THE BANE OF BAD THINGS (The Lovely Grounded Faeriez)

CHAPTER 1 -- THE BREWERY BEAST

"Well, now it is me. I am saying it. Doubloon, this merciless sun is hot on my new imago skin; a cruel stare that hates me! And it makes me thirst. My body is heavy. I have never been so long with my sore feet pressed to the thirsty ground. Will we ever have wings again? It seems sooo not fair!" she sniffles. Bobbed-haired Doubloon returns the glance. And the glance becomes a brown-eyed stare.

"Diamond, sister, is it faerie to lose hope?" Shrinking her pink lips. Diamond looks to the blue sky. Her dark, silky, 'wings' fall from her face.

"Faerie," she says softly, savoring the word like flower nectar. "I wish I could remember." She drops her noggin, hiding her face. Doubloonfaces her.

"Diamond? Are you crying?" she asks with wide maple-syrup eyes. Diamond'swet, eyes blink back at her. But, she continues their walk and straightens, sniffles, and wiggles her little nose and her pouting, pink, mouth. Doubloon stops her, reaches a slender thumb, and caresses a tear away.

"Uncledoes that," she notes. "I think he loves us. I like it when he calls us princess."

"What?" sniffles Diamond.

"He wags his mouth like that, and his large nose, to shake unwanted emotion." But, Diamond stomps a khaki boot.

"They do not deserve-a-lize it, Doubloon!" Diamond retorts, with as loud a whisper as she can muster. "We do not owe-a-lize them anything! We were once as glowing stars, now as coarse meteorites yoked by the ground...or by its natives," she whispers. "Shelter and food are the only reason we owe Uncle this ghost hunt. He alone knows we are fae. We should be in search of the stolen crystal that will return us to being faeries. But, nooo, we are ghosthunting." She fingers her long hair behind an ear. There's a soft clink. She too has the same metal bits in her hair. Doubloonhuffs and begins walking again.

"Ghost!? It is more like a dust cloud that forms into a solid beast," she reasons. "And because of this ghost, Diamond, the Tellurians need our help! Should not we help them? If this ghost is that big, spiky, bird again, it may pierce these children also. And we will see more precious Tellurian red. We are without most magic. Yet, we still have abilities these Tellurians do not. They do not have recharging ichor sleeping in colorful gems. You can pop here and there, and I can fade," Doubloon whispers. But, Diamond combs back her part with her nails. Her silky hair falls back into place. Something distant catches her eye.

"Look!" she says, pausing with her hand on Doubloon's shoulder. "A boy is being cruel, as our hateful sun, to that other one. Let us go see."Diamond runs on as Doubloon's bob hair bounces after.

#

Something catches the bully's eye as he rears back to put his weight into a practiced punch. There's another student watching yards down the wall. She is wearing the girls' version of their uniform; a khaki bolero jacket over a navy-blue polo and a khaki skort above knee-high, navy-blue socks. She's pretty but strange. She's leaning back; arms crossed and fingers drumming. She stares with cold ebony eyes; deep as an abyss. She's as tall as he, but thinner. Inky as night, her hair is parted down the middle framing her soft features like raven wings.

"What are you looking at!" he barks. She merely stares. What's in her hair? Weird, it's against school dress code to put anything on your ears. He turns his gaze back to his target. "The money, now!"

"I can't."

"You asked for it," the aggressor threatens. He punches hard.

But, the assault lands square on his own navel instead. Nathan groans; doubling over. "What!?" He looks at Jack, his intended victim. He's just as wide-eyed as himself. The bully's eyes dance, searching for answers.