Resolute, i pushed out of my circle. I jerked as the energy of the circle raced back into me, overflowed my chi and returnedd to the ley line. A shrill cry came to ready the darts. Darts? Oh swell. Pulse quickening, I ran to the far side of the kitchen for the hose. "I tried to be nice. I tried to be reasonable," I muttered while i opened the valve and water started dripping from the spray nozzle. The blue jays in the graveyard called, and I struggled with the hose, jerking to a halt when it caught on the corner if the kitchen. Taking off my gloves, I snapped the hose into a sine wave. It came free and I stumbled backwards. From the ash tree came the high-pitched sounds of organization. I’d never hosed them off before. Maybe this would do it. Fairy wings didn’t do well when wet. "Get her!" came a shout, and I jerked my head up. The thorns they held looked as large as swords as they headed right for me. Gasping, I aimed the hose and squeezed. They darted up and my lips parted when the water turned into a pathetic trickle to arch to the ground and die. What in hell? I spun at the sound of gushing water. They had cut the hose! "I spent twenty bucks on that hose!" I cried then felt myself pale as the entire clan fronted m, tiny spears probably tipped with poison ivy. "Er, can we talk about this?" I stammered.

I dropped the hose and the orange-winged fairy grinned like a vampire stripper at a bachlorette party. My heart pounded as I wondered if I should flee inside the church, and subject myself to Ashley’s laughter, or tough it out and get a bad case of poison ivy. The sound of Pixy wings brought my into my throat. "Glen!" I exclaimed, turning my head to follow the worried fairy’s gazed, fixed beyond my shoulder. But it wasn’t Glen, it was his wife Matalina and eldest daughter Jin. "Back off," Matalina threatened, hovering beside me at head height. The harsh clatter of her more manuverable dragonfly-like wings set the stray strands of my damp hair to tickle my face. She looked thinner than last winter, her childlike features severe. Determination showed in her eyes and she held a drawn bow with an arrow at the string. Her daughter looked even more omnious, with a wood-handled sword of silver in her grips. She had possesion of a small garden across the street and needed silver to protect it and herself since she had yet to take a husband. "It’s mine!" The fairy screamed in frustration. "Two women can’t hold a garden!" he exclaimed. "I need only hold the ground I fly over," Matalina said resolutely. "Get out Now." He hesitated, and Matalina pulled the bow back farther, making a tiny creecking. "We’ll only take it when you leave!" he cried, motioning for his clan to retreat. "Then take it," she said, "But while I am here you won’t be." I watched, awed, while a four-inch pixy stood down an entire clan of fairies. Such was Glen’s reputation, adn was the capabilities of pixies. They could rule the world by assasination and blackmail if they wanted to. But all they desired was a small plot of ground and the peace to tend to it.