Hello,
My name is Rachel and my country is Scotland.
A country steeped in fairy faith.
A place of mythical valleys,
Fairy glens and pools and lochs and ancient Caledonian pine forests.
It's a country where fairies or wee folk can be found in the tree hollows and abandoned birds' nests.
And in the rivers and burns which flow through the mountainous valleys,
There are river sprites with webbed feet who ride on the back of the leaping Scottish salmon.
Tucked away inside unused teapots and empty shortbread tins,
Wee folk called brownies,
A sort of house fairy,
Live amongst the Scottish people inside their very homes.
Although most people never look close enough in the nooks and crannies to ever spot them.
Now I'm guessing you might like to join me on an adventure here in Scotland and hear more about these magical wee folk,
The guardians of our hills,
Forests and homes.
So get comfortable,
Maybe even have a wiggle of fingers and toes.
Take a deep breath in to fill your chest full of air and a deep breath out again to relax your body down into whichever comfy spot you might be sitting or lying in.
Now gently close your eyes and coorie in and come with me to Scotland.
Now in this story we return again to Isla's home where she lives alongside her mum,
Her two house brownies Ingonuk and Kogi.
On this day in early summer Isla was actually out at school and her mum was at work and Ingonuk and Kogi,
The house brownies,
Had headed out into the garden to talk with their animal friends and do some foraging and enjoy the sunshine.
They were in the grass harvesting some dandelion flowers when a large bumblebee came towards them,
Vibrating in a bit of a frenzy.
It landed on a dandelion head and began circling the petals,
Looking like it wanted to communicate.
Although bees can't talk like you and I,
They are actually some of the best communicators in the animal kingdom and they do this through movement and dancing.
When a bee has found a lucrative source of pollen,
It goes back to the nest and it performs a waggle dance and this looks like a rough figure of eight and at the end of each loop they waggle their abdomen from side to side.
The angle of the waggle and its duration amazingly tells the other bees the angle to the sun in which they must travel and the distance they need to go.
Like all fairies,
The house brownies are also versed in this bee speak and Ingonuk and Kogi could work out where the bee was telling them to go and the frantic vibrations coming from the bee were letting them know that it was very urgent.
The fairies could see the bee looked completely exhausted from its journey and all this waggling and buzzing so Kogi gently stroked its fur while Ingonuk fetched it a little cup of sweet nectar that they had collected that day in the garden.
As the bee sipped the nectar to revive itself,
Ingonuk and Kogi took off in the direction that it had told them.
They left Isla's garden,
Flying over the nearby meadow through a copse of trees and then along a hedge grow and over a blue cottage gate and into a cottage garden.
They knew from the direction of the bee's waggle that they'd nearly reached the spot where she had wanted them to go.
Then looking down into a veggie patch,
They immediately saw what had got the bee into such a tism.
A poor black bird named Merle was writhing around tangled in some strawberry netting.
Ingonuk and Kogi spoke to Merle in their soothing sing-song fairy voices to calm her frantic flapping which was tangling her further into the netting.
Be still lovely Merle,
We will have you free in no time.
Just close your eyes and think about soaring high in the calm blue sky and breathing in gently through your nares.
Well done Merle.
Ingonuk and Kogi did such a great job of getting Merle's breathing back on track as when they had found her they could see that she was gasping and breathing rapidly through her mouth.
When birds aren't in distress they normally breathe through small nostril-like openings in their beaks called nares.
Whilst Kogi continued to keep Merle calm by helping her to visualize the lovely sky and relax her breathing,
Ingonuk tried to gently work to untangle the bird,
Carefully loosening the net with their fingers.
They tried it first with Merle's feet,
Trying to release the back toe first followed by the three front ones,
But poor Merle was a tangled mess.
Not wanting to alarm the bird,
Ingonuk whispered to Kogi that they were going to need help.
The two concerned fairies ummed and aahed for a brief minute,
Wondering what could help them free the dear black bird from the net,
Before Kogi,
With her keenly observant fairy eyes,
Noticed a dart of orange high up in the branches of the pine trees which backed onto the cottage garden.
It was a red squirrel and she quickly tapped Ingonuk on the shoulder and pointed upwards to direct his attention.
Look,
A squirrel,
Ingonuk.
They'll be able to help us with their sharp teeth.
So Ingonuk wasted no time leaping upwards,
Contracting the powerful chest muscles and flight muscles which ran down the middle of their back to take flight in the direction of the squirrel they just spotted.
Ingonuk fluttered and darted between the branches before he at last located the branch upon which the squirrel was resting.
Aha,
It was Ruri,
A particularly cheerful and energetic red squirrel,
With a very handsome bushy and fluffy blonde and brown tail and delightful tufts upon his ears.
Ruri,
Can you please help us?
The black bird is stuck in some netting in the cottage garden.
We maybe thought your teeth could help.
Of course,
Squeaked Ruri emphatically.
Climb on my back.
So Ingonuk carefully hopped onto his fluffy orange back and held on to a tuft of fur for support and Ruri kindly curled his tail backwards as a sort of support to keep the fairy in place and then he darted down the tree trunk at an astonishing pace.
His balance and agility was a thing to marvel at as his sharp claws gripped the bark with absolute,
Unwavering precision.
In a flash,
They were down the tree and then up and over the garden fence with Merle and Kogi quickly coming into vision.
Ingonuk hopped off Ruri's back and gave Kogi a quick hug and then Kogi spoke softly to Merle to tell her that Ruri was here to help and if she could stay very still,
He'd be able to get her out of the netting in no time.
Merle blinked,
Her sad looking black eye rimmed in yellow to acknowledge that she had heard and then Ruri and Ingonuk set to work.
As Ingonuk lifted sections of net away from Merle,
Ruri quickly snipped through it with his four powerful front incisors.
All it took was a snip,
Snip,
Snip from Ruri and the netting fell away and Merle was left free of it,
Lying on top of the leaves of the strawberry plant.
When Merle had been checked over by the fairies and felt capable of flying,
The blackbird,
Squirrel and little brownies all headed back over to Isla's garden.
Isla had just returned from school and was delighted to find her little brownie friends and their animal companions in the garden.
They told her the story and she was so proud of the bee,
The brownies and the squirrel and happy that the blackbird's ordeal was over.
To treat them all,
She went inside and prepared a platter of fruits and seeds and nuts and honey water for them all and was thrilled to bits when Merle the blackbird curried up on her knee to be fed and even Ruri,
The red squirrel,
Scampered up onto her shoulder and let her stroke him between his soft ears.
How magical!
Now I hope you've enjoyed this story and can fall into a happy sleep,
Imagining yourself sitting in a sunny garden,
Cuddled up with some lovely animal friends.
Good night from Scotland.
