Chapter 12: Bring Me Some Soup
It was a beautiful day. The afternoon sun was shining brightly above, a few streaks of light breaking through the branches and leaves gave the place a heavenly glow. The birds were singing merrily in the trees. A gentle breeze was caressing my face. Best of all, not a single monster girl in sight….except for that one.
Amina the Goblin was a leading the way as we travelled up the road that would (hopefully) lead us to my little brother, Sherwin. Amina was humming happily to herself, her footsteps so light and graceful it was like she was walking on clouds. Every once in a while, she would turn back and grace me with a loving smile, overflowing with happiness and joy.
Such an expression was too much for me to handle, and I would respond by looking at the ground, my cheeks turning red and a crooked smile appearing on my face. Amina would simply giggle and return her attention the path ahead.
I wasn't too thrilled with the travelling arrangements. Don't get me wrong, she was a lot of help back in Timber Town. Things just happened too quickly. I suppose when I think about it, I could have worse companions (Gamila in particular.)
Eventually we decided to stop at a small clearing next to the road for some lunch. Amina found some mushrooms and a wild onion nearby and after starting a fire she boiled them in a pot, Anthos and was added to the soup and we spent the next ten minutes enjoying our meal in peace. After that however, things started to get a little hectic.
The spoon was only inches from my mouth when I suddenly froze in place. Something small had landed on the top of my head, something alive. I closed my eyes as the unexpected visitor started to crawl down my forehead until it was clinging to my face.
What do I do? Amina clearly hasn't seen it yet because I could still hear her slurping up her food. Do I scream and scare it off? (Probably a bad idea.) Do I grab it before it tries anything funny? (It might bite my fingers!) My strategizing was quickly interrupted when I heard the unexpected sound of slurping coming from the creature on my face and I opened my eyes.
"….a peach?" Amina heard me and looked my way, only to jump back in fright when she realized what was happening. Sadly, I was having trouble piecing together why a peach was sitting on my nose and making weird slurping sounds. A tiny, red cheeked face suddenly appeared and said in a sweet voice "Hello!" and I quickly I realized what I was staring at. I didn't waste any time pulling the fairy off my face, but she didn't seem to like this and started banging her tiny little fists on my wrist.
"Hey! I was still eating!" I couldn't help but smile at how cute the little fairy looked right now. Amina just stared, gobsmacked at the little intruder who quickly stopped her feeble attack and folded up her arms, puffed her cheeks out and started forcing tears out her hazel colour eyes. "Meanie!"
"If you wanted some soup you should've asked first." I responded gently, I knew she didn't mean any harm, and it wasn't worth getting angry at something like this. "That's right young lady," Amina added with a motherly tone to her voice, "its rude to take stuff without asking."
The fairy stopped crying almost immediately and threw her hands into the air and cried out excitedly "Can I please have some soup!?" Placing her down onto my lap, I offered her my spoon and she eagerly began slurping away until the it was empty. "More!" I cleared my throat loudly. "….Please?"
Overall, she was kind of cute. She was only a few inches tall. Large, pointed ears poked out of her short blonde hair that sat just above her shoulders. White and black butterfly wings were attached to her back and she wore a mini skirt and crop top made from autumn leaves in various shades of yellow.
Eventually, she had her fill and flew onto my shoulder, pecked me on the cheek and flew away into the trees without another word. I was a little disappointed she left so soon (she was fracking adorable!) but I suppose she had other things to do. I quickly remembered why I was here and emptied my bowl, only to have another one held up to me by a red-faced Amina.
"Are you full Amina?" I asked as I took the bowl from her. For a moment Amina just sat there, twiddling her fingers together as she thought about her answer. "….Could you feed me as well? Now it was my turn to get nervous, I struggled to look her in the face as I mustered up the courage to say no when suddenly came a "Pleeeeeease?" (Fuck!)
I still might've had the strength to say no after that. But then she sat down right in front of me, an adorable pout on her face. But those eyes, those fracking eyes! They broke my resolve, after a long sigh I finally said "Fine." I almost dropped the bowl when Amina came at me, grabbing a hold of my collar with a wild look in her eyes. "Really!? Really!? REALLY!?" (You've really done it now Bain)
"….yes?" Amina suddenly jumped back and held her hands over her mouth as though she had said something awful, tears began pouring from her eyes and I could've sworn I saw some blood dripping from her nose. "Excuse me for a moment" she said weakly and before I could even blink, she disappeared into the bushes.
I sat there waiting for a good five minutes before the Goblin finally reappeared. Her face was still a little red and she was shaking from head to toe (What is wrong with this girl?) In the time it had taken for her to calm down the soup had gone cold, so I had to pour the contents back into the pot to reheat it.
I waited for her to sit back down next to me before reluctantly offering her the spoon. After some hesitation Amina leaned forward, opening her mouth with a sweet "Ahhhh" added in for effect, then our new friend reappeared. But she wasn't alone.
Two other fairies hovered behind her. I couldn't really see any difference between the three of them physically (don't they all look the same anyways?) But the leaves they wore came in different colours and the patterns on their wings were a little different too.
Amina was 'just' about to take a mouthful when the three of them suddenly swooped down from above and before we could even blink, the spoon and the bowl had been completely emptied. For a moment we just sat there, amazed at how quickly the three of them had eaten so much so quickly.
The silence was suddenly broken by a loud belch coming from the red fairy. "Wow! That wasn't half bad!" She declared loudly. "You were right when you said the food tasted good Ki." Added the orange one. Ki gave a giggle and flew back onto my shoulder to give me a hug, her friends followed closely behind and joined in.
"Aka, Orenji, help me say thank you to our new friend!" One fairy I could handle, but having all three of them sing out "Thankyou" and then pepper me with kisses was a little too much for me to handle. A strange squeaking sound started to escape my lips and my three attackers started hovering in front of me, a shared look of concern amongst them. "Are you ok big guy?" Orenji asked timidly, tears welling up in her eyes (what form of phycological torture is this!?)
I was just about to respond with a "No! I am not okay!" when our attention was suddenly drawn towards Amina, who seemed on her hands and knees, staring at the ground. Her breathing was slow and heavy, her skin turning a bright shade of red. She slowly raised her head and the look on her face could only be described as terrifying!
" . . !" My three new friends were understandably spooked by the monster before them and clung to me for protection. I wanted to calm Amina down before things escalated but I was too busy trying not to shat myself, all I could do was sit there with my mouth hanging wide open as she slowly made her way towards us.
"Get off him….NOW!" They didn't need to be told twice. Ki quickly flew off my shoulder and into the trees with Aka and Orenji following close behind. For what felt like an eternity I just stared at Amina as she stood over me, slowly returning to her original colour. After taking a deep breath in, then out, Amina sat back down again (though she still looked a little unhappy.)
"Umm, I need to….yeah." Amina didn't respond, she just nodded as I pulled myself up and walked away. I don't really think she could have said anything to justify her sudden outburst and I just wanted some time alone. After walking in a general direction for some time I came across a meadow hidden amongst the trees.
Nothing special about it, just a few rocks and Asters here and there. What did get my attention however was the large swarm of fairies fluttering around a boulder that sat in the very centre of the meadow. The boulder would have weighed about two tons and its shape reminded me of an egg (a rough one at that with a few dents and chips.)
I decided I needed to get my mind off Amina for a while and slowly made my way towards all the commotion that was going on. There were at least a hundred of them, all of them looked the same other than a few differences in hair and wing colour, but they were all wearing different outfits for what appeared to be an important event.
Most of them were just playing a game of chase high in the air but a few were painting very crude drawings of plants and animals on the boulder using a paste made from mashed berries and sand. Others were laying piles of leaves on the ground and another group oversaw gathering food from the forest and piling it up for everyone to enjoy.
I was only a few metres away when one of them finally noticed me. "Not so fast one eye!" cried out one of the fairies as she quickly flew down to confront me. She was wearing a dress made from some kind of flower that was white with pink tips on the pointed petals. A small twig was being used as a hair pin and she had a rather serious look on her face (still really cute though.)
"Were having an important festival tonight and we can't have any trespanthers!" She declared with her head held high. The other fairies seemed quite impressed with their leaders flawed vocabulary and joined in. "Yeah! No Panthers allowed!" They cheered merrily.
The whole thing was too much for me and I found myself rolling on the ground laughing hysterically as the fairies watched on in amusement and wonder. "Wow! He's not bad!" I heard one say. "Yeah! He's not even being tickled!" Cried out another. Hey Yusha, can he join the tickle festival?"
The bossy one known as Yusha regarded my wheezing mass anxiously before coming to a decision. "If you don't cause any trouble one eye, then I suppose you can join in." "Thanks," I said after taking a few deep breaths, "but what's the tickle festival?"
Everyone around me giggled at my rather silly question. "Tonight we tickle each other silly!" Yusha answered with a rather queer expression on her face. My face went blank when I realized my mistake "Of course, how silly of me." "Well don't just sit there!" Yusha cried out angrily, "Help us collect some food!" "Aye aye captain." I responded with a mock solute, which only resulted in everyone laughing and copying my joke like a bunch of kids.
I didn't have any trouble finding food for the fairies. Father once showed what I could eat in the forest at this time of year and by sun down we had a huge pile of food ready to eat. "Thanks for helping us out one eye!" Yusha said as I sat down for a quick rest. "Yeah! Aye aye one eye! Everyone cheered, with a few solutes thrown in (hope I haven't made a mistake teaching them that.)
By the time we were ready to start the festival many more guests had arrived. Talking to a few of them, I learnt that many had travelled from all over the unclaimed territory just to be here tonight. As it turns out they celebrate each season with a festival, autumn is the season of laughter and they celebrate by spending the night having a massive tickle fight with food and water breaks in between.
Summer is the season of energy, many of them fly around in the night sky with glow worms to put on a brilliant light show. Winter is the Season of love, everyone would gather into a bundle and have a massive cuddle fest to keep warm during the coldest part of winter. Then there's spring, the season of life, which is when everyone gathers within the secret garden that holds the fairy flowers. They welcome the newborns with gifts and when the festival is over they take them back home.
"Hey! It's you!" I turned around and saw Ki speeding towards me and before I could even react, she flew into my chest with a force that knocked me back a step. "I missed you big guy!" She cried out happily. "I missed you too" I responded, petting her on the head. "What happened to that angry monster?" she asked nervously", Is she here too?" (Fuck!)
I was having so much fun I had completely forgotten about Amina! "Yusha!" I cried out frantically to the massive swarm above. "Something wrong big guy?" The fairy somehow heard my voice over the all the commotion and flew down to see me.
"Would it be alright if I brought…." I gulped, "a date?" Both girls were quite surprised by my question and Ki didn't seem too keen on the idea. "You're not really going to bring her here, are you?" I know Amina went a little crazy back there but she's actually really nice, and I'm sure she'll apologize."
Ki looked over to Yusha for guidance but she simply responded with a shrug. "Well, if she says sorry, I guess that would be ok." Yusha gave a nod of approval and re-joined the guests who were now beginning the main event (if the growing laughter was any indication.)
It didn't take me long to Find Amina who was still at the clearing, pacing nervously as she awaited my return. A relieved expression appeared on her face when she saw me approaching, which was then replaced with surprise when I took her by the hand and led her away from the road.
I explained the situation to Amina on the way and she agreed to apologize to the girls and also to me for the way she acted earlier. I wasn't really angry anymore and just said "No problem." Ki and her friends were waiting for us just outside the border, and after a few sorry's and a few too many hugs we joined in on the fun.
I don't really remember much of that festival, a lot of tickling and laughter but that was it. The next morning Amina and I were cuddling up with more than a thousand fairies on the pile of leaves. Every muscle in my body had gone numb, my lungs hurt and everything reeked of….urine?