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.

Corpulence

Corpulence – bulkiness or largeness of body

    The fairy’s most favorite food is corn and only a chosen few that to have corpulence can collect it.  You see, to gather corn is a tough job.  You must chop the corn stalk down with an axe.  Then you must shave off the leaves surrounding the corn cob.  When the “shaving” is done, twenty male fairies with a lot of corpulence will carry the cob off to fairyland where they pluck the corn from the cob.  After five chosen fairies complete the plucking, the corn is wrapped and sent to the market where they could cost as much as half a butterfly wing!  Corn is rare for fairies because it is hard work and it is only around during the harvest.  Oh, and farmers have no need to worry about aliens in the corn field. It’s just fairies and they like to make designs while chopping which they do apologize for.  Fairies also love corn so much that they have a habit of using corpulence to seal corn from humans!  So watch out!  The best way to protect your corn is to keep it near the color black.  Fairies are colorful and hate black.  There eyes don’t even have black on them.  So keep your eye open!

Demur

Demur – the act of making objections

The demur in a fairies life is when they are shown how to fly with their wings which they do not get until they are 5 hours old.  This can be difficult since the young fairies are so eager to begin using those wings.  The demur is a serious time as the Demur master tries to calm the young ones.  They could hurt themselves if they aren’t careful and do not pay attention as they move about.  They could easily fly right into a tree.  When the Demur master gets them calm down, he lines them up on the leave of a sunflower.  He begins to teach them the breathing exercises that they will need to know as they fly through the air.  This takes awhile as all young fairies are impatient.  They don’t care about breathing.  They just want to go.  Next comes how to hold their arms as they go through the air and around the plants and trees.  It includes teaching them how to stop and turn quickly to escape anything chasing them.  After a few hours of this, the Demur master allows them to begin to flap their wings and try to fly in place.  Only after all small fairies have learned to do this can they begin to move off the leave.  They are allowed to only fly to the next sunflower and then to the next and then to the next.  By the end of the sunflower row the young fairies are flying like they have been flying for years.  They begin to fly all around the valley to show off their new skill to their family and friends.  Cheers rise up as all the older fairies watch the young ones.  The demur time is a very important and fun time.

Foretopman

Foretopman – a member of a ship’s crew stationed on the foretop (a platform at the head of a fore lower most of a ship).

Foretopman is a game that fairies play on humans. When the humans come into the area where fairies live, four of the fairies fly around the human’s head and crawl up into his hair. The human always thinks that it is just flies buzzing in and out, but that is what makes the fairies laugh. They like to make the humans flap their hands and shake their heads. To make the other fairies laugh even louder, they sometimes buzz into the ear of the humans. The humans dance around trying to get rid of the buzzing sound. All the fairies come to watch the dance and laugh. In fact some of them laugh so hard that they fall off the flowers that they were sitting on. This makes them all laugh even more.