Chapter Two: An Ally
I almost passed out with relief; finally, someone who didn't see me as a threat! Granted, I was too hung up on my own problems to be really aware of it, but now that I had someone on my side, I had to say, it was a sweet feeling. I told the Lady the whole story, minus the grass burning incident: the dream, the amnesia, the… body issues. The dream was of particular interest to her, and she kept pressing me for every minute detail, mostly about the annoying voice I heard talking. After I finished, the Lady contemplated for a moment, turning away from me, setting her gaze at the stained-glass dome above us. The clearing, quiet before, was dead silent under the weight of solemnity filling the air.
Finally, still with her back to me, she said, "For decades, I have watched over the Hedge Maze, standing between the evils of this World and the Fairies and Sprites that call this place home. In recent times, however, my task has become… complicated. Some years ago, a powerful Wizard set himself against this and all Worlds, and is even now out there in the Spiral plotting his next move, from what visitors told me. However, what concerns us now is an event that transpired at the beginning of this trial: the creation of the Dark Fairies.
"The Wizard, whose name I shall not speak in this sacred place, began his dark designs here on Unicorn Way. He recruited an undead vagabond to his cause, and taught it certain rituals of the Death Arts, instructing it to wreak havoc on the Way. This was part of his scheme to destroy Wizard City from within with threats on every street, while he continued his work on another World entirely. The underling, a Skeleton by the name of Rattlebones, used his new skills to create cages of bone and iron, enchanted to… warp their prisoner in very specific ways. The intended targets, unfortunately, were the fairies of this Maze. By ones and twos, he stole them, trapping them in the bone cages hung along the Way like lanterns, while the cages' foul magic changed them from the inside out. They became more mischievous, prone to anger, even violent. They attacked all the fair people of Unicorn Way, doing far more damage than even the Skeletal Pirates created by Lady Blackhope (I may never know why she created the Pirates, seeing as she was never in the employ of the renegade Wizard, and indeed was creating her hordes well before his defection; but it matters not, for she has passed on years ago).
"And then came the day when a young Wizard entered this Maze to gain an understanding of the horrors plaguing it. With my aid and guidance, he destroyed the Cages, as well as their creator, saving Unicorn Way, and paving the way for the liberation of Wizard City as a whole. For this, I am grateful to him, wherever he may be now. But unfortunately, those brave actions proved to be a temporary measure."
She turned to me with an unreadable expression on her face. "You have a question for me."
"…Well, yes. If I may be so bold, my Lady, why didn't you face Rattlebones yourself? You seem more than capable." I instantly regretted the question, as Oriel's face became indescribably sad. She noticed my shock, and smiled to reassure me.
"Looks can be deceiving, little one," she replied, pointing her sword downwards. I looked at the ground, and saw a carved circle of runes and wards. I couldn't begin to decode the meaning of the symbols themselves, but the purpose of the circle itself was immediately clear. Lady Oriel's next words confirmed it: "It is by the magic of this circle that I am in this realm at all, but unfortunately, it also binds me to this spot. All of my power, meaningless outside of the Hedge Maze. But that, in and of itself, is unimportant. What is important, however, is that you understand what happened next."
She closed her eyes, appearing to gird herself for what she was about to say. "Until roughly a year ago, Unicorn way was in a sort of stalemate with the Dark Fairies. Divided into factions as they were, they didn't have the forces to mount especially threatening raids on anyone's homes, but they were still large enough in number to make routing them from their bases too dangerous to be considered. Several talks I had with Sergeant Muldoon informed me that their antics usually consisted of petty thievery and swindling; overall, relatively harmless pranks that, for some, were rather endearing. There was a peace of sorts, and anyone would tell you that that was preferable to Unicorn Way's former state of panic. And then Rattlebones reared his head again.
"From what I've gathered, the Wizard, while managing to destroy Rattlebones's body, underestimated the extent of the skeleton's… education. Using those arts, he managed to remake his body using the remains of fallen undead pirates. From there, he moved underground, to Wizard City's sewer system, where he continued to experiment on any test subject he could get his hands on. Apparently, he was a rare talent, as evidenced by his earliest forces: the Shadows, an army of frighteningly strong ghosts, whose sole mission was the capture of any and all living things to fuel Rattlebones's experiments. Many of the abductees were the very Dark Fairies he created. And with them, he created our biggest adversary to date: the Fir Darrig.
"Where the original Dark Fairies limited themselves to theft and vandalism (and home invasion), the Fir Darrig are a brutal, martial breed, violently routing most of the inhabitants of Unicorn Way, human, Undead, and Dark Fairy alike. Almost nothing is known about them, as they found the Sergeant's scouts with alarming regularity. Even now, there is much fear amongst my charges that the Fir Darrig may attempt to storm our home. That is why they flew into such a panic when they learned of your presence here.
"Which leads me to the topic of most concern for you, I think: your memory. Unfortunately, there is no way for me to restore your memories. Your predicament is completely new to me, you see: up until now, Dark Fairies, while exhibiting many personality changes, always remembered who they were. As for the Fir Darrig, I have no way to know, given what I said about them before. And seeing that, for the main, your characteristics are in line with a Dark Fairy, with the exception of your wings, I would bet towards you being that. As a result, I can only assume that this came about as a result of trauma dealt after your transformation."
That left me confused. "But when I woke up, I didn't know I was a Dark Fairy until I saw my hand. Plus, I don't really act like a normal Dark Fairy, you know?"
Oriel drifted back and forth, thinking. The silence was broken by the sound of many wings fluttering, as the fairies cautiously returned to the clearing, only returning when they all gathered and landed in a circle around Lady Oriel and myself. I noticed that even the biggest of them barely stood up to my shoulder. I smiled in an attempt to reassure them, only to have a few shrieks rise up from the more timid ones. Lady Oriel looked up at this, and focused her eyes on me.
"I can only guess that whatever made you lose your memory also caused the shift in your personality," she said, "Either way, as to what you should do now, I can only make suggestions, and not strong ones. If you were to make your way over to-"
She was cut off, as a distant rumble rolled over us, ringing throughout the Maze and rattling the glass for half a minute before subsiding. Surprised, we all looked up at the stained-glass dome: not a cloud in sight. No storm, then. So what-
CRASH! A large metal ball smashed through the doors, sending wood and iron shards flying through the air. It flew through the air for a few seconds, before crashing a dozen yards east of the clearing, bouncing off with a clang, and landing for good at the far end of the Maze. We all stared at its general direction, dumbstruck. Finally, one of the fairies piped up, "What… was that?" Another denizen scowled at her.
"Are you kidding me? Do you seriously not know what's in that thing?"
That snapped me out of it. "Hold on, in that thing? You mean that ball is hollow? How do you figure?"
The Fairy turned pale, and only managed a squeak when she tried to answer me. Seriously, I was like this before I transformed? I'm pretty damn glad, then, that I'm a Dark Fairy. Still, I had to be doing something pretty wild to lose my memory if the Lady is right. Anyways, have to deal with this one. The Fairy sounded like she was swallowing and talking at the same time. Honestly, now I just feel bad, and I didn't even do anything. It's pretty funny, though. Couldn't let her flounder forever, sadly; I had questions that needed answering. "Hey!"
That got through to her, thankfully. She stood at attention and answered, "Y-yes?"
"What's your name?"
"M-my name? I-it's Chrome."
Chrome? "Okay, Chrome, what did you mean before? Did you mean the ball is hollow?"
Chrome took a deep breath before continuing, "Well, the ball hit the ground over there with a clear, sort of clang sound. If it were a c-cannonball, it would've either exploded, or just made a crater."
"Okay… so what's in that thing?"
Chrome opened her mouth to answer me, only to be beaten to the punch by a voice just filled with mock surprise exclaiming, "Why, us, of course!"
We all turned to the source of the voice, a figure in a red trench coat standing at the head of a small group of monsters. He looked… different. He was around my height, if maybe an inch or so taller, but he wasn't any fairy I'd ever seen before. He was wingless, and armed with a dagger that, in his hands, looked more like a cutlass. His blonde hair was carefully gelled into spikes. His eyes were a violent shade of pink, and he had a small, triangular gemstone of the same color set in one of his incisors; I knew that last bit because his cheeky grin put it on full display. He looked like a complete tool.
Still grinning, he motioned to the group of monsters behind him and said, "Yo! We're the Fir Darrig, and this is our turf now!"
Affable: Right, so I think I'm going to put these down here from now on. I just realized how distracting they are when you're reading them in a row. As it is, this story really doesn't need anything subtracting from its entertainment value. But yeah, a bunch of stuff happens this chapter, but none of it was all that sensational or standout-ish in terms of rewriting. I just cleaned up a few sentences. I'm doubtless missing something, but whatever. That's FUTURE me's problems, and they've got two years (or so) to figure it out. Anything to add, Rattles?
Rattles: I don't care. I'm not even editing these chapters.
A: Fair enough. Til Later, everybody!