Farrah in Fairyland (22 page)

“It sounds
like the Cornuto Creatures are coming through the Portal,” the
Queen said, as she stopped in front of Farrah, who was trying to
hide her chattering teeth from the Queen.

“You’re
probably right, and by the sound of that rumbling, they are coming
fast.”

“What do we
do?” shouted the Queen, as she bounced on the balls of her feet
uneasily.

Farrah
continued to stare into the blackness of the hole. Her eyes crossed
as her gaze began to strain. For the first time, her intuition
kicked in. Strangely, it was the baker’s dust that her instincts
were telling her to use. She had put it in the opposite pocket from
the Star of Fantaseea. Although reluctant, she dug her hand in and
scooped up a handful of the dust. Seeing this, the Queen
interjected.

“Farrah, what
are you doing, put that stuff away. There is no time for fun and
games – use the Star!”

Farrah ignored
the Queen. Mesmerized, she walked up to the mouth of the hole.
Walking backwards, from one end of the portal to the other, she
streaked the dust in a line on the ground. It stretched out across
the entire entrance. Farrah patted the remnants from her hands
before she turned around to join the Queen at the side of the
hill.

“My Queen,
this way,” pointed Farrah.

Without
hesitation, the Queen followed, taking cover behind a large bush
beyond the hill.

“We’re doomed,
Farrah. What is that measly baker’s dust supposed to do- create a
loaf of bread at the foot of the portal?”

Instead of
responding, Farrah just pointed to the dust, which had begun to
bubble and expand. The rumbling from the portal had turned into a
loud screech. The Cornuto Creatures were near. The Queen stared on
in awe as the baker’s dust expanded upward. It looked like pizza
dough, rising in an oven. This baker’s dust however, was yellowish
in colour and hard in texture.

In no time,
the sticky substance covered half of the portal. For a second
Farrah saw the gruesome head of one of the Cornuto creatures. He
was ready to pounce when the blob rose above his eyes. The Cornuto
began to growl loudly as it banged on the solidified wall that had
formed. The entire entrance of the Portal had been clogged.

The Queen got
up to her feet and was about to approach the portal when she was
stopped by Farrah.

“Hold on a
moment, my Queen. It is not quite dry.”

As Farrah and
the Queen stood at the top of the hill, they could hear repeated
thuds on the fresh dough. Finally, it stopped, which was exactly
what Farrah was waiting for.

“Looks like
the coast is clear,” she told the Queen as she walked gingerly up
the hill. She made sure not to step on a zebra beetle that was
carrying a clump of food back to its den as she approached the
wall.

Standing
before it, the Queen gave the wall a tap with her knuckles and then
a kick with her foot.

“What is it,
Farrah?”

“A
butterscotch candy,” she replied giving it a big lick.

“My
favourite.”

“How did
you...”

As if reading
her mind, Farrah responded.

“Once my heart
starting racing out of fear that the Cornuto Creatures would
strike, it popped into my head. The vision of my grandmother
sneaking me some butterscotch candies into my room before I went to
bed.”

“Ingenious,”
replied the Queen, also taking a lick of the delicious candy.

“Do you think
it will hold?” asked the Queen as she licked her lips, sopping up
every sugary drop.

“That’s the
beauty of this candy wall, Cornuto creatures don’t have
tongues.”

The Queen
smiled at Farrah and then rubbed her head affectionately.

“You’ve done
good work here, Farrah. All of Fairyland owes you.”

Farrah walked
back to the castle this time with the Queen walking slowly beside
her. Although they did not say anything during the walk, Farrah
could tell that the Queen was deep in thought. It wasn’t until the
two entered the great hall that she spoke.

“Farrah, we
have got much work to do if we want to rebuild Fairyland. We have
suffered much destruction, but desperate times require desperate
measures.”

“What do you
mean, my Queen?” Farrah asked as she washed her hands in the tiny
fountain at the centre of the hall.

“There is no
time to give you all the details right now. I’ll explain everything
at the town meeting.”

“The town
meeting?” asked Farrah, not quite following the conversation.

“Yes, I’m
calling a town meeting, my dear, to ask the fairies of Fairyland
for help.”

“That sounds
like a good idea, my Queen.”

“Now, go on,
my dear fairy. Go home and get some rest. After all, this will be
the biggest meeting of your life.”

Although
Farrah was dying to have the Queen explain herself, she decided
against any more prodding and instead, she nodded her head in
agreement. Farrah bowed to the Queen before she turned and headed
out. She stepped carefully over the fallen door while the Queen
disappeared back up the stairs to her chambers.

It didn’t take
long for word to spread of the town meeting to be held at nine’o
clock. Because she wanted to make certain that all fairies would
receive the message, the Queen decided to address the citizens of
Fairyland via the Pyramid Communications Tower. Luckily, it still
remained in tact after the attack, despite some minimal damage to
the surface of the Pyramid.

Upon hearing
the siren, all the residents of Fairyland funnelled out of their
homes to stand on their front lawns. The siren kept on cutting in
and out, the result of the communications tower not having been
used for a number of years. The last time was when the King thought
that his cipher had been stolen. In a panic, he used the tower to
question the fairies of Fairyland about its whereabouts.

The fairy
families were none too happy about having been interrupted from
their daily routines to be chewed out by the livid King. They
became even more upset a few days later when they found out that
the King’s own nephew had borrowed the Cipher. Apparently, he
thought it would be a cool thing to bring to school for show and
tell.

Farrah could
barely see the top of the tower from where she stood on her front
lawn. She fluttered her wings a few times, but as per usual,, she
was unable to lift her body off the ground. Her mother and father
were at her sides looking out at the sky. Couraggio stood on his
tippy toes to try to get a better look, while Crystaline, who was
focused on pixying some oven mitts, was content just to hear the
Queen.

When the Queen
was ready to deliver her address, a projected image, much like the
one seen in the telephonita, was projected out of the ball of the
pyramid and into the sky. The Queen’s head looked massive amidst
the large clouds in the sky. This caused some laughter from
Farrah’s next-door neighbours, a family of gardeners, who had
continued to work on the landscape even after hearing the
siren.

The Queen’s
voice sounded deeper, almost scarier than usual. So much so, that
Farrah’s mother jumped backward upon hearing the first words out of
the Queen’s mouth.

“Fairies of
Fairyland, I promise I will not keep you. The reason why I am
addressing you this evening is to inform you about a town meeting
which will be held at 9:00, at the Grand Auditorium. I encourage
everyone to attend; your future depends on it.”

The last few
words of the Queen’s address sounded dire and in reality, it was.
Knowing that Farrah had met with the Queen, her father asked if she
knew what the meeting was about.

“Any idea,
Farrah?”

“Not really,
Dad, all I know is that it is mucho importante,” replied Farrah as
she turned and ran back into the house.

That night,
the Fancycracker Family was eerily quiet in anticipation of the
town meeting. Unlike the talent contest, Farrah’s mother did not
put on her fancy clothes. She explained to Farrah that it would be
an inappropriate show of celebration, especially considering all of
the fairies that had lost their lives at the hands of the Cornuto
Creatures. When the time finally came to go to the auditorium, they
all mounted Bella and were on their way.

This was the
first time in a long while that the entire Fancycracker family rode
Bella together. The last time was when Farrah was five years old.
Her parents had agreed that they would take Farrah to the Fairyland
mall to pick out a present for her birthday. Little did they know
that Farrah wanted a Grand Pixie Piano (twice the size of a human
piano). Since it was made of pure silver, it was much heavier as
well. Bella’s wasn’t all that impressed on the ride home with the
large piano strapped to her back and Fancycrackers sitting on top
of it. She was even less impressed over the next few weeks when
Farrah didn’t so much as look at the piano. Although her twelve
twinkling fingers could move swiftly, Farrah lacked the
coordination to become a great Pixie pianist.

When they
arrived at the auditorium, they were surprised to see that almost
half of the land was already there, and waiting with anticipation.
The auditorium had sustained severe destruction since the talent
competition. The stage was reduced to a pile of charred wood. The
cloud benches had also been burnt beyond recognition and the once
luscious field was now spattered with large craters that still
smouldered. Bella was careful to set them down on level ground,
avoiding one of the smoking patches.”

“Let’s get a
seat up front,” requested Farrah. She didn’t wait for an answer as
she started to run to the front of the crowd.

At exactly
9:00, the Queen arrived. Ten Securo Fairies, four of them having
taken a leg of her throne as they carried her above their heads,
escorted her. They floated up onto a small hill and set her down
ever so gently. They quickly made a circle formation around her,
scanning the audience for anything suspicious. The Queen used some
royal dust to obtain the speaking horn, but before she used it, she
scanned to the crowd herself, this time looking for Farrah.
Spotting her, she gave her a wink and then began to speak.

“Fairies of
Fairyland. The reason why I have called you all here today is to
ask for your help. As you know, Fairyland has suffered a tremendous
amount of loss. The Cornuto Creatures have demolished over half of
our land. In the process, many homes, schools and churches have
been destroyed. Further destruction has also felled our hospitals
and training facilities. Many of our Pixie mills have also been
irreparably damaged. Furthermore and most regretfully, the death
toll of fairies is in the thousands. This includes many of our
prominent fairies, some of which were Tooth Fairies. My husband,
your Royal King, also lost his life at the hands of those
despicable creatures.”

The Queen
paused for a moment, showing the first sign of emotion. She wiped
away a tiny tear and continued to speak, this time with a touch of
anger.

“My friends,
if Fairyland is not re-built swiftly, our way of life as we know
it, will no longer exist. As it stands now, we will not be able to
obtain enough human children’s teeth necessary to keep our land
operational. Even if we did, we lack the resources necessary to
process them into our cherished Pixie Dust.”

The crowd
began to grumble. Although they knew that the situation was bleak,
with the Queen articulating their plight, it became even more a
reality.

“So I have
asked you all here today to lend a hand. As of now, it doesn’t
matter what qualifications you have. Fairyland can use your help no
matter what the capacity. If you are a young fairy, not quite done
with your studies at the Academy, consider today as your
graduation. You will get your chance to prove if you have what it
takes. Training sessions will be set up for you so that you can get
started immediately. If you are an Ordinaria Fairy, today is your
day to show off those unnoticed and unappreciated skills. For all
the rest, we can use your help, rebuilding our schools, churches
and more importantly our mills. Starting today, we will show the
universe what makes us, the fairies of Fairyland so special!”

Some cheers
arose from the crowd, having been inspired by the Queen’s words.
Farrah looked up at her father who had a childish grin on his face.
Farrah wondered if his dream of becoming a Mezmo Fairy had been
ignited once again. As for her, it was more a dazed feeling that
she was experiencing. Although she knew exactly what she wanted to
do, the whole night seemed surreal. The Queen made eye contact with
Farrah once again, shooting her a smile before she continued to
speak.

“So here is
your chance fairies, show them what you’ve got. On the table
directly in front of me is a sign up sheet. I ask you to please get
into the appropriate line to sign the list. It has been grouped
according to the different fairy disciplines, including the Fairy
Godmothers, Godfathers and Tooth Fairies. The sign up sheet on the
far left is for general labour. Fairies of Fairyland, I thank you.
With God’s will, we will re-build our land better than ever.”

Farrah looked
at her father excitedly. She bounced up and down on the balls of
her feet. She didn’t have to speak to communicate to her parents
what she wanted.

“What are you
waiting for?” Couraggio shouted.

Thanking her
parents, Farrah ran to the line that had formed for those that
wanted to volunteer to be Tooth Fairies. The lines were long. Many
were young students only in their first year at the Fairy Academy.
Farrah recognized a few Ordinaria fairies in the lines, squeezing
their fists, acknowledging one another in a show of solidarity.
Farrah could hardly compose herself. This excitement however, was
abruptly interrupted when she spotted Samantha staring at her.
Farrah tried to duck out of view behind a tall, athletic fairy that
was in line in front of her, but it was too late.