Sapphire (6 page)

Shawna had a hard time imagining her powerful
sorceress mother groveling in front of a dragon.

“Dragons are slippery as fish-innards,” Capella
continued, scratching her thick twiggy dreads. “Especially Sirrush.
They always lie, but in the end they just might reveal a fraction
of truth, depending on how much they don’t want to eat you.”

“So, she could have been told something that wasn't
even true?” Shawna said.

“Perhaps,” said Capella, catching the frog mid-leap
as it tried to escape her marshy tangles. “Or perhaps she heard
what she wanted to hear, or what the
dragon
wanted her to
hear. Or it could certainly be true, for all we know. Regardless,
you
need to see Sirrush, and find out the truth for
yourself.”

“
I
do? Why?”

“He demands it.”

Shawna nearly yelled before catching herself. “He
demands
it? You mean, we have to go see a dangerous
fire-breathing dragon?”

“You forgot moody.”

“What?”

“He’s a
moody
, dangerous, fire-breathing
dragon. And no, dear,” Capella said. “I’m not going, you, Mira, and
that flying glitter-pimple are going. Why would I want to wander
around facing all kinds of death, and danger, and lovely things
like that when I can remain comfortably at home?”

“But, why doesn’t he just come
here
and tell
me everything?”

Capella threw her head back and laughed so hard that
she actually toppled backwards in a heap of rags. Her bare feet and
hairy legs wiggled in the air as she continued to chuckle, before
she finally righted herself and the chair again, then sat down. She
wiped tears from her eyes as Shawna continued to watch in somewhat
horrified amazement at all this. The frog was dangling on a long
dread and eyeing the floor.

“A-ask h-him,” hiccupped Capella. “M-might as well
ask him to file his teeth down and to start eating plants while
you’re at it. That’s
more
likely to happen.”

Capella suddenly dropped her jovial mood and
squinted at her, then abruptly clapped her hands together, and said
enthusiastically, “Well, pleasant as your company is, are you
ready?”

Shawna leaned back in her chair, and Sparkle blinked
open his eyes as he wobbled.

“For what?”

“To get the blazes...er, em…to travel onward,
princess.” She was looking at Shawna like the young girl was a
joke, or possibly just feebleminded. “Enough of this chit-chat and
sitting around, you have things to do, dragons to find, a world to
save.”

“Wh-what?” Shawna sputtered, truly alarmed. “I
thought…but what do you mean a
world
to save?!”

Capella refilled her teacup with the thick
feces-looking liquid. “I mean, a place with plants and animals. A
big
place, generally.”

She sipped her tea, and stared at Shawna, still
squinting an eye. The frog croaked. Shawna squinted back, and
wondered if keeping her mouth shut would be a better idea.

“You—” she started to argue, unable to stop
herself.

“Ava,” said Mira. “Patience. If we told you all we
know before you are prepared you would run screaming from the
room.”

Shawna raised her eyebrows, and considered doing
just that.

“Yes, Ava,” Capella said. “You—”

“It’s
Shawna.
”

“I’ll call you Dinky-Tits if it pleases me, now
listen
.” Capella cleared her throat, sounding like she was
drowning in her own spit. “There’s no point in beating around the
wasp nest; the truth will sting even worse if we do.” She cleared
her throat again, this time sounding like she was hacking up a
loogie. Shawna gagged, and Lula giggled at her.

With a last, “hrm hem,” Capella continued. “We can
tell you this much: an incredibly, exceedingly important journey
depends on you…which is a very frightening thought indeed. Lesath’s
realm has been hidden from us, and we
must
find it.
You
must find it.”

Capella continued talking before Shawna could even
begin to form a question in her mind, though she was burning with a
million of them. “As our fine equine said, everything will be
revealed in time. First of all, go to Sirrush.” The frog leapt and
plopped onto the table top. “Without the knowledge of that
prophecy, he so carelessly blathered about, your purpose here will
be pointless. Although, it probably is anyway. Great Lords of
Lunacy”—she threw up her hands—“what did that over-sized lizard say
to make
you
the center of attention?” She raised a wiry
eye-brow at Shawna. “I can see that you like it, though.”

“Like it?
”
Shawna said. “What exactly am I
supposed to be liking?”

“Being the center of attention, of course.” Her
warty escapee gave a squeaky croak when she snatched him up and
shoved him back into her hair.

“I am not!” Shawna said, defensively. “I don’t want
to be here!”

Sparkle opened his eyes, looking offended at being
so rudely awakened once again.

“You brought me here!” Her voice was rising with
every word. “I don’t like anything about this! I’d rather—” she
went silent then looked down at her tea.

“Rather what, my screeching-peach?”

“Leave her be,” said Mira. “She’s had a lot
happen.”

“Quiet, horse,” Capella snapped, making Mira snort
and throw back her ears. “I want to hear what our spoiled little
pet wants to say.” She was peering intensely at Shawna. “You better
decide quick, girl, whether you’re leaving tomorrow, or doing what
you’d
rather
be doing.”

Shawna didn’t know what to say. She just leaned
further and further back in the creaking chair, staring at Capella,
who leaned further and further forward.

In a low serious voice, Capella said, “Would you
really rather be back in that house? Would you rather we never
brought you here? Would you rather be like those pathetic people
that kept you for their own selfish purposes? You would have been
rewarded
just as they were.”

Shawna’s eyes widened.
Two dark emaciated human
bodies with red eyes and lipless mouths stood on the porch,
reaching for her.
“They were—” she whispered.

“Yes. They were ‘taken,’ as we call it. Taken by the
molochs as you would have been if not for Mira and myself…and there
are more of them. Far more than you can even imagine, and more keep
appearing while entire villages keep disappearing. Do you
understand what I’m telling you?”

Shawna nodded numbly, and slowly put her still full
teacup down. It rattled against the saucer. She flexed her fingers
and put them under her arms. The frog made one last bid for freedom
from Capella’s tangles, missing the table entirely &
belly-flopping onto the floor.

Shawna eyed the dazed amphibian. “We just have to
talk to this dragon? And then that’s that? That’s all I have to
do?”

“Ha!” Capella barked. “Nice to see you have a sense
of humor about it all. Chester,” she grumbled, opening her palm.
Chester zoomed up into her hand like a yoyo. “I’m going to throw
you in a slowly boiling pot.” She shoved him back into his dreaded
prison. Chester blinked one bulbous eye then the other at Shawna
over a thick tangle.

“We must travel soon,” said Mira. “Tomorrow at
dawn.” She looked directly into Shawna's panic-stricken face. “It
will be all right.”

As Mira retreated from the window, Shawna
immediately felt more relaxed and confident towards a journey she
barely understood.
I wish I’d had unicorn magic when trying to
talk to boys.
She exhaled, absent-mindedly raised the cracked
teacup to her lips, and took a sip.

“Uuuugh!” she choked, spitting out the foul
liquid.

Sparkle dropped backwards off her shoulder, and
nearly pulled her shirt off as he clung to it upside down.
Mortified, she tugged at her shirt and tried poking him awake, but
he just continued to snore.

Capella laughed, snorting like a warthog. “Troll
tea, darling, good for the skin.”

Shawna just stared at the viscous, brown-gray liquid
not wanting to imagine what it might actually be. Luckily, as she
was trying not to throw up, Lula flew in through the window.

“Come outside.” Lula beamed, then flitted away while
everyone followed.

Shawna gasped when she stepped into the sunset.
Sparkle swayed upside down on her shoulder, and she tugged her
shirt down again. Capella wrinkled her nose at the view like she
had never seen anything so disgusting in her life. The entire
hillside was swathed in dancing lilies, roses, tulips, and daisies
in every shade of pink imaginable, giving the illusion of a rolling
coral sea. Mira came galloping up from the hill's crest, obsidian
coat shining almost violet in the light. She trotted up to them,
swishing her tail.

Lula fumed. “You trampled my flowers!”

“They look better now,” said Capella.

Sparks in her eyes, Lula sneezed so fiercely that
she smacked into the leaning cottage.

Shawna turned towards her. “Why did you make so many
flowers if they make you sneeze?”

Lula sniffled while Capella chuckled.

“Flowers don’t make me sneeze,” answered the
blushing fairy, matching the shade of a rose she was sitting
upon.

“Just what you need on a dangerous quest,” scoffed
Capella. “A fairy that sneezes from her own fairy-dust.”

“You do?” Shawna said to Lula, not hiding her
surprised tone.

Lula wrapped her arms around her knees and shrugged
her tiny shoulders, then smiled timidly up at Shawna.

“Do you still want me to come?”

“Well, yeah, of course I do.”

Lula's shoulders relaxed again, and her smile
broadened.

“We are honored to have you with us,” said Mira,
“and I am sorry for ruining your flowers. It was difficult to
resist a run through them.”

“Horses,” grunted Capella, shuffling back into the
cottage.

Mira's eyes glinted from her gallop, and she pawed
the turf, tossing her head.

“In fact, I could use another run. If you don't mind
of course.”

“No, go ahead.” Lula waved in resignation as Mira
turned and bolted away. Shawna was stunned by her powerful speed
and grace.

“Like I could stop a unicorn from doing what it
wants to anyway,” Lula sighed from her flower. “Do you think she'd
look good as a
pink
unicorn?”

Shawna laughed with her, feeling strangely at home
with her new friends in this extraordinary world, although her
heart thudded with dread for the morning to come.

They had been traveling through dense woods all day.
Though Mira offered more than once, Shawna stubbornly refused to
ride upon her tall back. Riding, much less riding a large unicorn,
always made her extremely anxious. Yet she was regretting her
decision since it felt like she was wearing cement on her feet as
they trudged on endlessly. She stared down at her frighteningly
furry, pink boots. As they were leaving, Capella had shoved a pair
of soiled, rank, leather boots into her face.

“Here,” she said. “Some
proper
boots for a
long, horrible, and certainly doomed journey.”

Shawna refused to wear them until the sole on one of
her trendy, but cheaply made, shoes started falling apart.
Reluctantly, she had to throw them aside. Putting on the leather,
so-called boots, made her nose wrinkle in disgust. She had thought
they were skinned weasels until Capella explained otherwise. In
sympathy, Lula tried “fixing them up,” but Shawna wasn't sure which
was worse: dead weasel boots or dead Easter bunny boots. At one
point, she hung back a ways and smeared mud all over the boots
until they were more of a dirty, rusty brown. She was modeling
them, happier with muddy, though kind of smelly, boots until Lula
flew up.

“Ew, how did you step in ogre dung? Here, I can
clean them for you.”

She promptly returned them to a bright pink, and
Shawna fumbled an awkward smile. When Lula flew ahead, Shawna
sighed in exasperation. Now they smelled like cotton candy. Her
fingers went to the necklace Capella had also given her when they
parted ways that morning.

After handing her the boots, Capella placed a
necklace of black stones into her hands. “Don't lose this, my dear.
Might just destroy us all like the prophecy said.” She then cackled
while Shawna looked mortified.

She tried to ask what they were, but Capella just
waved her hand, turned away, and muttered something about hearing
the tea-kettle screaming insults at the stove. Lula had only
shrugged at the necklace, clearly as confused as Shawna. Mira, as
always, seemed to have more important things on her mind and hadn’t
even looked at it. They were only five, dull, black, oval stones on
a leather strap.

What am I doing?
Shawna unconsciously
followed the sound of hooves ahead of her while she fiddled with
the stones.
I can't
do
anything. I'm not strong,
or brave, or special. I don't have any talents. I'm not that smart.
This is completely, one hundred percent insane.