In the Margins

     By the time Cleo woke again, it was late afternoon. The fog that always cloaked the woods by day hadn't burned off yet, but the dull glow of sunset was starting to paint the damp air brilliant orange. Following the sound of voices from outside, she was surprised to find most of the residents of the Fairgrounds gathered around a bonfire in the center of the park. One of them, a Pteri she didn't recognize, seemed to be juggling while the others watched. Tavasz was among the crowd, sitting on a splintery crate while petting her Slorgclops in her lap.

     "I thought they only pretended to be a circus act," the Draik remarked as soon as she'd gotten close enough to be heard without shouting. Tavasz jerked in surprise, catching Hellebore with a paw just in time to keep her from tumbling out of her mistress's lap.

     "Sweet light of Kreludor, someone needs to put a bell on you," the Lutari laughed, shaking her head. Cleo snorted.

     "Moving quietly was part of my training. So I can rescue overconfident witches from a hoard of creeping shadows and not have them immediately spot me despite being white and pink."

     "Sure, rub it in," Tavasz said, rolling her eyes. "I also smell like a confectionary, so even if I could move with total stealth a lot of monsters here would still smell me."

     Cleo sat down in the dust beside Tavasz, watching the Pteri continue to juggle for the crowd. "You aren't actually made of candy, are you?"

     "No, of course not," the Lutari replied, laughing. "It's just a magical effect. I have fur and flesh the same as any other lutari, it just looks like gelatin and sugar frosting from far away. And smells like it up close."

     "Huh," Cleo mused, flicking her fingers absently and glancing back at the Lutari. "Does it taste sweet too?"

     Tavasz hooded her eyes, smirking. "You want to know how I taste?"

     "Wha- no! No, no, noooo nonono," the draik spluttered, realizing too late how bad that had sounded. "I'm, I'm sorry-"

     The Lutari cackled, kissing her Slorgclops atop the head. "For your information, yes, we do taste sweet! Sucks to be a candy or chocolate pet around hungry monsters, let me tell you!"

     Cleo moaned, pulling her hat down to cover her burning cheeks. "So. About those carnies?"

     "Oh, right," Tavasz said. As Cleo dared to look at the other Neopian again, she saw the lutari shrug. "I mean, if you're going to pretend to run a fairgrounds, it helps to know the tricks of the trade. And it's fun, having a bunch of stupid useless talents to entertain each other while we're quivering in our homes from the things that go bump in the night."

     "Like your ego would ever let you quiver," Cleo muttered. Tavasz snorted.

     "Trust me, there's plenty in these woods I'm not remotely qualified to tangle with," she replied. "I know my limits. Speaking of which, are you hungry?"

     "Oh, I… probably," Cleo admitted. "I usually can't tell until I'm so famished it starts to mess with my head."

     Tavasz squashed her brow, but whatever emotion she was feeling in response to that, she dismissed it before Cleo could puzzle it out. "All right then- have a roll, you'll want your strength up for when we get moving later."

     Cleo accepted a hand sized lump of bread from Tavasz, biting into it cautiously. Thankfully there were no offensive textures to it, and she continued with far more enthusiasm. The pteri at the center of the gathering was sitting down now, and a ruki was moving to take her place with an armload of puppets. It was… nice. Having leisure to sit and eat, being able to talk to another Neopian on a friendly basis.

     The bread stuck in Cleo's throat as guilt slammed her hard on the heels of the relief. It didn't matter that her life was exhausting, or monotonous, or lonely. It was a duty someone had to do. For the good of everyone in Faerieland.

     "Neopoint for your thoughts?" Tavasz said, startling Cleo back to reality. "I still can't really tell what's going on in your head half the time."

     "Just hoping the faeries agree to help us, I guess," the Draik replied with a noncommittal shrug. "I feel bad about abandoning my post, even if it was for a good reason."

     Tavasz opened her mouth, clearly meaning to reply- and then a scream cut through the fog.

     Cleo was on her feet in an instant, yanking her bow from the quiver and stringing it. "What in the world was that?"

     "Something a lot worse than chia clowns," Tavasz replied grimly. She'd also jumped to her feet, setting Hellebore down on the box and turning towards where more raised voices were now emanating. The carnies were moving swiftly around Cleo and Tavasz, some clearly bolting for hiding places while others were moving with grim purpose in the direction of the haunted weaponry shop. Tavasz gritted her teeth. "These people aren't warriors. They'll fight to defend themselves, but they'll get hurt."

     "Then it's up to us to see that they don't have to fight," Cleo replied, pumping her wings to take to the air. "Come on."

     "Right behind you."

     Cleo shot off through the sky towards the source of the noise, Tavasz running along the ground to catch up. The high vantage point gave Cleo a better view over the tops of the tents and stands, and she soon spotted the cause of the commotion through the swiftly thinning fog- an overturned spooky food cart, and standing over the frantically thrashing shopkeeper was a bright, acid green figure held up by eight spindly legs…

     "The spider Grundo!" Cleo called to Tavasz. "It's the spider Grundo!"

     The Draik heard Tavasz shout several words that the Grundo in question probably would not have taken as complimentary. Then there was no more time for talk, as her flight brought her within range to get a shot off. She put an arrow fluidly to the string, took aim, and fired.

     The green creature gave a cry of surprise and pain as the arrow hit him in the back, rearing up on the back four legs to look up at the one who'd shot him. As she'd already half expected, Cleo caught sight of a gold band around one of his legs when he reared. He hissed, mandibles clacking threateningly in Cleo's direction.

     "Hey, ugly!" Tavasz called, and the spider Grundo staggered fully off of the shopkeeper as a violet fireball collided with the side of his head. He looked towards her with a grimace.

     "Two on one? Now issss that fair?" he demanded.

     "Oh, cork it," Tavasz snapped. "You're just another one of Sloth's failed experiments that he let scuttle into the Woods to forget about. You can do what you want in your own territory, just like every monster here, but you start attacking villages and you get what's coming to you."

     Cleo's frill flattened. Letting monsters go free just felt like an invitation for them to attack settlements…

     Not the time for this, she reminded herself, swooping down behind the spider Grundo and taking advantage of his distraction to fire off another arrow. He snarled, rounding on her.

     "Okay, little biting fly, you're on," he snarled. His hand lashed towards her and she shot upwards again as a stream of webbing just missed her.

     At least this one isn't shrieking at me, Cleo thought grimly.

     Tavasz tried to hit the Grundo with her magic again, but this time he was better prepared, shooting more webbing out of his opposite hand to form a shield that bounced away her fireball. The Grundo shot more webbing towards Tavasz, but she dashed behind the cover of a nearby tent. The webbing was heavier than it looked, wrapping up the canvas and making it sag into itself.

     Cleo swallowed hard. As heavy as it was, if the webbing hit either of them they'd likely be downed as if by a weighted net. They needed to be careful. But her arrows didn't seem to be doing much more than annoying him…

     "Hey, Cleo!"

     The Draik gave a yip of surprise as a tiny, translucent purple Lutari head appeared next to her ear and spoke to her. The head rolled its eyes.

     "Calm down, it's me, Tavasz! I've got an idea, but I need you to divert his attention from me."

     Part of Cleo wanted to ask for elaboration, but with the spider Grundo stalking meaningfully towards Tavasz's hiding spot she knew she didn't really have the luxury. "Trust fall time, I guess," she muttered, pumping her wings and then turning her nose downward and tucking them close to her body in a dive. She fell downwards until she'd gained enough speed, then snapped her wings open and grabbed her buckler with the hand that wasn't presently grasping her bow. As she rocketed horizontally along the ground, she swung back the buckler like a boxer preparing for a knockout punch. Then, as she came up behind the Grundo, she clobbered him right on the back of the head with the metal shield.

     That certainly got his attention. He recoiled from the blow with a yowl of pain and fury. One of his forelegs slid out from under him and both of his arms reached up to grasp his head. Cleo flapped as hard as she could to bring herself around into his field of vision. Then, she stuck out her tongue at him and blew a raspberry before darting away.

     "You're going to regret that you overgrown conversation heart!" the Grundo roared, rounding towards her and motoring along the ground as fast as his legs could carry him. It turned out that he, like the spiders he was modeled on, could move pretty fast. Cleo barely managed to dodge a spear strike from one of his legs, and spun around backwards to bring up her buckler to block a second jab. She couldn't fly belly-up, however, and that move sent her tumbling out of the air. Cleo barely managed to kill the momentum of her fall by rolling when she collided with the earth, and as she got her bearings again she found the spider Grundo looming directly overhead.

     "Dinnertime," he hissed, shooting another jet of webbing at the Draik. She couldn't move quickly enough to get out of the way this time, and as the sticky, heavy substance hit her she could have retched. It felt awful, like the worst of maple syrup, mud, and school glue, and when she impulsively thrashed to get it off she only tangled herself up worse. And the bright green face of the spider Grundo was descending towards her, mandibles opening.

     Desperately, she curled her legs up to her chest, then kicked out with all of her strength. Her feet impacted his chin, and he yelped, backing away a few paces. Managing to get a grip on her rapier's hilt, she pulled it free and started frantically sawing at the webbing keeping her pinned. Then, abruptly, a deep voice cut over the din of the fight.

     "Ah- my prize emerges at last,"

     The spider Grundo stiffened, whirling towards the sound. "You- impossible!"

     Cleo didn't have the wherewithal to see what had distracted his attention. She could barely process anything going on around her, her nerves screeching everywhere the sticky webbing touched her. As the spider Grundo turned and moved away, however, someone else darted out from the shadows of one of the tents. It was a bearded lupe, one of the Deserted Fairground carnies.

     "Here, hold still," he hissed, hefting a bucket. Cleo obeyed, and he tossed a liquid at her that was dark blue and smelled of brine. To her relief, the webbing almost immediately started to dissolve as the fluid touched it.

     "Ha! We use this mess to clean up spyder webs, I hoped it'd work here too," the carnie whispered with a grin. "C'mon hero, you don't want to miss the show."

     Cleo blinked, giving a full body shudder as she struggled to shake off the lingering sense of webbing on her skin even as the last of it melted away. Show? What show?

     She looked in the direction the spider Grundo had moved… and lurched to her feet with a hiss of shock and terror. Standing there, right in the open, was the unmistakable figure of Doctor Sloth!

     "Really, did you think I put all these clown robots in the woods for no reason?" he was asking the obviously terrified monster. "No, no. They were my spies. Keeping watch in case any of my runaway prizes should show themselves. And finally my years of patient waiting have born fruit."

     Cleo's wings puffed up instinctively with her fright, and she reached behind her back for an arrow- but to her surprise, the lupe put a hand on her wrist, stopping her. She flinched away from the touch, glowering at him, but he only grinned and pointed to Sloth's feet.

     What-

     Then Cleo saw it- barely perceptible in the growing gloom of the sunset, the merest motes of purple fire dancing at the end of Sloth's robes. She looked past the alien, and sure enough she spotted Tavasz, one paw held out towards the image of the alien doctor, the lutari's eyes gleaming violet.

     It was just as she'd said- dark magic specialized in deception. An illusion. That's why she'd needed Cleo to distract the spider Grundo, so that she could gather the power to cast a convincing illusion of the monster's former master.

     And clearly it was having an effect. The mutated Grundo was staring at "Sloth" with a mixture of disbelief and horror. Then, he gritted his teeth and lunged one of his long, spindly legs at the illusion, piercing straight through it without effect.

     "What, did you think I was such a fool as to come down here personally?" the false Sloth demanded, folding his arms. "No, this is just a hologram."

     "You're supposed to be locked up in the Space Faerie's bauble!" the Grundo screeched. "You're not real, you can't hurt me! You'll never hurt me again!"

     "So you say," Sloth drawled, as behind him Cleo could see Tavasz sliding down onto one knee and trembling with exertion. He lifted a small ray gun of some kind, pointing it towards the Grundo. "But one blast from my mind control ray will fix the mistake I made all those years ago."

     The Grundo gave a screech that made Cleo flinch, gritting her teeth. But then he turned, skittering down the narrow lane of the Deserted Fairgrounds and towards the gate. Motoring as fast as his many legs could carry him, he rounded a corner towards the gate, and was gone.

     The fake Sloth wavered, then evaporated into motes of purple fire, and with a gasp Tavasz collapsed onto all fours. Cleo watched several of the carnies converge on her, but for the moment was herself rooted to the spot.

     He was… afraid. The spider Grundo was afraid. He's a monster that eats Neopians and pays his trauma forward a thousandfold… but he's still the way he is because of that trauma.

     It was a realization that made Cleo feel very nearly nauseous. Wasn't it what Tavasz had said, that the Woodlanders were standoffish and hostile towards outsiders because of bitterness and rejection by a world that had hurt them?

     If all the world rejected you as a monster, what other choice did you have than to become one?

     If not for Aethia… what might have happened to me?

     *

     Tavasz gently waved away the hands that were steadying her, laughing breathlessly. "I'm fine, honestly!" She pushed herself upright, and managed to regain her feet with only a little staggering. "It's just a lot of strain to maintain an illusion that complex for so long, that's all. Living creatures have a lot of details to feign after all!"

     She glanced towards Cleo, and saw that the Draik seemed to be wringing a dark blue substance out her clothes. A web-rid potion- anybody with sense in the Haunted Woods kept plenty onhand. The Lutari winced- if one of the carnies had soaked her in it, that must have meant that the spider Grundo got Cleo with his webbing.

     "Hey!" She called across the distance between them, trotting towards her beleaguered companion. "You all right? You mentioned earlier that sticky, gooey things make your sensitivity act up, I hope it wasn't too bad?"

     Cleo shuddered, flapping her arms forcefully. "It was awful. Zero out of ten, let's never do that again."

     Tavasz laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head. "Sorry, sorry- I needed his attention off me so I could move my hiding spot and build the illusion without it being really obvious what was actually going on. I didn't mean for you to get into that much trouble."

     "Well, I got his attention, so I guess that was a mission failed successfully," Cleo noted, though with her usual flat tone it was impossible to tell if she was being dry or bitter. Choosing to read it as a joke, Tavasz grinned.

     "That's the spirit- next massive hungry monster, you can take point on delivering the finishing blow, and I'll take the turn nearly getting ate."

     Cleo looked up at Tavasz, cocking her head to the side. "Well. I guess given what you said earlier, you would make for the more enticing bait."

     The carnies who were still gathered around snickered at this, Harker punching Tavasz lightly on the shoulder and quipping, "She's got you there." Tavasz chuckled ruefully, shrugging.

     "I'm got indeed. And fair's fair for getting you all gooped up. I am really sorry, that was definitely not my intention."

     Cleo's eyebrows shot up, then pinched. Before Tavasz could try to guess what had prompted that reaction, however, she shook her head. "It's all right- as much my fault for being impulsive as anything." She then turned, and pointed over Tavasz's shoulder. "Though we'll have to put the apologies aside for the moment- we've got company."

     Surprised, Tavasz looked around, and grinned when she spotted a swarm of purple motes. "Aaah- the dark faeries come to give us their answer. Good, it's past time we got moving."

     As the Lutari moved towards where the swarm was descending, Cleo noted, "Always assuming they have agreed to help. I wouldn't blame them if they haven't."

     Tavasz had been about to give a stern rebuke at Cleo's pessimism, but the rebuttal died unspoken in her mouth at the second half of Cleo's statement. Had she actually just admitted that the dark faeries might have valid reason to refuse to help their Faerieland sisters?

     She didn't have time to try and process this sudden change of temper, however. The dark faerie who seemed to be the speaker for the swarm landed in front of them, flaring with light as she assumed her full size.

     "So, I see you two can hold your own against monsters at least," she mused, smirking at them from under her amethyst eyeshadow. "Perhaps you can best whatever force stalks the deep wood. Though you, of all, should know that there are no shining heroes among us Woodlanders."

     Tavasz frowned, folding her arms. "Yet."

     "We'll have to hope that attitude doesn't get you eaten," the faerie said. "We have agreed to give you our protection for faerieland until the dark of the moon- two days from now."

     "That isn't much time," Cleo said, her wingtips fluttering. The faerie shrugged.

     "Better move fast then, hm? It goes against our nature to help their pretty little city at all, Aethia's pet- you should count yourself fortunate we agreed to this much."

     "We appreciate your help," Tavasz cut in, hoping against hope Cleo would just stop talking for once. "We'll get moving- thank you."

     "Of course," the faerie drawled. "Woodlanders stick together."

     Then, with a flash, she shrunk down again, and the swarm zipped off into the starry sky.

     "Stars- sheesh, I didn't notice how late it had gotten," Tavasz said, laughing. "All right, Cleo, you heard them; we only have two days to get this done, so we'd better get a move on."

     The draik nodded, her eyes lingering on the sky overhead. "Right. Let's hurry."

     As the duo wended their way through the Fairgrounds, there were several cheery calls after them. Spotting the nearly-devoured shopkeeper from the Spooky Foods stall, Tavasz called, "I left Hellebore by the firepit if you need something to cuddle."

     He made a rude gesture at the Lutari, though he did start off in that direction. As they passed out of the Fairgrounds, Cleo asked softly, "Will he be all right?"

     "Shakey for a bit, likely, but he'll be okay," she replied. "You get used to close calls, living here."

     Cleo held up a hand to the sky, making a V shape with her thumb and forefinger and squinting at it as she walked alongside Tavasz into the trees. "I guess that makes sense. I had to, after all."

     "I suppose you did," Tavasz agreed, tapping a talon against the moon that pinned her cloak around her shoulders. "I… hadn't considered that. How it must've been, getting used to living here if you weren't born to it. How long were you all alone in the forest fringes?"

     Cleo flicked the fingers of the hand she wasn't holding up to the sky. "When I got here, the Sleeper was high along the horizon. It's gone, and the First to Rise is visible, so… eight months? Give or take."

     Tavasz hissed sharply out of her teeth. "I can't imagine. You've gone that long without resting or taking any time off?"

     "Well up until recently, the monsters weren't super frequent at least," she admitted. "So most nights it was just a lot of walking or flying around, getting used to the terrain." Her frills drooped, and she added, "And honestly I'm… used to it. Being alone. At least out here nobody is giving me a hard time for being blunt or curt or not getting all the stupid little social rules."

     "Nobody until a certain loud-mouthed Lutari?" Tavasz asked, a gently joking lilt entering her voice. Cleo actually laughed at that, finally letting her hand drop from above her head.

     "Very chatty, that Lutari. Keeps trying to make conversation and distracting me from my stargazing."

     "You calculated time by the constellations earlier," Tavasz observed. "You like stars, hm?"

     "Since I was a toddler," she confirmed, chuckling. "Dad likes to tell a story about when I was six, and he was having a barbeque with his squad. One of the other knights pointed at the sky and said, 'Look Cleo, a shooting star!' and I retorted, 'it's not actually a star, it's a meteor! Stars is giant balls of burning gas and meteors are just rocks burning up in the atmosphere!'"

     That startled a choked laugh out of Tavasz. "I don't think I could've given the vocabulary word 'atmosphere' until I was at least twelve or so. I'm surprised you didn't get a job with the space faerie."

     "Mira doesn't really take on understudies," Cleo pointed out. "Or I probably would have. I'd really like to visit the Space Station or Kreludor someday. Maybe both if I'm lucky."

     "Well," Tavasz said, making a poking motion towards the draik without actually touching her. "I think you have eight months worth of uncollected paychecks, including a whole lot of overtime pay, and a ton of banked leave you should totally actually use."

     Cleo laughed, shaking her head. "I don't think that's how it works."

     "Then you need a better union," the Lutari said firmly.

     "Oh? Are you going to teach me the ways of labour activism, then? What'd the Neovians call you, 'friendly neighborhood vagabond'?"

     "Exactly! I'm my own boss!" Tavas shot back. "I take whatever odd jobs folks need a witch for, and make my own decisions about what is or is not a reasonable gig! I can teach you the refined art of saying no!"

     "You sure you want to do that? I might turn it against you someday."

     Tavasz's throat stuck at that, though from what emotion she couldn't have said. Fear that she actually would abandon their mission? Guilt that Tavasz might herself be someone who Cleo should refuse?

     She forced herself not to dwell on it, instead giving a laugh that she hoped Cleo wouldn't hear the nervousness underscoring. "W-well, I…"

     But no witty rejoinder came to her, and she trailed off into awkward silence. She needed Cleo. This wouldn't work if Tavasz did it alone. But…

     The silence must have hung for a hair too long, because the draik's frill drooped and she flicked her fingers. "Ah, I'm sorry, that was rude wasn't it? I said something stupid. I'm sorry."

     "No, n-no, you're okay!" Tavasz said hurriedly, wincing internally. Forcing a smile back on her face, she joked, "I'm just… not used to pretty girls threatening to shoot me down, that's all."

     That did it- Cleo blushed, fluttering her wings and looking away. "Sweet Fyora, you're terrible."

     "Hey, I meant it," the lutari insisted. "Nothing terrible about stating the obvious."

     Cleo looked up at Tavasz, her cheeks as pink as the hearts that adorned her scales. "Well your first lesson at turning people down has been a resounding failure."

     Tavasz was surprised when a slightly breathy giggle emerged from her mouth. "We'll work on it."

     To be continued…