The
Frustration of Being Good
An
Eighth Caustrian Tale
Part
1
Naomi hated the cold.
It was more than just a hatred of cold,
really, it was actually rather debilitating, more or less. Flying in the cold
to her was like eating rat dung. Surely, somewhere in her was the ability to do
it, but it was blocked mentally by the concept, thereby making it completely
implausible and definitely impossible.
Which explained why she groaned so
wryly upon testing the weather in her room.
She shivered a little as she rose from
her bunk-in-the-wall, then stood up, gently extending her wings in the nippy
air. Wasn't this place supposed to always
stay warm?, she thought irritably, stalking over to the door. She flung it
open and stormed out into the hall.
The crunch of new snow underneath her
bare feet was slowly agonizing.
A gasp was escaping her just as a
childish shriek of joyful warning echoed behind her. Naomi leapt out of the way
into her room, just as a red saucer bearing children zoomed merrily past. Naomi
fumed as Christine and her toddler brother Joshua skidded to a halt at the end
of the hall against Daina's door. Naomi looked down the other end of the hall
and was surprised to find a small snowy slope where Daina's file room had been.
"You nearly killed me!" snapped Naomi, her anger venting on Chris.
"Oh, yeah, right. Why didn't you
fly out of the way?" asked Chris, giggling as she and Joshua trudged up
the hall.
"I don't fly in cold
weather," retorted Naomi, prudently replacing the word "can't"
with "don't". "And what the hell are you doing?!" she added.
"Sledding," replied
Christine.
"S'eddin," echoed Joshua,
dancing around excitedly.
"I can see that, whiz,"
said Naomi ennouciating through her teeth. "Why are you sledding in
the hallway?"
"'Cause my room was too
small," shrugged Christine. Naomi rolled her eyes in exasperation as Chris
continued. "I dreamwove it and Puck made it real."
"I made it weal," agreed Joshua, tugging Naomi's nightshirt to get her
attention.
"You guys are gonna be in
hu-normous trouble when Dee gets back," said Naomi.
"No, I'm not; Puckle is,"
said Chris calmly.
"I made it weee-al," repeated Joshua.
"See? He did it. I was just
thinking about it," said Chris.
"Dee is gonna know it was your
fault and if she doesn't, I'm gonna tell her," said Naomi. She felt a
certain duty to Daina in this, seeing as how her presence in this temporary
haven was due to the fact that she had unconditionally agreed to keep an eye on
the kids while Daina was away. Besides, Naomi was pissed and needed something
to complain about.
"No, you're not beacuse then I'd have to tell her what really happened to her files on Jeffrey." Naomi pursed her
lips. The kid definitely had her there. How could she ever tell Dee that all
the information she had entered into Jeffrey's computer file to date had been
lost in one of Naomi's amateur hacker stunts?
"Gotahell, Chris," said
Naomi, grabbing the edge of the door and slamming it in Christine's smug face.
Outside, she could hear Puckle singing,
"Go-ta-hell, go-ta-hell,
go-ta-hell..."
Dammit,
dammit, dammit!, griped Naomi,
flashing into her dayclothes and throwing herself on her bed. She drew her
energy gun, then thought the better of it and drew her magic dagger sheath. In
the mood she was in, she didn't need to be fooling around with magically
controlled energy.
She place a hand near the sheath and a
dagger appeared, which she drew and flung, with deadly accuracy at the far
wall. It disappeared after impact and she reached for another, throwing it as
well. I'm sick of kids and I'm sick of
cold weather and I'm sick of this whole place and I'm sick as hell of being good!, she thought
viciously, flinging a dagger into the same spot on the far wall for each gripe.
She rapidly whipped three into the wall for her last one, each landing in the
hole its predecessor had made.
She had truly been nothing but good for
the past...well, it had obviously been too long, she decided, since she
couldn't remember. One didn't just get to keep the reputation of the toughest
renegade fairy in the land; it was a title that required upkeep every once in a
while or people began to doubt its validity. And one got sick of babysitting
brats and trying to have lasting relationships, anyway. After a while, it came
down to a basic need for adventure.
No, it was more than that, she thought.
I want to cause trouble, real trouble and
then sit back and watch it happen. Maybe hurt a few people along the way, just
for good measure.
I, she thought, her eyes squinting at the wall in
thought, want to be evil for a while.
It's been so long.
A grin spread across her face as she
remembered some of the fairly cruel stunts she had pulled before becoming
Christine's babysitter and that brought her back to reality. She couldn't just
up and be evil anymore; there would be hell to pay from people she grudgingly
cared about. This presented a definite dilemma. Who could she tell this to that
could help her choose?
She certainly couldn't talk to Daina or
Kathy, because Daina'd never be able to understand the concept of causing
trouble for fun (especially when she'd be the one who'd have to fix it) and
Kathy might understand, but for Daina's sake, wouldn't agree. Christine, Marcus
and any other kids were out of the question, Katherine wasn't a confidante and
Robin would take it all the wrong way and assume she'd already caused trouble.
Which
left only one person.