Chapter 2 - Friends
The following is an extract from chapter 2, 'Friends' from Book 1 in the Maddy McGee series;
In the sleepy little village of Tumbledown, change was afoot. It was early one evening when the regular silence was broken by the sound of a very large and very noisy vehicle. This was followed soon after by the wail of a baby crying. Neither of these things occurred very often these days in Tumbledown. At that moment, in the hollow of a nearby ancient Oak tree, two very sleepy fairies began to stir from their slumber.
Now it is worth stopping the story here to note a few important facts. Firstly, the fairies that happened to live in this tree were a type of wood or Tree fairy whose main job it was to provide comfort and assistance to small children. The second fact was that there had not been any new children in the village of Tumbledown for a very, very long time. Not anyone’s fault in particular, it was simply a sign that the outside world had largely passed them by. It was this second fact, however, that contributed to the sleepiness of the two fairies. Now normally fairies were most active at night, with a preference for sleeping during the day. Yet it was the very fact that things had been so quiet for so long, coupled with the fact that it was only just entering the time of evening that explained why it took them so long to respond. But respond the two fairies most definitely did!
The names of these two slow-to-arise fairies were Pixie and Dixie. Typical of wood fairies, they stood (or mostly flew actually) at around 4 inches tall. Be-winged (that is how they came to fly), they had lived in this part of the country for years uncounted and, in that time, had soothed more than their fair share of troubled children.
So great was the din now being created between truck and baby that it was almost as though they were trying to outdo each other! A loud truck a wood fairy might ignore, but the sound of a crying baby? Well that was something else altogether.
‘Pixie, would you mind telling that baby to be quiet please? I am trying to sleep.’ said the sleepy voice of Dixie. She was a beautiful red-headed little fairy. She had a scattering of red freckles across her nose and cheeks and gorgeous almond shaped brown eyes.
She usually wore a beautiful dress of gold that hung down all the way to her tiny little feet though, at this very moment, she wore a pair of red spotted pyjama pants over which was a white, long sleeved top trimmed with gold.
‘It’s your turn Dix. I got up for the last baby.’ Pixie replied in a voice slurred by tiredness. She was an exquisitely pretty dark-haired fairy with great big green eyes and a very proud button nose. She usually wore a dress of deep blue, but right now she had on a long, yellow nightie with a big red flower.
There was a moment’s silence before two tiny little creatures exploded out of their beds.
‘Baby?!?’ They yelled in unison.
Suddenly, the tree hollow was full of flying blankets, pillows, slippers and other such things. Pyjamas were replaced in double quick time by dresses, as the two hurried to ready themselves to go in search of this unexpected interruption.
