George Joy’s Guide to Faery Tale Creatures:, No 1: The Toothfaery

The Toothfaery is almost unique among the many species of faery as is it is one of only three species to live alongside humans.  In other words, it is one of the Housefaeries.  The Dustfaery and the Bathfaery are, of course, the others, the Toothfaery evolving from the latter.  The Toothfaery gets its name from its affinity for enamel, something it needs just as much as we require food and drink.  As such they build their homes from it, as simple close proximity to the substance enables them to live.  They use this process rather than eating or drinking because they have no mouths or digestive systems.  They communicate through telepathy. 

Each Toothfaery is allocated a child from which to “farm” milk teeth by the Queen Toothfaery, who lives in  Egypt.  The milk teeth of one child is ample for a house and a long life.  As such, a young Toothfaery, still rich from the liquid enamel suckled from its mother’s teat but close to the point when it will have to fend for itself, will be allocated a child whose first milk tooth has begun to wobble.  This the Queen knows due to her acute hearing which can detect  the sucky noise of a wobbly tooth from any other and who is in tune with Toothfaeries the world over, keeping note of the birth and death of every one and communicating with each as it comes of age. 

The great tragedy of this allocation, of course, is that some Toothfaeries are forced to live a life of solitude.  Others are forced into a nomad existence if their child moves house.  If such an event occurs, they are allocated a new child, meaning they have to abandon their first house and start again, usually at great risk to their own well-being.  Those lucky enough to find a mate will join their houses together and use this double house to bring up their children and to grow old together.

Their special relationship with humans started off as mere thievery.  Children, or parents, would save their milk teeth as they fell in a special box which Toothfaeries would infiltrate using their own guile and cunning.  However, this caused humans to go searching for them, eventually finding the perpetrators and beginning a mass extermination.  Fortunately for the Toothfaery, a wily young seven-year old called Tom Johnson (known to Toothfaeries across the world as The Saviour) was able to forge a deal with his allocated Toothfaery to exchange his teeth for real monies, a plan which benefited both parties and a custom that has gone on ever since.

The only snag in the tale is the secrecy Toothfaeries like to shroud themselves in.  Ever since The Great Discovery and Tom Johnson’s Business Plan, the Toothfaery has done everything it can to remain unseen.  Even going as far as to give children anaesthetic to ensure they stay asleep while they undergo the troublesome, and often dangerous, task of retrieving each precious tooth.   Accordingly I have been asked to pass on a message.  Any child caught awake and trying to gain a sighting of their Toothfaery will be severely reprimanded.  One boy I knew at school swore blind he had seen his Toothfaery and we all thought nothing of it.  That is, until the day after his last milk tooth fell.  The day all his teeth started to turn black and fall from his mouth one by one.