Friday, May 22, 2009

The Time We Made the Guard Sound the Alarm (well, one of the times)

What do you think of the fire fairy I added to the blog title? I think she's beautiful! She's very authentic, too. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find a picture that looks like an actual fire fairy? Some people have such ridiculous ideas about what we look like. There are just two things that aren't realistic about the sparktress: one: she looks perfectly calm, and yet her eyes are red(ish). Whoever made the sparktress obviously doesn't really know about us, although plenty lots of gorgeous sparktresses, but I also know lots of ordinary ones, and a couple of flat-out unattractice ones. Not all of us are stunningly pretty.

Overall, though, the sparktress is remarkably authentic.

Today was a very good day! Exciting, and free from serious punishments, which, considering what happened, is amazing.

We danced for the Fire Lord just after breakfast, and then Firefly told us that she had promised to visit elderly Mrs. Brightworthy today. Mrs. Brightworthy has no family to speak of except Star Dancer, who's too selfish to take an interest in visiting her grandmother, so we all thought it was nice of Firefly to go visit her. Flicker, always the charitable one, offered to go with her. Secretly, I think Flicker just didn't want to be around us if Firefly wasn't going to be there. Flicker gets on all of our nerves except Firefly's and Comet's. I'm a little ashamed to say that we do sometimes pick on her when Firefly isn't there to remind us to be nice. If you knew Flicker you'd know why I'm only a little ashamed. Flicker could make even a saint angry with her stupid little remarks and timid facial expressions. Just thinking about her makes my lip curl.

Anyway, with Firefly and Flicker gone, there was no one to hold the remaining four of us back from doing all kinds of mischeivous things. We tried spying on Coal for a while, but he kept catching us so that wasn't any fun. He did give us an idea of what to do, though.

"Would you all just leave me alone?" he said the third time he caught us. "Why don't you go pester the Library guard? He's new."

I know you're probably wondering why the Fire Lord would have a library guarded. The Royal Library is off limits to all but the most trusted Palace slaves. All the records and military tactics and battle secrets are in there. Basically anything important and/or secret that can be written down.

We four kachinas decided to go annoy the library guard. Usually an up-tight sparker named Pyros guards the library, but when we got to the library wing of the Palace, we saw that Coal had been right. A new guard was there. Judging by the fierce way he clutched the hammer used to sound the alarm gong, he wasn't just new to guarding the library, he was new to being a guard at all. I looked at Flare. There was a mischeivous gleam in her blue eyes. I knew mine were equally blue and equally mischeivous. Newbies are always fun to tease.

"Hello!" I said as we rounded the corner and faced the sparker. He looked even younger than Coal. I'd say he was barely sixteen. He looked at us suspiciously.

"Hello," he answered. "Wh-who are you?" My mouth fell open in shock. So did the others'.

"You don't even know who we are?" Flare asked incredulously. "You must have just come to the Palace. Did you?" The sparker frowned.

"I don't know if I should be giving out that information," he said stiffly. I rolled my eyes. He was obviously very new and very up-tight.

"We're just kachinas, not an invading army," I said. I grinned. "Nothing scary about us." I eyed the gong hammer in his hand. "Can I hold that?" The sparker glared at me.

"I think you had better leave," he said. "The four of you seem like trouble."

"Trouble?" Flare's eyes were wide with false innocence. "Us?"

"We're just curious," Sparkle piped up. She reached slowly for the gong hammer. "Can I touch it?"

"No!" the sparker jerked the hammer out of her reach, holding it above his head. He scowled. "Leave!"

"I understand how he feels," I said suddenly, looking sternly at the sparktresses. "He has it very hard here! We shouldn't be pestering him. He's so busy, can't you tell?" I turned to him with a reverent expression. "How do you do it? Standing here all day just holding that gong, always faithful. It must take real courage to stand your ground even when you're dying to run and find something better to do. We simply must respect your talent for standing so still all day long." The sparker's eyes narrowed in irritation.

"Really. All of you had better beat it out of here or I'll sound the alarm," he threatened.

"Oh, that would be a good idea," Flare said sarcastically.

"Yes," I seconded, equally dryly. "I'm sure Flame would be thrilled to discover you sounded the alarm because a bunch of kachinas were pestering you." The sparker looked away from us.

"Fine," he snapped. "Stay. Just keep quiet." We laughed at that. Keep quiet? What fun is that?

"Hmm, alright," Flare agreed. "If we can have a look in the Library." The sparker genuinely laughed.

"Right. I'll let you right in to the highly forbidden Library. After all, that's what I'm here for: to greet people at the door." His sarcasm was almost as good as ours. Almost. "LEAVE ME ALONE."

"Not till you hand over the gong hammer, you up-tight newbie!" exclaimed Sparkle, diving for the hammer. With a startled cry, the sparker stepped backwards and tripped over his own feet. We all laughed. Not meanly exactly, but it was funny to see him on the floor blinking the way he was.

"Oopsy," Sparkle taunted, enjoying her own moment in the spotlight. "Took a little tumble, did we?" The sparker's eyes flashed immediately to red, skipping any form of purple as they passed through blue.

He slammed the hammer against the alarm gong.

We kachinas gave a unanimous cry of alarm ourselves. I looked crossly at the sparker.

"Now look what you've done," I scolded. "You've gone and called all the standby guards! We'll all be in trouble, now!"

"What's going on?" came a voice. It was Flame, chief guard. He rounded the corner and saw us all. "What the devil is going on here?" He looked at the guard sparker, who was still on the floor. "Explain yourself! Why did you sound the alarm?"

Just then about a dozen other standby guards ran up, all asking the same thing.

"I..." The newbie had nothing to say. He had gone suddenly very pale as Flame glowered at him. "I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking."

"You'll be thinking you wish you'd never been given this job if I decide to tell the Fire Lord!" Flame threatened darkly. "Don't you know alarms are taken very seriously in the Palace of Furier?"

"Yes!" the sparker cried, scrambling to his feet. "I'm sorry! I just--" Flame turned on us.

"And you," He glared at us with disgust, as usual. "Why are you here?"

"We were bored," I retorted with all the boldness I could muster in the face of Flame. "We decided to come and taunt the new guard. We didn't think he would overreact so much!" Flame blinked as he suddenly got it. He turned to the guard sparker.

"You...you called for assistance because the kachinas were pestering you??" The sparker blushed.

"Well, I didn't really think about it--I mean, I wasn't thinking--I can't imagine why I--they were--I--yes."

Flame's eyes were blue with spiteful laughter. "You are pathetic," he said with the kind of distain only Flame can master. I suddenly felt sorry for the guard sparker. When Flame looks and talks to you like that, all you want to do is find a hole and crawl into it.

"Well, it was sort of our fault, too..." My voice trailed off as Flame turned his contemptuous gaze on me.

I hate that sparker.

Anyway, to make this looooooong story shorter, Flame didn't tell the Fire Lord on any of us, he just made us swear to bring him a gift along with one for the Fire Lord at the ceremony tomorrow. I plan to give him a large basket fill with poisoned fruit.

Just kidding.

So, that was the excitement for today.

2 comments:

  1. Hi! Thanks for the comment on my blog.
    Your entries are incredibly creative and fun! What a great world you have here. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. You're welcome.

    Thank you! I don't know how great it is, though.

    ReplyDelete