On one street in England, if you know where to look, you can find an old house that was very odd. The house was odd in the very same way a frog in the African safari is odd, it simply did not belong. To get to this house, you would have to take a turn down a street that wasn't on any map, a drive down a lane that seemed to lead nowhere. At the end of these long forgotten street is a cul-de-sac, which contains five old, mildew ridden houses. This house, the house that sat on the left to the one in the middle with the address, '03 Langdonshire Springs' housed something far more interesting than cobwebs and rat holes.
In the room at the back of the house, there lived an remarkably unordinary boy. Unordinary in the fact that; he had shoulder length silver blond hair, dull blue eyes, and despite being the year 2042, he did not own a single electronic device, beyond his wristwatch that is.
The boy lived this this decrepit house with his mother and father, Mister and Missus Abbot. Mister Abbot was a bony, tall man with black hair and a kind and bespectacled face. Missus Abbot was a rather full figured woman, with the same silver blond hair as the boy and sharp blue eyes.
It was in the middle of May, the old houses creaking lightly in the spring breeze, and the sound of cicadas marking the waning of the season. The young boy named Adrick Abbot, who lived in 03 Langdonshire Springs, played in the woodsy backyard with his paper aeroplanes on nice days like this. His mother had left for work, leaving him and his father to the house for the day.
Adrick explored the spacious woods behind the house with his paper aeroplane. He always liked to be outside when he could help it, inside was dusty and boring. He threw the plane back and forth over the logs and overgrowth of the woods, the warm spring winds carrying the scent of the forest beyond sweeping over the neighborhood.
After a while, the winded boy sat heavily on a mossy stump and his mind no longer occupied on playing began to wander back to the one thing he had been trying to forget. Tomorrow would be the seventeenth of May, and his eleventh birthday. He jumped off of the stump, no longer tired but instead full of excited energy as the prospects of tomorrow shined overhead like a brightly burning sun.
Suddenly, an idea sprang forth as he made his way to the backdoor. What if his father was making plans right now? Could he perhaps sneak to his father's study and maybe overhear him talking on the phone to see him wrapping a present? As much as he wanted it to be a surprise his curiosity got the better of him and he began creeping though the house, taking extra care not to step too quickly for there were many creaky floorboards underneath the carpets.
The study itself was located on the second floor, at the very end of the hallway. Adrick tiptoed his way up to the door and pressed his ear against the wooden surface where he could hear his father taking on the telephone.
"...Yes. … No, I've told them to take his name off the list, he won't be going and if I can I'll make sure he never even knows about magic. … Well because I have to make sure, I don't want anything to do with the lot of them. … I very well can! I'll thank you to do what you've been paid to do and keep your nose out of my reasons!" His father hung up and he heard his footsteps approaching the door. He knew he couldn't get to his room before his dad got to the door! Thinking quickly, he stood facing the door and knocked seconds before the door swung open.
"Addie boy! Hey sport, how are ya?" He called out to his son and patted him on the head. "Did you need something?" Adrick thought it was remarkable how he sounded so angry on the phone yet was as chipper as ever when he came out of the room. He shook himself mentally, reminding himself that he needed to keep up the farce if he didn't want to be busted eavesdropping.
"Have you decided where we're going tomorrow?" He asked excitedly. He may not have gotten anything useful out of listening in, but he might just get his dad to let something slip now.
Mr. Abbot got down on a knee and his voice wasn't quite as chipper as before. "You haven't been letting yourself get worked up over that have you?" he asked. Adrick knew by now that his dad had been telling him for as long as he could remember not to get worked up about anything, that he had a kind of condition that made it dangerous for him to get overexcited. Mr. Abbot smiled when Adrick gave him a quick reassuring shake of the head which Mr. Abbot then patted again. "Good. I told you I picked out something good, put it out of your mind for now. In the meantime I put your kite on your bed, but if you stick in on the roof again, I'll make you climb the latter and get it!"
Mr. Abbot headed downstairs, a wad of paper in his hand while Adrick headed to his room to retrieve his kite and stowed it away in his toy chest, instead he retrieved his old battered bug net and headed back outside to catch some dragonflies.
Today was the day he was going to go beyond the willow. Adrick often wandered into the woods looking at bugs or chasing small woodland creatures, but he never went further than a willow tree he found together with his dad. The willow sat on the edge of a small clearing, the grass in the clearing was very tall so Mr. Abbot had warned Adrick not to go into it, but today it was time to throw caution to the wind, as Adrick saw a huge group of fireflies flying around in the middle.
He decided the best way to get to the middle was to rush through the thick patches of grass as fast as he could and catch them by surprise. He counted down from three under his breath as he prepared to dash though to the dragonflies. On one, he broke into his fastest sprint, his feet taking high steps and his hair flying behind his head. Each step he took carried him over mounds of lush green overgrowth as he stampeded towards the group of insects.
Suddenly, one of his feet made a wet sound as it landed in muddy water, and as he noted this he also noticed he was falling. Roots or twigs had caught his foot underneath and caused him to lose balance and fall forward, and he hit the water with a loud SPLASH. He raised his head to gasp for breath and a handful of flying bugs flew into his mouth and made him cough as his hand lost balance under water and he went back underwater. As he clawed his way back up, his legs thrashing he felt his hand grab a handful of tree bark and he pulled himself up.
He broke the the surface with a gasp, his hair plastered to his face with the water and mud. He used the tree to feel his way around back to dry land. As he pulled himself out of the water, his legs burning with exhaustion, he took deep drags of air and cursed himself for not heeding his father's warning. He lie in the shade of the tree he pulled himself up until his legs felt like moving again.
He opened his eyes and the dragonflies were still buzzing around, but these weren't dragonflies at all. He quickly say up and stared at the tree. Buzzing around the tree were little blue winged creatures, with tiny little faces eyes. They were faeries.