ADRIANE- a custom order

Adriane shook the last drops of water from her wings; she had just shampooed them and wanted them to look their most lustrous. She reached for her bottle of fairy dust- the secret ingredient that allows fairies to fly. It's an ancient recipe made from the ground tails of shooting stars and the 'breathe' of moonbeams and it works a little like the dust on a moth or butterflies wings.
Adriane was all ready to ring in the New Year- Chinese New Year! Ghoulie fairies love a celebration and Adriane and her friends had gone to great lengths to prepare for the festivities. Tonight they would farewell the year of the rooster and welcome the year of the dog. Adriane wore her new bodice, it's a custom in Chinese culture to wear a new outfit to see in the new year and she had been cleaning her fairy house all week, another tradition that is said to clean out the energy of the passing year and make way for good fortune and prosperity.

It was a sultry January Evening in Melbourne and Adriane headed to "China Town" in the city centre and the hub of Chinese New Years celebrations. She could see the fairy lights and paper lanterns and crowds of people as she approached little Bourke st-which was closed to traffic for the public party. Instead of cars the street was filled with entertainers, traditional dancers, musicians and contortionists and street hawkers cooking exotic cuisine, it's tantalizing aromas filling the air and making Adriane's tummy growl in anticipation.
Spicy drifts of incense wafted from flower strewn shrines where people made wishes for New Years prosperity, fortune and good luck.
Then Adriane heard the steadily increasing beat of drums in the distance heralding the arrival of the New Years Dragon, a colorful , many legged beast, raring it�s magnificent bearded head with it's great winking eyes as it wove and writhed down the street to chiming bells and beating tom-toms. Restaurateurs came out of their dining rooms to tempt the dragon with food and water, so that it might enter their establishments and banish any lingering evil spirits. The fairies who had gathered for the nights events danced above the crowds with excitement their ears ringing from the fire crackers and fire works.
At midnight Adriane and her friends attend a New Years feast- sitting at a specially prepared table groaning with delicious foods, brightly colored salads that all of the guests helped to toss together for luck, dumplings and hot pots, red fruits and vegetables ( red is a lucky color) and moon cakes for desert.
Full of delicious food and laden with left-overs the sleepy fairy friends winged homeward, their heads full of colors and lights, each of them eager to see what the New Year would hold in store for them

-Lady Nemesis 2006