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The Little Fairy

Chapter 4

Cintamani Stone

"Don't you ever get tired, Jacquie?" Vidia collapsed to the ground. "I'm exhausted."

"I get tired – but I walk a lot. I'm used to it." Jacquie replied. She reached into her bag and pulled out a large book. She handed it to Vidia.

"You can read through this a bit if you'd like. It's a book of enchanted objects that Araminta loaned me. I don't know which ones Cassie has."

Vidia opened it. "Magical rings." she browsed through a bit. "Ring of dispel: a ring that purges magic or enchantment from other magical objects it touches."

"Not useful." Jacquie responded, firmly. "Keep going."

"Magical stones." Vidia flipped a few pages. Oh, there's a lot of those. How about the Sessho-seki stone?"

"What does it do?" Jacquie asked.

"Pebble chipped off a larger version if itself, but maintains full magical powers." Vidia read. "Kills anyone who touches it."

"That isn't what I was looking for." Jacquie said, in a confiding tone.

"No kidding." Vidia smiled. "Okay, then there's the Cintamani stone. The cintamani stone grants the wishes of whoever holds it."

"I could use that." Jacquie sat down next to her. "What does it say?"

"The Cintamani stone – grants wishes." Vidia repeated. "That's all – except there's a painting here – done by an art-talent fairy. See?"

"There's a picture of most of the magical objects." Jacquie noted. "That must be useful for making sure you don't touch the wrong stone."

"They may not be accurate. They're not all drawn from the real stone – some are from what people remember it to be – or legend." Vidia pointed out.

"Spoilsport." Jacquie scolded."Which stone is that? Is it the Cintamani or the Sessho-seki stone?"

Vidia shrugged. "It isn't labeled – I don't know."

"Let's keep going. We may get close to Cassie's home today."

"Get close to?" Vidia frowned. "Don't you mean get to?"

"I'm not going into the home of a vague acquaintance who holds a grudge against me without having a good night's sleep." Jacquie pointed out. "If we get into sight, we'll back off and sleep. In the morning, we'll announce ourselves."

Vidia nodded and got to her feet.

"Which roof are we crossing to from here?" she asked, surveying the nearby rooftops.

"Shhh."

"Huh?" Vidia turned around to look at Jacquie. "AH!" she stumbled backwards, even though Jacquie was between her and the bird. The very hungry looking bird.

"Stay quiet." Jacquie ordered. "My bag is next to you. Grab my pencil and slide it to me."

Vidia pulled it out – suddenly she wondered if she could just run off, leave Jacquie to deal with the bird, and find her way back to the Fairy Camp. A millisecond later she made up her mind and obeyed Jacquie, sliding it across the roof to her.

Jacquie slipped her toe underneath the center of the pencil and flipped it up into the air. She caught it with one hand. She'd hardly moved at all.

"Maybe we could just be on our way. Maybe he doensn't really want trouble." Vidia suggested, nervously. "Give the big guy a chance."

"Don't worry." Jacquie rolled her eyes. "This should be a cinch." she started to move toward the bird.

"Be careful." Vidia winced as the bird came forward.

Suddenly she heard the sound of flapping wings and she turned, wind blowing in her face. A blackbird landed in front of her.

Vidia stared up at it. Suddenly it opened its mouth incredibly wide and cawed loudly.

Vidia covered her ears, backing away. The bird jumped forward. Vidia screamed and hurled Araminta's book at it. It bounced of the bird's chest and onto the ground. The bird looked down at it curiously, then suddenly snapped it up.

"Hey!" Vidia yelled. "Spit that out!"

The bird swallowed.

"Now the bird and Jacquie are going to kill me." she moaned, leaning down and rummaging through the bag for the olive fork.

The bird hopped forward, deciding that the book was only an appetizer. Vidia gave up looking for the fork and swung the bag by a strap as a weapon, just swinging it to keep the large bird away.

"Go away!" Vidia told it. "Nasty crow! Get back! Back!"

The bird reached forward and snagged the bag with a claw, throwing it to one side. Vidia yanked on the bag, trying to get it away, but was then thrown forward, falling on her face on the roof.

Vidia tried to push herself up but she suddenly felt dizzy and fell back down. Lying on her back, her sense of time strangely distorted, she blinked, feeling strange.

Then she noticed the crow standing over her, beak open.

Vidia flung her arms over her face as the beak descended. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed the first bird was gone, several feathers floating down where it had been, then suddenly Jacquie was standing over her, the pencil inserted into the blackbird's beak.

"Vidia – get up!" Jacquie ordered, impatiently. "Get away!"

Vidia scrambled to her feet and got out of the danger zone. She knew Jacquie could take care of the bird easily, and didn't want to get in the way. She scanned the sky worriedly for any more birds, but she didn't see any.

After a few swings of Jacquie's pencil, the bird took back off into the air, off to find more easily defeated dinner.

"That was fun." Jacquie twirled the pencil in her hand.

"Maybe for you!" Vidia snapped. "I almost got eaten." she felt quite limp. "I couldn't save the book. The one Araminta gave you."

"Save?" Jacquie looked uncertain.

"The bird ate it." Vidia replied. "I couldn't stop him."

Jacquie sighed. "Brilliant." she said, frustrated. "Just great."

"Sorry."

"No need to apologize." Jacquie turned toward her.

"I wasn't apologizing!" Vidia hastily backtracked. "I was saying I was sorry about the fact that your book got eaten-"

"You need a fighting lesson." Jacquie stated. "You really don't know what you're doing at all."

"I don't usually have to fight. I fly. No one can catch me when I fly."

"Good. So we'll work on your non-flying skills." Jacquie shrugged. "We can work while we walk."

She tossed Vidia the fork.

The Little Fairy

"We're on a bridge, Jacquie. Can't it wait?" Vidia pointed out, holding the olive fork at the ready.

Jacquie shrugged, walking backwards down the bridge. "I don't mind – and you should get used to it. I'm going to thrust or swing. You need to parry either one. Okay? Ready?"

"Jacquie!" Vidia interrupted, trying to explain. "Wait a moment to start attacking again. It isn't safe. This bridge isn't even safe. We need to wait and practice when we get to the other side."

"You're spoiling all the fun, Vidia."

"Aren't you afraid that I'll get better than you, knock you out during practice and run away?" Vidia asked, bluntly.

"You? Get better than me?" Jacquie snorted a laugh.

Vidia glared. "Why's that funny?" she demanded.

"I don't think it's gonna happen, Vidia. I'm sorry." Jacquie gave a sympathetic smile. "Parry." She swung the pencil.

Out of the corner of her eye, Vidia could see dark clouds moving in – fast.

The Little Fairy

"How far?" Vidia asked, for the third time in as many minutes.

"That's determined by your pace." Jacquie pointed out. "And whether you keep stopping to ask me 'how far.'"

"Okay, never mind." Vidia continued stepping slowly through the water puddling around her feet.

"Hey – look on the bright side." Jacquie shrugged. "My powers as a fairy are keeping us from being rained on."

Jacquie's powers worked like an invisible umbrella, deflecting the water to the side in a square over their heads.

"My feet aren't any warmer, or even less wet." Vidia stuck to the dark and gloomy side of the situation.

"Would you like to stop?" Jacquie offered. "I'm agreeable."

"I'd like to get off this ridge and onto a proper, flat roof where I don't have to fear falling at every step." Vidia replied, snappily.

"You won't fall." Jacquie laughed, not looking back.

"But I could." Vidia insisted. "That roof is really steep. I could fall and land in the gutter and get stepped on by a human!" She took a few hurried steps to lean over Jacquie's shoulder to make her words more emphatic.

"What am I supposed to do about that?" Jacquie asked, helplessly.

"Apologize for bringing me along!"

"I couldn't leave you there. The cat would've eaten you." Jacquie pointed out. "It was one or the other."

"You could've let me go." Vidia insisted. "I wouldn't have told anyone. I always keep my word. Almost always. On occasion. Once or twice."
Jacquie cracked up, bursting into laughter. "You remind me so much of Gilroy." she grinned. "He could always make me laugh."

"Who's Gilroy?" Vidia asked, curiously.

"Someone I knew a long time ago. He had a way with words." as if trying to get away from the memory, Jacquie started walking faster.

Vidia picked up the pace, hurrying after the storm fairy. Water sloshed ankle deep all around her, and she had trouble keeping her footing.

"AH!" she yelped, slipping. She landed on the tilted roof. She held perfectly still, trying not to get pulled into the current of water sliding down around her. "Jacquie!"

"Don't move!" Jacquie yelled, dropping the water shield around herself as she reached for Vidia.

"I can't reach!" Vidia stretched up a little. A raindrop splashed onto the roof near her, splashing her, but she didn't move. "A little further!"

Jacquie leaned out a little more, holding her hand out to Vidia.

A raindrop torpedoed down, slicing through the air to impact Vidia's shoulder. She jerked, instinctively. "Jacquie!" she shrieked as she started to slide down.

Jacquie dived for her hand and missed.

Vidia rolled down to the end of the roof and managed to grab onto the drainpipe. She noticed a British flag hanging limply right next to her. It ended fairly close to the ground. She glanced up at Jacquie.

"Hang on, Vidia!" Jacquie called, walking cautiously down the roof. "I'll be right there."

Making her choice, Vidia let go.

"NO!" Jacquie shouted. "Vidia!"