Excerpt
The good people of Athenry continued to be blessed with riches that they shared with neighboring villages. Time passed into years and the country fell on hard times because of drought and crops falling prey to insects. The people still discovered a few gold coin or gold dust to help them get by from day to day. There were whispers of seeing fairies and elves and money found in the church. As time passed, the whispers grew louder and some were determined to find out who was helping them. There are always those who are jealous and want everything for themselves, never thinking of others.
Such a group formed a Watch to catch the fairies and elves or follow them to their homes and steal their gold. Donovan and Shawn Fitzgerald and Shamus and Carrick Hannity were always in trouble and caused their parents endless heartaches and headaches. They decided they would be the ones to capture the elves and make them take them to their fortune. Early each morning before daybreak, they would each take an area of the village and watch for signs of the magical beings. They were lazy boys
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and not given to work or helping their parents. The elves, fairies and Bantams were aware of this and decided to have some fun with the boys.
Chapter 11
Kory and Fergus were to deliver some coins to the O’Hara home again. Mrs. O’Hara had been very ill and the Mister was out of work. They had several little ones who were cold and without proper food and clothing. That morning Kory and Fergus took their small pet, Cuddle, with them. Henry had given them some magic dust to sprinkle on the adorable cub if the boys tried to capture them. It was decided Fergus would be lookout with Cuddle and keep the dust with him while Kory slipped inside the house with the coins. They didn’t want to take the chance that the Watch would steal them. Kory, Fergus and Cuddle silently stole through the dew-covered grass just before the sun came up. They spied Shamus behind a tree at the corner of the O’Hara’s house. Carrick was down the road behind another tree. Kory chuckled, “Shall we do our tumbling act toward the house?”
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“That sounds like fun. I can’t wait to see their faces if they try to catch us,” Fergus laughed. Since Cuddle was trained in tumbling, he would be part of the act. Fergus stood on Kory’s shoulders with the little bear on his. A gust of wind kicked up some dust and suddenly they fell forward tumbling head over heels across the road like weeds being blown about. They heard Shamus whistle to Carrick. “I’m going to slide under the crack at the bottom of the door. Quickly slide your coin under to me. I will put them by the hearth to be found. Keep a close watch for the boys. You know what to do and where to go if they get here before I come out,” Kory said. With that, he slipped his coins under the door and slid in after them. Fergus quickly pushed his coins under and pulled Cuddle close. Kory was ready to slip back out under the door when he heard a loud commotion. He laughed aloud.
Shamus and Carrick had tried to sneak up on Fergus, but of course, he knew they were there. Just as they made a grab for him, he sprinkled the dust on Cuddle. Where once a tiny bear had been clutched to Fergus’s chest, a gigantic bear eight foot tall now stood. As Shamus and Carrick let out a scream, Cuddle
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reached for them. They tripped over each other as they ran down the road. Their screams woke everyone up and they were yelling, “What’s the noise? Who’s there?” Fergus gave a clucking noise and the cub was in his arms again. Kory joined them and they tumbled across to the grass, where they rolled around laughing.