The Power of Fairies

The Adventures of Tucker and Tori

Tucker and Tori raced to the large oak tree on the other side of the creek. Their feet pounded against the wooden planks of the bridge. Tori zipped past Tucker and reached the tree first.

"I wonder if the girl with no name left us anything today," she said as she walked around the tree with her green polished finger nails tracing the tree bark.

"Maybe." Tucker searched the lowest branches for a present. "Mom said if we left her beads and things she might leave us something."

"I don't see anything," Tori said.

"Maybe the beads are still where we left them." Tucker suggested then went to work unhooking the bird feeder they hung yesterday with the tiny cloth bag of beads.

"Let's see! Let's see!" She jumped up and down beside him. She was anxious to see if the bird feeder held any treasures.

"Okay. Settle down," he said. His fingers trembled as he lifted the loop from the hook. "Oh, look! What do we have?"

He set the feeder on the ground between them. He grabbed the wooden figure he knew to be a gift for him. "A soldier carved form wood!"

"A brown soldier! Can I paint him green?" she asked.

"I don't know. I like him just like this." Tucker ran his index finger down the soldier's back. He was nice and smooth, no splinters.

"He looks like Gator!"

"Oh, yeah. He does." Tucker looked back to the feeder. "What else did she leave us?"

Tori lifted a tiny, pink paint brush and a jar full of liquid. "I think she wants us to paint the soldier."

"Na. That's pink. You don't paint soldiers pink."

"But what if it's a girl soldier?"

Tucker's brows crunched down over his nose. "I don't know, Tori. But this isn't a girl soldier." He held it up for her to inspect it. "See, it's shaped like Dad."

"Hmmm." She gave him back the soldier and studied the jar instead.

"Here, let me read the words on the jar." He held his hand open to her. When she place the tiny jar on his palm, he lifted it toward his eyes until he could read the tiny writing. "Says here," he pointed to black letters, "Nail Paint."

"What? She gave me nail polish?" Tori grabbed the jar from his palm and ran toward the house. "Mom! Mom! Come quick!"

Mom met her on the front porch. Her chest heaved up and down as though she'd ran all the way from upstairs. "What's happened?"

"Look what the fairy left me!" She held up her hand with the brush and jar of nail paint.

"Oh, Tori! You had me scared you were hurt." Mom patted her chest.

"Can you help me paint my nails?"

"Of course."

***

The next morning Tori woke to the sounds of pops, blasts and booms. She looked out her bedroom window to see streaks of red and green shooting through the air. She ran to Tucker's room. She shook his arm to pull him from his sleep. "Wake-up, Tucker! Something's blowing up the oak tree."

"It's barely daylight," he said and closed his eyes as he rolled over, away from her.

BOOM!

Tucker sat straight up in bed. "What was that?"

"That's what I've been trying to tell you. The oak tree is blowing up!" She pulled on his arm again.

He pushed back the blanket Mom had made for his last birthday with images of two large dinosaurs on it. She was surprised he wasn't wearing his dinosaur pj's too. He only talked about two things, ever. Dinosaurs and soldiers.

They ran down the hall, down the stairs and sprinted for the front door. "Look!" she shouted. "There's sparks of green and red everywhere!"

"And the red ones are going straight toward the tree."

"Come on." Tori grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the house. "Let's save the girl with no name."

"It does look like she's in trouble, but I'm not sure how much we can help with lightning bolts!"

Just then a read bolt shot through the air and splintered the branch holding the bird feeder.

"Whoa!" Tori stepped backwards behind Tucker. "Maybe you should go first."

Before taking a step forward, Tucker looked around the still dark yard. "Just a minute," he said, leaving her to stand there alone in the middle of a fireworks show.

He ran into the garage, grabbed the trash can lid and a pair of Dad's work gloves. He put on the gloves and held the lid up like a shield. "Let's move out."

Tori tucked up behind him. Stepped when he stepped.

BOOM!

They both jumped at the noise. He froze. She peeked around him.

A green bolt zipped through the air and hit a rock near the creek.

"That was close," Tucker whispered, a slight tremor passed through his voice.

She pressed up against him. "Too close."

"Ezra, you can't leave me,' a voice came from near the scorched rock.

"I can too, Drake," the girl once with no name from the tree said.

"You must leave these foreign lands and return home with me," Drake said. The small, male fairy poked his head up above the rock. His curly, brown hair fell above his eyes and nearly touched his collar.

"I'm not going back for you to feed me to the Orks!"

Now something needed to be done. Ezra couldn't be fed to the Orks, no matter what Orks might be. Tori picked up a stone, stepped around Tucker, and threw the stone with all her might.

Boink! The stone bounced off Drake's head and landed in the creek.

Bolts of red lightning shot out like fire in every direction. One bolt ripped through her long, yellow night gown. Her breath caught halfway out in her scream.

Tucker dropped to his knees, the shield rolling off and into the creek. He patted her torn night gown where a flame began to grow. "Be still, Tori. I almost have it out."

She felt a tear roll down her cheek. How close had she come to being burnt?

"You're okay now," he said as he stood and put his arm around her.

A stream of green lightning bolts streaked across the sky straight for the stone. Green glitter followed.

Drake screamed. When all the glitter began to disappear a familiar sound came from behind the stone.

Ribbit. Ribbit. Ribbit. The frog leapt into the creek and disappeared from sight.

"She turned him into a frog!" Tori wiped the tears away.

"She sure did. Ezra was protecting you."

A giggle spilled from her. "Maybe."

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