Fairies and Fairy Tales

The Folly of Foci
The Folly of Foci

There once sat, in a lush and verdantly green forest, a happy and mischievous Fairy by the name of Foci. Foci this fine summer's day was spending his time quite happily listening to the chirruping of the crickets and the gentle hum of the bees as they went about their business. A good day to be a fairy thought Foci peacefully.
    His peaceful musings were rudely interrupted by the hasty approach of his cousin Flhoan who was shouting at the top of his voice, “Foci! Foci, quick we must away and hide! A monster is coming!!” A monster thought Foci; this is an interesting thing indeed!
    “The Fairy queen of the wood has told us to run and hide ourselves” Flhoan frighted his body murmuring with a nervous fear that had overcome him.
    Foci sat and considered this, what could possibly be so fearful that they, great and magical fairies must run from? Surely he thought, 'nothing could catch a fairy if a fairy did not wish to be caught?', 'surely it could not see a fairy, if a fairy did not wish to be seen?’ What possible reason could a fairy have to fear something?
    “You go then Flhoan, if you must” Foci snorted.
“I shall watch this thing, and it shall not see me. I shall vex this thing and it will fear me, whatever this thing is, it is mine to toy with. I am a fairy and it amuses me that you think I should fear something” Foci said with a grin. Flhoan explained the creature Foci must run from, the creature it must fear is one called Man.
“Ha” thought Foci, a man? I have met and toyed with many men, this shall be no different. Foci travelled to the road in the forest which Flhoan had told him to away from. Sitting patiently on a leaf shaded from the sun, Foci began to wonder about what made man something to be feared.
    Soon enough he began to hear the fast aloof rhythm of a well tuned lute. From over the hill leading into the forest began to appear the figure of a man, walking slowly into view and playing a melody as he did.
    I am supposed to fear this? Foci mused. How can this man hurt me, it has no power or magic, it carries no weapon. What possible reason is there for me to fear it? Foci laughed at the foolish thing Flhoan had told him.
    As the man drew closer Foci began to conceive a way to prove to this man that he was not something to be feared, that he, like everything else, was Foci's to play with. For Foci is a fairy and as such it is his divine right to do as he pleases.
'I know!' Thought Foci.
'Man fears spiders! So using them I shall make him afraid and shall laugh at his fear!' Quite pleased with what a clever and cunning fairy he was, Foci schemed to drop a spider on the man as he was walking.
So off he went, searching high and low for the most fearful and terrifying spider he could find. To make the man be scared, so that Foci, could laugh at him.
Content to wait in the trees Foci waited with the spider he had caught and listened very carefully for the approach of the man who is to be feared.
As the man strode underneath the tree Foci giggled to himself as he dropped the spider onto the man's shoulder. It did not take long for the spider's grizzly and hairy leg to work its way to the man's cheek. “Ahhh” yelped the man but he gently brushed the spider from his cheek and let it go on its way as he carried on his.
Laughing quite loudly to himself Foci wondered yet again what it was he was to fear about this creature that was so afraid of the spider and yet so gently brushed it away.
    The man carried on down the road and shuddering off the last of his fear began once more to strum a merry tune on his lute.
'That was great!' Foci thought. To continue what Foci thought was a great game he decided to design another way to belittle and bemuse this man. Foci was a fairy and so it was his right to do such things. What better way can I humiliate this man next thought Foci, to show him that he is not fearful. I know! Foci realised. 'I shall deceive this man! I will make him afraid of something he cannot touch and then he will know that he is not something to be feared.
    Focusing his magick, elegantly spinning it into a most beautiful and intricate web that glittered in the sun and truly was a wondrous sight. Foci then contented by his work sat and waited once more listening for the man.
Foci could hardly hold back his smile, the man would think he was trapped in the web of a spider, he would think to struggle and pull his way out of the web. It would be a most hilarious prank thought Foci because it is not a web, but something I have made to vex him.
    Slowly Foci began to hear the music of the lute approaching again from down the path. He could hardly wait to see how the silly man would act when he is trapped by Foci's magic that looks like it is there. But isn't.
    The man approached, and just as Foci thought looked at the web, the man stood a great while looking at the web and Foci thought, and soon he will try to touch it. Soon he will reach out and it will only serve to confuse him and then I will laugh for I have tricked him.
    Eventually the man slowly nodding his head walked from the path and delicately strode through the underbrush around the web that Foci had made. Then returning from the plants and bushes lining the road the man turned, looked once more at the most beautiful and intricately designed web, and then carried again on his way.
    Foci was disheartened and angry that his workings had failed. Why was it that the man had not reached out to touch the web?
'Ah' he said raising his finger to his lips in contemplation. It must be that I have scared him with a spider! So he did not wish to be caught in its web, for fear it may harm him and scare him once more!
Laughing Foci accepted that maybe his first ploy had been too successful and so designed to try again to show that this man was not something to be afraid of.
    What to do now? He pondered as he watched the man travelling down the wooded road. As he heard the last whispers of the music fade away, Foci realised, that he could make the man sad if he took the strings from his lute when the man could not see him!
    Catching up with the man as he walked down the road, Foci darted in, and very quickly and very nimbly, cut each string as the man went to pluck them.
    One by one the strings snapped and the man, thinking he had done it began to lament his misfortune. Though being prepared for such things, the man began to re-string his lute. So that he may carry on again playing as he walked through this verdant forest. Foci was having too much fun and so carried on following the man, and each time he went to pluck a string, Foci would cut it!
Eventually the man was at a loss, he had no more string with which to carry on playing and so crying he walked on disappointed at his seemingly terrible misfortune. Foci laughed at the man's disappointment.
    Such a pitiful creature Foci thought, I will go and tell the Fairy queen of what I have done and she will know that this is not a creature to be feared by us, that it is something weak and pitiful that we can toy with. If, we so please to.
    Returning to the Fairy kingdom very pleased with himself for having made this fearful man cry and lament his time in Foci's wood. Foci entered the great tree where the fairy queen sat and governed over the forest and all the fairies that lived there.
    “My queen worry not” Foci said as he approached the throne emblazoned with his own deeds. “I have seen this monster that you have told me to run from! I have scared this monster with a spider, I have tricked this monster with my magick and I have made this monster cry and lament his walk through our forest” Foci said happily to the queen.
    A tear ran down the queen's cheek and Foci did not understand why it was that she was crying. He had shown to her that this monster was not to be feared and that they could toy with it as they pleased.
    “My dear Foci” the queen said from dew soaked eyes. ”It was you who was the monster! And you did not scare it, you did not trick it, and you did not lament it. You made yourself a monster and we're happy to do so” The queen wept as she said this.
    “We fairies must run from man, we must hide! And it is not because he is to be feared, but because we are. What had this man done to you Foci? What was his crime that you should make him lament his time in this forest” The happiness with which Foci had entered the throne room with was soon beginning to fade.
“He did not kill the spider Foci; he did not break the web that looked so beautiful and glistened in the sun. Yet you have tormented him, and made him sad! To what end have you done this?” The queen pleaded.
    “To prove that we are better than the men” Foci said without much conviction.
    “How have you proved this Foci! What have you done that is better than man? You have taken your power and used it to attack something you are afraid of, and the man will return and he will do the same to this forest”
    “We do wrong because we think we know better Foci, it is most fearful because he has shown us the truth of our nature that we are not gentle, we are not kind and we have sought to harm him solely because we think it to be our right” The queen wiped the tears from her pallid face.
    “With nothing but walking down the road, without even knowing of you Foci, he has made you into a monster. That is what makes him so fearful, that is why I urged all of you to flee from him in fear! Because with all life, we are caring, we love to make merry and have fun for we are happy being fairies. Though when man comes near, we become monsters and this is not a good thing, so we must hide, and we must run to save ourselves. To keep ourselves happy as fairies and not saddened that we are monsters to them”
Foci left the throne room sad that he was a monster to the man. What can I do? Thought Foci. What amends can I make to this man? Though try as he might, and search as he may, Foci could not find the man, because no longer could he hear the wonderful melody the man had played as he walked through this verdantly green forest on a summer's day.

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