Sarah slept fitfully, haunted by the nightmares she had witnessed at the campsite after the wivari attack. It had been over a week, but she could still see the slaughter vividly in her mind.
Sarah mounted her horse and tucked her two pixie companions safely in her pocket. Fortunately one horse had escaped the slaughter. Nearly everything else they owned had been destroyed. Thaddeus Gumble may have been an ignorant, self-centered lout, but no one deserved to be torn to shreds by a pack of wild wivari. Her memories flooded back to the horrific scene at the campsite. She tried not to think about the carnage, but she could not control her thoughts.
The road became more familiar with every passing league.
Her mood elevated upon seeing Grandeur on the horizon. It looked beautiful at dawn. The perfectly straight main roads lined the troughs for the mudmen. The city entailed the business of thousands of creatures scurrying on a multitude of errands. Lines of shops selling everything imaginable spanned throughout the bustle.
Sarah stopped on the roadside to let out her two companions. The pixies could easily keep up with the horse for a short while. They were elated to know their journey was finally ending. They had been away from their troop for weeks, something quite rare for pixies.
Sarah thought about her small house on the edge of the forest and about her parents. A twinge of homesickness swept through her, and she felt a pull, though oddly she could feel the sensation leading her to the city. She rode into Grandeur.
She hitched the horse outside Gumble’s house. She took off the saddlebags and carted the gear to her small servant’s quarters. She flopped into her bed in her empty room. What would she do next? She had no one to tell her what to do. She had no one to tell her where to go or how to behave. She had nobody to say who she was allowed to speak with and who she had to avoid. Her entire life she had always followed orders. Her father had run the house as any military man would: with orders. When he said run, she had better sprint, if she did not want her hide tanned.
She supposed her upbringing may have been one of the reasons she had excelled as a servant. She followed directions perfectly, without question. Often she knew better ways to do her orders, yet she followed through dutifully, since that was expected. Sarah stopped abruptly. The two pixies resting on her shoulder were flung forward and caught themselves in midair.
“Problem, Sarah?” they asked in unison.
“I can do whatever I want. I can do whatever I want, whenever I want. I don’t have to take any orders anymore,” she said. Slowly a smile crept over her face. It had not dawned on her until now. She had always looked for different ways to approach what happened in her life. She had wanted to explore Suliad, but her father had said no, and she had obeyed. She had wanted to see magical creatures, but her father wanted to keep her safe. Even after her house had burned down, some part of her sought out an existence where she had others making decisions for her. Never again.
“I am in charge now,” she said.
The two pixies looked quizzically at each other, shrugged, and then landed on her shoulder once more.
“How is this discovery a novelty of understanding?” Lucy asked.
“Well, I always took my directions from Thaddeus Gumble. I had to do what he said,” Sarah responded.
“Really?” the pixie said. John and Lucy spoke in rapid Pixish quietly to each other.
Sarah picked out “bumbling ineptitudes of masters” and “character beyond reproach to coexist with imbecilic ingrates.” Finally Sarah asked what they had thought her relationship with Thaddeus Gumble was.
“We always thought he had intellectual deficiencies requiring your assistance,” said John.
“We thought you had volunteered to assist, due to his lack of mental and physical fortitude,” said Lucy.
“He was disgustingly corpulent,” said John.
“And he interacted like an ungrateful juvenile,” said Lucy.
“We assumed that you were master, since he could not take care of himself. You went out of your way to help, despite the fact that you had greater mental, physical, and emotional depth,” said John.
“Our lack of experience with humans faults us again, I suppose,” said John.
“Is it a sign of status and power for humans to be pudgy, slothful, and obnoxious?” asked Lucy.
Sarah pondered their conclusions. “Not exactly. Granted, I guess it sometimes seems like that. For humans, power and wealth often go hand in hand. Humans can be powerful and wealthy without being intelligent. I suppose he was obnoxious since he could afford to be obnoxious. He had more money than most, so perhaps he assumed that equaled superiority.”
She heard some more rapid Pixish.
“So if you become wealthy, then will you be required to act as he did?” Lucy asked.
Sarah laughed. “No, I will still be just as I am now. Humans come in all levels of greed, desire, stupidity, and brilliance. That’s what makes us fun. Humans have stereotyped one another for centuries, but, when you get down to it, you have to judge each human separately.”
“We will try to take that into consideration,” said Lucy, who seemed relieved that Sarah would not become fat and lazy the instant she obtained any wealth.
“It would not be fair for me to judge all pixies by the behavior of just you two, right? Humans vary greatly. Though I suppose you guys have not seen many human customs, have you?” Sarah asked.
“Our human experience is still quite lacking,” John responded.
“I suppose we might as well tell you,” Lucy said. John eyed her nervously but did not stop her. “We were assigned to follow you for more reasons than to acquire excellence in English. We were to obtain understanding of humans from a personal level. We were to better comprehend how humans interact to improve the troop as a whole.”
“Oh? And?” Sarah asked.
“And I believe that we were extremely lucky to happen across you as the human that we decided to observe,” said John.
“Well, let’s hope the rest of the troop agrees,” said Sarah. “Because I no longer have a job as a servant, and I think I know a shop in town that is about to really take off.”
“You can make the shop levitate? I thought you indicated that you lack magical aptitude,” asked Lucy.
“Oh, I have my own special type of magic,” Sarah said.
As they approached the Picky Pixie, they saw a great crowd outside the store. A varied group of ruffians, cretins, and burly miscreants surrounded the entrance. To Sarah’s relief, it appeared that the shop had not been opened in her absence. The gates in front of the shop were still down, protecting the store. Sarah cupped her hands and peered inside. Jenny the shopkeeper had diligently organized the wares. It was the sign outside the shop that worried her:
“Looking for honest person(s) to help guard priceless jewelry collection. Currently only guarded by pixies, and it would be extremely easy to steal, so we need extra help to protect. Come and apply for the job on the twentieth of the month. Please be honest and do not steal.”
“Oh, wow, she’s an idiot,” Sarah said. “Is there a secret entrance up top that only pixies can get in?”
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“How did you know?” Lucy answered.
“You told me that pixies always have a few entrances to any location, right? Fly in there right now and tell them not to open the door. As soon as these guys are let in, they will loot the place. They will take everything. Go!”
Lucy and John both disappeared over the roof of the building. A minute later they reappeared from the rooftop of the building with Jenny the storekeeper at their side. Sarah could hear John and Lucy warning the shopkeeper, but Jenny seemed indifferent to their warning. Jenny had a large grin on her tiny face upon seeing Sarah.
“Sarah! So wonderful to be revisited by you again. We diligently organized and isolated problems, as you had hypothesized would come. I conversed again with the dictator, and he advised hiring protection. I see that quite a crowd has accumulated. How wonderful!”
The crowd seemed uninterested in the small pixies. Sarah walked away from the crowd, so she could talk. It seems they had arrived just in time.
“Jenny, if you open the front door, those men will come in and take everything in the shop.”
“But why would they do that? I most certainly would not tolerate employment if they pilfered merchandise.”
Sarah held back a curse. “They are not here for the job. They are here for free jewelry.”
“But I gained understanding about such interactions. I am not volunteering our merchandises without adequate exchanges of money or services. They would be stealing,” Jenny said.
“Exactly,” said Sarah.
“But my sign—”
“Informed them that they have an easy target filled with valuables that is currently unguarded,” Sarah finished. “Now we have a bigger problem. We have every thug in Grandeur gathered in front of the store, drooling for the store to open.”
“You mean they would just take it? They would take all our hard work and precious metals and leave? That’s so very impractical, impolite, and impudent!” said the pixie.
Sarah had never seen Jenny angry. Sarah looked back at the crowd. A few of the thugs had grabbed the metal fence in front of the store and shook it. There had to be a way to stop them from destroying the store.
“I’ve got an idea,” said Sarah. “Go inside and grab something flashy but not too expensive. Just be sure it looks like it would be worth a lot to humans. I’ll need some pixies to bring it out and keep it in the air, out of reach of any of those cretins.”
Jenny and Lucy disappeared above the roof. Sarah took a deep breath and walked toward the rough-looking crowd. John perched nervously on her shoulder but did not fly away.
“Hello! Attention! Please?” Sarah said. The crowd had gotten a bit more boisterous as the morning had worn on, and one young woman shouting did not change their attitude much.
“Will you ignorant oafs please shut up!” Sarah bellowed.
They quieted. Dozens of eyes looked on the small woman in front of them, surprised that such a noise came from one so tiny. Others gave her stares that bordered on hatred.
“Thank you. I have invited all of you here to look for someone to guard our new shop. I knew that this sign would get the strongest, quickest, and best applicants for the job,” she said.
She heard a few snickers in the crowd, as well as some laughs.
“I realize that some of you might actually be here to get some easy pickings. Sorry, we are not idiots. We put out this sign to get you here. Let me just tell you right now that that gate is not going up today nor is the store opening today. But I want you to know that we are hiring someone to guard the store. I’m sorry for the deception, but we wanted the best. I know that one of you in this crowd is truly the best, so we created a contest,” she said.
The men in the crowd all talked at once.
“Oi, what’s all this then, eh?”
“Why you bother to have all us come here?”
“What’s this rubbish about a contest?”
Sarah continued. “Oh, I guarantee that it will be more than worth your time. Well, it will be worth the time of some of you. You see, we could not possibly hire all of you. So we just want the best. The competition begins at sundown. For now, anyone can sign up for the competition right here in the street. It is open to whoever wants to come. The purpose of this contest will be to hire two guards. So between now and sundown, all of you have that time to pick a partner. You are applying for the job together. If you win, you not only get the job but you win the prize,” she said.
At that time, a small fleet of pixies appeared over the rooftop holding a large necklace. It was gold and studded with layers of sparkling gems. The sunlight reflected off the gems and caused the piece to shine with multicolored radiance. Sarah swore under her breath. The pixies remembered the part about it being flashy but forgot about the “not too expensive” part. Oh, well.
“This is the Nautilus. It is the shop’s most valuable piece. It might very well be worth a small kingdom. The troop has asked me to help them with promoting their store. I am not a pixie, but I can only imagine a piece like this must have taken them months or even years to create. Also, as I am sure you all know, pixie jewelry always has a little bit of pixie magic in it. With a piece like this, who knows? Perhaps it can create its own wealth. This noble troop plans to open its shop soon, and, through great deliberation, they have decided that they want the two best possible guards for their shop. Thus, this is the prize for the twosome that wins the competition,” Sarah said.
John whispered Pixish her ear. “The Nautilus? What is this Nautilus? That piece was made two weeks ago. I know since I helped make it.”
The crowd, however, had gone mute. The crowd stared at the gleaming necklace floating above their heads. A few were actually drooling.
“Tonight’s contest will be a simple affair. It will be battles in pairs. I only want those who are serious about getting the job. We’ll see you and your partners at sundown. Good luck.”
At this, the thugs looked at one another and grinned broadly. Several had already darted away. It seemed like many needed to find a partner they could trust, which, in that crowd, might be difficult. The rest of the crowd rapidly dispersed upon realizing the shop had no plans to open its doors.
After the crowd had gone, Jenny opened the front gate, and Sarah slipped in the shop. They locked the gate behind them. Only after she was inside did Sarah hyperventilate.
“OhMyGosh. OhMyGosh. OhMyGosh,” she said.
A swarm of pixies brought over a tall glass of water that she gulped down. She slowly caught her breath. She heard many conversations in Pixish going on at the same time. Parts of what had happened echoed in Pixish throughout the troop.
“How can she deliberate acquisitions without consulting the whole troop?”
“She dispersed the ruffians utilizing human talk? Inconceivable!”
“Did she mesmerize via magic? Does Jenny know of her magical fortitude?”
“How can she partake of such actions without Jenny? Are we being betrayed?”
Sarah took a few deep breaths. When she looked around the room, the buzzing quieted. There were many more pixies than she remembered. It seems she had another speech to make today. John and Lucy smiled at her. Jenny did not.
“What just happened out there, Sarah?” Jenny asked, a hint of anger in her voice.
Sarah straightened and looked Jenny in the eyes. “I just saved the shop. That’s what happened. Those men were planning on robbing you. Your sign was an invitation for thieves. They were not looking for jobs. They just wanted to come in and take your jewelry.”
Lucy and John rapidly translated into Pixish. Sarah could hear the gasps of surprise through the crowd. Sarah explained how some humans think and how some prey on the weak for their own gain. Sarah then explained her impromptu plan. She explained that she needed to get the greedy crowd of thieves to disperse, which she had. She also wanted to get talented fighters to come and apply for the job of guards, which she had.
Sarah explained that the story of the competition would spread like wildfire through the town. She had seen such things happen many times before in Grandeur. The thugs would look for partners who could fight well, so they could split the prize. The fighters would talk to each other, and curiosity would rise. Sarah figured that, by sundown, double the number of competitors would come to battle. Not only would they get a good look at some of the best fighters but they got rid of the problem of the shop being robbed by the thieves. Also she had created free advertisement for the shop.
John embellished some of the finer details. He explained how Sarah had risked her own life for the good of the troop, confronting a horde of bloodthirsty ruffians, armed only with her quick wit. He went on to discuss how she had created the story of the Nautilus to add value to the piece. He stated that, other than naming the piece of jewelry, she had never lied, thus upholding the truthfulness of pixies.
“But what of the tournament?” Jenny asked.
“We have fighters coming here to compete. Let’s figure out the rules for the tournament. We need paper and pen, rope, and something to make an arena. We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Sarah said.
Sarah rattled off a list of needed items, Jenny translated, and the shop buzzed with activity. Sarah created flyers to promote the tournament in the first hour. She then sent out groups of pixies to post them all over the town. Within two hours, the first twosome approached the shop asking to sign up. It was still early morning.
Sarah had figured out the location right away. Thaddeus Gumble had owned plots of land all over the city. One of them happened to be an empty field. He had never used it, and it was a perfect location for the tournament. The rules of the competition created a larger problem.
She had toyed with the idea of one giant brawl, winner takes all. However, that seemed just plain wrong, and people would get hurt. After discussing logistics with Jenny, they decided on the rules. They would have a large ring where the competition would take place. Since they wanted to find guards, they would take their cues accordingly. Guards throw out unruly people. Thus, the competition would be all about throwing people out. Four go into the circle, and the twosome that remains inside goes to the next round. When a competitor is pushed out of the circle, he is out. If he happens to be unconscious at the time, so be it.
By noon they posted the rules and signup sheet in front of the shop. By this time twenty more twosomes had appeared. To Sarah’s relief, the pairs appeared more like the typical guards she had in mind and less like cutthroats. The groups signed up and left without a problem.
After hours of groups signing up, Sarah realized that the popularity of her competition had grown beyond her expectations. She had thought a few people would show interest. She did not think that she would have over fifty teams competing. The free publicity would be great—as long as no one got killed.