"Jason, Veralidaine, keep up!" TaipeiSS called to her
rainbow Shoyru and Halloween Ixi as the girl, her Faerie Kacheek, and her Christmas
Gelert wound threw the streets of Faerieland.
"Don't worry, we're right behind you guys," My_Sweet_Thomas,
better known as Jason, assured the girl. A tiny jolt of pain shot through his
arm, his little sister having bitten his rainbow-colored wrist. "DAINE! What
did you do that for?"
The Halloween Ixi shrugged. "I dunno. I always
thought you'd taste like a Rainbow Chia Pop or something. I was wron-OOF!"
The Ixi came to a halting stop as she collided
with a disheveled-looking Fire Faerie. The Faerie fell back, her face looking
quite shocked.
"I, oh, sorry, I um, yeah, watch where you're,
ah, gotta go." She quickly stood and hurried off into her intended direction,
obviously preoccupied with something. What she failed to notice was that she
had dropped a Faerie Slingshot in the process. This detail, of course, was not
overlooked by Jason, who quickly scooped it up.
"Wow, Daine, this is a Faerie Slingshot! Isn't
it spiffy-looking?"
The Ixi breathed her awe as she nodded. "Uber-spiffy!"
"We'd better return it," Jason stated virtuously.
"HEY FIRE FAERIE," they called after the swift-moving
figure, "YOU! WITH THE HAIR!" Despite their attempts to catch the Faerie's attention,
they went greatly unnoticed.
"Um... I don't think she can hear us, Daine,"
the Rainbow Shoyru admitted, "but I think I know how to get her to notice us!"
He bent down and picked up a tiny pebble, loading it into the Faerie Slingshot.
"This ought to do..."
He aimed, pulled back, then sent the pebble flying.
And flew it did, straight into the Faerie's bottom. She jumped with a yelp,
then spun around furiously.
"WHO DID THAT?!" She quickly answered this question,
being that Jason was waving and pointing to the Slingshot. The Faerie stormed
over to the Shoyru and Ixi in a cloud of raging fury.
"Um, hi pretty Faerie lady!" Daine waved cheerfully,
"you dropped your spiffy slingy thingy! We tried to call for you, but"
"But you didn't hear us, so we had to get your
attention," Jason finished.
But the Faerie was not at all grateful. She merely
snatched the Faerie Slingshot away, then gripped a wrist from each of the pets
and pulled them along.
"I don't have time to waste on you two," she
muttered huffily, "but you need to be taken care of."
Jason and Daine looked horrified and confused
as they were pulled through the winding maze that led to the Faerie palace.
The large, purple door that loomed before them swung open quickly and closed
just as fast when they were through it. Beautiful marble floors sped away beneath
them, golden chandeliers dotting the high ceiling. The exquisite paintings and
tapestries that hung from the walls were a blur as they were pulled down corridors
and around corners.
They came to a halt in a small room deep in the
palace, and were flung onto a squishy cloud ground. Curls of the cloud stretched
up and down to make bars that separated them from the Faerie.
"For assaulting a Faerie," the fiery maiden began,
"you two will stay here until your family comes to claim you, assuming that
you miscreants have one. Now tell me your names," she snapped.
Daine tried not to cry as Jason gave the Faerie
their real and full names. She was scared and couldn't understand what was going
on!
"Jay, what'd we do wrong? We were just trying
to return the spiffy thingy she dropped! Why are we in trouble? I'm scared!"
"It's okay, Ver," Jason comforted his sister
as she snuggled in next to him, "we'll be fine. We probably shouldn't have shot
at her with the Slingshot, but it'll be okay. Momma or Zel or Thayet will come
and sort everything out, and it'll all be over."
Daine sighed and nodded as the Faerie broadcast
their names over Faerieland.
"Will the family of a 'Lil_Veralidaine' and 'My_Sweet_Thomas'
please come to the palace immediately!"
The siblings both made faces at the sound of
the Shoyru's real name. Jason quickly pulled a deck of cards out of what appeared
to be thin air, and Daine applauded his magic trick.
"Wanna play a game of Cheat! Ver?" Jason dealt
out the cards as the Ixi nodded, and the two began to pass the time.
---
A very flustered Faerie Kacheek soon strode into the small room and approached
the Faerie.
"I'm LilThayet. Those two are my siblings," she
said as she pointed to Jason and Daine.
"Why, hello sistah dahling! How may I aid you
on this glorious day?" Jason grinned cheesily, but was obviously happy that
she had arrived.
Thayet laughed a little. "I heard the announcement
over Faerieland and came for you weirdoes. Mom would have come, but she and
Zel went to the Hidden Tower, and you can't hear any of the announcements from
there."
"Indubitably!" Veralidaine nodded properly, then
tossed down five cards and called them. "Six kings!"
"You, my dear Ixi, are a cheatah!" Jason nodded,
pushing the pile towards Daine, "but you are lucky, for we are about to go home!"
"HOLD IT!" The Fire Faerie stood between Thayet
and the cloud cell, hands on her hips. "I don't believe for one second that
you are related in any way to these little vandals! I can tell, just by looking
at you, that you are very intelligent and stately. You couldn't have anything
to do with these, these immature little THINGS!"
Thayet crossed her arms. "Well excuse me, but
they're my little brother and sister. Not to mention that you don't have ANY
right to say things like that about them!"
"We'll see about that!" the Faerie huffed. "I
have a spell that will show us all if you're telling the truth. If you aren't,
you'll ALL be turned into Mutants!"
Jason raised an eyebrow. "That's... not necessarily
bad. I, for one, think Mutants look coo-"
"CEASE YOUR JABBERING!" The Faerie pulled Jason
through the cloud bars and stood him in front of Thayet. She raised her hands
and mumbled an incantation as sparkly orange light flooded the room. She clapped
once, opened her eyes, and gasped. Looking at themselves, the Kacheek and Shoyru
could see why. It was as if their colors had mixed.
Jason was once Rainbow, and Thayet Faerie, but
that had all intertwined. The stripes on Thayet's wings were a shiny, foil-like
watercolor of rainbow, the other parts of her wings showing the few clouds in
the weather outside. Jason, however, had undergone a more dramatic change. His
form was now completely Faerie, his Rainbow coloring having moved to the now
pieces of his wings. He also sported some Rainbow-colored battle scars.
"Not bad, hothead lady!" Jason nodded his approval
as he regarded the changes.
The Faerie was a bit shocked herself. "Wow, I'm
sorry, I guess you were telling the truth. The spell should wear off by tomorrow.
I've never actually had this happen before..."
"Hey, you're not getting complaints from me!"
Thayet fluttered her pretty rainbow and weather wings.
Daine began to laugh hysterically. "JASON LOOKS
LIKE A GIIIIRL!"
Jason grinned and brandished his Fire Sword.
"Not with this around, my dearest!"
The Ixi nodded her approval. "Very true, very
true. Now, ahem, this is wonderful, but LET ME OUT NOW!" She chucked a few cards
at the Shoyru and giggled.
The Faerie held back a laugh and snapped. The
cloud bars parted, and Daine bounded from the cell.
"Woop! Now let's find Ma and Zel and go home!"
And go home they did. Zel was so inspired by
her siblings' new looks that she painted magnificent paintings of them before
they changed back to normal. The moral of this story?
"Turmacs smell like Vegan Cheese?"
...No, Daine. The moral is: Never attempt to
return a Faerie Slingshot by using it.
"Oh, yeah, that too. Wait... what?"
The End
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