THE BANE OF BAD THINGS (The Lovely Grounded Faeriez)

CHAPTER 1 -- A BAD PLACE

© 2025 Chocolaty Locket

This is the planet of bad things. Bad things like a larger boy shoving a smaller one forcefully into a pale, sun-dappled wall. Look, nearby, a dark spider wraps a struggling mayfly in its web. Bad things do happen here on planet Earth. What would the visitors say to all this!?

"Give me the money, ya worthless worm!" barks the larger boy. A few strands of his dark hair fall over his wild eyes. "Your grandma'll give ya more."

Both boys are dressed in khaki pants and navy-blue polos. They are partially hidden among flowerless bushes. It is weeks before azalea bushes will have their freckled magenta blooms.

With pleading eyes, the smaller boy, Aden, struggles to speak.

"I, I, I can't Nate, I need the money today! Can't you rob me on a more convenient day?" he protests.

The attacker slams his palm into the old chalky paint of the wall by his victim's ear. His prey flinches. The bully grins. Some humans can be so cruel.

***

But not everyone at this campus today is cruel... or even human. The campus is a school of creamy one-story buildings with shingled roofs and forest-green trim. It is nearly hidden in the forest, a virtual elfin village. 

Further away, at the other side of the same campus, six celestial faeries have infiltrated the school. Two of them walk briskly together as if on a mission. Their lovely faces have Asian features. They are not cruel. And they're not human... not quite. One clue of their otherness is their subtle unearthly beauty. Another is that subtle ethereal glow in their lovely umber-browneyes.

These two girls pass actual students murmuring in the dappled sunlight.  When near the locals, the two young, not-so-human, ladies speak in secretive tones.

One of these otherworldly girls, with long, dark hair and a mysterious air about her, purses her lips fretfully and whispers angrily.

"They do not deserve-a-lize our help, Doubloon!" she retorts, with as loud a whisper as she can muster. "We do not owe-a-lizeUncle or his fellow Tellurians anything! We were once as glowing stars, now we are as crude meteorites rusting on this heartless ground. And now we are being yoked by the people of this ground," she forcefully whispers. "Shelter and food are the only reason we owe Uncle this ghost hunt. He alone knows we are faeries."

She brushes her long, stygian hair behind her ear. There's a dull clink of two metal bits that terminate, or cap off, two locks there. She also has two on the other side. "We should be in search of the Crystal Shears Shard," she insists. "That crystal is the only thing that will return us to being faeries. And it is stolen! We have one crystal, yet the thief has the other. When the two crystals come together, they will become the only thing that will cut these cursed metal from our hair. We only have one crystal." She sighs."We should be hunting for the other crystal. Yet, no, we are hunting a ghost instead!"

Her companion too moves her shorter hair behind a little round ear. This girl's satin, jet, bobbed hair exposes her long, graceful neck. She too has the clink of four bits of pewter stuck to her hair. These unintended ornaments keep them and their sisters humanoid and no longer celestial faeries. She huffs in response to her long-haired sister's complaint.

"Diamond, sister, Ghost do you say!" she exclaims in a whisper. "It is more like a dust cloud that comes together into a horrible, solid beast," she insists. "And because of this 'ghost,' Diamond, these Tellurians, these people of Earth, need our help! Should we not help them?" she reasons."If this ghost here at this campus becomes that big, spiky, monster-bird again, it may pierce these children also. And we will see more precious Tellurian red leak out."