The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry

While celebrating her new found ability to mind-link with Ember Innocenzi, the Kind One remembered that there are more serious matters back at the ivy hedge. Menacing forces were trying to breach the portal and her family was in serious danger.

Before her fears could run away with her, Arial intervened. “Don’t give into panic–there is a better way,” she said, and she invited the Kind One to think about what she had learned from the queens, and her interactions with the faeries. After pondering the gifts she carried with her in a small pouch around her neck, and with a little help from Arial, the Kind One was suddenly overcome with clarity of purpose…the items she carried were not just friendship tokens, they were tools with immense power.

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I stood, shocked by the scene that confronted me when I finally returned to my cozy garden. The sun had long since set behind the mountains on the far side of the valley and shadows were getting darker under the trees, but there was still enough light left in the sky to make out a line of scorched grass that wove from the sidewalk to the ivy hedge. The path of devastation crossed the ivy, weaving up and down, leaving brittle, dead leaves littering the ground.

The laurel bushes at the back of my patio sit just to the left of the ivy hedge that conceals the portal, the small opening that leads to the faerie realm. The location of the portal is a tightly held secret, only a few of us know its exact location. Last year, our neighbor, Mrs. Shunner, a disgraced shape shifter who had been banished from the realm, started snooping around, trying to find the opening. Arial’s elite emerald guard started patrolling it 24/7 ever since.

Tears came to eyes when I saw the dried and shriveled leaves of the Laurel bush that stood farthest from the ivy. Arial, Sunny, Ferne, Bella and Pip all hovered in and around the branches and leaves of the wasted Laurel. Ferne pulled out her silver flute and played a melancholy tune while the others looked on with respect, honoring the departed green spirit of the shrub. When the last notes of Ferne’s tribute had faded away, I turned and dashed toward the house.

Pulling the back door open I called for my dogs. “Lucy, mama’s home! Lucy? Merry? Edie, where are you? Come to mama.” I was greeted by a cold, eerie silence and I felt a knot start to form in the pit of my stomach. Moving cautiously into the kitchen I called out for Bill. “Bill!” I took the stairs two at a time. “Bill….! Bill, This isn’t funny! Where are you?” All around me were signs of a hasty departure, dog blankets were strewn all over the floor, shoes had been kicked into corners, and Bill’s hoodie laid in a heap on a chair with its sleeves pulled inside out. I sat down hard on the top step and laid my head in my arms. What had happened here? Where is everyone?

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Bill stopped the car for the red light and checked in the rear view mirror to make sure the kennels holding the chihuahuas hadn’t slipped askew in his frantic departure. His eyes were met with three pairs of shocked, round puppy eyes. Wide eyes that asked the question…”What was that all about!” He started talking in a calm, but shaky voice. A calm he didn’t really feel. “It’s okay girls, daddy is just taking you for a little ride, we’ll go home in a while.” Edie, the smallest, gave him a sideways look, a look that we have come to know means that she is very skeptical. Very skeptical indeed.

The light turned green and he eased the car forward, still not sure where he should go from here. They were far enough from the house by now, far enough that he was pretty certain they were safe, so he turned into the entrance of our local park that sits across the street from a small shopping center. I’ll just stop here for awhile and catch my breath, he thought and swung into a parking space by an isolated pavilion.

Cool, quiet, darkness settled around them. The only light came from a solitary street lamp that stood across a wide expanse of well tended lawn. Bill rolled down the window and let the evening breeze blow the built up stress he felt out of the car and across the shallow stream that ran through the middle of the park. He had forgot about the two little gnomes that sat silently in the seat beside him.

Warren slipped out of the wide seat belt that he and Odette had hastily crawled under as the car sped down the street. He climbed up the back of the passenger seat and jumped onto Bills shoulder. Bill had laid his head back and was sitting with his eyes closed,  when Warren’s weight landed on him. He shot forward, almost hitting his head on the windshield. “Mr Bill…sir, would it be all right with you if the misses and I went for a wee stroll?” Bill sat, starring at him in stunned silence. This was going to take some getting used to, these tiny talking dolls. Without speaking a word he nodded, then watched as the diminutive couple grasp each others hands and leaped from the open window, hitting the ground in a graceful run. He watched them go, laughing and dancing through the deep green grass.

He leaned the seat back and closed his eyes again, trying to calm his racing thoughts. This day’s revelations had taken all the energy right out of him. He didn’t know how long he had been sitting there, eyes closed, head back, when the feeling that he was not alone swept over him. It felt like he was being watched. Just as he was opening his eyes he felt a hand lightly touch his arm. Jerking his head around, he opened his eyes wide to find Lilly, the white haired little lady from down the street, starring at him with shining blue eyes and a reassuring, friendly smile.

© Tami Ruesch, The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry, 2009-2010

There’s a little white house down the street from us. It sits back off the road a little further than the rest of the houses, nestled among a riot of rose bushes.

The roses bushes around other houses are tidy and ordered, their blooms somehow know the perfect place to position themselves and lend a royal effect to the gardens, but the rose bushes around the little white house are irreverent and wild, the canes arching in unpredictable directions and the blooms defy any order at all.

I walk Lucy down past the little white house all the time. Like Mrs. Shunners house, there are never any signs of life, but, unlike Mrs. Shunners house, it has a welcoming aura about it, even with the masses of thorny rose bushes all around it.

This morning I grabbed the leash and headed out the door with Lucy (she gets so excited).  I let Lucy take the lead, she has a predictable path that she likes to take when we go for a walk: past Mrs. Shunners house, down the street past the little white house, around the corner at the gigantic elm tree. We make a large circle, cutting through the block using an ally half way down the street.

I always hesitate at the border between our house and Mrs. Shunners. The emerald guard placed protection charms in the flower bed to keep our property safely hidden from Mrs. Shunners prying eyes and I feel a slight tug when I break the energy field as I cross over the invisible line of safety.

A cold shiver ran down my spine  as we passed the little blue house. I know what the inside of that house is like, and every time I pass it, it feels like it is calling to me, trying to pull me back into its evil interior.

My head felt like it was swimming in a gray fog and the sunlight began to fade. “Lucy, wait, I have to sit down for a minute”. I started to sit on the front steps of the house to regain my balance but Lucy tugged insistently on her leash, staring at the front windows and growling softly under her breath. Feeling unsteady on my feet, I let her pull me quickly past and continued down the street.

As soon as we got past the far boundary of the house, all the fogginess disappeared. I glanced quickly around at the front door to make sure that no one was following and tried to shake off the gloom that had draped itself over me. When I was satisfied we were beyond Mrs. Shunners reach, I turned my attention back to Lucy and our walk.

I hadn’t realized it but we had crossed to the other side of the street and were standing right in front of the little white house with the unkempt roses. A petite woman with bright white hair was standing in the driveway, smiling at me.

She was wearing a straw hat with a large floppy brim that shaded the sun from her eyes, she was holding a silver goblet in both hands. She held one out to me as we got closer. “You look like you could do with a nice cold glass of  lemonade.” She smiled at me again and gave the cup a shake. “Come dear, it will do you good.” She had a familiar aura about her and I somehow knew she was a good person, so I took the cup. “Thank you, I guess I do feel a little lightheaded.”

She turned her attention to Mrs. Shunners house up the street and a shadow crossed her face. Her bright green eyes smoldered black , just for a moment, then she smiled at me again. “Come, sit down with me in the shade until you finish your drink.”

She lead me to a little table under an Oak tree. Lucy sat at my feet, contentedly watching a robin hopping in the grass as it looked for worms. Sipping  at my lemonade, I watched the little woman across from me and wondered again why she felt so familiar. “I don’t think I have ever seen you before, have you lived here long?”

Her smile gave her face a timeless quality and it was hard for me to tell exactly how old she was. She looked like she was thoroughly enjoying my company. “Oh yes dear, I have lived here for quite a while. I usually keep to myself, I’m rather a private person you see.”

“Oh, I can understand that! Life can get hectic sometimes…”  Before I could continue, two streaks of color shot past my head and stopped just behind my new friend. Arial and Cythia hovered over her head with their feet almost touching her hair, nervous looks on their tiny faces.

My mouth dropped open as I watched them. Without looking, the little woman reached up and patted her hair. I could swear that she flipped her fingers in a nonchalant way, indicating that the two faeries should shoo. She saw the look on my face. “What is it dear?” I tried to regain control of my dangling mouth. Was it my imagination, or did she know that they were there?

I quickly drain the last of the lemonade and stood up. “Thank you for the lemonade, you have been so very kind, but I really must be getting back now.” It sounded to me like I was stammering. The two faeries refused to leave, they kept hovering nervously over us and I felt like I had to rush off, if for no other reason than to keep this sweet woman from noticing their presence.

“Oh, alright. I hope I haven’t offended.” She stood in the shade, wringing her hands together. Arial and Cythia were frantically swinging around my head in an attempt to get me to go home. I turned back, I couldn’t leave this sweet little lady thinking that she had done anything wrong.

I took her hands in mine. “No!, not at all! Oh please don’t think anything like that. I am so glad you were here, your company was just the thing I needed, and that drink, I don’t know how you make your lemonade, but I feel wonderful! Would it be alright if I came by another visit?”

The worry left her face and she smiled as she hugged me. “Please drop by any time dear. I understand, you run along now. You young people are always on the go.”

I started up the street with the two faeries flitting around my head and realized that I didn’t know her name. I turned back one more time, the faeries gave loud heavy sighs of frustration. “I don’t know what to call you.”

“You can just call me Lilly.” She smiled and waved goodbye. As I started up the street, I heard a loud pop and when I looked back, she was gone.

I walked Lucy up the street on the opposite side, across from the Shunners house.

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

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.