Melanie was already getting up from her beanbag chair when her dad shouted from upstairs, "Mel! Someone at the door for you!"
Her wolf ears and tail vanished as she dashed for the stairs, shouting back "I'm coming!"
"What do we think?" Marissa asked as glanced around at the rest of us. "Dinner, or Nina?"
Me and Kaylee spent the afternoon hanging out with the werewolf and her girlfriend, mostly playing video games and talking. Marissa wouldn't elaborate on the situation at Monora Forest though, she wanted to wait till everyone was present before she did her briefing thing.
Brooke and Paige finally arrived about forty-five minutes earlier and the six of us decided to order dinner, but the young blonde witch still wouldn't talk about the fae situation. She insisted on waiting till Nina was here too, which made me happy and made my girlfriend a bit grumpy. Kaylee still wasn't ready to accept the small demon was part of our club, but I tried not to let that bother me.
"It's probably Nina," I finally responded to Marissa's question. "She texted a few minutes ago that she was on her way. She said my mom was going to drop her off."
Paige asked, "How? I didn't think she had a phone?"
I shrugged, "She got one a few days ago. She never needed one before because she didn't have anyone to text or talk to. Now she's got friends, and my folks kind of adopted her so she has family. So she got a phone."
"What do you mean your moms 'kind of adopted' her?" Kaylee demanded. "Or are you just saying that because your parents are letting her stay with you while she tries to help fix everything she did to you?"
Before I had a chance to elaborate on my little sister's status, the question of dinner or Nina was answered when the small demon came down the stairs carrying a pizza box with a stack of napkins and paper plates on top of it. And Melanie was right behind her, with the other two pizza boxes in her arms.
"Dinner's here!" the wolfgirl announced as her ears and tail re-appeared. "Nina's here too, but please don't eat her. She's a friend."
That made the shy demon blush, but she also grinned and mumbled "Yeah, please don't eat me."
The pizzas were set out on the coffee table, along with the napkins and plates. With three large pizzas there was lots to eat, and we had some good selections too. There was a meat lovers, a vegetarian, and a basic pepperoni to choose from. And we still had lots of drinks in the cooler, so we were all set for our surprise club meeting.
Everyone helped themselves then as we all got comfy and started enjoying our food I grinned and suggested, "We should do this for every club meeting. Maybe not always pizza, but like last month we got ice cream? Instead of meeting in a classroom at school we should have our meetings somewhere nice and fun, and we can get dinner or something to eat while we do the club stuff."
"That's not a bad idea," Marissa responded with a smile. "New club new rules, right?"
"We'll see. I'll think about it anyways," Paige said, which made me happy. Like our new club leader was at least considering the idea, instead of shooting it down immediately.
After munching on a bite of pizza Brooke asked, "So we're all here Marissa, how about you start filling us in on what else is happening at Monora Forest?"
"Fairies!" the younger blonde announced with a grin. "I'm not just talking about floating lights this time either, but an actual eye-witness account of fairies!"
Kaylee asked, "Who saw them? Where? And did the fae do anything threatening?"
Marissa had a bite of her pizza then got more serious as she explained, "It was an older couple who live in one of those houses east of the forest? One of the ones who'd previously reported seeing the strange lights. They went out after dinner to walk their dog two days ago, along the trail that goes through that low ground between the houses and the woods."
She paused for a gulp of soda before continuing, "They encountered three fairies playing with or chasing a fox. At first they thought the fox was chasing butterflies, apparently the fairies' wings are similar to monarch butterflies, except different colours. One was orange, another yellow, and the third was green. Anyways, they said their dog started barking and the fox ran off, and that annoyed the fairies. So they took the couple's dog."
Nina looked and sounded upset as she asked, "They kidnapped their dog? Did the people get it back? Is it ok?"
The young witch grimaced, "According to what the couple posted on their social media, the fairies just made the dog vanish. It was on a leash, and one moment it was there barking and straining at the leash, the next moment it was gone and there was just an empty collar at the end of the leash."
"Ok that definitely sounds dangerous," Brooke stated with a frown. "If they can do that to a dog they can do it to a human."
My little sister asked in a worried tone, "But what did they do with the dog? They couldn't send it to their realm since the portal's closed."
The older blonde grimaced slightly, like she was reluctant to answer the small demon's question. Probably because the answer wasn't a nice one.
Which wasn't something my girlfriend worried about apparently, she replied "It's hard to say what they might have done to the dog, but there's some fae tricks that come up in the stories and myths. The one I'm thinking fits this 'sudden disappearance' description is they've teleported it someplace else. Could be the other side of the forest or the other side of town, but it could also be the opposite end of the country or the other side of the world. Usually it's somewhere completely random, just to make it especially hard for the victim to find their way home."
"The poor dog," Nina pouted. "Lost and alone, separated from its family..."
I gave her a side-hug then asked the others, "So from the sound of it we have some potentially dangerous fairies lurking around the forest. They used magic on a dog this time but next time it could be a person. What do we do? It's our fault the portal's closed, so this is our responsibility right?"
Paige looked thoughtful as she chewed on a mouthful of pizza, then after washing it down with a sip of cola she asked Kaylee "You seem to know the most about fae, can we reason with them? If we can find them, can we talk to them and try to convince them to move on? And return the dog if they've still got it?"
My girlfriend slowly shook her head, "I'm not sure they'll listen to reason. They're known as pranksters or tricksters, they love causing mayhem. Plus there's a good chance they won't be happy to see us, since we're the ones who cut them off from their home."
"I still think we should try and talk to them," I told the others. "Like we can't just get rid of them, right? Maybe all they want is to go home."
Brooke looked to my little sister and asked, "Nina you're the most powerful person here, you teleported the six of us halfway around the world back in June. Can you send fae back to their realm without using a portal?"
The small demon had a mouthful of her pizza so it took a few moments before she could swallow then reply. Then she had a gulp of juice and answered, "No I can't. Sorry Brooke."
"Why not?" Kaylee asked. "I thought your kind were supposed to be strong."
Nina shrugged, "Other non-human supernatural creatures are able to travel between their own realms and Earth, but demons don't have another realm. I know some people think we come from hell but we don't. I don't even know if there is such a place. We come from Earth and we're stuck here, it's our home."
"Fae can exist in their otherworld and here," she elaborated. "Gods and angels can exist in the heavens and here, and humans can travel between all the realms? But demons can't go anywhere, we're bound too tightly to this world. And my magic is bound to this realm too, so I can't open portals or send people to other worlds."
Melanie looked at me and asked, "Maybe your moms can help then? They're pretty strong too, right? Maybe they can get these fairies back where they belong."
"I can ask," I replied. "I'll try and talk to mum about it, and let you all know what she says."
Everyone was quiet for a bit after that, just munching on pizza or sipping drinks. There were a few thoughtful looks though, I figured they were thinking about how we were going to deal with these fairies. Especially if my folks weren't able to help, or if they didn't want to get involved.
Kaylee eventually broke the silence with a sigh, "If Miss Hawthorne were here we'd just hand it over to her. She'd tell the council and someone would go deal with the problem."
"Or that's what she'd tell us would happen," I responded in a sceptical tone. "Who knows what she'd really do."
Brooke gave both me and my girlfriend a funny look, then pointed out "It doesn't really matter what she'd do anymore. She's gone, we're on our own, so let's focus on what we can do with the resources we have here."
"Right," Paige agreed. "So Cass, if you could check with your moms and see if they know any way to get fairies back to their own world that would be great. Or if they'd be willing to help that'd be even better."
She added, "And Kaylee, I'd appreciate if you could do some research to find out if there's anything we can do ourselves in case Cass's moms aren't able to help."
My girlfriend didn't sound too positive as she responded, "I'll see what I can find, but I'm not that optimistic. Like I said last month, there's almost too much information out there? So it's tough figuring out what's real and what's completely made-up."
"I'll help," Marissa volunteered. "I'll see what I can find too. There might be something like a banishing ritual or spell or whatever that we could use?"
Melanie nodded, "Good point. They're not originally from here right? So there must be a way to force them back home."
Our new leader smiled, "Sounds good. Thanks Cass, Kaylee, Marissa."
"Hey Marissa, how'd those magic mushrooms work out for you?" Brooke asked the young blonde. "Did you actually eat any of them?"
She grinned, "Not yet. I'm ninety-nine percent positive they're edible though, so I've kept them."
"How?" Kaylee asked. "Fresh mushrooms don't last that long. It's been over a week, if you just stuck them in the fridge they'll be starting to turn into mush by now."
Marissa sounded a little smug as she replied, "People have been preserving food for thousands of years Kaylee, it's not rocket science. I put about a third of them in a food dehydrator to dry them out, another third I pickled, and the rest I blanched then froze."
"And yes," she added before my girlfriend could respond, "I looked all three methods up online first to make sure I was doing it right."
Our former leader had a different concern on her mind as she asked, "What if your parents find these things in the house and eat them? Even if they're edible you still don't know if the magic on them is safe."
"I put labels on everything so they'd know not to eat them," Marissa replied with a shrug. "Do not eat, science experiment, potentially poisonous."
No-one else had any comments about that. After a minute or so of silence Paige asked, "So considering we're calling this a club meeting, does anyone else have any club business?"
Kaylee nodded, "I do. I'm wondering if Ninaya has anything to report, about fixing Cass's condition? She and one of Cass's moms were consulting with a fae down in the city today, I'd like to know if they've made any more progress."
Everyone looked at my little sister, while she blushed slightly and seemed suddenly awkward or uneasy.
"Cass's mom asked me not to say anything about that yet," she replied quietly.
My girlfriend frowned, "Why not? It's not bad news is it?"
"If she's not supposed to talk about it then she's not going to talk about it," I pointed out. "So no point trying to squeeze anything else out of her."
Then to distract the conversation away from the small demon I added, "Anyways after what happened earlier today my parents are probably freaking out a little? So whatever plans they're working on, they'll probably put them on hold. Or speed them up maybe?"
Marissa frowned, "Why, what happened today?"
"An angel friend dropped by to visit my mum and zapped me with her magic," I replied in a calm casual tone.
Then while everyone stared at me with a surprised worried look I explained, "Just before she magicked her way into the house she did something to check who was home, and I felt her magic hit me. It was pretty weak though so it didn't hurt me, but when mum found out she was pretty upset. Apparently this friend was supposed to know our house is a no-magic zone."
Everyone seemed to respond at once at that point, about half of them were worried and wanted more assurances I was fine, the other half were glad I was ok and wanted to know more about the angel and why she was visiting mum.
I told them basically the same thing I told Kaylee earlier, that I didn't know who the angel was or what goddess she served. And I assured them all that I was fine, getting hit with the magic didn't hurt me.
"It was like before," I added. "The chill down my spine and stuff? No pain, no burning. Just that little tingle from absorbing a bit of magic."
Melanie sighed, "I'm glad you're ok Cass. Sounds like a close call though, and I bet your folks are going to be in even more of a hurry to fix things for you."
I shrugged, "Maybe? As long as being in a hurry doesn't lead to mistakes I guess."
"You seem pretty calm about the whole thing," Marissa pointed out.
Kaylee agreed, "Too calm. Cass you could have died today! Why aren't you more upset about this?"
"Nothing I can do about it either way," I replied with another shrug. "So there's no sense panicking or worrying about it."
That sparked another little discussion but I mostly stayed out of it. It felt weird having my friends sort of debating whether I should be upset or anxious about stuff, but I really didn't want to be involved in that conversation.
Nina stayed out of it as well, she just looked quietly worried for me.
Finally Paige spoke up and got the others to drop the topic since it wasn't really helping anyone. Then she changed the subject back to the fairy stuff, "So Kaylee and Marissa, you two are doing research. I'll help with that as well again. And Cass, you're going to talk to your moms. We'll try and figure out if we can banish these Fairies or send them home somehow."
She added, "We'll keep in touch on the group chat, but if nothing else comes up then we'll plan to meet up for our next regular club meeting. One week from today, on Friday the twentieth."
"Where are we meeting?" Melanie asked. "And what time Friday?"
Paige shook her head, "I'm not sure yet? I'll post it on the chat, or if anyone has any suggestions let me know."
Nobody had any suggestions right away, so that was it for the club stuff for now. Which meant we could all focus on the rest of the pizza, followed by another video game tournament.
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Melanie was already getting up from her beanbag chair when her dad shouted from upstairs, "Mel! Someone at the door for you!"
Her wolf ears and tail vanished as she dashed for the stairs, shouting back "I'm coming!"
"What do we think?" Marissa asked as glanced around at the rest of us. "Dinner, or Nina?"
Me and Kaylee spent the afternoon hanging out with the werewolf and her girlfriend, mostly playing video games and talking. Marissa wouldn't elaborate on the situation at Monora Forest though, she wanted to wait till everyone was present before she did her briefing thing.
Brooke and Paige finally arrived about forty-five minutes earlier and the six of us decided to order dinner, but the young blonde witch still wouldn't talk about the fae situation. She insisted on waiting till Nina was here too, which made me happy and made my girlfriend a bit grumpy. Kaylee still wasn't ready to accept the small demon was part of our club, but I tried not to let that bother me.
"It's probably Nina," I finally responded to Marissa's question. "She texted a few minutes ago that she was on her way. She said my mom was going to drop her off."
Paige asked, "How? I didn't think she had a phone?"
I shrugged, "She got one a few days ago. She never needed one before because she didn't have anyone to text or talk to. Now she's got friends, and my folks kind of adopted her so she has family. So she got a phone."
"What do you mean your moms 'kind of adopted' her?" Kaylee demanded. "Or are you just saying that because your parents are letting her stay with you while she tries to help fix everything she did to you?"
Before I had a chance to elaborate on my little sister's status, the question of dinner or Nina was answered when the small demon came down the stairs carrying a pizza box with a stack of napkins and paper plates on top of it. And Melanie was right behind her, with the other two pizza boxes in her arms.
"Dinner's here!" the wolfgirl announced as her ears and tail re-appeared. "Nina's here too, but please don't eat her. She's a friend."
That made the shy demon blush, but she also grinned and mumbled "Yeah, please don't eat me."
The pizzas were set out on the coffee table, along with the napkins and plates. With three large pizzas there was lots to eat, and we had some good selections too. There was a meat lovers, a vegetarian, and a basic pepperoni to choose from. And we still had lots of drinks in the cooler, so we were all set for our surprise club meeting.
Everyone helped themselves then as we all got comfy and started enjoying our food I grinned and suggested, "We should do this for every club meeting. Maybe not always pizza, but like last month we got ice cream? Instead of meeting in a classroom at school we should have our meetings somewhere nice and fun, and we can get dinner or something to eat while we do the club stuff."
"That's not a bad idea," Marissa responded with a smile. "New club new rules, right?"
"We'll see. I'll think about it anyways," Paige said, which made me happy. Like our new club leader was at least considering the idea, instead of shooting it down immediately.
After munching on a bite of pizza Brooke asked, "So we're all here Marissa, how about you start filling us in on what else is happening at Monora Forest?"
"Fairies!" the younger blonde announced with a grin. "I'm not just talking about floating lights this time either, but an actual eye-witness account of fairies!"
Kaylee asked, "Who saw them? Where? And did the fae do anything threatening?"
Marissa had a bite of her pizza then got more serious as she explained, "It was an older couple who live in one of those houses east of the forest? One of the ones who'd previously reported seeing the strange lights. They went out after dinner to walk their dog two days ago, along the trail that goes through that low ground between the houses and the woods."
She paused for a gulp of soda before continuing, "They encountered three fairies playing with or chasing a fox. At first they thought the fox was chasing butterflies, apparently the fairies' wings are similar to monarch butterflies, except different colours. One was orange, another yellow, and the third was green. Anyways, they said their dog started barking and the fox ran off, and that annoyed the fairies. So they took the couple's dog."
Nina looked and sounded upset as she asked, "They kidnapped their dog? Did the people get it back? Is it ok?"
The young witch grimaced, "According to what the couple posted on their social media, the fairies just made the dog vanish. It was on a leash, and one moment it was there barking and straining at the leash, the next moment it was gone and there was just an empty collar at the end of the leash."
"Ok that definitely sounds dangerous," Brooke stated with a frown. "If they can do that to a dog they can do it to a human."
My little sister asked in a worried tone, "But what did they do with the dog? They couldn't send it to their realm since the portal's closed."
The older blonde grimaced slightly, like she was reluctant to answer the small demon's question. Probably because the answer wasn't a nice one.
Which wasn't something my girlfriend worried about apparently, she replied "It's hard to say what they might have done to the dog, but there's some fae tricks that come up in the stories and myths. The one I'm thinking fits this 'sudden disappearance' description is they've teleported it someplace else. Could be the other side of the forest or the other side of town, but it could also be the opposite end of the country or the other side of the world. Usually it's somewhere completely random, just to make it especially hard for the victim to find their way home."
"The poor dog," Nina pouted. "Lost and alone, separated from its family..."
I gave her a side-hug then asked the others, "So from the sound of it we have some potentially dangerous fairies lurking around the forest. They used magic on a dog this time but next time it could be a person. What do we do? It's our fault the portal's closed, so this is our responsibility right?"
Paige looked thoughtful as she chewed on a mouthful of pizza, then after washing it down with a sip of cola she asked Kaylee "You seem to know the most about fae, can we reason with them? If we can find them, can we talk to them and try to convince them to move on? And return the dog if they've still got it?"
My girlfriend slowly shook her head, "I'm not sure they'll listen to reason. They're known as pranksters or tricksters, they love causing mayhem. Plus there's a good chance they won't be happy to see us, since we're the ones who cut them off from their home."
"I still think we should try and talk to them," I told the others. "Like we can't just get rid of them, right? Maybe all they want is to go home."
Brooke looked to my little sister and asked, "Nina you're the most powerful person here, you teleported the six of us halfway around the world back in June. Can you send fae back to their realm without using a portal?"
The small demon had a mouthful of her pizza so it took a few moments before she could swallow then reply. Then she had a gulp of juice and answered, "No I can't. Sorry Brooke."
"Why not?" Kaylee asked. "I thought your kind were supposed to be strong."
Nina shrugged, "Other non-human supernatural creatures are able to travel between their own realms and Earth, but demons don't have another realm. I know some people think we come from hell but we don't. I don't even know if there is such a place. We come from Earth and we're stuck here, it's our home."
"Fae can exist in their otherworld and here," she elaborated. "Gods and angels can exist in the heavens and here, and humans can travel between all the realms? But demons can't go anywhere, we're bound too tightly to this world. And my magic is bound to this realm too, so I can't open portals or send people to other worlds."
Melanie looked at me and asked, "Maybe your moms can help then? They're pretty strong too, right? Maybe they can get these fairies back where they belong."
"I can ask," I replied. "I'll try and talk to mum about it, and let you all know what she says."
Everyone was quiet for a bit after that, just munching on pizza or sipping drinks. There were a few thoughtful looks though, I figured they were thinking about how we were going to deal with these fairies. Especially if my folks weren't able to help, or if they didn't want to get involved.
Kaylee eventually broke the silence with a sigh, "If Miss Hawthorne were here we'd just hand it over to her. She'd tell the council and someone would go deal with the problem."
"Or that's what she'd tell us would happen," I responded in a sceptical tone. "Who knows what she'd really do."
Brooke gave both me and my girlfriend a funny look, then pointed out "It doesn't really matter what she'd do anymore. She's gone, we're on our own, so let's focus on what we can do with the resources we have here."
"Right," Paige agreed. "So Cass, if you could check with your moms and see if they know any way to get fairies back to their own world that would be great. Or if they'd be willing to help that'd be even better."
She added, "And Kaylee, I'd appreciate if you could do some research to find out if there's anything we can do ourselves in case Cass's moms aren't able to help."
My girlfriend didn't sound too positive as she responded, "I'll see what I can find, but I'm not that optimistic. Like I said last month, there's almost too much information out there? So it's tough figuring out what's real and what's completely made-up."
"I'll help," Marissa volunteered. "I'll see what I can find too. There might be something like a banishing ritual or spell or whatever that we could use?"
Melanie nodded, "Good point. They're not originally from here right? So there must be a way to force them back home."
Our new leader smiled, "Sounds good. Thanks Cass, Kaylee, Marissa."
"Hey Marissa, how'd those magic mushrooms work out for you?" Brooke asked the young blonde. "Did you actually eat any of them?"
She grinned, "Not yet. I'm ninety-nine percent positive they're edible though, so I've kept them."
"How?" Kaylee asked. "Fresh mushrooms don't last that long. It's been over a week, if you just stuck them in the fridge they'll be starting to turn into mush by now."
Marissa sounded a little smug as she replied, "People have been preserving food for thousands of years Kaylee, it's not rocket science. I put about a third of them in a food dehydrator to dry them out, another third I pickled, and the rest I blanched then froze."
"And yes," she added before my girlfriend could respond, "I looked all three methods up online first to make sure I was doing it right."
Our former leader had a different concern on her mind as she asked, "What if your parents find these things in the house and eat them? Even if they're edible you still don't know if the magic on them is safe."
"I put labels on everything so they'd know not to eat them," Marissa replied with a shrug. "Do not eat, science experiment, potentially poisonous."
No-one else had any comments about that. After a minute or so of silence Paige asked, "So considering we're calling this a club meeting, does anyone else have any club business?"
Kaylee nodded, "I do. I'm wondering if Ninaya has anything to report, about fixing Cass's condition? She and one of Cass's moms were consulting with a fae down in the city today, I'd like to know if they've made any more progress."
Everyone looked at my little sister, while she blushed slightly and seemed suddenly awkward or uneasy.
"Cass's mom asked me not to say anything about that yet," she replied quietly.
My girlfriend frowned, "Why not? It's not bad news is it?"
"If she's not supposed to talk about it then she's not going to talk about it," I pointed out. "So no point trying to squeeze anything else out of her."
Then to distract the conversation away from the small demon I added, "Anyways after what happened earlier today my parents are probably freaking out a little? So whatever plans they're working on, they'll probably put them on hold. Or speed them up maybe?"
Marissa frowned, "Why, what happened today?"
"An angel friend dropped by to visit my mum and zapped me with her magic," I replied in a calm casual tone.
Then while everyone stared at me with a surprised worried look I explained, "Just before she magicked her way into the house she did something to check who was home, and I felt her magic hit me. It was pretty weak though so it didn't hurt me, but when mum found out she was pretty upset. Apparently this friend was supposed to know our house is a no-magic zone."
Everyone seemed to respond at once at that point, about half of them were worried and wanted more assurances I was fine, the other half were glad I was ok and wanted to know more about the angel and why she was visiting mum.
I told them basically the same thing I told Kaylee earlier, that I didn't know who the angel was or what goddess she served. And I assured them all that I was fine, getting hit with the magic didn't hurt me.
"It was like before," I added. "The chill down my spine and stuff? No pain, no burning. Just that little tingle from absorbing a bit of magic."
Melanie sighed, "I'm glad you're ok Cass. Sounds like a close call though, and I bet your folks are going to be in even more of a hurry to fix things for you."
I shrugged, "Maybe? As long as being in a hurry doesn't lead to mistakes I guess."
"You seem pretty calm about the whole thing," Marissa pointed out.
Kaylee agreed, "Too calm. Cass you could have died today! Why aren't you more upset about this?"
"Nothing I can do about it either way," I replied with another shrug. "So there's no sense panicking or worrying about it."
That sparked another little discussion but I mostly stayed out of it. It felt weird having my friends sort of debating whether I should be upset or anxious about stuff, but I really didn't want to be involved in that conversation.
Nina stayed out of it as well, she just looked quietly worried for me.
Finally Paige spoke up and got the others to drop the topic since it wasn't really helping anyone. Then she changed the subject back to the fairy stuff, "So Kaylee and Marissa, you two are doing research. I'll help with that as well again. And Cass, you're going to talk to your moms. We'll try and figure out if we can banish these Fairies or send them home somehow."
She added, "We'll keep in touch on the group chat, but if nothing else comes up then we'll plan to meet up for our next regular club meeting. One week from today, on Friday the twentieth."
"Where are we meeting?" Melanie asked. "And what time Friday?"
Paige shook her head, "I'm not sure yet? I'll post it on the chat, or if anyone has any suggestions let me know."
Nobody had any suggestions right away, so that was it for the club stuff for now. Which meant we could all focus on the rest of the pizza, followed by another video game tournament.
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