The Fairy & the Farm. Part I: The Devil

---

It was the annual gathering of the fairies and this time Africa was the host continent. The Fantastic International Fairy Association (FIFA) had decided that South Africa was the nation among all the African nations that best met the requirements for such an event. Then - to be more precise - the South African Gnome Authority (SAGA) had chosen Cape Town to represent the rainbow nation, and the Cape Town Pixie Council (CTPC) had selected Table Mountain, in particular, to embody the city. Finally the Elfish National Parks and Forest Reserves Board (ENPFRB) selected the summit of Maclear’s Beacon as the location for the event - to be exact about things.
All the nations, kingdoms, states, countries and regions in the world were represented, and the merry gathering lasted for three long days.
On the last day there was - in true old fairy tradition - a feast that would be remembered and spoken of for a full year - until the next gathering.
Protea nectar was drunk in tremendous amounts and everyone was dancing.
All except for one little fairy; the representative of Viking folklore. She had had a few protea cups of nectar too many, and was now flying away from Maclear’s beacon - dazed and confused.
She was looking for a quiet place where she could rest for a while, when a treacherous, thick mist suddenly surrounded her.
She tried to fly back in the mist, but disoriented as she was, she only flew further and further away from the other fairies.
When she finally sighted the ground she decided to stay there until the mist had passed and she could find her way back to the others.
As she looked around it appeared as if all the mist came from behind a big boulder. Curious by nature - as all fairies are - she walked over to the boulder, flicked with her wings to get up on it, and crawled out to the very edge of the massive rock.
Beneath her sat two men, both frenetically smoking on a pipe from which two thick pillars of smoke emerged, curling around their heads.
One of the men wore a pirate’s garment, big gold ear-rings, a black, luxuriant, well-waxed moustache, had a long rusty cutter at his side, and was sweating immensely. On the side of his wooden leg an inscription read: Jan Van Hunks, the boldest buccaneer on the seven seas.
The other man was like nothing the fairy had ever seen. His spine was bare and full of horns and thorns. Fire shot out from his eyes and entangled in the hairy grey tentacles that hung from his armpits, giant slimy slugs dangled.
On both of his scarred shoulders big sticky lumps protruded at the place where two giant toads with bulging eyes sat whispering secrets into his horrible ears, that looked like dried jellyfish. From the back of his wart-speckled head, pus ran down his neck and dripped off the horns and thorns of his back to the ground where (with a sizzling hiss) the rocks would corrode. From his pipe an even bigger, thicker pillar of uncanny smoke rose and as the wind quickly turned the smoke blew straight into the eyes and nose of the fairy. She did her best to protect her eyes, but it was too late. She coughed, and fell over the edge of the boulder.
Right in to the pipe of: the Devil.
Lightning stood out from his nose as he dropped the pipe on the ground and all the smoke vanished.
“Hah, ha!” An exhausted Jan Van Hunks proudly exclaimed with an irksome smile.
“Looks like you owe me a shipful of gold, Mr. Devil.” Van Hunks said and wiped the sweat out of his forehead with his sleeve, while panting heavily.
The Devil (who hadn’t been this furious since he lost his goldmines in an arm-wrestle game with king Solomon) looked at Van Hunks, spoke three words I can’t put to paper and summoned a lightning-bolt that struck Van Hunks so hard that he disappeared, leaving his pipe still burning in a scorched patch on the ground.
“And for you!” The Devil turned to the fairy that was busy coughing and brushing off soot from her clothes and slightly burnt wings. One of the toads leaned over and whispered something in the Devil’s ear.
“Yes.” The Devil said as the toad was done and transformed his left hand into a pair of scissors and with his right hand he picked up the fairy by her wings. He held her up in front of his face and had a long look at her then with a steadfast hand, cut off the fairy’s wings. As the fairy landed on the ground the Devil disappeared with a loud thundering laugh and the mist dissolved.
She stood up slowly, still shivering from what had just happened. Her wings lay next to her on the ground. They had lost their glowing glimmer and now looked like two dead leaves. Her emotions were in turmoil. She was totally heartbroken since she knew very well what this meant: “A fairy that loses her wings also loses all her magical powers and becomes a mortal.” The sentence echoed through her head like a mantra and despair hit her like it only can hit a Fairy without her wings.
She reached down and grabbed the peculiar looking pipe that was all that was left of Jan Van Hunks; she then slowly picked up her wings - with tears in her eyes - and began walking back towards Maclear’s Beacon.
Back at the beacon there was no one left. The only visible sign of the gathering were a few cups of protea nectar that still lay strewn on the ground.
Forlorn she roamed around on top of the mountain for three long days. The Rock Hyraxes brought her food and kept her warm in the nights as she slept in their crevices. One day she listened to a riveting performance by the Table Mountain Ghost Frogs at the Skeleton Gorge and another day she spent adoring and envying the black eagles above Echo Valley.
On the morning of the fourth day she decided to leave the mountain and to look for someone that could help her to solve the predicament of her broken wings. The place where she finally decided to descend at was known by the humans as Camps Bay.
Before she’d reached the first house she came to a small spring. She followed it into a small patch of vegetation, and there, balancing on a rock from which the stream trickled down into a little pool - a girl sat playing a flute.
Below her in the pool, tadpoles swam in delicate and elaborate patterns to the rhythm of the flute. The fairy stood listening to the beautiful tunes of the flute for a long time before she eventually approached the girl.
“You play so beautifully that all I can think about is dancing, something I will never do as vigorously and vividly again in my life.” The fairy said in a sad voice.
The girl - first a bit surprised by the fairy’s appearance - kindly thanked her for the compliment.
“The sound of the flute is lovely, indeed, since the melody heard is unique to every being listening to the flutes tunes. I only blow in it and every bystander will hear whatever their heart desires, so I’m sorry if the tunes make you sad.”
The fairy explained to the girl what had happened, how she’d met the devil and she showed her the pipe of Jan Van Hunks.
“That’s a very sad story.” The girl replied as the fairy had finished.
“I really don’t know how to help you. Maybe you can look for help in Llandudno, it’s where the elves used to live, maybe there’s still someone there that would know what to do.
Here, take the flute with you.” The girl handed over the flute.
“Maybe it can help you in some way. As you must have noticed with the tadpoles, it talks to the collective souls of animals. It once belonged to a famous rat-catcher in Hamelin called Pied Piper and how it got into my family’s possession is but a mystery.” The tadpoles had now returned to their seemingly purposeless swimming.
“Besides, I prefer to play trombone and I reckon you’ll find a good use for it!”
The fairy was very thankful to the girl for her advice and the generous gift, and after some heart-to-heart about classical Viking music, different fairy dialects, the origin of dance and Rudolph Steiner as a breakfast cereal - the fairy started to walk towards Llandudno in a very good mood.
Down along the meandering roads of Camps Bay, struggling not to merge with the bumper-stickers of the many reckless cars passing by, the fairy cheerfully walked.

---

Photos

The Table Mountain
Cape Town's celebrity No:1 standing more than 1000m tall, dwarfing all the skyscrapers in the citybowl beneath it.

The Fairy
Spotted by papparazzi somewhere in Woodstock. In the background, graffiti by Faith47, Cape Town's best Graffiti artist.

Protea Nectar
A Protea flower-head yet to be opened.

The Devil
As the fairy landed in his pipe he got so shocked that he turned pale white.

The Table Cable, Gable
The Table cloth is slowly covering the table. Still visible is the upper cable-car station, perched on the western edge of the mountain.

Rock Hyrax
The Rock Hyrax (or Dassie as its known in South Africa) looks like a fat Guinea Pig but is actually closer related to the Elephant. Fat and slow, it's a miracle these guys haven't been extinct yet since they're such an easy target. Camps Bay in the background.

Pied Piper's Pipe
The girl sitting at the small stream. A small dog had just scared all the tadpoles on the run.

Camps Bay
The subburb of Camps Bay stretches out between the mountains and the sea. The white stretch of beach beneath is crowded with sunseekers throughout the summers. The chain of mountains that span from north to south in the background is called the 12 Apostles.

An open Protea
Two and a half century has rolled by since Linnaeus, recieving a batch of dried flowers in Sweden from the Cape of Good Hope, aptly named them Proteas after Proteus, the son of Neptune who was credited with assuming any shape at will.

The road down to Camps Bay
How she actually managed to get down this way is another story.

CBD
Capte Town's own little skyscraper valley, the CBD in the city bowl.

CBD by night
All the businessmen are home counting their money and lets the city sleep for a few hours.

the Lion at the bowl
The mountain on the left hand side of the photo is the Lion's Head. The Lion then stretches out its green body along the Atlantic coast and becomes the less dramatic Signal Hill, that separates Sea Point and Green Point, from the City Bowl suburbs of Bo-Kaap and Tamboerskloof - seen in the middle of the photo. At the right edge of the picture the two reservoirs in De Waal Park can be seen, and in the lower left corner a cable-car is on its way up to the top of the table.

Kirstenbosch Garden
The Fynbos Floral Kingdom is the smallest floral kingdom in the world and it only exists in South Africa, predominantly in the Western Cape. The plant life on the Cape Peninsula is thus all Fynbos and very unique. This is an Aloe blooming in the Kirstenbosch garden on the backside of the Table Mountain.

The Nectar hunters of the Cape
Like in most parts of Africa, there's a huge variety of butterfly species. The Cape of Good Hope is no exception.

Kloofing
Trekking in the Table Mountain National Park includes routes of different levels of difficulty. This is the "Indian Window", a route not recommended for people with vertigo or weak legs. But the route's got very rewarding views and exciting jumping over cracks in the mountain side.

Panorama South
A view south from the top of the Table Mountain. At the left one can see parts of Constantia and then False Bay covered with clouds. To the right in the picture is the Atlantic ocean where the sentinel next to Hout Bay stands out like a small pyramid.

Ravine
One of many ravines inside the big Table Mountain National Park. If the treacherous mist comes in it's very easy to get lost, and every year there's people dying in the park.

Camps Bay at sunset
The golden 12 Apostles awaits the evening.

Sunrise over the bowl
The city bowl, minutes before the whole city wakes up and the sound of commuters breakes the golden silence that prevails before dawn.

Aloe Flowers
Natural Beauty. The flowers of an Aloe Ferox.

Comments

[chris malandrini]

once upon a time.......
brothas' and sistas' of the world! your story and pictures fill my body with the memories of africa.....how suttle the flowers collect dew in the mornings above kalk bay,the swing of an african mama on her way to the market with a large basket balanced ever so easily on her head, waking up with sand between my toes....ah my friends.....how i miss mama africa! how is life treating you? all is well on this side of the pond, slowly getting back into the swing of american life, slowly....i just got a job at this fundraising place for non-profit organizations...everyone that works there is really cool, but it's not quite as glorious as the life ofa world traveler. so alex is heading over to england to meet up with his girld friend kirsty.....lucky man......still in contact with nadine from germany, but nothing serious...hitting up some good music festivals this summer so that is going to be the shit.......tell aila i said hello won't you.....i have some amazing contacts for you in Tanzania-arusha mainly, kenya-lamu island-paradise! and ethiopia-gondar-old church,castle, lali-bela; special heady spot (dont tel the rest of the world).....but i have friends in all of these locations that would probably be willing to show you around or put you up for a couple of nights. where are you currently? I'm in Lincoln, NE...the middle of the united states.....fucking 3000 k from any ocean! ahhhhhhhh what ever will i do....so my next trip will probably be out to sweden? what do you think i'll see you in a couple of years my friends.....love and light.......keep me updated on your travels...... [e-mail] ............your pictures look good, and the dialogue is solid...... that fairy is hot

[Mark]

Hi, It's great to see another entry by you. I really enjoy your blogs. Anyway, I'm off to begin reading it.