Pranks for the Memories Ch. 2
After a delightful lunch followed by a romantic stroll through the Autumn Forest, Queen Clarion and Lord Milori arrived at a clearing where the Lord of Winter had Sled prepare Milori's personal owl for the couple's ride over the Winter Woods. One of Clarion's helpers was there, as well, with the queen's winter ensemble so she could stay warm in the cold season. Milori gently frosted his blushing bride's beautiful wings and then helped her onto the owl.
"I will be rather busy all day, Sled," Milori said. "Please keep everything in order while I'm gone."
"Yes, sir," the winter animal talent fairy replied.
"Your Highness, Viola is coming," the helper announced.
Viola, the queen's personal summoner and body guard approached the impromptu landing site. "What is it, Viola," Clarion asked.
Viola bowed to her queen before speaking. "Your Majesty, the hospital reports that one of the dairy mice became most unsettled and bit one its caretakers. The fairy in question was brought to the hospital where she has been displaying most unusual symptoms."
"Perhaps we should postpone the owl ride for later, my dear," Milori said.
Viola then added, "The physicians do not believe there is any cause for alarm. The patient is being treated for the bite and has been given anti-viral medication as a precaution."
"Thank you, Viola," the queen said. "Please keep me informed. I will be in the Winter Woods with Milori."
The Lord of Winter handed the winter animal talent a slip of paper and then told the summoner, "Sled will know where to find us at any given moment."
"Yes, Your Majesty, Your Lordship," Viola said. She bowed again before leaving.
Milori shook the reigns of his snowy owl and it, along with the two passengers, lifted off into the autumn air before piercing the white veil of the Winter Woods' snowfall. At first the queen was somewhat distracted by the news, but as Milori showed her the many points of interest, the peaks of the mountains, the valleys where the fairies practiced their talents, the sky where the sunlight refracted into sheets of glowing, shifting colors Clarion soon forgot all about the unsettling report. She laid her head against Milori's strong shoulders and simply enjoyed the wonderful vistas, incredible sites and of course, the time she spent with her loving husband.
The two landed atop an outcropping on a mountain side where, surprise-surprise, the pair happened across some chilled wine, two glasses and a bowl of the finest, fairy chocolate Pixie Hollow had to offer. Here the royal couple watched those lights in the sky shift in colors and patterns. A magnificent display that kept Queen Clarion and even Lord Milori in awe for some time. Milori poured the wine and fed his beloved the fine chocolates. Then he pulled her close to him and whispered such naughty little things that it made her giggle like a school girl and blush.
Then he kissed her, and kissed her some more. The two rolled over into the snow and made out like two teenagers. With no one around they could cast aside their royal facades and allow themselves this moment of normalcy that would otherwise have to be avoided while in the public eye.
When Clarion and Milori arrived at the Winter Castle they were greeted by Snowflake, the Minister of Winter, who with a grave expression promptly informed them that the fairy that had been bitten by the dairy mouse had taken a turn for the worse.
"I asked Viola to report back any additional news, but she has not yet returned," Snowflake told them. "The virus infecting her is not responding to the usual treatments. The doctors believe we are dealing with a new and very aggressive strain. They are very concerned that it might be infectious."
"What has been done so far?" Clarion asked, very worried.
"The hospital has been quarantined. Any healer or nurse not on duty has been relocated to deal with the sick and the injured. Those patients in the hospital are not being allowed to leave, any new patients are being redirected to the new clinic," Snowflake replied.
"Why wasn't the queen informed of these events?" Milori asked.
"You deviated from your flight plan," Snowflake replied. "No one could find you."
"Yes, quite right. My apologies."
"Milori, I must return to the Pixie Dust Tree and inspect this first hand," Clarion said. "If there is an emergency I will have to give the order and oversee its implementation."
"Of course, My Love, I'll be right along to fly you there," he said. "First let me give some precautionary instructions to Snowflake before we depart."
Milori pulled the Minister of Winter aside and in a soft voice told her, "That was perfect, Minister. Even the look on your face was sublime. It sold the entire thing to her. Now then, is everyone in the warm season's ready as I asked?"
"Yes, Lord Milori," she replied quietly. "Everything is exactly as you requested."
"Excellent," he told her. "Thank you for your cooperation. Queen Clarion always manages to fool me every April First, but not this year. Thank you again."
With that Milori led his wife to the owl and they departed for the warm seasons and the Pixie Dust Tree.
~O~
When the royal couple set down in the open square, the queen dismounted the owl and promptly went to the hospital entrance. On her way she briefly remembered that foolish April Fool's prank Milori had pulled on her just earlier today. Right now she wished she could reset the clock to that moment when there were no concerns except how to break it to Milori that his joke wasn't working.
When she arrived at the hospital she was greeted by the receptionist who told her in no uncertain terms not to go inside.
"I am the queen, I can go where I please," Clarion told the receptionist.
"My queen, the virus has spread rapidly," she told the regent. "It is highly infectious. I cannot allow the queen to become its next victim. You are too important."
Queen Clarion lowered her head a bit. The receptionist was correct. She was too important to be lost to this disease, but she still needed to find out what was going on in the hospital.
"Where is my personal summoner, Viola?" she asked the receptionist.
"Ree, let's go," Milori said. "We need to consult with the ministers."
"In a moment," she told him. "Where is Viola?"
The receptionist turned pale. "I'm…, sorry, Your Majesty. Viola has been infected. It was so fast. Many have perished in the last few hours and she will not have long to live herself."
Queen Clarion's heart sank. Viola wasn't just her personal bodyguard and summoner, but someone she held close to her heart.
"If this gets out of the hospital," the receptionist continued, "all will be lost."
"Yes, Milori, we should leave immediately," Clarion told him. "I must consult with the ministers and declare an emergency."
Before either could move a muscle they heard a terrifying scream come from the hospital corridor. A nurse talent, who looked scared to death, stumbled to the doorway.
"Stop!" the receptionist yelled. "Come no further. You will kill us all."
"They've escaped," the nurse said. "They've all escaped."
"Who has?" Clarion asked immediately.
"The first ones," the nurse replied. "The first ones to be infected and perish have escaped."
"What do you mean they have escaped?" the queen questioned further. "If they have perished how could they have been removed?"
"The disease, it…, it reanimates the dead," the nurse said, as if not sure she believed it herself.
"What nonsense is this? What is going on in the hospital?" Then the queen saw another figure approach. "Viola! Viola tell me what is happening. Report, immediately."
Viola said nothing. Instead she approached the nursing talent, flying at a slow and deliberate pace. Her gaze transfixed by the fairy she did not respond nor deviate her course. The nurse talent turned to see the oncoming fairy and panicked. She became petrified with absolute fear.
"What is going on?!" the queen demanded.
Then Viola came into the light and Clarion saw her summoner's face. It was ashen, her eyes were dark and sunken. She looked, in a word, dead.
"Viola! What are you doing? Answer me!"
She did not. Viola continued to approach the panic stricken nurse talent with ultimate resolve. She was muttering something that the queen could not understand.
"NO! STAY AWAY!" the nurse yelled. "PLEASE, STAY AWAY!" She shrunk to the floor and tried to push herself away from what she knew was her fate. It was to no avail. Viola reached out to the petrified nurse, took her head in her hands and moaned, "Brains!" Then she leaned down and bit into the woman's neck. The nurse let out a terrible shriek before finally going limp.
"VIOLA! What have you done?" Clarion yelled to her summoner.
When the summoner fairy looked up, her mouth was smeared with blood. Her eyes stared right through the queen. Clarion thought she could feel the cold and dark evil in her summoner's empty gaze. The queen gasped and put her hands to her face in stark terror. Milori, too put his hand over his mouth, but this was to cover up the big, silly grin he was wearing. He could barely keep a straight face.
From behind Viola several more figures began to emerge. As they entered the light Clarion could see the doctors, nurses and patients from the ward. Each and every one of them had the same, dead look. Ashen faces, dark and sunken eyes and same deliberate pace.
"Brains!" they all moaned.
"RUN!" the receptionist yelled. "RUN, MY QUEEN! SAVE YOURSELF!"
Milori took Clarion by the arm and took off at a full sprint. "Quickly, Ree, to the owl. We can escape to the Winter Woods."
"NO!" she shouted. "I must get to the ministers and alert them. I have to declare an emergency."
"The owl will get us there," he told her. But when they reached the site where they had landed, the snowy owl had been laid low by over a dozen undead fairies.
"Brains!" they kept chanting.
"This way!" he told her. Taking the queen by the hand, he ran around the scene, giving it a wide berth. A few steps away they heard a familiar voice.
"Clankie, stop! It's me, Bobble. Remember!" Bobble, the diminutive tinker sparrow man was beset by his long time buddy Clank. The large tinker had the same ashen face with dark, sunken eyes and death like appearance. Bobble, who was ignoring the obvious, kept calling out to his best friend.
"Run, Bobble! Run!" Milori yelled to him. But it was too late. When Bobble finally accepted the reality Clank had taken hold of him by the wing.
"HELP!" Bobble yelled. Clank and Bobble descended to the ground and were obscured by rocks and grass. A moment later Clarion and Milori heard Bobble's death scream.
"How could it have spread so quickly?" the queen asked.
"We must go," Milori said. They ran off, resuming their course to the Pixie Dust Tree. Along the way they saw more panic and chaos. Undead fairies and sparrow men chasing down the living with alarming success.
Vidia shot through the skies above, flying as fast as she could. Several undead fast flyers pursuing her. "Get away!" she yelled at them. Vidia turned up to ascend above the forest canopy, but she was captured by several of the ashen faced fairies. "AAAAAHHHH! LET ME GO! LET ME GO!"
She too was lost. Clarion could bear this no longer, Pixie Hollow was coming to an end. Now she would have to evacuate only those few who were not infected and get them to a safe place away. She never thought her reign would end like this. She was determined not to let it happen just yet.
Milori, who had broken a wing long ago was far more accustomed to getting around on his feet than anyone else in Pixie Hollow. He ran with great speed and kept up with the queen who flew across the grounds to the tree. She ascended to the hall where the ministers would be gathered. Milori entered the tree from a ground floor entrance and bounded up the stairs, clearing two or three steps at a time.
When Queen Clarion reached the falls where the dust collected in the tree branches she saw Tinker Bell. The little tinker fairy was holding Terence's dead body in her hands. She was smeared with blood. The queen watched with abject horror as Tinker Bell leaned down and seemed to take a bite out of the back of his skull.
She gasped, "Brains! Oh no!"
Clarion sped up to the entrance of the great audience chamber where she knew Redleaf, Sunflower and Hyacinth would be gathered. "Ministers?" she called out to them. "Ministers, where are you?"
She heard nothing. Not a sound except the tortuous chaos from outside. "Ministers!?"
Suddenly she heard a shriek from the next room. There she found an ashen faced Hyacinth bearing down on Sunflower. Redleaf was lying on the ground, apparently Hyacinth last victim. "Brains!" Hyacinth moaned. Sunflower saw her queen and yelled out. "LEAVE, MY QUEEN. SAVE YOURSELF, PROTECT THE HOLLOW!"
Milori burst into the room, he saw the horror before him and grabbed his wife. "Let's go, now!" He pulled her away and back into the audience chamber. He descended the stairs to exit at the ground floor, but he and Clarion were blocked by several undead fairies who had apparently followed Milori.
"Brains!" they groaned.
"Come," he led her back up the stairs, higher and higher up the staircase until they reached the living quarters. "We can take the back entrance and escape." No sooner had he said that when they ran into someone the queen knew very well.
She gasped. "Fairy Mary. No!"
Fairy Mary, the tinker supervisor and the queen's best and dearest friend, had succumbed to the virus and was one of the undead now. "Brains," she groaned. "Brains!" She was joined by Tinker Bell, Clank and several others.
Clarion and Milori turned around, but the undead fairies behind them had caught up. Milori, searching for an escape, found it. The queen's private bedchamber. "HERE!" he shouted, opening the door and pulling his wife and queen into the room. Milori closed the door behind him and tried to bar it closed.
"Now what do we do?" she asked him.
"Out the window," he told her. "Fly to the Winter Woods and save every fairy you can."
She ran to the open window, but stopped. Milori's broken wing. He couldn't fly. She turned back to him. "You'll die," she said.
"There is no other way, my beloved," he said back to her, resignation in his voice. "Fairy kind must survive."
Clarion, moved by his sacrifice and brokenhearted by the impending loss took her husband in her arms and kissed him passionately. She would miss him terribly. "Goodbye, my dearest love," he said to her.
"Goodbye," she replied.
Clarion turned to exit through the window when Vidia suddenly appeared. "Brains!"
"AAAHHH!" Clarion screamed. Milori grabbed his wife, pulling her away from the window. Vidia stepped into the room. Her face, ashen and eyes dark and sunken like all the rest. A second later, the undead began pouring in through the window. Fawn, Silvermist, Redleaf, Iridessa, Rosetta, even the receptionist from the hospital.
"Oh no," Clarion gasped.
Suddenly the door to her room burst open. Fairy Mary and Tinker Bell entered the room joined by several others. Milori pulled his wife further and further away until they ran into a wall. Nowhere else to go. They were trapped.
Milori took his wife into his arms. "Look away, my love," he told her. He covered her face and turned her away from the onslaught. They slunk down and cowered. Milori held his wife tightly, keeping himself between her and the oncoming fairies.
"I'm sorry, dearest," he told her.
"I'm sorry, too," she said. Clarion shivered in fear.
"Brains!" came the oppressive chant of the undead fairies.
He kissed her gently on the cheeks. "Only seconds left. I have one last thing to tell you, dearest."
"What is it, my love?"
"…April Fool!"
Clarion stopped shivering. She looked up at her husband who wore the biggest, silliest grin she had ever seen on him.
"WHAT!?"
He nodded. Clarion turned to the undead fairies who were only a few steps from them. Vidia, who was leading the pack just stood there, arms crossed with a smug and satisfied look on her face. Tinker Bell was starting to laugh. When the queen turned to Fairy Mary, she just nodded her head.
"You mean…, you mean this was all just some elaborate joke?"
"Yes, dear," Milori said. "I told you I would get even."
"No one is dead?"
"No!"
"Everyone is well?"
"Yes."
"There is no virus?"
"None."
"They were all in on it?"
"Every single one."
"Even Viola and Snowflake?"
"Yes, dear." Milori smiled the smile of the victorious. He was sure Clarion would share in his good humor. He was wrong.
"You scared me half to death!" she yelled. Clarion started to beat him over the head with her arm and fist.
"You fiend! You beast! You monster!"
The other fairies in the room burst into laughter.
"Let me help you up, dear," Fairy Mary offered, her arms outstretched. She assisted Clarion to her feet. The fairy queen made her way to the bed where she sat down and put her hand to her head.
"Well, that was very convincing. You succeeded in nearly giving me a heart attack!" she said.
The other fairies laughed.
"Oh we didn't mean to scare you too much, just enough to help Milori pull of his joke," Tinker Bell said.
"Yes, well, I was scared out of my wits. I was certain that all of Pixie Hollow was gone and that these were our last minutes together."
"It's just a harmless prank," Fairy Mary said, defending Milori.
Clarion finally nodded, remembering the prank she pulled on Milori last year. He was up in arms over the thought that his wife had been cheating on him…, with everyone in sight. She supposed she deserved this…, except for one little detail.
"I thought you pulled your little prank this morning?" she asked him. "When you pretended to be having an affair with Vidia."
"That's what I needed you to think," Milori told her. "I had to convince you that I had already made my attempt to successfully pull this one off."
"But what about Tinker Bell?" the queen asked. "She was eating from Terence's head. And the nurse talent I saw get bitten?"
"All well staged acting," Milori told her.
"Yeah, you never actually saw Terence's skull, just me hiding behind him and acting like I was eating his brains," Tinker Bell said, describing her actions.
"And Viola only put her lips on the nurse's neck," Milori told her. "A small pack of red dye was all that was needed to create the illusion of blood."
"Very clever," she said to him. "Most cunning. Most cunning, indeed. And when did you have the time to plan all of this under my nose?"
"Oh I've been working on this for the past year," he admitted. "This was going to be my year."
"Indeed it was." Clarion then turned to the others in the room and addressed them. "Thank you, everyone, for nearly frightening me out of a thousand years of my life." They laughed when she said this. "Not to be a party pooper, but I will have to ask you leave. As you can imagine I am quite exhausted from this little experience and would like to rest."
"Of course, Your Highness," Fairy Mary said. "Alright everyone, let's go. The queen needs her rest. Lucinda, quit dawdling and move along."
When the room was empty Lord Milori turned to his beautiful wife. He helpfully pulled down the sheets on the bed and said. "Let me help you rest this evening."
Clarion, however, was at the linen closet. "No, I don't think so."
"I bed your pardon?"
"Dear, there is an unwritten rule about April Fool's Day here in Pixie Hollow," she began. "When a wife pranks her husband, he is entitled to thirty days of the most incredible nights of carnal pleasures he can imagine."
Queen Clarion shoved a blanket and pillow into Milori's chest. "But if a husband pranks his wife, then he is entitled to thirty days of sleeping on the couch asking himself that universal question: 'What in the hell was I thinking?'"
Then she pushed him out of the room and slammed the door in his face.
"What? But dear, it was just a little April Fool's Day prank?" he said through the door.
"If you want carnal pleasures, you'll have to take of that by yourself," she answered him. "Good night, Your Lordship. I'll see you in thirty days."
Stunned, Milori just stood there for a moment. Then he finally uttered, "…I, I just can't win."
~O~
About an hour later Clarion answered a knock at her door, it was Fairy Mary and Sunflower. Mary had removed all of her makeup and was dressed like normal. Clarion invited them in where they sat around a small table. She poured each one of them some chamomile tea.
"So how did he take it?" Fairy Mary asked.
"Not very well," Clarion said with a laugh. "I heard him muttering something about how he can't win."
"I found Lord Milori not ten minutes ago in the lobby," Sunflower informed the queen. "He was clinging to a pillow and blanket with a blank, almost despondent stare on his face."
"So, when are you going to let him off the hook?" Fairy Mary asked.
"I think I'll let him stew for a few days," Clarion said. "That will teach him not to prank his queen like that."
The three women laughed when the queen said that. "Thank you again for letting me know what he was planning, Mary." Clarion told her friend.
"Oh, think nothing of it," she said. "As soon as he told me what he intended to do and swore me to secrecy, I knew I had to come right over and fill you in."
"Wait, you knew?" Sunflower asked.
"Yes, for almost a year," Clarion admitted.
"But you looked so frightened," Sunflower said. "How did you do that?"
"Remember, I possess every talent in Pixie Hollow. Including the acting talent. It was easy."
"It was very elaborate, I must say," Mary commented.
"Yes, indeed it was," Clarion mused. "Intricately planned, expertly executed. If I hadn't known ahead of time I may have been truly frightened by the prospect of losing all of Pixie Hollow that way."
"Are you telling us you believe in zombies?" Sunflower asked.
"Of course not, but there are many things in this world we do not yet understand," Clarion answered. "Milori's little prank made excellent use of the unknown. Building slowly and making me believe in what I may otherwise have rejected."
"It sounds to me like you admire what he did," Fairy Mary concluded.
"Hmm…, yes, I suppose I do." The queen seemed to be in deep thought for a few moments. Then she announced. "Mary, would you be a dear and send Milori to my bed chamber. He deserves a reward for all the effort he put into his prank. It's unfair of me to be so cruel to him."
"Right away, Your Highness." Fairy Mary and Sunflower finished their tea and exited the room to fetch the queen's husband.
While she waited, Clarion stared out of the window and chuckled. "Heh, zombies."
THE END
I hope you enjoyed this story. Thank you for reading.