A Day in Another's Shoes: Part Two

     The faerie mumbled and turned around to sit on her bed. She bent down to get her shoes, put them on and have a good morning exercise when she stopped.

     Her shoes were gone! The shock awakened the faerie fully as she looked around for her shoes. Who could've taken them, those special old sneakers that only she was allowed to use?

     Ignicia sighed. Oh well, she'd just have to go and get another pair from her... wardrobe? The faerie examined the room she was in and noted that it didn't have a wardrobe.

     What in the world was going on here? Confused, Ignicia took a look at the ceiling where her mirror was. Instead there was a creepy fountain-like chandelier looking as if it was going to fall off any second.

     The faerie got off her bed and landed on her... tail? Ignicia looked at what was supposed to be her feet, but it was a tail. A blue, scale-covered, ugly, inconvenient tail.

     Slowly an idea formed inside her head. The faerie scanned the room for a mirror, dragged herself to it and looked at her reflection.

     "AHH!" she screamed after five seconds, touching her face with the thin and cold hands of a Water faerie.

     "Why her?" was Ignicia's next thought. She shuddered as she tried to recover from the shock of discovering that she was now in her archenemy's body.

     Quickly the faerie drew some conclusions. If she was in Undula's body, then that meant Undula was in hers. But why had she ended up like this? Who had made this happen?

     Ignicia decided that she would find out. The single thing that she hoped right now was that she wouldn't stuck being Undula forever. Then a slightly mischievous thought crossed her mind, and a wicked grin tugged at the faerie's lips. She could have fun with this.

     She quickly exited her room, after decorating her hair with the least aquatic seashells she could find. Ignicia rolled her eyes when she saw the huge set of hairpins and other various accessories that Undula possessed.

     "Why does she even bother being pretty?" Ignicia thought as she put on the glasses. Suddenly she could see much better than before. Surprised, the faerie took off the glasses and the world reverted to a blurry mess that she had seen when she woke up. She had no idea that Undula's sight was this bad.

     Ignicia thought of all the times she had teased the poor Water faerie for being four-eyed. Maybe it had been wrong... The faerie shook her head. No. She didn't have time to think about this. Ignicia had to go out there and fix this problem. Since she had already decided that she wouldn't want to stay Undula forever, she had to do something.

     The faerie put her hand on the doorknob, but stopped. She remembered how clumsily she had dragged herself to the mirror. That occurrence would not occur again, if Ignicia had her way.

     For the next fifteen minutes, the faerie practiced hard on walking the way water faeries did. Ignicia grunted and moved that clumsy tail around, trying not to lose her balance. Finally she could manage a somewhat decent walk, after getting several scales ripped off by landing on the ground during practice.

     "It's not like I want to do this or whatever," she thought, "I'd rather eat Woo Woo Grub than be Undula, but if I don't look like the real deal..." Ignicia shook her head. "I guess I have to play her until I can return to myself."

     Then, sitting on the ground and touching her new tail, Ignicia thought of what she would've done now. Then she got up grumpily, sore at the fact that if she had been in her old body, she would've just put on her sneakers and walked away.

     With a lot of effort, the faerie opened the door. Immediately she saw a group of Water faeries that she had known for a long time as the Seven Scary Princesses of the Sea. Ignicia knew that they were very self-absorbed and bullied other faeries around, but she had never submitted to their feeble attempts at power.

     "Hello, Undula," the leader of them waved. Ignicia chose to ignore her, since that malicious tone the other faerie was using didn't bode well.

     "I'm not Undula," the faerie thought as she strode past the seven water faeries. "I just look like Undula."

     "Wait a minute!" another one of the seven faeries called out. Ignicia froze. Had they already discovered that she wasn't the real deal? The faerie shuddered and moved quicker.

     "Not so fast," a third water faerie said. "Four-eyed freak."

     The Fire faerie that was in the body of a Water faerie froze yet again. It was exactly the same thing she had told Undula. Ignicia tried to blast off at top speed, forgot that she had a tail instead of two feet and fell on the ground.

     "Ah, that's a shame, isn't it?" the fourth water faerie said.

     "Too bad," the leader said, putting a large metal staff on Ignicia's tail. "Just stay here."

     "Yeah," the second sniggered. "It's your place."

     "Below us."

     "Under us."

     "Get it? Under us... Undula!" the fifth said, but got thwacked in the head by the leader's staff.

     "Don't be too friendly," the leader warned. "Or we might end up as the Six Princesses of the Sea."

     "And it's not that funny," the second one added.

     Ingicia could feel the flames of humiliation flare up inside her. She had encountered mean people and fought back in return, but a personal experience like this with the Seven Royally Saucy Princesses was something on a whole different level.

     She thought about how Undula had yelled at her for not understanding. Well, at least she understood a little bit more now.

     "Ugly witches," Ignicia muttered as she got up.

     "What did you call us?" the first one screeched, turning around. "Ugly?"

     "I did," the faerie said, knowing that this was a bad idea. But Ignicia was Ignicia, hotheaded and always acting on impulse. She drew out her wand and started on a big-scale curse but another few thwacks at that tail made her lose her concentration.

     "You can't cast spells anyway," the second water faerie said. "Just remember how it went for that poor fountain last time. They're still making reparations."

     Ignicia shuddered. Suddenly she remembered that Undula was probably the worst spellcaster alive. It would seem that she could not fight back in her usual way. But she would have revenge, oh yes...

     The faerie looked at her poor tail and then at the seven water faeries. It didn't take an idiot to figure out what their weak point was.

     "This is for you," she thought as she opened her book-bag for some weapons. She had expected cool stuff, since it had been heavy, but all she found were books on brewing potions, healing, mind-reading, hypnotism and a couple of adventure novels. Ignicia rolled her eyes. Typical Undula to keep books in a book-bag. Besides the books, there were several nice, sharp pencils and a surprisingly expensive back-up wand.

     Ignicia decided that her best bet would be those pencils. Being Ignicia, she was not about to give up, which she suspected that Undula did. The faerie grabbed a few and thanked her Ultimate Bullseye-obsessed cousin for tutoring her on how to aim.

     The faerie grinned evilly when she heard seven loud voices scream in unison. She had gotten her petty little revenge, but there were more important things to do. Reminding herself that she didn't want to be stuck as Undula forever, Ignicia quickly took off, this time carefully checking her tail every five seconds.

     A few faeries turned around the corner, but Ignicia did not pay attention, as she was too busy making sure that she would not fall. The faerie bumped into the group and fell.

     "Sorry," she quickly apologized.

     "Sorry," the leader of the group said. Their eyes bulged when they saw her. "Nevermind. It's you, four-eyes."

     "What?" Ignicia burst out, looking at the group. It was her semi-friends, the faeries she did homework with. "What did you just call me?"

     "Four-eyes," the group echoed.

     "I'm not..." the faerie started, but remembered that she was Undula now and actually had glasses. The annoyance of it all! If she had been in her own body, they would've been talking with each other and perhaps making jokes. Ignicia gritted her teeth. She had to remember who she was, and with some effort she got up.

     "Well, see ya around, if you still have any eyes," the group chorused, moving on. Ignicia sighed of relief, and caught herself doing that.

     "Why am I doing that?" she asked herself. She had always been confident, never cowering or submissive like that water faerie. Ignicia rolled her eyes. Being Undula was horrible, since this stupid body didn't let her do any of the normal things she could do. She hoped that Undula had equal trouble managing her body, assuming that they had switched.

     "Enjoying your day?" Miss Acacia said, passing the water faerie. Judging by the way the so-called Undula walked, she knew that their spell had been successful.

     Ignicia did not reply. It wasn't wise to confront a teacher. Wait! Where was all that cleverness coming from? She pinched her arm and hoped that being stuck in Undula's body did not mean being Undula in brain-wise too. Then again, she could get perfect A's this way...

     The faerie shook her head. She felt attacked from everyone... From the faeries that were of her kind, the natural enemies and even a teacher! Ignicia couldn't stand it anymore! Impulsively she blew a raspberry after the Math teacher and took off.

     Again she fell to the ground, forgetting to how to walk with the tail. Ignicia got up indignantly as several fire faeries nearby giggled and walked off in the direction of the yard. This hallway, with all those mean faeries, was suffocating her.

     After a few repeated falls of trying to get revenge on all the students that seemed not to be able to help themselves to laugh, Ignicia finally reached the yard. Suddenly she stopped.

     There, right in front of the fountain in the middle of the yard, was something brown... Something familiar. Her shoes! Feeling hopeful, Ignicia ran towards the shoes. She could just imagine putting them on the tail and then turning back to her old self.

     "Ignicia?"

To be continued...