Allory Fae and the Dragon's Whiskers

ONE MOMENT, THEY HURTLED along the organic tunnel. The next, they shot out into the top of a vast, cavernous space. So vast, Allory imagined a tiny, colourful droplet of life hurtling out into the immeasurable reaches of Centresky itself. The space was like a few of the larger rooms she had seen at Durhelm Castle, a vaulted roof supported by countless pillars, but the scale was immeasurably greater. Given her closeted, hidden-colony upbringing, she was not good at estimating distances, but Allory guessed that each phenomenal pillar had to stand eight to ten miles apart and measure perhaps half a mile in diameter. The depth was unknowable, for below and to all sides was a floating world of bobbling ovoids of water and floating plants. Aerial plants.

A very gentle gleam lit the cavern, bioluminescence emitted by … the water, she concluded, and perhaps conducted by the water into the leaves of the different unfamiliar plants, which grew in profusion along every vector of the sphere, given the gravity was no factor to constrain growth. A realm of giants! Many of the plants sported leaves or flowering fronds larger than Yaarah, but they did not dangle in the familiar way; instead, they sprouted and flowered uniformly in every possible direction.

Her sparkles dangled in wonder. What kind of a jungle was this?

"Pull up!" Sabline roared suddenly.

"I'm – fur and fangs!" the Golden Purrmaine yowled as he discovered that despite there being no apparent gravity, mass and momentum were undeniably still present. His wings flared briefly, achieving nothing useful in the slightest.

SPLOT!

They attacked a body of water at high speed. Given as it was fifty feet plus in diameter, could she call it a droplet? Fear not. No harm done. The mega-droplet summarily exploded, leaving all the Elves drifting about in bemusement, marginally cleaner than a moment before. Yaarah eyeballed a goggle-eyed, four-foot mauve fish that stared right back at him, clearly insulted by his boorish behaviour.

The Purrmaine opened his jaw, snapped it in half, and tossed the choice nibble to Sabline – not without a degree of masculine swagger. Right.

Sabline purred appreciatively, narrowing her eyes at her mate. Allory understood that this was a sign of feline fondness, rather than the suspicion it would have communicated between Fae. Her reaction did not help the swaggering situation one bit. Furball might rightly be accused of feeling fabulous just now, a feline whiskers-deep in the cream, so to speak.

Varzune called, "Alright, all those with wings, each collect your favourite Elf! For my part, I plan to cosy up to Jhoranyal here." The Dark Elf eyed him balefully and received a coy, eyelash-fluttering glance in return. The rascally Chameleon cooed, "Oh, Sali'karm Jhoranyal, could I hold your hand? Please? It's such a – oh, I can barely breathe at the thought – such a manly hand. Please say aye. I promise you won't contract anything from me."

Ashueli reached out to swat him, but quick as she was, he somersaulted lithely over her swipe.

"Get over here, you!" she growled, manifestly displeased to be floating in the middle of nothingness. Elves did like to have a handy branch nearby to serve as a launchpad for their acrobatics. Here, arms and legs flailed but found nothing to press against.

"How quickly she forgets," Barakunal lamented.

Pulling up with a huff on annoyance, the Princess snorted, "Forgets what?"

He said, "You're an Elemental, daughter. Since when do you have to flap your hands like a hooked fish to move anywhere?"

"Wow, uh … father, subtle we are not," she observed, hot-cheeked with embarrassment.

One smoky Elven Princess later, and Varzune was neck-deep in the nectar of trouble. "Help!" he yelped as she mussed his hair, flipped him three times head over heels, booted him upon the behind, and then kissed his cheek for good measure. "Sap's sakes, you beast. Can't anyone take a joke around here?"

Ash warned, "How's about I tie your pretty antennae into a knot, Chameleon boyfae? Behave."

He turned into a sulky-looking copy of that unfortunate fish. "How's my fish pout?"

"Disturbingly accurate," said she.

"Good enough to make me hungry, gnarr-harrr-harrghh," said Yaarah. "In other news –"

"Yarrr! That-a-way!" Amazas shrieked, swatting Sabline's hindquarters with a resounding smack.

Garobixi's pixels smoothly swung him out of harm's way as a plume of orange fire raged to his left. Of all of them, the Pixies acted most at home in this environment, Allory realised. Hmm. Which meant … maybe pixels possessed anti-gravitational powers?

Well, obviously. Smack her over the antennae, of course they did.

GNARR-SSS-GRRAARRRGHH!! the Sabrefang bellowed meantime, testing the limits of her vocal thunder. "What was that? I am not some beast of –"

"Yarrr, thou mighty fire-breathing fiend of yore, thou ravaging trembler of evil things, thou vicious zephyr of the darkest night!" he screamed merrily, slapping her again, flush on the haunches. Sabline bucked in a fury, but the wily old Elf clung to her back like bark to a tree. "Arise, for the ancestor of all Dragons, the great progenitor, awaits! Gird thy knickers and throw in a few kickers! This way, away, never say … where was the branch again?"

Oh dear.

To everyone's surprise – perhaps her own most of all – Sabline champed her jaw and responded evenly, "Which way, o Seer?"

"That way!"

One hand pointed downward between his legs, the other over to their left – sun anti-spinward, Allory made it, or generally toward Ahm-Shira.

Ashueli posed the necessary question. "Great-grandfather, that's two different directions?"

"This hand is delivering an extremely satisfying scratch," he said, demonstrating with great relish. Cringe! "Onward to the glorious whiff of Fae-sent scent and draconic demagoguery! Away, sway, bray-hey! Harpist, would you play to keep danger at bay?"

What danger?

Immediately, Elven weapons bristled in hand and the Chameleons spread out, examining all the nearby vegetation and water bubbles with suspicious, penetrating gazes, but as best any of the warriors could tell, there appeared to be no immediate threat. Amazas insisted upon having musical accompaniment, however, and proved to have a scratchy but versatile voice as he taught them all in rhyming song for an hour without ever faltering or growing weary.

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The group flew in a compact echelon, Sabline in the lead and Yaarah to the rear, with the Pixies scooting along under their own power and the individual Elves accompanied by Scintillant or Chameleon Fae. As always, Zzuriel and Xiximay close to one another and while Hansanori remained nearby, his playing kept him from conversing as they had the evening before.

Despite the overall gloom of the immense cavern, Allory observed that the colours of the vegetation majored on bright pastels and luminous yellows, oranges and purples. She would have imagined there should be a thriving ecosystem here, but they saw no other animals apart from the ubiquitous fish, not even herbivores – yet the vegetation also did not appear to have overrun the environment. Strange. Normally, nature kept everything in balance. Predators and prey. Plant eaters and those that fed on carrion, right down to organisms so small that only Fae magic or Felidragon science could detect them.

This place had the appearance of a vast garden simply waiting for an entire animal kingdom to move in.

Yaarah worked on giving himself a neckache. The scholar wanted to poke his muzzle into every detail and kept commenting on how the plants displayed unusual features, such as bulbous nodules in their stems to the size of the vast, spreading leaves which often blocked their line of sight. He was right. Allory thought it all looked as if they were swimming underwater, but whereas the jungle cenotes had only a few types of sparse, blue-green water weed and algae, this was a vast array of colours and an even vaster collection of species and subspecies. The Faerie cautiously sampled a few flowering bushes on the way past and found them wholesome, if a little tart for Chameleon Fae tastes. Scintillants loved zesty citrus and lime tangs. Chameleons had a sweet nectar-tooth second to none.

Yaarah found all the nectar-related chatter bemusing. "Give me those salty, umami meat notes any day, trrr-prrrt" he opined. "You Fae do know that meat flavour is called umami, right?"

"Did you just call for your mommy?" Varzune chirped right back.

"Gnarr."

"Maybe a dose of nectar in your diet would do you good," the Chameleon continued, "wouldn't you say, Xiximay? 'I say, frrr-trrr, I do declare this nectar has introduced new fizz to my noodle. I'm experiencing a bracing tizz in my frizz as I prowl through the underbelly of the world sampling a most agreeable and diverse range of exotic fruits and comestibles.' "

"I do not speak like that," the scholar snorted.

Zzuriel called over, "Allory, do you notice something as we pass these plants?"

"Uh … well, I did notice that Varzune keeps admiring his reflection in every bubble we pass because the curvature naturally makes his biceps look bigger?"

Snickers all around.

"Ouch! How you wound me, you glittering betrayer. However, now that you mention it, my biceps do look bigger than Yaarah's backside from this angle." He posed up a minor storm. "Mmm, looking good! How's my Lesser Mustard Column Toad impression?" He switched into a ferociously ugly, mustard-yellow toad covered in extravagant warts. "Devastatingly handsome, I do declare. Nice pick, Sparkles. Now, I do believe Zzuriel is onto something, however – if you'll pardon me channelling your personality for real this time, Scholar Yaarah. She's speaking of the scope of your scintillance, Allory Fae."

"My … huh?" Allory spluttered. Eloquent as ever.

"What do you mean, frrr-trrrt?" Yaarah echoed.

Ashueli clicked her fingers. "Aha! You do have a brain after all, Varzune. Remember the discussion about sensitive materials, Yaarah?"

He nodded. "Of course."

"Well, Zzuriel's observation is – you tell them, girlfae."

The Diamond Fae developed the slightest hint of pink in her cheeks as she said, "If you think it's important – you clearly do, Princess. Sorry. Allory Fae, see that next plant cluster? Could you please approach as closely as you can without touching it?"

"Sure …"

Now what?

This spherical cluster of deep purple foliage was arranged in trumpet-shaped sprays of bristly leaves, with clusters of tiny, cream-coloured flowers shaped like tiny bells hanging off the tip of every hairlike bristle. Over a hundred feet in diameter, the striking plant appeared to have attracted a small water bubble of its own to surround its centre. Clever. Self-watering, and probably stored nutrients as well. Plus, this region that they flew into on an angle that had by now taken them out of sight of the cavern roof, boasted tens of thousands of such oval or spherical plants. They almost obscured an almighty, green-veined marble column to her right hand and a little ahead.

A floating jungle … a Faerie jungle …

The thought wandered lazily into her mind. Last time she had thought such a thing in the column maze of the Canyonlands, she had been – well, the Chameleons had found her. Dear Harzune, every girlfae's fantasy hero. Smack-your-antennae handsome. Zzuriel had truly landed in the nectar there, and best of all, she knew that even if every pretty girlfae in Ahm-Shira threw herself antennae over wings at him, he would remain true to her frosty friend. Just that kind of boyfae.

As she floated up to the great plant, a shimmer developed in the deep purple leaves and bristles. The flowers … stirred. Iced-up in her every sparkle, Allory had to force herself to continue, to notice how the phenomenon tracked her course.

Just like the Deepwoods. What was this?

Shyly, she reached out a – well, a vaguely hand-shaped lump of sparkles, as Zzuriel buzzed up behind her. Uh … hello there. I'm Allory Fae, the Scintillant – suggids!

One frond bent to brush her sparkles with the softest touch, completely at odds with how bristly she had imagined it must be. A second frond leaned over and dropped a sort of plant-kiss atop what she still thought of as her head. For several hundred feet around, the tiny cream flowers oriented upon her, humming in what she took for a slightly freaky form of greeting, while a distinct shimmer of light rippled through the plants. White-to-azure scintillance. Responsiveness to her presence. Again!

Shiver her sparkles …

"Yrrr-pssst!" Yaarah exclaimed, absently tangling up his left wing in his hind paw, not that it mattered much given the lack of gravity.

Zzuriel said, "That's what I saw."

Screwing up her face humorously, Ashueli put in, "Let me see if our friend Yaarah has managed to teach me anything. These plants are somehow sensitive to a process of scintillance, and Allory is therefore a living scintillator?"

"Eh … with due respect, not quite," he grinned, displaying his excellent set of fangs to an uncaring world. Ash rolled her eyes. "A scintillator is a material that exhibits the property of scintillation when certain forces act upon it, such as specific forms of radiation of the physical or perhaps magical types. Allory, and indeed all of our Scintillant friends, are scintillators, as are these plants. The difference is that apparently – well, let's see. Vartin, Kartan, Saritan and Izzini, would you be willing to assist with an experiment? Let's see if you set these plants off. Allory, would you please withdraw for a moment?"

Vartin said mildly, "Can we generally avoid being referred to as experimental subjects in the future? Been there, drank the nectar. Not fun."

"Hrrr-frrrt, I apologise."

The Scintillant pupae-siblings shortly proved that whatever it was Allory had to be radiating in order to create that scintillant response, they did not produce the same effect. This was all well and fine until Zzuriel, trying her best to avoid being the centre of attention after Yaarah had fulsomely praised her for her contribution to science, brushed up against one of the fronds – or perhaps, it found her? Either way, what happened next nearly made everyone jump out of their respective skins, fur, wings, Pixie dust and sparkles.

A wild wave of light flashed away across every plant in sight, maybe for miles.

No, Miss Scintillant had not produced that reaction. Not even close.

Also not jealous.

Far in the distance, an almighty peal of thunder shook the caverns. It reverberated through and past them with enormous concussive force, followed immediately by a rising awareness of electrical charge building in the atmosphere.

"Watch out!" Sabline or Ashueli roared together.

Perhaps she did not hear right because, without rhyme or reason, Allory's attention zoned in upon her dead body, cradled upon Zzuriel's back. Scintillance flashed across her pale sapphire skin, crackled off her frozen hair and outlined her wings, lying flat and decidedly immobilised along her back.

Oh no. Zzuriel is going to –

KERAKAAA-BOOOM!! Lightning flashed all around them in a single almighty flash, smiting the tiny sapphire body with an infusion of incalculable power. Zzuriel did not even have chance to scream. When her vision began to recover, Allory saw the white Fae and her tiny Scintillant body drifting apart. The Diamond Fae appeared to be unconscious, smoking slightly from her ears and mouth. Dead? Please, no!

The plants flashed several times in rapid succession.

The titanic peal of thunder resounded again. This time, it sounded openly aggrieved and colossal enough to shake all of Spheris. And alive. Definitely alive.

A vast surge of light came racing back toward them. Had this entire cavern world reacted to that single touch? Why?

A frond tickled her sparkles. Ambushed! Another wrapped up that forlorn little sapphire body. A powerful sensation of movement gripped her sparkle-being. Allory began to yell, "Oh, suggids –"

Fractionally ahead of another tremendous report, she heard a voice cry, "Two become one, I wish the undone redone – fresh harmony!"

Whiteness crashed down upon her.