It’s Always A Twisty Path

From Lira:

“Cheer up, Lira; it might never happen.”

“Hey, Clive.” I was beginning to think it wouldn’t ever happen. A full week, and I had nothing. Well, nothing except a nightly scolding from Uggla at my campsite (miles away: the owl insisted) about how long I’d been gone and how he couldn’t cope and how there were dragons everywhere and hunting was hard. I’d even thrown a perfectly good chicken leg at him the night before. I don’t know how TAC does it.

Why was I at a dragon-centred Faire? It was all TAC’s fault. When Uggla and I were doing a last pass round the Fairelands, we started to hear rumours of something odd going on involving the black market dragon trade. Now, I told you I’ve had to eke out a living doing whatever comes my way, so when I ran into TAC (The Amazing Catwoman; no, I don’t know why she’s called that; no, I don’t want her to get me back to Awenia right now) in an Obsidian Sanctum alleyway, (let’s face it; that place was a little sketchy!), I was intrigued when she said she might have a job for me. She thought, she explained, there had been an egg heist, only the dragons were too closed-in as a community to talk about it. And then she said if I wanted to make some real money, I would have to head to the next big Faire on the horizon, Enchantment, where there was a draconic theme. She suspected the thieves would at least pass through there.

Uggla refused to accompany me, hence the nightly lectures at my campsite.

I went to lean on a stool at the meadhall’s oddly anachronistic bar. “Same thing I had last time, I guess,” I said.

“You sure you don’t want to try something else? I mean, granted, mead is my bread and butter, so to speak, but it’ll knock you on your arse.”

“Just a half pint, then.” Clive busied himself behind the bar while I tried to get comfortable, and failed—walking around the same Faire all day is just not interesting, unless it’s the big one we just came from. “What in the name of heaven is that?”

“Clive?” He turned around with my half pint of mead. “Do you get a lot of will-o-the-wisps in here?”

“Ach, nae; that’s just my late wife, Niamh. Hello, á stor. Stop scaring the visitors.”

“Not scared, just surprised,” I said. “You’d be surprised what we chimerical librarians get up to.”

“Now, don’t ye be bringing her in here as well, Niamh. You know the two of you do nothing but row and you’ll set fire to my hall again, and I’m not having that.”

I frowned. “What?”

“Look above your head, lass,” said Clive. “That’s Magda. My late mother-in-law. Follows the wife everywhere, and all they do is fight like witches at a baby broil.”

I couldn’t help it: I laughed. “I have never heard that one before. Is it a local saying, or did you pick it up from someone passing through? I am interested in its derivation.”

Clive gave me one of his patented blank stares: sometimes it’s as if he’s made of wood. “I have no earthly idea what any of that meant, but I got it from my mum and she from hers.” He shrugged. “And you knew what I meant, didn’t you?”

“I don’t hear anything. Are they talking or fighting right now?”

“It’s better you don’t,” Clive said. “Besides, now that she’s letting you see her, she’s decided you’re safe. That’s when you’re not safe, by the way.”

I chuckled. “It’s a little disconcerting, but I am beginning to feel less surprised.”

I finished my half pint of mead. “That was lovely as always. Now, before I go, I wonder if you’d be willing to offer me some confirmation on a rumour I’ve heard.”

Clive shooed the spectres out of the mead hall with a broom. “That depends on the rumour. Don’t mind me kicking them out: they gossip like fishwives and they’ll be back, no doubt.”

“I’ve heard,” I said, leaning in conspiratorially as I’ve some people do (I think it is a sign of confidence?), “something about dragon eggs.”

If it were possible for Clive’s face to go any more stone-like, this would have been the moment. He did not meet my gaze. He stared at the open front of the mead hall. “With that dragon mark on your back, lass, you’d come here asking a question like that?” Now he did meet my eye, and it was worse than when he didn’t, somehow. “Get out. I’ll inform the market stewards you’re no longer welcome here.”

I gaped. “It was just a question.”

“The wrong question,” he said. “Get out.”

And so I did.

The next day, I booked a flight back to the location TAC had given me, some kind of halfway house, she said.

“Why am I in a cage?”

“For the seventh time, Uggla. It’s the airline’s rule.”

“Phoenix isn’t in a cage. Baby dragon isn’t in a cage. They are more dangerous than I am.”

“I read the terms and conditions,” I said. I always read the terms and conditions. “Phoenixes and dragons are classed as sapients here (wherever here is), and owls, even talking ones, are only classed as semi-sapient.”

“That’s insulting.”

“Worse if you were a cat; they’re only classed as sentient,” I replied.

“Why did you change dress colours?”

“It’s the stupid cleaning glamour,” I said. “I forgot this one doesn’t like black, and then it was too late to do another one before I felt we should be here.”

We had a look around at the folk waiting in the departure lounge. It was an interesting mix.

“Why do you always have to be so early?” Uggla was really displeased. “Look at that uppity phoenix. I bet he thinks just because this is Phoenix Airlines he is special.”

“Inside voice, Uggla,” I said. The phoenix caught my eye and winked. “Besides, I think he’s the actual poster phoenix for Phoenix Airlines. Look how everyone is carefully not looking at him. He’s on all the posters.”

“Uppity,” Uggla said. “And too many fae folk in here. Faeries and a Satyr. They must all be coming home from Faire.”

I glanced around. “That was days ago. And besides, there’s at least one normal looking human here.”

Uggla growled. “She is reading. Suspicious.”

“You forget you live with a librarian,” I said.

“Suspicious,” he repeated.

“Maybe,” I said, “Maybe she is totally engrossed in her book and thinking all of us are manifestations of her reading. She’s entered into a magical world of faeries and satyrs and sci fi ladies with reflective armour and — you have to admit, those boots are epic.”

“Epic weird,” Uggla said.

About half an hour later, they called a flight that was not our flight, and everyone seemed to get on that one. So it was just us again.

“But we’re going home,” I said. “Aren’t you happy?”

“We don’t have a home.” His mood had not improved.

“Well, TAC wouldn’t send us anywhere bad,” I reasoned. “Though I hope she’ll still pay me for failing.”

“They kicked you out,” Uggla said. “You will end up paying.”

“How was I to know Cardboard Clive would be so suspicious when I asked a simple question?”

“You are not crafty.”

“I just asked a question. I waited ages first.”

“Artless.” He feigned sleep.

“Well, I’m happy to be going somewhere safe,” I muttered. “Our flight’s only two hours away.”

He fake-snored.

“Talk about artless,” I said. “You’re not fooling anybody, you know.”

More snoring.

“Fine.”

Notes & Credits:

Sponsored items are noted with a “*”

Dress: Exia, Abel* (At Enchantment’s Legends of Flight!)
Skin: Loa, Melys* (At Enchantment’s Legends of Flight!)
Earrings: Neon Sheep, Dragon Earrings* (At Enchantment’s Legends of Flight!)
Wings: {geek} Daemon Bento Wings* (At Enchantment’s Legends of Flight!)
Dragon Mark Tattoo: K9nnor, Mark of Draconis* (At Enchantment’s Legends of Flight!)
Eyes: Yoshi, Druk Eyes* (At Enchantment’s Legends of Flight!)
Uggla: Expertly portrayed by CKit Falconry‘s Magical Snowy Owl* (Get your own owl, and gear to match, at the CKit Falconry Main Store!)
Hair: No Match, No Doll
Glasses: Triggered, Lyra Glasses
Boots: Contraption, Loanne’s Boots
Lira is styled on a Legacy Classic body and a Lelutka EvoX Raven Mesh Head.

The Motley Crew in the Airport Lounge (clockwise from behind Lira):

Purple Wing Fairy with glowing Ball: Ithildin Telperion (mondi.beaumont), WorldBuilder Extraordinaire and half of the power duo Mondi&Gwen.
Nature Spirit on Packing Crate: Lauralja Fairelander. She’s wearing Bespoke’s Nature Spirit head, monster claws from Veechi, Fallen Gods’ druid halo, hair, and vines, a PFC loincloth, and the wings are Vaengi Wings, Dryad Fairy Wings
Crowned Lady with baby dragon and kitty: Sidhe Fairelander, the Bard of the Fairelands. She’s wearing the Nefekalum Eoghain Crown, and the companions are CKit Falconry’s Norwegian Forest Cat and SEMotion/Libellune’s Magic Dragon Companion.
Sci-Fi Lady in silver catsuit with killer boots: Madonna “Boots” Daehlie, Fantasy Faire’s Minister Of The Banhammer (not really! She will try to help you unless you are impossible to help!)
Satyr with Killer Guns: Forrest Fairelander. Forrest made the satyr legs and hooves, and you can find a lot of weird and wonderful things in his Shoppe of Odd & Curious Things. His Ram Horns are by Elicio Ember of Cerridwen’s Cauldron, the hair is Amicci’s Steve, the goatee is Pirate Goatee by Elbarbier Alpha, and the ears are from Tamiron Landar.
Phoenix: Zzri Avian, Fairelands Herald Of Yore and all around Best Birb, is wearing Bird-E-Mart’s Eagle Avatar and Static’s Rogue Scarf.
Token Normie With Books: Dreamer Pixelmaid, leader of the Bellisseria Citizens Brigade and Keeper of Arcane and Interesting knowledge and Stuff, is wearing Glam Affair’s Melina skin (the SeraPlus gift skin), Stealthic Monarch hair, Justice’s Pearl top, Riot Jeans, and Maisie Flats from Friday.