I plopped down in a kitchen chair and stared glumly at
the huge pile of rubble in front of me. My lab--all of my magical experiments
and equipment--was totally ruined. I didn't even know where to start in cleaning
it up.
"Quite a mess, isn't it," blchocobo remarked
as he wandered into the dining area.
"Yeah."
"How long will it take you to clean up?"
"Me? Just me? Whatever happened to having Heilley
clean it up? She's the one that scared me practically out of my wits and caused
all this."
"She wouldn't have if you hadn't scared her
first with your war stories, though."
I growled wordlessly. As if losing practically
everything weren't enough, it was now all my fault.
"It needs to be soon, though. I don't care for
cold snacks from the refrigerator enough to have to live on them."
"Just be glad the refrigerator itself didn't
get buried," I grumbled.
"Uh-huh." Blchocobo opened the fridge and looked
inside before closing it again. He apparently had no more of an appetite than
I did.
Oh well. The stuff wasn't going to clean itself
up by having me stare at it. I got up and began to poke cautiously through the
wreckage. I moved several boards as I hunted for any possible active magic.
The distant sound of wind, followed by a soft puff of it on my face suddenly
caught my attention. I stared down and out onto the dull horizon of the endless
plains.
"Uh ohhhhh...."
As if attracted to my voice, a huge scaly paw
suddenly poked through the open portal, and began clawing for purchase. I hit
it with a board, and the resulting enraged bellow echoed into the kitchen. Blchocobo
and I both backed up rapidly as another beastly limb snaked its way up from
the floor.
"What's that?" he gasped.
"Some monster from the endless plains. There's
an open portal ring there, and..."
A frightened yelp cut me off. Heilley was standing
at the door into the living room with eyes the size of saucers as she watched
the monster's attempt to pull itself through.
"It... it can't get through can it?" quavered
blchocobo.
"Not immediately, but if we don't do something
fast it can. Those portals stretch to let anything through." I pulled out my
attack fork and used it to drive the beast back. The roar was a lot louder and
closer sounding this time.
Heilley caught her breath. "MK, tell your friends
to go play elsewhere, willya? I don't care for their looks."
I shot her a dirty look. "Only you," I muttered.
Without bothering to wait for a response, I reached into a pocket of my trench
coat and pulled out an object I'd hoped never to have to use. A gentle roll
sent the small dark orb spinning into the pile. Fortunately for my plan, it
only landed near the portal and not in it. I concentrated my magical focus,
connected, and activated it. There was a cacophony of sounds as the magics in
the pile were absorbed. They faded to a loud humming, and a hazy yellow bubble
grew from the orb until it filled the whole kitchen area that contained the
rubble. I held it there, panting a bit from the effort as the field took effect.
Heilley whistled. "What's that supposed to do?
Make a playpen?"
"That, my dear little sister, is a field of
negative magic. It's absorbing every bit of magical energy out of the area in
there. That will deactivate the portal, along with everything else inside it."
"Oh."
"Cute," blchocobo observed. "That means the
monster can't come back because you shut the door."
"Only temporarily," I admitted. The yellow haze
cleared, and the hum died to a high pitched whine. "There. Now that it's found
the portal on that side, though, it's only a matter of time until it can connect
them again with magic from that side. I need to destroy this portal to prevent
that. Volunteers, anyone?"
Blchocobo instantly did his wallflower imitation.
Heilley stared at me as if I were nuts.
"You gotta be kidding! It's your field, why
can't you go in there?"
"Two reasons. One, it would suck my own magic
out- which would be rather painful, to say the least. And two, since I'm the
one that cast the spell, that would kill the whole thing, which puts us right
back to square one."
"Oh."
"It's perfectly harmless for any pet without
magic. All you'd have to do is walk over there, find the ring--it's white ceramic--and
break it."
"Me? Why me?"
"Because you're the only other pet here with
the guts to tackle something like this."
Heilley's eyes narrowed, and I almost grinned
as I saw the comment sink in. She's an aggravating little knucklehead, but she
still comes in really handy at times.
"Oh yeah? Easy to be nice when you want something,
I guess."
I chose to ignore the insult. "Hey, I wouldn't
say it if it weren't true. Besides, there's nothing to it. Just walk over there,
pick up the ring, and break it with something."
Heilley shook her head, her black and white
mane tumbling around behind her. "Something tells me I'm going to regret this."
With that, she began walking into my bubble of non-magic.
I stared in amazement as her hairdo suddenly
ballooned out. All sorts of items began slithering out of it, hitting the floor
behind her until the pile of toys, food, and grooming items began piling up
past her hips.
"Ouch!" she yelped.
I didn't dare let her stop. "Forget it!" I barked
at her. "There's no time now! Get that stuff later! If you don't break that
ring, we're all going to be in big trouble!"
She cast a rather wild-eyed look towards me,
but decided to keep her mouth shut. A quick dive into the pile rewarded her
with the portal ring. "Now what?"
"Break it!" I ordered loudly.
Heilley jumped, but pulled out a piece of rock
that I recognised as the remains of a nice little statue that... well, didn't
exist anymore. A couple of loud whacks were followed by the crunching sound
of breaking ceramic. I let out the breath that I'd been holding, and also let
go of my connection with the neg-orb.
Heilley walked back over to her pile of goods,
choking and sputtering from the ozone stink as the ambient atmospheric magic
began to reassert itself again. My own eyes were watering as well.
"What in the name of Adam is going on here?"
Heilley snapped.
I blinked my eyes clear at Heilley's outburst.
She was struggling to fit everything back into her hair, but only two or three
items had managed to make it in. Her hairdo was jiggling and wiggling as she
tried to cram a hairbrush in, but it wasn't fitting. "Uhh... looks like your
ability to stash stuff was magical."
She froze with the hairbrush still in her paw.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Well, it got sucked out of your system, along
with all the rest of the magic, and..."
"WHAT??? YOU MEAN I CAN'T STASH STUFF ANYMORE???"
I cringed at the deafening bellow. "Well not
now, but..."
She didn't give me a chance to explain. Her
loud wail sounded throughout the house, and trailed off as she ran up the stairs.
A loud slamming noise announced that Heilley was not coming out to play for
the rest of the day.
"That didn't go very well," blchocobo remarked.
"Very well?" I sputtered. "That was a disaster!
The least she could've done would've been to let me finish talking before she
ran off."
"Hmmm... you can't blame her, though. That was
a nasty trick that you pulled on her."
"That I..." I choked in indignation. "How was
I supposed to know she was using magic for that stunt of hers? It's not like
she ever told me!"
"How would she ever know? You're the expert
on magic around here, remember?"
"Yeah, well..." I groped for words before giving
it up. I knew that no matter what I said, I would be at fault. It was one of
those days.
The rest of the day didn't go much better. No
new disasters happened, but I spent it pulling wreckage out into the back yard
and sorting it into rough piles. Kallisari took pity on me later on in the afternoon
and helped. It was probably about ten o'clock when I finally just collapsed
onto the ground in the backyard and morosely eyed the ruins. Kallisari slid
down beside me, and laid her head on my shoulder.
She finally broke the silence. "It's been a
hard day, hasn't it."
Even the yellow glow of the back porch light
didn't ease the jagged, broken look of the mess. "Yeah."
"First your lab, then Heilley..."
"Uh huh."
"What really did happen to her, anyway? I couldn't
get a straight story from her about it."
"Well... it's like this. Every Neopet has magical
potential. A lot of times it's inherent in your species. Kyrii isn't one for
that, but even so, it looks like she was using it."
"But how? I thought you had to study a lot,
and have special items and stuff."
I shook my head. "For the big stuff, yeah. You're
not just going to summon a faerie by thinking of her. But this is a little personal-type
magic. Any pet can develop that sort of thing. It's a natural quirk, sort of
like being double-jointed."
"So she was using magic to make things fit in
her hair?"
"Uh-huh."
Kallisari sighed and snuggled in closer. "What's
she going to do now that she can't do that anymore?"
"Oh, she'll be able to, it's just temporary."
Kallisari perked up. "It is?"
"Should be. See, that spell drained all the
magical energy out of it's immediate area. But it didn't change the magical
properties of the items. It's kind of like emptying a jug. It may not have water
in it anymore, but it can still hold water."
"Oh. So, um... how does she get refilled?"
"She waits. There's magic all around us, and
she'll just absorb it from the environment automatically."
"Easy enough. I'm glad it's going to be okay."
"Yeah." The strange part was that as annoying
as Heilley was, I had to agree with Kallisari. I really did feel better about
it right then. But I always feel good when Kallisari and I are sharing a hug,
so that doesn't count.
Over the next few days, I covertly watched Heilley
for signs of returning magical ability. I'd usually see her with a hairbrush
handle sticking out of her hair, but that would be it. She also began to gain
weight, and with Heilley that's always a bad sign. She overeats when she gets
depressed.
Two weeks and ten pounds later, I knew I had
to do something. This was getting totally out of hand. I was leaving for the
office in the morning when I grabbed her.
"Hey, you, come on down to the office with me."
Heilley looked back over her shoulder at me.
"Huh?"
I gently pulled on her. "I said, come with me
to the office. There's something I want to show you."
"I don't wanna."
"So? Have you got anything else you planned
to do?"
"Well..."
"No, you don't. Now come on." I got my arm around
her and practically dragged her out into the street and down to my office.
When we arrived, I let her plop sullenly into
my client chair while I went around behind my desk and pulled Sun Pegasus out
of his tube. I let him roll around on my desktop, munching down his daily dose
of salts. (Or burning them up, I guess you could say, since he's a baby fireball.)
When he was finished, I mentally gave him a nudge towards Heilley. He rolled
to the edge of my desk and stared at her. She stared back at him. They had quite
a contest going, and although baby fireballs don't blink, Heilley was giving
Sun a run for his money.
"How'd you like to have that in your 'do?"
Heilley didn't react at first. Her double-take
when she realised what I'd said, though, was priceless. "What???"
"How'd you like to put Sun Pegasus in your hairdo?"
"You're nuts! You're flat out off the deep end,
vitamine-A crazy!"
"No I'm not. Sun is magical, and I think he can
squeeze into your hairdo just like you've put everything else in there."
"Yeah, right, after he sets my hair on fire!"
I couldn't help but grin. "No he won't. He only
sets fire to stuff that I tell him to. Isn't that right, Sun?" He obligingly
bounced up and down for me. "Look at it this way, Heilley. You've stashed a
lot of things in your time. What would be a greater story to brag about than
managing to stuff a fireball in your hair and living to tell about it?"
"Well okay. But if I wind up bald, I'll never
forgive you for it for as long as I live." Heilley reached out to grab Sun Pegasus,
and looked surprised when he floated out onto her paw. "Uhh..." she juggled
him around a bit, trying to figure out how to hold a fireball that wouldn't
quite bring itself to touch you. Before long, she gave up worrying about it,
and just pushed him back behind her head.
I held my breath as Sun Pegasus entered her
'do. I sent a pulse of magical energy down our connection, and it was just as
I'd suspected. I let Sun slide on in and vanish beyond the normal limits of
space. Heilley's hair flipped back down to normal.
"Wow, that was smooth. Felt like old times again.
Too bad I can't do it like normal."
"What do you mean, you can't?"
"Huh? Er, didn't you say he was magical, so
he could do it, where I couldn't?"
I shrugged. "So I lied. He's easily influenced
by magic--he's had plenty of experience with mine--but it was yours that shoved
him in there. Oh, and just in case you hadn't realised it, you succeeded."
"But... but..."
Before she had time to come up with objections,
I gave her something else to think about. "When you get through sputtering,
you might consider giving him back to me. I just loaned him to you, you know."
Heilley gulped and her eyes got big as she realised
that if getting a fireball into your hairdo by magic was an accomplishment,
getting it back out might be an even bigger one- particularly when the alternative
was just leaving it in there! I sat back and enjoyed the fun as she began frantically
clawing at her hair, trying to find any trace of Sun Pegasus. Not surprisingly,
she came up empty. "I don't get it! He has to be in there somewhere!"
"No, he doesn't. That's your whole trick. He
isn't in there somewhere, he's somewhere else. Don't bother asking me where,
because I don't know. All I know is you can pull him back out of wherever it
is if you quit acting like a ninny and reach for him!"
Heilley jumped as I yelled that last line at
her. She reacted instinctively, a paw diving into her hairdo and grabbing out
Sun Pegasus. He floated serenely off her paw and back to my desk as she slumped
back in the chair and whooshed a sigh of relief.
"Very good," I said as calmly as I could. "Now
quit moaning about how I ruined you. You've got just as much ability as you
ever had, and you've been through the trial by fire to prove it."
Heilley groaned as my pun sank in. "Okay, wise
guy, you've made your point. I'm getting out of here while I'm still able to!"
I waited until she was out of the office before
I began rolling with laughter. As I told Kallisari later, "she just needed a
good swift kick in the mental rear, and I was more than willing to give it to
her!"
The End | 
