The Fairy Club

by Moshe Harel

  Our conversation drifted to other subjects. Lee and Alice told each other about their past and contemplated what their mating meant about the future. Margaret was already thinking about an official wedding and about getting to know Lee’s family. Brian and I just sat together, enjoying the flowers‘ nectar and half listening to others.

  I was suddenly aware of some other voices, some quiet giggles, but not quiet enough. Brian was also becoming aware of the sounds, yet the others were too absorbed in their discussions to notice anything. Without moving too abruptly, I scanned our immediate vicinity. I saw four pixies flying, and noticed several more moving, not quite stealthily, on the ground, below the level of the flowers. I knew that whatever they had in mind, it didn’t go well with our plans. Without moving more than my fingers, I created a strong shield, covering our part of the field like a transparent glass dome. Two of the flying pixies remained outside, yet most of those on the ground were now within the dome.

  One of the flying pixies came down to us, addressing Margaret. “What have you done? We were just flying peacefully and you captured us in here.”

  Margaret looked confused. She had not even noticed the pixie until she stood in front of her.

  “I did it,” I said, standing up.

  She turned to me, clearly not knowing who I was. “You’re too young to do anything,” she said dismissively.

  “I may be young, but I can do much more than this. Why have you come here?”

  She seemed reluctant to answer. “We’re only looking for some fun.”

  “Is that why most of you are trying to come stealthily here? There are about ten of you under the flowers. Call them out.”

  She was certainly surprised that I noticed. She flew around, telling the ones on the ground to come up. They were approaching our group from three directions, and I caught three from each direction under the dome. It meant that there were eleven pixies present now, with only three female fairies and three male ones. The difference seemed to encourage the pixie, who probably didn’t initially know how many were still within the dome. “You can see that we may easily overcome you. You’d better remove that dome now.”

  I made a show of thinking hard. “No, I don’t think I’ll remove it yet.”

  She seemed agitated. Evidently, this confrontation was not going well for her. From what I’d already read, the pixies were probably trying to entice us to join them. Living with almost no restrictions, not caring about anything and anybody, could be appealing to some, and the pixies didn’t force anybody to join them but kept their potential recruits until they either managed to make them join or were convinced it wouldn’t work, letting them free. It was still not something I wanted to experience.

  “We can force you,” the pixie said, trying to sound intimidating.”

  “You want to force Junior Sophie and Junior Brian?” Margaret asked them. “It doesn’t look like you have a chance.”

  The pixie shuddered. She took a better look at me and seemed to recognize me. By now, both Brian and his father removed the shrinking spell, displaying their male organs at full size. Lee wasn’t yet sure about it, so it seemed.

  The pixie was now deeply frightened. “Please forgive us, Junior Sophie. We intend no harm and we shall leave you alone if you only let us go. Please, Junior, we don’t want to be killed by these males.”

  “You must promise to leave alone all the fairies, from now on. Pass the message to your leaders. Junior Sophie and Junior Brian will no longer tolerate harassing young fairies to join you. Leave us alone, or suffer the consequences.”

  “I can only promise for myself and the pixies that are now with me. I shall pass your message promptly.”

  All pixies took off, going as high as the dome would let them. I opened a small hole in the dome, allowing them to leave one by one. I was glad to see the ones left outside join them as the whole group flew away. Once they went out of sight, I removed the dome.

  “Well done, Sophie,” Margaret congratulated me.

  “It was almost like last summer, when Gran didn’t let them do as they liked. You two,” I referred to Brian and Joshua, “also helped a lot.”

  Lee was overcoming his shock. “I can now see that you’re going to become a very important Fairlady, probably taking your Gran’s place, when the time comes.”

  “I didn’t do much, and it was the male organs that made them frightened. You should learn the trick as well, you know.”

  “I’ll make sure to learn it before we visit here next time, Junior Sophie,” he promised.

  We only stayed there a bit longer. It was late afternoon already and Brian intended for us to go see a new movie to cap off his birthday. Alice, much more powerful than that morning, opened a portal and kept it for all of us to leave, closing it behind us and not looking any more tired than before. I was sure that now, with regular sex, she would become about as powerful as her parents, or maybe even closer to Brian’s powers.

  21 Kathy

  Gran popped in at the end of the club, the next day. “You’ve handled the pixies very nicely. The Pixie Chieftain sent a message, promising that no fairy would be enticed to join the pixies from now on. She only asked us to let one pixie, whoever we find worthy enough, join the elders’ council, so that the pixie interests will also be represented. This may be the first step in reuniting the two races.”

  “I’m glad we could do something helpful. How did you find the club yesterday?”

  Gran looked at me in a way that made me understand that she knew I was avoiding something but was letting me do it, for now. “I think you’re a better teacher than I am. They already know more than I managed to teach during the whole last summer, and you’ve been only teaching them for about two weeks.”

  “I was just following your lesson plans,” I objected.

  “Sure, only I had to spend several hours teaching each, while you seem to do well with roughly an hour for each.”

  I gave it a thought. “Maybe . . . I’m much closer to their age and I only recently had the same experience they are going through now. I also speak the same jargon, use the same idioms as them, while you—well, you are my grandmother.”

  She smiled. “Thank you for not calling me an old lady. Still, doing such a fine job, I believe we may shorten it by a week or two and let you join the Elders’ meetings, so you may learn some more about what’s going to be expected of you in the future.”

  I was glad she considered my teaching so efficient, and joining the Elders’ meeting was surely a great honor, but I didn’t feel ready for it. I couldn’t evade that, though. It was clear to me that we were given our positions as Juniors after a lot of consideration, and the magical powers both of us had shown had a great deal in that. I still didn’t like it. A teenager cannot be an Elder—that’s a contradiction in terms. At least that was what I felt.

  In a way, I was right. The Elders’ meeting proved to be about as interesting as reading a grocery list. Although some of the subjects discussed there were really important to the Fairy Nation, the speakers made it sound so boring that I could hardly keep my eyes open. Brian, who had always been more politically savvy than me, found it only marginally more interesting than I did.

  I was glad that I didn’t just finish the Fairy Club operation for the summer. I had only made it clear that as we had finished our “studies” part, we didn’t need to meet each and every day. I still set a schedule for a few more meetings that didn’t coincide with the Elders’ meetings, allowing us to keep socializing, allowing us to exchange experiences and discuss whatever popped in mind. The younger fairies seemed to like the idea, especially since most had nowhere else where they could freely talk about magic and flying.

  It was during our last meeting, a few days before the end of the summer vacation, when somebody knocked on the club’s door. We kept it locked, once we were all assembled, to keep our privacy, especially since most preferred to remove their clothes, once in the company of fairies.

  I sent the others
to the side rooms and put on my clothes before unlocking the door and opening it. A young woman stood there, one whose face seemed somewhat familiar to me, although I couldn’t place her.

  “I was looking for you,” she said without a preamble.

  “Why?” I asked, still standing at the door.

  She seemed to reconsider her behavior. “I’m Kathy. Your grandmother was the one who introduced me to my fairy side when I reached sixteen. We’ve met twice already.”

  I could now remember the young fairy who had chosen to join the pixies. I let her in, closed the door behind us, and locked it. Kathy seemed to have expected this. Before I even finished locking the door, she took off her clothes and transformed. I watched her flying to and fro in the room, enjoying the freedom to act as her nature dictated.

  The other fairies returned soon after they heard me lock the door. “Who’s this one?” I heard someone question.

  “Another fairy, only slightly older,” I said.

  Kathy seemed to have had enough of flying for a while. She landed at my side and transformed back. I heard one of my group gasp in surprise. “Kathy? I didn’t know . . .”

  Kathy smiled at the younger girl. “Why? You thought you were the only fairy in the family?” She then turned to me to explain. “I’ve been noticing the marks on Lora’s back for a few months, but I wasn’t sure of the right way to tell her. You know I wasn’t an exemplary fairy, and I doubted I was the right person to introduce her to being a fairy. I was deeply impressed by the way you helped her gain her confidence in her abilities. Although she didn’t tell me anything, I could see her mature from day to day—all due to you. Now, I’d like to join you and help you as much as I can.”

  Lora still looked at her sister with some evident confusion, although I thought I saw some pride there, as well. I knew Lora to be quite a powerful fairy. With some more training, she could probably become as powerful as Brian or me. I didn’t know Kathy that well, although she seemed to be strong-minded and stubborn, but also open-minded and willing to take challenges. I was sure I would appreciate their help, once I was in a position of command, as seemed to be my destiny.

  “I’ll need to get to know you before I can even think of any task to assign to you. Can you tell us a bit?”

  Kathy smiled. “I’m sure my sister can tell you quite a lot about me, although I can’t guarantee she’d stick to the facts.”

  She then turned serious. “I’ve just finished my first year at college. I’m studying chemistry as my major, and management as my minor. I’m not yet sure about what I’d like to do, once I graduate, but both seem to promise some career options. I hope some of this may prove helpful for the Fairy Nation as well.”

  Kathy proved to be a very likable fairy, just like her younger sister. She stayed with us for the rest of the day and quickly became one of us, not letting the age difference pose a problem. I had a feeling she would become quite an important fairy, and not too far in the future.

  We were visiting the elf village again. This time, we just stayed in one of the large, beautiful houses, and talked, as seemed to be a common occupation for the elves. I was intrigued by the limitation they suffered, that seemed so misplaced with such magically powerful beings.

  “There are stories and legends about this, but nobody really knows the truth. We believe that most magical beings descended from a single species that lived far back in the past. Different groups of that species chose, or were forced, to take different approaches and develop different traits to suit their environment and their wishes. Not all variations survived to this day, I’m sure. The elves had chosen long life spans to study and contemplate. The fairies chose the abilities to transform, fly, and even live as humans. The goblins chose to be fearsome warriors, builders, and miners. There are also dwarfs and gnomes and imps and demons, to name a few. Each group turned into a different species, either by natural evolution or enhanced by magic, but by selecting some attributes, they usually gave up others. We gave up the abilities to transform, to fly, and to mix with humans. We’re bound to Avalon and can’t leave it, even if somebody else opens a portal.”

  “But why? I see no real difference between Avalon and Earth. For all I know, Avalon could be just a hidden area on Earth,” I insisted.

  She shrugged. “All I know is that only a handful of elves tried. Most died within minutes of arriving on Earth. A few managed to return on time and needed a long recuperation. It may be some minute difference in the air, or maybe the lack of Magic. Nobody is willing to risk it just to learn the cause.”

  “So, what did the fairies give up?”

  “A lot. Your life in fairy form is quite short; your magic is usually not very powerful, although that doesn’t seem to be true about you; most fairies can’t even tell their families about their natures, as most of their family members are not magical. If we could combine the abilities of all magical beings into one species, it would become a formidable force, and extremely dangerous as well, I believe.”

  Kathy joined me a few times when visiting the elves. She was quick to learn how to change her size and hide her wings. “Once you explained and demonstrated, it became so clear that I simply had to try it,” she told me.

  While I, being mated already, had no interest in the male elves, despite admiring their superb physique, Kathy had no problem copulating with them, not really minding if they had an audience. This seemed to be a common trait in Avalon—nobody minded having sex in public. I saw some elves copulating in the middle of a serious meeting; I saw some goblins putting their arms aside for some sex; I certainly didn’t mind copulating in front of the whole club that first time that we got mated for life, nor since. It was as natural as eating or drinking and didn’t have the unpleasant effects of peeing or defecating, that I still preferred to do with no company.

  Kathy seemed to sleep with many of the male elves, at first, but after a while, she seemed to prefer the company of a certain elf, one who was relatively young and used to smile a lot. This made me ask my elf friend, Ella, “Do you think they can become a couple?”

  Ella seemed surprised. “Fairies and elves are different species, as far as I know. As they’re physically similar enough, especially when a fairy changes size, they can copulate, as we’ve already seen, but I doubt if they can produce any offspring. Even if she gets pregnant, her child may be sterile, I think. Besides, what will it be? A fairy? An elf? A mixture?”

  I gave it a thought. “What if we aren’t really different species but only different races, like the fairies and the pixies?”

  Ella wasn’t sure. Despite her vast knowledge, she could find nothing to either approve or disprove my idea. “I need to check this out,” she finally admitted. “But if we’re only different races, then this may open some new possibilities for both.”

  It turned out that my question wasn’t premature. Kathy and her boyfriends didn’t become magically mated after their third public copulation, but two months later, Kathy visited me at home, waiting for me to return from school. “I think I’m pregnant,” she told me.

  I didn’t ask by whom. I already knew that she had become a regular visitor at the elf village, spending an hour or two there each day, and staying overnight during weekends.

  “Did you take the pregnancy test?” I asked.

  She shrugged. “I don’t even know if it can work in this case. I’m a fairy, and my mate is an elf. These tests are for Humans only.”

  I shook my head, wondering why I needed to explain the obvious. “While here, you’re just as human as the next woman. You should get a medical examination first. Then, if you’re really pregnant, you should think of what this means for the elves and the fairies. You may be making history with this pregnancy, you know.”

  She frowned. “But how will I stay in touch with my mate?”

  It seemed absurd that I, who was still in high school, had to act like the responsible adult with her, who was at least two years older. “Kathy, you can still transform and visit there, a
t least as long as you’re not too close to giving birth.”

  She bit her lips in concern. “That’s something else I’m bothered with. What will my child be like? Will the baby even look human enough for me to give birth on Earth, or maybe I should do that in Avalon?”

  For a moment I wanted to say, ‘How should I know? And if you’re so concerned about this, you should have checked it all in advance, or take appropriate precautions!’

  I knew this was not the right way to respond, though. I gave it a thought before answering. “I believe your child will be magical and will look human enough when born. Even if the baby has elongated ears, which I doubt, it can be attributed to the passing through the birth canal, and then you may use some magic to make them normal. Other than that, I don’t think you’d find much difference. I don’t think that giving birth in Avalon is preferred. They may use magic to help in some cases, but they have nothing comparable to modern medical technology, in case you or your child need it. Besides, if I understand correctly, the baby will not be able to transform for several years, if it’s born in fairy form. I don’t know what the case may be if you’re in elf size when giving birth.”

  “Will my child live, if born on Earth? Elf children can’t live on earth, you know.” Kathy was getting really worried.

  My research about Genetics came handy now. “Your child will probably be only a half-elf, the other half being a fairy. You know that a fairy, and probably a half-fairy, can freely live on earth.” I didn’t feel like this was assurance enough, so I added, “You may ask me or Brian to be with you at that time, so that if a problem is detected, we may take the baby to Avalon before it suffers any damage.”

  She seemed relieved at my words. “Thank you, Sophie. You’re the best!”

  I wasn’t sure if either I or Brian were ready to witness the birth process, and yet this birth seemed to be more important than most. If the baby turned out to be able to live on Earth and grow like a normal human child, despite its mixed ancestry, it could mean some new hope for the elves, as well as for the fairies, especially if it turned out to be fertile, although that would take more time before it could be checked. I knew I would like to be there, and not only for Kathy.