Chapter 3 - An Unfortunate English Hotel

Chapter 3





An Unfortunate English Hotel











Foaly stamped a letter and shoved it into the mailbox just as the mailwoman buzzed into view. Foaly took the mail right from Lillian Hawthorn like he did every Tuesday, winking that Foaly-ish wink at the sprite. She swooned in mid air, batting her eyelids as the centaur saluted her. He clip-clopped back into the LEP Operations booth, sifting through the heavy stack of mail and sliding them into the labeled slots that led to the Recon team's mailboxes. "Cudgeon, Cudgeon, Short, Kelp, Kelp, Kelp, Kelp... Honestly, who else sends all this mail to those two?" His eyes burning a hole into a fourth letter addressed to "Trouble Kelp" as a messenger elf walked into the booth.





"Hey ho, Carrots!" Said the elf, saluting the back of the centaur's tinfoil hat.





Foaly tenced up. "We've been through this, Rigel.." He turned around, his eyes narrowed, something Foaly's eyes didn't do often. "Foaly. FOA-LY. My name isn't carrots."





Rigel Root, grandson of Julius Root, was a pre-Madonna kind of creature. A repro of Chix Verbil, if you will. His eyes glittered a meschivous green, leveling any crowd of girls foolish enough to stare. His teeth were whiter than the fake snow sprites scattered over Haven City during winter months.





"Hey, hey, don't get 'yer ears in a knot!" Said Rigel, throwing his hands up in mock surrender. "Jus' here te' give ye' this." He handed over an information transfering block, something Foaly's great-great uncle invented nearly seven hundred years before humans ever got such an idea, let alone inventing it.





"Thanks, Rigel." Replied Foaly, taking the cube.





"Anything 'fer me?" Rigel said boredly, his fingers running through the pile of letters.





"Yeah." Said the centaur, lazily opening a panel and pressing a button labeled "Root, Rigel".





A tinny door below the mail-sorting slots flicked open, revealing Rigel's recieved postage. "Excellent!" Exclaimed Rigel. He grabbed the envelopes.





"And.." Foaly turned around and walked through a door, into a room consisting of only a conveyor belt and a computer. He typed Rigel's pin number into the computer and the conveyor buzzed to life. A package rolled along into view, stopping at Foaly's waiting hands. He walked back out and held out the package to Rigel, making sure that the "HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY, FWOM MO-MO!!" in obnoxiously large, pink letters faced the elf.





"Oh, heh heh." Rigel rubbed the back of his neck. "Thanks.. Mona.." He mumbled to himself, taking the package from Foaly and rotating it so the message was hidden against his side.





"Aw, come on! Open it, I wanna see if it's a giant pin that says 'MO-MO WUVER' on it!" Foaly said in mocking sarcasem, clapping his hands.





Rigel stared evily. "I'll ruin you," he pointed at Foaly menacingly. "You'll wake up next Valentine's and you'll have 'Bella+Foaly' across your forehead.





"You wouldn't dare." Foaly picked up a Neutrino 3000 from his desk.





"AIIE!!!" Rigel yelled and scampered out of the room. "LET'S SEE YOU TRY, CARROTS!!"





"Don't tempt me." Chuckled Foaly, leaning on his desk.











Blaiz's eyes we're as wide as half-dollars as the shimmering air infront of her turned magicly into little people with pointy ears. "What?!" She exclaimed.





"Good evening, Artemis." Said Holly, saluting the boy with her buzz baton.





"And the same to you, captain." He replied, nodding curtly while Grub ran full speed past Artemis's ear at the sink and began examining the hair dryer.





"What are they??" Blaiz gasped, sitting on one of beds.





"We're fairies, and we prefer being called 'who'. We are people too, you know. "Holly said, staring at Blaiz, who, on the bed, was at the fairy's eye level.





Behind them, Grub squealed. "EEEE!!! MY EYYYYYEES!!!" He'd managed to turn the hair dryer on to "very high", which blasted a Neutrino 3000-like heat directly into his face. Domovoi ran to the fairy's aid, switching the machine off and setting him in a chair. The butler ran a washcloth under the sink and gave it to Grub, who threw it over his entire face. "Thanks." Came the muffled sigh from under the cloth. Artemis looked back at Blaiz, her eyes wider still with shock.





Artemis clapped his hands together. "Well. You'll all need a good night's sleep. Ladies, take the two beds, I presume. And we'll sleep on the floor."





Holly rolled her eyes at this. Like he'd actually sleep on the floor. But, to her astonishment, he grabbed an extra blanket out of the closet and laid it out on the hard flooring. Blaiz was utterly confused. What were these little fairies doing in league with her brother? Fairies were only in stories and tall tales, but here they were, scurrying around her like little hamsters at work. Holly retrieved the rest of the extra blankets from the higher reaches of the closet, and Domovoi pulled the fold-out couch open.





Grub immediately zipped over to the newly unfolded bed and squealed "I call it!"





Trouble sighed, "I guess I'd better sleep with him, he might hurt himself and have to go back to mummy's for Valentine's Day."





"Hey!" Yelled Grub and threw himself onto Trouble, attempting to throttle him.





Domovoi plucked the fairy brothers apart from eachother with the ease of picking up a puppy, "Listen, no killing eachother until we're out of this hotel that's filled with humans." He dropped them onto the fold-out couch. The fairies gave eachother a livid stare before grabbing the blankets and falling back onto the pillow, each facing the opposite wall. Chix grabbed a pillow and sank into a chair.





"Oh, it's late.. I guess I'm gonna..." His head sank onto his chest. Blaiz sunk gratefully into her bed, falling asleep the instant her head touched the pillow.





That morning, Holly was the first one up, if you count a half-second first. The fire alarm had gone off throughout the hotel and everyone was scrambling to their feet. "What's happening?!" Yelled Blaiz, leaping from bed to floor.





Holly deactivated her mechanical wings, the engine fumes would agrivate and fuel the fire; where ever it was. Domovoi grabbed Artemis around the middle and yanked, sending the teenage boy into the air.





Stumbling upon landing, Artemis yelled over the scrambling and open swearing of the Kelp Brothers. "The building's on fire, check the door."





Holly ran over to the door, crawling the last couple feet. Her hand stretched toward the door..











A mercyless laugh tore at Yyvonne's lips as the fire swirled around the door, throwing it back off of it's hinges.





Summersaulting in mid air, the sprite cried, "Yeow!! This feels so good! Ugh, just the revenge I need at these human creatures!"





But it wasn't 'human creatures' she revenged at this door.











Holly let out a piercing shriek of surprise and pain as the door came out to meet her, flame swirling around her slender limbs and sticking to her jumpsuit. Artemis had just enough time to turn around before the elf collided with him, the two tumbled to the floor. Domovoi, standing behind Artemis, got the door; or rather, the door got him. Holly's limp body lie in Artemis's lap. "No!" Said he over the roaring flames, which had already consumed the entryway. He picked up Holly and dragged her to the window. "Butler!" He yelled at the figure emerging out from under a pile of splintered wood. "Go!"





Domovoi was confused, "Go where?"





"Out! Out the window!"





"Artemis, you can't be serious."





"I am!!" He stomped his foot childishly and grabbed Dom's arm, pulling him to the window. "It's only a story down. You can use Holly's wings to slow yourself."





He stared at his employer for a moment, then snatched up the wings, holding them like a parachute over himself, and flicking them on. "Are you sure?"





"Yes." Artemis said, with an air stating that the matter was closed. Dom shrugged, then kicked the window just below the glass, and it blew a hole in the wall. He then saluted the boy, and lept out of the hole into the night air.





Dom turned the wings on to full setting, but he still fell uncomfertably fast. He closed his eyes, bent his knees, and crashed onto the ground, summersaulting over to break his fall. Dom's eyes flickered open. Safe. His legs were crying for mercy, but safe. He turned to look back up at the hotel. Artemis sat in the hole, looking very pale and worried.





He did not want to do it, it could kill her. But he must. He grabbed Holly around the middle and hoisted her out of the window, dangling her nine feet off of the ground. "CATCH!!" He bellowed and his slender arms could not hold any longer. Holly slipped from his hands, and fell into the darkness. Whatever happened from then was unknown to him, but he sat back, tears attempting to burst from his eyes. A hand touched his back, and Grub appeared next to him.





"T'is okay. Dom'll catch her." He smiled and lept out too, activating wings. Trouble, Chix, and the rest of the squad followed. Blaiz stopped next to him.





"Let's go, before the floor's burned out from beneath us."





Dom ran forward, the fairy just barely landing in his hands. He lowered her to the ground and looked up just in time to catch Blaiz rocketing down to meet him.





"Whew, thanks." Said the girl, brushing ash from her skirt upon being released.





"No problem." Replied the butler and he looked back up for Artemis.











Artemis rose, his legs shaking, preparing to leap into his faithful servant's waiting arms. His knees bent, ready to spring.





"You're a real cutie. Such a pity to waste you." Sounded a voice behind him and a high-heeled shoe slammed into the middle of his back, sending him flying like a ragdoll out into the air. He tried to yell, to cry out, to grunt, to scream like a little girl, but no sound was coming to his throat. No air was coming to his throat. Am I paralized?! Am I going to die?! I am going to die.. Ran through his mind. The boy's face met the ground with a dull, crunching thump.. Tears sprang to his eyes,





and he knew no more..

You are not authorized to comment here. Your must be registered and logged in to comment