Chapter 2

Written by: Sumanda Maritz

After the harvest festival all everyone talked about was how magical the attendance of the Fairy Kin had been. Pixies had flown all over the place. The dust from their wings had fluttered down and given everyone a rush of lighter feeling and laughter at its touch. Fairies great and small danced or glided through the festival until the wee hours of the morning.

The Fawn had given Kali a simple greeting and then joined in the fun. But throughout the festivities, he kept her in sight. Kali enjoyed the festival as much as the rest and dreamt that night of marvellous deeds. Dreams that made her the hero of the village.

***

When the winter months came, things happened that disturbed Kali, not that she could describe exactly why they bothered her so. 

The most troublesome was a renewed presence of the Fairy Kin in the village. For some reason, she caught a glimpse of one or another on a daily basis. The Fawn in particularly returned frequently. Although they never directly spoke to her, Kali felt as if the fairy kin were waiting for something from her. Their continued interest made her shiver with a feeling that she couldn’t say was dread or anticipation.

In the meantime, Jay and Sime decided to take revenge on Henu. The village mothers had taken them to task about their failed attempt at the Harvest Festival. Suddenly every village mother had errands that only they could do. These were always smelly hard and dirty work. The village mothers kept such a good eye on them that they could never find a moment to get away.

Towards midwinter, Jay had finalised their plans. With a shovel full of half frozen pig manure, Sime climbed onto Jay’s shoulders to reach Henu’s window. He was about to throw the dung into the room when Kali shouted at them. Jay, startled by her voice, retreated with Sime still on his shoulders. The unexpected step caused Sime to lose his balance. He cried out as he fell down and the shovel full of manure upended over the two boys. Dung caked they received another scolding from the village mothers and even more gruesome work.

“Sime, this is the second time Kali has spoiled our fun. We have to get back at her for this,” Jay whispered with malice to his friend. Sime, always eager to follow Jay’s lead nodded his head. “But what can we do?” he whined in a nasal whisper.

“Don’t worry, I’ll think of something,” Jay said with a spiteful smirk on his freckled face.

***

Kali was unaware that she had become their next target. For her, the never ending winter chores and constant fairy attention were more important. A fever had broken out among the villagers. The youngest and oldest took it the worst and Kali was almost run off her feet to help the medicine woman and the other village mothers.

Comments

Now there's a challenge...to work out how these two naughty boys will get revenge and Kali. Again this is a challenge to the imagination and you always seem to manage to suspend reality and create a new reality that draws us, as readers in. Congratulations Sumanda.