Approbation – an act of approving formally or officially

There are times when young fairies tend to be a little wild.  They go about picking hardtack and using the gel inside it to paint leaves and rocks.  Taking the colorful puffs they fly about placing the colors all over the meadow.  They paint various animal pictures where ever they find a flat surface.  Eventually, though, they will get caught.  They are taken before the fairy courts which are full of disapproving adult fairies.  As the young fairies are brought before the courts, they have to face their parents which is never fun.  The parents tell them how disappointed they are in them and then they have to stand before the judges and face their punishment.  They usually receive approbation.  They have to go around where they painted the meadow and clean it up.  It takes several days because when hardtack hardens, it is almost impossible to remove.  They have to scrub for hours.  This takes the young fairies away from all their fun which makes them really unhappy. 

Approbation began several hundred years ago when the first disobedient fairy took off and colored up the meadow.  It was a shock to the whole fairy community.  It took the fairy leaders a long time to figure out how to punish the poor young fairies.  It was finally determined that they can clean up the mess that they made.  It did not go over too well with the ones who had to do the cleaning up, but it has been used as a punishment for the last 256 years.

Tipple - Drink

Tipple is a game that is played by fairies.  They put a pebble on a stick where it balances but barely.  They fly by it and who ever makes it fall looses.  There are sometimes tournaments for tipple.  The champions get a medal and a trophy.  Tipple is a very old game from hundreds of years ago.  An old man was bored and came up with this very fun game.  Ever since it has been a world wide sport.  If you ever walk in a meadow, you might be lucky enough to witness a game of tipple.  If so, hide or else the game ends and they all scatter.  So take care of what you are doing.  You might be lucky enough to see a fairies’ good game of tipple.

Celerity – rapidity of motion or action

Green edible tree

In fairy villages, there is a kind of tree that fairies eat as well as humans.  Fairies strip the “bark” off the tree and eat it.  Celerity is delicious and also has a festival in its honor.  The only true problem with celerity is that humans invade the villages (without knowing it) and steal the celerity while destroying the village.  Celerity is stringy and some strands are used in jewelry, furniture, nets, or as rope to hold things together.  The green color in celerity is commonly used as a die for clothes or furniture as well as art.  At the bottom of celerity is a white, hard thing used for furniture or softer tools such as utensils, cook wear, and plates and bowls.  Mainly things in the kitchen.  Celerity is not only a snack, but a drink.  Celerity juice is good and filling.  Mainly baby fairies drink it but it is used at parties or festivals, too.  So as you can celerity is used in a fairy’s everyday life.

Drubbing - To beat severely

In the world of the fairies there is always a party going on.  One of the favorite things for them to do is dance throughout the night.  There is a wonderful band that the fairies have that play really good.  One of the instruments that they use is the drubbing.  It is a large box shaped thing that has blades of grass strapped tightly over it which gives it its name.  As the expert players began tapping on the grass, a sound like “drubbing” floats across the meadow and sets the beat for the music and the dancing. 

These instruments became a source of pride for the players.  As they progress in their musical abilities, they take ownership of each drubbing and begin to change them into something belonging to them.  One will put painted pictures all around the sides of the drubbing.  Another will stick flower petals in funny designs.  There was one who painted his girlfriend all over the box.  He changed it after one party when his friends began to pick on him too much.

Drubbing has become such a popular thing.  Years before it was just a part of the music, but recently for some odd reason many of the girl fairies began to really go crazy over the ones who played on the drubbings.  They would cheer whenever they played and would follow them around the party and even later at other events.  It was downright embarrassing.  At first.  The drubbers began to walk a little differently as they were now the popular ones in the band.  For the first time in fairy history, drubbers began to be noticed and be popular.  They really enjoyed that.

Drubbing has changed over the years, but the beauty of the sound they make has not.  If you happen to be lucky to hear them, pay attention to the soft beat that directs the music.  You might be able to be this lucky if you lay in a meadow for at least an hour and tune out all other noises.  Listen closely and you will begin to hear the party strike up under the starry sky.

Forebore – to have an intuition or premonition

Forebore is a pig with four horns.  Forebores are really mean to fairies and are known to trample their villages.  They can and will eat fairies as well.  There was a time way back when a whole heard of forebores came and attacked a whole village.  That village is gone and the few survivors were moved into another close by.  There is a game played where a fairy must touch the horn of the forebore… and survive.  This is an exceptionally dangerous sport and causes much death.  The fairy counsil and most parents disapprove but they don’t stop.  Forebores are very dangerous but are also sacred.  I don’t know why.  My best guess is that fairies lack common sense.

Treacle - Molassas

Treacle is a special treat fairies eat made of sap and dandelions.  They start with a dandelion head and cover it with sap.  After the sap dries, fairies sprinkle the top with a few dandelion leaves.  This is a special treat and has a festival in its honor.  Sometimes they add chocolate or other hard to get items.  The fairies that make them are called Treaclists.  They are honored as well.  Every March 4th they celebrate Treacle Day so maybe then you could be lucky enough to stumble across their parade.

Shindy - a row, rumpus

A birthday party

    Every time a fairy-let, or baby fairy, is born they have what is called a shindy.  It lasts all day and night starting as just a normal party until sunset when the newborn fairy-let is introduced to Fairytopia.  All the fairies kiss the baby on the forehead for good luck in a long and healthy life.  After this is done, the fairies grab a partner and dance.  While the fairies dance, the proud parents sit on a throne made of birch and the fairy-let lies in a crib of birth, fold, and gems.  When all the stars are in the sky and the fire is lit, the parents dance and the god-parents watch the baby.  After the shindy, the parents and the fairy-let spend the night in the Hollow Tree Hotel.  In the morning, the shindy ends and the family goes back home.

Grog – a mixture of rum and water

Grog is a terrible and deadly disease to the fairies of Fairyland.  It is very common and is not contagious at all.  The reason grog is so common is because the fairy’s leaf-like clothes are made with the oily skin of a frog.  All they do is swipe their hand against the frog and zip off with the oily substance which acts as a paste for the fairy clothing.  Grog is given to a fairy if the frog croaks during this simple procedure.  After twenty terrifying days of grog, the fairy either dies or if the fairy lives, they are sent to the Fairy and Wings Community Hospital.  Here they live for a few days until they are healed, but they will never fly again so their wings are removed and put under the transplant list.  Sometimes a lucky fairy will regain the ability to fly.  In which case they are put back to work at the clothes factory as a clothes worker and no longer as a paste collector.  Being a paste collector pays good, too!  Fairies are paid as much as one butterfly wing and a snail shell.  Because of the well paid job, paste collectors usually live in a whole toadstool!  Most fairies live in a hollow tree with many other fellow fairies or they live in tulips and roses.  If a fairy gets grog, they are treated well and if they live, great respect is given to them.

Alacrity – liveliness, briskness

Lack of sleep

Alacrity is a special kind of paint that is used to cover up damage done by humans.  These large creatures are not well known for the delicacy, and they tend to trample quite a bit of the vegetation of the forest and fields.  As they walk along they walk all over the flowers and grass.  They reach out their hands and tug on branches and vines.  They are not the nicest to nature.  So, every day a special force of fairies take up their pails of alacrity and go out into the forest to follow behind the humans.  Quietly, they follow them making repairs to the flattened grass, the crushed violets, and the broken twigs.  They have to be very careful not to get caught because a few of these humans are quite tricky.  They have sharper ears than most humans and their eyes are able to pick up the slightest movement.  It is only because of them that there are even stories of fairies at all.

Alacrity is taken from a special plant that grows beside the brook.  It looks like any other daisy flower, but it never closes its petals at night.  It absorbs the rays of the moon and the dust from the stars to produce the special paint needed for the damage patrol.  The plant is well guarded and revered by all throughout the fairy kingdom and even by all the animals.

Beware on picking daisies by the creek.  You might feel a few “bites” that drive you away.  It is just the well aimed arrow of a warrior fairy guarding the sacred flower.

Aridity – extremely dry

A flower only found in a forecastle

Remember the forecastle?  Well, an aridity is a flower only grown in a forecastle.  It grows in hot shaded parts.  An aridity is large (about 1 cm across and 2 cm tall) and heavy.  It has powder in its petals to give health to a fairy when they need it.

Aridities are yellow with red spots and a blue-gray stem.  Their petals are nice and soft.  Fairies clothes are made out of the petals and their shoes are made from the stem.  When an aridity dies, it is buried and it grows into a dandelion.

The aridity is also a symbol of luck.  A fairy would take their paintings of the flower and place it above their fireplace.  This would give luck to the house. 

This is why we must treat dandelions nice because that “weed” may have saved a fairy!

Forecastle

Forecastle – any sailor’s quarters located in the forward part of a vessel

The king of the fairies live in a castle with 4 parts -  the west, east, upper, and lower parts.  All the king’s family lives with him in all parts except the upper part.  That is the king’s very own room.  The forecastle is beautiful with gold trim.  The walls are sea blue and the windows are a clear crystal.  All the windows are not a plain shape.  They have a unique design.  The forecastle is over 3 feet high covered by magic to look like a rock (remember that fairies are only 3 centimeters high).

A forecastle can never be found by humans.  That is why fairies are “not real” to humans.  The forecastle has been around for 500 years and can never be destroyed for the fairies protection.  Once the east part needed fixing but other than that the forecastle is in top notch condition.  The Forecastle is an important part of the fairy world.

Pre-possessing

Owning something belonging to humans

Fairy hunters are fairies looking for interesting stuff they could steal. If a hunter comes back with a human made item they sell it. The costs range from 5 to 6 butterfly wings. When a fairy buys it they call it pre-possessing something. It’s special to pre-possess an object. It brings good luck, too.
Sometimes a human finds what a fairy is pre-possessing. Doing this causes a human to be shocked. Really, it’s the fairy biting him.
Only fairies can pre-possess. Once a human has their item back, it’s what a fairy calls annoying. You’ll never know if a fair has pre-possessed an item of yours unless you’ve been “shocked”. Even then, you can’t be sure. Fairies don’t steal, they find. So if you’ve lost something, you lost it, don’t blame the fairies.