The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry

Mrs. Shunners other cat met me at the door, to my over excited imagination it looked like a huge black panther getting ready to pounce. Head low, ears pinned back, he kept his front paws pulled beneath his shoulders in a crouched position, every muscle was tensed and he lashed his tail back and forth.

My first hurdle in rescuing the faerie, Krystal, was convincing the big black cat that I was his superior. Not knowing exactly how to respond to the hostile welcome I was being given by my twin, I decided to play it safe and make the first move. I arched my back, every hair standing straight out, and hissed menacingly. When that didn’t seem to cool his virulence, I extended my claws and quickly swiped at his face, just for good measure, I did it again. My aggressor let out a terrified scream and vanished under a low sofa in the murky recesses of the room.

Having to deal with an angry cat, first thing upon entering Mrs. Shunners house, did wonders for my courage, but was going to prove to be the least of my concerns. I peered around the dim room. Hazy light filtered through curtains that hung over small high windows. There were cabinets on either side of the room that held an impressive array of bottles of all shapes and sizes, dulled by a fine layer of dust that had settled over everything. Crumbling yellowed papers were piled high in every corner.

I guess shape shifters have more important matters to attend to rather than being tidy. I remembered what Arial had said about the faerie energy coming from the back of the house, I was at the back of the house now and I couldn’t see anything that looked like a faerie. Don’t be a silly! you can only see things at floor level!

With that thought, I turned my attention to the bottles sitting high on the counter. Pulling myself up on my hind legs and stretching my head forward, I craned my neck, trying to see the bottles at the back. No good, the light was bad and there were far to many bottles and jars. Some of them were so dusty I couldn’t see what was in them.

I needed to get up there, but how? At the end of the counter sat a chair piled high with books, they had titles like, “The Dummies Guide to Living Among Humans”, ” Shape Shifting, Going Unnoticed and Loving It!”, and my feline self’s personal favorite, “Skulking Made Easy”.

I was poised to make an elegant leap from the floor, to the chair, and then to the counter top when I heard a scraping noise behind me. Darting under the chair, I turned to see flabby ankles in dirty pink bunny slippers shuffling through the hall door with my evil twin winding around every step.

I craned my neck to pier up at Mrs. Shunner. She looked around the room, then started calling in a high thin grating voice that she used to summon her cats, like a cat is going to come when it’s called. Did I mention that her voice was like screeching chalk on a blackboard?

She saw me, pushed back as far as I could get, under the chair. When I didn’t come running, she reached under and pulled me out. My first instinct was to claw her face as I wriggled to get down, then Arial’s words came back to me, “remember, you’re Mrs. Shunners cat, act like you belong there!”

I relaxed and allowed her to stroke my long black fur. ” Where have you been Beauty? Midnight and I have been worried about you, disappearing like that. Did you catch the nasty gnome that lives under the bushes next door?” She laughed at the picture of her cat dragging home the lifeless gnome.

My repulsion was growing rapidly, if she didn’t put me down soon I would have no option but to sink my teeth into her neck, or at least hack up a hairball. Holding me under one arm she slowly walked the length of the counter, stopping now and then to tap on a jar or wipe the dust off another so the she could peer into the cloudy liquid.

I saw what I was looking for even before Mrs. Shunner got to the end of the counter. There, back in the corner, was a bell jar, and under the bell jar was a tiny faerie. She was lying limp on the bottom of the jar, her glow reduced to a slow pulse around the tips of her wings.

Oh no! No, No, NO! The cruelty of it was more than I could bear. I literally jumped at the opportunity. I sunk my teeth and claws into the arm that held me, Mrs. Shunner screamed at the unexpected attack and jerked her arm back.

I pushed myself away and landed in the middle of the bottles, sending several over the edge to smash on the floor, splashing their slimy, noxious contents everywhere. Mrs Shunner grabbed at me but I wedged myself between two large carafes’ causing her hand to hit the glass hard. Pushing out with my back legs I sent the cracked jar sliding toward her. She batted it away. The already damaged bottle shattered, allowing fluid and round, squishy things that look suspiciously like eye balls to spread freely over the counter top.

Without looking back, I tipped the bell jar over, grabbed the faerie like a kitten, then sprung off the counter and out the cat door. I raced around the far corner of the house. All I could hear was the pounding of my heart in my ears. Not daring to slow down, I raced across the yard toward the garden wall, where twelve faeries were waiting, with silver orbs in hand.

I vaulted over the wall in one easy bound. Sliding to a stop, I turned in time to see the faeries cast multiple silver orbs into the garden that boarders the two properties. We saw the anger on Mrs. Shunner face as she thundered up be hind me. Anger changed to shock, then to dismay as she watched everything on our side of the wall disappear from her view.

I carried the little faerie to the backyard and carefully released her into the waiting arms of Arial, who flipped her wings once, and disappeared, followed quickly by four other faeries.

© Tami Ruesch, The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry, 2009.

Ever since I was a little girl I have been fascinated by fairies. Of course the first fairy I remember is Tinkerbell but then as I got older a whole new world of  little people opened up to me, trolls and gnomes were as interesting as the fairies and I was amazed at the extent of the worlds interest in these diminutive creatures. I realized that I was not alone in my love of fantasy, even the Barbie Doll creators jumped on board the fairy ride.

Just Google “Fairies” and see what you come up with, it’s a wonderfully distracting world out there! And I do mean “distracting” I can lose whole days following links, taking me deeper into their world. Check out the artists who have devoted their imaginations to fairy art. Some of my favorite artists are Brian Froud, James Christensen, David Delemar, and Amy Brown. And the books, well, there is no end to the books (much to my delight). They range from a little girls first picture book to enchanting complex story’s.

There is a fairy festival every year near Eugene Oregon. I went to it a couple of years ago and it was big then, now, the organizers have out done themselves! There’s music and vendors everywhere! All things fairy. People dress up, wear masks, listen to music and dance in circles. We camped out, it was appropriate I think, to be in nature while we celebrated the fairies.

FaerieWorlds Festival with Brian Froud

I look around my room, where I’m writing now, surrounded by all the things I love. You name it, I probably have it in here somewhere. Boxes, statues, and books, sitting on the shelves, prints hanging on the walls I even have fairy music. I wonder…will people ever outgrow the love of fairies? I hope not.