FEAR ME
“Quibble………….Quibble! Where are you?” shouted Mrs.Violette Seymour.
Pod “Quibble” Seymour…..better known as just Quibble, was Mrs. Seymour’s highly ostentatious and audacious daughter. Very pretty to look at, she had a sweet voice and an even sweeter disposition. She and her family lived in the peaceful and magical village of “Faeritia”, a village whose magical inhabitants included fairies and pixies, vampires and werewolves, imps and leprechauns, ghouls and ghost, elves and everything else remotely magical.
Quibble was ostentatious because she wasn’t modest when it came to showcasing her immense talents or flaunting her beauty and audacious because she wasn’t afraid of
Crossing her limits when it came to adventure.
This was particularly imperative because she wasn’t afraid of the only danger Faeritia had ever faced “THE HUMAN”.
None of the inhabitants of Faeritia knew anything about THE HUMAN except that he had been in Faeritia since a long time. There were many speculations about him, but I’m going to tell you the one which seems to be the most probable to me…
According to the particular presumption, he had been brought to Faeritia by Ilea, the Fairy servant who said he had worked long enough for the humans and now it was time for the humans to work for him.
So he had brought back with him a small human child, when he came back from HUMAN-LAND. The child was to be his servant, doing everything from his cleaning, to his cooking to brushing up his shoes every day.
Ilea knew that humans grew fast, faster than us Faeritians. So he had put up a spell on the human child so that he didn’t grow as fast as any other human.
But one day, everything changed…Ilea had been found dead in his own house. The human child was missing and it was stated that it was the work of the human child.
After a few years, the human child was spotted living in the abandoned house at the edge of the forests of Faeritia. And since then, the forests had been forbidden for anyone who didn’t have permission from the village elders to enter the forests. THE HUMAN was the new name for terror in the village.
But not for Quibble…no sirs and madams…she would not accept that THE HUMAN was any more dangerous than her or her mother. And you may also ask, why that was so. Well, as Quibble said, “I don’t FEEL afraid of him because I know in my heart that he would never hurt anyone”. And honestly, please don’t ask for any explanations about Quibble’s feeling that was the way she was.
But the Faeritians did not believe in her “FEEL”, did they? So, our dearest Quibble decided to prove that she was right and set out to meet THE HUMAN.
“The stupid villagers, don’t they know anything! He’s just a human…a completely non magical, filthy, smelly, boring AND useless creature. What is there to be afraid about Mama?!”
“Quibble, don’t be so dim-witted…the villagers are no fools! They must have a reason to be afraid of him”
“Like what? That he’ll kill them like he killed Ilea?? Mama, Ilea was OLD!! HE had to die SOMEDAY!! And the poor child had taken advantage of his captor’s death to escape…so how could he be killer?”
“I don’t know about that, but you are not going anywhere and that is final.”
(“Oh Mama! You were so wrong about that…here I am, in front of THE HUMAN’S door, and I haven’t been hit by lightning or been attacked by a fly, leave alone a savage beast! At least until now!”)
Knock! Knock!
“Hello sir, I am Quibble and I’m here to meet you. Would you be kind enough-”
The door flew open just a few inches from her face “Who are you?”
Standing in front of her was the most frightening creature she had ever seen but what struck her most were his eyes, which seemed to be looking right into her soul.
“Who are you?” he asked again.
“I already said that I’m Quibble and I’m here to meet you. Now, would you be kind enough to let me in?” she said as she barged in right past him, into the house.
“What is this supposed to mean? Where are you going? ”, he asked as he turned back into the room. In a moment the ruthless monster was grabbing her hands so tightly that the blood might stop flowing through her veins any moment. “Don’t you know who I am? Don’t you fear me?” he growled in her face.
“Yes I do, and that is precisely why I’m here. And No, I don’t fear you.” she said as she pried his arms away from her.
“Well then you’d better start fearing me, FEAR ME, because you DON”T know who I am, or else you won’t be here. Fear me Quibble”, he rasped.
“Don’t you think that this is my decision, whether I decide to fear you or not? Anyways we’ll think about this later. Right now we have to set you straight. And oh! By the way, did I tell you that I’ll be living with you for a few days? No, I guess not. But, never mind I told you now! So where is my room?”
“What are you saying? No one’s staying here. Get out of here this instant.” he snarled.
“This is not the way you welcome a guest, now do you Mr. Human? By the bye, HUMAN is a preposterous name, can I please know what’s your real name? ”
“Christopher Lancelot, I’m Christopher. Now if you are happy, do you mind getting out of here?”
“No! I’m not going anywhere Mr. Lancelot. I’d be staying with you for 3 days after which I’ll return to my village and prove that I was right when I said that you are not as dangerous as they make you out to be. And, this would be my room from now.” Quibble declared as he entered the HUMAN….Christopher’s room.
And thus the “Dangerous and unpredictable” HUMAN ended up falling under the spell of our vivacious Quibble and was forced to act as per her will and being ousted from his own room in his own house for three whole days.
The first day Quibble was occupied with setting up everything in order and trying to make the place livable which was a herculean task in itself. She cleaned every nook and cranny, from the drawers of the kitchen to the age-old chimney, the garden to the room she was living in.
The second day she concentrated on Christopher, making him clean himself up and trying to make his appearance less shocking than what it was.
It turned out that he wasn’t not bad to look at as soon as all that grime and dirt were cleaned up. He a pointed nose which provided a sense of conviction to his face. Besides that he had beautiful golden curls which seemed to be forming a crown around his head.
In fact, you could even say that he was good looking in a crude sense. That day they ended up talking to him about himself. His likes and dislikes, what did he do when free and what did he think of Faeritia , about Ilea, what was his idea of fun and adventure and as the day ended and she knew more about him, Quibble realized that she was in love with him.
The final day, she had nothing much to do, except for waiting to get back home. That evening Christopher approached her with a weird question.
“Are you really a fairy, Quibble?”
“Yes I am, but why do you ask that Christopher?”
“Are you a powerful fairy like Ilea? Can you ……………can you send me back home Quibble? I would always be indebted to you for your kindness if you could only send me back to HUMAN-LAND from where Ilea had abducted me. Can you please do that for me?”
“I’m not sure but I can try. Are you sure you really want to do this Christopher? What is wrong with staying in Faeritia? You surely have everything you could have asked for.”
“That’s not it quibble, I would like to go back to where I belong and be reunited with my family. I don’t think that what I’m asking you for, is in any way wrong”
“No, it’s not. I will do as you wish Christopher…I will send you home.”
And that was the last I saw, of my first and only love. He was a mere human but that mere human stole my heart and took with him a part of my soul so that I could never be complete without him. It has been 20 human years since he went away. I had just gone to HUMAN-LAND once after that, just to see if he was alright and to bring him back if he was unhappy.
But that wasn’t needed. At the time he had married a pretty, human girl and bore 3 children with her. They worked on a farm. And though that wasn’t enough, he was contented and happy with his life.
And that’s all that I ever asked for, his happiness…
Today is the last day of my pre-determined fairy life. And if you are reading this Christopher, I want you to know that you are my only love and my life. You are the only thing that lives in my heart and you’ll be the last thing going through my mind before I leave my wonderful Faeritia for my final abode. I love you………….forever and always.
| 
Email this Short story
| 
Add to reading list
