Thanks to: Meg, Liz and Spongey for their luvverly comments, Bristol Rovers for finally winning two away games on the trot and once again making me proud to be a Gashead, and Glasgow Celtic for entertaining me greatly by beating Man Utd last night!
No thanks to: Whoever banned Gabby from using her computer (grrrr)
A big shout out to: The England cricket team, who are about to do the business in Australia (I hope!) Come on boys!
Random Quote: If she wants a fight, then butter my butt and call me a biscuit if I don't give her one! (Hay Lin, from Liz / babywhale's fic)
Dark. Damp. Gloomy.
Not usually the sort of words used to describe the fair town of Heatherfield, but today was an exception. Even though most of the country was enjoying the last dregs of summer, Heatherfield had decided not to bother and instead thought it would be a good idea to go straight into deepest autumn, with a spot of fine drizzle just to add the finishing touch. It seemed that everyone in the town had chosen to stay in the comfort of their homes rather than get a slow soaking, except for four lone girls sat underneath a tree outside the Sheffield Institute, with clouds above their heads that were even thicker and darker than the clouds that blanketed the town.
The tallest of the group sat with a look of anxiety on her face, fiddling with her long blond hair with worry. "We gotta find her, and quick - without her, we'll be sitting ducks if Phobos tries anything."
"Yes Corny, we know, but... where do we start?"
"More to the point Irma, HOW do we start?" the Chinese girl added. "Without the Heart of Kandrakar, dimension-hopping's gonna be bit tricky."
The group fell silent and their heads sank as they tried to rack their brains, searching for some sort of solution. Suddenly, Irma perked up.
"Ooh! Maybe HE can help!" she said giggling with a spark in her blue eyes, looking over at a tall handsome stranger walking past them.
"Oh great!" Cornelia moaned. "Will's lost in another dimension, Kandrakar's been left vulnerable, the universe is in deadly peril, and now Irma's boydar is going off the scale! Can this day get any better?"
Irma hushed her. "Sssh! He's coming this way." she said, jumping to her feet and quickly fixing her damp hair. Sure enough, he'd spotted them and was quickly crossing the road in their direction, glancing occasionally at something in his hand.
"Hi! I'm Irma" she said holding out her hand, which the stranger very politely took in his own and shook.
"Hi, I'm Tegryn." he said, laughing a little nervously - judging by that look on her face, he guessed she had taken a bit of an instant fancy to him. But wait... there was something more to her than that. As he looked deeper into those big blue eyes of hers, he could tell there was something about this girl... something... well, SOMETHING, and whatever that something was, he couldn't quite put his finger on it. He blinked as he broke himself out of this train of thought and cast a glance at the other girls, greeting them cheerfully before stopping at the girl sitting at the end of the row, peering up at him through her slightly fogged-up glasses.
"And you must be Taranee" he said.
Taranee gasped along with the others.
"How did you know that? Are you psychic or something?"
"Oh, if only!" Tegryn laughed, shaking his head as he handed her the photo. "No, Will asked me to come and find you guys."
"WILL!? You know where Will is?"
"Oh yes... and don't worry, she's perfectly fine. Well, she's a little bit hurt, but she's in good hands."
"She's hurt? What happened?"
But before Tegryn could answer, something in the his jacket pocket started to rustle... it was Polli, who timidly popped her head out and peered up at the sky, blinking her endearingly big eyes.
"Yeah, it's okay Polli - it's stopped raining now."
Polli looked shyly at the four girls, who were all looking adoringly back at her.
"Awww, she's so cute... and tiny too!" said Hay Lin as she reached forward to touch her. Polli shot her head back into the pocket and clung to Tegryn through the lining of his jacket for comfort as she so often did.
"She's just a bit shy, that's all." Tegryn explained, laughing. "It's okay Polli, they're friends." He then turned back to the girls. "Mind you, I'm glad you can all see her 'cos it's saved me having to ask an awkward question."
"Oh yeah? And what question's that?" Cornelia asked.
Tegryn looked around him to check the coast was clear before speaking quietly. "Do you girls do magic?"
"Pfft! Do we do magic? We're WITCH!" said Irma proudly.
"Witches?"
"No, WITCH... Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, Hay Lin! WITCH!"
Taranee corrected her. "Strictly speaking, without Will we're just ITCH!"
"Ah, I see!" Tegryn said, looking a bit relieved. "I was getting worried for a minute there - witches have a bit of a bad rep round our way, but anyway..."
"So Tegryn..." Cornelia started.
"Please, my friends call me Teggy."
"Teggy... how did Will get hurt?"
"Ah yes, Will. Poor girl... she's ended up in such a beautiful realm, and the first thing she got to see is my head at high speed! What happened anyway? Is she usually that bad at teleporting?"
"No, she's actually very good... and anyway, it wasn't her who did that at all." Cornelia explained. "That creep Cedric zapped her with a Random Portal Generator spell."
"Random Portal Generator? That's a new one."
"Yes. We were too late to stop him zapping Will, but luckily we were to get rid of him before he could use it again. I guess he figured that if we were all stranded in separate random dimensions, we wouldn't be able to get together and defend the universe."
"Defend the universe? So this Cedric's another 'conquer-everything-in-sight' bad guy, eh? How original."
"Well, he's actually a second-in-command to a conquer-everything-in-sight bad guy."
"I see. Anyway... shall we go?"
The girls nodded and they all stood up. Tegryn held out his hand, but then stopped and drew it back.
"Ah... I'm guessing opening trans-dimensional portals in broad daylight isn't such a great idea round here?"
"Yep, you guessed right." said Hay Lin. "Come on. My place is pretty close - we can go from there."
Soon, Tegryn and the 'ITCH' girls arrived at the Silver Dragon restaurant just as her mother and father were stepping out of the front door.
"Hello Hay. We're just going out to the cash-and-carry to get supplies," her mother said.
"Hi girls" her father greeted Cornelia, Irma and Taranee before his eyes fell upon Tegryn. "Ah... I see you have a new friend."
"Yes. Mom, Dad, this is Tegryn."
"Very pleased to meet you Tegryn."
Tegryn bowed politely. "Ni hao ma?"
Her parents looked at other in surprise. "Hen hao, xie xie!" they replied, almost in unison.(1)
"Oh, you speak Chinese!" said her mother. "And that accent... Hunan?"
Tegryn laughed. "That's right, yes! I lived in a village in Hunan province for five years. I have family there."
"Never! My family are from Hunan province - perhaps our families are neighbours!" she remarked happily. "You should stop by one day for dinner - you must be missing Hunan cuisine!"
"Definately! Hunan chicken - best in the world!"
"Oh, how very true... especially ours! Anyway... why exactly are you here?"
"Umm, their friend Will's been hurt - don't worry though, it's very minor... certainly nothing to worry her family about. Anyway, I was just going to take them to see her, but Hay Lin wanted to come in here first."
"Oh dear. I hope she's okay. Give her our love, won't you girls?"
"Oh, we will. Bye!" Hay Lin said, waving her folks off. "Come on guys, let's go up to my room - we wouldn't want anyone seeing us through the window, now would we?"
As they trooped up the stairs, Irma spoke quietly to Tegryn.
"Hey Teggy. That was some pretty good lying you did there to stall Hay-Hay's folks."
Tegryn grinned. "That wasn't a lie... was it Polli?" he said, looking up at his little friend as she fluttered above their heads. Irma let out a little gasp of surprise when she saw this.
"Yow! Teggy... your baby's FLYING!"
"Yes, I know" said Tegryn. "All pixies can."
"Pixie?"
"Yep. She's a pixie - a pixie of truth to be exact. If someone tells a lie, she can spot it a mile off! And she's why I was able to tell that you girls can do magic - here on Earth, only children and magical beings can see pixies."
"Sweet." Irma said before changing the subject in a less-than-subtle manner. "So Teggy... do you have a girlfriend?"
"Irma! What kind of question's that?" Cornelia snapped as she grabbed Tegryn's left hand and thrust it in Irma's face. "Look at his ring - can't you see he's married!"
"Heh. I'm not quite married yet - that's an engagement ring." Tegryn chuckled. "But Cornelia's right, I'm already spoken for. In fact, my fiancée's with Will right now."
Tegryn couldn't help noticing the slightly disappointed look on Irma's face at this little revelation. 'It's such a shame, she really is a very sweet girl,' he thought to himself, 'But if she really was crushing on me, it's best to dash it quickly before it goes too far.'
As they entered Hay Lin's room, something immediately caught Tegryn's eye - it was a music magazine sat on a bedside table, with a couple of familiar faces on the front cover. He picked it up and read it.
"The Melody Sistas Mystery?" he read out.
"Yeah, the Melody Sistas. Have you heard of them? They're awesome!" Irma said enthusiastically. "Coolest DJs ever. They did this kïller set a couple of weeks ago live on radio - I have a copy of the podcast if you want it!"
Tegryn laughed as he carried on reading. "Their mysterious disappearance along with their two friends have baffled local and international police, as have their origins. Nobody knows where they come from, and even more mysteriously they cannot be found on any flight records or airport CCTV pictures going into or out of the country. Initial claims by two hotel guests that they were fairies from another planet were immediately dismissed as complete and utter bollocks."
Irma shook her head sadly. "I know, it's such a shame. We totally loved their stuff, didn't we girls?" The others all nodded.
"Hmmm..." Tegryn said, a wry smile breaking out on his face like a rash. "Say, you guys wanna meet them?"
Irma's eyes widened with excitement. "Huh? You KNOW the Sistas?"
"Know them? They're some of my best friends!"
"You're kidding? So I can actually meet them?"
Tegryn nodded. Irma responded by clutching him as tight as her petite figure could manage and shrieking with delight. He blushed slightly as, not knowing quite how to react, he hugged her gently back before letting her go. This Irma's certainly an affectionate little thing, he thought to himself - almost as affectionate as his younger sister Mei. He cleared his throat as he quickly composed himself and, with a wave of his hand, opened up a swirling purple vortex right in front of them.
"Ooh, pretty!" Hay Lin remarked.
"All aboard the Teggy Express - next stop, Alfea!"
1. I really hope I got this right - needless to say my Chinese is less than perfect...
Ni hao ma? How are you?
Hao hen, xie xie! Very well, thank you!