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!