by Moshe Harel
She wasn’t sure about her answer. “I must think of this. I may also need to consult with our chieftain before I can give you an answer.”
It was a very pensive group of pixies who passed back to Avalon through the portal. Dorna stayed with us. She hid her wings and looked perfectly human without them. She was slim and trim, with small breasts and about my own height. Emily didn’t need any urging to shift home, grab a pair of jeans and a shirt, along with some underwear, and shift back. Dorna hesitated only a moment before putting them on, looking immediately like a very nice sixteen-year-old girl, who wouldn’t attract undue attention wherever we went. Well, except for being extremely beautiful.
My parents didn’t really mind another visitor. They were only concerned about the sleeping arrangements. Bob solved that problem. “I’m perfectly willing to let her use my room, as I’m spending the nights with my mate at her home.”
Dorna didn’t look out of place, except for her evident curiosity and enthusiasm at seeing new things. She’d already seen electrical lighting and water plumbing at the club. I now introduced her to other aspects of technology: kitchen appliances, television and sound systems, computers, and telephones. She was fascinated and almost overwhelmed, yet eager to learn everything and trying to understand what could be adapted for use on Avalon. We then let her sit undisturbed on a couch and try to process everything. Watching her changing expression was quite interesting, until she finally smiled and lifted her eyes to us. “Most of this can’t be adapted for use on Avalon, the way I now see it, but we don’t really need it there either. We can heat or cool food by using magic. We can use portals for long distances or fly shorter ones, much faster than just walking. I also know you can communicate over long distances, although I’m not sure you’re going to teach us. As for entertainment—I don’t think we need to introduce that to Avalon. All species we’re aware of already have a full and interesting life as is.”
“Sure, and yet there’s more to life on Earth than just technology. We can introduce you to more if you stay for the weekend, when we’ll have more free time.” I was delighted with her reactions, proving my initial judgment of her to be spot on.
We spent a very pleasant evening together. Dorna enjoyed learning to use the various tableware and getting to know different kinds of food. We then took her out to the movies and then to a dance club, where she attracted several young men. Even without our advice, she knew not to get close to any of them. If nothing else, she was too young by human standards to form any meaningful relationship.
Dorna returned to Avalon, along with the other pixies, the next day. She joined us again for the weekend. This time, we introduced her to the Internet and all its intricacies, and also let her join Bob and his friends, who were much closer to her age. She enjoyed getting to know people, listening to them talk, and becoming part of their group. Nobody suspected Bob’s distant cousin, as he introduced her, to be anything but a nice girl from a different part of the country. Some of the boys showed more interest, but all were extremely polite.
Despite the addition of the pixies, the Fairy Club seemed to go as well as the previous ones, if not better. Friendships were forged that would last for lifetimes, in many cases, and the whole group seemed to become one big family, just like the previous ones.
Gran came to conclude the club on its last official day. She spent some time just chatting with the participants. As all were in their human form, she was unable to notice who was a pixie and who was a fairy. I don’t think she minded either. She then addressed the whole group.
“When my granddaughter suggested a kind of summer camp or day school for introducing young fairies to their heritage, none of us knew what it would turn out to be. Before that, an older fairy would tutor a young one and ready her for her life as a fairy. It all depended on the way the older fairy passed the information. I needed to teach several young fairies at the time and was unable to find a way to handle them all at once. The club solved my problem, giving us much more than expected. Not only did the young fairies learn more and in a structured way, but they also formed friendships, making the fairy society better connected.
“It was at that time that Brian was found out to be a male fairy. Since recovering from the surprise, we’ve found several more males and taught them just the same. Sophie and Brian also advanced our understanding of certain aspects of magic. They learned to change size and form, found out the common ancestry of the different races on Avalon, and advanced the understanding and cooperation between them, as evidenced by this club.
“They now seem to further the cooperation of the races and move towards a future where all races would be one again. Talking with you today, I couldn’t notice who was a pixie and who was a fairy—we’re all the same, really.
“Just so that you feel closer, understanding each other better, the pixies in our group are invited to come next Monday for a field trip on Earth—well, the part that we’re all comfortable with—so you could learn how humans, and the fairies, while living on Earth, run their lives. The others are also welcome to join the trip.
“I’ve also spoken with the Pixie Chieftain. She suggested we all visit the pixie village and learn some more about them, to ease the process of reuniting both groups. We may be able to finish the plans for a visit just before the start of term in high school, allowing you to enjoy such a trip before returning to school. I’ll let you know in time.
“And now, let us all have a toast in honor of Junior Sophie and Junior Brian, your two wonderful mentors who made all this possible.”
We had already prepared enough glasses of flower nectar for the ending toast, although we hadn’t expected it to be this way. We still accepted the honor, both of us blushing.
37 Pixie Friends
It turned out that asking about how new fairies were identified, especially male ones, was like stepping on a hornets’ nest. Although not physically painful, it just opened many wounds in the fairy society, highlighting some of it less spoken about aspects.
Gran’s talk with Joshua initiated a series of links, making her realize that the male fairies had developed an independent culture, mostly separate and hidden from the female fairies. It used a different system to find young fairies, as flawed as the one used by the female fairies, clearly evidenced by the male fairies taking part in our club, whom the male’s system didn’t find.
On the other hand, it turned out that their system found a few female fairies each year. Some were passed to older female fairies to coach and others were given a much older male fairy as a mentor, neither solution proven ideal.
I also had a nagging feeling that both systems were missing out too many young fairies of both genders. As far as I could tell, neither Brian nor Bob were detected by either system. I wasn’t sure about Emily. She wasn’t really a fairy, yet the angels had no system to detect angels out of Avalon. Shouldn’t the fairy system have detected her as a young magical person, ready for being educated? I wasn’t sure about that.
Gran had kept me current with her own research. After meeting Joshua, she contacted his mentor. “He turned out to be somebody I’ve known for years as a business acquaintance, not being aware of his magical nature. Well, I didn’t really look for magical people while on business, and they are quite rare, as you know. He is a lawyer, like me, who married even before starting college and stayed happily married to the same woman since. By the time I found out, he already had several grandchildren, two of whom are fairies, none detected by either system. Luckily, he could introduce both to their nature with no problems.”
That man fairy directed her to another, more elusive older man, one of whom Gran had already heard in business circles but never met. It took her several weeks before she could meet him. “He’s not married, and he seems to suspect any woman he encounters that she’s only after his money. When I was let into his office, he almost dismissed me at once. I had to turn my back at him and show him the wing signs before he agreed to seriously talk with me. Event
ually, we spent a very nice evening together. I had an early meeting the next morning, or we would have also spent the night together.”
That man turned out to be one of the male Elders. He told Gran that most male fairies don’t go to Avalon due to the curse, not willing to endanger any female fairy while there, yet not wanting to live with a shrunken organ for weeks after returning. He was surprised to learn of the new possibilities presented by the spell created by Brian’s parents.
It still took a meeting of the male Elders to agree to meet with the female Elders. They chose to meet on Earth, as none of them was ready to try the “new” shrinking method before seeing it work on another male fairy.
Gran had also checked the magical system for detecting young fairies, or rather the documents she could find about it. She looked very grim when she told me about it. “As expected, its magic is almost completely depleted, working in occasional short bursts only. Besides, it also seems to look only for young female fairies. Even when newly charged, it had never been designed to detect male ones. The few it did detect were mere coincidences. We’ll need you and Brian to recharge it, but we also need to design a new, more comprehensive system to detect all young fairies of both genders, at least.”
As much as I wanted to tackle this problem, we had other priorities. We first had to organize a tour for the pixies and then, hopefully, a visit to the pixie settlement in Avalon. While I didn’t need to do much for the second, as Gran took it upon herself to tackle all the coordination, I needed to handle the first. It was not so much how to organize it but rather what to include and what not.
I consulted with Brian about this. “We only have the weekend for the tour, or at most, we could squeeze in another day. It’s quite a short time to let them know about Earth.”
He smiled. “You did quite well with Dorna, didn’t you? We only need to introduce them to our way of life and mention the other options. We couldn’t introduce them to life in some exotic environments even if we wanted, nor should we try introducing them to life in various countries. We need to introduce them to our way of doing things, of shopping, of public traveling by bus, taxi, and train, of having private cars; we need to show them the technology in daily use, like refrigerators, ovens, air-conditioners, computers, mobile phones, and the internet. We can mention airplanes and space technology, but as we don’t really use that directly, we don’t need to bother with it. I think what they would like to hear most is about how we usually behave in our life, how we interact with other people, and how we have fun. Dorna may also help.”
Indeed, Dorna kept visiting us after that first weekend, seeming to enjoy living a human life. Bob presented her as a distant cousin and she seemed to fit in his group of friends just as well as Elrica, “My new girlfriend who lives out of town,” as he presented her to his friends. I suspect she introduced him in a similar way to her friends at home.
Eventually, we had our plan ready and all the technical arrangements made. Dorna helped, opening the portal for her group directly into our room. They all wore comfortable summer clothes that Dorna had bought for them a few days earlier. We then boarded a limousine that took us to the train station, where other members of our club were waiting to join us. We rode the train only to the nearest city, where Gran was waiting with a rented bus. We spent some time touring the city and then went shopping at a mall, including a fast-food lunch. The afternoon was spent at the local museum and then at the public library. We had dinner at a local restaurant and then watched a movie, before checking in at a hotel, where the pixies were introduced to television and music systems.
Gran took us to the countryside for the next day, where we let them see our agriculture, along with the simpler way of life of country folks. The evening was spent in a school’s computer lab, enjoying what that technology had in stock for them, before they opened a portal back to Avalon, feeling full of new and exciting information.
We visited the pixies a few days later. Gran opened the portal at a seldom reached spot out of town and we all changed on passing. Our club-mates were waiting there, eager to show us around. It was interesting to see how magic was used in daily life instead of technology, achieving similar results.
The pixie settlement was basically a large village, with ample fields around it, giving the pixies almost all they needed to live healthy lives. The various crops supplied all their food, with occasional meat brought by hunting some small animals or just insects. Whatever minerals they may have needed were either mined locally or exchanged for some plant products with the goblins, although quite cautiously. They had no other interactions with the various races, nor felt a need for it.
The way they treated their males seemed disgracing to me, but Carl assured me that they didn’t feel this way. They were just too happy to enjoy free sex and good meals. They also had free access to a large library that seemed mainly unused. The only real limitation imposed on them was a daily “medical” checkup, to make sure their penises stayed within the safe range. As this was usually accompanied by some more sex, nobody even thought of complaining. Aside from Carl, none of the males seemed interested in changing their situation, even if allowed.
We ended that tour with a festive dinner at the chieftain’s hut, which was much larger than the rest, although not very elegant. Some of the female fairies used the time for some sex with the male pixies. It no longer bothered me.
Just a few days before the end of August, Dorna came to me with an unexpected request. “I’d like to get an education the way you have. The chieftain agreed this is a good idea and I’m willing to spend as long as necessary here, on Earth, living like a young female human, so I can go to school and learn all I’m able to. Can you help me with that?”
I needed a moment to get over my initial shock. “School term starts in a few days. Are you sure you can join a class of fifteen or sixteen years students? I mean, do you even know the basics?”
Dorna shrugged. “I know math well enough, I think, and my translation charm keeps my language skills adequate. I may need to learn other stuff, though.”
“It would be helpful to check with Emily and see what she’d been studying last year,” I suggested. “Once you’ve mastered that, you’ll need to check with Bob, as you’re going to study what he had studied last year.” She didn’t seem bothered by the additional studies. If anything, she looked enthusiastic.
“Once they show me, I can change to my pixie size and study much faster that way,” she suggested.
“There’s also the social problem,” I tried to prepare her or warn her. “By the time you stay one year here, your pixie friends will have been older by seven or eight years, in human terms. I’m not sure you could keep being friends. Are you sure you can cope with that?”
She waved her hand dismissively. “I have no close friends, really, and my mother is no longer alive. Most of my age mates consider me too serious, teasing me that I may forget to live if I study so hard. Even my older sister can’t really understand my thirst for knowledge. Yet if that knowledge would help me assure a better life for my race, then it’s worth the little sacrifice. Besides, I’ll probably make some new friends among humans. I’ve already made some with fairies.”
I really hoped that her determination won’t alienate her from her people. “I suggest you visit your home village as often as you can, to stay in touch with your people.”
She smiled. “Of course. I wouldn’t like them to view me as a stranger.”
Eventually, I had to keep an eye on Dorna, to stop her from exhausting herself with studies. Luckily, Bob and Elrica along with Emily made sure to drag her for some fun and one of Bob’s classmates proved good enough to supply Dorna with all the sex she needed for her magic. Yet the best distraction proved to be Tracey. She seemed to learn quickly and could identify Dorna in her pixie form and force her to change. I wasn’t sure if she put some magic in it or only childish charm, but Dorna could never resist her. Even when totally immersed in something, she would respond imme
diately to Tracey and willingly play with her. Well, in a sense they were much closer in age than their physical appearance suggested.
Just as probably done with Edi, we had to create some documents for Dorna, to allow her to go to the school I graduated from. The principal was actually delighted to accept her, getting the impression that my distant cousin would be just as impressive a student as I had been. I wondered what she would have said had she known how distant Dorna really was. I also wondered how Emily would do at that school in a few years, when she was due to reach it.
38 Runes
Although only Juniors, Gran insisted that Brian and I join the meeting with the male Elders. “You’re needed to represent the new generation and the future direction for the fairies. Besides, with your powers and your experience, you may be able to find ways to advance us to our common goal that none of the other can.”
I gave it a thought. “We may need a few more males to convince them about the validity and usefulness of the temporary shrinking spell, as that may pose the greatest problem. I’m sure Bob would be delighted to help and so will Joshua. We may also try to ask Lee about it. As he’s got his introduction and tutoring from the male fairies, he may be even more convincing.”
Gran smiled. “I’m sure you can handle them. The meeting is next week, and I need to study the detection system some more before it.”
I still let Brian handle most of it, trusting him to be more persuasive with the males than I could be. Eventually, we came to the meeting along with most of the males that had taken part in the Fairy Club, including Carl. None of them seemed shy to undress and demonstrate the shrinking charm, followed by transformation to fairy size and back again, showing normal-size penises. We even used a camera and a projector to show them in their fairy size, to make it more persuasive.
