Fairytales

Support my main contracted novel and winner of Writing Prompts #26 - The Legendary Mage!

Desolate Mage: A Legend Reborn!

https://www.webnovel.com/book/12013957905760805/Desolate-Mage%3A-A-Legend-Reborn!

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The night after the 6 gandharva left to search for traces of their home and families.

It was also the night of Sam's birthday.

The innocent young girl had pleaded with them to stay longer until her birthday, but after Shanzi and the others found out about the news of their home's destruction, they could delay no longer. They decisively packed up and departed on that very day, dragging the resistant Stefan along with them. [Dhrtarastra conveniently disappeared until dinner time. He never missed meals]

Before leaving, Stefan gave her a smooth looking ornament to be worn on her hair. It looked metallic but had a woody texture. He told her she could use it to send him a message up to 3 times before it would lose its power - and he and the gandharva would know her location and be able to find her.

The girl had cried as she held on to the ornament; her playmates for the past few days had grown dear to her. And when they still left, Lucius had to hold her back from running off to beat them up and drag them back to the ramshackle hut.

They had a simple but pleasant dinner of horned rabbit stew [maybe Mr Horn?] and cake-bread; pleasant despite her constant sulking and sticking out her lower lip in displeasure. After the meal and at her pleading, Lucius let her have a puff of his pipe. She coughed and choked in distress, her face a mixture of regret, anger and irritation. Then throughout the night, even as she was preparing for the night, she muttered on and on about how breathing smoke and fire was meant for dragons and not for humans - much to Lucius' amusement.

The girl clambered on to her bed – just a thin plank of wood laid across 4 more blocks of wood on the ground covered by 2 old table cloths donated by Mrs Magda – Bob's mother. She might not look it anymore, but she was a mighty fine looking bar girl when she was young… Ahem, forget I said that.

She was dressed in her only pair of pyjamas that was also donated [this one was by the old shrine priest whose son had long left to seek fame in the city]; a tunic long enough to serve as a dress and a loose pair of patched "shorts" that covered down to her shins. This was then tied up by a coarse rope to keep it from falling, so loose it was.

She asked, "Grandpa…? Can you tell me a story tonight…?"

"Of course, my dear!" Lucius said while chuckling. "Let me check the fire first…"

"But you just did that 5 minutes ago…"

"…Oh, did I? S-sorry, I meant to say, I need to bring in the laundry…"

"It's right there in the corner of the kitchen…"

"…" Lucius' was speechless. Sweat poured from his every pore; he felt like he had been crushed by the weight of a thousand mountains. His mind raced to think of a resolution; only to hear a sound of a *crash* inside his head – his train of thought had fallen off a metaphorical cliff.

"…It's ok if you don't want to… It's only been 5 years since the last story… I'll just ask grandpa Dhar-dhar instead. He's much better at stories than you are…" the "innocent" girl had his psychological arm pinned behind his back – he wondered if she was really only 10 years old today.

They heard a *knock knock* sound from the roof; as "grandpa Dhar-dhar" showed his agreement – he took every opportunity to show he was better than Lucius.

Lucius sweated as he prepared to tell her a story. He also reminded himself to tie up Dhrtarastra and lay him down on the steam trains tracks. To Lucius, the only stories he knew were like, "How Octavia slaughtered the Senate," or "301: Liar-nidus". So he told her those stories when she was 5. And it just took 1 story for her to transform overnight into… The sweetest little girl with just a little bit of violent tendencies. Just a little.... Honestly!

Lucius' brow furrowed until it was deep enough to hold a spoon – he would tell her the story of how he found the secret of King Salem's gold, except that it was by torturing King Salem for 40 days and nights until he spilled his blood… I mean, spilled the beans. Lucius could hear her parents turning in their graves at the thought of him scarring the young girl's mind any further.

"Ahem… Once upon a time…" Dhrtarastra began, before he was picked up and thrown by Lucius into the horizon.

Returning from the rooftop in a jiffy and dusting off his hands, Lucius started his story: "Let me tell you the story of Jezebel the corrupter whose body was eaten by dogs"…

* * * * * * * * * *

Deep in the night, as the town lay slumbering; a strange phenomenon could be seen – if one were looking - 2 tiny golden spots of light were floating down from the skies!

As they flitted here and there, unaffected by the wind and undetected by divine or mental senses; they separated. One, headed into the south-west – straight towards the higher ground and to the wilds, where the howls of wolves could be heard.

Another, to the southern edge of the town – towards the Yore Forest, in the direction of the shrine.

Maybe it was just a watcher's imagination [or maybe this author has read too many fairy tales...], but if one peered closely, one could barely make out a miniature figure of a human through the dense golden light. Almost as if it were a fairy godmother!

And over to the shrine courtyard this light flitted and floated, circling round the courtyard until it reached a certain dilapidated hut in the middle of the courtyard; where a girl lay fast asleep.

The light hung above her; and began to grow indistinct – the light was fading, and the figure within turned illusory. One could make out the long legs, smooth skin, well-developed 6 pack abs, stunning shoulder muscles and powerful chest of this fairy godmoth… fairy godfather.

(She's the fated one!) Leo's [non-existent] heart was beating hard – his breaths coming fast [imaginary breathing]. The golden light hung in the air above the girl who was lying on her back, sprawled on the bed with her blanket having slipped to the floor.

(It's now or never...) Leo exerted the last of his mental energies, focusing on the spell of domination that would wipe out the mind of this child and take over her body. His conscience shook when he considered whether this was right or wrong; but he steeled himself – for the sake of freeing all mortals from the cruelty of the Heavenly Fate… This was the only way found after generations of divinations.

If Lucius were present he would have noticed. He would have intervened, and struck down the adversary who, though he had pure motives, sought to harm his granddaughter. Then he would have traced the threat to its source, and found them and killed those who threatened his ward.

However, fate or luck or just coincidences were such that he was not here, and the leader of the rebellion against fate continued his ritual of domination.

At that time, the flows of mana *changed*, as if what was happening was contrary and in opposition to the heavens. Then Leo began circling in descent, causing a faint whistling sound of wind as he grew closer and closer to the girl's forehead.

200cm… 150cm… 100cm… As he drew closer and closer, his incoherent chanting grew stronger and was seemingly joined by a thousand voices of the universe as it rose in cadence; contradicting the sense of *wrongness*; contradicting the sensation that it opposed the heavens.

50cm… 40cm, 30cm…

*SMACK*

The girl, still half-asleep, flipped onto her side as she grumbled about the mosquitos nowadays; they were getting bigger and bigger – at this rate, soon they'd be as big as small dogs… She mumbled and yawned as she fell back asleep.

The golden light fragmented and scattered gently, the human figure having vanished like the mist – his quest ended tragically. Unbeknownst to her, the specks then landed on her body, before being absorbed and leaving only a hint of golden glow on her skin.