The Lieutenant of Fairies
an excerpt

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Note: I use place holders like MC1 and SchRiv1 for character names as it is easier to type and gives me time to think on better names to come later.

The Lieutenant of Fairies
Chapter 4 except: Nov 1 2007

This time he was in his second year as a cadet and in charge of a squad of boggits. The fairies were drab browns and greens in hair colour and clothing. The cut of the leaves and moss grass that made up their clothing was in a militaristic fashion and they carried shields made of small clam shell halves and bulrush tips for throwing spears. The salt marsh bog with the squad of boggits on the hot and humid day had been sapping the life from MC1.

The perpetual happiness of the boggits that loved playing military manoeuvres with the young cadets further dampened MC1’s spirits. He really could not understand how the creatures that floated from perch to perch could find trudging through the insect filled air enjoyable. Then again, they looked on the insects as sources of great delight and through their spears left and right knocking the insects from the air when he was not being fully attentive.
That was not good as the boggits invariably expended their supply of spears on things like insects which left them no ammunition if a real battle occurred. It was just the job of MC1 as their squad leader to try and keep them focused on the current task at hand. It was only slightly more difficult then getting a group of cats to all work together for the same purpose.

It could be done. MC1 admired how the senior cadets could actually get the boggits to sometimes do tricks and put on aerial ballets. MC1 though frequently found it hard to even get back from a trip to the salt marsh with all the boggits that he had started with.

At just over a foot in height, boggits were one of the larger species of fairy. Not as large as some of the deep forest fairies which were reported in Mag3’s work on fairies to get up to a height of two feet in the queens. Still they were much larger than many other types of fairy. They were also not without any defences in dealing with larger predators or annoyed herbivores. While the boggit’s wings did allow them to have freedom to fly away from most land bound threats, they still needed to sometimes deal with more aggressive creatures that might hunt them. This is why their bulrush javelins that looked mostly harmless were tipped with a paralyzing poison. While a scratch from one bulrush javelin would only freeze up movement in the limb of an adult human, it was plenty to render a boggit or eagle immobile. Multiple javelin scratches could paralyze even large salt water crocodiles that sometimes were encountered in the marsh.

It was actually one of the responsibilities of the senior cadets to regularly sweep the salt marsh for crocodiles and other dangerous creatures to avoid the accidental injury or loss of junior cadet. It was a duty that they enjoyed as it gave them several hours of freedom from other tasks when they went on patrols and gave them practice in tracking and hunting.

As a second year cadet, MC1’s task today was simply to navigate his squad of boggits through the salt marsh. If he detected the movements of any other cadets or their boggits then he was to record the information and file a paper at the end of the day of what he had observed and seen.
What came next was a disaster.

MC1’s squad had almost reached the crocodile den island; so called because it seemed to have a strong instinctive lure to the mother crocodiles when the season came to lay their eggs. During the spring season when the crocodiles laid their eggs, the island and the surrounding sections of the salt marsh were off limits to the younger cadets. There was only so much the senior cadets could do to battle the natural instincts of the crocodiles and relocating them elsewhere only resulted in the crocodiles returning a few days later.

At this time of year, the area was normally fairly safe and the seniors had marked this on MC1’s map as the furthest point for his patrol. He was thus getting ready to try and call in his squad when clots of marsh muck exploded upwards.

A wild marsh boar was revealed bashing aside reeds and muck as it charged MC1 and his diminutive posse. A double set of large tusks grew from the lower jaw of the beast and it stood five foot at the shoulder. Dog2 and Dog3 would have looked small compared to this male brute which was at least five hundred pounds of adrenalin fury. The eyes were small yellow orbs in the brown hairy pig face. A black stripe of longer tougher bristle hair grew from the top of the head to the back of its rump.

The boggits of course did what they always do when startled, they scattered up into the air to better observe the situation.

This left just MC1 with a five foot bronze tipped spear and a two foot short stabbing sword at his belt. MC1 also had a leather curboil currias and a metal pot style helmet. All together it felt like he had just enough armour and equipment to really annoy the marsh boar before it used the double set of nine inch tusks to tear his stomach and chest to kindling.

Instinctively, MC1 leaped for the nearest trunk to provide some sort of shield or cover from the charging behemoth. The nearest trunks were only a half dozen inches in width and provided almost no cover from the tusk swinging head as it trampled lesser plants in its maddened rush to crush the life of MC1.

All training and all thinking froze from MC1’s mind as he saw the beast getting closer. He could see the coming battle in his mind. The marsh boar would impact upon the five foot spear and keep barrelling forward. MC1 would be likely knocked to the ground and then the boar, despite having a spear lodged through its chest would continue to eviscerate his flesh with the double tusks. Dying, the creature would then crawl back into the marsh to die but MC1 would still be dead.

The marsh boar was faster, stronger, bigger, and plain meaner than MC1. His life was over.

It was thus with great surprise that three of the boggits with suicidal abandon charged the boar from the left side of its face. The three one foot high fairies were no more threat to the boar then throwing stones into a bond. A hundred stones and the pond would still be the pond.

The boar only paused momentarily in its charge towards MC1 as it swung its double tusks back and forth rending one boggit after another into bloody bits. The momentary delay though allowed MC1 to scramble back a bit to a larger boled tree with a girth of just over a foot. It still was nothing if the marsh boar started to round the tree and pinned him to the trunk. It did give him a moment of cover to consider his options.

With a circle of a finger and a point he summoned a couple more of the boggits to attack the boar from a different direction. The boggits did as requested and dived upon the marsh bar planting a couple of spears in its rump before they too joined their fellow boggits in bloody bits upon the marshy ground.

This had given MC1 a chance to get a bit further away as he saw now that the marsh boar’s left side of its face had gone slack and the left eye appeared to have shut. The paralyzing effect of the boggits javelins must have started to affect the creatures face. One rear leg also seemed to have a few trembles where the pair of javelins had impacted.

Realizing that the creature was now injured and vulnerable, MC1 circled his fingers and ordered a new attack on the marsh hogs other rear quarter. Again a pair of brave boggits dived upon the rear of the marsh hog. Again they implanted their javelins in the rump of the beast and again they were torn into bloody bits that the marsh hog took great joy chewing upon.

The creature now was severely injured. Both back legs were trembling from the poison that flowed in its body. The left jaw dripped gobs of drool from the paralyzed muscles. It could not fully walk now and could only stumble along using more its front legs then its back legs.

MC1 sensed a kill. He twirled his fingers again and ordered another fairy assault. Another pair of boggits answered the call. Not as swiftly diving down as their predecessors as the marsh hog had already littered the ground with five bodies and gobbled down another two. Still they pressed on to the front of the marsh hog and put a pair of javelins into its hide by the left shoulder before joining the last pair in the creature’s maw. Bits of boggit wing drifted to the ground.

MC1 no longer felt the need to use his tree for cover. He could stride more bravely forth with his spear held out as the marsh hog now had three weak legs and could barely move. It almost seemed to moan as it tried to swallow the most recent boggits that it had gobbled up.

Still, with its remaining good right eye, it spied MC1 and snorted a challenge. A warning that it was still dangerous and would still sink its tusks into MC1’s leg if he were to get too close.

MC1 no longer feared the beast. He only considered it fascinating to see it slowly struggle against the paralyzing poison that had robbed it of strength and mobility. With his fingers, he summoned the remaining three boggits and ordered them to attack. The three boggits looked at him briefly before shrugging their shoulders and diving to the attack.

There small javelins bit into the hide of the beast which seemed to moan as it sensed that this was truly the end. Yet, it did not just give up easily and it made one last effort that gored and ripped the remaining boggits to pieces.
Then with its right eye fixed upon MC1 it finally collapsed and closed its right. A heavy wracking pant came from its laboured lungs.

MC1 had felt a truly joyous excitement at having survived and defeated the creature. It was creature of truly worthy size and MC1 knew that his fellow cadets would be asking for many a retelling of the tale of how MC1 had fought and defeated the creature.

A single thrust of the spear and the deed was done.