The Iron Sister: Ira's Story

I burrowed even deeper into the covers when I woke up, not wanting to leave the comfy bed just yet. The warmth was slightly annoying me, but the softness of the blankets kept me in place.

I heard the door open, and Glitch's annoying voice reached my ears. "Jeez. You're still in bed? Well, get up. Now."

When I didn't move, I felt him approach my bed. "Are you going to get up the easy way? Or the hard way?" he threatened.

I snorted into my pillow at the cliche-ness of the question.

"Fine," I felt him shrug. "The hard way I guess." You guess correctly.

I smirked with my eyes closed. What does he think he can do to get me ou-

"Uhmp," I grunted as I landed on the floor, stomach first since Glitch grabbed onto my ankles and yanked me out of bed. The wind was knocked out of me. Though, I made the best of it, and wrapped the covers that fell with me, around my body.

I heard Glitch mumble, "I guess *someone* loves their sleep."

"Mmhmm," I murmured in agreement.

Then, his foot nudged my side gently. When I didn't respond, he started to nudge me with a bit more force. He was about to kick me when I muttered an icy threat.

"You touch me one more time, and you'll be the one slumbering eternally."

Though I heard him swallow, I still felt the foot coming. I immediately grabbed onto it and pulled, causing him fall onto his back. I snapped up and flicked his forehead, making him go cross-eyed.

When I straightened up from abusing Glitch, I yawned largely while stretching my arms. I smacked my lips as I blearily took in my surroundings.

The bed I slept on had rich, mahagony wood head and foot boards. The covers were white with dark blue swirls sprawling over one corner of the blanket. Beside the bed was a drawer.

The walls were the opposite of the covers with a dark blue background and white swirls. The floors were a light, hard wood. Large windows were implanted on one wall with glass double doors leading to what was probably a balcony. There was the door that I came in through, and there was a different door near the bed.

I shuffled to the door that I haven't explored yet. I twisted the wooden knob, and pushed. I smiled happily. A nice, cold shower was just calling my name from the private bathroom I discovered.

I heard Glitch stumble to his feet. I turned to him. He gave me a disbelieving look. I placed a hand on my hip, and haughtily spat out, "What."

He shook his head in what I thought was amazement. "How does your hair stay in place infront of your eye even though you were sleeping? You didn't even touch it much less fix it!"

I grinned at him. "Cuz I have awesome hair. Now, I'm going to take a shower. Feel free to do whatever." I waved him off, but then gave him one suggestion. "Also, feel free to jump off the balcony. You know. If you get bored."

I heard him huff in annoyance, but I felt him go to the balcony anyways. Glitch better not be in a suicidal mood. Meghan would be angry at me if he decides to fling himself off of the balcony.

I stepped into the shower after shucking off my clothes and haphazardly leaving them on the floor tiles. I stood under the freezing water happily, letting it wash away all the dirt and grime on my body.

Afterwards, I dried myself with a towel, and put on the white, fluffy bathrobe that was hanging on the back of the door. I rubbed my head with a towel once, not thoroughly drying it. I didn't check my hair in the mirror because,like Glitch said, it is always magically in place, infront of my eye.

I'm pretty sure Meghan and Glitch are wondering what could be so horribly wrong with my eye that I won't let anyone see, but I can't show them. Not yet. If I do, they'll wonder why I didn't show it, and then I would have to tell them about Mab. What a complicated life I have. I only move my hair out of my eye in the security of my showers, which is a reason why I love them.

I silently pad through the room to the balcony where I see Glitch's outline through the semi-transparent glass doors. I opened the door without having a squeak disrupt the silence, and crossed the short distance to the railing.

I gripped onto the metal bar and closed my eyes, enjoying the cool air. It blew through my wet hair, drying it. I sighed happily.

"It's pretty peaceful isn't it?" Glitch's low voice asked.

I nodded and opened my eyes to look at what the balcony showed. A smile lit up my face as my eyes roamed the palace. It was huge, trailing around the hillside with size-varying courtyards dotting it.

"Uh Ira?" came Glitch's hesitant voice. I tilted my head towards him to show him that I was listening.

"I know you're a Winter fey and all, but... Shouldn't you put on some real clothes?"

I turned to look at him. His face wasn't turning red as he said that, but his voice was a bit uneven, and he wasn't looking directly at me. I also noticed that his hair was switching between its usual yellow, electric waves with a blue-white color. I smirked internally. I now know what Glitch looks like when he's embarrassed.

I chuckled and took one last look at the view before going back into the room. I hopped over the bed and kneeled infront of the drawer. I rifled through the things, and I was able to find some clothes that I could wear amongst all the formal blouses and pants.

I grabbed them and after sliding into the bathroom, I quickly put on the tight, black, short sleeved v-neck and light blue, denim shorts that ended mid-thigh. I had my armlet already on my bicep. Since it's not affected by water, I leave it on at all times.

I was about to put on my shoes since I already had my socks on when Glitch's muffled yell for me to hurry up made its way through the door. I stuck my tongue out at him, even though I knew he couldn't see me.

I hopped outside, only managing to have put on one shoe. I was leaning down, trying to put on the other shoe when I felt Glitch's foot push my back.

I went flying forward with my arms flailing. I landed with my face smashed up against the floor despite my usually quick reflexes. Glitch's loud guffaws filled the room.

I slowly stood up after swiftly shoving on my other shoe. I turned around to look at a hysterically laughing Glitch. When he looked up at my face, all he saw were the daggers my eyes were shooting at him.

He tried to muffle his chuckles as he held the door open for me. "Ladies first," he gestured.

I gestured the same way to him and sweetly replied, "As you say." The he scowled, his laughter disappearing. Though, he did go first, making me giggle. Good. He's learning that I always get my way.

He stared at me, waiting for me to follow him when he suddenly look uncomfortable. I raised an eyebrow, but he just averted his eyes and headed down the hall.

I walked behind him. "So. Where we going?"

"Breakfast," came his short answer.

"Alright! I'm starved." I pushed past him and jogged ahead. Then I suddenly stopped in the middle of the hallway with my arms crossed waiting for Glitch to hurry up.

"Why'd you stop?" Glitch asked me.

"Because..." I grumbled, glaring at the wall that had the misfortune of being infront of me. "I don't know the way there," I muttered with a sour look on my face.

He chuckled then replied, "Why not let me lead again?"

I nodded jerkily in agreement, but he still didn't reach me yet. My foot started to tap involuntarily.

He was just casually strolling along as if he were taking a walk in the park! I hope he knows his life is on the line. I don't joke around when it comes to my food. I glared at him as he started to hum. Seriously? He had to be doing this on purpose...

"Come on! Chop chop! Hungry girl over here! Let's go! Let's go!" I chanted, enthusiastically clapping. When he ignored me, I felt the eye under my hair start to twitch.

He was whistling now. I wanted to rip out my hair in frustration. I settled with tugging on *his* hair to make him walk faster.

"Ow ow ow! What the hell!" Glitch seethed with a hint of pain. Oh yeah. Guys are alot more sensitive when it comes to hair pulling. Bonus.

Then I felt a shock run up my arm. No, it was not one of those pleasant tingles, but like a genuine, stuck-my-finger-into-an-outlet shock, courtesy of Glitch himself. It wasn't that bad, but it alarmed me, so of course, my knee-jerk reaction was to... Well. To literally jerk my knee into his gut. He bent over in pain. He started to wheeze, trying to take in deep breaths.

Of course, I was on the floor, clutching my stomach because all the laughing was starting to hurt.

"Self-inflicted wound, dude," I managed to gasp inbetween laughs.

He scowled at me, then kept walking. Though I noticed he was slighlty bent over. I smiled proudly.

"Finally," my stomach and I said in agreement. Yet, the rest of the trip to the dining area contained serveral moments of Glitch purposely slowing down, and several moments of me tugging his hair and punching his arm in response. Let's just say, we didn't get anywhere fast. Much to my dismay.

When Glitch slowed down, yet again, and I was about to push him along, maybe with the help of my armlet which just might happen to turn into a very sharp spear when a delicious aroma tickled my nose. I opened my mouth to drink in the smell. Glitch stared at me with a funny look on his face. He shook his head and mumbled, "Wow. I guess she was really hungry if she reacts that way to the smell of pancakes."

"Yes I was hungry!" I screech, completly outraged. "Why do you think I kept pushing you?" I asked with an incredulous look on my face.

He shrugged then walked forward and opened a pair of double doors that showed an enormous room that was filled with the members of the Seelie Court.

We walked over to the row of tables that were filled with food for the fey to self-serve. I was practically drooling by then. I wiped the side of my mouth self-consciously. We grabbed our plates and topped them high with food. I noticed that there was also some human food. Since I wasn't so eager to turn into a shrub by carelessly eating faery food, most of my plate with filled with the human food.

When we were finished, I followed Glitch to the table we were to sit at. The table was only filled with Meghan and her guards. Meghan smiled at me, and then raised her eyebrow at the amount of food I had on my plate.I shrugged then said, "I eat alot."

We sat down and I started to tear apart my food without any mercy. I was finished within a few moments. As I was licking my lips, not quite satisfied, I lifted my head up to see the whole table staring at me with wide eyes. Some were frozen with their forks half-way to their mouths. I shot them a look, "What? Never seen a girl eat before?"

"Have you been starving for a few years or something? Jeez..." Meghan breathed, still shocked.

Glitch shrugged then continued eating. The rest got ahold of themselves and followed Glitch's lead.

I turned to Meghan. "What are we doing today?"

She shook her head and answered, "Well. We have to test you on your fighting abilities and how fast you learn."

"Well, I learn pretty fast..."

"Cocky much?" Glitch mumbled around his mouthful of food.

I slapped the back of his head, making him spit some food out. "Don't talk with your mouth full," I chided.

He glared at me. Then I saw something spark in his eyes. He grabbed a pancake, topped with whipped cream, in his hand.

My eyes widened. "Don't. Even. THINK. About it," I hissed, standing up. He smirked. And threw the food. At my face. And did NOT miss.

My eyes were closed as I slowly scraped the cream off of my face, and onto the floor. I opened my eyes to see the table's shocked faces. Glitch was laughing his butt off for the second time today.

I could feel the air around me turning 10 degrees colder. This is gonna get messy. Glitch stopped laughing when he noticed the temperature drop. His eyes widened in surprise at the icy look on my face.

"You better run boy," I whispered, my eyes glinting evilly. A smirk was playing on my lips.

As soon as the last word left my mouth, he bolted. I was about to sprint after him when a firm hand grabbed my bicep. I whipped my head around to see who it was. What I saw was a fey I did not know. He was beautiful, as most fey were, but beauty doesn't decieve me anymore. He was tall, had red, tousled hair, and half-lidded emerald green eyes that were lazily scanning over me.

"You know you looked pretty scary, but your outfit just canceled that out," the red-head drawled, his eyes looking curiously at the hair covering my eye.

"Puck!" Meghan exclaimed running over to him. She smiled and hugged him.

"What's up princess?" he asked her, wrapping his arm around her. He let his hand unclench from my arm.

I narrowed my eyes at this "Puck." "What do you mean 'my outfit canceled out how scary I was'?" I seethed. I didn't know anything could cancel out my scaryness.

He raised an eyebrow. "Have you looked at yourself?" Meghan tried to hide her smile when she realized what he was talking about while I was left clueless.

I frowned and looked at my outfit. A V-neck t-shirt, shorts, and converse with my silver armband. I looked back at him and responded, "I don't see what's so wrong about a t-shirt and shorts."

He gave me a crooked smile, and looked at Meghan. "You want to tell her?" clearly enjoying my stupidity.

I let out a frustrated sigh. "What? What's so wrong?"

Meghan gave me an amused smile. Then she whispered in my ear. "Your outfit? Is kind of ... um.." she drifted off. I was ready to smack someone."Don't kill me, but your outfit is kind of... tight," she ended giving me a wary look.

I raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me? So what? I usually wear tight clothes since I run alot. If I wore loose clothes, they would flap and get caught on something which would probably lead me to me getting eaten," I shrugged after I explained.

She frowned, "Is all you think about survival?"

I gave her a dry smile, "Well I don't plan on dying."

"Alot of people don't. Puck." He offered me his hand. Though, I didn't take it and just nodded at him in greeting since he didn't really give me a great first impression. I guess me not accepting his hand was a bad impression for him. Oh well.

"Ira. I still don't understand how the tightness of my clothes affects my scaryness," I replied. Meghan looked a little nervous at the tension between us.

It seemed like Puck was going to answer when Meghan interrupted us. "Hehe. Well," she cleared her throat. "We should get started on testing you. We'll go to one of the open courtyards. You wanna come along Puck?"

"Alright. I want to see what this girl's got," and Puck sauntered over to the door. Meghan, the guards, and I followed.

"So... What do you think of Puck?" Meghan asked me.

I shot her a look. "By your nervous laughing earlier, I think you've figured it out already." She barked out a short laugh.

"Yeah, I guess that was pretty much a rhetorical question." I smiled.

We walked into the courtyard, and I gasped in admiration. It was blooming with flowers, and I could see a maze created by large hedges beyond a stone waterfall. The courtyard was a large stone circle with benches circling the outer edges. The middle was clear without any obstacles. Perfect for my test.

I saw Glitch on one of the benches that lined the circle. He was laying down with an arm flung over his eyes. Glitch lifted his head when he heard us walking toward him. His eyes widened when he noticed Puck and me. He put his head back down, and I could hear him moaning, "Oh God no. They're here already."

Puck spread his arms out wide, with a big grin on his face. "Socket-head! I've missed you so much!" Glitch glared at him, and sat up on the bench.

"Why Meghan? Why would you bring them both to me? Do you hate me?" Then he dropped his head into his hands. Puck and I smirked at each other despite our bad first impression. Meghan smiled at Glitch.

"Sorry, but we have to test Ira."

"Fine, fine," he complied, and stood up and walked to the middle of the stone circle to meet us. Then he unsheathed his sword.

Puck narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Whoa, whoa, whoa," he said holding his hands up at Glitch to stop him. "I can see you don't like her, but you're really going to fight her with an *iron* sword?"

Glitch looked at him surprised. "Didn't you hear? Ira's not allergic to iron."

Puck gave Meghan a questioning look with a hidden message in it. She nodded back solemnly. I raised my eyebrows at her, but she avoided my gaze.

"Alright then." With that, I touched my silver arm bracelet. One of the ancient language symbols that meant sword, glowed a white light, and in a flash, turned into my icey-blue faery sword. I was bouncing on the balls of my feet and rolling my neck, anticipating the fight, forgetting all about Meghan's secret look with Puck.

This time Meghan was the one to stop the fight after getting over the shock of seeing my arm band that looks like a decoration, turn into a lethal weapon.

"Ira. Iron Fey have the same reaction to fairy metal that the Winter and Summer Fey have to iron."

I pouted and changed my sword back to the armlet. "So can I copy your sword?" I asked Meghan. She looked shocked.

"Uhm. What?" she blinked.

"Well, this arm band can turn into anything if it touches it. If I touch my armlet to your sword, then it can turn into the sword. It's pretty cool."

"Wow, that's nice." Then she extended her sword after unsheathing it, giving me permission to mimic it.

I tapped the two, and all the letters on the band glowed. I willed it to turn into her sword, and it did. I smiled, evilly then turned to Glitch who was wide-eyed.

I got into a ready stance, that I learned from watching some fey fight when I was living in the Wildwood. Glitch went into a similar stance a few steps infront of me, after shaking his head to lose his shock. My face was expressionless, so I would not give away my next attack.

Glitch was the first to lunge. I danced away laughing softly. I attacked second, my sword arcing over to his head, his sword met mine in a screech of sparks.

We disconnected and circled each other. Little did he know, I was just toying with him, not showing my true strenth yet.

We clashed a few times more, until I started to get bored. I decided to show my true strength. I faked going left, and arced my sword over his head, yet again. His sword met mine just like last time, but I was being more forceful. His eyes widened in shock at my strength. I just smiled, and pushed harder.

"Aww come on Glitchy. You gonna let a girl beat you?" Puck chided from his seat on the bench.

I immediately stepped away from contact with Glitch. Meghan's eyes flashed. We stepped in sync towards Puck with dangerous looks on our faces. I heard Meghan unsheathe her sword, the metal rasping against the holder. I willed my sword to change into my regular, faery steel sword.

"You wanna repeat that?" I asked quietly, my eyes glinting with silent anger.

"Do you seriously think you can say that and get away unscathed?" Meghan asked in a low dangerous voice.

Puck's eyes widened. "Uh... Um.." he stuttered, surprised at how quickly we reacted at that one remark. I could hear Glitch chuckling behind me. Then I felt Glitch behind try to sneak in an attack while I wasn't looking. I whipped around, clashing my sword with his.

"Jeez. How unsportsman-like. Attacking when the opponent is turned around." I shook my head, making tsk-ing sounds. "Shame shame."

I took the chance of him freezing up when I countered his attack when I was turned around, and unarmed him. I pointed my sword to his neck. "I win," I whispered, with narrowed eyes.

I heard Meghan chuckling. "Well you passed that exam. Now... Want to help me kill Puck as your second test? I promise, it'll be very enjoyable." Oh I bet it will.

-Cue evil laugh-

Disclaimer: IDNOTIFS (I Do Not Own The Iron Fey Series)

Fighting!

~Ira