(A/N: Quantum, thanks for your critique. I very much appreciate it. Yeah, I'm aware that Michelle's a little weird. I actually realized that partway through writing it, but I'll try to make amends if I can. I think she was always a bit bossy; she just never had any power on Earth, if that makes any sense. And you're right; the relationship between Cathy and Chadar is just way too convenient. I'll work on that. I honestly was hoping no one would notice how weak this plot can be, but ah well. You've caught me, so now I have to try and toughen it up a bit, eh?
Oh, and thanks very much to BLUE who helped me get inspired for this chapter and the bum bum end! Which is not this chapter…erm, you get the idea.)
"Please come and stand before me," a man with a ridiculous-looking wig commanded. Michelle and I walked cautiously up to him, perfectly aware of the crowd watching us anxiously. They were all dressed as absurdly as we were. The renegade fairies that had inflicted their curse upon me so many years ago were in chains and glaring defiantly at me. I had never seen the man before, but the woman's lovely face was branded in my memory. It was all I could do to resist sticking my tongue out at her again, but last time I had done that, that had resulted in years of torture. "Commoner Cathy, please take the stand."
My eyebrows shot up as I walked around to the seat. I realized that the judge had been talking to us and all I had been doing was thinking of ways to get some first-class revenge on the fairy Cyrillianna. I sat cautiously in the chair and my skirts foofed about me. No, I was not meant to be royalty. I was made of stronger stuff, like a court jester or town fool.
"Commoner Catherine," a man who looked like a hawk came up to me, his beady eyes focused on my face. His eyes were yellow. That was pretty creepy.
"Ew, nobody calls me Catherine." I said without thinking.
A chuckle passed over the silent courtroom.
"Commoner Cathy, then," the hawk-man continued smoothly, a slight tinge coming to his ashen cheeks. "How is it you came to Kyrria?"
"Um… that is a true mystery of magic. I don't understand it. Michelle and I were running away from a bully and then our principal, who is a fat oaf, and then we wound up here. Since Michelle's a fairy, she said a few magic words and voila." I shrugged, lacking a certain dignity. In the center of the crowd one an elevated platform was the royal family. Char looked unusually royal in a white jacket and a red sash across his front. He smiled encouragingly at me. The king was frowning slightly, clearly trying to glean whatever he could from me. The queen was fiddling with her skirt.
"You have never before been to Kyrria, correct?"
"Right." I nodded.
"How is it you came to meet Chelmak and Cyrillianna?"
"I never met Chelmak, but Cyrillianna and I go way back to when I was a wee spotty lass." I glared at Cyrillianna. "She cursed me with Obedience."
"But you don't have this curse anymore?"
"No. A girl from the fairy academy broke it."
"Did she? How?" He asked curiously.
"She told me to break it, it was a command, so I had to."
"Excellent," Cyrilliana laughed, no, cackled. I can only imagine that the court looked puzzled. I can only imagine whether or not Char stood up quickly to stop whatever was going to happen. I can only imagine Michelle squealing and ducking into the skirts of her poofy dress. I can imagine a good deal of things, but I suppose these things really may have happened. But you see, I don't know because… well… it was very fast. Before I knew what was happening, Cyrilliana and her brother had undone themselves from their chains. Not a second passed before I had been grabbed by the waist, a few words spat by my ear, and the world spun before my eyes.
"That's it!" I screeched. "You didn't even give them a long-winded explanation! Isn't that some sort of Bad-Guy Code? 'Give Good Guys a long-winded explanation so that sexy hero may rescue sexy heroine.'"
"Life isn't like your stupid movies, Cathy, now be quiet."
The curse was back. My mouth was shut.
All right, all right, I know you're wondering what happened between paragraphs. Rewind for a second folks:
It was a dark and scary afternoon, when out of the rain we came. We were the three weird-looking fools from Kyrria. Chelmak and Cyrillianna had whisked me back to Earth, but some godforsaken place that I had never seen before. However, I knew where we must have been.
"Wyoming." I had muttered, looking at the yellow grassy lumps of land. "Home to sixteen people."
It had been a wise choice on their part to go somewhere so lowly populated. Somehow they had managed to procure a car. A nice one too. The seats were leather. My clothing had changed back to normal Earth clothes. Normal for the late Stone Age, I mean. It looked like an outfit from the Flintstones or something. It was even leopard patterned. Lucky me. Bam-bam! The car was sweltering hot in the back. The best part was (I know you're excited) that I was bound hand and foot with magical rope.
Magically tight, itchy, and rope-like.
I was subdued. Silent. Cursed. The first thing that had happened when we returned was Cyrillianna. Yes, she was the first thing that happened, and possibly the worst. She cursed me.
I pressed my nose against the window and breathed mist onto it. Then I drew a face with my tongue. It was a happy face. With freckles. We passed a green sign on the road that read "The Community." It seemed to represent the town standing next to it. A town being one trailer.
She didn't tell me how long I had to be quiet. She just said now which indicated what is now then.
I looked back at the fairies. They were both pretty to look at. Cyrillianna, with her long golden hair and large violet eyes, had a very pleasant face. She looked kindly if you didn't know how evil she really was. She even smelled nice, like sweet flowers. Chelmak was handsome in a princely way. His face was strong, yet sweet. He looked innocent and daring. His eyes were an intense hazel and his hair a wavy blonde. If I didn't know that he was also Satan's favorite helper, I would have thought rrrow, let me get a piece of that hunky monkey.
I started humming to test my power of sound. It was back.
Good.
I inhaled deeply and began. "I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves! Everybody's nerves! Everybody's NERVES! Oh- I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves and this is how it goes! Bum-bum-bum! Oh- I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves! Every-."
Cyrillianna spun in her seat. Chelmak was driving and his hands jerked slightly on the wheel.
"Stop singing that horrible song!" She hissed. "I thought I told you to be quiet!"
"Too right, madam!" Then, before she could say anything else, I started another song. "THIS IS THE SONG THAT NEVER ENDS! LALALALA! IT JUST GOES ON AND ON MY FRIENDS! SOME PEOPLE STARTED SINGING IT NOT KNOWING WHAT IT WAS! AND NOW THEY'LL JUST KEEP SINGING IT FOREVER JUST BECAUSE…."
"CHELMAK! PULL OVER!" Cyrillianna covered her ears and shouted at her brother. I was in choir at school. I knew how to sing over lots of people. Muah haha.
The car swerved to the side of the dusty road and the engine stopped. However, if you were in the car, you wouldn't have heard it because I had just gotten to my third round of the song that never ended. The door that I had been leaning against jerked open and I toppled out, knees akimbo as I curled into the fetal position. Chelmak towered above me, looking furious.
"Hey, sexy," I winked up at him. That hurt. I think I had scraped my face on the street.
He looked a little perplexed, and then he shook his head and used his magic to levitate me into the air. Cyrillianna came around from her side of the car to glare at me too.
"You know, they say three's a crowd,"
Cyrillianna and Chelmak were not amused.
"You are the most obnoxious human we have ever had the misfortune of coming across," Chelmak hissed.
"Hey, your idea, not mine," I spat. "Remember who cursed who." The Wyoming sun beat down on my exposed shoulder and neck. The ropes were really beginning to irritate my delicate flesh.
"Oh, that's right," Chelmak grinned nastily. "Be quiet until one of us gives you permission to speak."
NO! I opened my mouth to try and spit out a retort. NO! I couldn't say a thing!
"Good thinking," Cyrillianna smirked. "That'll keep the chick from peeping."
Ooh, you're so witty.
They threw me back in the car and we continued driving to wherever it was they were taking me. And I couldn't move or be obnoxious in any noticeable way.
