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Eukara Vox -> RE: =AQ= Blarney War 2012 Stories and Poems (3/15/2012 21:52:54)
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Research and Analysis
"Shhhhhhhh!" Nin'Alia whispered as she smacked Dregen on the back of the head. "We are here to watch, not get caught!"
"OUCH!" Dregen growled. "You said she knew, Nin!"
"Did I?" Nin"Alia knelt behind the bushes.
"Nin! We are going to be in so much trouble. What did you tell your parents?" Dregen's face turned ashen.
Nin'Alia merely shrugged her shoulder and got out her notebook and pencil. "I told them that Ms. Vox said if we wanted to observe some of the wild creatures, she would give us extra credit when we turn in a report."
Dregen rolled his eyes and grumbled. "You didn't tell them what creatures we were going to be watching, did you?"
"Now, why would I go and do a stupid thing like that? My mother would NEVER let me come if she knew we were going to be observing Ramleons." Nin'Alia waved her hand at Dregen to shush. "Now, get to observing."
Dregen opened his mouth, but decided any argument at this point would be useless. They were going to be in so much trouble after all this. If a Ramleon didn't kill them first, Ms. Vox will when she reads the report and finds the kids went alone to watch a highly dangerous animal. He hunkered down and prayed that wind stayed on its present course and didn't give them away. In the distance, her could hear something approaching and swallowed hard. Nin'Alia simply grinned, ready to start.
Dregen and Nin'Alia held their breath, scared to death but neither willing to admit it. They leaned into the bush to get a better look at the creature coming and Dregen sucked in a breath. That... wasn't a Ramleon. He looked at Nin'Alia, who shrugged her shoulders and wrote something on her notebook. What are they doing here?
Dregen wrote on the page. I don't know. I didn't even know that they came around this area. Think the Ramleons will eat one?
Nin'Alia snorted, then covered her mouth, eyes wide. Both kids looked back at the gathering, afraid. A leprechaun looked at the bush confused, then shook his head.
"I've gathered the lads like ye requested, uncle." A multitude of green-clad short people were gathering as one of them spoke.
"A gathering of leprechauns, Dregen?" Nin'Alia looked at him, her eyes nearly sparkling with ambition. "We've hit the mother load."
Dregen shook his head. "I don't like this, Nin. What if they catch us? It won't be like when Ms. Vox catches us doing bad stuff. They won't be merciful."
"Shhhhhhh!" Nin'Alia waved him quiet again and watched on, notebook and pencil at the ready.
A much older leprechaun, the Uncle, nodded his head and started to speak. "Fine work m'boy. I've called the meeting lads 'cause it's the time o' year those pesky tall-folk come lookin' to bash our skulls in and steal our goooooold!" His face darkened, an irate look crossing his face. "Steams my shillelagh just thinkin' about it."
The older leprechaun turned, growling and punched the nearest leprechaun. Nin'Alia drew at a rapid pace, noting the arms of the fallen leprechaun. "He's got robotic arms! Awwwesome!"
Dregen rolled his eyes and took notes, concentrating on the reactions of the leprechauns. None moved to come to the aid of the fallen leprechaun. "I think that they are called
Uncle looked down at the on the ground. "Ahhh... I needed that."
It seemed that everyone at the gathering took a short step back and exhaled all at once. The first leprechaun that spoke nodded to Uncle and swallowed nervously. "What be the plan to stop the tall-folk this year, Uncle?"
Dregen sat back and took a deep breath. "We better go, Nin. I don't want to be caught here eavesdropping on their plan to kick the adventurer's butt, and possibly our parents, Yulgar, Aria, Ms. Vox and any other adult that may be venturing outside the home soon."
"You are such a wimp, Dregen. If we get enough information, we could take it to Yulgar... or Artix or even the Adventurer and be heroes!"
"I dunno. I think we've watched enough adventuring lessons to convince me I am not ready to be one myself." He punched Nin'Alia in teh arm. "And being intelligent doesn't make me a wimp."
"Does too, wimp."
"Does not! Ms. Vox says being intelligent is always better than being a brute, fight seeking, pain in the butt, fight first-think later adventurer!!!" Dregen punched her again, harder this time, starting to get angry with his research partner.
"Oh yeah!" Her voice elevated, she moved to tackle Dregen, then halted. The voices beyond their hiding spot had silenced and they were looking towards them. "I will get you later, Dregen. Be prepared to have your butt handed to you."
Dregen narrowed his eyes and punched her once more before picking up his pencil again and wrote stuff down. Nin'Alia balled her fist up but refrained from retaliation, instead began drawing furiously.
Finally satisfied that the noises in the bushes wasn't a sneak or an ambush, Uncle continued. "I've updated me gold machine. I discovered an ole recipe from me pappy that should produce enough gold, we'll be swimmin' in rivers of it!"
He paused and looked at everyone around him. Dregen looked at them all too and noted what he saw. All of the other leprechauns gathered nodded, eager to know what the Uncle had planned. Even the still on teh ground looked up, eager for Uncle to continue. Dregen didn't like this at all.
"It calls for blue diamonds, purple horseshoes, and one final magical ingredient -- the horn of a unicorn."
Dregen and Nin'Alia sucked in a breath along with the rest of the gathering. They looked at each other bewildered. Nin'Alia was the first to speak up. "A unicorn? But, we haven't seen those in... in a long time. They are extinct!"
"They are not, you dingus! Don't you listen in class at all? Ms. Vox says that they are super rare, but they are around. Super rare does NOT equal extinct. Maybe you should start listening more and daydreaming less." Dregen shook his head in disgust.
Before Nin'Alia could respond with something witty, Uncle's nephew asked the same question, well, nearly the same question she did. "Well... suppos'n we find one of those? They be a rare beast."
Dregen leaned in as Uncle answered. "Aye, laddie, rare indeed. I know of a place, though. A land of forever light with a golden castle..."
Dregen wrote this down and tapped Nin'Alia. "We need to tell someone."
"No, we need to stick around and learn more." Nin'Alia wrote furiously and shook her head. "We don't know everything yet."
"But..."
"Shhhhh!" Again, she waved him quiet and he slapped her hand.
"Do that again and I will bite you."
Suddenly, a leprechaun in the back of the gathering yelled out. "GOLD?!"
Uncle shook his head. "I said gold-EN. Now, shut your flappers and let me finish..."
"Yeah, Dregen, shut your flappers..." Dregen tried to ignore Nin'Alia.
"In this castle dwells a unicorn. So high, though, we would never hope to reach it with our wee legs." Uncle explained.
His nephew interrupted him. "What'll we do then? WE HAVE NO WINGS!"
Nin'Alia giggled. "Can you imagine a leprechaun with wings? "Aye, there we go laddies! Fly over our rainbow and taste it!' "
"Yeah, and then 'An' then we can go adancin' across the clouds while we chase our gold!' " He muffled his laughter into the sleeve of his shirt.
"And then... and then..." Nin"Alia snirked. " 'And we we've done that, let's go kick the shins of the tall-folk!' "
Dregen fell over, trying hard to hold his laughter in. He fell silent suddenly when a shadow loomed over the bushes. He kicked at Nin'Alia to shut her up. She looked up, about ready to pound him when she saw the shadow too. One of the leprechauns had come over to investigate the commotion. She froze, biting her lip. The leprechaun rifled through the leafy branches, trying to separate them to look inside. In the background, the kids could hear Uncle continue.
"Our fastest travel is over a rainbow."
Nin'Alia clamped a handover her mouth as she tried desperately not to laugh. Dregen glared at her, commanding her to shut up and not laugh. He didn't feel like being leprechaun much in the next few minutes.
"We must make it rain there, then we will have our window o' opportunity, lads!"
Dregen scooted over closer to Nin'Alia as a small hand pushed through the branches and moved around, trying to grab him. The leprechaun swiped at the air, then retreated, trying another area closer to Nin'Alia. The leaves next to her head were grasped and yanked hard causing the branch to snap back and hit her in the nose. She squeaked in pain, but tried to silence it with her notebook. Finally, after one last try at grabbing them, the leprechaun gave up and rejoined the group, shrugging off inquiries and settled to hear the rest of the conversation.
The nephew sounded unsure about all this. "Rain? Me thinks you have been meddling around lead too long."
Uncle responded. "Well, for that, lads, that's why I called you here. Leprechauns have been known since ancient times for dancing a jig, and if done with just a wee bit of leprechaun magic, we can make it rain!"
Dregen and Nin'Alia looked at each other. "Make it rain? They can do that?" Nin'Alia asked Dregen.
"I don't know. Ms. Vox hasn't gotten to leprechauns yet in cultural studies." Dregen shrugged and sat up to look at the gathering again.
Suddenly, Uncle called out. "Mister Rumples!"
The ground shook suddenly, as if something heavy marched towards them. As Dregen watched, a large mechanical monstrosity joined the gathering. Nin'Alia pushed Dregen out of the way to look and gasped. "That's... crazy!"
A leprechaun sat in the driver seat of a large mechanical contraction that had drums built into the chest. Each hand held a drum mallet. "Play a ditty for us to get our wee toes a-tappin'. we will make it rain over the land of light!" Uncle nodded at Mister Rumples, and the leprechaun began to bang the drum. A steady cadence began and Uncle began to move. As the rhythm and volume increased, so did his foot speed.
"Dance lads! Dance!"
Suddenly, the entire host of leprechauns leapt to their feet and began dancing. Some danced in lines, while others dances in circles. The older danced in place, while the younger danced from one spot to another. And the leprechauns with robotic arms, they danced in place, but pumped their arms with the beat.
Uncle cried out with glee. "Aye lads, that's it! Time for Uncle Shammy to make it rain up in here."
"Would you look at that, Dregen! I wonder if anyone has ever seen one of these before. Are you writing all this down? Please tell me you are writing this down!" Nin'Alia called over her shoulder. She moved slightly to the music herself.
"Yeah, I am doing all the work. You just keep on watching and enjoying the scenery while I work." Dregen kept writing everything down, describing the dancing, the air, the mood, everything he could from his spot in the bushes. And he noted the leader's name: Uncle Shammy.
Nin'Alia rolled her eyes. "Cry me a river. I will draw stuff later to illustrate your writing. Can't have a report without art."
"Wanna bet..." he mumbled under his breath.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ********* ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Thunder roared outside the "window" in Eukara Vox's study. Curious, she looked up at the window. "Odd, there isn't supposed to be rain in this window."
She stood and walked over to the "window" and touched it. The image rippled slightly at her touch. She sighed, wishing the window was real. But here, on the crossroads of the universes and planes of existence, there was no outside, no yard to play, no path to walk, only the vacuum of nothingness that surrounded the multiverse library. The windows were but mere projections of real places Eukara loved. She had chosen the Land of Light, Lucius' realm, to brighten the study. The golden castle always cast a warm reflection of Lore's sun into her room, giving it a soft glow to read by.
But, right now, the wondrous sun was blocked by the unnatural clouds of the storm. She waved her hand, the castle coming closer in view and she saw Lucius himself standing outside looking into the rain, confused. The rain pounded the mountain and castle equally. The thunder roared, shaking the foundation of the castle and in turn, Eukara's study. She furrowed her brow as the rain sluiced down the castle's sides. Lucius looked angrily at the clouds and both of them came to the same conclusion. Something was very wrong with this.
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The leprechauns danced, their footwork becoming more and more frenzied. Nin'Alia became exhausted just watching them; Dregen more afraid. He didn't like this one bit and couldn't understand why Nin'Alia wasn't more alarmed at the events unfolding.
Then suddenly, they stopped.
Slowly, a rainbow spread across the sky. It was large, wide and bold and vibrant in colour. Uncle Shammy grinned, almost evilly, as the end touched the ground beside the group. He looked each leprechaun gathered in the eyes, then cried out, "Alright, lads, here's our chance!" He moved towards the rainbow.
His nephew nods in agreement. "Let's get that horn and we'll have more gold than we can imagine!"
"No, no-- more gold than I can imagine!" Uncle Shammy grinned knowingly. He stepped onto the rainbow and began the march over the rainbow. Everyone gathered behind him and marched alongside, singing songs of gold. Dregen watched them as they left and emerged from the hiding spot. He grabbed Nin'Alia and dragged her after them.
"Wait, what are we doing?!"
"We are following them." Dregen held his notebook close to his chest, while dragging Nin'Alia.
"Wait, woah! What happened to the Dregen that was all 'I want to be careful and not get dirty and not be adventurous at all'?" Nin'Alia pulled away and walked on her own. 'I can walk, you know."
"I didn't think they would actually do it! We can't let them do this!" Dregen stopped at the base of the rainbow and looked at it carefully. "There. Right there. That's where we will walk."
"What? We can't walk on the rainbow." She punched his shoulder. "I don't know what you see, but it isn't reality."
"You can't see it?"
"See what, numbskull?" Nin"Alia put her hands on her hips. "All I see is the rainbow, which... according to the science that Ms. Vox teaches, shouldn't be at our feet, but constantly moving away from us because of refraction, distance, angle of light and such things..."
"Oh ho, so you do actually pay attention in class. Amazing!" He steps onto the rainbow, his footing sure. "There is a trail, or footpath left behind by teh leprechauns. It must be their magic. If we step in their footpath, maybe we can follow."
"You're insane, Dregen."
"Am I?" He takes several step, slowly walking up the rainbow.
"This is impossible!" Nin'Alia, not to be outdone, walks right behind Dregen. She couldn't see what he did, but that didn't mean she couldn't follow him. "Lead on, weirdo."
Dregen growled but walked forward, his eyes watching for the trail left by the leprechauns. Apparently, they didn't walk in straight lines, but jumped from colour to colour. Thankfully, since they were smaller then him, the stretch between their hops were more like big steps for him and Nin'Alia. As they came upon the apex of the rainbow, they could see the leprechauns. Dregen slowed, in order not to be seen or detected. In the distance, he spied a golden castle.
"That must be the castle Unlce Shammy was talking about. It's... it's beautiful." Dregen stopped and admired the view.
Nin'Alia smacked right into his back and bopped him on the head. "Walk now, admire later. We have work to do. Seriously, we better get a mega amount of extra credit for this."
"I think we will be lucky to get out of this alive. I don't want to even think about what our parents," he swallowed, "or Ms. Vox will do to us..."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ********* ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"What in the multiverse is going on?"
Eukara Vox watched as the scene that was her window changed. The dark storm clouds began to break, letting in the sunshine. A rainbow formed as the last mist of rain hung in the air and the sunlight burst through. Before she had a chance to admire it, she watched the oncoming horde of leprechauns walking the coloured road. They were headed for Lucius' castle. She stood bewildered. Why are they marching...
"Oh good gods of the multiverse, why?!" She shouted at the scene as two of her students emerged into view. She waved her hand, magnifying the scene, concentrating on the students. "Dregen and Nin'Alia! What are you doing?!" She cocked her head. "Better question would be, how are you doing that?"
Eukara watches Dregen carefully, noting he is the one stepping carefully, watching the rainbow road very carefully. Both children will be getting a talking to. After she learns what they know, of course. She looks at the head of the leprechaun pack and recognises Uncle Shammy. His determined pace worried Eukara. She glanced at Lucius, who seemed very perturbed at the invasion of his land. A conversation ensues, but Eukara cannot hear it. Frustrated, she watched her two students creep closer. She will definitely have to talk to them.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ********* ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"I think we are close enough," Dregen whispered.
"Me too. I don't want any closer, not with the way that unicorn-pegasus person is looking at Uncle Shammy." Nin'Alia shook her head, hiding behind Dregen.
"That's Lucius, Nin'Alia. I recognise him now. Ms. Vox has read stories of Paxia to us. That is the leader of the Lucian Clan." He sighed, a sound of admiration. "And if what we heard is right, Uncle Shammy intends on sealing his horn!"
"That would be a tragedy, Dregen. Lucius is so beautiful."
"Yes, it would. Let's listen. I will write everything down and you commit to paper what this looks like." Dregen opened his notebook to the right page and readied himself to record everything.
Lucius looked down at Uncle Shammy and the procession of green before him. "Why have you little green monkey's come to my home?"
Insulted, Uncle Shammy straightened his back. "Little gree..." He narrowed his eyes and grumbled. "Get 'em, boys!"
Dregen tried hard to record the battle without letting his emotions get the best of him. Lucius fought, but there were just so many leprechauns. He kicked, trampled, and bit anyone that came close. Periodically, leprechauns went flying, but ultimately, there were just too many of them. Tired and winded, Lucios was finally overcome by the leprechaun army and he went down. The little fairy men dog-piled Lucius to hold him down while Uncle Shammy sauntered up to the light leader's majestic head.
Both Dregen and Nin'Alia stopped their work and watched as the horrible Uncle Shammy reach out with his impure, grubby hands and take hold of the horn that crowned Lucius' head. with one hard yank, he snapped the horn form Lucius' brow and held it up for all to see. "C'mon lads! Let's get this back before anyone starts meddling. With the final ingredient in me hands, we will have the goooold."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ********* ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Eukara gasped as the leprechauns attacked Lucius. She burned with rage and looked at the scene with determination. A blast of wind swept her from her room to the rainbow. She watched in horror as Uncle Shammy touched Lucius' horn, then broke it from its base. She heard one of the children cry out and ran to them, putting her arms around them. As the leprechauns turned to march back down the rainbow, Portal appeared and stole Eukara and the students away form the scene and into Battleon.
The children clung to Eukara Vox as they cried. They had watched at the mighty Lucius was attacked and stripped of his horn, his lovely horn. Eukara knelt beside them and hugged them. "Give me your notebooks, children. I must take them to Warlic. I want you to go and find Robina and tell her that the leprechauns are on their way, and that they have Lucius' horn. Go now, children. Quickly!"
Both children gave their notebooks to Eukara and ran to Yulgar's. Once she knew they were safe, she left for Warlic. Surely, he would know what to do.
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