Puck was really, really bored. And in all of history, there has never been a being quite as dangerous as one of the fae is when bored. A dragon may burn down a village and eat its inhabitants, but a dragon is merely a predator. A bored fae is a force of nature with a taste for cruelty. A hurricane gives no thought to the destruction it causes. The fae may delight and laugh to see monuments fall and mortals scurry.

Unfortunately, Puck was also trapped. That meant the only victim he had was fast asleep, because Mab was unflappable. There was very little one could do to a ball of heat and light, and nothing he tried bothered her in the slightest. Now, he loomed over the unconscious human, brainstorming the best way to wake it up. By best he meant most startling and disturbing. He’d already arranged one of the new potions so its mouth and neck would prod the creature in an uncomfortable location if it moved in its sleep. He began an incantation.

Storms gather and the sky is light-shattered

Thunder. . .

Mab interrupted him. -Milord, I think it best you leave the mortal alone.-

Puck glared at her. “Why do you care what I do to a human?”

If Mab could have shrugged, she would have. -I don’t, milord. Kill him for more power or let him leave in peace when he wakes, it matters not to me. But he has suffered enough torment at our hands.-

The sprite sneered and turned his back on her softly glowing light.

Storms gather and the sky is light-shattered

Thunder sonorous and splendid. . .

Something suddenly latched itself to the back of Puck’s left shoulder. Even in his incorporeal form, he felt a weight on his spirit. And then, a slow, steady suction as something began to drain from him. He began to hunger a little. As whatever it was fed on him, his hunger grew in equal amounts. His head snapped to the side and in his peripheral vision he saw a ghostly blue slug-like creature attached to his back. He swatted at it, but his hand rebounded of the equally incorporeal beast. Puck whirled on Mab in anger.

“You will never cast a spell on me again!” he commanded the lesser fae.

-Yes, milord,- she responded without the slightest bit of apology. Blue tendrils of light pulsed periodically as the mana leech took Puck’s mana and gave it to her.

“Stop the spell,” he demanded.

-Sorry, milord, I can’t. It must run its course.-

Puck growled at her, and kicked in irritation at the sleeping human. His foot, of course, went right through the mortal’s form. The fae thought perhaps the spell might come to an end if he moved far enough away and broke the tether. He teleported himself to the entrance of his dungeon. The leech remained and the blue light continued to pulse down the line as the craving for nourishment grew. Puck glared out of the entrance of his dungeon. He was trapped and he hated the feeling. He didn’t remember details of his previous life, but he knew he was meant to be carefree, dancing beneath moonlight and playing tricks on mortals. He longed to run out into a forest and make lovers fall so in love with the wrong person no one knew who they were meant to care for. A good prank, he thought.

But no. He was significantly larger than he was in the past, and absolutely stationary. And if he could not go to the mortals who had done this to him and revenge himself upon them, he would have to find a way to bring them to him. The blue light pulsed again, whetting his appetite. And somehow, someway, punish Mab for her affront.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Minutes passed. How many, Puck did not know, because he had never cared much about tracking the passage of time. He stared out into the world, plotting and planning. Eventually, a line of blue pulsed back into the leech on his back, and it burst into glittering blue particles of light. Nearly half of the mana he had collected was gone. He wasn’t starving, but if he had a stomach it would be grumbling. As he dwelled on his dire straits, he felt a surge of mana. It did not come from his store, but still came from within him in a way that was different than the release of magic from the man who had exploded earlier.

Puck wandered back down his tunnel, kicking and smacking mushrooms as he went. The rules that governed his existence were strange. He couldn’t make contact with anything that came in from the outside, but it seemed he could interact with anything that he called into being or was considered a part of himself. The corner of his mouth turned up in a cruel smile at the thought. There was potential in that realization.

Unseen, a cloud of spores filled the caves in his wake.

* * * * *

As soon as Puck entered the dwarven doors, he saw a creature hovering in the air near Mab’s softly glowing light. It was about four inches in height, like a tiny human woman with skin that mimicked the dwarven stonework. Moth wings fluttered as she maintained her altitude. The outer surface of her wings was a deep amethyst, with a quality that made it seem like they shimmered across a velvet softness. The inner surface was once again the grey of stone. If she lay back against the walls she would be almost completely camouflaged, especially without a better source of light than the dungeon wisp provided. She was clearly a dungeon pixie.

The two fae in the center of the room seemed to be communicating, but not aloud.

“What is this?” Puck asked. A scroll appeared in the corner of his vision.

-Our daughter. I named her Gloriana, after the Faerie Queen, milord,- Mab said.

“Our daughter?” Puck sputtered. “I didn’t. No. What? No. How? Daughter?”

The scroll moved to the front of his vision, apparently taking his spattering of protest as a request for more information.

Name: Gloriana Goodfellow Title: First Daughter of Puck

Level: 2 Classification: Dungeon Pixie (Fauna)

Bonds: 2(Familial)

Creature Abilities: Camouflage, Dungeon Bond, Mana Link, Illusion I, Improved Metawell I

Spells: Glamour, Faerie Fire, Charm Person

P.S. Congratulations on your nascent fatherhood. You’re the first dungeon to ever create a dungeon creature via another entity inside its own dungeon. Or should I say womb? I don’t know. I should probably reward you for that, but it will have to wait until I stop laughing.

Puck dismissed the snarky scroll with a huff.

“A pleasure to meet you, Father,” the pixie said with a mid-air bow.

“Mab, how in the name of Oberon did this happen?” Puck demanded more coherently.

-The mana I took from you as punishment for bothering that unhappy fellow asleep on the ground filled me to capacity. That amount was just enough to use my Conjure Creature ability to bring our daughter to life.-

“Not our. . .” he began. “But why?”

-Forgive me, milord, but you’re not the best company.- Mab stated blandly.

Gloriana giggled and the tintinnabulation of a thousand bells brightened the dark, quiet chamber.

Puck sighed.