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The Fairies (7) : The City has been lit up for the Star Festival with banners and twinkling decorations strewn off the windowsills of shop fronts and windows. The gardeners at one particular park have put their heart and soul into creating a fairy's paradise: Fairy lights have been carefully dangled from trees to make strings of stars, little beaded jewels have been hidden among the hedges, and even the old cobwebs have been sprayed with just a touch of glitter. The park is open to everyone and the citizens of Destiny City have been invited to respectfully explore the hidden wonders that have been placed throughout. The park is magical enough on its own but there have also been reports of a strange, ethereal and shimmering stranger in the park. The glimmer of a beautiful costumed figure fluttering through the park has been passed around as rumor, and no matter what anyone claims to see, no one can take a picture of it. As if simply seeing some magical figure isn’t mysterious enough, there are also reports of mischief and small pranks being played at the same time this figure seems to appear.

A young human boy (glamour), whose Egyptian roots were in no way subtle, and wore his hair in dreadlocks to his chin, had large, round, chocolate brown eyes, wore a white t-shirt and jeans, but no shoes, and looked to be about eight years old, stepped into the park. He had come without a Guardian, at night, but in his mind that was ok. His name was Darius Ammun, but these days, he went by Dari.

His eyes where wide in awe as he looked at all the decorations. "Ooo." A grin was plain on his face.

As much as little Dari loved to play, he knew he had a job to do, investigating the strange rumors, and he didn't have a lot of time to do it in - the hour he had in his Human Glamour was ticking away steadily. He made his way past the true Humans - if most of them actually were, that was - and made his way to the deepest, thickest part of the park, momentarily brushing against a cool-looking teenager with purple hair, styled awesome. "Sorry," he murmured, more because his Daddy would not be happy if he was rude, than because he needed or wanted to.

He happened to glance into the guy's face... then moved on, mumbling, "I gots to look into somethang."

It took Dari a moment to realize the older boy was talking to him. "Uh well, my Daddy is on police duty, nearby. Uh, my family's kinda complicated. But yeah, why I am telling you? I don't know you. Anyways, Daddy entrusted me with a very special meeting, to come check out strange rumors about the park... strange lights, pranks and a strange ethereal lady. He only lets me do it alone, cause none of the rumors speak of any danger... but still I wish he would trust me with something more important..." He girded his belt and marched forward towards the thickest, darkest part of the park.

"Hey, who am I to say you can't go? You's a grown up, you make your own decision. Come if you're coming."

Dari gestured to the guy to follow him, and disappeared into the trees.

Not two feet in, he gave a yelp of surprise - a bundle of sticks had just been dumped on his head.

Dari stood up, and brushed himself off. "I'm ok. You okay sir?"

He studied where the bundles of sticks came from, but there was nothing in or around those areas.

"Well, time to move on." He moved further into the park as gnarled tree roots sprang up before them, and knotted tree limbs blocked their path. A tarnished Star Charm hung off a branch - as if it had caught on the tree as its owner was running - running out of the forest - running in terror and it had caught and been ripped off.

"Seems kind of like those movies with those creepy, evil forests - like those even exist..." Dari muttered.

A small flash of light fluttered by them. Melodious giggling followed it,

"Oookay.." Dari commented. It was obvious that he hadn't actually believed in fairies before and that he had thought there were reasonable explanations for the rumors till now from the look on his face, and by the way he said, "This can't be," puzzled, even though he was only eight years old.

Suddenly there were more of them in many different colors floating around... he farted, and the fairies appeared in their lights choking....

"Hmm, they seem harmless enough." Dari commented as though to himself. "I don't they are youma. Youma are created with one main desire - harm and destroy, or at least drain energy. These only seem to want to be pranksters. I seem to think that they may more be creatures of Holiday Magic - you know the limited Holiday, that here alone in Destiny City mixes with and twists the wealth Chaos and Order magic that is overfilling in here in Destiny City." This time he sounded different - like a scientist - not an eight-year-old boy.

A watch on his hand sounded some kind of alarm. "Ohs no. Five minutes to go. Gots to go!" He abrupted switched back to eight-year-old mode. He fled the clearing.

If his new-found friend happened to exit the West End of the park about ten minutes later, he would have seen a Silver Egyptian Mau Kitten, with Ancient Egyptian styles bands around his ankles, and a golden star on his forehead, racing out of the park. biggrin