Chapter 245 Day Three with the Kids

Aella quickly found the gargoyles in the marketplace of the human city. They were trying to barter for things with meat they had brought. Not being able to understand each other was causing everyone involved to get grumpy. She went to get involved, but a small demon child with wings stepped up.

"I think he wants two of those fabrics, not just one," said the little girl. Her dark green hair swished around her wings as she danced from one foot to the other.

"If that's what he wanted, why didn't he just say so?" grumbled the man at the booth, picking up the two fabrics Hunter had pointed at.

"I think he was trying, but doesn't speak our language," laughed the little girl with a wide grin, turning to Hunter and flapping her wings in glee.

Hunter smiled down at the young girl, and handed over the meat he had wrapped up, to the shop owner, placing the fabric in a bag at his hip.

"I think you have an admirer," laughed the gargoyle behind him.

Hunter glanced back at the brown gargoyle behind him before smiling down at the girl and turning to leave.

"Rog, you know that we are here for a specific list of items. Have you gotten yours?" asked Hunter.

"Hey! It's Aella!" said Karn, the grey gargoyle with large muscles. They all turned towards her as she approached with the elves. The little green girl, that had helped with the cloth merchant stood off a bit, obviously listening in.

"Hunter, I was hoping to find you," said Aella, as she reached them. "I've been getting all of the leaders of the various people in this realm tattooed with a magical communication rune, to allow them to contact me whenever they had an emergency, or a need. I was hoping you and all of the rest of your gargoyles, would be willing to allow these elves to tattoo you?"

She turned to show them the tattoo she had on her own shoulder, making the fabric part to expose her skin. The rune shimmered with magic.

"If you had asked only one of us, I would have declined, but because you ask for all of us, I am inclined to agree," said Hunter, turning to the others. The others turned to confer among themselves for a moment, before they all agreed as well.

As the elves pulled out their equipment, a small crowd was forming along the edges of the stalls around them, not causing a noticeable block in the flow of traffic, but they weren't trying to hide their interest in the situation either. Aella considered taking them away to allow the elves to work without an audience, but they didn't seem to notice.

"Do.. you.. wings… fly?" stammered the little girl to Hunter, fluttering her own wings.

"You know my language?" he asked surprised, as the elf at his elbow struggled to start the tattoo.

"Grandfather taught me," she grinned, holding her hands before her in excitement.

"Who's your grandfather?" asked Aella, suspiciously.

"He was the tutor who was to teach the king how to speak the ancient language, but I don't think he ever met the first king, the one who moved us here. He taught the king we have now, when he was only a helper to the first king, but we moved here when the last king took over. King Seifer was mean and wanted to put grandfather in jail for liking the first king. I heard it was a girl!" exclaimed the girl, covering her mouth after her last words, as if she might get in trouble for saying it.

"Why do you want to know if my wings work?" asked Hunter, curiously.

"Grandfather… not… taught me," she stumbled over some of the words. Obviously, only a few phrases were easy for her.

"She wants you to teach her," laughed Rog, trying not to move too much as an elf worked on his tattoo too.

"I have taught many young gargoyles to fly, but never demons," said Hunter, his brow furrowing as he looked over to Aella.

"Perhaps you could trade lessons in learning the language, for lessons in how to fly?" offered Aella, with a smile. "I think that it would be basically the same thing, for demons to fly, as it would be for gargoyles."

Hunter nodded thoughtfully, and the little girl jumped up and down in glee, flapping her wings.

As each tattoo was finished, Aella quickly healed them, then bid the gargoyles good luck. With the girl at their side, willing to translate for them, she felt no need to stay.

"Is that all of the leaders in the realm?" asked one of the elves.

"No," said Aella slowly. "There's one more, but I'm not sure… No, we better go ahead and give it a try, but you guys need to stay close so I can teleport out if things get dangerous. We're visiting the fairies."

"Fairies?" whispered one elf to another, but they all huddled close for the teleport.

"Should we be leaving the kids with Firion this long?" asked Precious, before she could teleport.

"They'll be fine," said Aella.

"I'm not worried about the kids, I'm worried about what they'll teach Firion," said Precious.

Aella opened her mouth to say something then shut it back. Precious was right. What was she thinking?

"I'm going to grab them," she agreed, teleporting to Firion's office first.

"Aella! These kids are great!" exclaimed Firion in excitement. There was a gleam in his eyes that Aella had never seen before.

"Our mom has done things you wouldn't believe," said Donovan, sliding off the desk, where he had been sitting.

"But she's got Dad to keep her from going too evil," said Merle.

"I guess Aella can keep you in line," said Sarah, glancing at Firion doubtfully.

The hydra was in the corner, fast asleep, as Aella rubbed her forehead. She didn't have a headache, but she was thinking she should have.

"See?" said Precious, shaking his head.

The elves were looking around in confusion.

"Come on, kids. I have to go see the fairy queen, to get her tattooed, then I need to return the elves to their home," said Aella. She really did not want to take these kids to the fairy forest, but she couldn't leave them here, filling Firion's head with evil ideas.

"The fairy queen?" exclaimed Sarah, clutching her hands in front of her.

"Oh brother," grumbled Merle. "Fairy magic is so chaotic!"

"I wonder if they have those giant mushrooms fairies like so much? Those things are fun to bounce around on!" cried Donovan, rushing over to Aella.

Aella teleported them before she changed her mind, and they found themselves in the clearing where she had last seen the fairy queen.

"Do you have another one?" cried the queen, jumping at Aella with a wild look in her eyes. "I need more of that food!"

"What did you give her?" asked Merle with his eyes wide.

"I gave her a cookie that came from your mom," said Aella, trying to fight off the clutching hands of the queen.

"Oh," said all three of the kids at once.

"You shouldn't have done that," said Merle. "Fairies get addicted to chocolate really fast. It's dangerous!"

"How was I supposed to know that?" asked Aella. "Your mom said to give it to her!"

"Well," said Sarah, looking around at the fairies that were watching in terror. "You should heal her, so she can be normal again."

Aella tried to heal the fairy, but nothing happened. "I don't know how."

"Fine, I'll do it," sighed Merle. He stepped forward and slapped the fairy on her butt.

The queen jumped back, rubbing her butt in shock. "How dare you!"

"Hey, it's not my fault you were trying to beg for more chocolate!" he growled, crossing his arms in annoyance.

"Is that what it's called?" she asked after a moment, the anger fading from her eyes.

"I suppose," nodded Aella, worried that the queen might try to kill the kids for Merle slapping the queen.

The elves were standing back a bit, staring at the boy in shock.

"I'm surprised you didn't just use magic," said Donovan, looking surprised.

"Why bother? Fairies have such a one-track mind, it's disgusting," sighed Merle.

"Will you give me wings while I'm here, so I can fly around?" asked Sarah, jumping in, before the queen got insulted by her brother. "I'll give you a cookie that doesn't have chocolate! It's not as good, and shouldn't make you be addicted, like the last one did."

"Deal!" cried the queen, shooting multicolored beams of light at Sarah, and two glowing wings popped out of her back.

Sarah fluttered them in delight then took a cookie out of her pocket and handed it to the queen, who shoved it into her mouth all at once.

"Was that one of the raisin cookies you made earlier?" asked Donovan suspiciously.

"Oh!" muttered the queen in surprise, her mouth still full of cookie as her eyes went wide.