Chapter Text
It's a bright summer day in the high moorland areas around Devon, England, and three American boys on vacation, all with similar ashy blond wavy hair and matching forget-me-not blue eyes, raging from ages 6 to 10, play near a middle size menhir erected scarcely 300 yards from the cottage of their grand aunt Mags.
"If there are any pixies here... Please come out and play with us" The second oldest boy said loudly scarcely 3 feet away from the stone pillar, he stood with legs spread apart and feet firmly planted on the moss covered ground and hands fisted on each side of his hips, resembling a gangly, blond Peter Pan.
The other two boys stood by peering into the rocks ahead, waiting for a response that never came; the wind blew swift, bending the tall grasses around the open land before them, but still, the menhir was quiet and undisturbed.
"Boys! Dinner!" Called their father with a bright smile on his face. The three boys forget their previous objective and rush to meet their dad while playfully shoving each other out of their way, "boys will be boys." The father says shaking his head amusedly as he watches his three children approach with much boyish laughter. Theirs, is a happy family, which is all the father has ever wanted for them.
To promote this happiness, the parents of the boys have started traditions to create loving memories for the later years. One of the things that has become tradition for the Mellarks, a family of five, is to travel every year for one week of the summer from their home in Panem, North Carolina in the USA, to the beautiful countryside of England, where their maternal family has lived for many generations... But as the years had gone by, most the English relatives have relocated to other parts of Great Britain and Europe, so they're currently scattered all about, which is perfectly alright, since the boys have an absolute favorite place to visit, Auntie Mags cottage in Devon.
The boys like her place best, because every evening, right after their supper has been ingested, she takes a seat on her worn recliner chair and invites the children to sit at her feet with cups of rich hot chocolate and delicious biscuits to be dipped in the creamy concoction, she then regales them with her stories about fantastical adventures and epic wars between pixies and fairies and trolls; the woman in her early 60's is a wealth of pixie lore, she usually has hundreds of stories at the tip of her tongue waiting for her grand nephews to ask for them.
The stories tend to originate in the menhirs surrounding her cottage; menhirs are tall stones standing upright that according to aunt Mags were left there by the Druids of old, it is unclear what their purpose was originally, but auntie Mags swears that pixies, fairies and other mythical creatures moved right in once the humans abandoned the monuments and went elsewhere.
Aunt Mags has explained the difference between each supernatural creature, Trolls for example, are rarely helpful to humans and prefer to live their lives in family groups in caves or around rocky mountains where they can blend easily with their backgrounds as they appear to be made of rocks themselves, then come the Fairies, although beautiful in appearance with their fair complexions and winged backs, are to be treated with respect because they tend to be a cranky bunch who is usually unfriendly to humans that step too close to their territories, aunt Mags stresses the importance to always wear something made of iron or charms of Rowan when dealing with fairies, they're afraid of those materials and will keep at bay if one has them on for protection. But, it's the Pixies, the children like the most, mischievous creatures with skin tinted all sorts of blue hues, they can take the hight of a human at will and will help those in need if they're nice enough to pixies first, but they can also be very mean if the occasion calls for it, if a small child is being bully by a big brother the pixies will pull the bully by the ears and drag them to their mother for a well deserved spanking! Most pixies are wingless, except for their royalty, because just like that the british, the pixies have a Queen.
After the food had been inhaled that evening, and the dishes washed and put away, the three boys hopped and skipped and giggled as they found their way on their hineys on the mushy rug beneath auntie Mags chair, waiting for the old storyteller to sit with her accustom cup of hot chocolate and plate piled high with shortbread cookies their father had made earlier.
"What's it going to be tonight, boys?" Asked aunt Mags with a smile as she sat with a contented sigh.
"Well..." Posed the eldest boy, lips puckered up to one side of his face bright blue eyes looking up in the same directions his lips pointed at, but not really seeing anything in particular, he raked his ten year old brain in search of the right words to formulate his question. Finally after a minute or so, his expression shifted, and his eyes flew to meet the ones of his great aunt. "We went up to the menhir thing today, auntie Mags... Rye called out to see if there were any pixies there, but nothin' happened. Are you sure there are colonies of pixies there?"
"Ah!" Said aunt Mags knowingly. "So what you all want tonight is to learn about the proper way to meeting the pixies, then?" All three boys nodded enthusiastically, with cheeks stuffed with shortbread cookies and crumbs dislodging from their faces as they moved closer to their aunt, Lord forbids they would miss a word of the important instructions they needed to follow to achieve their goal.
"Very well, then... So, it us said that in The Manual to Successfully Meet Pixies, that to introduce oneself to a colony, you cannot present yourselves with empty hands!" Said the women raising and eyebrow as she explained.
"Well, what can we bring?" Asked the one named Rye.
"Ooh! How about we bring them momma's old coin purse? The one she just threw out!" Asked the oldest brother with excitement.
"No...! That'll be stupid Billy... Pixies don't have money!" Said Rye exasperatedly.
"Um... Do they like shortbread? Maybe we can bring them some... They might be hungry..." Said the youngest brother hopefully, out of the three Mellark boys, the youngest one was the sweetest and the most attentive. Aunt Mags smiled at him before Rye once more shut down his idea in a rather harsh tone.
"Peeta! Pixies don't want cookies! They're too tiny to be eating all that sugar... What'd you want, to cause 'em diabetes?" Rye had recently learned that his best friend from school had been diagnosed with youthful diabetes, and had been obsessively chiding his baker father for feeding him and his siblings fatty foods and too sweet pastries... This had not stopped him from stuffing his face with chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven once or thrice since they arrived to England.
The little boy, Peeta, only managed to downcast his pretty eyes, and mutter a heartfelt "Sorry" while all but throwing back on the plate his half eaten shortbread biscuit. His eyes were filling with tears as his brother continued talking, sharing his own idea.
"K... Since all your ideas stink... We will go with mine!" Rye declared, "We will bring them my bag of Legos, so they can build themselves a house!" He said triumphantly.
"Oh, well... I'm not so sure pixies will fancy living in a house made out of slick, colorful Legos m'boy" at his aunt's response, Rye's face fell and after a second, turned sour. "But... The idea of bringing them a house is a nice one!" She added with a wink. "It just has to be made out of materials you would naturally find around the menhirs, after all, you don't want to make it easy for those pesky trolls to find their dwellings with all those bright colors a Lego house would have"
"Hmmm... I guess I didn't think 'bout that, aunt Mags..." Said Rye crestfallen, "I don't want to cause the pixies any problems"
"I know sweet boy..." Said aunt Mags caressing the boy's cheek. Then she turned on the direction of little Peeta, who had resumed taking tiny bites out of his cookie while looking at his aunt in wonder with those big blue eyes of his. "But, I must say, little Peeta here has a good mind about things as well... Pixies do like biscuits, you know, and unlike humans that can get sick from pretty much anything around them, pixies never get ill! So they can eat as many sweets as they want!" She said with a radiant smile, that reflected that of Peeta exactly.
"Yay! So we can bring them candy and an apartment building made out of twigs and leaves and then we can play with them all day long!!!" Exclaimed Billy, the eldest Mellark brother.
"Well... An apartment building might be too much for mythical creatures, but... You guys can start with a little play ground, don't ya think?" Said their father, from under the threshold to the sitting room the children and aunt Mags were occupying. All three boys turned their blond little heads startled by his voice, but received his presence with smiles and "Hi Daddy"s. The boys took after the baker, a man with soft ashy blond curls that fell on his face when his hair was too long, kind forget-me-not blue eyes, and smile always gracing his handsome, kind face. Because of his line of working, Mr. Mellark was broad shouldered and his arms were thick and strong, he was of medium high built, and could easily lift two 100 lbs sack of flour on each shoulder in his bakery back in America. His children still looked like regular, none muscular kids, in fact little Peeta was a bit on the chubby side, while Rye was gangly and tall for his age. Billy was exactly average high and weight.
"Boys, I think it's time for bed now..." Started Mr. Mellark. The children immediately started a chorus of pleading 'five more minutes' and 'do we have to's. "Your mother and aunt Mags have a busy day planed for us tomorrow, and we want you all up bright and early." Said the man calmly to appeased his children.
"But, Daaaad..." Whined Rye huffing and slumping on his knees on the rug, "We have stuff to do tomorrow... We are bringing gifts to the pixies! Can't momma and aunt Mags go do their plans by themselves?"
"We'll be good... Honest!" Peeta piped up hopefully.
"Sorry boys, you know your mom's the boss while we're here... Now, come on... Up with you three, go brush your teeth and change into PJs and I'll be there in a minute to tuck you all in." Said Mr. Mellark sternly. They boys groaned in protest, and slowly got up from the rug and dragged their feet in sign of discontent, but obeyed all the same.
Once in their beds, after their prayers were whispered and their foreheads were kissed by both their father and mother, and Mags had poked her head in to wished them all a goodnight, sleep took over them, and they dreamed happy dreams, filled with their respective interests, and while they slept a must fascinating thing happened... A pixie looked into the children's bedroom, and ducked under the open window just to curiously peer at the little humans... This event was uncharacteristic and unheard of, and if the boys had been awake they would had been thrilled, this was a much special visit, and the reason the event was particularly remarkable, was that the pixie in their room wasn't just any old pixie, it was the Princess Pixie... With her delicate luna-moth wings, she had flown up to the second story of the cozy cottage.
The Princess had been curious since the boys came calling on her colony earlier that day, but, since this children seemed to be happy, well cared for and seemingly untroubled, the Queen had instructed her subjects to remain hidden. Pixies only showed themselves to children in need of help. But, the Princess wanted to see them up close, she was young and adventurous, and quite stubborn as well. So, when the lights in the cottage went out, she decided to pay the children a visit, there was no harm to be done if she only peeked at them while they were asleep. But, the younger boy, turned on his side for reasons unknown and opened his cerulean eyes landing right on the fluttering Princess who hovered closed to his oldest brother's ear.
"Hey!" He gasped. "Don't steal my brother! He's a nice boy, I promise! He always shares his toys with me and never lets Rye beat me up too hard when we wrestle... Please lady fairy... Leave him alone!" Pleaded the young boy sitting straight on his bed, because everybody knows that Fairies are pesky creatures that would steal a young child if they so pleased.
The Princess, very offended by the boy's mistaking her for a fairy, flew in a flash to yell at him right in front of his nose; but she was so little her voice was too small to be captured by the little boy's ears, she sounded like a little cartoon fly would sound on tv, her words were intelligible so he had no idea of what she had said to him. But at this close, he could clearly see her. She had a long thick braid of very dark hair, her skin like every other pixie was some sort of glowing soft blue, and he noticed her clothing was made of brown and cream linen rags, judging by her appearance alone, she was exactly how her aunt had described the pixies, except for the wings, he raked his brain for mention of wings and sat there for a long minute thinking and staring at the little being as she darted angrily from one of his eyes to the other gesturing widely with her tiny arms as she raged at him.
"You are pixie?" Gasped the boy in wonder, this made her stop her movements in midair and stiffened down her arms and legs. She then nodded furiously. "But... You have wings... Pixies are supposed to be wingless..." He reasoned. She started moving her arms frantically as if she was explaining something to him. "Um... Miss pixie, ma'am... I'm sorry to interrupt, but... I can't hear you..." He whispered apologetically. This made the Princess hunch her shoulders, and fluttered downwards to stand on the night stand next to the boy's bed. She paced the worn surface of the table for a moment thinking, then took off flight in a rush to a nearby pamphlet with several thumbnail size pictures of different sights around London Rye had picked it up from a car rental stand that advertised touristic tours around the city. The pixie was excitedly jumping up and down, pointing a wee tiny arm in the direction of the picture of Buckingham Palace, she then stomped a minuscule foot on the corner of the picture, until the boy asked confusedly,
"Are you from the palace?" She moved her head like a pendulum from side to side, signifying that he was more or less closed to her meaning. She looked around and found a picture of a crown down in the pamphlet, and point at it. "Umm... Are you a queen?" He asked excitedly. She shook her head, and paced some more and then shlumped for a moment, the boy felt bad and shyly asked in small voice, "Are you maybe a Princess?" He offered with an earnest glance, and she sprang up and flew around his head once and came to float and inch from his nose while nodding her head excitedly. He could not see all the details of her face, but he thought she might've been smiling. And he chuckled, promptly covering his mouth with his hand, glancing at his brothers who still slept soundly in the bed next to him. After he made sure he hadn't disturbed his brothers' slumber he offered her a soft apology.
"Um... I'm sorry I called you a fairy, ma'am... You are much cooler than a fairy!" He said and she cocked her head in confusion, but there was no way the little boy could know she was confused about the expression "cooler", let alone have the sufficient communication skills to go about explaining its meaning to her, so it was a good thing that he completely missed the inquiring look she was giving him, and went forth to ask her if she liked shortbread cookies, she once more seemed pensive, but she understood "cookies" so she nodded. Then he produced a coocky from inside the pocket of the shorts he had discarded on the floor before changing into sleep clothes, then he promised her he would bring her some more the day after next, when him and his brothers had the chance to go back to her rock. With this understanding, she flew around him one more time, and shoot straight out of the opened window and into the starry night.
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Peeta's brothers didn't believe him when he told them about meeting the Princess Pixie. They teased him incessantly, and told him he had a very big imagination, it took a stern warning from their mother to stop the teasing, but little Peeta was annoyed and disgruntled the rest of the day.
That afternoon, they returned home from visiting some relatives that lived not too far from aunt Mags, and a trip taking the sights of region. It was light enough out, for them to set about collecting the materials they needed to build the playground for the pixies. They had decided that their dad was right... Pixies loved fun things and slides and swings were very fun.
They started their project in the living room, when the sun finally was too low in the sky to see without straining their eyes.
Auntie Mags provided them some sturdy thread and a bottle of glue to tie and affix things together. Soon their mother announced supper, and all building efforts had to be postponed for the next day.
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It took them longer that they had anticipated to finish their gift to the pixies. It had been a family effort too, as everyone helped at one point or another. Mrs. Mellark wasn't the most imaginative person on earth, but she had begrudgingly used her artistic skills to create a card to go with the miniature playground. Mrs. Mellark was a very talented artist, regardless of her disposition to believe that creatures such as pixies could be real, she allowed her aunt tell them stories because she figured it kept the boys away from gaming devices and encourage their imagination as well as their desire to play outside, exploring nature.
With the finished result of a card bearing a picture of a slender winged woman with a long dark braid, brown finery and the luminescent wings of a luna moth sitting on top of a red polka dotted mushroom, above the words: "a Gift for the great Pixie folk, from the brothers Mellark", the boys rushed to the imposing menhir. They had just deposited the card box floor of their twig and grass blade architectonic masterpiece not a foot away from the tall stone that they assumed housed the pixies, Peeta rushed to placed the card with what he hoped was an accurate depiction of his Pixie Princess at the foot of the cardboard floor, and rushed to stand with his brothers at a respectable three feet distance, away from their offering.
Billy took it upon himself to addressed the colony on behalf of his brothers.
"Um... So... We have brought you a super fun playground. For you to play at of course... You can use it whenever you wanna. And if you are ok with it... We would like to watch you play?" He finished pleadingly, his brothers echoing the sentiment passionately. But still, nothing happened. Not even the wind made it's presence known, so the boys returned home with heads hanging low in disappointment.
But, the pixies accepted their gift, after the Queen sent out an inspecting committee. They deemed the structure sound and safe, if a little bit disproportionate in its dimensions, some if the rides were big enough for only the smallest of pixies while others, easily allowed two or three pixies comfortably at a time. They played and laughed and were merry all night long, and the Princess addressed her people saying that if they accepted the present it was only fair to allowed the children see them enjoying it, she was sure the boys would not harm anyone or expose their existence to unwanted humans, but her mother the Queen would only allowed the others to show how they had used the artifacts and possibly leave a gift of thank of their own. The Princess wasn't satisfied, so she once more flew into the boys' bedroom before the sun had come up, she saw the smallest child sleeping and wondered silently how to best leave a message that he could easily understand. The sun was almost already up, and she still had no idea of what to do, but then she saw the left over grass blades and drying dandelion shoots and heads, she saw the twigs and the leaves and a tad bit of green moss, and she thought to herself, if this children could speak to her people through building a park, she thank them accordingly with their own medium... She set out to carry the materials with great effort, because a stick with five millimeter diameter that weights nothing to a child, weights tons for a pixie. It took her a great deal of time, but at the end she hovered above her handy work, admiring the resulting product and she smiled to herself satisfied. She flew out the window, just as the morning dew was setting on the outside world.
They boys awoke to a rendition of sticks and grass of the menhir they just left their mini playground at the previous day. There was, next to it a crude smily face and three little stick people figures, the smallest one had a yellow dandelion for a head! The two older boys were confused and intrigued by it, the little one was convinced it was a message from the pixie Princess saying thank you. The boys rushed out of the house, paying no heed to their mother's breakfast announcement as they cleared through the door. The anticipation of seeing the pixies playing in their creation was too great to wait, but alas, the playground was deserted, not one blue colored creature was spotted on the place, but, there was a small mound of berries, acorns and seeds were the card used to be, the card however was gone. They boys took it for granted that the pixies had accepted their gift, and sometime they would allowed them to come join in their games.
What they were not counting on, was the devastation that the visit from their Cousin Cato would cause to the area surrounding the menhir.
The children were familiar with their third cousin, twice removed Cato Snow, because like them, he lived in the US with his family. His father was a wealthy older man directly related to aunt Mags, who married a pretty girl almost 30 years his junior, no body can't say that romance couldn't thrive were money abound. Cato was a spoiled, nasty little brat, that always got his way if he whined long enough to annoy his father. His mother coddled him and never said no to his every selfish whims.
The Snows came to aunt Mags, while passing through to go elsewhere for their three month long holiday in Europe. Normally the boys groaned and grumbled when they knew they had to play with Cato, which was surprisingly often, as the only good thing Mr. Snow ever did for his son, was to have him spend time with his kin, no matter their difference in social standings. Cato was so mean some times, but the boys had learnt to deal with him over time, this did not mean they were eager to spend whoever long his family's visit to aunt Mags' entertaining the little twerp.
I was and unspoken agreement between the brothers, not to share anything about the pixies with their distant cousin; Cato was exactly the kind of human the little colony hid from after all; what they did not account for, was their mother's ramblings about how her boys had been building tiny playground models and how cute and well built they were, she even went on to talk about how adorable it was that her sons were still young enough to believe in things such as 'fairies'... "Pixies, mother!" Corrected Rye annoyed, but she just waved him off and continued her rant, and to the boys' horror suggested they took Cato out to the menhir to show him the model they built. They had no other choice... And they regretted it dearly right after.
Cato had laughed at them for believing in Pixies, he said it was a stupid concept and right when he was about to say that pixies and fairies did not exist, Rye lunged at him and shoved him to the ground stopping the other boy's words right before they left his mouth.
"Don't say it you idiot! You will kill every last one of them, you stupid knuckle-head!" Screamed Rye in anger. But Cato, although pampered and somewhat soft, was an adept fist fighter, not a stupid one though. He knew going for Rye who was exactly his age was no good, Rye was taller, and Bill was even worse, He was older and a bit stockier, but little Peeta was fair game, so he pushed the smaller Mellark boy, who landed square on their beautiful pixie play area, destroying every last piece of it. The reaction from the other boys was immediate, they both jumped on their brother's attacker and ganged up on him, Peeta was crying, picking up the pieces of their broken structures, he frantically tried to fix it, but he couldn't, and as he picked through the debris of sticks and glue and thread, he came across a sight that filled him with horror.
At the very bottom of the cardboard that served as flooring for their model, laid the prone form of a pixie, she was winged, with a head full of golden hair, her little clothes were long flowy beige gossamer instead of their usual stif brown wear... He quickly cupped his hands and picked the little being up and clutched her to his chest, he ran towards the rock, but Cato had dealt dirty punches to Rye and Bill's tummies and now ran after Peeta to continue his abuse on the smaller kid.
Right when Peeta felt the bigger boy's hand take a hold of his shoulder, he shrieked to the pixies to go hide somewhere safe. He kept a tight fist out of Cato's reach, trying with all his might to protect the little pixie woman in his grasp, until he fell on the ground and his little hand opened with the force, the small little blue creature rolled out of his hand, and as if magically, disappeared from sight right before Cato's eyes could register the motion. Peeta closed his sweet little eyes, and braced for a punch on the face that never came.
The adults had seen the whole thing happening and rushed outside to separate the children. It is needless to say, the Mellark boys got their behinds whooped and got sent up to their room for the remainder of the afternoon. By the time supper came around, the Snows had left. Cato did not get punished for pounding any of the boys, not even little Peeta who was the most defenseless of the three.
Dinner was a quiet affair, and it suited the mood of everyone at the table, that it had started rained outside of the house. It was as well as if the heavens wanted to wash away the events of the day, and nothing washes things better than whole lots of rain. It rain, and it rain, and it rain some more, and no stories of pixies or fairies or trolls were told at all. The boys marched up their room once again after their meal, they were still grounded for fighting and none of them thought it was fair, but they didn't argue, they just hanged down their heads and silently entered the bathroom to take turns at the sink to brush their teeth and get ready to go to sleep.
After their pajamas were on, and the three of them sat in bed, their father came in looking disappointed and sad, and sat on the edge of the bed where Billy lied down. "Boys..." He said with a sigh. "I'm not very happy with your behavior today. I did not rise you kids to be brawling like that. Violence should never be the way you use to resolve your problems."
"But he was hurting Peeta!" Protested Billy sitting up straight on his bed.
"Yeah... I saw that, and I'm glad you and Rye tried to defend your baby brother from a bigger kid picking on him, but, I also saw Rye gave the first push..." He put up his hand in the air to stop his middle son as he was getting ready to argue the point, "I know Cato can be a handful, and he will be a handful the rest of his life, he will be unhappy and not very nice as a grown up, I'm sure of that. But you three are my boys, and I want better for you, I want you three to be good people, reliable and respectful and nice, because being nice and fair makes us better people and better people usually have happier lives. I want you all to be happy adults when you grow up. No more fighting whilst you can avoid it, by no means be the instigators, the world is already full of bullies, but you my children should be different, alright?" He asked with a softer tone, all three boys replied with a united "alright" then Mr. Mellark kissed three little foreheads, turn off the light and went on his way.
Since it was raining so hard, the bedroom window stayed shut, the Princess Pixie could not enter and see to the boys herself, to thank them properly for the great deed their actions were, specially that of the little one, for it was her Mother the Queen Pixie who little Peeta had rescued from under the shattered playground. The Queen had seen how the little boy needed help when a bigger boy went after him, and she had rushed out of her invisible little kingdom to protect the little boy in need, but it was her the one who got hurt in the process, luckily the quick actions of the human child allowed for the pixie folk to retrieve their Queen and mend her best they could, and succeeded at the last minute. The Queen of the Pixies was safe because of the little blond boy, and the Princess had a big debt to thank him for.
She desperately looked for little cracks and crannies in the glass window, looking for a hole to go in, but there was no entry to be found, so frustrated on her endeavor she kicked the pane and luck had it, it was enough noise to startled the smallest boy awake. She noticed him stirring and renewed her assault on the unyielding glass, until he cautiously looked at her, and his face filled with surprise, but before he could jump out of bed to yank the window open for her, a thunder resonated closed by and lighting flashed with it.
The boy jumped frightened by the loud boom, but he recognized the sounds of the storm, and quickly regained his courage. The Princess though fled back to her home, for it would be nearly impossible for her to escape the elements if she lingered by the human dwelling. Peeta worried about the fate of the pixies, he had no idea what drove the Princess to come see him, but he knew he had to help them somehow, so quick as a whip, he ran down the stairs and into the kitchen he went. His father had baked some bread with him and his brothers as helpers, but they burned the loaves and their mother refused to eat them complaining about the charred exterior of the bread... Little Peeta stood thinking his options for a moment until another flash of light illuminated the whole interior of the house quickly followed by a deafening boom, he had no more time to loose, so he grabbed the two burnt loaves and ran out the kitchen door and into the stormy night.
His brother Billy felt him leave the bed, and gingerly went after him after he was sure little Peeta was not in his side of the bed. He climbed the stairs one step at a time as silently as he could and jumped in fear as the thunder broke above in the sky like a lash of a whip. "Peeta!" He whispered harshly, "What are you doing? Come back!" He followed right away as his little brother teared out of the house. The two boys ran at full throttled, the younger oblivious he was being followed by his eldest brother.
Another blinding lighting stroke down and Peeta saw the small erratic zig-zag of Luna moth wings fluttered right ahead, the little insect like thing fell to the ground, her wings soaked heavy with rain impeding her progress, she thought that this was her end, until the little boy with the two enormous bread loaves crashed on his knees only a few inches away from her, on the muddy ground were she lay ready to die for her recklessness.
"Princess!" The boy gasped, and scooped her up without stopping, he dug a chunk of bread out of one of the loaves and placed her teetering, shaking body into the soft bed of fluffy bread. His brother caught up right as he was getting up on his feet.
"Peeta! What are you doing? Are you crazy? Come on, we gotta get back!"
"I can't Billy... The Princess can't fly and she doesn't look very good!" Said the 6 year old boy shoving the loaf into his brother's hands, the older boy looked down into the cut off piece and almost screamed when he saw the pixie cradled in the bread weakly trying to sit up.
"Peeta... She's real!"
"I know she is, you doofus... Now let's go, we have to take her back to her home!" The boys nodded to one another and took of running back to the pixie territory.
"Help! help pixie folk... We have one of your own that needs help!" Yelled Billy as they reached the stone, for the very first time, the pixies threw caution to the winds and left their hiding spots, there were hundreds of the little people rushing towards them, only one of them was winged, the one Peeta had saved earlier, she had an arm in tiny sling. The pixies took the Princess and the bread, and the regal Queen Pixie, came to hover in front of the boys and bowed in thanks to them. The other pixies did the same, and also extended their arms towards the boys, but their fingers where so little, it was but a fluke a lighting that fell in that moment allowed them to see, each pixie had their three middle fingers upright while their thumbs and pinkies met at their open palms, on instinct, Peeta returned the sign, and the pixies bowed one more time, and then stepped back under the hollow of their home, under the menhir stone.
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Six years had passed from the night of the storm at auntie Mags. The boys never got a chance to see the pixies again, for which Rye had been pointedly angry at his brothers for years. He often rant saying he got robbed of his biggest dream. But, Billy assured him that they would come back the next summer and have new adventures where he could meet the blue skinned little beings.
Alas, none of that ever happened, as life often does, it changes and mutates and creates all kinds of disruptions to previously set routines. A week long trip on the summer to Europe gets postponed to next year because an aunt who lives in the moorlands of England decides to take a holiday of her own, it even might be than a cousin in the far away land of Argentina, meets a professional tango dancer and marries in the biggest wedding of the century and your parents have no more savings left for a tour of England after their trip to South America. It might be that someone gets a hold of Father's credit card number and almost empties the family's bank accounts, but luckily the bank caught up on the suspicious credit card activity and blocked all transactions over the Fourth of July weekend that happened to be a long weekend because the 4th was on a Friday and that's when you figured out your account was taken to the cleaners.
"I do not understand why are so many dishonest people, that without any consideration steal from hardworking folks, who day after day sacrifice their time and strength to serve a community and offer a service they hardly appreciate!" Had complained Mother after hanging up the phone with the bank clerk who helped them straighten out the messed of the stolen card number.
And all those were some of the things that actually happened to make the Mellarks postponed their holidays until next year, every year for the next five years... The brothers would not retuned to the menhir housing their pixies until way later, and by then the boys had grown so much and seen so much out of life, the magic just wasn't there any longer.
Life has the nasty habit of throwing low, painful and unexpected blows every once in a while, without reason nor warning, it just hits hard anybody no matter the condition or age of those stuck with the happenings around them, once life decides to cripple a person's existence, it will do it disregarding their youth or ability to face and comprehend harsh circumstances.
On a cold, bitter winter night, Mr. Mellark and a handful of his employees, had stayed later than usual in his beloved bakery. The day had been long and busy, the holidays merely two weeks away, people were coming in and placing orders for their various events; cakes, cookies and pastries, dinner rolls and hearty breads... Everyone wanted something from Mr. Mellark's kitchens to celebrate their Saviors birth, the upcoming New Year, Hanukkah or Kwanza, whatever their creed or reason to celebrate was, they were going to do it by stuffing themselves with the delicious flavors of his cuisine.
Mr. Mellark had a reputation for being a generous man, only rivaled in contrast to that of the stinginess of his wife. This widely know trait of the baker made him popular with the seemingly helpless, the beggars and jobless and even the children with next to nothing to fill up their tummies. No one ever left Mellark's Bakery empty handed. So when the news of the botched robbery were the beloved baker made the ultimate selfless sacrifice as he shielded his employees with his own body from and armed thieve broke into the new stands the next day, the small quiet town of Panem, North Carolina, grieved with his wife and three sons, and didn't dare to asked for refunds on already paid goods that he would not baked.
But, grief takes many shapes and leaves ugly scars even in the gentlest of souls; Mrs. Mellark was already a very strict person to begin with, but subtract the loving, accepting character of her husband, add grief, loneliness and heartbreak and you get an unbalanced shift into intransigency and perfection demanding, the less the children acted like perfect little robots, the more frustrated she grew, the more frustration accumulated, the angrier she became, the angrier she was the less patience she had, the less patience she felt the easier it got to lash out with harsh words, when harsh words made the children leash out back (because they all were suffering same as her, and felt anger, sadness and helpless as much as she did) then, it felt satisfying to her the moment her hand stroke 14 year old Rye on the cheek when his defiant attitude reached it's peak, talking back was not tolerated, even if her boys weren't usually the type to talk back under normal circumstances. But the cycle of violence only spiraled out of control and expanded until slaps on the face or the back of the head were the new normal, and kind words were replaced by screams and insults; long gone was the happy family that the baker had strived to form.
The Family finally returned to England at the request of loving aunt Mags, she sensing the tension on her widowed niece, broke her piggy bank and got them all airfare back to her place, they were to stay with her for the duration of the summer instead of only a week, and the boys felt so relieved they gratefully accepted the gift. Anything was better than to be cooped up in that hellish house of theirs anymore, and the prospect of going to stay with aunt Mags, were they had created some of their fondest memories as young children was enticing. Mrs. Mellark saw as a reprieved as well, and the now family of four had a relaxing time... For a few weeks at least, for the pain and ugliness people keep inside, cannot stay hidden for ever.
Rye was the most rebellious of the three, the one who would never hold back a snarky response, but also the one that struggled with angry outbursts that ribald that if his mother's, he had very short tolerance for his younger brother and often pushed him around when his frustrations grew too high, Bill was usually always there to defend Peeta both from their mother and their brother, but Bill was now a 16 year old teenager, with a handsome face, broad shoulders and smile that could melt ice, girls (american or british) were not immune to his charms, and the dating monster was unleashed for him that summer; he wasn't home the day that the now forgotten pixies came back into their lives with a very loud bang, after that day, none of the Mellarks, including the Mrs., would ever forget about the incident that brought them back to the forefront of their minds.
===================
It was a hot and muggy kind of day.
It was unbearable outside, but aunt Mags' provisions were getting low after feeding 3 growing boys, she good naturely smiled at her emptying pantry, and decided it was time for a run to the town to restock her kitchen and fridge. She waved off her niece when she offered to go do the shopping herself, after all she had not have them at her home in such a long time, she wanted to pamper them all. Aunt Mags had no reason to suspect that she had made a terrible mistake denying her niece a day away from her children.
Peeta was minding his own business, he had inherited his mother's clever hands, but his imagination and eye for color were his own, he was very talented with a pencil and paper, and he seemed to have an uncanny dominion of pretty words and their delivery to others, the problem was, that when he was deep in his zone, doodling away, he blocked out the rest of world and heard nothing at all around him. It had become an escape from his reality to loose himself in his drawings, and it bothered his brother to no end, when he was talking to him and the younger boy did not acknowledge him in any way.
"Peeta! Stop with the tongue clicking already!" Yelled Rye to his brother who sat on the bed across from his. Peeta, as usual didn't even registered something had been screamed at him, so Rye threw him a pillow right smack on the face. That finally brought the kid out of his trance.
"Hey! What was that for?" Asked Peeta angrily. "You made me scratch up the picture of I was drawing!"
"If the picture wasn't of a hot chick then it's not a big loss!" The older boy said picking up his Suicide Squad comic book and resumed reading it. "Just shut it with the noise, it's annoying and distracting, I can't read with you clicking your tongue like that." Demanded the teenager.
"You are such a jerk, Rye!"
"Yeah and you are a little twerp"
"Shut up!"
"No... You shut up before I come over there and make you eat your little drawing!"
"Try it! You think I can't sock you in the nose?"
"Ha! I would love to see it! You are baby... A helpless little cry baby, and your little pictures are stupid!"
The two boys jumped out of their respective beds and stood in the middle of the bedroom the three of them occupied, fists at the ready, and Rye simply gave his brother a push that landed him on his butt, the smaller boy sprang up angrier than before and threw a punch that his brother easily sidestepped, then they were all out wrestling with each other. On the lower level, Mrs. Mellark yelled at them to stop whatever they were doing up there, but the boys were too much into their brawl to listen and sense danger brewing.
The boys didn't noticed how precariously closed they were to a small bookcase where aunt Mags had different knick-knacks and framed pictures of various family members, even their late father was amongst them forever smiling at his now fighting sons. One bump from someone's back, a stray elbow shoved here, a kicked landed there, and the whole shelf came toppling over on top of the boys with a very loud crash.
"Shit! Peeta get your ass up... Now!" Screamed Rye panicking. "Momma is gonna kill us... Quick we need to clean all this up before..."
But she was already there, and she had yanked the smaller of the two boys by the scruff with an angry expression on her face. Before either kid could utter or even think of a passable excuse for all the damage they caused, she had flung the boy across the room, he fell backwards on the bed, and she dove on top of him hitting him with and open hand, the older boy kicked the bookcase away from him and lunged at his mother knocking her away from his baby brother.
"Run, you idiot, run!" He said as he pulled him by the wrist and out of the bedroom, they flew down the stairs, Peeta was crying and couldn't see where they were going, they bumped into furniture and discarded shoes on the living room, they tripped and fell and got up again just in time to miss one of the shoes they had tripped over, that their mother had shucked at them, "Peeta come on, you have to run faster, keep up" yelled Rye still clutching to his arm, but Peeta was having trouble trying to keep up, it didn't help his tears didn't let him see ahead of him, his toes hit the tip of a buried boulder on the ground outside, and Rye lost his grasped on his brother's arms when he slipped to the ground. The momentum he had created, prevented him from stopping and help his brother up, their mother got to him first, and she was beyond angry by now, instead of slapping her youngest son with an open hand she was pounding him with her closed fists, Rye turned back and pushed her away once more,
"Leave him alone you witch!" The woman regained her footing and quick as a flash, had punched Rye in the face before he could flinch back. the boy stumbled a bit, but somehow picked up his brother who was trying to get up from the ground, they both tried to run, but their mother caught Peeta by the back of his t-shirt and she was on top of him again, she rose her fist above his face and all he could do was cover it with his hands, Rye was inexplicably also on the ground crawling his way towards his brother, and right before Mrs. Mellark's knuckles made contact with Peeta's already bruising face, a woman had leaped out of nowhere and bumped the boys' mother back, about a foot away from the child and poised herself between the two.
The strange woman was heaving air through her flaring nostrils, what scared the socks off of the three Mellarks was the sharp menacing arrow pointing directly at Mrs. Mellark's face.
"Touch him again, and I will pierce you with this arrow!" Hissed the woman through gritted teeth.
"Holly shit!" Muttered Rye in amazement, "Peeta... It's your Pixie Princess!"
Indeed, the woman standing before them was dressed in all brown, with suppled looking leather boots, a very long dark braid snaking behind her winged back and for what they could see, her skin was tinted a diluted soft blue that seems to shimmer under the low sun of the afternoon.
"This can't be..." Said Mrs. Mellark before falling on her knees defeated, the boys where still on their place on the ground, Peeta was flabbergasted, she was indeed his pixie friend, only she wasn't 3 inches tall anymore, but a whole 5 ft. or so.
"Who are you?" Asked Mrs. Mellark shakily when she finally found her voice.
"I'm Princess Katniss, from the House of the Evergreens, my mother rules the Twelfth Kingdom and this are her domains, the children are under my people's protection so beware our wrath if you caused them any other injuries. You have been warned! Now be gone, so we can tend to them properly"
"You can't kidnap my children! I will not leave!" Spat Mrs. Mellark standing up. This angered the pixie, her wings flapped dangerously lifting her up about ten inches off of the ground, lowering her still loaded bow she flew to the offensive human stopping short of her face.
"Be gone I said! I am not a fairy to be accused of kidnaping human youngsters!" Yelled the Princess looking down straight into the woman's face angrily, "I am not the kind to be trifled with, I will deliver the children back to ye's dwelling myself, so be gone!" Mrs. Mellark simply bit her tongue and turned on her heel, she was sure this thing, whatever she was, really meant business.
Only once the human woman was a few feet away from them, did the pixie sheathed her arrow back into the thin tubular leather quiver hanging between her luna moth wings, she twirled her longbow dexterously in her free hand and turned around to regard the boys who were now either sitting up straight or kneeling up, watching her incredulously, they shared the same amazed shocked expression in their faces and wide opened blue eyes. She smiled benignly at them.
"You have grown my lords. Last I saw you, you were not but small frys. But this is to be expected of humans I surmise. Come now, we have to get closer to the stone for my people to be able to tend to your bruises."
"You... You know us?" Asked Rye dumbfounded.
"Of course I do... You are the Boy with Bread and his second eldest sibling... I had dubbed the eldest The Protector, but, I guess the title can be of used for you as well, my dear sir." She said with an amused smile.
"Oh no... Bill can still be the protector, I much rather be 'The handsome, witty one' if you don't mind... Um... Your... Highness?" He smirked standing up clumsily and patting his shorts clean off dirt. She laughed at this, and her laugh sounded like tiny tinkling bells.
The menhir that they long ago thought to be the pixies house, was just but a stone throw's away, no wonder she had jumped in to defend them from that nasty beating.
Princess Katniss, as she said her name was, had not left their side while a group of tiny blue creatures applied miniature amounts of salve onto the kids' bruises. They were done applying the cream onto Rye's face in almost no time, which was impressive by how small their little hands were compared to how big the expanse of skin affected was. Peeta, who had sustained the brunt of the attack took three times longer to be cleaned up, and lathered up with the healing substance, but he was ok with it; it gave him time to admire his pixie Princess in peace, he was committing to memory the exact shade of grey her almond shape eyes were, and the slope of her nose, the way her braid swayed in the breeze, he was fascinated with her, from the way she threw her head back when she laughed at the idiotically dumb jokes his brother said while hugging her arms around her stomach as if trying to prevent it to split, to the way her nose scrunch up when she smiled right before she announced how cute or funny she thought they were. Peeta had managed to make her laugh a couple of times himself, she seemed to be specially fond of Peeta, she was constantly brushing his unruly curls back from his forehead as she listened to whatever the boys were saying.
Finally it was time for the boys to return home. She offered her hand to Peeta to hold and he took it immediately. The closer they got to the cottage though, the quieter they all grew, Peeta clang to her arm for dear life as she knocked on the front door.
Their mother opened the door and gave the pixie a weary look.
"As I had promised... Your children have been returned. I will trust them into your care, but, make no mistake, if they need me, it will only suffice them to call out my name and I will be here for them." She said this and gave Peeta a reassuring squeeze of his hand, Mrs. Mellark nodded her understanding, she was embarrassed and frightened, but that day was the very last she dared hit her children, the fear never left her, not until the day she passed on.
Peeta looked up to his pixie, and gave her a pleading look, she knelt in front of him and placed her hands on his shoulders.
"My darlin' boy... You, I love the most, if ever you, any of you Mellark children, should ever ask me to stay with you, I will." She whispered her promised to the boy staring right into his eyes. But, Peeta thought of his brothers, how they took care of him, and simply took a sharp breath in and bravely said,
"I have my brothers, your highness, they will take care of me... But if I need you I know your name... Katniss!" He said and his fingers caught the end of her long braid, he twisted the soft shiny black hair into his index finger and let go of it after observing it tight and loose as he twirled his finger in and out of the twist. He then looked at her face and found a soft smile there just for him. He smiled back, and then twined his thin arms around her neck. "I think your wings are very pretty!" He whispered into her ear, and she laughed that tiny bells sound again. She kissed his forehead and said goodbye.
But things in the Mellark home got better after that day, and the children did not called for the pixie, not once, not until their adult life anyway, and then, it was not even any of their voices the one that rasply asked the winged blue woman with the grey eyes the question,
"Would you stay with me?"
The new Mellark child folded into the pixie's arms sniffling deep in her chest, under the cover of a stone menhir while the moon was hidden from human eyes behind a thundering storm, it was impossible to deny the frail tiny voice of this little girl that now pleaded for her company, Katniss was goner for yet another Mellark child, so her answer did not falter when she decidedly whispered "Always"