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Neopia's Fill in the Blank News Source | 23rd day of Relaxing, Yr 27
The Neopian Times Week 68 > Short Stories > A Touch of Magic

A Touch of Magic

by scriptfox

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

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