Author's Note: A side-story set in the same world as The Fallen Ascending, but which doesn't have immediate impact on Mik'Hail or the others. I thought I'd share this one so people might get a little more understand of Crystal's reaction and reasoning when Michael awoke yelling, "I'm telling! I'm telling! I'm telling!"
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High on a lonely mountain sat a dark and sinister pyramid. Located on the conflux of two powerful mana flows, it sat upon a node of immense power. And tonight, tonight it was being used for dark and unholy rites.
Boreas Plaguebringer stood confidently atop the pyramid and drew upon the conflux of magical energy gathered all around. The sacrifices had been sufficient. The pentagram was correct. The time of the moons was proper. All was in place as it should be, and he was at the apex of his power.
With supreme confidence, he began the long and arduous ritual of summoning, intent on releasing one of the Lords of Hell so he could make a bargain with them. For long hours, he wove and shaped the power under the moonlight, and then at long last the mountain alit in an unholy glow.
Thunder crackled. Lightning crashed down dangerously all around. Flames erupted and covered each terrace of the pyramid step by step as it rose from the bottom to the top. A swirling mass of black and red hellfire grew, expanded, and covered the sky above.
First, no larger than a mouse hole in the sky, it twirled and drilled its way through the barrier between creation, getting ever larger by the minute. It became a hole large enough for a man to step through. Then large enough for an elephant. On and on it expanded, until it twirled and crackled with seemingly limitless power as a rift cracked open nearly as large as the whole mountain itself.
With a single loud blast that flattened trees for miles around, something ominous flew through the portal, closing it almost instantly as it absorbed the maelstrom of energy in a single moment. “BRRRRAAAPP!!” A single small figure fluttered down to hover in front of Plaguebringer. Naked, and standing no taller than a hand’s span high, the little female laughed and flipped happily.
“Sorry, Master! I burped! It was funny!” Glitter sprinkled from the creatures wings and the wizard’s face grew pale with fear as sweat began to drip, falling unnoticed off the end of his nose.
“I release you!” Plaguebringer yelled, desperately.
“Sorry! My Master has pulled me here from the Hells and I must obey him. I cannot be released from my bond without fulfilling my obligations to Master.” The little woman hovered impossibly in thin air, never flapping her wings, nor falling as gravity would naturally dictate. She had a firm look on her face and spoke in a detached, unemotional way.
“Then I command you to leave!” Plaguebringer screamed.
Instantly leaves blossomed all across the mountain. Vibrant reds, yellows, and oranges covered the ground for miles around. Plaguebringer’s most powerful protection, his Robe of the Midnight Sun, disappeared and he was wearing nothing more than twigs and leaves from head to toe. “Thy wish be done, My Master,” the little woman said, without a hint of emotion.
“NOOOOO!!!” Plaguebringer screamed in frustration and blasted the figure in front of him with his strongest magic. Instantly the little creature screamed, fell to the ground and began to rot and decay.
“Oooooooohhhhh! That was funny!” A shimming, rainbow-hued soul floated and hovered in thin air, staring down and watching her corpse as it slowly rotted and faded away. “Can you do it again? Can you?!” Getting excited, the spirit flipped and did loops in thin air as flesh slowly began to regrow over its form.
First, a layer of bones grew and reformed in the center of the spirit, making a skeleton which floated and flapped freely with the soul wrapped around it. The flesh slowly grew out over the bones, and finally brilliant purple hair grew from the head and was tossed erratically up and down as the wings flapped and fluttered, spraying glitter everywhere.
“NOOOOO!!!” Plaguebringer screamed in frustration once again and used his magic to teleport himself half across the world in an attempt to escape. Wildly, he looked around. There, off to his left, was the little female; floating and composed once more as if nothing had happened. Inwardly, he shivered as a feeling of despair crept over him.
With a snarl, he grabbed the little female and teleported it off to the center of an active volcano. Without taking a moment to pause, he teleported himself all the way to the frigid arctic and raised every ward against traveling and detection that he knew. Shivering, and not from the cold, Plaguebringer desperately waited for several moments.
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“Hiyas! Kingy Poo, I’m telling! I’m telling! I’m telling!” A small naked female appeared in the middle of the king’s court, and hovered directly in front of him. Startled petitioners looked around, displeased at the interruption, but the old man on the throne simple nodded and turned his attention to the little glitter-winged female.
“Yes, my dear? What do you have to tell me today?” He stroked his beard with one hand and completely ignored the wealthy looking merchant who stood mouth agape and sputtered.
“Your majesty! I protest! I was here first!” The important looking man was slightly red faced and shook his fist back and forth. Several of the knights standing watch at the throne quivered lightly and said prayers for mercy for the idiot.
“Nuh-Uh!” The little female waved her hands and the merchant disappeared. “I’M TELLING!!” She screamed and flipped. Glitter sprayed everywhere, sprinkling the throne room, the king, and even several of the knights nearby.
“Yes. Yes.” The old king nodded politely and patiently. “What was you telling again?”
“Demons screaming! Master summoned! Not come visit for a while! Hells me visiting was! AHHH!! Swoosh! Pop! Volcano leaves burnt me! I’m trapped!!” The little female yelled, flipped, and then disappeared.
Slowly the old king raised his head and held his hand out towards his scribe. He’d gotten messages from excited Children of Chaos before. They usually always managed to convey the message they intended, but they could seldom get it out in the proper order. Messages from Chaos sometimes took a little deciphering to do.
“Someone get one of the wizards to see if they can summon the Lord Jacob back from wherever he went,” the king muttered, without much concern. If a fool wants to interrupt a fairy, it’s not his fault even if they ended up in a dragon’s stomach.
Focusing his attention to the message, he ignored the sound effects and tried to arrange the words so they made more sense. After a few moments, he looked up and around to his knights. “See if this sounds right,” He commanded. “Volcano leaves burnt me! Hells me visiting was! Demons screaming! Master summoned! I’m trapped!! Not come visit for a while!”
Lord Brightblade nodded. “It seems as if the pieces fit, my Lord. The Little One died in a volcano eruption in a forest and went to the Hells. Which, of course, set all the demons to screaming and panicking. Someone summoned and trapped them, and now she can’t come visit for a while.” Pausing for a moment, he shook his head sadly. “Poor demons. Even they don’t deserve that.”
“Poor summoner!” The king laughed. “I don’t want to know how he trapped her, but I want word spread to all the knights, guards, and hunters of the land. If they see this summoner, they are NOT to approach, talk, arrest, nor interfere with him. He’s trapped a fairy; he’s beyond our help now.”
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Several years passed, and Plaguebringer tried every trick he knew to get rid of his summons. All to no use. He sold her, she came back. He killed her, she healed. He trapped her in a cage, she landed on his shoulder to see what he’d caught. For many years, Plaguebringer had the joy of his summoned familiar help him with his everyday life.
For his breakfast, she helped him experience new and untold tastes. Paint thinner in his eggs. Daisy petals in his bread. Worms in his coffee. After all, food can get soooo bland, if one doesn’t spice it up.
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She helped him with all his alchemy experiments. Adding in herbs, ingredients, spices to help make the ‘nasty yucky’ look prettier, smell better, or burn brighter. Never did he produce the same boring result twice in a row, and never did he produce what he was wanting to produce. Life’s just much better when somethings a surprise!
She helped him learn more and more about his magic. A simple summoning of a goblin might result in a fifty-foot bear appearing and trying to eat them! Spells to create water created waterfalls, ice cubes, or liquid fire. No matter what he attempted, his familiar had to help.
Eventually Plaguebringer simply sat and did nothing. He would’ve starved himself to death, but his familiar keep tending to him and feeding him. She painted him. She dressed him. She sang to him. She cooked herself in soup and had him eat.
Deeper and deeper into his own living hell, Plaguebringer fell. His mind drifted. He simply gave up. Dreams of world conquest had been shattered. Dreams of being a mighty war-wizard had been shattered. Now he simply wanted peace and quiet. Anything for even a moment’s peace and quiet!! But, he couldn’t get that; he had a fairy taking care of him that he’d trapped…
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Another few years passed, when a young man was walking down the road leading a mule when a small young woman with wings appeared before him. “I’m telling! I’m telling! I’m telling! Guess what!”
“Wha.. What?!” The boy staggered back and fell onto his butt.
“Awwww! You guessed!” The little woman pouted, then laughed, and then flew down and kissed him on the cheek, scattering glitter all across him. “I likes you!” She declared suddenly.
“Well, that’s nice. I suppose I like you too,” the young man said, smiling.
“Oh goodie!” The little female did a flip in thin air, spraying glitter everywhere. “Then you can come save me! I’m trapped!”
“You’re trapped?” The boy asked, confused.
“Uh-Huh! My Meanie-Weanie Lord has trapped me. I can’t get away from him. I’m stuck by his side forever and ever!”
“Are you certain?”
“I dunno!” The little woman shrugged and then flipped. “Maybe I got away, but I don’t think so. Let me go check!” With a poof of rainbow colored smoke, she disappeared and was gone for several moments.
Reappearing, she squealed in excitement. “He’s still got me! I’m still trapped! I just went back to the cage he trapped me in, and I was still there! You gots to come save me!”
“I.. I don’t know if I can. I’m just a farmer,” the boy said hesitantly.
“That’s OK! I like farmers! They grow pretty things! You can save me!” Fluttering, she grabbed hold of his arm and frantically started tugging him down the road in the opposite direction that he was going in.
“Is it far?” He asked, balking to backtrack.
“Nuh-uh! Just three skips across Uncle Earth’s back! We’ll be there in no time!”
“Well, I guess…”
Laughing, the girl tugged him and he took a hesitant step forward. The ground zoomed by in a rush, and he was standing on a small island, surrounded by swamp. A second step and the ground zoomed by again, stopping with him inside a building surrounded by naked girls about his age who were all bathing. They screamed and tossed towels as he took a third step and the ground blurred past once more, leaving him in front of a rickety old wagon with a long bearded, dazed looking, old man sitting in the driver’s seat.
“See! See! He’s got me!” The little woman pointed to a small cloth covered rectangle that sat near the driver’s leg. “I’ll go check, but I think I’m still in there!” With a poof of rainbow smoke, she was gone again.
“I’m still in here! I’m here!” The tiny voice yelled from under the cloth, and the boy walked over to lift it away. Underneath it was a small wooded cage, with the young fairy inside. “See! See! I’m trapped!” She was bouncing and hopping from foot to foot in the confines of the cage.
Taking a moment to look at the old man, who simply drooled expressionlessly, the boy slowly reached and opened the cage. Sticking his hand inside, he wrapped it around the small female and pulled her out.
“I’m free! I’m free!” The little fairy flipped, spun, and yelled in delight! “You saved me! You’re my hero! With a spraying of glitter which covered the area, the boy and fairy was suddenly standing in front of a room full of people eating lunch.
“Hiyas Kingy-Wingy! I’m back!” The little fairy spun and flipped freely, scattering glitter in everyone’s food and drinks. “I’m telling! I’m telling! Guess what?” Zipping over, she landed and sat straddle the old king’s nose.
“Hmmm?” Blinking, he reached and lifted his drink, holding it out in front of his face. “Gift me some honey, child? Then you can tell me what you need to.”
“Sure!” Doing a backwards flip off his nose, she hovered above his cup and squeeze honey from her tiny little breasts. Once the cup was full almost to the point of spilling over, she flew over to the old queen’s cup and filled it as well. “For you both, since you’re so nice!” Looking up, she giggled wildly as all the clothes simply disappeared off the royal couple and left them sitting there naked in their aged glory.
“Thank you, dear,” the Queen said with a small smile. “Now, what exactly did you have to tell us all?”
“I’m free!” The little female flipped and zoomed around the whole room, scattering dust everywhere. Most simply continued eating and drinking as if nothing unusual was occurring, having experienced the Children of Chaos before in their lifetimes. Fairies were rare and elusive creatures, but they were drawn to those of high authority; to those that made the laws, or enforced the laws, or blatantly found themselves above the laws. Even in the wildest Heart of Chaos, there exists an endless love for Order.
“Well good! Good!” The old king lifted his cup in toast.
“Uh-Huh! He saved me!” She flew over and sat on the quiet young man’s head, and pointed down at him.
“Good for you, young man!” The naked old king rose and slowly walked over to hold out a hand to the boy. “Excellent job! You deserve a reward!”
“He does! He does!” The little fairy bounced and then giggled. “I know! He can marry your granddaughter!”
“My granddaughter?” The old king slowly stroked his beard. “Which one? I have three of them. The oldest is seventeen, the youngest is fourteen, with the middle one being sixteen.”
“Oh! Oh! Oh!” The little fairy zipped up, spun around the room, flew out one window and then in through the middle of the adjacent wall. “All of them!” She finally declared, decisively.
“All of them?” The king asked, uncertain. “The oldest is under a contract already.”
“It’s been voided!” The fairy boldly exclaimed.
“It has?”
“See! Even you said it has! There’s no problem now!” Flying over, she kissed the young man on the nose and hugged him. “There now! You’ve been rewarded. I gots to go; the Kingy-Wingy in the Hells is probably missing me and I need to go say hi to him again! I’ll come back and see you again though!”
With a sudden loud pop, a shimmering portal opened in the corner of the room. A scene of hellfire and demonic creatures snarling and snapping at each other came into view. As they noticed the portal, they pounced in a swarm, trying to escape.
“Hiyas!” Laughing wildly, the little fairy flew to the front of the portal and waved erratically. Instantly, the wave of demonic beasts screeched and stopped – some so rapidly that they fell and flipped end over end. “Hey! That’s a neat dance! I think it’s new! Come show it to me!” Zipping through the portal and into the Hells, the wings started to instantly burn and melt away on the little fairy, but she didn’t seem to notice at all. As the portal closed, demons howled and screeched, then bolted in all directions.
“Well, my boy,” the old king reached out a hand and gently patted him on the shoulder. “Come join us for lunch, and welcome to the family.”