Chapter 246 Wings

"This is… interesting," said the queen finally.

Sarah gave out a laugh and zoomed into the air, fluttering her fairy wings and leaving behind a trail of dust.

"You better not waste that dust!" cried Merle, his eyes going wide as he scrambled with a jar that appeared out of nowhere. "Dad will have a fit if he finds out you didn't save any!"

"Dad has plenty, don't lie," sighed Donovan, turning towards the mushrooms with a shake of his head. "You just want it for yourself!"

"Of course, I want it," replied Merle, carefully scooping some of the dust into his jar. "This stuff is pure magic in solid form!"

"Why are you here again?" asked the queen, standing up straight and ignoring the kids around her as she looked over the elves Aella had brought.

"I was hoping you would be willing to allow the elves to tattoo you with a communication rune so you could contact me if there is ever an emergency," said Aella, standing up straight herself, and trying not to show the panic she was feeling at the three kids scattering like leaves.

"That seems… barbaric," frowned the queen. "Surely there is a better way for me to contact you, using magic, without the need to mark my skin?"

"If I put the mark on an item, there is no guarantee that you will have that item in an emergency," said Aella, trying to smile calmly. "You should have your skin with you, no matter what happens."

"Perhaps," agreed the queen, still looking unhappy.

"Look at this cute little creature! I think it's a poison barbed lizard pup!" cried Donovan, holding up a terrified-looking puppy-sized creature. It was covered in long barbs all along its spine and top of head, along with some that came out of the tops of its leg joints. The long tail was thick, like a lizard's, and it had a green scaled hide.

"Ah! Look at those giant green eyes!" cooed Sarah, flying over to see it.

"The yellow tips on those barbs are warnings," cautioned Merle, following Sarah to collect more of the dust.

The queen turned to see what they were looking at, and a larger version of the pup appeared behind the children, looking rather upset they were messing with its child.

"Um," began Aella, about to teleport over and rescue them, but the queen waved her hand and the mother became a fairy. It settled on the mushroom next to the kids, looking very surprised and confused.

"Don't let it sting you," said Sarah, her back to Aella, so Aella couldn't see what they were doing.

"I'm not stupid, I know!" complained Donovan.

"Any fool can know," said Merle, not really paying attention as he collected more dust off Sarah's wings. "The point is to understand."

"Merle, don't make me mad," growled Donovan.

"I will agree to this tattoo," said the queen, turning back to Aella, dragging her attention back from the kids to the matter at hand.

"Great," said Aella, turning towards the elves and nodding for them to continue.

"But only if I can keep the kids," said the queen with a small smile.

"Sorry, they're not up for negotiation," said Aella with a shake of her head.

"Then I'm afraid I can't accommodate you," said the queen dropping her smile.

"Why do you want the kids?" asked Aella, trying to think if she could get some chocolate from somewhere.

"They amuse me, and my magic doesn't work on them," said the queen.

"But you gave Sarah wings," said Aella confused.

"Giving a gift and actually changing one's form is totally different," said the queen.

"Wait, you were trying to change their form?" asked Aella in shock and horror.

"I meant to change them into fairies, not the mother of the cub they are playing with," sighed the queen, turning to look at the still confused fairy on the mushroom. Its wings didn't seem to work right, and it was trying to walk around on all four limbs.

"It's important you have a tattoo, since the podling gargoyles are growing up in your forest," said Aella, still trying to think of what to do about the kids.

"But I don't want a tattoo," said the queen.

"It is what it is," growled Aella. "You are not getting the kids, as they are the children of a god. The safety of those gargoyles is the future of the entire realm. You were chosen as their guardian, so you must have a way to contact me if something happens."

"You must be a fledgling goddess yourself if you were chosen to watch over a god's children," mused the queen. "To be able to contact a goddess may be worth the damage to my skin. Very well, I will agree."

Aella was torn between correcting her thoughts on Aella's divinity, and just letting it go for the sake of completing her task with the tattoos so she could get the kids and leave.

"Ew! It peed on me!" cried Donovan, as the elves quickly rushed to the queen to start on her tattoo.

"Just put it down and wash off," sighed Sarah. "I want to fly around some more before we have to go."

"I think I have enough dust!" cheered Merle, holding up his full jar of glimmering dust. It sparkled with a light of its own.

Donovan appeared, without the creature, shaking his head in disgust, but there was no sign of the cub's accident. Glancing over at the queen as she was getting her tattoo, he said, "Make sure you heal that immediately, or she will have a reaction to that dye."

"I intended to heal it," said Aella with a frown.

"No, you need to heal it as they work, because otherwise her skin will try and peel off," he said, moving over to a smaller mushroom and climbing up onto it to sit down.

"Oh!" cried Aella, moving over and healing the wound that had started to form as the elves worked.

The queen watched silently as Aella had to heal every couple of minutes, showing no signs of pain. Once they were done, Aella glanced around to see Merle chatting excitedly to Donovan about the things he could do with all of the dust he collected, but Sarah was nowhere to be found.

"Where's Sarah?" asked Aella.

"She's playing tag with some of the fairies," said Donovan, pointing over to where Sarah had last been seen.

"You won't find her," smiled the queen with a smug look. "If I can't have all three, I will be content to only have one of the children."

"You would risk upsetting her parents?" asked Aella incredulously, wondering with dread, what they would do to her for losing their daughter.

"I think you would have more to answer than I," replied the queen, turning to leave, disappearing into a shower of glittering dust.

With a growl, Aella, grabbed the elves and the two boys and teleported them to the elven forest, leaving them there while she returned floating above the mushroom forest. Closing her eyes, she felt the magic in the area. There was so much, she had a hard time shifting through it all.

"Can you feel her?" asked Precious, gazing down at the forest intently searching for the missing girl.

"No," said Aella softly. "There's too much magic to differentiate her from the rest. I think the wings are making it harder to sense her, like they are masking her from me."

"Well, we need to find her because her mother will never bring that beautiful cat of her's back, if we don't," growled Precious.

"Is that all you think about?" asked Aella in surprise.

"I think of her every couple of minutes," sighed Precious, settling back on his haunches for a moment, then shaking his head, started looking for Sarah again.

"There she is," said Aella, noticing a glimmer by one of the mushrooms.

Teleporting to the mushroom, she was met with a line of fairy ninjas glaring at her with green spikes, tipped in yellow.

"Those look familiar," said Precious. "I hope they didn't hurt the cub."

Aella knew that these ninjas were here to slow her down, but she wasn't the King of the Realm for nothing. Sending a blast of air at the fairies, they went flying backwards, rolling and trying to stop their tumbles, but the wind was too strong for their small bodies. The illusion they had formed over the mushroom, to hide Sarah, dissipated as they were all blown away.

"You found me!" grinned Sarah, as if she had been playing a game. "Is it your turn to hide and let me find you now?"

"No, we have to go," said Aella, knowing the queen wasn't far off. She could feel her magic approaching quickly.

Turning after grabbing Sarah, she saw the queen appear and flick her wrist, but Aella was already teleporting to the elven forest where the boys were waiting.

"Aella," said Elalar in surprise. "Since when do you have wings?"