Fear of Faeries
It’s silly to be scared of faeries, isn’t it?
They always said I was a fool for fearing faeries, but that was before people started to disappear.
“There’s wolves in these parts,” said Thugus as he drank his gin, “especially in the dark.”
“There’s not,” I said, and all those in the darkened inn turned to me and stared, “It’s — ”
“I swear,” said Thugus, “if you say faeries one more time — ”
“Well, it’s got to be,” I said.
Thugus sighed, took a swig from his bottle, and grabbed hold of my sweaty, fat head. He pulled it back and stared into my eyes.
“There, you see it,” he said, spit spatting from him to my chin. “The glint in his eye. Madness. Total madness.”
“Aye,” another in the inn agreed.
Thugus took another swig of booze, then patted me on the head and scruffed my hair. “Why are you always so mad?” he fell backwards into the chair, and the rest got back to their drinks.
I was beginning to think I wasn’t too much respected in the village.
The next morning on the 1st of May, all the children had gone.
“My babies, my babies, where are they!” was the lament in the village.
“That’s what faeries do,” I said. “They go for your children.”
I spat out my milk, realizing it had curdled.
When the children had been missing for the seventh day, they called the knight.
From what I heard through idle talk around the village, he had no idea where to start. But then he heard about the weirdo with the fear of faeries, and that brought him to the inn.
“So they tell me you think faeries took them.”
I breathed heavily and didn’t make eye contact. I stared at his belt curiously entwined with yellow flowers, “Have you come to laugh at me like the others?”
The knight put something on the table with a thump. When I saw it, I nearly choked on my milk.
“I tore it from one of their backs when they were trying to fly away,” said the knight as I looked at the bloody pair of wings. “After they took this from me.”
I turned to look at the knight as he took off his helmet. On the left side of his head was a scar, and a torn eye socket.
“I ruddy hate faeries.”
“Want another?” the knight asked, gesturing to the pint.
I shook my head. I had barely touched the first he bought me.
“Go on, continue your story,” he said.
I winced as the memory began to sting. I then went on:
“We walked in the woods nearby, my younger brother and me, sun beaming through the trees. Then we heard this singing. This beautiful, unreal singing. Then appearing in my eye view was a glowing light, with flittering wings. I shook my head. When I turned, my brother had gone. I called out for him, stumbling through the woods. But I couldn’t find him. That’s when I heard the twig break. Behind me, was a creature of pale purple sinew and bone, bald, with black claws and large wings. It growled at me, and I ran as the beast chased after me.”
“How did you escape?”
“Well, then a massive troll bashed half a tree trunk at the faerie, it seemed to come out of nowhere, grabbing the faerie and beginning its meal. I wouldn’t have survived otherwise.”
“Well, you know what we have to do now then.”
“What’s that?”
“Face your fears.”
“Why are we heading to the centre of the forest…in the dark?”
The knight put his hand up.
“Is there — ?”
“Shhh!” He said, then he moved on. “The reason, boy, is that this sub-species of faeries are sun suckers. Meaning they are powered by and feed on sunlight. So we can find them where they're weak.”
We came to a cave. It stank of sour milk.
We went in, and I noticed that amongst some bones, was a grinning troll skull.
Hanging from the ceiling was what looked like huge butterflies, but when I looked closer I saw they were dangling faeries.
The knight lit a torch and smiled, “time to burn.”
I wandered through the wood, eyes wide open. That was one way of dealing with your fear, watching it being burned to hell.
Suddenly there was singing, and the knight looked at me and said, “stay here,” then left.
“Are you lost?” asked a young pretty lady who stood beside me.
“I — ”
“Because I am. Can you help me?”
“Yeah, just wait until the knight comes back,” I said. “He should be — ”
“Step away from her.”
I saw the knight bearing a raised sword.
“What?”
“Get away from the queen.”
“Now hang on a minute, please stop talking to me like that. If you’d just listen to me we can help this young lady toge — ”
But when I turned around I saw that the lady had gone, and in her place was a tall, looming slathering beast with lilac skin and wings that ripped apart air.
“Come with me to join your brother and all the other children in our bellies?” they shrieked.
The knight leapt at the faerie queen, and I ran.
I sat in the inn, cradling a pint of milk.
“What’s wrong with you?” asked Thugus, “No faerie tales for today?”
I didn’t look at him.
The door to the inn opened and in came the knight.
“Oh, you’re back,” said Thugus. “This loser hadn’t let you die after all.”
“Get back,” I cried out. They laughed. But they didn’t realize my milk had curdled.
The knight’s eyes glowed white and their mouth opened wide, shrieking. He exploded into thousands of faeries that flew out and took over the inn, consuming all.
