The Sprite
Part 9
"So
that's all of 'em, she smirked, looking back up at
him. "Shame you're not as impressive as you seem
to think you are." The look on his face was a bit different, distracted, even. She followed his eyes to her own behind and hopped
around to face it away from him rather self consciously. He gave a slight leer,
then shrugged, stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked away.
"See,
you told me you knew where ALL of them were," he not even looking back at
her. "You're wasting my time." She rolled her eyes. This was exactly
what she'd expected. Humans HATED to be wrong and always thought they knew
everything. She buzzed past him, only to keep pace at eye level just ahead of him.
"Whatever,"
she replied, fluttering backwards as he strode along. "You just can't
admit that I found them all."
"Yeah,
quite honestly, I have nothing better to do with my time than convince figments
of my imagination that they're wrong," he replied. He stopped walking as
she stared at him. What the hell was he talking about?
"Figment
of your imagination?" she echoed. "You're not even going to
try to pretend I don't exist!"
"What?"
he shrugged. "You didn't KNOW I imagined you? Think about it. The only
reason you know all this is because I know all this. You're like my tiny
alter ego or something."
"WHAT?!?"
she shrieked. Him denying her knowledge was one thing,
but to compound it by denying her existence was entirely different. "How
stupid are you? You KNOW you didn't just dream me up…why the hell would
I be TALKING to you if you did?"
"I
dunno. Maybe I always wanted sprites to talk. Or
maybe since I'm imagining you up, you talk because I talk. Who knows. Either way, you're not real." He stepped around
her, tweaking her butt as he went by her hovering form. "You are CUTE,
though."
She
screeched angrily. "Oh, yeah?" she shouted, gearing up to throw her
worst magic at him. "Imagine THIS!"
Things
happened so quickly that she knew almost immediately that she'd been set up.
The
moment the magic left her fingertips, he spun around and pulled his hands out
of his pocket. A large piece of quartz was in one hand and it seemed to draw
her magic toward it, causing her to follow. A moment of pure disorientation
followed and before she could even yell out, she was peering up at
"Well,
I promised I'd show you my newest trap and here it is," he chuckled, his
voice a giant watery echo. "So, whadaya think?
You know enough about gem traps to get out of this one?"
She
was too disgusted to be angry right now. Glaring up at him, she reached for her
own gem, the one that she always used to help her out of gem traps. She pulled
it from her side pocket and waited for it to glow brightly and let her out.
Strangely enough, the gem only gave the faintest glow, as if its magic were
weak. What the hell?, she thought. I haven't
used this thing at all for like… Inwardly, she groaned. She had used it,
not two days ago on another gem that belong to the smug face she was staring up
at. It would take a full week for this gem to recycle itself, which meant…
"Outta tricks already? What a shame!" came the giant
chuckle. "I expected a lot more action from you."
She
folded her arms with a heavy sigh and waited. A lot of times, this threw humans
off more than anything else. They knew sprites normally went crazy in tight
spots, so seeing them this calm made them think you had some secret weapon.
She
waited, rolled her eyes and finally said, "Okay, let me out."
He
apparently couldn't hear her, although he could tell she was talking.
"What's that? You want to come back to camp with me and beg me to let you
out? Well, okay, then! See ya!" She saw his
fingers wrap around the outside of the crystal and felt it being lowered. When
his hand moved, she could only see darkness and vague shadows of things, like a
knife, a few coins…
Oh,
no, she groaned. I'm in his pocket!
As
if he could hear her, he laughed again. "You'll be safe in there for now.
We'll be back to my camp soon!"
The
one thing Neena knew all too well was how much sprites hate enclosed spaces. It
was all she could do right now to maintain her self control at this point, but
she'd done this enough to be less apt to fly off the handle like the average
magic being would have. She just needed to THINK…
Alright,
she thought to herself, searching around with her hands for a seam or ay
way of slipping through the crystal. Don't panic. He's got to know a way to
get me out of here without damaging the stone's spell holding capability,
otherwise, this would be a waste of his time, she thought. All I gotta do is be patient…
She
tried. Very hard.
Okay,
panic…!
She
whipped out her dagger, placed the tip against a panel of the quartz, then
pulled her gem back out again, desperately whacking it against the handle like
a hammer. The only way to get out now was to damage the crystal and hope she
wasn't killed in the magic backlash…
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