Home for the Holidays

Both Mum and Trish, my mentor at the Sydney Esoteric Science Centre estimated that it would take me 10 days to get home...they thought it would take 10 days for me to get back to Fae in time for the holidays, in time for the summer solstace. 

After a long year of discreetly studying humans and influencing the gradual shaping of their society, I was exhausted. Being a Fae representative in the mortal world was a challenge on all fronts. Although the Fae look similar to humans, our slightly pointed ears, perfectly symmetrical features and of course the large insect like wings protruding from our backs tended to give us away. Whilst the Fae had been introduced to humans several decades before...we were still treated with apprehension, fear and bordlerline aggression sometimes. 

As I was under 500 years old, I couldn't open portals or even activate the smaller portals back to my homeland by myself. Which was why I was making the long trek towards Uluru in central Australia through one of the hottest December's in recorded history. The red heart of Australia, was one of the 7 main entranceways to Fae, a universe which sat parallel to the mortal realm. These entranceways were heavily guarded which made sense considering that anyone could get into Fae through these massive energy portals...no matter what race you were.

You would think after spending 6 months on Earth every year for the past decade I would be used to the human society by now...wrong. Although I had mastered the invisibility spell on my wings awhile back...my naturally neon cyan hair, gold tinged eyes and pecuilar accent meant I couldn't conform no matter how hard I tried. Although I had been told it would take 10 days to get to the Uluru portal, I hadn't told neither Trish or my mum about my recently developing ability. I know my eldest brother could teleport...yet he was over 3000 years old, I was 250...basically an infact in all their eyes. 

I had discovered this developing power a few weeks ago when I had been sitting outside the QVB, waiting for a bus back to Sydney's rural suburbs where I lived...Fae needed a close connection to nature at all times afterall. I had been thinking of my comfy bed and dreaming of settling in for the night with a cold Milo and calling my best friend back home when I suddenly got an intense bout of nauseu and blacked out for half a second. 

When I stirred awake half a moment later, I found myself in the very bed I had been dreaming about. The shock I felt had me just sitting there amongst my sheets in a numbing silence for awhile until the true depth of what I had just accomplished set in. From my experimentation over the last few weeks, I had discovered that I could travel...at least at the moment, in 60km chunks on average as the maximum. Considering that Uluru in the Northern Territory was roughly 3000km away, that meant I had to teleport 50 times to get to the portal. Something that wasn't very feasible considering that I needed a decent sleep after each teleportation. 

Despite this obvious setback, I still was able to get to Uluru within 7 days...although I hung around in Mutijulu, the closest town to the rock for a little while as I wasn't quite ready to tell my Mother about this new talent of mine yet. As much as I loved my Mother and deep down I know she meant well, her job title as a talent scount for the Fae's royal army meant that she naturally pushed people to the best of their abilities...often annoying them and exhuasting them in the process.

Considering I had been away from home for the last 6 months busting my butt at work everday, I deserved a low key relaxing holiday with my family. Ironically enough, this 10 day trip to the portal was exactly the kind of holiday I needed. Everyday brought a new experience...a new lesson, a new outlook on life. The first few days of my trip had involved me trekking through Sydney, slowly watching the urban metropolis fade into suburbia and then the remote hard bushland of country NSW. 

After teleporting myself out of the suffocating nature of the city and away from judging eyes, I found myself slowing down a little and started stretching out my rarely used wings. I was enjoying the exhilerating feeling of flight for the first time in months...that is until I was forced to return to Earth by a cranky looking bunch of uniformed officials who insisted that I couldn't be airborne within a 80km radius of the airforce's base. 

Considering I didn't know where the airbases were and that most of them were kept a secret...I didn't bother flying near even slightly urban areas after that. The cookie cutter houses and perfectly manicured hedges soon faded into acerage properties and refurbished farmhouses. Eventually, even these slight smudges or civilisation were overtaken by cracked red soil, olive green paddocks and faded dilipated cottages hiding in the shadows of mammoth terracotta coloured barns.

These days were definetly the most relaxing. As a Fae, I could naturally communicate with animals which proved to be quite useful in my journey to Uluru. Although farm animals have a reputation for being 'dumb' or 'shallow' they actually make some of the most interesting conversation partners thanks to their unique way of  viewing the world...their 'fly on the wall' observations. 

In fact, those animals that could see beyong the visible light spectrum were of particular interest...especially when they began discussing energy. Energy was a finicky thing at the best of times...yet energy never lies, it was one of the best things about the universe...energy was pure, it was truthful.

The closer I got towards Uluru the stronger the energy became. Although I could sense energy and auras...I could follow leylines and know the health of anything without actually seeing it...I couldn't physically see energy. All Fae were born with senses that could see beyond the physical world, yet our clairvoyance ability took a little longer to develop. 

It was when the animal friends along the way kept whispering about the summer solstace in the heart of the nation...that is when I knew that I was in for a treat. To be at a portal in time for summer solstace, a period where the natural universal energies were at their highest...I was about to have the feeling of a lifetime. I had imagined that being at the portal at this time would be thrilling...but the energy I felt was the equivalent of sculling thousands of redbulls at once I would imagine. 

The last time I felt even close to that was when my wings had finally strengthened enough for me to use them for the first time and I followed my brother's guidance and we looped and dipped through Fae's countryside over raging rivers and lush forests...all under the mystical luminance of the full moon. 

Thanks to this concentrated energy bath, I was able to enter the realm of Fae ready for whatever my family would throw at me. I was home for the holidays afterall.