Mel and Chris

Mel and Christian Save the World

Melbatoast hated his name. There didn’t seem to be much he could do about it. He told everyone he met that his name was Mel, but sooner or later they found out. There was a real downfall to being a faerie prince. He didn’t so much mind being the only green kid at school, you get used to that, but he hated his name. He had asked his mother one time about why faeries had huge, and in his opinion stupid, names. His mother explained that it had been a tradition in the faerie culture for much longer than the humans had been around. She didn’t see the point in using their simple sounding names. In fact, when she heard anyone call Melbatoast, Mel there was a long lecture involved. Mel hated his name.

Mel also hated having to pretend he couldn’t do any magic. It hadn’t been that long, maybe 200 years, since humans had found out that faeries really existed. It hadn’t been a very happy 200 years though. His grandma had made sure he knew what it was like. She said that the humans wanted to use the faeries to do magic for them.

"The humans were incredibly jealous when they found us. They made up all sorts of supersticians to explain us away. They also tried to put up all sorts of laws so that we were kept down. For example, if you wanted to run for a government office or hold a high paying job (like being a doctor) you had to be human. After all, faeries could cheat with magic."

Mel would have snorted at that but he knew it was true. Most faeries would be much too tempted to cheat. It wasn’t that they were liars…well some of them were. It would have been too much fun to stack the odds. Any mischief was good mischief as far as faeries were concerned. Behaving was just SO boring.

Mel had always thought that magic meant the humans should be the faeries’ slaves. Apparently when you could shoot iron bullets you had the upper hand. It was a bad thing that all faeries shared that one stupid allergy.

"Every great race has a downfall, Mel," Grandma had explained.

"But Grandma, we’re so much better than them!" Mel protested.

"Are we really? Look at their history, honey, and you’ll understand. Thinking that way is only going to get us into trouble. They thought that too and it almost destroyed them." Mel had to agree with his grandmother’s statement once he got into the school. Human history was wrought with that kind of stuff.

"They’re not all bad, Mel," Grandma had sighed heavily, "You’ll see that in time."

"Grandma, why can’t I just let you out?" Mel had asked when he was younger.

"Mel," Grandma had asked quietly, "do you see cuffs on my hands?"

Mel didn’t understand why she stayed. When he asked his Mom she told him not to be nosey. Mel thought this was like telling a dog not to eat barf. It was just in Mel’s nature to be nosey, he was a FAERIE after all. He was still a little confused so he asked his dad more about what had happened.

Mel’s dad explained it this way: "Once the humans figured out that faeries cannot stand being in cities or being shot at (or cut with, or dipped in ) iron they enslaved the entire population by shooting some and putting iron cuffs on the others.