Chapter one
Kay Lee enjoyed Tennis class. She wasn't necessarily good at tennis, and her instructor referred to her as 'Katie.' She enjoyed it never the less. The only bad thing about Tennis class, in Kay Lee's personal opinion, was that the hour she spent on the green court was short lived.
At 7:30, the teacher paying her a compliment, a kind compliment, implied the end of class. Something along the lines of, 'you're improving more and more everyday, Katie.' The Tennis instructor would then ask her to pick up the tens of bright green tennis balls. So Kay Lee would.
When she had completed the task, and returned all of the balls to the trolley, Kay Lee always offered to help the teacher manage the large cart. The instructor always refused. Kay Lee was then free to walk past court two and one to the water fountain in the lounge, and then to her mother.
Her mother always sat on the same padded bench with her oversized handbag teetering dangerously on her lap. The bag was an ugly old thing, larger then her mother's torso and lined with fake fur.
It had been a gift.
From the hideous old bag, Kay Lee's mother would find her wallet, and from the wallet find seventy-five dollars to pay the Tennis instructor.
That is what would happen on a normal Wednesday; this Wednesday was not a normal Wednesday. It had started as one, but became very un-normal very quickly. It all began after they arrived at home. Kay Lee lived with her mother and younger brothers in a small suburban house. It was a small one-story house (not counting the basement,) that had been painted a very pleasant daisy yellow by the previous owners.
"Take the dog outside, Kay Lee," Her mother told her, just like everyday. So Kay Lee would. Meanwhile her mother went deeper into the house, to check on the boys and throw something almost decent on the stove for dinner.
The back yard was the perfect size for a family of three, and a dog. There were a few trees and a birdbath. The birdbath hadn't been cleaned in years. Leaves and algae floated in murky rainwater. It wasn't so much as a birdbath, then a mosquito breeding ground.
The weather had been great for mosquitoes a week ago. A week ago, it had been warm and sunny, a wonderful seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit. Now Kay Lee huddled under mounds of fleece and wool trying to ward off the sudden frost.
"Kitty!" She cried at the backyard. She cried at the back yard because she couldn't actually see it in the dark. In this dark abyss she had lost track of Kitty, and she wasn't about to step away from the porch light. Deers have been known to rome through her yard. This wouldn't have been the first time she ran into a terrifying, six foot beast with antlars on its head.
"Kitty!" She called again, "you bad boy! If you run off again I swear I won't let you out without a leash again!"
In response to her call, a huge German Shepard bounded out of the darkness. Its large paws pounding against the dead looking grass. One could almost feel the ground shake under its enormous feet.
"Aw, good Kitty," Kay Lee said patting the dog on his head. "Are you all done then?"
She turned back to the house to open the sliding glass door. She was of course met with a bit of difficulty. While she was wrestling with the door, she felt a cold wet nose press against her bare leg. She yelped and turned to Kitty, trying to stretch her tennis skirt to cover more of her body.
"What is it Kitty?" Kay Lee asked trying to look excited for the thing. She often viewed Kitty as a rather large two year old, and didn't want to hurt his feelings or stunt his curiosity. The dog wagged his tail. Kay Lee was weary to put out her hand, last time Kitty had brought her something it turned out to be a half dead snake. She'd rather not go through that again.
Over her outstretched hand Kitty opened his menacing looking mouth and something tumbled from it. At first Kay Lee assumed it was a butterfly. Then after several minutes of staring at it blankly, a word clicked in her frazzled mind. Fairy. For that was precisely what it was, an unconscious one at that.
Kay Lee rushed the tiny person into the house away from the cold and upstairs to her room (after she managed to open the damn door.), Kitty right on her heels.
Once when Kay Lee had been five, her mother pregnant with the first younger brother, she had found a bird's egg in the grass. Kay Lee picked it up and showed it to her mother proudly. Her mother cupped the egg in her swollen hands, and dashed to the house before Kay Lee could finish her story. Her mother then found a shoe-box and lined it with a towel. Finally she snatched the reading light from Kay Lee's side table and cleverly used it to warm the egg. They kept the egg in the basement so Kay Lee's father didn't find it. He wouldn't approve of wild animals in the house.
The egg must have been in the cold for to long, it never hatched. However with out the experience Kay Lee would have been at a loss for what to do. She found a nice hidden area behind the drawer in her closet. All she had to do to check on the creature was climb over the drawer and drop on the left, easy enough. It was her favorite hiding spot. Although, she never actually had a secret to keep in the spot before now. So the space in her closet lay unused and dusty. Finally she had something to hide.
Kay Lee didn't know why but it seemed terribly important to keep the creature a secret. Maybe it was because the millions of Fairy Tales and Fantasy novels she had read over the years had spoiled her mind. Ever since she had learned to read she had devoured books spun of magic and folklore.
Therefore it was only reasonable that she was an expert on the subject of fantasy. She had read somewhere that iron was deadly for such creatures as faeries, because they did not have iron in their blood.
Nor do they have a soul.
Well that didn't really matter much, she decided, what good was a soul anyway? Honestly the only purpose she could think of for a soul was to make a deal with the devil, at it was a well-known fact that it always blew up in your face. Maybe it was better if humans didn't have a soul either.
Kay Lee climbed atop her drawer in the closet and simply watched the small creature sleep. The anatomy of the thing was amazingly graceful, even when its limbs where sprawled at odd angles. Kay Lee supposed that had she been human sized she might have been about six feet, due mostly to her too long legs.
Kay Lee wondered if it was sleazy to be watching the creature while it slept. So she with drawled to respect its privacy.
She wandered to her shelf and ran a finger down a row of book's spines. Abarat, by Clive Barker, about a young unpopular girl who escaped to a different world by light house. Valiant and Tithe, both by Holly Black, both about dysfunctional girls thrust upon the world of faerie. The Phantom of the Toll booth, Faerie Wars by Brennan, Old Magic by Marianne Curley, The Blue Girl by Charles de Lint, So You Want to be a Wizard, by Diane Duane, Harry Potter by J.K Rowling. All of these books, she noticed were about unpopular, unhappy children who where introduced to magical worlds. Kay Lee found this rather offensive. She didn't consider herself all that unhappy and she had friends, not a huge bout of friends, but enough so she wasn't bored on the weekends.
Yet there was a fairy in her closet.
After reflecting on the entire incident, after all who wouldn't, she decided that her reaction was wrong. She should have been more wary. After all fairies and such aren't supposed to exist. This could all be some elaborate hoax. It scared her that she took it all in without any real doubt. Was she really so gullible?
She could always have gone mad.
Oh what the hell, she thought, cracking open The City of Masks by Mary Hoffman for the billionth time, its a lot more fun then reality any day.
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A good messenger isn't supposed to have a back-story. Neither should he think too much. The only real role a good messenger should have is to deepen the plot with the message he brought the main characters. With a good messenger he isn't so important, but what he is carrying is.
Indeed a good messenger should be swift, quiet, have a good sense of direction, and he shouldn't dwell on wither it was morally correct to deliver whatever he was carrying. A messenger shouldn't think of the dangers he might face if he is carrying an important artifact or letter that could change the course of history.
Instead he should only think on the fastest way to get to where the message needed to go.
This didn't entirely strike home with Puck Aughisky. Yes he was swift, and he did have a great sense of direction, and he honestly had no morals, but other then that he was a lousy messenger. Its not that he asked to many questions, it's just that he was too smart. That caused problems.
It also turns out to be the leading cause of death.
Puck adjusted his messenger bag to relieve his shoulder of the numbing weight, and pressed on, balancing on four, sturdy Friesian+ legs. They weren't the fastest or the most elegant of legs he could have chosen but they were sturdy. They plowed him along in a reasonable pace.
With elegant skinny legs, he finds that it is easier to trip on the many roots and shrubs in the forest.
Tripping wasn't attractive.
Puck was often forced to cross this accursed wood because it separated the two waring countries, and their favorite thing to do was send emotionally scaring letters to each other. He found he quite knew the forest very well now, and the things that lived in it.
The ground began to feel soggy under his feet. This brought a smirk to what he liked to think was his devilishly handsome face. Muddy Ground of course, meant water. Wednesday knows he could have used some fun.
Lo and behold, sitting on a rock by a pond was a female shaped figure. At least she was female shaped from the waist up. Where her legs should have been was, of course, a fish tail. Sirens where mistresses of seduction, thats what made them so fun.
Several hours later he woke comfortable submerged in water. When he woke, he didn't like to open his eyes until every bit of him was properly awake first. When he finally did get around to opening his Wednesday-damn lazy eyes he noticed the siren wasn't anywhere to be seen. He felt wonderfully in his element. If only he could wake every morning in the water.
Moving like mercury upwards, he took notice of the siren's tail dipped in the water. Puck surfaced the water with a cocky grin on his face, "Mornin'!" He said
"What do you want Pooka?" She asked bitterly, her arms crossed. A pout played on her lips that on a less attractive woman would have been a frown.
"A bit cranky this morning? Oh 'Virgin-of-the-Sea'?"++ He asked brushing his damp hair from his forehead, "I know how frustrating it can be when your victim doesn't drown, being a masochist myself, but you can't say we didn't have fun."
"Do" here the half fish woman said something very inappropriate, "off, you annoyance, go deliver your stupid message. I hate messengers you know, even more then pookas. The whole world hates them. You realize that right?"
"Well my dear," he said in a smooth manor. "To be honest I hate myself sometimes, but then I catch my reflection, and I simply can not hate myself any longer."
"I hope you die, staring at your own reflection, and forget to eat." She replied. Puck shrugged
"At least I'd die happy." He hauled himself out of the water, and stretched. "Well, its been fun. Enjoy the rest of your Wednesday."
And with that he picked up his bag and continued to make the trek to the place his message demanded to be. Such was the life of the messenger.
Still... it was very rather dull, but what is dull to a good messenger?
Well hi! I was bored and figured why not right something in a new style? And so I did. With this one though I'm pretty sure I have a good idea where it is going though, sorta. This is pretty much a prologe (pronouced Pro-log), or however you spell it. There are a few things I feel I should explain what they are. That is what the are for;
I'm not sure exactly where I read that fairy's did have a soul, or iron in there blood, (I'm pretty sure it was tithe by Holly Black though) but please don't get offended with what I wrote. Personally I'm not religous at all, but I realize something like that can be offensize to some one who is. I mean no harm, really.
Honestly I can not be the only person who noticed.
This is sort of a hint to what he is. Not the Puck creature we've learned about from Shakespeare (I hope I spelt that right)
Friesian is a breed of horse thats very stocky and and thick. If you want a better visual I went on Wikipedia to research horse breeds for this. You can find a picture and every thing.
Alright, I know I blended the line between Mermaid and Siren but really there wasn't much of a well know difference any way. Any way Mermaid really does translate to Virgin of the sea, Puck was just sort of teaseing her in a way. I feel sort of bad, I should have at least given her a name. Pearl suits her I guess and she winds up happy with some bloke. Any way there isn't really a plot to Puck's introduction, just a peek at his less then attractive character.
Thank you so much for reading. If you have the time please drop a review to tell me what you think. It would help alot.
Jumping Bean