are my guests, I cannot let you stay outside, it is the Kahoory way” Ayloo snapped his fingers and the booleaf opened. He sat in the middle and tapped on both sides for Pinly and Vince to sit down too, so they did. Ayloo then snapped his fingers again, making the booleaf's petals close on them. As soon as it closed, the boys began to float around without using their own magic. Pinly had enough space to stretch his legs but couldn't move much on the sides, Ayloo's wings were in the way,

  “Ayloo move your wings” Vince complained

  “I cannot move my wings if you do not move your feet!” he replied

  “I can't move my feet”

  “Well I cannot move my wings”

  “Ouch Vince, is that your fingers!” Pinly cried out holding his left eye

  “Maybe, I touched something squishy, god let it be an eye!”

  “Maybe you are right, maybe you should sleep outside” Ayloo said

  “Don't mind if I do!” Vince said

  "I do not mind at all, I am the one who told you" Ayloo said as the two boys slipped out the boolief

  “You're not supposed to... Never mind” Vince layed on the nest, he was joined by Pinly.

  “I'm going to sleep somewhere else, wouldn't want to poke you in the eye again” Vince said

  “Thank god for that” Pinly replied

  Chapter 30

  The humming fairies

  V ince wasn't sleepy anymore; he just sat on a thick branch and dangled his feet. He could see, peering below, that Pinly had fallen asleep on the nest and so had Ayloo. The winged boy's shadow floated safely within the booleaf. Suddenly, above him, lights began to shine one after another, until the tree beamed as if the sun was trapped within the tangle of leaves and branches. It was followed by a growing buzz.

  “Them again” Vince whispered. The humming fairies were awake. Separating from the flock, a tiny light descended in his direction. It moved around in a flash, even faster than he could. The fairy stopped just meters away from Vince and although its wings shone too bright to perceive its face, it was clear that the humming fairy was staring at him. It then approached cautiously. It was a female, she had both hands clenched together as she looked at him in awe. She began to whistle, a bit like Ayloo when he was talking to them, but this time, coming from her, it sounded flawless

  “I don't…” Vince stopped and let her finish

  “Sorry, I just wanted to introduce myself” she turned back

  “Wait, I do understand” he said in shock. Nothing but whistling came out of her mouth, but Vince understood all of it. He didn't have to pay extra attention to the words, it came naturally to him

  “How... how is it that I can understand you?” he asked

  “Well” she frowned, confused “You're a humming fairy aren't you?”

  “Kind of” he replied “I can change into one, but that's it, I wasn't born one”

  “It doesn't matter, if you can change into one, you are one”

  “So you're telling me that I understand you because I'm a humming fairy?”

  “Yes” she replied, she seemed happy to exchanged words with Vince

  “But Ayloo isn't a humming fairy and he can speak with you too”

  “Oh, it's not impossible to learn, but you don't have to learn if you're one of us, you just understand” she said,

  “Good to know” Vince nodded

  “So what do you guys do at night apart from flying aimlessly in the sky”

  “We do not fly aimlessly!” she said

  “I mean I saw you the other night, you just float in the air, doing nothing” he said

  “Oh!” her tiny eyes narrowed, before she relaxed again “you have to see for yourself what we do up there” she waved her hand vigorously “come” she said and Vince changed into a fairy to follow her up “I'm Dilling by the way, nice to meet you” she said

  “I'm Vince” he replied

  “I know your name, everybody knows your name, especially after what you did last time... scared everyone”

  The noise coming from the trees above, grew louder as they approached. To anyone else it would just be noise and whistling, but to Vince and the other humming fairies and probably Ayloo, it was chatter. He heard one of the fairies complain to another, he heard many laugh and one cry. He saw two kissing and their wings seemed to stop for the second they did, making them literally falling in love. He thought that was a good joke to tell one day. Dilling grabbed his hand, as they pushed through the crowd. Some of the humming fairies recognised him, pointing fingers and whispering into their fellow's ears. Dilling waved joyfully at some fairies up above

  “Look who I found” she raised Vince's arm as high as it could go. Two fairies w
ere standing next to each other, both female; one looked rather moody and the other one looked busy with something, she barely paid any attention to him or Dilling when they finally reached them. “Vince this is Roma” Dilling pointed at the moody one. She slightly moved her head to respond “and this is Mercue” she pointed at the other one. all the humming fairies seemed to be wearing clothes made out of leaves, some were green, others red yellow, and orange. “have we heard anything yet?” Dilling asked

  “No, we're still waiting like always” Roma said

  “What are we waiting for?” Vince asked. Now that he paid attention, it was odd that every fairy, once awake would just stay there

  “We're waiting for our chief” Dilling said, the four of them sat on a nearby branch

  “Here we go” Roma said. A bright, almost blinding light rose through the crowd, Vince had to shade his eyes with his hands because it was so strong. The chatter died down and the whole flock gave a bow of the head to a humming fairy wearing robes and a twig crown. The chief peered over the silent crowd. He pivoted around until his eyes stumbled on Vince. He flew slowly towards the boy, almost gliding like his wingless friend Pinly. His robes floated backwards as he flew down the corridor of fairies. Vince, Dilling, Roma and Mercue stood up from the branch they were sitting on. Vince didn't have to be told, it made sense to stand up for a higher authority, even if he was the defying kind.

  “What an unusual fairy” the chief inspected Vince. He wasn't comfortable with the chief being so close, but he wanted to know where this was going. The chief grabbed Vince's left hand then right hand, he inspected his hair then his face

  “Where are you from?”

  “I'm from Chavo sir”

  “Chief, not sir” Dilling whispered quietly

  “Chief” he repeated

  “Chavo?” the chief asked

  “It’s not in Mendy” Vince said

  “And where is this Chavo?”

  “A city in my country, Fiby, a human country” there were gasps of horror coming from every direction, outraged whispers rippled through the crowd. The chief raised his hand, silencing the crowd again

  “And what were you doing in the human's country?” The chief continued

  “I was born a human” that fact sparked bigger gasps around the tree, some of the fairies even flew away from him,

  “Who brought you up here?” the chief asked, Dilling flew forward

  “It is I, chief” she bowed to him, it made Vince feel as if he hadn't been polite enough, maybe he should have bowed once or twice

  “And why did you bring him here Dilling?”

  “He is one of us. We shouldn't exclude him just because he wasn't born a fairy” she bowed again

  “You are growing wiser and wiser my dear Dilling” he said and she bowed again, Vince began to feel uncomfortable, he wanted to bow too

  “Ayloo accepted him, if that is not a proof that Vince is a good fairy, I don't know what is” she added

  “Indeed, our dear Ayloo” the chief said warmly, Vince saw a few heads nodding in agreement

  “Ayloo is my friend” Vince said proudly

  “And we thank you for this” he saw many of the faces who were scared of him before, smiling warmly. Everyone here clearly felt strongly about Ayloo. The chief turned around and spread his arms. Every fairy began to cheer

  “This is it” Dilling said over the noise “You are about to see what we do” Vince felt goosebumps prickle his arms

  “Are you ready?” the chief shouted, the humming fairies cheered and clapped. The chief waved his hand up and they were all gone in a flash. Dilling pulled Vince by the hand, he bumped into several fairies before managing to keep up. In less than a minute they had flown out of the village, passed the archipelagos and were right above a very dense forest. Patches of multi-coloured leaves stood out from the dark green majority. He remembered seeing the flock doing exactly that, just floating in the air, resisting the breeze.

  “What are we doing?” Vince whispered

  “We're helping the forest move without hurting itself or animals... the trees can be a bit reckless when they mate” Dilling said, Vince was confused

  “When they mate?” he asked

  “Yes, trees don't fall in love where you're from?” she asked

  “If they do, they certainly don’t hurt anyone doing it” he said

  “Strange” she replied “look!” she pointed at the trees below, Vince wasn't sure what she was pointing at, until he saw the top of a tree with yellow leaves shaking, it then moved forward. Its leaves brushed past the other trees. “there it is” she pointed in the other direction where a tree with blue leaves was moving fast

  “Is that its partner?” Vince asked

  “Yes, I think so” she replied, focused on the scene below

  “How often does this happen?”

  “Everyday, but this is a particularly busy season for trees” suddenly the trees below moved out the way. They formed a corridor for the two lovers to find each other. Vince could see there were animals down there, a bunch of humming fairies rushed down to push them out of the way. The blue and the yellow tree rushed towards each other, then collided. For a second it was as though their trunks were as nimble as ropes as they twisted around each other becoming one. The leaves changed from blue and yellow to purple. The other trees moved to close the corridor, as if nothing had happened. Soon more trees began to find each other. There was a rush left and right, far and close. Trees collided with force. More and more humming fairies had to rush down to push animals and wandering fairies out of the way. Vince thought it was amazing like most things in Mendy, but this was very special. It wasn't all just fun though, there were also tragedies; some of the trees missed the twist and fell straight to the ground in loud bangs.

  “Let's go!” Vince heard Dilling's wings flash past him, he followed her down and watched her swoop down to grab a snake and throw it out of the way of two trees. Vince decided to participate and he grabbed a rabbit by the ears to carry it out of the way of immense trees. It was clear that no other fairies could do that job. It required being fast and tiny, Ayloo's great wings would get crushed in such mayhem. Vince started to get the hang of it as he saved birds, lizards and other animals from certain death. It was hard to see anything at times, leafs and tree barks flew in every direction. Vince had to fly up to see better, it seemed to be almost all over, most fairies began flying up. Vince was looking around for Dilling, he was so excited he wanted to share that with her, but she was nowhere to be seen. He looked down and saw a flickering light on the ground. Suddenly the trees moved out of the way and the fairy on the ground was right in the middle of the row. Vince knew it was Dilling, he rushed down and realised he was right. She was stuck under a huge dead warthog. Vince quickly changed into a human to try and push the beast off, but it was still too heavy. The ground was shaking dangerously as the trees rushed in his direction. He pushed and pushed, but too late, the trees were now too close to escape. He took cover on the floor, covering Dilling from the coming impact, hoping the warthog’s carcass would be big enough to shield them. They both stayed there waiting for the blow, Boom! He heard both trees collide, but didn't feel anything. Could the warthog’s body have blocked the trees? Vince opened one eye and looked up, his Golem, Trampler had appeared out of nowhere, it was struggling to hold the trees apart.

  “Trampler!” Vince rejoiced, Trampler used his left foot to push the warthog back enough for Dilling to fly free. Both humming fairies flew off as fast as they could and Trampler's soul disappeared out of its enormous body, it fell into an enormous pile of rock, letting the trees finally bond.

  “Thank you for saving my life” Dilling said, she looked shaken

  “Don't thank me, thank Trampler” he said proudly looking down at the pile of rocks as if trampler was still inhabiting them

  “You gave a name to your golem?” Dilling sounded amused

  “Yes, he deserves one... Why didn't you summon your one by
the way?”

  “Not all humming fairies can summon golems, it is very rare” she replied. When they reached the rest of the fairies, Vince was greeted with more cheering and smiling that he ever thought he would ever get.

  “Well done” the chief's voice resonated as he approached from behind, he hugged Vince then turned around, his arms spread up to silence the crowd. “Go and enjoy the night my children, you deserve it” all the fairies were gone as he said the last word, including Vince, his arm clutched tight in Dilling's grip as she dragged him down towards the forest

  “You have to see this before it starts. They landed on the ground and looked up. Vince wasn't sure what to expect, until everywhere the trees had collided, fruits began to grow at an astonishing speed. The fruits were of all colours and shapes. Vince didn't have to know what they were to know that they were ripe.

  “What fruits are these?” he asked, Dilling shrugged

  “When trees collide, they immediately mate, and new fruits appear, most of the time they are fruits we've never seen before” she flew up to grab a fruit as big as her and dropped another one next to Vince by kicking it. It looked like a pink fur ball but smelled like apple and cinnamon

  “How do you know it’s not poison?” he wasn't even sure if he should touch it at all

  “Poison?” her forehead wrinkled

  “Trees don't grow poison... Not in Mendy that is” she said landing next to him, she put a fist through her fruit and when her arm came out, it was covered with lime coloured slime, she licked it off. Vince did the same thing, but his hand was covered with orange slime, he hesitantly licked some of it. It was gorgeous, sweet and unlike anything he had ever tried before, he had no words to describe how good it was. They spent the rest of the night flying around the forest eating fruits of every shape and colours until the sun showed the top of its head. Every humming fairy headed back home.

  “Thank you for tonight, it was amazing”

  “You are welcome Vince” Dilling said

  “If there's anything I can do to repay you guys…”

  “There is…” she interrupted

  “Just name it” he replied