Under Where

In today's story, Under Where, a fairy finds a career without collecting teeth

Today's prompt is a bit of word play based on the phrase "under where" sounding like the word "underwear." Yes, very silly. Sometimes silly is good way to let your imagination flow. 

As always, this story was written from the prompt, with no planning and very little editing. If you enjoy today's story, please share it with your friends and leave a review for Freely Written. Thank you!


More about Susan Quilty

Susan Quilty mainly writes novels, including two standalone novels and her current YA series: The Psychic Traveler Society.  Susan's short stories for Freely Written are created during quick writing breaks and shared as a way to practice her narration skills before she dives into recording audio versions of her novels.

Website:  SusanQuilty.com
Facebook: Freely Written
The Freely Written Book: Freely Written Vol. 1
Freely Written merch: Bitter Lily Books Shop

Transcript

Below is the transcript for Season 1, Episode 110 of Freely Written, a podcast by author Susan Quilty:

Welcome to Freely Written where a simple prompt leads to a little unplanned fiction.

[Light piano music]

Hi, friends! I’m Susan Quilty and today’s prompt is Under Where. 

Today’s prompt is a bit of wordplay. In the sense that under where, w-h-e-r-e, sounds like underwear, w-e-a-r. Yep, pretty silly. I haven’t been sleeping well lately, so I’ve been in that overtired, over silly state of mind for the last couple of days.

As you may see for yourself as you listen to today’s story. And don’t ask how fairies came into the mix. I have a hard enough time explaining my leaps of imagination when I’m well rested, add in some exhaustion and your guess is as good as mine. 

Despite my sleepy state, this story was written using my usual Freely Written process. If you’re new here, this is how it works: I sit down with a chosen prompt and free-write whatever comes to mind, with no planning and very little editing, and then I share that story with you. 

It’s very simple with no rules or specific genres. I do try to keep the stories relatively family-friendly and episodes within around 10 minutes. You can listen to episodes in any order, and I’m happy to take requests for future writing prompts. Contact me through my website, SusanQuilty.com, or on social media. Links are in the show notes. 

Now, on to today’s story:

Under Where

Davina wanted to be a tooth fairy. She knew it was a long career path and not every fairy who started down that path reached the ranks of tooth retrieval, but it had been her dream since childhood. 

She wasn’t alone in having that dream. Many young fairies wanted to be part of the Tooth Coalition. Tooth powder, after all, was a precious commodity. It was used in a number of potions and tonics, not to mention being an essential ingredient in one of the four standard fairy dust formulas. 

Davina had several cousins who worked in the tooth factory, polishing bartered teeth, removing the odd bits of metal, grinding them into a fine powder, and sifting that powder to perfection. 

She also had an uncle who had coin duty on a tooth retrieval team. That used to mean carrying in round metal coins to trade for teeth left under pillows, though lately he was more often tasked with bringing folded bits of paper instead.

The metal coins and folded paper were variations on something the humans called money. Or currency? It was all terribly confusing to Davina, so she knew she would not have a career in the Currency Exchange. The fairies who worked there knew all about the coins and papers that humans used around their world. 

The Currency Exchange worked closely with many fairy groups, including the Tooth Coalition, the Fountain Foragers, and the Wishing Well Union. 

Davina had never worried that her currency confusion would keep her out of the Tooth Coalition. No fairy needed to understand money to work in the tooth factory, and even tooth retrieval teams didn’t have to be currency experts. They were given the correct coins and papers as part of their mission briefings. 

The important skill for fairies on tooth retrieval teams was stealth, and that was Davina’s strong suit. At school, no fairy had lighter feet or quieter wings than Davina. She breezed through obstacles without disturbing any of the strategically placed feathers and bells. She received the highest marks in hiding and cloaking, and she simply knew she was on her way to becoming a full-fledged tooth fairy. 

Yet when graduation came, Davina was not invited to join the Tooth Coalition. She was told—in no uncertain terms—that her skills were needed elsewhere. In fact, the most illustrious covert fairy operation was intent on recruiting her. 

And so, Davina became an under where fairy. She took a grudging pride in the selectiveness of her assignment, but she was not happy. 

While under where fairies were held in high esteem among the fairy folk, they were utterly unknown in the human world. There were no human books or movies or bedtime stories about under where fairies. In the human world, it was all about the tooth fairy. And Davina wanted to be known to the humans. 

She couldn’t say why exactly. Humans weren’t the brightest creatures. They lumbered around in mysterious ways. Standing in line for hours to get special sneakers or some new sugary baked good. Starting wars over who could live where, despite there being lots of open space where no one lived at all. 

They also had a lot of things wrong about tooth fairies. First off, they thought there was just one tooth fairy. As if you wouldn’t need a whole coalition of fairies to gather that many teeth! 

They couldn’t agree on the value of a tooth either, which meant extra headaches for the Currency Exchange as they monitored schools for the conversations among children who were either excited or disappointed by the money found under their pillows. 

It wasn’t surprising. Humans knew so little of fairy life that many of them didn’t even think fairies existed at all! Learning that fact may have been what made Davina want to become a tooth fairy. She had a secret fantasy of working her way up to lead fairy on a tooth retrieval team and then using her position to find a way to educate the children she visited. Whispering the truth in their ears or even confronting their parents directly. 

Of course, all fairies had been strictly warned to never interact with humans directly. It was dangerous these days. Humans had passed through an Age of Disillusion when they distanced themselves so far from fairy folk, elves, unicorns, and other magical beings that they gradually lost the ability to see them at all. 

Davina had learned about that in school and been saddened. The little ways fairies maintained a thin connection to the human world were meant to offer whisper thin lifelines in case humans ever chose to find their way back. But to Davina, that wasn’t enough. 

The Tooth Coalition had one of the strongest ties to humans and she had meant to use it. Until her plans were derailed by her induction to the Under Where Fairy Guild. 

For the first few years, Davina followed protocol. Under where fairies were under strict orders to never be seen by humans. In fact, their interactions with the human world were limited to a very specific scenario. 

First, a human would lose some small item. Usually their keys, a bit of folded paper, their glasses, or something called a phone. The item wasn’t really lost, just misplaced for a moment. 

As the human looked for it, an under where fairy would slip in and move the item to an obvious, yet hidden place. Like under a couch cushion or under a stack of mail. When it couldn’t be found, another human would inevitably show up to ask if the first human had looked under there or under there as they checked the obvious places. 

A good under where fairy could move the item two or three times before it was found. By the time it turned up, the humans would be utterly baffled at how they had missed it and perhaps—with luck—starting to wonder if there was something magical happening right under their noses.

That second-guessing of their logical world was considered an important step in restoring human/fairy relations. At least by the fairy elders. They had largely come to realize that the visibility of the so-called Tooth Fairy had only allowed humans to feel comfortable with dismissing fairies as a myth. 

By making humans question their perceptions, fairy elders hoped to strengthen the threads and eventually reconnect the human and fairy worlds. 

Davina had come to agree with this plan, though not with their patient pursuit of it. 

One day, when a young man dropped the button he was sewing onto his shirt, Davina saw her chance. She flashed into motion, swiping the button from its place behind the couch leg and dashing to the nearest bookcase. 

Normally, she would let the man thoroughly search beneath the couch, then slip the button back in place while he looked elsewhere. Instead, as she watched him pat around the empty space beneath the couch, she decided to break the rules. 

She flitted back to the couch and perched on the center of a cushion. She had been watching this particular man for a while now and had a feeling he was different than other humans. 

Her wings tingled as she stared at his massive back. The man was alone, but he muttered to the button, saying, “Come on, I know you’re under here.” 

Davina screwed up her courage and called out, “Under where?”

“Under the couch,” the man answered, then jumped, bumping his head on the front of the couch as he remembered that he was home alone. 

Davina held onto the button, hovering above the cushion as the couch slid beneath her. 

And then they were face to face. 

The young man’s thin face was as long as Davina’s whole body. She gripped the edges of the button in both hands but was ready to fly backwards in an instant. She knew she could drop the button and pull fairy dust from her pouch faster than the man could catch her. 

The young man’s eyes narrowed then widened as his mind tried to make sense of Davina. 

She waited patiently. 

“Are you a…?” He couldn’t finish the question. 

“An under where fairy,” Davina supplied, expecting the wonder in his eyes to grow brighter. Instead, his face scrunched up and his head shook slightly from side to side. 

“An underwear fairy?” he asked with a laugh. “You’re here for my underwear?”

“Your what?” Davina frowned. Her knowledge of humans was spotty, but she was able to recall that underwear had something to do with clothing. 

“I’m an under where fairy,” she repeated with dignity. “I find objects where they may fall, often under something else.”

“Oh, under where!” The man laughed. “You mean w-h-e-r-e, not under w-e-a-r.”

Davina’s frown deepened. Though she spoke human languages, she knew very little about human writing. 

“Why are you spelling at me?” she asked reproachfully, hoping to put the man in his place.

He stopped laughing and peered closer. 

“Are you really here?”

As he leaned close, his hot breath washed over Davina. The smell wrinkled her nose, and she knew she’d made a terrible mistake. 

In a flash, she dropped the button, pulled a fistful of fairy dust from the blue pouch at her waist, and threw it directly into the man’s face. He jerked back, blinking, and she disappeared, rematerializing in the fairy glen just outside her home. 

A ripple ran through Davina’s wings as she felt hot and cold waves pass through her body. 

She had used enough fairy dust to make the man forget their brief interaction. Peering through the veil between their worlds, she could see him shaking his head to clear away the fog before retrieving his button and retaking his seat. 

No harm done, she told herself. Though she made a mental note to ask an elder fairy about the humans’ other meaning for underwear. 

The End

Thanks for joining me today. That was a silly one, but I hoped you enjoyed it. Freewriting in this way, without any plan, is a fun way to let ideas bubble to the surface. While writing this one, I liked the rough outline of this hidden fairy world… though the under where fairy connection could maybe use some work. 

It was definitely one of those times when I saw how long the story was getting and decided to try wrapping it up fast. Maybe it’s a world I can revisit with more care someday. 

If you enjoy these quick stories, please share Freely Written with your friends. You can also learn about my novels and other projects at my website, SusanQuilty.com. 

Until next time, try a little free writing of your own. Let go of any planning and see where your imagination takes you. 

[Light piano music]