One of them looks familiar, very like how she herself had looked
until a couple of days ago.
Fred the Faire Folke
Now, awhile ago my new friends made mention of the fact that one
of the accursed back on "Nantucket Earth" (what a strange name for a world.....
"Earth"......similar to "Dirt") had a rather negative reaction to one woman
named Inquirer when he saw the red barrette she wore (re: 15618). Something
in their developing nature took over for a moment and made them act strangely
out of character......
Just as this.....creature before us does now!
Oh, I guess I should have realized it earlier, but I was too busy being
distracted by that cold.... cold presence of the Unseelie curse trying
to reach out and ensnare me....despite it being too late..... I'm too far
gone into Seelie territory for it to reverse me now (perhaps it's too late
for this "Chrystallic" to do anything in that area as well......I only
hope that if that is the case this magical item can help the others). I
keep this fear to myself, however. I know that since I've been touched
by this curse......that I must participate in the cure.....or all will
be for naught. Anyway, all these thoughts are flirting through my mind
and I fail to note the strange....evilly fey look that comes to this poor
wretch's face a split second before it (she?) roars and dives at me.....
it's first intended victim to seal it's change permanently with the blood
of a victim....
I shout and swoop out of the way (having wings....is rather exhilarating),
all the while fighting the urge to caste a defensive spell that all of
the faire folk know instinctively. That and I also fight the urge to call
forth from the aether a fairy sword coated with a sleeping toxin (making
the otherwise silly thing effective against man sized and larger creatures).
All faire folk have this ability, and if I use them I seal the transformation
on myself and seal the doom for this poor wretch trying to attack me and
those other unfortunates as well....
Dragon Sigin
I blink when I see what I think is an analog of Astra (if one uses their
imagination you'd see the underlying truth to the partly transformed goblin
creature before us) leap at the strangely silent Fred the fairy.
Working on reflex, I leap out and pivot on my hip as I intercept the
still leaping creature. I redirect the leap to cause her to land in a heap
in some nearby bushes.
Apparently the bestial side of the woman has eclipsed her warrior reflexes,
or else I'd rather doubt I'd have been able to so easily have thrown her.
Despite all my centuries of practice of the martial arts (in addition to
the meditation techniques I'd learned under the Eastern Dragons of my world),
neither the Freds or Astras I've met are easy meat. Oh, I'm sure I could
take them in hand to hand combat, especially after what I've learned in
sparing with my liege lord, Count Probe.....but that's neither here or
there...
The goblin/woman rises, shakes her head and then gives off a despairing
moan.
"What in the name of the gods am I doing?" she whispers, horror in her
voice.
"Are you under control, now?" Andrea calls to her, spell ready to knock
her out if need be.
"Do you recognize us?" Astra 9 calls out, knowing that if this is the
one they actually sought AND she had herself under control, then she'd
recognize (or actually....mistake them) for the Jarlath 2's group (with
the exception of the male pixie named Fred).
"I....my name is Thessamar ix'latl...and I'm a fool," she says softly
(noting a hard rasp in her voice....now), "As for you all.....except the
male pixie and the dragon mage.....are the friends from the Red Pyramid.....
I...... think?"
There was something suitably different about them that she just couldn't
put her finger on here....
She then blinks again, wondering just how she knew that the stranger
in this group is a dragon mage.....
Hmmm, the curse at work....I think, I think to myself, recognizing
an innate fairy ability in the works here.
"Please.....is there something you can do......?" the proud warrior
woman asks silently, pleading.
"That's why we're here," Jarlath says, smiling as he pulls out the Key.
The teleporting had worked last time when his group had been deflected
by a bit on Fred 5a's world. Maybe the Key would be able to work again
without having to be taken to the intended insertion co-ordinates on this
world....
"Here we go," I say, just before we....vanish.
They all disappear without a flash of light, teleported by a hybrid
of magic and science....and the one's who'd been watching silently and
speaking silently (unheard) in quiet discussion on how to deal with the
perversion before them (Thessamar ix'latl)....gape openly in surprise.
It had been so quickly done that they'd not even had a chance to use
a spell to keep track of where these.....humans and such (but not mortals)
were heading. Even then, such was the power of King Oberon and the Queen
of the Light Elves (Queen Chimalos), that they should be able to
tell where these others go...even if to other realities than this.
That's how they'd been able to seek out and finally catch the Oracle
after a mere decade (a short time indeed for the Faire folk) on the hunt.
Indeed, they'd expected to take twice as long (four decades could be spent
away before these rulers feared for their respective courts....the world
of the Faire Folk was a slow....stately progression....much unlike the
hustle and bustle of mortal life). But now.....
"Where did they go?" Oberon asks, feeling stupid for having blurted
out that silly question.
Most unseeming!
"I know not," the Queen answers truthfully, composing herself, "But
I fear out business now, by need, is at an end. There is nothing more for
it, alas."
"Indeed," Oberon sighs, chalking this up as on par in strangeness with
that odd business with the "lateral" transfer of that one other adult human
being turned fairy woman (re: 13547).
The King disappears, longing to now return to his wife, Titania. As
he goes, he silently berates himself for having been so foolish to ignore
her....instead dallying with mortal lasses instead. That one midsummers
night had....as the mortals had put it....been a "walk up call" for the
proud, olden King of the Faire Folk. Puck had asked the heavens "What fools
the mortals be...." that night. Oberon now admitted, silently, that he'd
been much more the fool than any ten mortals combined......until now.
When and if that transformation was finally completed on that young
pixie, Oberon would then feel it in his bones....and thus would then be
able to track him and the others down. Until then....back to his Court....and
his wife!
The Queen of the Light Elves gives a small sigh, also putting this into
her mind this event being on par with her own strange encounter with those
odd Light Elf changelings earlier (re: 13551). She had royal business to
attend to....and an never ending war against her Dark Elven foes. Time
to get back to it.
Thus was left behind the ones called Pablo and Jossie. The spell that
had altered Pablo's features to that of a young "jet setter" soon fails
(not being renewed by the Oracle), as well as the translater spell. Pablo
gets deported to a strange nation he's never heard of.....but who speak
a language similar to his home tongue. The place is called "France." Pablo
finds he's soon reduced to a lifestyle even worse than what he enjoyed
as a poor member of the D'Honaire clan. A lowly menial worker.... Jossie....soon
gets picked up for being....overly friendly with the local males. The local
police soon find her to be a regular visitor to their jail for that....business.
Such is life, unfortunately for some.
Back on Terra Prime
"Didn't I just teleport you already?" Dr. Vincent asks in an odd voice.
"We did before but we haven't already yet," Jarlath explained
helpfully.
Vincent looked at him blankly.
"The Doctor is involved," Astra 9 sighed.
"Oh! That explains it all," Dr. Vincent Priceless chuckles, right before
sending the Champions back to Nantucket Earth.
He then turns to the two Bobos and sighs.
-
 "I do hate
it when they keep me in the dark like this," he says sadly. His two "children"
nod their toaster head, not disagreeing with their "father."
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