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‘We believe a Thorn Warrior showed himself to us one evening near sundown in July 2011. My son had his Learner’s Driver License and he had driven up *** Mountain and down through our neighborhood of *** twice. The second time he drove up the mountain road we both got a sudden chill and it felt like there was a presence on the mountain. He looked at me and said ‘Wow, what’s that!’ I replied, ‘maybe we felt a cougar or a bear looking at the car as we drove by’. He said, ‘Maybe a cougar, that’s no bear.’ We see a fair number of bears and they run away when they see humans. Because we both felt we were being watched by sinister eyes we put our car windows up. He said he felt a bit shook up and he wanted to stop driving. I asked him to go down the mountain closer to home and we’d find a place to stop. Then we could switch up and I’d drive the rest of the way home. He pulled the car over lower down the mountain and it was a wild and striking spot. Tumbled boulders stacked up the mountain we had just driven down from. There was a small waterfall. You could see the imprint in the land where there would be more water flowing in winter when the rain came As we sat in our car at the side of the road we rolled out windows down part way to see the striking little waterfall against the wild undergrowth and rugged boulders. He said: ‘Are you sure we should roll down the windows? That thing we crossed paths with up there might still be around.’ I replied, ‘We’re being silly. We live here and I’ve never felt that before.’ For a couple of minutes, we sat silently in the car with engine off and windows partly down. Then he went rigid in the driver’s seat and so I did too. He was looking out the open driver’s window. I had to lean over to see. There on the brambles beside the boulders of the waterfall stood a warrior in battle gear. The warrior had on a helmet of something hard with spikes lapped all over to like a kind of bird with its feathers puffed out. The helmet had pieces that protected his ears kind of like a Roman helmet. His face was uncovered and he had no beard. He was covered neck to knees in brown leather with ties at his elbows, wrists and knees. He was all the colours of brown like an owl. He carried a spear in his right fist and I had the impression that he was further armed but not showing it. His hands were big. Work hardened. He glanced at me, but he was looking intently at my son. They locked eyes for a couple of moments then he said: ‘Ok.’ He turned to me and said: ‘We got to go. That thing is passing through. We’re in the way. Let’s go.’ So we didn’t switch seats and my son started the car and drove us away. We didn’t go straight home. We drove all the way downtown *** to discourage, my son said, anything from following us. We didn’t get home until a couple of hours passed. Should’ve been home by nine thirty pm but arrived back after midnight I asked my son ‘what did the warrior say to you?’ He told me, ‘he says he’s a Thorn. There’s a lot of them around here to protect us. Our driving distracted that Thing and they could get into position to fend it off, encourage it to pass through without stopping.’ What was that thing. Did he know? ‘He’s seen it before, Mom. We needed to get out of his way. No kidding.’ I asked my son: ‘Have you seen him before?’ ‘No.’ ‘How do you know he’s a Thorn?’ ‘He told me. Mind to mind. He didn’t have time to explain. We needed to go. So, I got us out of there. We won’t see him again. He’ll make sure of it. He knows who we are. Even the little people talk.’ Since then I ensure we keep our garden welcoming. I keep mason bees and foster native plantings. And I make sure I say out loud to no one in particular how grateful I am to live in this safe place on the edge of the wild. But so close to the city. Thinking about the Warrior. He was about six to eight inches tall. Right-handed. Medium skin tone brown hair. He looked tough and highly capable. Was much more interested in my son than me. Some man to man, I felt. He was dressed for war, no question. But the weapon and his armour was all shades of brown like beak claws feather leather and bone. No metal that I could see on him. Perfectly camouflaged. I can only guess he showed himself because he saw it as an acceptable risk. He was deadly serious. I should also say that my son takes long walks alone through our area. It would [not?] be surprising that the warrior recognized him from his frequent long walks.’ ‘Warrior with spear and other weapons. Helmet similar to Roman helmet butt brown. Maybe made of beak claws feathers and leather.’ ‘Heard water rushing. We were beside a small waterfall.’ ‘The warrior was small, no bigger than the length of my hand. But he was all business. He was focused and present and deliberate. He showed himself to us because he had a point to get across.’ Fairies are ‘entities that live in nature. And who have a different relationship to nature than humans do. Possible they live in other dimensions that sometimes overlap with us.’