The pixies are one of the diminutive species of fairies. There is great variety among their kind depending on the region, where they may be known as pixies, piskies, or pigsies. Some are winged and some are not. Unlike fairies, most pixies do not create a sparkle-trail whilst traveling. While the fairies are ethereal, airy creatures, the pixies are far more earthy. They make their clothes from objects found in nature such as leaves and moss, and in fact, even name their young after herbs and wildflowers.

Whether winged or not, all varieties of pixie stand about five inches tall when full grown, and possess pointy ears and often, pointy noses.

The character of the pixies is their greatest commonality. They are well known as mischievous pranksters, adventurous and rascally. They are capable of great ingenuity in making contraptions, such as traps, that will make their lives easier, for pixies certainly prefer not to work if it can be avoided.

For example, they would much rather take up residence in an abandoned bird's nest than build a home of their own. They find abandoned hornet's nests particularly spacious and cozy. They do prefer to live in the trees, but have been known to burrow underground to get through an especially harsh winter.

Their aversion to labor has led to them becoming nimble thieves. They will steal eggs out of birds' nests for their breakfast and happily torment travelers in their woods until they are given some bread. Once the toll of some food has been paid, pixies will allow travelers safe passage, for they are not malevolent beings. While it's true they do mislead travelers for fun or to get some food, they can be quite helpful to their human favorites.

Local bands of pixies "elect" tribal chieftains who tend to style themselves as kings (like King Furze and Queen Meadowfoil, whom Jake met in Wales). In reality, however, these local "kings" never rule over more than a few hundred of their kind, if anarchists like pixies can be said to accept "rule" of any kind. King Furze and his ilk still must answer to Oberon, however, the real king of all the fey folk.

Clearly the blue Cornish pixies are not just a winged variety, but particularly naughty. Or maybe they just didn't like being put into that cage. I imagine there are lots of parents and teachers who would also like to learn the Immobilis spell...

... Smushed together in the trap, Jake and Dani gripped the ropes of the net that now held them, and neither stopped screaming until they reached the top of the giant oak tree.

Jake's heart was pounding, and he could hear Dani practically hyperventilating beside him. "Jake," she squeaked, "what just happened?"

"You're good and caught, that's what," a small but authoritative voice said. "They don't look like tree goblins to me. Captain Coltsfoot? Explain."

As the trap spun slowly on its main rope, rotating to face the tree trunk, Jake and Dani gasped in amazement to find the pixies' base camp right before their eyes.

Although few pixies take their king's orders any more seriously than they do property rights, they WILL band together with admirable discipline to fend off an attack from any of their natural predators. These include owls, hawks, cats, tree goblins, or any humans who may incur their wrath for a variety of reasons.

In general, though, the pixie is a carefree, larking little fellow, curious and impulsive, whose motto seems to be: "Enjoy Life." A lesson we all could learn! :)

At an intersection of two main branches, a horde of pixies stood on a ledge-shaped tree fungus, inspecting them with obvious hostility. They were about five inches tall, with pointy ears and pointy noses, rosy cheeks, and outdoorsy complexions. More of them kept hopping out of their papery, round shelter - an abandoned hornets' nest - to see what was going on.

The tiny robed king with an intricately carved walnut shell for a crown turned to his captain of the guard, awaiting an answer.

"Your Majesty," Captain Coltsfoot said, stepping forward. "They kidnapped Whortleberry, sir."

Behind-the-Scenes: A tree-fungus like this in the woods where we like to go walking inspired this whole scene! Not very good for the tree, but it just looked like a place where pixies would live. 

Greetings, my dears! We thought we'd touch upon one of the most interesting (to us) spooooky bits in THE DARK PORTAL - the Victorians' preoccupation with the spirit world - contacting it through séances, or capturing it on film with "spirit photography." Lucky for me, the talented video mavens of the Ghost Watching channel on Youtube have already put together a little video showing a collection of authentic (?!) Victorian Spirit Photography. I think you'll really enjoy it!

As you may recall from our previous blogs (like this one on Real Steampunk Inventions that we did for JAKE AND THE GIANT), photography was still quite new and the technology was improving every year. People got to a point where they started figuring out little tricks that they could do to create illusions....but who knows! Some of these pictures might just have a real ghost in them, so look closely!

Here's a cute picture of the shops in Llanberis, from the town's official website. Ignore the cars! Picture carriages instead - or a hansom cab like this one. Very Victorian! :)