Michael was nervous. This was his eccentric aunt that he was going to be staying with. If Michael could have chosen any other relative, he would have been fine but Aunt Dedrana was the only aunt who had enough space for him and his three siblings.
Michael was almost eighteen and would be an adult soon but he wasn't quite ready to be on his own yet. His sister, Emily was just a year younger than him. Then there were the twins, Elizabeth and Ethan who were ten. Their parents had died in a fire and the only way to keep his
siblings together was to either take responsibility for them himself or move them all to the wilderness where Aunt Dedrana lived.
Dedrana had lived her entire life in the forest. The closest village was several miles away. Viviana, Michael's mother, escaped to live in the city but Dedrana loved the wilderness. She embraced her eccentric nature.
Michael and his siblings were waiting at the bus station when Dedrana arrived on a horse drawn hay cart. The contrast was very visible: Michael in his city clothes, Dedrana wearing a calico dress she had made herself. As they loaded the luggage onto the pile of hay Dedrana said,
"Sorry about the ride. I know it's not what your used to but I don't own a car. Never needed one out here where there are few paved roads."
Michael said, "It's fine."
Ethan piped up, "Fine? It's great. This will be fun."
Dedrana said, "Michael, you can sit up front with me. We have some things to talk about."
As they headed out of town, back up the mountain toward Dedrana's home, Dedrana asked, "Michael, what do you know about fairies?"
Michael said, "Not much. There's Tinker Bell from Peter Pan. I think there are also fairies in a Midsummer Nights Dream."
Dedrana said, "So all you know about fairies is ficition."
Michael looked at Dedrana but she continued. "Don't get me wrong. Much of what those stories say is true but they don't know the whole truth. They made some of it up to be entertaining but fairies aren't here to entertain us. Fairies are dangerous."
Michael asked, "I don't believe in fairies."
Dedrana laughed, "Ha, and you think a fairy is going to fall down dead just because you said that? Fairies are not that fragile. Watch out for them."
Michael asked, "You believe fairies are evil?"
Dedrana said, "No, they are not evil. They are good natured for the most part with good intentions. But they are mischievous folk, so mischievous they got kicked out of Heaven the same time as the demons were kicked out of Heaven. The difference between fairies and demons is
that demons are malicious. Demons want to cause harm. Fairies don't mean any harm. They're just having fun but often their fun is at our expense so be careful."
Michael asked, "What do you do to protect yourself from them?"
Dedrana said, "That's part of the problem. There are so many different kinds of fairies that no one method works on all of them. Some of them, if you give them a gift, they'll thank you kindly and skeedaddle away. Others, if you give them a gift, they keep coming back for more.
Some of them hate iron and can be scared away by holding up iron. Others love iron and will come and steal iron in the middle of the night. You're going to have to learn how to tell between the different kinds of fairies there are. But don't be scared. They'll never cause any real
harm. They might pull a good joke on you that might take a week to recover from, but you'll always recover and learn to be more careful."
Michael asked, "Even if they were real, they're such tiny creatures, what harm could they do."
Dedrana said, "They aren't all tiny. Like I said, they come in different kinds and many of them have magic. None of them are very powerful with magic but many of them are shape-shifters. Not only can they change their own shape and size, they can change your shape and size
too. That's the nature of their typical prank. One kind of fairy hates clothes and if they see you wearing clothes, they'll turn you into clothing for a week. Another kind of fairy likes children and will try to change you into a child for a week. It can be very inconvenient."
Michael asked, "If it's so inconvenient, why do you live here?"
Dedrana said, "Because it's fun. Once you learn how to tell the difference between the different kinds, you can use that knowledge to benefit from the fairies. Like I said, they have good intentions. So if you learn how to make them happy, they'll do things for you. There's one kind
of fairy that if you give it some bread, the fairy will repair something for you. Another kind of fairy will melt ice in exchange for thread. There's all kinds of negotiations I have going on with fairies and you'll learn in time how to negotiate with them too. But until you do learn, be
careful. Be forgiving but they weren't kicked out of Heaven for nothing."