Well hi there! If you have bought a fairy kit, then perhaps I am standing next to you whilst you read this. I really hope so!
My good friend and author Fifi listened to a story I told her and decided to write the whole tale up as a mini novel! Cor, she’s a bit keen isn’t she? But I think she tells it better than me so here it is- the day I found something very large on my lawn!
Fairy Glad and the Dog Project
There’s a fairy at the bottom of the garden. Well… actually down the road, past the shops over the fence and into the park. And if you go a bit further south to where the lawn mowing stops and the rubbish begins, that’s where you’ll find her. In a cardboard box.
My good friend and author Fifi listened to a story I told her and decided to write the whole tale up as a mini novel! Cor, she’s a bit keen isn’t she? But I think she tells it better than me so here it is- the day I found something very large on my lawn!
Fairy Glad and the Dog Project
There’s a fairy at the bottom of the garden. Well… actually down the road, past the shops over the fence and into the park. And if you go a bit further south to where the lawn mowing stops and the rubbish begins, that’s where you’ll find her. In a cardboard box.
Don’t feel sorry for her; it’s a very good one made from quality cardboard, and she has done it up rather nicely. There’s a kitchen, bedroom, lounge and a tiny bathroom; because even fairies who live in a box need to be clean. She calls it ‘Cardy Cottage’.
Each morning she wakes to the sound of magpies and tuis warbling and doodling in the trees, pulls on lemon bag tights, a plastic bag skirt and shoves her fairy feet into big gold boots. With a flap of bubble wrap wings and a peg in her wild woolly hair, Fairy Glad is ready to start cleaning up the edge of the park. Drink cans, lolly bags, bottle tops, chocolate bar wrappers and everything people throw away at the end of a day in the park, or even sometimes, at the start of it.
Today was no exception. Fairy Glad stepped outside to find a very large carton on her tiny piece of lawn. She opened the lid to see if it had anything useful inside; like an egg for her breakfast. It was utterly empty which was just as well as it would have made a very large meal for a small appetite. Fairy Glad scratched her head as the thing sat solidly, squashing the daisies; wondering what to do with it.
‘It looks like gardening’s not all it’s cracked up to be today’ came a small voice. A black and red spider jumped down from the old tree stump, one pin after the other. Fairy Glad had made quite a few friends in the rubbish dump. Korky Katipo had once been something to stop wine from falling out of a bottle, and nappies from falling off babies. With a little fairy magic, he now enjoys a life at the south end the park where the lawn mowing stops and the rubbish begins.
‘Hi Korky, I need a hand with this,’ said Fairy Glad. Eight shiny legs waggled as
he leapt over, around and on top of the egg carton. Pretty soon he had it all tied up with wool unraveled from an old scarf he’d found hanging on the park fence one day. He threw her a line and together they pulled the carton off the flowers and over to the far end of the dump where things that come in useful one day hang out.
‘Phew! Hot work needs a break’ said Fairy Glad as she flew up to a harakeke bush bending the flower down, so that she and Korky could drink its sweet nectar.
‘Skark!!!’
Screeching and squawking above them dodged Tira Tui. Somersaulting stripes and scissor claws slashed and flashed in the morning light. The combat ended in a disappointed yowl, as Eddy the ginger cat skulked off, his tail low and ears flat. Tira panted in the Karaka tree, her neck feathers all in a ragged ruffle.
‘Are you okay?’ called Fairy Glad.
‘I‘d be better’ croaked Tira, ‘if someone kept that cat inside for once. He’s a menace, don’t his owners feed him?’
‘I expect they do’ she replied, ‘but maybe he doesn’t like cat biscuits.’
‘Well that’s all very well and good, but I have chicks up here and they are about to take flying lessons. I’m not too keen to see my fledgling babies become morning tea for a fussy cat,’ she shook herself and straightened her wings; ‘something has to be done about it.’ And with a clack of her tongue, Tira flapped and disappeared up into the Karaka tree.
Korky peered out from behind a fern, ‘Tira’s right you know, if Eddy isn’t stopped, there won’t be a single squawk left in the park. The birds he doesn’t catch will pack up their nests and go.’
Fairy Glad’s wings drooped, ‘I know but what can anyone do? He’s so much bigger than us and isn’t scared of anything.’
‘I expect he find dogs a bit of a worry’ said Korky.
‘Yes, but where are we going to get one of those from? They don’t just stroll about looking for new owners you know.’
‘You have a point’ sighed Korky, who had eight very good ones of his own, ‘and they cost a lot to feed don’t they? Especially the big ones.’
‘Yes, and you then have to take them for walks and follow them about with a pooper scooper; most especially the big ones.’ The idea of a dog was losing its attractiveness.
‘What we need,’ said Korky, ‘is a smallish guard dog, that doesn’t eat and therefore doesn’t need walks so you don’t have to clean up after them.’
‘Where would we get a dog like that?’
The spider and the fairy thought very hard. Korky’s brain was mostly all cork, so it was a tough job. The dump was quiet as the two friends pondered their problem but something in the distance rumbled and crashed. Laughter, chippie packets and ice-block sticks hurtled about on the south end of the park, where the lawn mowing stops and the rubbish begins.
‘Ah, kids…’ said Korky. Fairy Glad looked up and suddenly smiled, a huge magic smile.
‘I’ve got it!’
‘What?’ asked Korky.
‘Come on, we’ve got a dog to find!’ and off she strode in her big gold boots, plastic twinkling in the morning sunshine, with the little spider tick- tacking along behind.
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The children in the park must have had very bad eyesight, because the bin was completely empty yet surrounded by rubbish. Fairy Glad fluttered over to four scattered ice-block sticks. They were licked clean as whistles but a lot less shiny. There were red, orange, green and yellow stains on them; little wooden rainbows littered on the grass.
‘Perfect!’ she said, gathering them up in her arms. ‘Korky, tie these up for me would you please?’ and dropped them by his many feet.
‘I know dogs like fetching sticks, but aren’t these a wee bit small?’ replied the spider.
‘Oh, no they’re just the right size.’
Korky looked disbelievingly at her but said nothing. You just never quite knew what she was cooking up in that little magic mind of hers.
‘Come on, we haven’t got all day!’
Korky sighed and handed over the wrapped wooden bundle. Fairy Glad looped the stray ends of wool around her middle and tied it big bow. It swung from her waist like a sword.
‘Fairy nice’ said Korky. Fairy Glad laughed and pointed towards the Monkey Puzzle tree.
‘That way’ she ordered and off they went.
For the rest of the day, they picked up dried leaves, pine-needles and treasure that other people might think was trash. By the time they got back to the cottage, Korky and Fairy Glad were loaded down with bits and bobs and bags of things.
Fairy Glad always, always keeps spare plastic bags tucked away in her pockets, because you never know when they might come in handy.
‘What are we going to do with all of this then?’ asked Korky.
‘You’ll see, all in good time’ replied Fairy Glad.
‘Well I’ll put the jug on then’ he said a little crossly. For a spider he is very impatient. By the time Fairy Glad had inspected each item, the lounge was quite a mess.
‘It looks like a tip in here,’ said Korky, handing her a mug of manuka tea ‘almost worse than after a Christmas barbeque. I just don’t understand how all this stuff is going to help us find a dog.’
‘Oh, don’t you worry about that,‘ said Fairy Glad, ‘just go home and have good long sleep and in the morning, I’ll have the cat problem all sorted.’
Korky knew better than to argue with a determined fairy. Besides, he was a very tired spider; all that lugging things about and tying fancy knots had worn his pins out. Nothing would be nicer than to go home to his tree stump, climb into his woolly nest and snuggle up for the night, letting the Moreporks and cicadas sing him to sleep. As he left, Fairy Glad sat amongst her clutter looking thoughtful.
That night, the little fairy got to work. She took out her scissors, glue, paintbrush and ruler and with great concentration started on the pile of junk. When she had done all she could, Fairy Glad stood up, brushed dried leaves off her skirt and went to the back door of Cardy Cottage. Outside the stars sparkled in the dark sky and kiwis snuffled for late worms. Picking up a small wire bucket filled with dirt from the back door step, she bent her head gently towards it and whispered, ‘Are you there?’
A tiny light flicked on and glimmered. Fairy Glad smiled; glow worms are very handy and quite helpful if you speak to them nicely- and very, very quietly. With the glow worm lighting the way to the far end of the tip where things that come in useful one day hang out, Fairy Glad went off to find the most important thing for her creation.
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The next morning Korky woke with a gasp; he had dreamed about being stuck in a wine bottle. Korky much prefers his life as a Katipo spider; he has a nice red stripe on his back for a start and he really loves his eight legs. Fairy Glad had made it all possible, and he wondered as he scratched his head, what magic she had made whilst he’d been tucked up in bed. Breakfast first though. Korky pulled a raspberry out from a hole in the tree stump. Even though he is now a spider, he hasn’t really got a taste for flies; the thought of them makes him feel sick. So Korky keeps a little pile of fruit hidden away, just for him, where the birds can’t find it.
With breakfast finished and pins licked clean, Korky trotted over to Fairy Glad’s place. There was no sign of her; he couldn’t even hear snoring. She is very loud for such a delicate little creature, not like a fairy at all. ‘Listen!’ people say if they ever hear her sleeping, ‘that possum sounds just like a person snoring.’
Scaling the cottage, up and over the top, Korky looked over the edge to the other side. He froze with horror! There was a terrible sight in the fairy’s back garden. A fierce looking dog with huge teeth and Fairy Glad in its mouth! Korky swallowed and bunched up his legs, ready to spring. With a huge yell for a small spider, the Katipo jumped off the top of the cottage and sailed through the air straight at the beast. The dog fixed him with a stare, eyes unblinking as the spider landed on its neck and dug his pins in.
‘Let her go you mongrel!’ shouted Korky jumping and jabbing.
‘What are you doing?’ asked a surprised voice. Korky stopped for a moment and watched, amazed as Fairy Glad climbed backwards out of the dog’s mouth. She had a streak of red on her face.
‘Did he bite you?’ asked Korky in a trembly voice.
‘What?’
The spider pointed at her cheek which she wiped, looked at her hand and laughed. Reaching into the dog’s mouth she pulled out a soggy red paint brush.
‘I’ve just been doing the inside.’
Korky looked again, properly. The animal before him wasn’t a real dog at all. An egg carton body, four ice-block stick legs, two leafy gum tree ears, one gum nut nose and a spikey Monkey Puzzle tree tail stood before him. It all added up to a pretty wild looking dog at first glances.
‘Boy, that had me fooled for a minute,’ said Korky.
‘Excellent, because that’s all it had to do; fool someone for a minute. Especially a cat.’
Fairy Glad reached up to the top of the dogs head and picked up a piece of fishing line. She flew up to a branch above it and pulled on the line. The top jaw moved up and down, showing off the dog’s large white teeth.
Korky clapped his feet, ‘You’ve thought of everything!’
‘Yes,’ sighed Fairy Glad, ‘everything but the bark.’
Korky was puzzled, after all, she’d made him speak with a little magic.
‘Couldn’t you just wave your wand or something?’
‘It’s not as simple as that Korky,’ she explained, ‘to make someone talk, you have to put words into their mouth.’
‘How do you mean?’ asked the spider. He’d had no problem with talking from the minute she cast her speech spell over him. In fact, he very rarely shut up.
‘Well, you see, I made you talk like me. We both speak the same language; Fairy Chat. But dogs….now dogs I have trouble understanding,’ she sighed.
‘But you can speak Tui, glow worm, and Kereru’ Korky insisted, ‘and they can talk back to us.’
‘Yes, but only because I’ve grown up with them and once you learn Fairy chat, well you can talk away to your hearts content. But dogs…they’re a different story. I can’t get the barking right; it’s all in the way you use your tonsils. Listen.'
Fairy Glad waved her hand at her creation. From the back of his throat came a little mousy squeak. She waved her hand again and a soft meow, like a new born kitten came out of its mouth.
‘I see what you mean, Eddy will laugh his paws off when he hears that,’ said Korky, ‘I don’t think it had better say anything at all if we want to keep the birds safe.’
Fairy Glad put her hands on her hips, ‘I think it’s time for a mug of manuka tea and a sit down; I’m worn out.’
The two friends turned and headed back into the cottage for a rest. Fairy Glad put her feet up whilst Korky scuttled about in the kitchen.
‘I can’t make it come alive until it can speak you know,’ said Fairy Glad, ‘a person has to have a voice; it’s very important to be heard.’
Korky nodded. Fairy Glad likes people to have an opinion, especially if it is the same as hers. Whilst she talked, a long striped furry streak caught Korky’s eye.
‘Fairy Glad? he wondered aloud, ‘do snakes have hair?’
‘That’s no snake, that’s Eddy!’ she said as the ginger cat’s tail slithered past the kitchen window.
‘Outside- quick!’ she commanded.
They raced to the back door and carefully slid out into the garden. A tiny tui was standing unsteadily on the bush floor, its baby feathers still sticking up from the top of its head. It was confused and a little dazed as it looked up into the Karaka tree at the other chicks chirping in their nest. Eddy slunk along, belly to the ground, two green eyes slitted in concentration, ears back, ready to pounce. Korky clutched at Fairy Glad.
‘Do something!’ he whispered as loud as he dared.
Fairy Glad snatched up the fishing line and quickly flitted up to the branch above the dog. A pull on the jaw made teeth flash, but Eddy didn’t see them. Korky climbed onto the dog’s back and swung off his tail, wagging it back and forth, but Eddy crept on closer to the tui chick, never even looking their way. Tira’s baby was about to become brunch for the ginger tomcat.
‘Go, go, go!’ Fairy Glad yelled, swooping and flapping her wings. The chick looked up, his big dark eyes opened with surprise. He waggled his wings and hopped along the ground trying to get lift off. Nothing happened.
‘He can’t fly yet!’ shouted Korky from the back of the dog, watching the smiling cat inch closer to the baby bird.
Fairy Glad swooped down to the tiny Tui and hovered in front of him. Eddy snarled and hissed at Fairy Glad. She crossed her arms, treading air a moment from his nose.
‘We’ve just about had enough of you Eddy’ she said firmly. The cat narrowed his eyes and puffed up his fur. As she told him about the rules of the park, he pulled back his paw and released a flash of claw. Fairy Glad dived just in time, but he followed with another swing of sharpened nails.
‘Help!’ yelled Fairy Glad. Korky jumped up and down on the dog’s back, hoping to make it move, but the creature was out of Eddy’s view and hopeless to help.
Cat and fairy were a tangle of wings and claws, bubble wrap and fur. It yowled, squealed, squeaked and spat.
‘Help!’ yelled Korky in his biggest small spider voice.
‘Help!’ he cried desperately to the south end of the park where the lawn mowing stops and rubbish begins, ‘Heeeelp!!!!’
Then came the sound; a throaty rumbling. Slowly, slowly, growling and gruffling until a ferocious ‘Grrrrrrr!’ filled the air all around. Eddy turned to see a mean little terrier; all teeth and bulging eyes. He backed away from the terrible snapping mouth.
‘Grroofff woof woof’ the dog barked madly and the cat took off, his four ginger paws barely touched the ground. That cat was fairly flying.
Fairy Glad flapped down to the dogs back where Korky rolled about laughing, holding his tummy with all eight feet.
‘You should have seen that moggy; that was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen!’ ‘I don’t understand, said Fairy Glad, ‘how did you make him bark?’
Korky pointed upwards. Tira Tui was sitting in the Karaka tree shaking her neck feathers and chortling. She jumped down off the branch and glided to a stop beside her baby who squeaked with relief and snuggled into his mum’s tummy.
‘Sorry, I still don’t get it,’ said Fairy Glad. She looked at the dog; definitely still just a bunch of glued together junk and then over at Tira. She opened her beak and gave a woof.
‘You! How did you do that?’ she demanded. Tira inspected her claw casually, ‘Oh didn’t you know that us Tuis are great mimics?’
‘You speak dog?’
‘All the time’ she replied proudly, ‘learned when I was just a fledgling in the back garden of the Kennel Club.’
‘Well speak it now, we have a mutt to move!’
‘You should have seen that moggy; that was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen!’ ‘I don’t understand, said Fairy Glad, ‘how did you make him bark?’
Korky pointed upwards. Tira Tui was sitting in the Karaka tree shaking her neck feathers and chortling. She jumped down off the branch and glided to a stop beside her baby who squeaked with relief and snuggled into his mum’s tummy.
‘Sorry, I still don’t get it,’ said Fairy Glad. She looked at the dog; definitely still just a bunch of glued together junk and then over at Tira. She opened her beak and gave a woof.
‘You! How did you do that?’ she demanded. Tira inspected her claw casually, ‘Oh didn’t you know that us Tuis are great mimics?’
‘You speak dog?’
‘All the time’ she replied proudly, ‘learned when I was just a fledgling in the back garden of the Kennel Club.’
‘Well speak it now, we have a mutt to move!’
Tira growled, barked, whimpered, whined and panted for all she was worth, whilst Fairy Glad waved her wand and had a little Fairy Chat with the egg carton dog. When she was done, she clicked her fingers and flapped her wings three times fast. A cloud of shimmery fog settled over the creature, then as it disappeared, the dog shook himself. He wagged his tail experimentally, then opened his mouth.
‘Hello, I’m Tip, who are you?’
The fairy gave a little bow, ‘My name’s Fairy Glad, and I’m very glad to meet you. Welcome to our little part of the world.’ The dog looked around at Cardy Cottage, the pile of useful rubbish and the edge where the lawn mowing had stopped.
‘It’s a bit of a dump isn’t it?’
The fairy, spider and tui all laughed, ‘Oh yes, the best one ever!’
As Fairy Glad picked up the baby tui and flew up to Tira’s nest, the dog wagged his tail and sniffed the air.
‘Ah, I smell cat,’ he said gleefully, ‘nothing better than a chase to keep you exercised!’
‘I think you are going to fit in here very well’ said Korky. Tira warbled her agreement from her nest at the top of the Karaka tree, surrounded by four chicks and a very happy Fairy Glad.
You made it all the way to the end then! So see if you can make a dog too. I’ll get Fifi to draw up some instructions and you can e-mail us for them at fairyglad@gmail.com
