It was a bright spring morning. Last year’s autumn leaves were giving way to crocuses and daffils. We were having a meeting of Fairy Hunter’s Ink. Big Rabbit, despite glowering looks from Ashley, had declared himself President for the day.

“Ah-hem,” said Big Rabbit portentiously. “This meeting will come to order….”

“Yippeeee!!!!” said Squirrel. It was his very first Fairy Hunters, Ink. meeting and he was excited at the prospect of seeing a fairy. We were at Big Rabbit’s house in his tiny bit of yard. Squirrel was dashing back and forth, sniffing the ground for forgotten nuts, muttering as he went. “What did I do with them?”

“I said”, ‘Come to Order!!’, not yell and dash about madly”, said Big Rabbit. Ashley looked pleased and allowed herself to make a face behind Big Rabbit’s back.

“I’m not yelling,” said Squirrel, who didn’t miss a step in his erratic movements.

Big Rabbit, oblivious to these slights (which was a very good thing for everybody) continued. “This is the first official meeting of Fairy Hunter’s, Ink. and being so, this is an historic occasion”.

Ashley and I exchanged looks. This was getting off to a bad start. Big Rabbit, in full professorial mode, could talk forever. Could talk that is until forcibly stopped, which Ashley was wont to do, with often disastrous results.

Zephr, our new honorary mascot, piped up, “We don’t to come to order; we want to find a fairy!”

Big Rabbit stopped short at this interruption, and said irritably, “We’ll get to that. And now I’d like to thank our members….”

“Your members would like to keep things brief,” I suggested.

‘Yes, yes, of course,” said Big Rabbit, flustered at this calm show of independence.

“I want to be a fairy,” said Squirrel.

Zephr slowly flapped his wings and we were showered in color.

Big Rabbit said, “Stop that! It’s distracting,” which only meant that everyone had stopped fidgeting to gaze on the brilliant flashes of color surrounding us.

“Let’s go fairy hunting!” squeaked Squirrel.

“Yeah!!” Ashley added her support to Squirrel.

Big Rabbit scowled and said, “O.K. If that’s what you want to do….”

“We do!” came the chorused reply.

And with that, we began walking and looking for fairies. We decided to go to the Great Forest, for forests are magical places and all kinds of fairies and gremlins live there.