Chronicles of Eden - Act V (7 page)

“This is Pip’s home, where Pip belongs,” she dearly confessed. “I’ll never be happy again if I must depart now.”

Squeak sniffled then held her arms around herself to keep Pip cozy in her bosom, with the others just watching her with blank expressions as the ant girl slowly smiled and nodded.

“Squeak?” Triska questioned. “You’re not buying that crap from her, are you?”

Squeak looked to her with a teary-eyed pout and squeaked a few times while cradling Pip in her bosom, only earning bewildered looks from everyone else in the process.

“Oh c’mon,” Alyssa scoffed. “You can’t seriously want to side with her on this, can you?”

Squeak nodded and squeaked firmly while holding Pip close to her.

“I want to stay here, please?” Pip begged looking up to Squeak with an innocent face.

Squeak smiled down at her and nodded, with Pip smiling brightly while leaning up closer towards the girl.

“Really?”

Squeak nodded with a squeak.

“I can stay here with you?”

Squeak again nodded with a simple squeak.

Pip giggled and nuzzled against the ant girl’s chest, with Squeak holding her dearly while the others just watched with dull expressions.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Triska muttered.

“Yay! We can keep her!” Luna cheered.

“Why are you celebrating that?” Falla snapped at her. “Remember what a huge pain she is?”

“She’s not so bad,” Luna giggled with a shrug. “And she’s so cute and tiny, she’s so adorable! I’m so happy she can stay with us, this is going to be so much-”

“Boobies!” Pip cheered before shooting out of Squeak’s bosom and right into Luna’s, with the butterfly girl squealing as she dropped back onto the bed with her hands waving around near her chest while Squeak was still looking down to where Pip vanished a moment ago. The ant girl blinked then looked over to Luna with annoyance as she set her hands at her hips.

“Pip, stop!” Luna cried out with a blush. “You can’t tickle me like that, please-
Ah
! No, don’t squeeze them like that! Pip!”

“Yay! Hee hee!” Pip giggled as her legs were kicking up above Luna’s bosom while the fairy’s body was enveloped in them further.

“Well,” Falla said glancing to Squeak. “Not a very faithful fairy, is she?”

Squeak merely shook her head and watched Pip with irritation while Daniel had at this point face palmed and was looking down with closed eyes.

“This is not what we need to be dealing with right now,” he grumbled as Luna kept screaming and laughing while the group just watched her flailing about on the bed with dull expressions.

*****

Once again the travelers were off on their journey through The Outerlands, with Daniel at the reins for Lucky and Kroanette galloping alongside him as they made their way along the dirt road together. Inside the cabin everyone was trying to go about their normal business, with Specca at the table writing in the monster book about how overly persistent and annoying fairies actually were, Alyssa sitting across from her while drumming her fingers irritably on the table, Triska and Squeak sitting on the couch together while showing signs of growing aggravation and frustration, and Luna and Falla lying on the bed together, with Falla holding a pillow over her face and Luna holding her hands over her ears with a weak expression.

“Weeee!” Pip cheered as she continuously circled about the roof in a blue blur, flying all around the ceiling of the room nonstop as she never seemed to show signs of fatigue or boredom.

“I got it,” Triska finally spoke up, with the girls tiredly looking over to her as she rocked her head back and watched Pip streaking by overhead again and again with a dull gaze. “We didn’t make it back in Eston. We died, and we finally arrived in hell.”

“That’s too bad,” Falla muttered. “I was contemplating killing myself to escape this wretched life, but if I’m already dead then all hope is lost.”

“Dear lord,” Specca whined as she held her hands to her face. “She never stops. She never stops or even slows down.”

“Alyssa,” Triska groaned while holding a hand over her eyes. “Can’t you throw her out of here with your magic or something?”

“I tried five times already, remember?” Alyssa growled before she started hitting her hand down on the table. “She just keeps coming back!”

“Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to take her with us,” Luna whined while shutting her eyes.

“It’s not like we wanted her here with us to begin with!” Falla shouted out at the fast moving fairy.

“Would Daniel be upset if we silenced her for good?” Alyssa asked sharply while watching the blue blur moving about above them.

“We can’t kill her,” Specca said shaking her head while looking at the monster book with worried eyes. “She’s not evil, she’s just…
arg
, so annoying!”

Squeak held her hands over her ears and shut her eyes while squeaking loudly a few times, her antennae twitching while she obviously lost her patience with the fairy.

“Weeee! This is fun!” Pip cheered as she kept flying around and around, giggling playfully while never slowing down at all. Trailing behind her glittering specks shimmered in the air briefly before vanishing, only to be replaced with more as the fairy was flying laps around the cabin at high speed.

“I’m going to kill her,” Triska flatly said as she pulled her dagger out. “I’m going to do it and Daniel will understand why I had to do it.”

“We’re pacifists, Triska,” Specca snapped at her with a flustered tone as her patience was dwindling dangerously low. “We can’t kill an innocent monster such as her, despite how
infuriating
she may be.”

“Then clip her wings,” Falla groaned with exasperation. “Anything to shut her up, just do something! She’s been flying around nonstop for hours!”

Pip raced around in circles a few more times then flew down and landed on the table in front of Specca, the nixie and Alyssa looking to her with growing ire as the fairy was eyeing the monster book curiously.

“What are you doing?” she asked cocking her head in question.

“Struggling to remind myself that I’m a kindhearted monster,” Specca replied through bared teeth.

“Would you stop flying around for just five minutes and give us some peace and quiet?” Alyssa growled with her eyes giving off a purplish hue.

Pip hopped onto the open monster book and looked down at the writing curiously while Specca tapped her finger on the table repeatedly with a scowl on her face.

“What are you writing?” Pip asked the nixie.

“I’m cataloging all the information we know about your race.”

“My race?”

“Fairies, like you.”

“Like me…” Pip said softly looking down to the entry. She slowly read the large print while stepping backwards towards Specca, her expression going from curiosity to concern.

“What’s wrong?” Alyssa asked dryly.

“Am I really the last?” Pip asked.

All the girls watched her carefully as the fairy slowly sat down on the table while looking at the book. With a sniffle from the tiny monster the girls noticed she was growing more upset by the second, the fairy then whimpering and looking up to Specca with watery eyes.

“You wrote… that fairies are so rare… that they may not exist anymore. But I exist, don’t I?”

Specca glanced around at the other girls then looked at the monster book with a solemn expression and nodded.

“You do, although until we met you we believed your race to have died off long ago.”

“Am I really alone?” Pip whimpered.

“I… I’m not certain. I’m sorry, Pip,” Specca gently replied.

“What do I do?” Pip asked before she started crying softly. The other girls slowly got up and walked closer to the table as the fairy wept with her hands held to her face. “If I’m really the last fairy… what will happen to us? If I don’t get a man’s seed… we’re gone forever.”

“Well,” Specca reluctantly said. “I suppose we can hold onto hope that there are more fairies out there like you, somewhere.”

“I am
not
hoping for that at all,” Alyssa quickly stated.

“Alyssa,” Triska hushed, the girls all then watching as Pip slowly stood up while crying.

“Why did all the fairies leave?” Pip whimpered while looking around at them. “Where did they all go? What happened to my sisters?”

“I’m sorry,” Specca gently replied. “But we don’t know. We know almost nothing about your kind. There are no records of travelers meeting fairies for ages. All we think we know about you comes from stories and myths that could have easily been made up by anyone.”

Pip looked down at the book with sorrow then up at the ceiling, taking a few steps backwards in a circle as she kept her eyes up.

“I like to fly,” she said softly while wiping her tears away. “When I do, I feel so alive and happy. I feel that warmth inside of me. Maybe it’s magic, or maybe it’s my soul, I’m not sure. But when I’m flying everything seems alright.” The girls watched her with sympathetic eyes as she lowered her head and whimpered again.

“But when I’m not flying and instead standing still, I think. I think about stuff, and also I think about how I’m alone. I don’t want to be alone. I don’t. I don’t like it.”

“Goddammit,” Triska quietly muttered. “Now I feel bad for her again.”

“Me too,” Luna whimpered with teary eyes.

Squeak sighed and glanced away with remorse while nodding slowly.

Pip read the entry about her race with growing despair, facing the realization that she may be the last fairy in existence. She held her hands to her chest with a fearful whine and shut her eyes, seeming to struggle against breaking down into tears again. After a moment she looked towards the front of the room, seeing the black curtain rustling in the breeze and allowing a brief glimpse of Daniel as he sat at the front seat of the caravan.

“Did you mean what you said?” Pip asked looking to Luna. “If I have his love, will he really help me? Will he take care of me? Will he keep me from being alone?”

“Pip,” Triska spoke up with a forced smile. “There are other men out there you can go find and get seeds from I’m sure. Daniel however is taken, and is not-”

“That’s right,” Luna said with a hopeful smile and nod. “He said it himself. He would choose any girl, monster or human, as long as they are kindhearted.”

“He already chose who he wanted,” Alyssa snapped while slamming her hand down on the table. “He picked
us
, remember?”

“He picked you all,” Pip said with wonder. “So then there’s hope he can pick me too. He could love me too, couldn’t he? And then I wouldn’t be alone, then I could get his seed and have a family, right?”

“Pip, no, that’s-” Specca argued before stopping and seeing the sorrowful expression on the fairy. “That’s… he can’t… you can’t… um…”

“Just stop what you’re thinking, Pip,” Triska warned. “Daniel is our mate, and there is no way we’re letting any other-”

“I need to be his mate too!” Pip declared with a fist held high. “It’s my destiny! For the future of fairies everywhere!”

“No!” Alyssa cried out while grabbing hold of her hat with both hands. “No! No! No!”

“If he feels a deeper connection with me, he’ll love me,” Pip pondered to herself. “If he loves me he’ll give me his seed. If he loves me he’ll take care of me. If he loves me he won’t let the fairies go away forever.”

“Yes, that could work,” Luna agreed with a hopeful smile.

“No, that couldn’t work!” Triska shouted at her. “Why are you encouraging this? Why did you have to fill her tiny head with your stupid suggestions? Why?”

“Pip, hold it right there,” Specca sternly ordered. “Stop what you’re thinking, that’s not going to-”

“I have no time to lose!” Pip announced as she fluttered up above the table. “I have to gain his love, I have to gain his affection or all is lost for fairies everywhere!”

“Then all is lost for fairies everywhere!” Alyssa shouted. “There is no way we’re letting you-”

“Ah!” Pip cried out as she looked around quickly. “Of course, I completely forgot, I have to help him first, that’s how this works. He said he had very important things he had to do. What does he have to do? Somebody tell me, quick! There’s no time to lose!”

“What in Eden are you going on about now?” Falla asked shaking her head.

“Oh, I know, I know,” Luna called out holding her hand up. The group looked to her with disbelief as she hopped around with her hand held up high. Pip smiled and pointed to her while flying closer to the girl.

“Yes, you.”

“Daniel is on a quest to help bring peace between monsters and humans,” Luna answered politely.

“The most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. Go on.”

“We’re on our way right now to Flairwood, the grove of the giant butterflies, so he can try to talk to my race and convince them to be good monsters. That way mankind will choose to be with them too rather than try to kill them.”

“That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard since the last thing you said to me. What else?”

“We have to gain the support of five monster races,” Luna explained while holding up seven fingers. “Once we’re done talking to the giant butterflies at my home we’re going to go to Kroanette’s home, the centaurs are the next ones we want to try to convince to be good monsters with us. If we can get enough support for this Daniel is going to talk to his queen and get mankind to be allies with all of us. That way he’ll put an end to the fighting and raping between everyone.”

“It all makes sense!” Pip declared while floating in place before the group.

Everyone but Luna just looked back and forth between the two with stunned expressions as Luna clapped and giggled while Pip hovered in place with a bold expression on her face.

“What the hell is wrong with you two?” Alyssa asked tiredly.

“Luna’s crazy and Pip’s insane,” Triska dryly replied.

“Quickly,” Pip demanded while pointing to Luna. “Where is Flairwood, and how long before we reach there?”

“Um…” Luna said softly before looking to Falla curiously. “I don t know for sure, but she does.”

“Oh great,” Falla muttered. “I’m being dragged into this too, aren’t I?”

“Calm down, Pip,” Specca sighed while adjusting her glasses. “Flairwood is located to the south in this region, and is currently two days away from where we are now.”