It had been a particularly hot day. I spent most of it inside, the air-con blowing.

In the afternoon I ventured out and that’s when I saw them.

They were sitting along the back fence. Their backs to me,  facing the setting sun and they looked agitated.

This wasn’t the first time I’d seen them. They lived in the quiet recesses of my back yard, they minded their own business and tolerated me though when I mowed the lawn I could tell they weren’t happy, especially with the noise.

But today they were sitting on the fence. They were in serious discussion, their wings flapping the with the flapping came a buzz that I found irritating. None of my neighbours ever made comment about the buzzing so I wasn’t sure if I heard it or not.

They saw me coming, and turned their unhappy faces towards me, I knew I was in for a right old rollicking.

“You!” shouted Buzzweed, the fairy leader, “you’ve got a lot to answer for.”

“What have I done?” I asked.

“You’ve upset the fairy queen and as you know, having been told so many times, Her Majesty does not like being upset. If she’s upset so are we.”

“So what are you going to do about?” asked Drogmet, the second in charge fairy, “her ire is keeping up all up at night.”

“But I haven’t done anything,” I protested.

“Then what do you call that abomination?” they chorused pointing to a new plant I’d recently planted.

I turned to gaze upon my newest garden plant, a blueberry bush, growing happily not far from the fairy corner.

“It’s a blueberry bush,” I replied.

“We hate it, its got to go,” announced Buzzweed.

“But its lovely, it produces fruit, and I like it,” I said in reply.

“Well the queen hates it, it gives her hives and it has to go,” said a chorus of fairy voices, which collectively made quite a din.

“Well, I’ll dig it up and move it,” I said feeling offended by their reaction.

“Good, otherwise it might have suffered a terrible fate.”

I looked at them and noticed there was now a sense of agreement and satisfaction that the matter had been resolved.

I knew from experience it wasn’t the best of ideas to disagree with the fairies as they had some rather devious ways of getting their wishes heard. Plants were known to wilt and die, for example, or disappear altogether.

I left them looking much happier and went off to fetch my shovel.

Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2020/12/10/tale-weaver-fairy-tale-fairies-10th-december/