It’s a little-known fact that a core part of the school curriculum for young elementals is a solid grounding in human fairytales and myths.

Our local head teacher does not wish their students to accept these stories, and their depictions of both humans and fae, uncritically, so made a trade with me. Their side of the equation is none of your business, my side comprises monthly reading sessions – with commentary – in a sheltered glade, about ten minutes’ walk from my front gate.

I was quite looking forward to the session. The young elementals had been introduced to the sanitised version of Rapunzel in my last ‘class’. This month, we would be exploring the version recorded by the Brothers Grimm.

It was a roaring success, the younglings shocked to the core by the differences in story, suffering, attitude, and outcome, leading them to question other old tales their parents had shared at home.

I didn’t leave until the light above us was more pink than gold, and most of the classroom clearing was in shade.

I was back on the forest path, about halfway home, when strange lights zoomed past, just above the trees, then doubled back to spin and bounce above me. It was the buzzing that game them away. What cretin was sending drones out over my wood?

My internal debate on the best way to bring the mechanical menaces down was interrupted by the flock of bats who make their home in a tunnel complex near the centre of the wood. They swirled around the drones, blocking both their cameras and their flight path.

One bat fell to the ground in front of me, blood on its wing. I scooped it up and made for my gate. This would be a quick healing, once I was on home ground, then time for a proper response. Spying on my home was bad enough, injuring my neighbours was grounds and more for retaliation.

The other bats clearly felt the same, as I soothed the one in my cupped hands, they attacked the drones, coming at them from below, so no more bats fell, but all three drones thumped to the ground beside the path. I couldn’t take them. The little bat needed my focus and, besides, there was no need. Right in front of my gate as we were, I have cameras of my own.

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