Hikey Sprites

Hikey Sprites are a shy, almost forgotten strand of Norfolk fae. Old stories give them many shapes, from foul smelling half men to pipe hatted goblins, but quiet watching suggests something more consistent. True Hikeys are small, sharp featured, birdlike faeries with leathery skin, bright green eyes and long clever fingers. They favour feathered cloaks that echo a local creature and soft garments of leather or spider silk, often threaded with tiny hints of metal, glass or hoarded gem.

Hikeys live in scattered clans from the fen borders to ancient heaths, quiet woods and the reed beds of the Broads. Each clan seems tied to a totem bird or beast, and at a distance their cloaks can make them look like skylarks, goldfinches, bitterns, bats or nightjars. They keep mostly to the edges of paths and fields, active at dusk and early evening, and sometimes carry small lanterns that have fed tales of will o the wisp and lantern men. When disturbed they simply snuff the light and slip away, more wary than wicked.

Watch out or the Hikey Sprites will get you

The old warning “Watch out or the Hikey Sprites will get you” has likely been twisted over time. Guild records tell of Hikeys guiding lost children and strayed animals back to safety as often as they leave blundering adults to their own mistakes. The small Hikey figures found in the wild are treated as tuned echoes of these watchers, their cloaks and colours used to fix them to one of the six Aspects and to the particular stretch of Norfolk they still quietly guard.