Chapter 22
The four of them scurried along the twisty turny narrow alleyways of the city. Running under open skies and archways like harvest mice as their hair and garments rustled like streamers that followed their path closely through the air until at last, they found themselves standing still at a small unfrequented square. Amongst the flowerbeds and benches that were situated upon the burgundy verge.
The grass was freshly cut and smelled leafy and moist.
It was easier than they imagined, the people here tended not to see what they shouldn’t even though Brownie had taken precautions to obscure her more tell-tale attributes. Elkie also did the best to safeguard who she was, or in-fact used to be. In truth, no one batted an eyelid at them rushing by or the immense size of the peppermint Wyrzel that idled by much less rapidly -as if he were as threatening as a domestic housecat. It was unusual, perhaps they should have shown alarm at the wild lumbering beast it was a strange peculiarity to them after all and more than a little alien, to say the least.
The small convention sat at the benches a frolic of small oddities as they tried to clarify each other’s position.
Brownie Dealt out the colourful jars of carbonated beverages that Elkie had brought with her as they sat waiting to see who spoke first,
“So now what!” Asked Brownie As she looked over to the strange girl she had dreamt about
“I don’t have all the answers Sprite, I only know what you know!”
The sky above them was pale blue and clear. Except for the birds that flew underneath the heavens and the pretty colours of the kites that were cleverly built and too numerous to ignore.
It almost seemed too perfect, like it was the idyllic scene from a postcard, perhaps it was as the sun had not waned or even disappeared behind the clouds for an instance, which was a strange phenomenon indeed.
Eulin interrupted “you said we have to take HIS Kingdom down but how are we exactly meant to accomplish that?
“I don’t want to kill anyone ?!” Brownie added.
“ well, isn’t it obvious !!” Declared Elkie
the three of them looked at one another in dismay as Elkie the youngest amongst them continued “it’s blatantly obvious, we find out what the curse is and break the curse!” She said driving her fist into her open palm.
“That easy!” Said Googlee
“But how ?!” Brownie asked sheepishly as Googlee munched on some seaweed that he called Dulse.
“Must you do that!” The Sprite said pedantically.
“ well, with your sprite magic of course!” Said Elkie rambunctiously.
The little Sprite turned her face with a shocked pang as she was at a loss to answer, she was speechless.
“wait!” Elkie interrupted herself as slowly she began the ominous realization
“ you mean you…. don’t have any magic??!”
Brownie shook her head and felt a little bit overwhelmed and abashed, suddenly the winette headed girl started laughing profusely “ha ha ha ha ha, you got me good, yeah’ you did!” Until it hit home again as the little sprites face remained impassive “oh boy were in trouble!”
“But they said you were a faery of the highest order, what type of faery doesn’t have magic!”
She said as if she had been slighted.
“ well, I… I. I’m not a fairy at all!” She said stuttering
“But…but they said you were a Brownie! A silk faery!”
The young sprite sighed heavily “my names Brownie! I’m from earth!”
“From earth, nothing lives on earth the conditions there are too …too, well they’re just wrong!” said the phantom girl convincing herself to look beyond the evidence and choose from her emotions.
“So then … you must be a faery, perhaps you just don’t know it, yourself!”
She continued her monologue
“ aren’t we an odd bunch, a Sprite, a Wyrzel, a Phoenix, and..” her words tapered off as she realized her own status was that of the supernatural, and it disturbed her greatly as she swallowed hard “a …hungry ghost!”
“What did you just say!” Questioned Brownie
“Alright, you don’t have to rub it in !! I’m a hungry ghost! One of the undead” she said quaking as she emphasized her speech with inverted commas.
“No, Elkie before that !”
“A …….. phoenix!” She said not really sure why?
She turned her gaze to look at the whitebird “is it true!”
He gently nodded.
“Eulin…Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Well, what was I meant to say? Whatcha’ Sprite mate, by the way, I’m a phoenix don’t ‘cha know! …. It’s not something you find a member of an endangered species saying !”
“Anyway, it doesn’t matter I’m a Phoenix that doesn’t burn, a phony.” He said with a heavy heart.
“So, let me get this straight, a sprite without magic, a phoenix that doesn’t burn and a Wyrzel whose got issues with the lighting …You couldn’t make this stuff up!”
“Misfits we’re all misfits!” Said Googlee as for some reason he seemed to find the others lack prowess humorous.
“We’re all not who we seem but maybe …just maybe it doesn’t matter!” Said the great Pegasus. As he emulated his voice in almost Shakespearean tones.
It was almost as if his chain of reasoning was contagious as it leapt over to the sprites psyche.
As she thought aloud “I’ve heard it said that you should always stand up for yourself, but more importantly each other, when you think about it makes more sense to stand together !”
“ what are you saying?” Asked Elkie
“ Maybe we don’t need magic, maybe we just need one another, as we have something as good as magic?”
“As good as magic ?”
What’s as good as magic?” Said Elkie
“ our Brains !” Replied the young sprite “we use our smarts, to figure it out!”
“Yea, I feel a master plan ~ montage coming on!!!” As the young ghost raised her hand in Clenched fist solidarity, as the others did wonder why she was so wired.
She bounced around full of childish enthusiasm “ooh, ooh can I have a codename …” thinking she looked above the space above her head “ah!” She gasped as she raised her index finger “from now on I want to be referred to as RED LEADER!”
“Elkie !!” Exclaimed Brownie.
“Ah, ah! What’s my name!”
“Red leader!” Brownie Said humoring her, she fell about in giggles of delight.
“Now we just have to find out everything?” Said Eulin with a satirical glint in his avian countenance.
“Let’s go around the places where the most people congregate, the market -we’ll find a spot where you can camouflage yourself OOglee! ” Said Brownie “then we can go eavesdropping!” He uttered in agreement.
“Eulin !!” Elkie piped up “can you just like…fly over and scout the area!” The white bird/phoenix Took a bow “as you wish red leader!”
As she clapped her hands and giggled “I’m part off it!!” Her young mind didn’t understand Eulins sarcasm.
The bazaar was heaving, many people congregated and were oblivious to one another. Wanting to buy or sell their wares quietly with minimal fuss. The market was unusual, to say the least, it had a majestic white canopy with a window in the center that was looking up to a ceiling of a conical tepee~esque type structure. The coverings also formed an arcade from each end of the conical erections.
There were also open areas and vistas of the horizon, which you could admire from the balconies. So, it was easy for the little Sprite to go unnoticed, a draught blew down the artificial arcades it was refreshing, and no doubt saturated from the shore.
Marine birds looked on in anticipation of opportunity as they Awaited just out of arms reach waiting for easy pickings from the excess wastefulness of the Martians. The small predators held out for their chance to steal away a tasty morsel. They were not the only little predators, four others moved amongst them stealthily like young cubs that were fluffy and white and looked and acted a lot like sheep, how cute they could be, as the consumers marveled at the architecture and the stock for sale at each stall…But they were not like them, not at all like the native Lynessians, it was even easier still for the little phantom, then there was Googlee.
A diversion was required, Brownie stood at the opposite end of the marketplace they had managed to peep and creep encroaching when the coast was clear and hiding when there were guards or suspicious onlookers around.
At the opposite side of the market Eulin sat perched on top of the oilcloth canopies that covered the stalls, he was looking watching every soul diligently if necessary he was ready to give the warning signal.
With a pack mentality they endeavored like a small group of wolf cubs, they Weaved in between the people unbeknown to the citizens of Lyness, the wolves amongst them were young enough that they’d grow to think they were sheep but with the heart of wildness that could not be tamed.
The plan was to divert attention from Googlee getting into position to do a stakeout.
Elkie was ready she knew what she had to do, jumping on one of the empty stalls, she started to draw the onlookers attention as she began to dance, the dancing she learned from when she was living. Many of the people clapped and sang as they beheld the young winette headed girl perform the dances from around the world with skill and pitch-perfect poise. She took a bow as the crowd began to shout encore, encore with delight as mums and dads enjoyed the performance, Elkie high on the adulation felt it difficult to stop, as Brownie found a space for the great Wyrzel to lie shrouded. The plan had gone perfectly.
However.
Ovation is like a drug, it can become addictive, and so Brownie found herself a face in the crowd as Elkie spied her as she mouthed the words “come on Elkie let’s go!” With widened eyes as she inclined her head in the direction of getting out of here. Elkie was just about to finish her final dance when a huge shadow fell across them as a giant creature flew, like a giant zeppelin
And descended with a thump deliberately smashing the stalls next to Elkie as if they were dry twigs
The young phantom seemed to vanish from the stalls and reappear in an instance 10 yards away from her original spot as if she used her ghostly powers to jump across the space to avoid the danger.
A dark womanly shape dismounted the vast stingray-esque beast as either the woman or the creature began to shriek like a chorus of demons in an unholy choir until nausea started to grip them and confusion began to swallow them whole. It was hard to think on your feet under such constraints.
The creature wore black silk and a breastplate made out of mirror scales that shone in the sunlight, and upon her brow, she wore a black tiara.
There was an odor of sickness as the creature spied Elkie. The young phantom desire as she might found she could not move, she was frozen. Brownie watched on in horror as she was too little to tackle the shapeless creature outright. It was then Brownie spied it, a stranger in a grey cloak appeared from out of nowhere she seemed to gather up the tiny Li Elkie and make off with her as the creature turned its gaze onto another victim.
There was also something else chimes and shimmers of light as the creature had a moment of what can only be described as absent mindedness and decided to ignore its adversary fleeing with its prey.
The cloaked figure made off with its abductee to the arcade only to find the striped outline of the vast Wyrzel waiting for them, as he stared down the alley with the most terrifying of stares.
“Where are you going with my little friend !” Growled the red and white Pegasus as he bared the sharpness of his teeth.
From the other end of the arcade, there was a small, slender figure, it was Brownie and Eulin, who had managed to slip away unnoticed in the carnage they stood alone an obstruction to the only other exit. Eulin was perched on the sprites shoulder in solidarity “you better let her go right now!” She commanded without hesitation as she drew the sword Li kay had given her.
The cloaked figure lowered her hood to reveal a young doe not much older than Brownie with slate grey hair. She seemed awkward or perhaps eccentric or was it wisely enknowledged.
“Is that the thanks I get for saving your lives!”
Said the woman in her distinct nasally accent” well I mean… life, not so much… but you are existing!” She said as she let the young phantom down
And she ran towards Brownie.
“ relax she said I’m on your side!”

“ am I meant to take your word for it!” Asked Brownie.
“ what reassurances would you need.”
They looked at one another, and it was painfully clear that they Held no bargaining potential, “one wrong move and Googlee will be on you !”
“Ok!” She said as she nodded
“You are lucky to have a Wyrzel and a white phoenix …but you lack one crucial thing? You don’t have magic!” As she threw a small handful of confetti into the air and suddenly it was a blizzard of colourful paper streaming through the ether until they couldn’t see a yard in front of them. the stranger seemed to appear behind them “I’m Grozette by the way!” She said announcing herself “I’m here to help and that creature that nearly got Your dancing friend is my wicked sister Tallulah.
And with a hint of sadness, her sorrow showed as she said, “I’m here to give her some peace!”