THE FAIRY PET SHOP: BOOK ONE

CHAPTER ONE

 

The sun was shining through the dingy windows of the ancient fairy classroom.  Fawn stared out at the fluffy clouds skuttling by and the sunlight shimmering on the stream.  She wanted to be flying in that lovely blue sky… just like a fairy was meant to do.  She sighed as she realized that wasn’t going to happen until the stupid bell rang, freeing her and the others for two and a half glorious months.

 

While Fawn was daydreaming, the other fairies in her class were wreaking havoc; throwing paper airplanes and other junk at each other and talking louder and louder until Fawn found she couldn’t here herself think.  Even though it irritated Fawn, her teacher, Mrs. Owlet, had expected this.  Had Fawn asked, Mrs. Owlet would have told her, ‘This happens every year on the last day of class.’

 

She picked up the dictionary from her desk and slammed it down.  Silence was immediate.  All the fairy kids froze and looked up at her.  Mrs. Owlet smiled to herself as she said, “Thank you.  Now I know you all want to be outside, flying in the beautiful sunshine but, there is still an hour to go before school’s out and we have one more thing to do.”

 

Fawn rolled her eyes as Mrs. Owlet picked a bucket up off the floor behind her desk and dropped a sponge into the warm soapy water.  As the class gave a collective groan, she walked over to the first desk nearest the windows and said, “Take the sponge and wash your desk, inside and out.  Then, pass the bucket to the student behind you when you’re done.”

 

She walked back to her desk, picked up another bucket and handed it to the student nearest the door.  When she sat back down behind her desk, she said, “Bullfeather, you’re the tallest in the class so, when you’ve finished your desk please come up and wipe down the chalkboard.”  Bullfeather nodded, sprinted up to the chalkboard, and began wiping it down. 

 

Fawn took the bucket and sponge and, as quick as she could, wiped down her desk.  She turned to the girl behind her and said, “It’s the same thing every year.  Can’t they come up with some other way to pass the last hour?  Like maybe letting us go early?”

 

“I know, it’s ridiculous,” the girl replied.  “But I heard that ‘finals’ don’t have to do this.  And they get out a week early too.  I don’t know about you but I can’t wait for next year.”

 

Fawn knew that ‘finals’ was what students in the last year of school were called.  She smiled and said, “Me too,” as she turned back to the window, longing to be outside.

****

While Fawn was staring out the window, three human men were planning to ruin their summer vacation.  They slowly, quietly moved to the riverbank and started moving up stream.  When they neared the hidden entrance to the fairy school, the leader, whose name was Craig, motioned for them to stop and set up their nets.  “Quick as you can, stretch them out good and tight and make sure they cover from bank to bank.”

 

One of the men looked skeptical. “Are you sure this is the place?  It looks like any old stream bank to me.”

 

Craig nodded, “Oh, this is the place alright.  Any minute now, you’ll see dozens of little fairies coming out of that sandy bank over there.  And, if you guys do what I told ya to do, they’ll all fly into our nets and we’ll be rich.  Now, get back to work.”  Silently the men stretched the nets out and then hid in the bushes to wait.  They didn’t have to wait long.

****

Just as the last two students were finishing their desks the bell rang.  Everyone jumped up, grabbed their bags, and made a mad dash for the door.  As they passed Mrs. Owlet, they wished her a good summer and she returned the wish.  As the last student left the classroom, she gave a sigh.  A whole two and a half months of no kids and no class.  ‘What a heavenly thought.’

 

Fawn dashed to her locker, grabbed what was left of her lunch, and joined the rest of the fairies heading for the door.  After reaching the bright sunshine she took a few steps and, at long last, spread her wings and took off for the sky.  It took only a second or two before she slammed, head first, into the trap.  Within seconds other fairies flew in behind her, pinning her against the rough cords of the net.  As she was pushed harder and harder into the webbing, she felt the net close all around them and knew what had happened; they all had been captured by the humans! 

 

Without warning, Fawn felt the net being jerked off its frame and flung over the back of a huge, hideous human.  The other fairies were crying and screaming as he began running away from the scene of the crime.  Some of the fairies were calling for their mothers and others were calling for their brothers or sisters.  Suddenly Fawn thought of her little brother.  “Buck!” she called out.  “Buck, are you here?”

She thought she heard a muffled reply but she couldn’t quite make it out.  Was that really Buck’s voice or was her mind playing tricks on her?  Fawn wasn’t sure but she thought she’d better try to find out.  She began trying to push her way through the others but they were all so tightly packed together it wasn’t long before she realized it was impossible.  After exhausting herself with the effort she had to give it up and hope beyond hope it wasn’t him.

****

Back in the school, Mrs. Owlet was still sitting at her desk, enjoying the peace and quiet when she heard the kids’ cries for help.  She jumped up and looked out the window in time to see three humans closing the nets around almost all of the children.  Without hesitating, she spread her wings and flew to the principal’s office, where she told him what she had seen.  Moments later the principal sounded the alarm. 

 

In the nearby village alarm bells began tolling.  Every male fairy stopped what he was doing and took off for the village square.  As they landed, the principal was explaining to the council what had happened.  Everyone gathered in their pre-assigned companies and was given either a spear or a bow and arrows.  Once everyone in the fairy army was ready, they took off in formation and began hunting for the fairynappers.  Before long they found them.

****

Fawn was crying softly when she heard a sound that gave her hope.  Her heart soared when she looked out through the netting and saw the fairy army flying to their rescue!   Fawn watched at the army began their attack.  Her excitement rose as she watched the other two fairynappers being overcome by the army but, as the last one fell, she realized her fairynapper was going to get away; the army was out of ammunition.  Tears began to fall again as she watched them fall farther and farther behind until they were completely out of sight.

 

But Fawn didn’t see everything.  From her position near the middle of the net she couldn’t see the sky above her.  If she could, she would have seen one fairy flying high above the fairynapper.  So high even the human didn’t see him.  Who was that fairy?  He was the one person Fawn wanted to see above everyone else in the whole wide world; her father.

 

His name was Thorn.  He knew at least one of his children was in this fairynapper’s net because he saw Fawn as he flew past during his army squadron’s attack.  For the rest of his life, which was a very long time, he would never forget seeing his daughter peering out through the netting.  Even though he didn’t really see it, he imagined he could see her crying and begging him to help her. 

****

 

When Fawn thought she had heard her brother, Buck, she was right, he was there.  In fact, Buck was stuck in the middle of the net, being crushed by all the other fairies.  It was all he could do to breathe with arms, legs, and wings bashing him and pressing on him from every direction.  Add to that the noise of everyone crying and calling for their families and the situation became almost unbearable.  He decided to try to block out all the noise, and the fact he was being fairynapped, and just concentrate on breathing and staying alive.  He was pretty sure his big sister was somewhere in the net.  He found himself hoping that, at the end of this ordeal, they would see each other again and maybe figure a way out of this mess. 

****

 

Every step the human took forced Fawn’s arms and legs to rub against the rough cords of the netting and it wasn’t long before they began to feel raw and sore.  She was certain that she would be nothing but a bloody mess by the time they got wherever the human was taking them.  Thankfully, it wasn’t long before the beast started slowing down and Fawn started to feel she might survive. 

 

At long last the monster stopped.  Fawn looked around and saw a big metal thing reflecting the sunshine in her face as the human walked around to one end of it and opened a large metal flap.  Fawn screamed as the human threw the net, with all the fairy kids still inside, into the gaping metal cavern.  As the net landed, Fawn felt the weight of all the others pushing her into the floor.  Suddenly the human slammed the metal flap and there was complete darkness.  Fawn nearly fainted out of fear.

****

 

Fawn and the others didn’t know it but while their fairynapper was stashing their net in the trunk of his car, Thorn flew up behind him.  Carefully and as gently as he could he landed on the human’s floppy hat and crawled into the netting.  He had to be careful not to get entangled in the netting as the human climbed into the car.  Once it was seated, Thorn slowly and carefully crawled off the netting, onto the headrest, and then dropped to the floor of the back seat.

 

Thorn started looking around hoping for a way into where the children were but, he didn’t have any luck.  Then the thing they were in roared to life and Thorn knew he was out of time.  As the thing began moving, Thorn was thrown to the floor.  ‘This is dangerous,’ he thought and began looking for something to hang onto.  Finally, seeing where the front seatbelts were bolted to the floor, he crawled to one and hung on to the belt.

****

 

Fawn and the others heard the monster roar to life.  Before she could figure out what that meant, she felt the metal beast begin moving.  For what seemed like hours the prisoners could feel the beast slewing to one side and then to the other.  Each time the thing did this, the net would roll in the opposite direction it was turning. Then, without warning, the monster would come to a stop and then, just as suddenly, it would begin moving again.  This made the net to roll too so, by the time the beast finally stopped for the last time there were quite a few fairies suffering from motion sickness, not to mention bruises.

 

Once the beast stopped roaring, Fawn heard a thumping sound, followed by the sound someone banging on wood.  She strained her ears to hear what was happening but, with all the other moaning and crying, she couldn’t make out anything outside.

 

Suddenly Fawn had to squint when the fairynapper opened the metal flap.  She watched in horror as he reached in and picked up the net of struggling fairies.  As he pulled it out, he showed it to another one of his kind and made some sort of noise.  She heard the two humans begin making sounds to each other but she couldn’t make out what they were saying.  Still, she was sure they weren’t talking about letting them go.

****

 

When the fairynapper got out of the car, he left the door open.  Thorn took advantage of the opportunity and flew out behind him.  Before the human could catch a glimpse of him, Thorn flew above the shop’s backdoor and hovered out of sight.  He watched as the two humans made their strange noises and followed them through the door when they went into the shop.  He flew up to the ceiling and landed on one of the paddles of a ceiling fan, watching and listening.

 

The shop owner walked over to a large cage that looked like a bird cage and opened the door.  Craig, who was the only surviving fairynapper, brought the net over and opened it so the fairies would fall into the cage.  Not all of them fell out so, he shook the rest of them loose and they too found themselves in the cage.  Thorn heard the two humans grunting at each other and then the short heavy-set one bared his teeth.  At first Thorn thought he might be growling at the other human, but then he thought it might be showing happiness.  ‘Maybe it’s smiling at the other one,’ Thorn thought.

****

 

            Fawn and the other fairies felt as if the whole world was shaking when the human shook them out of the netting.  One or two fairies screamed as their wings were momentarily stuck in the webbing but the human kept shaking and eventually, they fell into the cage with the rest of them.  She was just picking her way out of the mass of tangled bodies when she finally saw Buck.

****

 

Thorn watched as the fairynapper shook the children out of the net and into the cage.  He knew the beasts were making noise and they seemed to understand each other but he just couldn’t quite make out what they were saying.  Then he saw that both humans were pointing at the fairies and it finally hit him, they were counting them!  They’d point and point and then they’d growl at each other and start all over again.  Finally, after the fourth try, they showed each other their teeth and Thorn guessed they agreed on how many children they’d stolen.

 

The heavy-set one waddled over to some sort of box and opened it.  Then he pulled out some pieces of colored paper and handed them to the other human.  They both smiled at each other again before the heavy-set one let the fairynapper out the door.

 

Thorn realized he wasn’t going to be able to rescue the children by himself so, when the fairynapper went out the door, he did too.  Thorn soared high into the sky and began looking around.  A few seconds later, he spotted what he hoped was their home forest and began the long flight back.  As he flew, he began thinking of a plan to rescue the children.  By the time he saw the lights of the colony, his plan was ready… he hoped.

 

Thorn could see lights blazing in the school so that meant there was a council meeting going on. Instead of flying to his nest, like he planned, he flew to the school and into the auditorium, landing in front of the council’s table.  The council leader bellowed, “What’s the meaning of flying into the chamber and interrupting the proceedings!?  Thorn, you know better than this!”

 

The other council members were nodding in agreement when Thorn said, “Begging your pardon Master Elder Bulb, but I couldn’t wait.  Master, I have news of the captives!”

 

The whole room began buzzing with talk.  What was this fairy going on about?  What news of the captives?  What’s going on?  Elder Bulb banged his gavel and bellowed, “Order; order!”  When silence again filled the room, he looked at Thorn and demanded, “What news?”

 

Thorn told him what he had seen and about his rescue plan.  As soon as he finished the room broke out in loud murmurings again.  Master Elder Bulb banged his gavel three times and silence returned.  “This plan of yours sounds risky.  Have you talked it over with Commander Hemlock?”

 

“Well, no not yet.  I thought I would bring it to you first, Elder,” Thorn said.

 

“Highly unusual; highly unusual indeed,” said one of the other council members.

 

Ignoring the comment, Bulb said, “Commander Hemlock is here giving his report on the attack.  Let us see what he thinks of your plan, shall we?”

 

Commander Hemlock cleared his throat and said, “Master Elder, I agree with you when you say it’s risky and dangerous.  Unless there’s more to it, I’ve gotta say, I’m against it.  Who knows what devilry the humans might have in store for us if we try to break into one of their buildings and rescue our children?”

 

“But, Commander,” Thorn pleaded, “I’ve been there, I know the layout of the place and I know we can get in there.  Please,” he begged, “At least let’s try.  If it doesn’t work then, maybe we can come up with some other way to save them.  We can’t just let our children be captured and not try to rescue them!”

 

Elder Bulb had to bang his gavel again to restore order as the other parents of the stolen children loudly agreed to the plan.  “Quiet!”  Bulb bellowed.  “If Commander Hemlock doesn’t think it will work then it won’t work.  Thorn, I’m sorry, your plan is rejected.  Now, please take a seat and let us return to discussing the attack.”

 

Thorn felt rejected.  He sadly turned and walked out of the school, his head hung low.  He knew that it was no use arguing with Commander Hemlock.  He didn’t have any children so he couldn’t understand how all the parents felt.  Perhaps he could talk some of the other fathers into coming with him once the council meeting was over.  Then again, what if he couldn’t get anyone to go with him, what then?

 

He stood outside the school for about an hour, waiting for some of the other parents to come out.  Eventually, the meeting was over and fairies began leaving the school.  Three fairies he recognized came out and headed directly for him.  “Thorn,” said the middle fairy, “they spent over an hour trying to figure out who to blame for the humans finding us.  They never did get to any plans to rescue our children.  Commander Hemlock only wanted to talk about how it wasn’t the army’s fault that the children were taken away.”

 

One of the others said, “In the end they decided to talk about what to do the next time we’re attacked in their next regular meeting and that’s not for another month.”

 

The third fairy said, “Are you thinking about going back to the human colony and trying your plan?”

 

“Yes,” replied Thorn.  “I was only hanging around to see if any other parents wanted to go with me, but I’m going even if I have to go alone.  They took both of my children and I want them back!”

 

“Great,” said the first fairy.  “We want to go too.  I want my Petal back!”

 

“So, when do you want to go?” asked the second fairy.

 

“Well Bud, I think tomorrow night would be a good time to go.  If nothing else, we can see what we’ll have to do to get them out.”

 

The others agreed.