Everybody knows fairies can't fly 7/9

Lieutenant Moonshine looked out of her office window and heaved a big sigh. Nothing exciting ever seemed to happen around here nowadays.

She appreciated that her work and that of the fairies under her supervision was important, but while Jennifer Jane had been learning her way around the alternate world, interesting things always seemed to be happening.

There had been the time that the witches all went on strike and refused to supply the Warehouse with a supply of wishes. All right, it had been her fault, but even so it had broken the monotony of everyday wish handling.

Then she remembered the case of ‘Forget me Knot’. Now there was a fairy who was absolutely useless at her work. She should have been sent to live at the bottom of somebody’s garden, that was the proper way of getting rid of unproductive fairies, yet somehow Jennifer Jane had managed to convince the witches to give her another chance.

Now she understood that as a result of being sent to sea with Barnacle Bill, she had become a successful sailor working with the Davy Jones fleet of sailing ships.

There had most certainly never been a fairy sailor before and probably never would again, but whatever the reasons behind it may have been, the case had brought a certain sparkle to life.

She sighed again, now if only fairies could still fly; at least they’d have something more interesting to do in their spare time.

At that moment a fairy flew in through the clouds surrounding the Wish Warehouse and landed just in front of the office window. She folded her wings neatly and then headed for the door.

Moonshine rubbed her eyes in disbelief. This just couldn’t happen, adult fairies were far too heavy to fly properly, yet whoever this one was she had certainly flown in to land perfectly and not just glided in from a height. She stood up and was halfway to the door when it opened and a tall bronzed, very fit looking fairy walked in.

“Hello Moonshine, remember me?”

None of the fairies she knew at the moment came to mind. She began thinking frantically of all the fairies she’d worked with during her time in charge of the Warehouse. Then she suddenly remembered; why only a moment or two before she’d been thinking about her.

“Forget me Knot, it is you isn’t it? You look very fit and I like the way you seemed to fly in. You must have glided quite a long way to make your landing look that good. I suppose climbing all that rigging has made you a lot stronger than most of us.”

“Just come outside a moment I want to show you something, by the way please call me Fern now, I hope I’ve left all that ‘Forget me Knott’ nonsense a long way behind me!”

Moonshine followed Fern outside onto the forecourt, she was a bit puzzled by her rather bouncy walk, but supposed it must be something sailors did, she’d heard about sailors who lost their ‘land legs’.

Then her jaw dropped in disbelief as Fern opened her wings again and flapped straight up into the air. She performed a few rolls and spins and then while she was still level with the tops of the warehouse buildings, did the most amazing thing that Moonshine had ever heard about.

Fern wrapped her arms round her knees and pulled them up under her chin, then bobbing up and down slightly, she began to spin round her outstretched wings which were making far more complicated looking movements than Moonshine had ever dreamed of.

A moment later she landed and walked back to Moonshine panting slightly, but with a huge smile of satisfaction on her face.

“How about that for real flying!”

Moonshine was so overcome at the sight of a fairy being able to fly properly, that she was unable to say a word.

A loud burst of cheering from behind her broke into her thoughts. Every window in the front of the administration building had two or three faces looking out, every one of them cheering like mad. Fairies were beginning to come out of the other buildings as well, just to see for themselves what all the fuss was about.

One or two of them recognised Fern and walked over for a chat. After a few minutes every fairy in the building was crowding round Fern and one or two were already trying to fly, having been taught the spell to reduce weight.