The Magicians' Realm Chapter 89: Birds and Frogs, a yu-gi-oh fanfic

Chapter 89, everybody! Just one more until we hit 90!

We get another reference to odd state laws this chapter—the bit about needing a fence around the pool after having a fence around the property comes from some inspector stopping by and insisting on the same thing at our property. Love how government works….

Movie this week is Spider-Man: Homecoming. My family and I agree that it had a rocky start, but it picked up and ended strong. And I want the Vulture flight rig, honest. *v*

Angiembabe, thanks for the review! Yes…and no, it can't be….I think we've mentioned hagsfiends once before in this fic, but it's been a while—they come from the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series, and are technically the baddie in that. Yes….

FluffyIdiotIsI, thanks for the review! Understandable. Maybe…I think we can agree that it's the magic holding him together at the moment and not the sinew, and since he only had his own to draw on in his house, it had to come from somewhere. Yes, darn those young whippersnappers wanting to bother you. That would be a good idea—actually, I'd say dead and bored. Hopefully this one continues to please! :D

References:

Original characters, + setting © Kineil D. Wicks (myself, not the girl in the story)

They came up to a tower in the Magicians' district, one that had eccentric in every line of the architecture.

"I'm waiting for the logic behind this," Teana said, as Yami opened the gate and led her through the walled labyrinthine yard.

"It keeps all his experiments from roaming around," Yami said, waving to a stooped man busy raking leaves out of a murky-looking pond.

"I can't imagine why his neighbors would complain."

"Hmm? Oh no, he put this up to keep the neighbors from running off with his experiments—he's lost a lot of frogs that way."

"Frogs?"

"We just passed his pond."

"Frogs."

"It's a thing," Yami said, leading her up a winding path to the towering house—fairly featureless and looking like a fairy tower, with big windows up top but narrow ones near the bottom, as though to prevent people from peering in. "And there's some sort of town law that says that pools and such need fences around them, so as to keep people from falling in and drowning."

"You'd think a person would have more sense than that."

"You would. And he had the fence around his yard up to begin with—but apparently the pond is a temptation," he said, ringing the doorbell—a loud deep thing. "And he had to put a fence around his acidworks too—apparently the fact that the stuff bubbles and stinks wasn't enough of a deterrent."

Okay, she didn't need the thought of acid being exposed to the general public. "I'm sure they'd figure it out sooner or later. Like after they lost all their flesh."

"You're disapproving of me again, I can tell."

"Good."

They heard someone yell from the inside: "The door is open!"

Teana looked at Yami, who shrugged and led the way in. "Hello?" he called.

"Yami Skellington! Up here, my boy!"

"Doctor!" Yami called, waving up—the house had a big well in the center with a winding staircase wrapping around the walls, doorways along the way leading off to other rooms, terminating at a balcony with someone looking over the side. "I was wondering if we might stop by for tea!"

"How perfectly marvelous—come on up to the lab, we'll get you all fixed up."

"Well?" Yami asked, leading her up the winding…ramp, actually.

"Love the indoor voices," she said drily. "And I love that kitchen," she added, nodding back down to the foyer, which indeed had a kitchen wrapping around part of it.

"You'd love the food cooked there too—hello, doctor, you're looking well."

They had reached the top of the stairs, the balcony, and the good doctor himself, and it was Teana's opinion that he looked like a bald duck dressed up in a white lab coat, black gloves, and tiny black glasses. The reason for the ramp was clear now as well: the man was in a wheelchair.

And currently holding an ice pack to his head, which explained the scowl and response he gave Yami.

"I'm doing passably," he said. "And I wish to issue an arrest warrant for that ignoramus my daughter keeps sneaking out to see!"

"I'm not sure what I could do there."

"Turn him into a frog—then she can see him whenever she likes."

"But then she could kiss him and turn him back."

"Not if I dissect him first."

"UM!" Teana noised, feeling the need to at least say something in response to that.

"Oh sorry—Doctor Finkelstein, this is Teana Gardenier," Yami said, by way of introduction. "Teana, this is the good doctor."

"Who dissects his daughter's boyfriends," she felt compelled to point out.

"Only the ones who get turned into frogs first. How do you do," Doctor Finkelstein said, offering a hand. When she put hers in his, he kissed it and let go. "You'll have to forgive me—my daughter thinks that slipping me a mickey in my tea or soup is the best way to sneak out without permission."

"I suppose you could lock her up, but then she might feel compelled to grow her hair out."

"I've tried, nothing works," Doctor Finkelstein sighed, fiddling with a lever on the arm of his wheelchair and sending it spinning around and whirring away at a comfortable pace. "Come on to the lab, I have some tea on the Bunsen burner—I'm expecting Doctor Grouse over later, and unfortunately not expecting Sally until late."

Teana looked at Yami blankly before lowering her voice. "That's a common enough name, right?"

"Right," Yami agreed, at normal decibel levels.

"So I shouldn't be thinking of Xohan's Sally."

"No, you should, although I wouldn't call her that here."

"Please don't," Doctor Finkelstein agreed, pushing a button on his armchair and opening a door ahead of them—Teana had to marvel at that. "The second that—that short order cook asks for her hand is the second I drive this wheelchair off my balcony."

"I…was not expecting that," Teana said, following them into the lab. "But I was sort of expecting this."

The lab looked like the mad scientist movies she had caught every once in a while at the Majestic, with vials and burners and beakers and knobs and quite a few other things she couldn't identify beyond that goes in a mad scientist lab.

"Yes, well, reanimating dead things is a hobby of mine," Doctor Finkelstein said, motoring to a teapot.

"Not like necromancy—more along the lines of Dr. Frankenstein," Yami clarified, upon spotting her horrified face.

"Frankenstein. Pronounce it right."

"Sorry."

"Come see the good doctor, you said," Teana muttered, rubbing her face. "You'd like him, you said."

"What else have you been working on, doctor?" Yami asked, apparently feeling the need to change the subject.

"Not much to report from the last time you visited, I'm afraid," Doctor Finkelstein said, pulling some teacups out and running them under some water. "Doctor Grouse is coming over to discuss some new theories, however—you might want to stay for that."

"That might be boring, admittedly," Yami said in an undertone to Teana. "But we should at least stay for tea."

"What are you two going to be discussing?" Teana asked, in an effort to be polite.

"Why, our ancestry, of course!" Doctor Finkelstein said, pouring some tea. "One lump or two, cream or milk?"

"Do you have honey?"

"From my own bees."

"Have the bees been experimented upon?"

"Mildly."

"Two lumps, no cream or milk. What do you mean, our ancestry?"

"The good doctors theorize that the Chaos all vanished because they stopped birthing other Chaos," Yami said.

"So…they stopped having kids."

"No, they stopped having Chaos," Doctor Finkelstein corrected.

Teana decided to bite. "What else would they have?"

"What you and I would refer to as humans, of course!"

Teana was sorry she had bit. "Do what?"

"It's the good doctor's theory that we're somehow related to Chaos," Yami explained.

Teana had seen one up close, one Brutus Kaiba, and didn't think she had any relation to that. "How does he figure?"

"Sit down, have some tea, and I'll enlighten you," Doctor Finkelstein said, holding out a cup for her to take. "Although if you wait a bit, Doctor Grouse will be here and he can help me with this."

"Fair enough," Teana said, accepting the cup.

*/*\*

Horus flew lazy circles over Delvaire, scanning back and forth for…he had no idea.

Well, that wasn't true, he had some idea—Yami had given him a general description of what to look for: tall, dark, a definite spike in the magical concentration….Let's be fair, that really only described a handful of people in Delvaire, and Yami had said that this wasn't someone he'd see every day.

Now for the minor fact that he wasn't seeing anyone at all. Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.

"Waste of my time, is what it is," he grumbled to himself. Granted, he had an inkling of what had happened while he was in hat form—releasing Skellington would have been on his list of things not to do, but Yami was the sort to do something and then ask permission to do so. So in reality, this didn't really come as a surprise to him.

Now for the minor issue of solving it before it became a problem.

"Hi there!"

Horus was used to being chatted up by the local birds, so he didn't really react to a voice coming from right next to him.

He did react when he looked to see that it was coming from a bird that looked just like him. Well…just like him but bigger.

What was also a cause for concern was the fact that he was pretty sure that had been said in English.

"Uh, hi," Horus said, angling his wings so he wasn't so close. The strange bird matched the movements. Personal space, please. "Can I help you?"

"I hope so," the other bird said. "You're the first hagsfiend I've seen since I came here—I was starting to get a little worried."

Hagsfiend? "Worried? What about?"

"Well, you'd think that with a town full of Magicians, more hagsfiends would be around."

Uh-huh. "Well, I'm afraid you're the only other bird like me around." Not quite, but it probably didn't know that. "But you just follow me, I'll take you to my b—friend. You might like him, he's a Magician."

The bird's head tipped at an angle Horus felt he recognized. "I don't know—I'm kind of avoiding Magicians at the moment."

Uh-huh. Horus' suspicion-senses were tingling. "Sorry, I didn't get your name."

"I didn't get yours."

Uh-huh. Most birds in the area weren't this evasive. "Now you're sure you don't want to meet my friend? He has bird treats."

"Pretty sure," the other bird said, eyes narrowing slightly.

Horus definitely knew that expression.

"Meh, your loss," Horus said, focusing on keeping loose and calm. "Say, why don't we carry on this conversation perching? Trying to talk and fly just isn't my cup of tea."

"All right."

"Right. Follow me!"

Horus tightened into a deep dive, angling to get as much speed as he could—

And then twist away and angle up—

To find that the other bird had apparently anticipated this, and was heading right for him with claws outstretched.

Horus caught the stranger's claws in his, flapped as hard as he could to try to mitigate the death-spiral they were currently locked in, painfully aware of the fact that the ground was getting closer and not entirely certain magical constructs could die or not. Definitely destined to bite the dust if this kept up.

But Horus tightened his grip, adjusted his wingbeats so he was clouting the other bird around the head and making it flinch.

Because he was absolutely certain he wasn't dealing with another bird.

"Don't you even think about it!" he cawed. "You've given my boss enough grief already, you're not getting away again!"

The other bird folded its wings, becoming deadweight in Horus' grasp—he had to focus on flying, not wanting to let go and lose him—

And then the other bird was flapping, flinging Horus around—

And when Horus looked at it again, it was to get a face full of yellow light pouring out of the other bird's eyes.

Horus had never gone yeep—had never had his wings lock and fail him.

Until now.

He was frozen, unable to do anything as the other bird released him to plummet to earth—

Except maybe hope that it didn't hurt too much.