THE SKY DANCERS

Early September 2024 was unusually warm, with Victoria's Indian Summer from early August continuing through to September. So the Leyland family from Bromby township, in the Victorian countryside, were taking advantage of the unseasonal weather to have a picnic in the forest, a kilometre or so outside town.

Lesley and Xavier were laying out the blanket on the pine needles and eucalyptus leaves that carpeted the forest floor. Not far away their three daughters Joy, Taylor, and Whitney were charging around wildly, running off their surplus energy as kids need to do.

"Don't tire yourselves out, kids," called Lesley, a short, pretty thirty-ish ravenette, as she and Xavier unpacked the picnic basket.

"I thought that was the idea so that they would sleep right through the night," whispered Xavier, a tall, lean thirty-five-year-old, with long auburn hair which he wore in a ponytail.

"Who wants a chicken leg?" asked Lesley as she and Xavier sat on the blanket.

"Ooh, me," said little Joy, at six the shortest of the family, with shoulder-length strawberry blonde hair.

She raced across to sit next to her mother, to take a drumstick to start gnawing at it.

"Do you have any mayo to go on it?" asked Taylor (the middle child, a tallish seven-year-old with her mother's raven hair), before committing herself to going over to eat.

"Of course, honey," said Xavier: "We know you won't eat anything without mayonnaise on it."

"I eat ice cream without mayo on it," said Taylor, striding across to sit near her father.

Taking a drumstick from Xavier, she carefully spooned an excessive amount of mayonnaise upon it before committing to start eating.

"What about ketchup?" asked Whitney. At eight she was the middle height child, with her father's long auburn hair.

"Of course, honey," said Lesley, holding up a large jar of American-style ketchup, the only kind Whitney would eat: "Can't have our oldest girl starving for want of her beloved ketchup."

"Okay, then," said Whitney walking across to join her family on the pale blue and white blanket, in their beloved North Melbourne Kangaroos' colours.

Taking a drumstick, she spread so much ketchup on it, that she probably couldn't taste the chicken.

"It's nice to have one final family picnic before we return to winter," said Lesley.

"What makes you think we're going back to winter?' asked Xavier, picking up a hardboiled egg to munch upon.

"That's what the weather woman on TV says. After the last month of winter being like mid-spring, the first month of spring will be like mid-winter."

"Ah, what does she know," persisted Xavier.

"Yeah, what does she know?" agreed Joy, who always sided with her daddy.

"Well, she did get right the fact that August would be an Indian Summer with mid-spring-like weather," countered Lesley.

"Lucky guess," said Joy, making both parents laugh.

After finishing their chicken legs, the girls moved on to hardboiled eggs with Taylor plastering hers with mayonnaise and Whitney hers with ketchup.

They had almost finished eating when Joy heard a bee-like buzzing from not far off. Looking around, she noticed the Sky Dancers flitting between the sweet-smelling pine and eucalyptus trees.

"What are does?" asked the little girl, entranced by the tiny pixie-like girls soaring around through the sky a metre and a half above ground level.

Dressed in bright sparkly clothing, like three Tinkerbelles in party dresses, the fifteen-centimetre-high creatures soared through the sky, around the pine and gum trees, flitting for cover then peeping out from behind the trees, before dancing across the sky again. Still buzzing like bees as they fluttered their tiny wings like hummingbirds.

"What are what?" asked Lesley.

She looked around a second too late to see the Sky Dancers which flitted behind an old-growth blue gum tree.

"Da wittle girls," said Joy, puzzled that her mother had not seen them.

"What little girls?" asked Xavier, looking where Joy was now pointing: "There's no one..."

He stopped as the Sky Dancers flitted back into the open for a moment before hiding behind the tree again.

"What the Hell?" asked Xavier of no one in particular.

Getting to his feet, he crunched his way across the carpet of pine needles and gum leaves heading toward the blue gum.

"Be careful, honey," called Lesley.

Reaching the tree, Xavier hesitated for a moment, then quickly stepped around the tree...

Where he saw the three tiny sprites dancing in the air.

"Who? What?" muttered Xavier.

"We are called Sky Dancers," said a beautiful yellow-haired girl in a very high reedy voice: "I am called Fear."

Fear was dressed in a short skirt and matching blouse both with emerald green and yellow stripes, which seemed to sparkle like diamonds.

"I am called Trembling," said a beautiful raven-haired girl.

She was dressed in a short skirt and matching blouse this time with purple and pink stripes, which also sparkled.

"I am called Trouble," said a night-black girl with slightly African features.

She was dressed in a short skirt and matching blouse both with black and yellow stripes, flashing like strobe lights.

"Those are unusual names for innocent little pixies."

"We're not pixies!" insisted Fear.

"We are Sky Dancers!" said Trembling.

"And we are certainly not innocent," said Trouble.

To prove her point, the three creatures suddenly transformed into two-metre-tall, versions of themselves with bulging red eyes, lethal talons for hands and feet, and long protruding jaws with needle-sharp fangs.

"What...?" began Xavier, stepping backwards...

Too late to save himself as Trouble lent forward and tore out his throat.

As the man fell dead onto the carpet of pine needles and gum leaves, the Sky Dancers transformed back into sweet-looking little fairies and giggled in delight, as though they had just done something funny. Buzzing and flitting around the corpse of Xavier Leyland.

"Honey?" called Lesley from out in the clearing: "Are you all right?"

Looking round, the three Sky Dancers swooped out into the open and began dancing through the air around the ravenette, and her three daughters.

Joy, Taylor, and Whitney giggled in delight as the sparkling little creatures danced and buzzed through the air around them.

"Who are you? What are you?" demanded Lesley.

"We are just three innocent little pixies," teased Fear, making her fellow sprites giggle at her joke: "I am called Fear."

"I am called Trembling."

"I am called Trouble."

"Does are funny names," said Joy, giggling.

"What have you done to my husband?" demanded Lesley.

"Oh, we killed him," said Trembling casually.

"I chewed his throat out," said Trouble honestly.

"You chewed...?" began Lesley starting to stand up.

Too late, as the three sprites transformed again and attacked the ravenette, ripping and rending at her with their needle-sharp fangs. Tearing off pieces of her flesh and organs with their gnarled, withered-looking talons.

"Mummy!" cried Joy as the three girls struggled to their feet.

Joy and Taylor started toward where their mother was being ripped apart, but Whitney called:

"No, girls, to the car! To the car!"

After a few seconds of indecision, all three little girls raced across to the family car, a blue and white Mitsubishi ASX ES XD Auto. Struggling with the doors they managed to get into the back seats, where they hid their heads; not wanting to see as the Sky Dancers devoured their mother.

In only five minutes are so, the three no longer beautiful dancers had stripped Lesley Leyland down to the bones. Turning round they looked toward where the three little girls were hiding in the Mitsubishi.

Then deciding that Xavier made a better meal, they danced back to the blue gum tree and started ripping and rending at the still-warm corpse.

By the time they were finished, they were too full to waste time with the girls. They transformed back into their pixie form and then danced their way through the sky, heading deeper into the surrounding forest.


Over at the Yellow House in Rochester Road, Merridale, they were enjoying one of Deidre Morton's magnificent lunches.

Sheila Bennett, a tall, athletic Goth chick with orange-and-black-striped hair was listening to an MP3 player through headphones. At thirty-five, she was the second-top cop in the BeauLarkin to Willamby area.

"What are you listening to, Sheils?" asked Terri Scott. A tall, beautiful ash blonde, Terri was the top cop of the area and was engaged to Colin.

Taking off the headphones, Sheila said: "The latest album by my favourite group...."

"The Devil's Advocates," said everyone else around the dining table.

"How did you know that?" teased Sheila.

"You've told us about a thousand times," said Colin Klein.

A tall handsome redheaded man, Colin had worked as a London crime reporter for thirty years before retiring to Victoria to take up employment with the Glen Hartwell Police Department.

"Oh, did I?" teased Sheila: "Anyway, it's called, 'Fear, Trembling, and Trouble'." She started singing:

"If you're looking for trouble

"You came to the right place

"If you're looking for trouble

"Just look right in my face

"I was born standing up

"And talking back

"My daddy was a green-eyed mountain jack

"Because I'm evil, my middle name is misery

"Well I'm evil, so don't you mess around with me...."

"Hey, wasn't that an Elvis song?" asked Terri.

"Yep, the best song from his best movie, 'King Creole'. Written by Jerry Leiber and Mick Stoller. It's one of two title tracks on the LP; the other 'Fear and Trembling' was written by their lead vocalist, Lonnie Hudson:

"Fear and trembling as you walk

"Through the forest around LePage,

"Dark fairies swooping from the sky

"Fear and trembling is now the rage.


"Monsters roaming through the woods

"Round Harpertown and Glen Hartwell,

"Sweet little fairies, or so they seem

"In truth evil princesses straight from Hell."

"Hey, it's got a good beat, and you can dance to it," teased Colin Klein.

"Ah, I know when you're being sarky," said Sheila.

"Personally I prefer 'Trouble'," said Tommy Turner. A short, fat, blond man, struggling with alcohol addiction.

"I don't think he realises the irony in that," said Natasha Lipzing.

Aged seventy, the old lady had spent the second half of her life at the boarding house.

"I think that's what they call a zinger, Natasha," said Freddy Kingston.

A tall, heavyset man, like Tommy, Freddy was a recent retiree who had been at the Yellow House for less than a year.

"Ha, ha, it is to laugh," said Tommy, clearly not amused as everyone else laughed at his expense.

"Anyway, we'd better all get back to work now," said Leo Laxman.

A Jamaican-born male nurse, at the Glen Hartwell and Daley Community Hospital, Leo had only just moved into the Yellow House -- so named due to Deidre Morton's obsession with the colour yellow.

"That's right, Laxie," said Sheila as they rose from the table.

"Can we give you a lift to the hospital?" asked Terri.

"Much appreciated," said Leo as they headed outside toward Terri Scott's police-blue Lexus.

"See, Laxie," said Sheila as she started the car: "I told you, you'd prefer it at Mrs. M.'s over that dump you used to live in."

"That's for sure, Sheils," he agreed.


Two hours later, Terri, Sheila, and Colin were sitting behind the huge blackwood desk which took up nearly half of the front office of the Mitchell Street Police Station in Glen Hartwell. Before them was a large hardbound book, The Victoria Police Manual, which they were pouring through.

"Am I the only one who's bored shirtless?" asked Sheila before yawning.

"Frankly, no," said Terri.

"Hows about we take the Lexus out to do a drive around Glen Hartwell?" suggested Colin.

"Yes, a nice little drive will brighten us all up," said Sheila reaching for the car keys.

"Technically we will be patrolling the town," corrected Terri: "Not having a nice little drive."

"Same difference," said the Goth chick, heading outside before the others could change their minds.

They had barely started, however, when they received a call on Terri's mobile from Donald Esk, one of the cops under her command.

After a few minutes, Terri disconnected and said: "That was Don Esk. The Leyland girls were found wandering through the forest outside Bromby. They say their parents were eaten by fairies."

Almost crashing the Lexus, Sheila said: "That was the last thing I expected you to say, Tare."

An hour later they were at the Leyland's campsite where Don Esk, a tall brown-haired man, with a deep scar down the left side of his face, was waiting beside his blue Land Rover. Beside him stood his beautiful blonde fiancé Lisa Williams, and what at first looked like a small pony. But was actually an enormous bull mastiff dog.

"What is that horse doing at a possible crime scene?" teased Terri.

"Ah, you're not a horse are you, boy?" asked Lisa, rubbing the huge dog's neck.

"Woof," said the bull mastiff.

"Yes, we recognised you, Woof," said Sheila going across to rub and pat the dog.

"Woof," he agreed.

"So, why is Woof here?" asked Colin.

"He gets lonely during the day while Lulu is working at the mall," said Lisa, so we've been looking after him for her during the daytime."

"Woof," he agreed again.

"Well, as long as we're all in agreement," said Sheila, rubbing her face up against the dog's mane.

"I told them, you wouldn't be happy about bringing him along," said Jessie Baker, another of Terri's officers. Jessie was a huge bull of a man, with bright red hair.

"So, between playing with Woof, did you get a chance to look at the crime scene?" asked Terri.

"Briefly," teased Jessie. Pointing, he added: "There's one skeleton ten metres or so past where we are, another behind a blue gum a little further, and the Leylands' Mitsubishi is over there."

They had barely started toward Lesley Leyland's remains when they heard the sound of a helicopter overhead.

"We called for the Air Ambulance," said Don: "We weren't sure if a normal one could get to them."

There wasn't much to explore, since both Lesley and Xavier had been reduced to gleaming clean skeletons.

"What's happened to the three little girls?" asked Terri.

"They've already been taken to Glen Hartwell Hospital," said Lisa.

"And tell me again what they said?"

"That their parents had been eaten by pretty little pixie girls, who suddenly transformed into two-metre-tall, versions of themselves with bulging red eyes, lethal talons for hands and feet, and long protruding jaws with deadly fangs," said Don, reading from his notebook.

"Okay," said Terri thinking momentarily: "Perhaps we'd better go see them. You stay here till the air ambulance has finished."

"Gotcha, Chief," said Donald Esk.

"Bye, bye, Woof," said Sheila.

"Woof," he said back to her.

"I wish everybody was as straight-talking as Woof," said Sheila once they were back in the Lexus on their way to the Glen Hartwell and Daley Community Hospital.


At the hospital, they were greeted by Leo Laxman, Derek Armstrong (a black American by birth and Sheila's boyfriend), and Tilly Lombstrom, a tall attractive fifty-something brunette, second in charge of the hospital.

"Well here they are," said Tilly, leading them into a single-bed ward where the three little girls were asleep in one bed, with a gorgeous platinum blonde nurse, Topaz Moseley, watching over them.

"You won't get anything out of them at the moment," said Topaz.


Over in the forestland outside Brooklyn township, Horst and Gail Neumann were walking through the sweet-smelling pine and eucalyptus trees discussing their plans to have children.

"Two fair-haired boys like me," said Horst: "And one tall red-haired girl like you."

"Why not two redheaded girls, and one fair-haired boy?" teased Gail: "Or maybe a fair-haired girl, and two redheaded boys."

"Ah, now I sense you are teasing me, my love," said Horst giving her a hungry tongue kiss.

"Naughty, naughty," teased Gail, pushing him away from her: "Mum always said if a boy stuck his tongue into my mouth while kissing, I should bite it off."

"Surely, that doesn't apply to your husband?" asked a dismayed Horst.

"Actually, she wasn't very clear about that," said Gail, giving it away by laughing.

"Oh, I see," said Horst: "Just married, and already I am the brunt of your Aussie humour."

"You're an Aussie too now, honey," said Gail, snuggling up to her German-born husband.

They continued walking through the forest, snuggling and kissing as they went. They finally agreed to have two girls and two boys, whose hair colour didn't matter.

"So it is settled," said Horst, stopping as he heard the buzzing sound.

"Is that bees?" asked a worried-sounding Gail: "I hate bees."

"Why, they give us honey, and are not naturally aggressive like wasps."

"Ooh, now wasps I really hate," said Gail shuddering.

As they listened the buzzing grew louder as whatever was the cause approached. As yet still not visible.

"What?" asked Gail, finally seeing small, sparkling lights a few metres away. The lights swirled and danced through the sky in a kaleidoscope of colours.

"Look at the pretty lights," said Horst, starting toward them.

"No, no, Horst be careful," said Gail, still thinking they could be some form of stinging insects.

Unheeding of the warning, Horst started forward until he could make out the form of the three little girls dancing, swirling, buzzing around the sky.

"Little fairies," said Horst.

"What?" asked Gail, reluctant to go toward the Sky Dancers.

"They're three little fairy girls in sparkly dresses."

"We're not fairies," protested Fear in a high-pitched voice.

"We're Sky Dancers," said Trembling.

"I am Trouble," said Trouble: "These are my sisters, Fear and Trembling."

"Those are unusual names for such sweet little creatures," said Horst.

"Oh, we're not sweet," corrected Fear.

"And we're not always little," explained Trembling.

To prove her point, Trembling transformed into her monster form, two-metre-tall, with bulging red eyes, lethal talons for hands and feet, and long protruding jaws with needle-sharp fangs. Fear and Trouble quickly followed suit.

"Horst!" called Gail, starting to run toward him.

Too stunned to speak, Horst started backing away in terror...

Not fast enough, as the three Sky Dancers in their monster form began snapping at the German-born man, ripping pieces off him, which they swallowed greedily down their hungry throats.

Horst began screaming and flailing wildly, trying to escape the evil creatures. However, in their monster form, they were too powerful for him.

"Horst!" shrieked Gail.

She watched in disbelief for a moment as her new husband was eaten alive in front of her. Then coming to her senses, Gail turned and ran screaming into the forest, heading away from the nearest town in her panic.

"Horst! Oh God, Horst!" she muttered before starting to cry as she ran away, unaware that each step was taking her further away from safety.

In less than five minutes the Sky Dancers had reduced poor Horst to bones. Then they looked around for Gail.

Unable to see the fleeing redhead, they transformed back to their pixie form to listen and were soon able to hear her gasping breath.

"That way," said Fear, pointing as she led the way, followed by Trembling and Trouble.

"Oh God, please help me!" pleaded, prayed Gail, running deeper and deeper into the sweet-smelling pine and eucalyptus forest. Running further and further away from safety.

Finally, exhausted, she had to stop to recover her breath. Seeing a huge old-growth blue gum tree, she staggered across to hide behind it, hoping she had lost the Sky Dancers.

For a moment the dancers were puzzled as the running footsteps stopped, then Trouble's acute hearing picked up the sound of Gail's gasping breath.

"This way, sisters," she said, leading the way as they danced and skipped their way through the air, their tiny wings creating the buzzing that Gail and Horst had heard earlier.

"Oh God, please let me be safe now," gasped, prayed Gail.

"Surprise!" said Fear as the three Sky Dancers flew around the old-growth blue gum to startled Gail.

"Surprise!" cried Trembling and Trouble, smiling broadly at the terrified redhead.

"Please, don't..." sobbed Gail:

However, the three cute little pixies transformed into their monster avatar again and started snapping and chewing at Gail, ripping off pieces of the crying and screaming redhead as they ate her alive.

"Ple-ee-ee-ee-ease...!" cried Gail, stopping as Trembling ripped out her throat and silenced her.

"I hate it when food talks back!" said Trembling, making all three Sky Dancers giggle in delight.


Terri, Colin, and Sheila had a hard day patrolling Glen Hartwell, then watching while Tilly Lombstrom, Jesus Costello (pronounced Hee-Zeus), and Elvis Green examined the skeletal remains of Lesley and Xavier Leyland. Trying to make sense of the remains.

"So, Docs, what's the verdict?" asked Sheila Bennett.

"Well ... they're definitely human bones," said Jesus, a tall muscular man, head surgeon, and Administrator of the Glen Hartwell and Daley Community Hospital.

"Don't blind us with science, Jesus," said Colin Klein.

"There's not a lot more we can tell you without DNA samples from the three girls," said Jerry 'Elvis' Green - so nicknamed due to his long black sideburns and devotion to the late King of Rock and Roll.

On cue, Topaz Moseley came down the morgue steps to announce: "The Leyland girls are awake now."

"Great, let's go get DNA samples," said Tilly.

"And we can have a word with them," said Terri, as they headed for the steps to the ground floor.


"Day were definitely wittle fairies dat turned into monsters two-metre-tall, with bulging red eyes, lethal claws for hands and feet, and long protruding jaws with needle-sharp fangs," insisted Joy Leyland.

"Dats white," agreed Taylor and Whitney.

As they left Terri asked: "So how long before we get the DNA results?"

"If we give it priority ... about two days," said Jesus.

"Give it priority, please," said Terri.


At 7:00 PM they were seated around the dining table at the Yellow House, enjoying a lamb roast, with all the trimmings.

"I bet you didn't get meals like this at that dump you used to live in," said Sheila to Leo Laxman.

"No way," said Leo: "For one thing Mrs. Maxwell cooked roasts restaurant style ... burnt on the outside, and raw inside."

"Yuk, I hate restaurant-style roasts," said Tommy Turner.

"They cook it too quickly on too high a setting," said Deidre Morton, a short, dumpy, sixty-something brunette: "A family-sized roast should be cooked for three to three-and-a-half hours at about one hundred and sixty degrees Celsius, or three hundred degrees Fahrenheit."

"Take notes, Sheils," teased Terri: "When you get married, you'll need to know how to cook for your hubby."

"No way! When I get married, we'll live here and continue to enjoy Mrs. M.'s divine repasts."

"And what if, Heaven forbid, Deidre should die before you?" teased Colin.

"Well, I'm nearly thirty-six, Mrs. M. is in her early sixties. So if we say I'm about twenty-seven years younger than her; I need Mrs. M. to live to a hundred. At which time I'll be in my seventies, retired and living in a rest home. So no need to ever know how to cook."

"So you're going to drop down from Deidre's wonderful cuisine to eating the slop they serve in old folks' homes? " Natasha Lipzing asked.

"Oh, I never considered that. Maybe I had better start paying attention. Don't want my hubby abandoning me in my seventies because I can't cook."

"Didn't they teach you home economics in high school?"

"Nope, it was politically incorrect to assume girls needed to learn how to cook or clean house twenty-odd years ago, so they never taught us stuff like that."

"I think the hardcore feminists in control of Victoria's Education Department assumed in the eighties and nineties, that by the twenty-first century, the men would be doing the cooking and housekeeping," said Terri, making them all laugh.

They had finished the lamb roast and were just getting ready for pancakes with syrup for dessert when Terri's phone rang.

"That had better not be work-related," said Sheila as Terri talked on the phone: "I am finished working for the day."

Disconnecting, Terri said: "Some backpackers have discovered human bones outside Brooklyn."

"Damn those long-haired, skin-headed, hippy, commie, fascist backpackers," said Sheila: "Why do they have to find bones at tea time."

"If they found them early in the morning, you'd be complaining about them finding them at breakfast time," pointed out Colin Klein.

"Or at noon, about them finding them at lunchtime," said Freddy Kingston.

"All I want is bone-free, murder-free meal times!"

"Don't worry," said Deidre: "I'll pack three flapjacks and plenty of syrup for you to eat while you drive."

"Thanks, Mrs. M., you're a star," said Sheila.

Then as Colin and Terri started looking pleadingly at her, Deidre said: "And there's no need for the moo cow eyes, I'll pack a couple each for each of you too."

"You're a champion, Deidre," said Colin as the three cops stood up to leave.


At the death site outside Brooklyn, they again found Jessie Baker and Donald Esk waiting for them.

"Where's Woof and Lisa?" asked Terri.

"Woof's back with Lulu Wellins, and Lisa is home keeping my tea warm," said Don.

"You've got her domesticated," teased Colin.

"Lisa's a damned good cook, actually," said Don.

"Maybe she could give me some lessons," said Sheila: "They didn't teach Home Ec. when I went to high school."

"Really? Lisa says it was her best subject."

"Damn those politically correct teachers in my school days!"

"Of course, Lisa is more than a dozen years younger than you."

"Don't rub it in, damn you!"

"Perhaps to avoid fisticuffs we could see the remains," suggested Colin.

"Not a lot to see," said Jessie Baker as they let Terri and the others across to Horst Neumann's remains: "Just bones and shards of clothing."

"Also a healthcare card identifies him as Horst Neumann," said Don: "Another pile of bones deeper in the forest probably belongs to Gail."

"They were only married a couple of months ago," said Terri.

"And Horst was only nationalised at the New Year's Day ceremony," said Sheila.

"Sheils, how do you know all this stuff?" demanded Colin.

"I pride myself on knowing my constituents."

"All twelve thousand of them?" asked Jessie.

"Most of them."

"And she complains she doesn't have a good memory!" said Terri.

"When did I ever say that?" demanded Sheila, as Jessie led them through the forest toward Gail Neumann's remains.

"Hard to see in the dark," said Jessie: "But we haven't been able to find many tracks from the killers. A few by each murder site, but no sign of tracks arriving at or leaving the area."

"So you're saying something swooped down from the sky to kill them?" asked Colin.

"Possibly. The tracks look like those of some kind of oversized bird ... Some mutant form of meat-eating emu maybe."

At the second site, they examined the pile of bones, around which was a stream of animal tracks circling the bones. But none arriving at or leaving the scene.

"Almost as though, having finished their meal, the emus. or whatever, transformed into pixies and flew off," said Terri, expressing the thoughts of the others.

"Are the Leyland girls still saying that?" asked Jessie.

"Yep," said Terrie looking up at the sound of the air ambulance chopper arriving: "Well, we can't do much tonight. But tomorrow we can get Don's tracking dogs to try to find tracks."

"Or else our old mate in Harpertown," suggested Sheila.

"Or both," added Colin.


Bulam-Bulam was a grey-haired elder of the Gooladoo tribe, outside the township of Harpertown in the Victorian countryside. Although he lived in a lean-to in his tribal village, he owned and worked a small grocery shop in town. As he restocked the shelves of his shop, he heard two cars pull up outside, although it wasn't 7:30 AM yet.

Going outside, he saw Terri's Lexus and Don Esk's police-blue Land-Rover.

"Is this a raid?" teased the grey-haired man.

"No," said Terri, going on to explain what had happened the previous day and what they wanted him for.

Hearing barking from the Rover, he said: "You've brought Slap, Tickle, and Rub with you?"

"Yep."

"Then why do you need me?"

"Let's just say, peculiar circumstances."

An hour later they were at the site of Lesley and Xavier Leyland's deaths.

The three Alsatian-crosses wanted to have nothing to do with the death sites.

"Come on you worthless fleabags," called Don Esk trying to drag the dogs across to where Xavier had been killed.

As they engaged in a tug-of-war, Tickle managed to escape his collar and turning, went charging back through the forest, heading for home.

"Come back here, you stupid cur," called Don.

"You'd never know he was a dog lover," teased Sheila.

Finally, after releasing Rub, who took off for home also, Don picked up Slap and carried him across to the blue gum behind which Xavier's bones had been found.

"Now, sniff that, dopey."

The Alsatian cross began whining and fighting to escape its master, finally snapping at him, forcing Don to back away. Which gave the dog its chance to race off after the other two dogs.

"Well, bloodhounds they ain't," teased Jessie Baker: "You should have brought Lisa along again. She's acquired quite a way with mutts."

"We decided she should stay home and keep Woof company."

"You should have brought Woof along," said Sheila: "He's afraid of nothing. According to Lulu, he was ready to have a go at the zombies a while back." [See my story, 'Music of the Damned'.]

"Okay, old timer, your turn," Colin teased Bulam-Bulam.

"I keep telling you, that since sixty is the new forty, I'm really only the new forty-five, which counts as early middle-aged."

"Keep telling yourself that, Pops," teased Sheila, patting him on the back: "One day you might really believe it."

Ignoring the Goth chick, the Aboriginal elder went across to examine the prints trying to locate where they originated from.

"They just seem to be there ... without coming or going away again,": he finally said.

"That's how it looked to us too," agreed Terri.

They took him across to where Lesley's bones had been found, then drove him to the forest outside Brooklyn to examine the sites where Horst and Gail Neumann's remains had been found. Only increasing the old man's puzzlement.

"Well, I'm damned if I know," said Bulam-Bulam: "I'm starting to understand why Slap, Tickle, and Rub ran off whining."

"According to the Leyland girls, the killers were sparkly pixie girls about fifteen centimetres tall, who turned into monsters before eating their parents," said Terri: "Then presumably changed back and flew off again."

"Well, that's no crazier than dozens of other things I've seen in the region over the last forty years or more," said the old man: "But I'm the wrong person to help you. You need an expert on pixie and fairy legends."

"And we know just the witchy woman for the job," said Sheila as they started back toward Harpertown.

"Magnolia McCready!" said Colin and Terri.


1/21 Calhoun Street, Glen Hartwell is the right-hand half of a sub-divided yellow weatherboard house. In the front room, Magnolia McCready, a tall busty redhead with electric-blue eyes, handed around cups of lemon tea.

"So what's the problem this time?" asked Magnolia.

Terri quickly explained what had been happening, causing Magnolia to start and almost spill her hot tea upon herself.

"Sounds like you're dealing with Sky Dancers," said the redhead.

"Sky Dancers?" said Terri, Colin, and Sheila as one.

"A particularly nasty form of sprite. Not quite pixies, not quite fairies, they are one of the evil members of the sprite family. They lure their victims with their cute dancing and pretty clothes and sometimes singing. Then they transform into monsters to eat them alive."

"That sounds like our girls," said Sheila.

"Do you know how to stop them?" asked Terri.

"Oh, yes, I can prepare a potion to call them here. Then you will have to kill them."

"How?" asked Colin.

"They're tiny, use your shoe to crush them. In sprite form, they are anything but invincible. They're only deadly in monster form."

"Can you do it now?" asked Sheila.

"No, it'll take me five or six hours to prepare the potion ... so it's a hundred smackers this time, instead of the usual fifty bucks."

"Fair enough," said Terri reaching for her wallet.

"And it's gone up from bucks to smackers," teased Sheila.

"Ha, ha, it is to laugh," said Magnolia.


Over in the forest, half a kilometre from Glen Hartwell, Jacqueline and Hortense Younghusband, ironically named since they were elderly spinsters, were taking their daily constitutional enjoying the sweet pine and eucalyptus smell of the forest.

"What a lovely day, sis," said Jacqueline.

"Enjoy it while you can," replied Hortense: "They say tomorrow it will be rainy as will most of September."

She kicked up a few of the dried pine needles with one shoe, enjoying the fresh, pine-clean air, humming gently in delight.

Soon she heard other, higher voices humming along with her.

"Is that you, Jacqui?" she asked.

"No, Horty," said Jacqueline, turning toward the sound of the voices.

At first, she couldn't see anything to explain the humming-buzzing sound. Then from the corner of her eye, she saw a splash of green and yellow, blinking on and off like Christmas Tree lights.

Turning, she saw a flicker of the Sky Dancers, before they vanished behind a large pine tree.

"What in the world...?"

"Did you see something, Jacqui?"

"Only for a second. I think they were hummingbirds. They flitted behind that tree," she said pointing at the pine tree.

"I didn't think Australia had hummingbirds?" said Hortense.

The two sisters tiptoed across to the old-growth tree to investigate.

At first, they couldn't see anything; then the Sky Dancers popped into sight.

"Oh my word, pixies," said Hortense.

"We're not pixies," said the blonde sprite.

"We're Sky Dancers," said the night-black sprite.

"I am called Trembling," said the raven-haired sprite: "These are my sisters, Fear and Trouble."

Looking at the pretty little sprites with their sparkly party dresses, the two elderly ladies couldn't help laughing at the names.

"What is so funny?" demanded Trouble.

"Those are unusual names for innocent little pixies."

"We're not pixies!" insisted Fear.

"We are Sky Dancers!" said Trembling.

"And we are certainly not innocent," said Trouble.

To prove her point, the three creatures suddenly transformed into their monster forms, with bulging red eyes, lethal talons for hands and feet, and long protruding jaws with needle-sharp fangs.

"What...?" said Jacqui.

She tried to back away, but collided with Hortense and the two elderly ladies fell to the ground. Making themselves easy prey for the Sky Dancers who descended upon them ripping and tearing, gorging and chewing, eating the two terrified old ladies alive.

After they had finished, the Sky Dancers transformed back into their pretty-pixie form.

"Bah, all skin and gristle," said Fear.

"Hardly worth our trouble," said Trembling.

"I'm still hungry," complained Trouble: "Let's find some younger food."

"Good idea, sis," said Fear.

The three Sky Dancers took off to look for younger, fresher food.


Over at 1/21 Calhoun Street, Magnolia McCready was still mixing her potion in an earthenware bowl, when Terri, Sheila, and Colin knocked on her front door.

"Let yourselves in," called the redhead.

A few moments later, they were in the kitchen of the small house, where Magnolia was mixing the potion.

"Six drops of essence of terror, five drops of sinister sauce," sang Sheila.

"Don't distract me while I'm mixing," cautioned the redhead: "One mistake could have catastrophic consequences."

"Sorry," said Sheila before the three cops sat down to wait for Magnolia to finish.


Michael Marston and Donny Duckworth were walking through the late afternoon forest, not far from where Magnolia McCready was mixing her potion. Michael, tall dark and bearded, and Donny short, fat, and clean-shaven, were prospectors, hoping to get permission to log thousands of trees around Glen Hartwell so that they could extend the township outwards deeper into the forest.

"They'll never agree," said Donny: "There are too many old-growth trees in the way.

"Those will have to be the first to go," said Michael, who prided himself on believing that trees are only good for lumber and to make a profit from.

"As much as I love profit, I don't love the idea of going to gaol," said Donny. He stopped, to stare past Michael as he saw what seemed like Christmas lights dancing through the air a few metres behind his friend: "What the Hell are those?"

"What the Hell are what?" asked Michael turning to look where his friend and business partner was pointing.

"Those," insisted Donny.

"Southern Lights, who cares?" said Michael who hated to be distracted when he was talking business.


Magnolia McCready had finished mixing her potion and was ready to start her calling ritual.

"Before I start, most importantly, keep your yaps shut," said the Wiccan: "That especially means you, mad Goth chick."

"Why do you assume I'm the one who can't stop talking?" asked Sheila.

"Tell us, you're kidding?" asked Colin.

"It's called prior knowledge," said Terri.

"In short, we all know what a blabbermouth you are," said Magnolia McCready as she started slowly chanting while filling three plastic containers with the potion that she had mixed.


Walking forward, Donny expected the three lights to buzz away, but instead, they continued skipping, dancing, and humming through the air, a metre or so above the ground.

"What the Jesus are they?" he asked of no one in particular.

He stopped less than a metre away from the three pretty sprites, one in green and yellow stripes, another in purple and pink stripes, and the third in black and yellow stripes.

"Who are you? What are you?" he asked.

"We are Sky Dancers," said the blonde sprite: "My name is Fear."

"My name is Trembling," said the raven-haired sprite.

"My name is Trouble," said the night-black sprite.

"Those are strange names for such harmless little pixies."

"We are not pixies," corrected Fear.

"We are Sky Dancers," repeated Trembling.

"And we are certainly not harmless," said Trouble.


Magnolia McCready had reached the most important part of the ritual: "Come to me, evil sprites!" she intoned: "Come to me, evil creatures! Come to me, Sky Dancers!"


The innocent-looking Sky Dancers had started to grin evilly, chuckling as they began to change into their monster avatar.

Then, suddenly, they looked terrified. Instead of transforming they suddenly whooshed away backwards, as though upon an elastic band which had reached its limit.

"What the Hell?" said Donny as the pretty little creatures suddenly zoomed off backwards as though being reeled in by a fisherman.

As they soared backwards the three sprites started shrilling in terror, not knowing what was happening to them.


"Come to me evil sprites!" Magnolia chanted: "Come to me, evil creatures! Come to me, Sky Dancers!"

For a few moments, it looked as though nothing was going to happen. Then they heard high-pitched squealing approaching the kitchen window.

Still chanting, Magnolia walked across to open the window and then returned to the table where she had placed the three topless plastic containers.

"Come to me, evil sprites! Come to me, evil creatures! Come to me, Sky Dancers!"

Howling like Banshees, the Sky Dancers soared backwards through the kitchen window and following Magnolia's intoning, swooped down in the three plastic containers. One dancer per container.

Magnolia quickly tied the containers closed, then said: "There you go. One hundred and twenty smackers, please."

Terri paid the Wiccan, then asked: "So what do we do with them now?"

"Oh, give them here," said Magnolia taking back the three containers she placed them on the kitchen table.

Picking up a red brick she had placed under the table earlier, the Wiccan first crushed Fear, and then Trembling, and Trouble to a bloody paste.

"Now they won't be eating anyone," she said.

"Pardon me," said Colin Klein. Racing through the house, he opened the front door and threw up.

"Hey!" called Magnolia: "I hope you didn't puke on my dahlias."

"No," he said, wiping his mouth: "But your cat is going to need a bath."

"Poor Timmikins," said Magnolia, making the three police officers laugh.

THE END
© Copyright 2024 Philip Roberts
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia