Of Fairies and their Gossamer Wings
By canihavea-soda
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Tael followed the Skull-kid with a pensive look on his face. He looked around to call back to his sister, but, to his horror, the great stone door to the underground room slammed before she had a chance to get through. "Tatl!" he sped back towards the door, where he could hear her muffled cries as she tried to get through. "Skull-kid," Tael whined, trying to call his friend back. But, Skull-kid had been in such a funny mood ever since he had gotten that strange mask, and he wouldn't turn to help Tael free Tatl from the room. "Hey!" Tael buzzed in little circles by the stone door. "Skull-kid, come and help me!" The red ring around Tael darkened slightly as he became annoyed, and flew over to yell in Skull-kid's ear.
Skull-kid turned around, and Tael stopped dead at the glare he received. "Come on you dumb fairy," Skull-kid growled, turning away again.
"But my sister…"
"She shouldn't have stayed to taunt that dumb ocarina kid," he sneered, tossing the said stolen ocarina into the air and catching it again. "Now, move it, before I make you." Tael didn't argue, and hurried to fall into speed alongside his oddly acting friend. He cast glances over his shoulder every now and then, longing to speed back to that door and try and gnaw his way through it if he had to. "Don't even think about it," Skull-kid growled, cutting through his thoughts. Tael didn't look back after that. Nobody would have noticed, unless they looked very closely, that the purple and red fairy had tiny pearlescent tears streaking down his face.
Eventually, the two of them reached the steps which led upwards into the base of the clock tower. They climbed up them (well, Tael flew up, and the Skull-kid climbed). At the top, an angry looking Happy Mask salesman confronted them. "Now, hello there," he smiled greasily. "I believe that that mask just happens to be *mine*!" The tall, auburn haired man reached out to try and grab the mask away from Skull-kid, who just tilted his head to one side, and glared at him. The salesman stopped dead in his tracks, a look of fright over his face as waves of odd green light flared out from the strange mask towards him.
"Aiyee! NO! Mercy, mercy!" The salesman shrieked, and Skull-kid laughed as he ran away.
"That wasn't nice," Tael muttered reproachfully when the terrified screams had died away. "What's up with you? You've turned all horrible all of a sudden!"
"Shadup, ya dumb fairy!" Skull-kid snapped, snatching Tael out of the air. He winced as Skull-kid squeezed him in his hands, and wondered suddenly whether he might be crushed to death. The tears that he had only so soon ago managed to get under control erupted once more, and doused Skull-kid's hands with moisture. "Yeuch! Are you crying?" Tael was dropped to the moss-covered floor with a sound of disgust, and Skull-kid bent down to peer at the quivering fairy. "You *are* crying!" he crowed triumphantly, poking Tael with a stubby finger. "I don't have the time to hang out with cry babies. I'm outta here!"
And with that, Skull-kid fled through the slightly ajar doors of the clock tower and out into the daylight. Leaving Tael to lie on the damp floor, quivering and crying. He curled up in a small, glowing purple ball, and put his hands over his small head to muffle his sobs. Now he had no friends, and his sister was trapped in that room and he didn't know what he was going to do! Oh, it was just too horrible for words!
He knew he would have to move eventually though, and when the tears were over, and all he had left was a little nagging feeling of emptiness, he began wondering what he was going to do now. The only thing he could really think of was to go to the fountain of the Great Fairy in Northern Clocktown, and see is she could think of any reasons why that funny mask was making his friend so mean all of a sudden. And, failing that, maybe she would at least let him stay with her for a while so that he didn't have to feel all alone in the big town. Speaking of big, there was going to be a lot of ground for him to cover before he would get to the fountain, and he supposed he would have to start soon.
"Oh well," he sighed, wiping the sticky drying tears off of his face and rising into the air again. He might as well get going then. He too left through the huge doors, and was dazzled by the brightness of the sunlight outside. He fell a few inches as he blinked to try and be able to see again, and was nearly terrified out of his wits when he heard a dog yipping nearby. He hurried to pull himself up to a height that he knew dogs couldn't jump to, and squinted down at the white terrier on the ground below. With a mischievous grin, he stuck his tongue out at it, and then turned away to find a sign for North Clocktown.
'Where is it?' he wondered, floating lazily on the early morning breeze, and darting out of sight when people walked past (there weren't many of them – it was early after all). He took in all the decorations in boxes all around, and marvelled at the vividly painted posters that hung on the walls. Sadly, he couldn't read them, so he just had to guess at what they were by the pictures. A few didn't have pictures though, which wasn't much help.
Soon, he was getting bored of the scenery, and had realised that finding a sign wouldn't help you if you couldn't read, so he peeked up at the sky, where the sun was just appearing over the Eastern wall of the town. From that, he then knew which was North would be, and disappeared down a tunnel which lead in the right direction. When, on the other side, he came out into the part of town with the slide and the entrance to the Great Fairy fountain on one side, he knew he had come to the right place.
Eagerly, as he hadn't seen her majesty in a while, and she no doubt had a lot of gossip to share with her favourite fairy, he sped towards the fountain. The guard by the gate did a double take when he thought he saw a purple ball with a fiery red aura speed past. He blinked, shook his head and looked back – of course, by this time, Tael had completely disappeared, leaving the guard to scratch his head, and wander whether he was being paid enough to work such long hours.
Tael smiled as he neared the glowing fountain, and then his face fell when he saw a shadow thrown across the wall by a figure he knew all too well. "Skull-kid, what are you-?" he began, but was struck from the air by a curling wisp of the same odd green light that had scared the Happy Mask salesman earlier. His head hit the cold stone hard, and he groaned slightly as some silvery fairy blood ran down his miniscule forehead. "Ow…" he moaned, straining to open his eyes and see what Skull-kid was doing.
When he did see, he wished with a sickening ache that he hadn't opened his eyes again. There, where usually a beautiful fairy maid, who was even larger than the average human, and had a merry tinkling laugh would stand, were dozens and dozens of pink fairies no larger than himself. "Skull-kid…," he gasped. "What have you *done*?!" With an effort, he managed to get up onto his tiny feet, and stagger forwards to the shimmering water in the fountain. Skull-kid didn't answer.
Looking up, Tael thought he saw a stab of fear in Skull-kid's eyes, and a bit of the old Skull-kid was there again. He dropped his bark-brown hands, and stared at them in horror. With a small squeak, he fled the fountain, leaving Tael to deal with the hysterical pieces of the Great Fairy.
"Oh, our little friend, what are we going to do? All the pieces that make me up have been scattered far and wide, and I don't know where they are!" she wailed, and Tael held his head as the high voice pierced through his throbbing head.
"I don't know your majesty…I'll…I'll think of something," he answered vaguely, and stumbled backwards, out of the fountain and back into the glaring harshness of the morning sun. What in all Termina was going on? First, the Skull-kid steals that mask – then he turns mean. He scares lots of people, leaves Tatl behind and yells at Tael, and now this! Tael shook his head, and a feeling of dread fell upon him. What was he going to do now?
Slowly, through the course of the next hour or so, he drifted his way back to the clock tower…just in the shadow if the doors, he caught a glimpse of the Skull-kid, and made as though to turn away again. But, the Skull-kid smiled reassuringly, and waggled his fingers. "Heya! I didn't mean to be so horrid earlier…I – I don't know what came over me," he said, looking down at the ground guiltily. "Can you forgive me?"
"Of course!" Tael smiled. "But," his face turned stony again, "before I can, we must find the other pieces of the Great Fairy. She's really worried y'know!" Skull-kid nodded.
"OK, I'm just going to take this mask off for a while – it's make my ears feel funny." Skull-kid pulled at the mask, but it wouldn't come off.
"Shall I help?" Tael asked, and Skull-kid nodded. They pulled at the mask together, but it wouldn't budge. Skull-kid was taken over by a violent convulsion, and fell backwards into the murk of the clock tower. Tael followed him, and landed on the floor next to his fallen friend. "Are you all right?"
"I – I don't know," Skull-kid answered bemusedly. "What's happening to me?" he asked Tael breathlessly. Tael backed away, unable to find words to answer the question. The colours of the mask on Skull-kid's face were draining down – no, not draining – they were spreading instead! The purples, reds, yellows and greens were coating his friend's clothes and skin, turning him into an extension of the mask itself. "Tael…help me!" Skull-kid begged wildly, clawing at the mask on his face.
"I'm trying!" Tael yelled at him, as he landed on the part of the mask which covered the bridge of the nose, and hooked his tiny hands inside the groove of one of the eye sockets. "I can't move it by myself though, you'll have to do something too!"
"I can't!" Skull-kid cried. "I can't move! What's happening?" he asked, as his eyes grew wide and desperate, and Tael continued clawing at the mask.
Just as suddenly as all of it had started, it all stopped again. Skull-kid closed his eyes, and Tael lay, exhausted, on top of the nose of the mask. He closed his eyes, and breathed great gasps of air. Thus, he did not notice when Skull-kid opened his eyes again, and they had changed from the normal red, to glow brilliant white. Tael was thrown to the floor as Skull-kid sat up jerkily. "Hey, what was that for?!" he protested, as the wound which he had sustained from the last time he'd fallen to the ground opened up again. Skull-kid didn't answer, and merely directed a vague purple-ish mist towards the fairy.
Tael tried to dodge out of its way, but he wasn't fast enough in his dazed state, and it caught him full in the face. There was a small burning sensation across his shoulder blades, and he fell onto his knees, gritting his teeth against a scream. It ended quite suddenly, and he let his jaw relax again, looking up at his friend in fear. Skull-kid stalked out of the clock tower for the second time, once again leaving a quivering Tael on the cold stone floor.
Tael tried to get up and follow him – but something wasn't working quite right. He hopped into the air, and was pulled crashing back down again by gravity. "Maybe I shouldn't eat so much anymore," he puffed, as he climbed up the steps to the top one, and then ran off of the edge of it to try and launch himself into the air. Again, he fell like a stone. He sat up from where he had landed on the floor, and bought a hand up to rub the back of his neck. Something wet and warm was covering the skin there, and when he bought his hand back, he could see that it was bathed in silver liquid.
Blood.
His blood to be exact! In a panic, he rushed over to a puddle of water on the floor, and looked into it. Turning to the left and right, he wondered what it was that was missing from the picture. Then it hit him like a tonne of bricks.
"My wings," he choked. They were gone, leaving only bloody gashes where the beautiful gossamer things had once been. For the third time in so many hours, he fell to the floor and wept, beating his fists against the hard stone. He never noticed the small Deku-scrub come past with his older sister, and tale to the returned Happy Mask salesman. And they didn't see him, because by that time, he had fallen asleep out of sheer exhaustion. He lay like that for a long, long time, and he didn't know how many hours, or days, or even weeks it had been, when Skull-kid came back.
All he knew was, he was picked up roughly from the floor, and taken outside, where it was the dead of night. Skull-kid took him up on top of the clock tower, and there they waited for that 'ocarina kid', though Tael didn't know why Skull-kid thought he would come. It was only a dumb ocarina, after all…
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By canihavea-soda
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Tael followed the Skull-kid with a pensive look on his face. He looked around to call back to his sister, but, to his horror, the great stone door to the underground room slammed before she had a chance to get through. "Tatl!" he sped back towards the door, where he could hear her muffled cries as she tried to get through. "Skull-kid," Tael whined, trying to call his friend back. But, Skull-kid had been in such a funny mood ever since he had gotten that strange mask, and he wouldn't turn to help Tael free Tatl from the room. "Hey!" Tael buzzed in little circles by the stone door. "Skull-kid, come and help me!" The red ring around Tael darkened slightly as he became annoyed, and flew over to yell in Skull-kid's ear.
Skull-kid turned around, and Tael stopped dead at the glare he received. "Come on you dumb fairy," Skull-kid growled, turning away again.
"But my sister…"
"She shouldn't have stayed to taunt that dumb ocarina kid," he sneered, tossing the said stolen ocarina into the air and catching it again. "Now, move it, before I make you." Tael didn't argue, and hurried to fall into speed alongside his oddly acting friend. He cast glances over his shoulder every now and then, longing to speed back to that door and try and gnaw his way through it if he had to. "Don't even think about it," Skull-kid growled, cutting through his thoughts. Tael didn't look back after that. Nobody would have noticed, unless they looked very closely, that the purple and red fairy had tiny pearlescent tears streaking down his face.
Eventually, the two of them reached the steps which led upwards into the base of the clock tower. They climbed up them (well, Tael flew up, and the Skull-kid climbed). At the top, an angry looking Happy Mask salesman confronted them. "Now, hello there," he smiled greasily. "I believe that that mask just happens to be *mine*!" The tall, auburn haired man reached out to try and grab the mask away from Skull-kid, who just tilted his head to one side, and glared at him. The salesman stopped dead in his tracks, a look of fright over his face as waves of odd green light flared out from the strange mask towards him.
"Aiyee! NO! Mercy, mercy!" The salesman shrieked, and Skull-kid laughed as he ran away.
"That wasn't nice," Tael muttered reproachfully when the terrified screams had died away. "What's up with you? You've turned all horrible all of a sudden!"
"Shadup, ya dumb fairy!" Skull-kid snapped, snatching Tael out of the air. He winced as Skull-kid squeezed him in his hands, and wondered suddenly whether he might be crushed to death. The tears that he had only so soon ago managed to get under control erupted once more, and doused Skull-kid's hands with moisture. "Yeuch! Are you crying?" Tael was dropped to the moss-covered floor with a sound of disgust, and Skull-kid bent down to peer at the quivering fairy. "You *are* crying!" he crowed triumphantly, poking Tael with a stubby finger. "I don't have the time to hang out with cry babies. I'm outta here!"
And with that, Skull-kid fled through the slightly ajar doors of the clock tower and out into the daylight. Leaving Tael to lie on the damp floor, quivering and crying. He curled up in a small, glowing purple ball, and put his hands over his small head to muffle his sobs. Now he had no friends, and his sister was trapped in that room and he didn't know what he was going to do! Oh, it was just too horrible for words!
He knew he would have to move eventually though, and when the tears were over, and all he had left was a little nagging feeling of emptiness, he began wondering what he was going to do now. The only thing he could really think of was to go to the fountain of the Great Fairy in Northern Clocktown, and see is she could think of any reasons why that funny mask was making his friend so mean all of a sudden. And, failing that, maybe she would at least let him stay with her for a while so that he didn't have to feel all alone in the big town. Speaking of big, there was going to be a lot of ground for him to cover before he would get to the fountain, and he supposed he would have to start soon.
"Oh well," he sighed, wiping the sticky drying tears off of his face and rising into the air again. He might as well get going then. He too left through the huge doors, and was dazzled by the brightness of the sunlight outside. He fell a few inches as he blinked to try and be able to see again, and was nearly terrified out of his wits when he heard a dog yipping nearby. He hurried to pull himself up to a height that he knew dogs couldn't jump to, and squinted down at the white terrier on the ground below. With a mischievous grin, he stuck his tongue out at it, and then turned away to find a sign for North Clocktown.
'Where is it?' he wondered, floating lazily on the early morning breeze, and darting out of sight when people walked past (there weren't many of them – it was early after all). He took in all the decorations in boxes all around, and marvelled at the vividly painted posters that hung on the walls. Sadly, he couldn't read them, so he just had to guess at what they were by the pictures. A few didn't have pictures though, which wasn't much help.
Soon, he was getting bored of the scenery, and had realised that finding a sign wouldn't help you if you couldn't read, so he peeked up at the sky, where the sun was just appearing over the Eastern wall of the town. From that, he then knew which was North would be, and disappeared down a tunnel which lead in the right direction. When, on the other side, he came out into the part of town with the slide and the entrance to the Great Fairy fountain on one side, he knew he had come to the right place.
Eagerly, as he hadn't seen her majesty in a while, and she no doubt had a lot of gossip to share with her favourite fairy, he sped towards the fountain. The guard by the gate did a double take when he thought he saw a purple ball with a fiery red aura speed past. He blinked, shook his head and looked back – of course, by this time, Tael had completely disappeared, leaving the guard to scratch his head, and wander whether he was being paid enough to work such long hours.
Tael smiled as he neared the glowing fountain, and then his face fell when he saw a shadow thrown across the wall by a figure he knew all too well. "Skull-kid, what are you-?" he began, but was struck from the air by a curling wisp of the same odd green light that had scared the Happy Mask salesman earlier. His head hit the cold stone hard, and he groaned slightly as some silvery fairy blood ran down his miniscule forehead. "Ow…" he moaned, straining to open his eyes and see what Skull-kid was doing.
When he did see, he wished with a sickening ache that he hadn't opened his eyes again. There, where usually a beautiful fairy maid, who was even larger than the average human, and had a merry tinkling laugh would stand, were dozens and dozens of pink fairies no larger than himself. "Skull-kid…," he gasped. "What have you *done*?!" With an effort, he managed to get up onto his tiny feet, and stagger forwards to the shimmering water in the fountain. Skull-kid didn't answer.
Looking up, Tael thought he saw a stab of fear in Skull-kid's eyes, and a bit of the old Skull-kid was there again. He dropped his bark-brown hands, and stared at them in horror. With a small squeak, he fled the fountain, leaving Tael to deal with the hysterical pieces of the Great Fairy.
"Oh, our little friend, what are we going to do? All the pieces that make me up have been scattered far and wide, and I don't know where they are!" she wailed, and Tael held his head as the high voice pierced through his throbbing head.
"I don't know your majesty…I'll…I'll think of something," he answered vaguely, and stumbled backwards, out of the fountain and back into the glaring harshness of the morning sun. What in all Termina was going on? First, the Skull-kid steals that mask – then he turns mean. He scares lots of people, leaves Tatl behind and yells at Tael, and now this! Tael shook his head, and a feeling of dread fell upon him. What was he going to do now?
Slowly, through the course of the next hour or so, he drifted his way back to the clock tower…just in the shadow if the doors, he caught a glimpse of the Skull-kid, and made as though to turn away again. But, the Skull-kid smiled reassuringly, and waggled his fingers. "Heya! I didn't mean to be so horrid earlier…I – I don't know what came over me," he said, looking down at the ground guiltily. "Can you forgive me?"
"Of course!" Tael smiled. "But," his face turned stony again, "before I can, we must find the other pieces of the Great Fairy. She's really worried y'know!" Skull-kid nodded.
"OK, I'm just going to take this mask off for a while – it's make my ears feel funny." Skull-kid pulled at the mask, but it wouldn't come off.
"Shall I help?" Tael asked, and Skull-kid nodded. They pulled at the mask together, but it wouldn't budge. Skull-kid was taken over by a violent convulsion, and fell backwards into the murk of the clock tower. Tael followed him, and landed on the floor next to his fallen friend. "Are you all right?"
"I – I don't know," Skull-kid answered bemusedly. "What's happening to me?" he asked Tael breathlessly. Tael backed away, unable to find words to answer the question. The colours of the mask on Skull-kid's face were draining down – no, not draining – they were spreading instead! The purples, reds, yellows and greens were coating his friend's clothes and skin, turning him into an extension of the mask itself. "Tael…help me!" Skull-kid begged wildly, clawing at the mask on his face.
"I'm trying!" Tael yelled at him, as he landed on the part of the mask which covered the bridge of the nose, and hooked his tiny hands inside the groove of one of the eye sockets. "I can't move it by myself though, you'll have to do something too!"
"I can't!" Skull-kid cried. "I can't move! What's happening?" he asked, as his eyes grew wide and desperate, and Tael continued clawing at the mask.
Just as suddenly as all of it had started, it all stopped again. Skull-kid closed his eyes, and Tael lay, exhausted, on top of the nose of the mask. He closed his eyes, and breathed great gasps of air. Thus, he did not notice when Skull-kid opened his eyes again, and they had changed from the normal red, to glow brilliant white. Tael was thrown to the floor as Skull-kid sat up jerkily. "Hey, what was that for?!" he protested, as the wound which he had sustained from the last time he'd fallen to the ground opened up again. Skull-kid didn't answer, and merely directed a vague purple-ish mist towards the fairy.
Tael tried to dodge out of its way, but he wasn't fast enough in his dazed state, and it caught him full in the face. There was a small burning sensation across his shoulder blades, and he fell onto his knees, gritting his teeth against a scream. It ended quite suddenly, and he let his jaw relax again, looking up at his friend in fear. Skull-kid stalked out of the clock tower for the second time, once again leaving a quivering Tael on the cold stone floor.
Tael tried to get up and follow him – but something wasn't working quite right. He hopped into the air, and was pulled crashing back down again by gravity. "Maybe I shouldn't eat so much anymore," he puffed, as he climbed up the steps to the top one, and then ran off of the edge of it to try and launch himself into the air. Again, he fell like a stone. He sat up from where he had landed on the floor, and bought a hand up to rub the back of his neck. Something wet and warm was covering the skin there, and when he bought his hand back, he could see that it was bathed in silver liquid.
Blood.
His blood to be exact! In a panic, he rushed over to a puddle of water on the floor, and looked into it. Turning to the left and right, he wondered what it was that was missing from the picture. Then it hit him like a tonne of bricks.
"My wings," he choked. They were gone, leaving only bloody gashes where the beautiful gossamer things had once been. For the third time in so many hours, he fell to the floor and wept, beating his fists against the hard stone. He never noticed the small Deku-scrub come past with his older sister, and tale to the returned Happy Mask salesman. And they didn't see him, because by that time, he had fallen asleep out of sheer exhaustion. He lay like that for a long, long time, and he didn't know how many hours, or days, or even weeks it had been, when Skull-kid came back.
All he knew was, he was picked up roughly from the floor, and taken outside, where it was the dead of night. Skull-kid took him up on top of the clock tower, and there they waited for that 'ocarina kid', though Tael didn't know why Skull-kid thought he would come. It was only a dumb ocarina, after all…
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