Dindi
The purring kitten on her shoulder and the beauty of the day washed away Dindi's uneasy feeling that she couldn't remember something important. She pushed away any sadness on the walk home.
Green hills rolled in every direction under a perfect blue sky. Only a V of flying swans marked the sky. Everything smelled fresh. The corn was as tall as her shoulder. Inside the light green husks, the kernels grew more golden each day. Many clouds of tiny willawisps floated over the fields like shiny mist.
Maize sprites climbed to the tops of the tall stalks and waved at Dindi when she walked by. Pixies of every color flew around her head on glowing wings, making her dizzy. Puddlepaws batted at them.
"Wait up, Dindi!" called her cousin, Hadi, running to catch up. "Aunt Sullana asked me to find you." He stood straight with his spear, trying to look serious.
A pixie, who Hadi could not see, banged the end of his spear on his knee.
"Ow." He dropped the spear and jumped on one foot. He looked at his spear with a frown, then looked at Dindi. "There aren't any fae around, are there?"
"Hardly any," Dindi said.
The pixies laughed as he walked right past them. Most people could not see the fae. Kittens could. Puddlepaws jumped off her shoulder to catch a pixie, missed, flipped in the air, and landed in the dirt.
"I'm not a lost goat," said Dindi. "I don't need a herder."
"I'm older than you, and I'm the closest thing you have to a brother. So yes, I'm your keeper," he said, shaking his spear. "Once I pass Initiation, and I become a Man, I must protect your honor from anyone who—"
A sneaky purple pixie crouched at his feet, playing with the strings on his legwals. Dindi watched as the pixie untied two strings on each leg and tied the wrong ones together. Another pixie flew near his ear to distract him. Hadi couldn't see them, and he couldn't hear the words, but he heard the buzzing.
"You little monsters!" Hadi waved his spear. "I know you're here somewhere! I'll get you!"
"Hadi, don't—!"
He jumped forward but tripped because his legs were tied together. He fell face-first into the soft dirt.
"You muddy faeries!" He hit the ground with his fists. The pixies jumped up and down on his back and cheered. Puddlepaws jumped on one pixie and caught it by the back of its tiny tunic. He brought it proudly to Dindi.
"Bad kitty! Bad kitty!" the pixie cried.
Dindi picked up the kitten, let the pixie go, and shouted over her shoulder as she ran down the row of corn, "I'll just go on ahead."
"Dindi! You're not supposed to leave my sight!" Hadi wriggled in the dirt but only made a small trench. "Dindi! Get back here right now! I'm in charge of you!"
She just laughed. The empty basket bounced on her back as she ran. The fae followed Dindi in a glittering cloud.
"Come dance with us! Come dance with us!" they called in soft flute-like voices.
"I can't this afternoon, friends," Dindi said. "I have to get soap roots, tallow, and ash to make soap, and pick blueberries and make juice. All before middle meal."
Miskymew, the purple Neko not much bigger than the pixies, landed like a butterfly on Dindi's shoulder. She twisted her tiny lavender hands in Dindi's black hair.
"Chores are boring, Dindi," she said.
"That's why they're called chores."
"Don't let those humans wear you out, Dindi," said a green pixie. He landed on her other shoulder. A red pixie pushed him off and took the spot. The purple pixie got mad and ran across Dindi's nose to fight the red. Puddlepaws squirmed in her arms, excited. Dindi held him tight.
"Do you mind?" Dindi asked. "It's hard to walk when you're fighting on me."
"Then come dance with us!"
"Yes, yes!" said a yellow dandelion sprite. He came out from the corn to skip near Dindi's feet. "You dance with us, and we'll do your chores for you."
"Mm. Just like when you milked the bull for me, took sugar from the gravel for me, and made a sitting mat for Uncle Lubo from prickly pear thorns?"
"Friends," said the green pixie, "it sounds like she's not thankful for our help."
"Impossible." The purple one giggled. "She just can't say how happy she is. Her heart is too full of joy. Now that we've done her chores, she's free to dance with us!"
Dindi frowned.
"Are you sick, Dindi?" asked the orange one.
"We won't do your chores if you stop dancing with us!" shouted the yellow sprite.
That would be bad. "Soon, I may not dance with you at all. If I fail the test to become a Tavaedi, I must stop dancing."
The fae were quiet for a moment. Then they all shouted at her at once.
"Enough!" Dindi made the Dispel hand-sign for real this time.
The willawisps blew apart. The pixies flew back like wind hit them. The sprites rolled away like stones. Around Dindi, the corn stalks fell flat in a perfect circle, three yards wide.
At the edge of the circle, the fae looked at her with sad faces.
"I'm sorry," Dindi said. "You know I don't want to leave you."
The fae crept back toward her. Soon, they huddled close again, whispering her name.
"Uhm." She looked down. "Can you help me fix the corn?"