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Untitled Document
"WHHOOOOPPPEEEEEEE!!!!!"
"She's flipped."
"Waterlily, calm down. They're only wings."
The Ixi settled down into a sensible flight
pattern at last. "I am SOOOO getting Chrissy to get me a Halloween Paint Brush!
THIS IS FANTASTIC!"
Elenna glared at her sceptically. "Waterlily,
I've had wings ever since I was born. It's nothing special. Isn't that right,
Immacolata? Immacolata? Where are you?"
"Here." The small Aisha dropped fifteen stories
and came to a dead stop just beside the Uni. "I was, err, testing them."
"You wanting to go Faerie, then?"
"No. I still want to be Ghost. But, well, I
like the wings."
"You lot are lucky," groaned Shadow. "I have
to be Faerie. Bye bye black, hello cute and fluffy." "Okay, now that you're
all concentrating, lets actually save Chrissy, shall we?" White hovered, looking
slightly annoyed.
"Oh yeah…"
"We did remember…"
"Honest…"
"It's just…"
"WINGS!!!!"
"Oh, Faeries." White buried his beak in his
paws. "I am never taking rookies on an assignment like this again."
Meanwhile, things were not going so well for
me. The bad luck started when I arrived. Rewind the tape a bit, and you'll see.
"Can't we talk about this?"
"No."
I had got caught. I had arrived quicker than
I had expected too, and my last few minutes as a Pteri were being spent being
dragged to the cells by a pair of Draik guards. Luckily, this bit was part of
my plan. It had been the only thing I could come up with to get inside the castle,
which was sealed up tighter than a jar of olives. I had to get caught.
I hit the cell floor rather harder than I would
have liked. Sitting up quickly, I yelled, "Mind the tail feathers!" before they
slammed the very large, very heavy door shut and locked it. I fought the urge
to giggle insanely. It had worked perfectly.
This is the point where things started to go
wrong.
For one thing, once I was back in human form,
the cell was considerably more cramped. Even the really big pets are smaller
than humans, and they hadn't exactly given me the deluxe guest room with king
sized bed. I had hoped I wasn't going to be human sized for long, but that's
when stage two of my plan backfired. You see, I was used to having every available
piece of technology at my fingertips. I was used to being able to morph into
any pet in any colour I wanted, almost. And right now, what I wanted was a Ghost
pet. I had forgotten I had outdated technology.
So of course, I didn't have any Ghost potions.
Because when I had been given the technology, Ghost hadn't existed.
"Oh…" I paused, remembering this was a family
site. "Cheesecookies."
The next three hours were spent in considerable
discomfort, trying to thing of a new plan. It wasn't working. I went through
varying degrees of subtlety ('What if I was a really small pet, like a Kacheek?
Then I could slip through the window.' No window. 'Ventilation ducts? You are
not telling me this place hasn't got ventilation ducts.' Think Medieval. In
other words, no.) To varying degrees of non-subtlety ('Okay, what if I remove
some bricks and crawl out?' With what? And to where? 'What if I blast the door
down, stun the guards and just run as fast as I can towards the Orb?' And just
how far do you think you'll get?) Right the way to the all out stupid ('What
if I have the whole place blown to smithereens?' And you with it?). As you can
probably guess, when I'm bored and trying to think, I talk to myself. I also
apparently have short fits of insanity. But that's not true. And I wasn't talking
to myself; I was talking to a pink Elephante named Marvin. See? Perfectly normal.
"Okay, Marvin. I've thought of everything. I'll
just have to sit it out."
What followed was six hours where I got really
bored. And when I'm bored and not thinking, I sing.
There was rather a large party going on in the
main hall of Merridell castle. Elenna shook her head. "Typical. There's a war
going on, and old King Skarl is throwing the Neopoints around like water." Waterlily
looked slightly surprised. Elenna continued. "And I bet he hasn't invited any
of the serfs, either, just the nobles."
"Elenna, what's got into you?" Waterlily was
now looking suitably impressed. She just smiled and blushed.
"Nobles… You mean like you?" White was suddenly
looking thoughtful.
"Ex-noble." The Uni added hurriedly "I'm not
any more."
"But would the guards know that?"
"Well, I'm not technically ex-noble…"
Shadow had cottoned on. The Lupe was shadow
again, to his relief.
"Just how noble is noble?" Immacolata frowned
at Waterlily's lack of grammar, but Elenna replied. "Well, in my case, very
noble."
"You mean noble enough to be invited to a Christmas
party?" White grinned.
"With two bodyguards and your ladies in waiting?"
Shadow added.
Elenna was grinning now too. "Oh yes. Oh, but
I need a dress, and all sorts…"
"No problem." Immacolata opened her mobile and
dialled a number. "Luna, Solar, I have a challenge for you."
"It looks like a dress." Elenna gave a twirl,
slightly clumsily on two hooves. "It feels like a dress. It weighs the same
as a dress. But it's not a dress?"
"A hologram." Immacolata gave her holographic
curls an extra nudge. "It is very clever."
"Are you sure this is what Merridell guards
wear?" complained Shadow. White didn't seem so bothered.
"It's traditional."
"It's tights."
"No, they're leggings. Get into the spirit."
At which point, Elenna swept towards the gates
with the four of them in tow, like a proper lady.
The guard was a little suspicious. "Who goes
there?"
"The Lady Star-Ward Fall, Heiress to the West
Farthing estate and daughter of the Lord Silver Fall and the Lady Star Sign."
Waterlily resisted the urge to grin. She had found out Elenna's full title a
long time ago, and for some strange reason had remembered it.
"Ah, my lady!" The guard bowed. "You're parents
said you wouldn't be coming."
"I changed my mind." She replied, in a suitably
haughty voice. The guards bowed again, and she swept in, with the rest of them
hurrying slightly to keep up.
"Gosh, Elenna, I never knew you were THAT noble!"
White whispered in a slightly strangled voice.
"I'm surprised you knew my title, Waterlily."
"I thought for a moment there the guards were
going to argue." Immacolata seemed amazed that they had got in at all. Elenna
shook her head.
"No. They're guards. They're paid not to argue,
and they know enough to recognise that I WAS the Lady Star-Ward Fall."
"Now, hurry, we have to find somewhere private,"
whispered Shadow.
"Don't worry, I know this place off by heart,
practically. What's stage two?"
White winked. "Stage two, we become Ghosts."
To be the continued...
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