Chapter 25
After that, the party had nothing better to do than set off back into the forest. Or so they thought… After a while of walking, Daniel pointed out that he could get them to the nearest town in a millisecond. People were a little grumpy he hadn’t pointed this out before, but they didn’t say anything to him in case he refused to do the spell.
Guess where they ended up? Cat-ville.
“I did mention that this place only has one town, didn’t I?” Molly said, coughing from the dust.
“Um, no.” Daniel brushed himself off. The spell, as always, had dumped them a foot off the ground, and the Kiri hadn’t swept lately. Or…
“Hey, guys! Look!” Sophie said. She was pointing toward a cloud of dust. She drew her dagger and said, “We’d better go investigate. The poor cats… if there’s only one city, I bet it’s fought over quite a bit. From how they reacted to Angel, I bet we’re the only help they’ve ever gotten around here. Come on! Quickly!”
But the cloud of dust wasn’t a threat. And the closer they got to it, the more it seemed to glow from the inside.
“Ohhhhhhh… that’s right. They must be friends with the fairy clan…”
“Hey,” Daniel said. “I thought that was spelled F-A-E-R-I-E in this book! Y’know, French spelling. Because apparently Rebekah wanted to make her fairies different from most people’s.”
“This world has an entirely different brand of fairies,” Molly said. “And who’s Rebekah?”
“Never mind…” Daniel said. “Just try to see what’s going on!”
“I’ll scout ahead,” Keith offered.
“I’ll go with you,” Molly offered. “You might get hurt. There are really friendly fairies around here, and then there are cutthroat, bloodthirsty fairies who are really hard to kill. You only have a stick, and you’re quite young. I’m not about to lose a fighter, though.”
“Hey, I’m actually thirteen. I’m not that young,” Keith said.
Something flashed in Molly’s eyes, but perhaps it was the fairies’ light. “I’m not letting you out of my sight if you’re twenty-three! You can’t defend yourself with a stick!”
“Try me, pretty girl.”
“Oh, you’re dead,” Molly said through a grin, and drew her machete.
“Hey!” Daniel said, stepping forward to intercept the fight, but Sophie intercepted him instead. “Daniel. He’s not three. And I hang out with Molly all the time. This is just a Molly thing. Let her be.”
“Y’know, they’re not going to go see what’s going on,” Daniel said, changing the subject.
“Then we should. Leave Molly to be Molly,” Sophie said.
Daniel and Sophie broke off from the group. A few fairies took their place and watched the fight. They disapproved, but they didn’t interfere.
The rest of the fairies flew around several Kiri, some trading, some gossiping, some just hanging around or enjoying a Pepsi. A few more would occasionally break off to join the fight. Some got into arguments with Hannah over whether Coke or Pepsi was better. But the fairies posed no threat, unless the threat was from suffocating from the dust their wings shook up.
But eventually every one of the fairies and the Kiri they hung with were watching the fight, picking sides, predicting who would win: the scruffy-looking girl in the fraying black robe with a dull machete, or the rather muscular, young-looking boy in slave clothing with a stick of dense wood.
There were equal numbers of people on either side, and Molly and Keith seemed to have the most ultimate concentration. They were nearly evenly matched. Molly was fairly strong for someone who stayed inside most the day plotting spy missions, but she was clever and skilled with her machete, dull or not. But Keith had strength that exceeded hers, although not too much wit, for he didn’t have anyone to teach him, and a weaker weapon. Most of the Kiri were on Molly’s side, having seen her around before, but Keith had fans too. Then – all in a split second – Molly had swatted Keith’s arm with her sword hard enough to startle him and knock him off his feet. Then she had her foot on him, and was putting some weight on it to keep him down.
“Not quite,” Keith said, and rolled over, taking Molly’s leg with him. Now Molly was on the ground, and Keith jumped up like some kind of cat. Molly rolled behind Keith with a quick somersault, and grabbed him by the nape of his neck. Keith grimaced, reached behind him and grabbed for Molly, but her speed was too much. She was out of his reach, but he was still in her grasp. Then Keith lifted a leg, and slowly stuck it behind him until he was sure Molly was within his range, very slowly, as not to have the motion detected by Molly. Then he quickly shoved his foot back and kicked her. She screeched in pain, feeling her foot fly out from under her. She gritted her teeth and thought, If I’m going to go down, I’m taking you with me!
And Molly was the faster this time, jumping up and putting her foot on Keith, but not so much weight as before, so he couldn’t topple her over again.
“I’ve won, pretty boy.”
“Only this time, sweetie girl.”
“Why are they talking like that?” Daniel asked. “It sounds kinda dumb.”
“Shh!” Sophie said. She pulled him aside. “You know what I think is happening?”
“No,” Daniel said.
“Guess.”
“I’ve no idea.”
Sophie sighed. “You don’t pay much attention to other people in school, do you?”
“Not really.”
“This means,” Sophie said, “that Molly has a severe crush on this kid.”
Daniel looked incredulously surprised. “Molly?”
Sophie nodded. “I know it’s a large breach of her normal character, but I guess even Molly has to have a sweet side too. Hey, after all, she is pretty. If, y’know, you take her ponytail down, wash her hair, brush it out, scrub her face up, put her in a newer black robe and put about three pounds of makeup on, yeah, she’s pretty!”
They stayed the night in the little town, in Angel’s mansion. Which, miraculously, was somehow built. But stranger still…
Molly had overheard Sophie talking.
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