Farrah in Fairyland (5 page)

“Finally,”
said Mr Jiokko sternly, as he spotted Farrah, just before she
rapped on the front door.

“I thought I
was going to starve. Maybe next time, we will order from
Disgrazoto’s Bakery Instead!”

“Sorry, Mr.
Jiokko, it won’t happen again.”

Farrah handed
Mr. Jiokko the box of pastries. Apologizing once again, she turned
and mounted Bella. She mumbled under her breath about how much she
hated her job as Bella flew back up into the sky.

The next stop
was the Bevuto residence at the end of the lake. It sat between two
Pixie dust stacks. Much like smoke stacks on Earth, Pixie dust
stacks were seen throughout Fairyland. The large mounds, some 40
stories high, was where the Pixie dust was processed. The colour of
the stacks corresponded to the colour of the dust that was being
made. The stacks nearest to the Bevuto house were green. It was
used to assist with routine chores such as cooking and cleaning. A
large sack of the green dust could always be found on the kitchen
counter of the bakery, as Farrah’s family often used it to assist
with their baking needs.

Thankfully,
Mrs. Bevuto was much more understanding. She actually congratulated
Farrah on her first day on the job.

“You are going
to make a fine baker,” Mrs. Bevuto said, as she stroked her
Platamouse that she had tucked under her arm. The creature hardly
moved. Its furry body squished snugly under her arm as she
scratched the underside of its ducked billed face.

Preferring not
to comment, Farrah nodded before she joined Bella on the front
lawn. Luckily, the delivery to the Fiore family was another easy
one. A wooden sign was in plain sight when Bella landed at the foot
of the Fantastico Forest.

All deliveries
are to be left on the tree stump. Please do so and then leave
immediately.

The Fiores were
a group or Arbero Fairies that protected the Fantastico Forrest.
They were a very secretive group of fairies that preferred not to
interact with the other citizens of Fairyland.

The Arbero had
enchanted the forest with a spell that turned the trees into the
bodyguards of the forest. They were under orders not to allow any
fairy passage without permission from one of the Fiores. Spotting
the tree stump, Farrah approached slowly. There was movement from a
large Everorange tree as Farrah moved closer to the stump. With
each step, the shaking of the tree intensified. Thankfully, as
Farrah placed the tiny box of muffins on the stump, the tree
stopped moving. Not wanting to take any chances, Farrah turned and
ran to Bella and hopped onto her back.

Once the
Everorange tree was out of sight, Farrah heeled Bella in her side
to get her to slow down. She was in no hurry to get to her next
delivery, fearing that Samantha Scarcity would be there, waiting
for her.

Bella tried to
maintain a steady flight speed to combat the unexpected dipping
created by the wind current. She wasn’t used to flying that slow,
but this didn’t bother Farrah, because she was focused on the town
below. All was quiet except for the Securo Fairies that roamed on
their Leones down below. One of the Securo was having a difficult
time controlling his Leone that seemed to be in a feisty mood. The
golden back of the Leone was arched upward as it bucked repeatedly.
Although it was a valiant effort, the Securo was thrust off its
back after only a few seconds. While on the ground, the Leone stood
over its master, his main drooped over his face as he slurped it
with his long purple tongue.

These tall,
muscular Securo Fairies were the protectors of Fairyland. Quick and
skilled with Pixie dust, they had only one job, to protect
Fairyland from the Cornuto Creatures. I promise that more detail
about these creatures will be given, but not just yet - we must get
back to Farrah’s delivery.

The butterflies
in Farrah’s stomach fluttered frantically as she approached
Samantha’s home. As expected, she felt nervous and a bit scared.
She had hoped to go the entire summer without running into
Samantha. It was just her luck that on her very first day on the
job, a meeting with Samantha was inevitable.

One couldn’t
deny that the Scarcity home was absolutely gorgeous, like all of
the Superiora homes in Fairyland. A Superiora home was twice the
size of that of an Ordinaria. The crystal walls of the house were
tinted, slightly pink, which shone brightly in the sunlight. The
entire grounds of Samantha’s home were surrounded by a beautiful
garden of colourful flowers.

At the side of
her house were three large Volare ports, all much larger than the
one that Bella lived in. They had built these Volare ports despite
the fact that every member of the Scarcity family could fly.

Flying a Volare as a hobby, how dare they,
thought Farrah.

As Farrah
walked up the front steps to the house, she took a quick peek
inside. At first, no fairy was in sight and she became hopeful that
she would be able to drop off the pizzas without an encounter with
Samantha. Farrah pressed the doorbell cautiously, not wanting it to
ring too loudly. Unfortunately, the Scarcity family had one of
those foghorn bells that could be heard from down the block. Two
young fairies that lived across the street were wakened from their
naps, after having been startled by the doorbell. They shot Farrah
a dirty look.

After waiting
for five minutes, Farrah decided that she would leave the three
trays of anchovy and pickle stem pizzas at the font door. She was
about to walk away, but as she tuned around, there she was face to
face with Samantha.

She was
dressed in a sparkling blue dress. There was a tiara of rubies atop
her head and ruby red slippers to match. She had a big grin on her
face, relishing the fact that she had gotten a chance to see Farrah
in her baker’s uniform.

“Well, well,
well. What do we have here? It can’t be the self-professed,
smartest fairy at the Pixie Academy, delivering pizzas. Oh, and by
the way, lovely uniform,” Samantha said as she tugged at the collar
of Farrah’s chef’s apron.

Farrah’s face
became red with anger. Oh, she loathed the condescending look that
Samantha always gave her. Samantha continued to speak as she slowly
walked circles around Farrah, looking her up and down
disapprovingly.

“
It must
kill you that I am a Fairy Godmother and you are just a lowly
baker. I guess that is the way things have to be. It
is
only right that the Superiora
get the most important jobs. After all, we can’t just have any old
fairy becoming a Fairy Godmother, can we?”

Farrah felt
upset and although she had a strong desire to cry, she resisted
this feeling with everything she had in her. She didn’t want to
give Samantha the satisfaction.

“Let me guess;
you had to wake up at some ungodly hour this morning to help your
mom and pop with that stupid little bakery.”

“It’s not
stupid!” Interjected Farrah, her hands formed fists as they dangled
at her side.

“
Whatever…Well, I guess you want to hear about
my
job…don’t you?”

Before Farrah
could respond, Samantha had already started into the details of her
career thus far.

“This morning,
all of the new Fairy Godmothers and Godfathers met at the FG
headquarters. We got to select the fairy boy or girl that we wanted
to be the guardians of. Of course, I got first pick and I chose a
young boy named Vincense. Oh, he is such a sweet young fairy. His
parents are both filthy rich. He has everything that a young fairy
could ever desire, including one of those super mega water slides
that comes out of his bedroom window. Every morning he hops out of
bed and out of his window down the slide. What a cool way of taking
a morning bath. This job is going to be a piece of cake. All I’ll
be expected to do is play with my young subject’s toys all day
long.”

Not wanting to
hear anymore, Farrah attempted to push past her. Unfortunately,
Samantha’s outstretched arm stopped her.

“Not so fast,
baker. I have a question to ask you.”

Farrah was
caught off guard by Samantha’s words.

“What do you
want?” Responded Farrah snidely as she stood side by side with
Samantha. Although she could feel her warm breath on her neck,
Farrah decided not to look at her.

“I heard a
rumour that there was an Ordinaria that wanted to enter this year’s
Fairyland Talent Competition.”

Farrah gulped
as she tried to keep a straight face.

“That Ordinaria
wouldn’t happen to be you, would it Farrah?”

Not wanting to
respond, Farrah pushed past Samantha much more forcibly this time.
She mounted Bella quickly, but Samantha continued to press the
issue as she stepped in front of the Volare. She tried to pet Bella
on her head, but instead, Bella jumped out of the way.

“
Oh,
Farrah, I hope for your sake that it isn’t
you
that has indeed decided to enter the contest. I
mean, can you imagine an Ordinaria trying to compete with a
Superiora’s spell? I can just picture you up there on the stage,
using your Pixie dust to shred cheese for a pizza while I summon a
winged sea horse to shower the crowd with candy and
roses.”

Before Farrah
could take off, Samantha positioned herself in front of Bella
again. Her voice had changed to a much more serious tone.

“All kidding
aside, you’d better not even attempt to enter that contest. I will
not let you make a mockery of that sacred event. If I see you
anywhere near the event, I promise you that your friend Bella –
well, lets just say that after I’m through with her, she will be no
more than a useless foot stool.”

Upon hearing
these last words, Bella sprung up from the dirt. Samantha shielded
her eyes as they jetted up into the atmosphere. Farrah knew that
Bella was upset. She leaned in close to her ear to comfort her
friend.

“Don’t worry,
girl, I promise that I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Recomposed,
Bella did a loopdy-loop. It caused Farrah to giggle uncontrollably.
Having slipped backwards, Farrah tightened her grip on the harness.
Bella pulled off a few more aerial manoeuvres that delighted the
Ageless Angels, who were watching from afar.

Having landed
gracefully on Farrah's front lawn, Bella was led carefully into the
Volareport. Farrah kissed her friend on the forehead, turned, and
walked to her house.

It was a
normal scene as Farrah entered the kitchen. Her mom and dad were
whisking Pixie dust in all directions as they cleaned up after a
long day of baking.

“There she
is,” reacted Farrah’s mother as she effortlessly floated her
kitchen stencils back into the cupboard. “How was your day?”

Farrah took a
moment to think. Although exhausted and agitated, she decided that
she didn’t want to give her parents any more grief.

“Much better
than I expected,” Farrah responded as she walked up the stairs and
into her bedroom.

There is only
one threat to Fairyland and what a formidable threat it is. I have
avoided talking about them up until this point. However, I cannot
proceed without providing you with some details about these
loathsome creatures.

You already
know the name, but the real question is whether your mind’s eye has
been accurate in sketching the image of the Cornuto creatures. It
may shock you to hear that a Cornuto creature is actually quite
cute – on the outside. From a distance, they look like large round
balls of blue or yellow fuzz. Blue being a boy Cornuto and yellow a
girl. A Cornuto has four tiny legs that jet out from the bottom of
their fuzzy torso. These twig-like legs make it very difficult for
them to run or even to walk very fast. Instead, they waddle along
slowly as a safety measure for two reasons.

First, despite
the large size of these beasts - approximately two refrigerators
back-to-back, they do not weigh very much. It is their fur that
deceivingly fills out the majority of their body. Secondly, if a
Cornuto topples over, it is virtually impossible for them to get
back up without help. Thankfully, they have oversized hooves to
help balance their bodies upon their twig-like legs.

The head of a
Cornuto is what disgusts onlookers to the point of sickness.
Thankfully, it remains hidden under the fur, much like that of a
sheepdog. The only time a Cornuto’s head does extend beyond its
body is when it wants to look menacing and menacing it absolutely
does look.

A Cornuto’s
face is kind of a cross between a wolf and a shark. It has the
yellow beady eyes of a wolf that has tasted blood. Its mouth on the
other hand is the size of that of a shark with the teeth to match.
Despite the miniscule size of a Cornuto’s cork-shaped ears, which
are situated at the very top of its head, the hearing ability of a
Cornuto is unmatched.

To make up for
the lack of arms and hands, the Cornuto has a long, lanky tail.
This lasso-like tail also remains hidden under its armour of fur.
It can whip out this tail at a blazing speed, dismantling anything
in its path. A destructive task made easy by the distorted claw of
three razor sharp horns that make up the end of the tail. With that
claw, a Cornuto is able to capture and squeeze its prey. I cannot
count how many Gautuzzos have been crushed between the claws of a
Cornuto creature.

The Cornuto
live around the perimeter of Fairyland. They are scattered
throughout the sand dunes that encircle the land. Much like
Fairyland is in constant motion, the Cornuto dunes are also in
motion. The only difference is that they circle elliptically, much
like the sun at the heart of our solar system. You can see how this
poses a problem for the Securo Fairies whose job it is to protect
all of Fairyland from the menacing beasts. Not being able to
pinpoint their position, along with the natural stealth like
ability of the Cornuto, makes tracking them extremely difficult. No
fairy sees the creature coming and when the Cornuto finally reveals
itself, it is already too late.