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.

Cythia and Arial were pushing me toward the back door, you can’t tell by looking at them, but for only being three inches tall, they are strong for their size. ” Hey, guy’s, don’t you think we should wait for Bill to get home? I mean, maybe he should be here to help. There’s not going to be side effects or anything is there? You didn’t tell me how long the potion will work or what to expect…guy’s, wait!”

They pushed and I protested right up until we reached the door. What are they going to do now, they can’t push me and open the door at the same time. My frenzied train of thought evaporated when  Cythia waved her wand at the door causing it to swing open, allowing us to walk through without any hesitation.

When the black cat saw us it ceased its useless struggle.  Hanging suspended in mid air by the energy field that surrounded it, the creature stared at us with wild, flashing  green eyes. As we got closer, it pinned its ears back and produced a low throaty growl. Its razor sharp claws pulsed in and out, it was just waiting for a chance to strike.

Arial landed on my shoulder, her usual perch and whispered in my ear. “Do not worry, Kind One, you will have plenty of time to complete your mission. Go to the rear, there is a door through which you can pass. Krystal’s energy is emanating from somewhere in the back of the house. Do you understand?”

Keeping a wary eye on Mrs. Shunners cat, I nodded. “I still don’t like this.” Cythia darted over and flew circles around my head, “You’ll be just fine.” She pulled three strands of my hair out. “This is just in case of an emergency.” My mouth dropped open, “Emergency? What emergency!?”Arial snapped her fingers and the green goo appeared. She handed me the bottle and indicated that I should drink up.

I sniffed it. It smelled like green jello with a hint of licorice, and something else that I couldn’t identify but was slightly acrid. Arial helped tip the bottle to my mouth. She winked at me, “I think you will find this surprisingly different!” I pinched my nose shut and I swallowed the brew.

At first, nothing happened, then everything went blurry. The yard started rocking back and forth. I sat down to steady myself. This ethereal feeling left me slightly light-headed. From somewhere far away I heard Cythia telling the other faeries to float the cat closer. A beautiful rainbow of light shot out of  her wand and the cat went limp. I was suddenly overcome with the urge to pet the thick, glossy black fur.

The world dimmed out. When the fog lifted, I was aware that my hearing and eyesight had sharpened, I felt extremely agile and felt a driving need to hunt sweep over me. With my human awareness remaining intact, I had taken on a feline form. I no longer walked, I sauntered.

I felt Cythia and Arial coming up behind me, in one fluid movement I reacted, jumping and turning at the same time coming down on all four paws, back arched and ears pinned, ready to strike at the eminent threat. When I saw that it was just my faerie friends, I tried to apologize, but all that came out was a mewling moan so I just flicked my tail upward and began swishing it quietly back and forth.

Arial grabbed me by the whiskers to focus my attention. I tried to shake her off, but she held fast. “Remember, you are Mrs. Shunners Cat, act like you belong there. Go to the back of the dwelling and find the entrance, your new vision will help you in the dim interior. Be quick.”

I rubbed my chin up against Arial to show that I understood, then padded softly down the sidewalk and turned the corner, heading for the Shunners property, trying hard not to get distracted by the bird jumping from branch to branch in the big bush at the corner of the yard.

When I got to the garden wall, I sprung effortlessly up and proceeded to follow it to the fence that divided the front of their yard from the back. It was no effort at all for me to balance myself as I edged along the top with my new found feline grace.

The Shunners yard was overgrown with thorny vines. Bare now, but when summer came they would be covered with raspberries.  I negotiated the thorny, dead wood and made my way  to the back door. The Shunners had installed a small swinging door so that their cats could come and go at their leisure. How thoughtful of her. Weird how I could still think like me but look like a cat. This is one for the record books!

I inched slowly forward, pausing every few steps to sniff the air, then moved forward again. I felt a static charge in the air, it made my fur stand up a little and heightened my senses. After a slow deliberate approach to the little door, I stopped, then pushed it opened with my head and let myself into the dimly lit interior of Mrs. Shunners house coming face to face with my twin self, a large midnight black cat.

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

There’s a time of day where the light in the sky is the same, whether dusk, or dawn. Have you ever fallen asleep and woke up not knowing how long you slept? You can’t tell from the light in the sky. Is it six in the morning, or six in the evening? What time was it when I went to sleep? Have you had that surreal feeling that you slept all night (or day). Sometimes the only way to get your balance back is to run through the house looking for someone else. Someone that you can ask what the time  is, and risk appearing the fool when you ask, “Did I sleep so long that I missed something?” They will look at you strangely, I promise,  when you follow up with, “You know, is it today or tomorrow?” It’s a very disorienting feeling.

That’s exactly how I felt when, after long frantic discussions, held in hushed tones, and a flurry of tense activity by the faeries in the emerald guard, Arial finally decided to open the portal so that we could go home.

She pointed her wand at the ivy hedge, sending out  a beam of blinding white light that penetrated the vines. As she whispered something in elvish, the gnarled branches began to fold back on themselves, groaning and creaking as they twined around, finally producing an archway large enough for us to pass under.

The night was starting to bow to the birth of a new day in the faerie realm, but as we stepped through the portal into the mortal world, the light in the sky was the light of sunset. Dusk and dawn, yin and yang, I was beginning to see how intertwined our world was with the transcendental world of the Fae. One world can’t exist alone, each is dependent on the existence of the other.

We had barely passed through the arch when the hedge begrudgingly filled back in, letting us know with every groan that it resented being disturbed at this early hour (I couldn’t help wondering if the hedge, being the boundary for both worlds, regarded the hour as early, or late). Arial and two other faeries remained with us, while the others stayed in the realm to continue their vigilant guard of the portal.

Jet lag drains all the energy out of you, and even though we hadn’t traveled across physical time zones, we had traveled across time, so we retired to the upstairs earlier than we would normally and fell into bed exhausted from our recent adventure. The last thing I remember Bill saying was, “Wow, our pillows smell good!”

We woke up this morning to a blizzard of whiteout proportions. It’s not unusual for us to have a spring snow storm, but this was furious driving snow that beat against the windows making them rattle like they might crack and break. It didn’t feel right, this storm, and it wasn’t until Arial appeared as we were having our coffee that I understood why.

“Queen Orlaith is livid!” I traveled to the northern realm to ask the queen’s council on the disappearance of the faerie, Krystil. I told her we suspect that Mrs. Shunner has taken her away to a dark place to drain her of her magic.”

Arial saw Odette on the floor trying to get our attention by waving her coffee cup. She floated down and grabbed under her arms, then shot back up to the top of the counter and  gently let her down. I got an eyedropper full of coffee and filled the little mug that she held out. “Didn’t want to be stopping the conversation now!” She took a sip, “I’ll be thankin’ ya for the brew.”

Arail continued, “Orlaith flew, enraged, to the topmost tower of her castle. Turning to face the south, holding her arms out in front of her, she pursed her lips, and with fire in her eyes, blew out a thin wisp of  frost. She turned back to me with instructions to return quickly, that I might keep the biting cold out of your garden.”

“This breath of frost gathered shape and intensity, it grew into a powerful freezing storm, prepared to do Orlaith’s bidding. Orlaith instructed the storm to pound down on the shape shifter, demonstrating the full power of the Queen’s anger at the audacity she showed when she took a member of the queen’s realm. I barely made it back ahead of the storm!”

We  huddled together under blankets on the couch, listening to the wind whistle around the corners of the house. It sounded like it was going to tear the awnings off. There is a sign hanging on the wall leading to the backyard, that is if it’s still there, it reads: “DON’T PISS OFF THE FAERIES!” I always wondered what would happen, and I’m glad that Orlaith and I are on good terms.

“Arial?” The queen’s daughter backed away from the window and turned to face me, I could see from the look in her bright green eyes that a plan was  forming in the back of her mind. “Arial, I can appreciate the queen’s anger, and it doesn’t surprise me that it took the form of snow, but, this storm is freezing everyone, not just Mrs. Shunner.”

“Yes, that is true.” She casually spun around my head, stopping right in front of me. “There is another way…”

© Tami Ruesch, The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry,