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MIDWINTER MAGIC: FOURTEEN
Embarrassed by the discussion, Arista turned her attention again to the Holly Berry King. "Wallace... I know 'tis asking a lot... but d'ye think ye could, perhaps, undo a bit of what ye've done here? There's scads of holly to turn elsewhere... and I wouldnae want all of that red glory wasted." Having now pieced together what had happened, Skye sensed that perhaps her daughter knew more about how to tread with wee Wallace than she herself could manage. With a wry grin, she leaned over to Jera and whispered, "I've told her father she's also the diplomat." To which Jera grinned and nodded, "I've told her much the same myself. She's gifted with understanding and compassion I rarely see in... um... well... those who are not elfkin." Wallace screwed up his mouth, then fluttered his wings and lifted to stand on Arista's shoulder. Bending to whisper in her ear, he confessed, "I donnae know how t' change it back. I mean, I cannae... unspit... now can I?" Skye caught a bit of the conversation and lofted a brow. "Er... un... spit?" Having also heard the comment, of course, Jera muttered mostly to herself, "Now that... could be a problem." Arista nodded and again addressed the royal sprite. "What are we going to do, Wallace?" Turning to glance at Skye and Jera, Wallace then flew away from Arista and hovered between the three long people. "Well, I mean..." He flitted over to a leaf, then... spit... and that splotch on the leaf turned bright red. He held his hands out and shrugged wee shoulders. "I donnae hae th' foggiest how t' undo that." The Lady Blackthorn blinked and gasped. "It's sprite spit that hae done all this?" Jera snickered, as Skye used very nearly the same words her daughter had used. Nodding again, a bit miserably now, Arista commented to her mother, "Lots of it, apparently." But then a tangent thought distracted her. "Wallace, don't ye get thirsty?" Wallace grinned, "Aye, but there's dew, even under this hard sky, an' I found a bucket here an' there with a sip or two in it." He had actually tried to fly out of the solarium but found the 'sky' too hard to pierce, not really knowing about glassed-in places. "Wallace, that is, your highness, if I may..." Jera offered. Turning in place to face the standing long person, wings still keeping him aloft, Wallace graciously nodded his golden head. "If you've any ideas, you may." "Well, I think perhaps what is here and has changed may be forfeit, BUT," Jera hastened to add, for Lady Skye's benefit, "I believe I can get replacements for most of what is lost. Now... there is one more very important thing to know, Wallace." "And tha' would be?" His mid-air stance was about to get haughty again. "You need not labor to change every berry in the kingdom, your majesty. Your mere presence, your emergence, has actually set about making the change in the holly... um... elsewhere. So, I believe, though we may wish to venture out and verify it... I believe that we will find all the holly berries are even now turning as you would have them turn." Skye looked around and began to peer at her plants more closely. "Well, the berries themselves really are nae so critical to my mission... except the inkberries...and... perhaps the ink will just be a bit more reddish indigo than normal?" Interested in trying to move away from her mother's focus on the damage, Arista picked up on the other thing Jera implied, "Venture... out? We're taking him out of here, Lady Jera?" "I don't know why not. He's no longer a fragile worm, but a well-clothed king and seemingly fit to the season." Skye again chuckled. "Bloody well right ye are taking him out of here. I can salvage most, but not all if he stays, Ari love." "Well," Wallace looked aside to Skye's insolence but decided to ignore it and turned instead toward Jera and Arista, his friends, for answers. He drew up, hovering with his little red-gloved hands on his hips. "If my job is going on by itself, what am I to do now?" Arista smiled at him and held her hand out again. "I could show you what holly really looks like. Call it maybe a lesson in botany? Besides, we cannae hae Yule without ye, Wallace...and the firehall is so pretty, all decorated with its pine roping and holly boughs." The sprite grinned and actually winked at her, "I think I'd find tha' a pleasure," then flew to Arista's hand to alight there. Her eyes shone as she gazed upon the magnificent Wallace. She further enticed him, "Maybe I could even introduce you to my siblings, and teach ye the rest of that song...." To which Wallace jumped excitedly in her hand and clapped, "More like you? And more of that wonderful sound? How marvelous!" "There then," Jera spoke around to all of them, "Surely this is all sorted out. My Lady Skye, I will help here as long as it takes to set things as right as they can be set." The Lady Blackthorn however was watching her daughter who was now engrossed in talking with the King of the Holly Berry, then her gaze strayed to Jera. "And all of this glory started wi' a worm?" Jera laughed aloud. "Aye, a little green worm lazing between some leaves and, I might add, an elf uncle who suggested that his niece and this place might assist him." She couldn't help but drag Ashe into this and couldn't wait for Arista to have a story to tell HIM for a change. Skye laughed as well. "Remind me to thank Ashevathallion for such an honor as was bestowed upon my lowly workroom." She shook her head. "No real harm done after all. As 'tis said, All's well that ends well, aye?" "Indeed, although... I believe it ne'er ends. The journey just goes on and on, thank the Goddess." Arista grinned and nodded to both her mother and Jera, quite grateful that she didn't get the raking she expected. She escorted the little king around the solarium, pointing out various plants as she made her way toward the door. She and Wallace would have made it too, if not interrupted by Skye's voice. "Oh... Ari love?" With her green eyes smiling, Arista turned. "Aye, Mama?" "Who taught you how to pick a lock, hmmmmm?" Skye hadn't forgotten a thing and the raking might not have been completely cancelled out. Jera bit her lip to hold back a snicker. Wallace tugged on Arista's thumb. "Come, come! I hae wish t' see the boughs of holly you spoke of!" His pull and voice were very insistent, so, while glowing with her guilty flush, Arista used Wallace as her excuse, beamed a smile at her mother, then hastily exited the workroom. Jera finally let her laughter go as the girl and the sprite made their escape. "She shall be at least part of the woman you are, milady... and then some." Now that her daughter was safely out of earshot, Skye grinned, "Saints preserve us, m'Lady Jera. I was at least fifteen before I learned to pick a lock!" "Aha, so THAT is the skill which comes from you?" She was still chuckling as they prepared to leave the workroom too. Opening the door so they might both pass through, Skye's cheeky grin corrected, "Oh nae, this one I'm blaming on Ian." END FOURTEEN © 2002 DP & SO along with all other participants ~ This and other stories may be found at Willow's End |