The Mandolinianalan

"Are you Jack Frost?" Henry's little voice whispered excitedly.

"Do I look like Jack Frost?"

"Erm, no," he admitted, "you look 'sore'"

The Mandolinianalan had to agree there - 'sore' fit him on many levels. His was not the happiest existence on the planet, especially now; his foot was caught in the mouse-trap Henry's mother left out to protect the Christmas vittles. Being a creature roughly the same size and weight as a mouse was yet another hurdle in a world full of giant cats, boys, birds of prey, and household detergents.

"Shall I fetch Mother?" the gigantic child asked.

"If you do, I'll kill her." The Mandolinianalan dead-panned with a very 'final' monotone. "Pry open the machine yourself - but gently, and then I'll only get you."

Henry hesitated. Surely, this cute little creature wouldn't hurt him? Not if he was going to save him. And, besides, Henry was far bigger than him. Ah, he went on to think, but snakes and spiders are smaller than me, and they could kill a person; couldn't they? He figured he better keep the little man talking before he made any kind of decision; that's what his mother would do - she was a Police Lady.

"What are you?" he asked.

The wicked face of the miniature man smiled a strange smile and then began his tale:

"I am a Mandolinianalan and I am the most deadly of creatures in the world. Once upon a time there were many of us and we lived in the boggy, marshy places. Because God made us perfectly, we could hunt and kill any of the creatures that came to our home lands and we were the dominant species.

"Then came the giants - "

" - giants?" Henry queried.

"You 'humans'. Irish girls and boys called us faeries, but they were different from us and were generally helpful. The Mandolinianalan are clever, mischievous and quick, and we found out you humans taste a lot better than stickle-back fish, dragonflies, and water voles - "

" - I don't think you look like a fairy," Henry interrupted again, screwing up his brow as he considered the appearance of Tinkerbell and the three fairies from Sleeping Beauty.

"Well, I never said you humans were clever, or had good observational skills, did I? Let me out of this trap if you're bored with chatting."

"Not yet; tell me why you're in my mother's kitchen."

The Mandolinianalan ran a rat-like hand through his wild shock of pepper-flecked gray mane, and screwed up his little pink eyes.

"I'm here because you lot got bigger and bigger, luckier and luckier, and moved your little boxes all over the countryside and chased away our food supplies... well, apart from plump, tender morsels, like yourselves. But, as our tribes dwindled, hunting humans became harder and harder. Now we have to wait for you to run off on your own, and go to the forbidden places which your parents tell you not to go - "

"Like the woods? Oh, and the pond behind the old Brick Works, where Bryony Edwards drowned?"

The little man laughed and Henry was sure he would have jumped up and down with glee if he hadn't been caught in the trap.

"Bryony Edwards! She was tasty," his eyes glazed over in happy recall, "I found her knelt over the pond, playing with a paper boat, and all it took was push and a bump, and she was over and in!"

"Oh, you horrid little man!" Henry pouted. "I rather liked Bryony, even though she was a girl, but I heard Mrs Horner say she still looked as pretty as a picture, in her coffin, so you couldn't have eaten her!"

The Mandolinianalan laughed a wicked laugh.

"We don't need to eat your bodies; we like to eat your souls. Just at the moment when you die, if you can hear the jingle of the bells you know a Mandolinianalan is waiting for his dinner! As I don't hear any bells ringing and jingling, I'm no real danger to you after all, so you may as well let me out..."

Henry almost did. But then he saw the flickering glance of the creature's darting pink eyes to the Christmas tree he and his mother had decorated last week. He turned, amazed to see what was missing, and he hadn't noticed before now; The Fairy was gone... and then he thought, of the Mandolinianalan's tale of being confused for faeries, and now he knew what he really looked like when he wasn't 'sore'.

Without a second thought, Henry picked up his mother's Bumper Book of Magical Christmas Stories and firmly, and finally, squished the Mandolinianalan in the trap where he was.

"What in heavens name are you doing, Henry?" his mother's tired and edgy voice inquired.

Before he could answer her, she had picked up the Bumper Book of Magical Christmas Stories and Henry was prepared for the sharp intake of horror, in her exclamation at the sight which met her eyes. However, he was not prepared for her digging her slippered heel into the rug and swiveling to face him with frustrated anger on her, otherwise beautiful, face.

"Henry! How could you do this to the Christmas Fairy?"

Henry looked and where he expected to see the mangled mess of the Mandolinianalan, he saw the pretty tinseled corpse of his mother's favourite tree topper.

"Get to bed!" she commanded, not waiting, or wanting, for any excuse. "And, I shouldn't be surprised if you don't notice the sound of Christmas Bells this year, Mister."

Henry trudged past her and saw the flicker of a fading pink glow in the eyes of the Christmas Fairy; he would be very pleased, indeed, if he didn't hear any bells this year.

(964 words)