Note: This was written as a present for one of my tumblr friends a good long while ago! I've finally gotten around to posting it here, I'm glad to say! ^u^ Hope you enjoy it!
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Exclusive. If there was one word that she would use to describe this place, that was it. Tucked deep within a rocky mountain range, cloaked and shielded from the outside by powerful, mystic means, and filled with suspicious, secretive citizens, Wizard City was ridiculously restrictive to say the least. Self-conscious and unnerved due to all of the condescending glares shot at her from many a passerby, Betty Grof reached up with one hand to tug the hood of her cloak further up so as to hide her face, then urged her flying carpet to go a little higher and a little faster.
There was no doubt about it: she was not welcome here. It didn't seem to matter that she'd saved the butts of everyone hanging around this place, including those currently staring in resentment. Nonetheless, she was grateful for just being allowed inside the magical walls. The Grand Master Wizard wasn't all that bad once you got to know him; she just wished that she could say the same for all of the rest of the citizens.
"Hey, you!"
She jerked a little at the harsh voice from behind, heart skipping a beat from sheer surprise. Although, seeing as she didn't exactly know anyone here, Betty felt safe in the assumption that whoever it was had not intended the shout to be directed at her.
"Stop!"
Betty bit her lip this time around, finally gathering up the nerve to turn her head even though it still seemed unlikely that she was the one getting yelled at. Fighting his way through the throng lining the cobblestone streets, a rather odd and rather angry looking person fixed his gaze on her. Whoever it was seemed to be on the younger side, although his queerly-cut, snowy white hair and ashen grey skin could throw you off at a first glance. All in all, he seemed to be one of the less out-there wizards that she'd seen so far. Curiosity and nervousness peaked, she slowed down the carpet a bit, still keeping her face hidden.
"That's my carpet! Give it back, ya dingus!"
Betty blinked once, taking only a fragment of a moment to process that (rather rude) statement and consider a plan of action. Turning back around to face the direction she'd been going in, she steered around a corner before speeding up. The fringed edge was laced between her tightly gripping fingers as she shot down the alleys and roads, clenching her teeth when she heard more shouts and realized that she was still being followed.
As stupid as it felt to give the wizards more reason to dislike her, Betty depended on this carpet. Without it, her search would be lengthened tenfold just from lack of transportation, so losing it was absolutely out of the question. Her determination to get away was only matched by the stranger's resolve to catch up with her; It seemed rather unnatural that he was able to keep up with her considering the speed she was going at, but she was a little occupied to be asking questions. She didn't feel too threatened, all up until a strange, cloudy aura enveloped her carpet like a thick blanket of fog. All of the sudden she lost control, the magic rug jerked to a sudden stop and almost threw her off. It continued to move harshly and sporadically on its own, back and forth or side to side in an unpredictable way.
Betty was holding on tightly enough to make the back of her knuckles go pale, adrenaline coursing through her body and preparing her for the very worst. Looking back again, the last thing she remembered seeing was the stranger holding out what looked like a blossoming cherry tree branch. Then, the carpet skyrocketed straight into the air with her in tow. She had no idea for how long she could hold on like this, unable to control or predict where or how the rug moved. Unprepared, her fingers slipped when it veered off to the right.
And she was falling.
It felt as though her heart was trying to crawl out of her throat, the pressure pounding on her ears and violently whipping the fabric of her cloak around her. Helplessly, she flailed while caught in complete freefall, hardly able to so much as breathe from sheer panic. Sucking in what she thought would be her last breath and holding it as if it could save her, Betty squeezed her eyes shut and simply waited for the impact to come, watching colors blur and fade into flashing images of her life underneath her eyelids.
This was it, wasn't it? And it hurt to think of how pathetically far she was from her goal. She was going to die a failure, and leave Simon hopeless while she was at it.
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Wizard City was far from a mundane place, but there were many things that you might see there and not make any particular note of, whereas seeing the very same thing happen outside of the city walls would warrant much more alarm. If you saw a building on fire, for example, it was probably just a spell gone awry and it was probably for the best if you just kept walking. Earthquake? Someone had likely just summoned a demon or something. None of your beeswax. People falling out of the sky? Happened at least twice a month.
Still. He regarded the plummeting, navy figure with a raised, bushy eyebrow. Why hadn't they cast a levitation spell or sprouted wings or something already? It was dangerous to risk waiting around like that. Ice King's expression queered, and he stopped dead in his tracks to stare contemplatively. Maybe the person was in trouble.
He shrugged; it was a monday. Not like he had much else to do anyway. Taking to the air with a puffed-up sense of purpose and ascending steadily, he neared the falling figure, intending to get close enough to ask if any assistance was needed. That plan quickly got scrapped though, just seeing how the screaming person wasn't giving off any sort of 'I can handle this myself' vibes. Bracing himself, he reached out and caught the person, grunting a bit from the impact but fairly quickly recovering. The hood of the cloak slipped limply off of the stranger's head, revealing a mussed redhead.
Well, whoever had last told him that 'you can't just expect the one to fall out of the sky' was going to have to eat their words. That is, if anyone had ever told him that in the first place... Someone probably had at one point or another, but that was beside the point. Even as panicked and disoriented as she clearly was, the lady was awfully pretty...and almost familiar too.
The odd, cloaked woman was still rigid as a wooden board, tense and seemingly unready to relax just yet, her hands tightly balled up in fists and arms held tightly to her chest. For the longest moment, she'd been sure that she had died, but slowly, she lifted her head and finally dared to blink her eyes open.
'Oh wow', was his first thought.
'Oh no', was hers.