Fairy Thief (38 page)

“
No. I’m calling some shots here — I don’t care what they’ll say, there are just some things I won’t do — stink is one of them.”

Tai raised his brow in surprise. “Wow, Saffron, I never thought I’d hear such a bold statement from someone like you.”

“
What’s that supposed to mean?”

Tai shrugged, already bored of the conversation. “Nothing — it’s just not something I’d expect you to do.”

Saffron scratched the back of her hand and decided to ignore him. She looked to Wo. “Look, there are some things I’m sure I want — if you could be so kind — and I don’t care what the people say about those things. So, if you could….” She raised her arms up so they could begin their magical transformation.

Wo raised his hands as if to begin conducting. “Well, at any rate, what
were
the body types?”

Saffron thought hard. The people had been built like they were back home. Some tall, some short, some pudgy, some obese, some athletic, some scrawny. She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter…I…I want…my own body.”

Tai and Wo gasped simultaneously.

She had said it, had really said it, and had really meant it. She shocked herself.

Wo and Tai were shocked as well. They had learned Saffron’s feelings towards herself — or thought they had. Now, on one of the greatest nights of her life — the night of the Royal Ball — she was confident in her
own
body?

Wo glowed with pleasure. “Very well,” he murmured.

“
But wait…!” Tai was curious. “Are you sure? Saffron, c’mon, this is a pretty remarkable statement coming from you.”

Saffron shrugged. “It’s just that, we’ve been through all of these realms, you know…and I’ve noticed that in each realm I’ve been looked at
differently.
”

Wo nodded like a bobble-head, “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, that’s
style!
”

“
Yeah, yeah!” Saffron was excited herself. “Sometimes it was cool, you know…people smiled at me in some places — but then it sucked, too, because we’d hop into another realm, and those people would stare at me like I had hairy feet and smelled like manure. At first it bothered me — it bothered me a lot! Then I tried to please people, tried to alter little things to be more acceptable. But, that didn’t work; we changed realms too often, too fast. Then, when we did hop somewhere else, there was always a new ideal. After awhile, I got sick of it — stressing out because I might not be what people wanted.” She hugged herself and rubbed her arms vigorously. She was starting to feel embarrassed, exposed — she had
never
talked about herself so much.

Wo coaxed her on, “So, when did things change?”

She smiled, “I don’t know.” She shrugged. “It’s not like the movies, you know —
the big change.
It’s just something that happened along the way, all without my realizing it, until this moment. I guess I’ve been working on the change.”

“
You had to have been.” Wo tweaked her nose. “A lot comes out of sustained effort.”

Saffron sucked in her breath. “Yeah, that’s what my Grandmother told me just after she died!” Saffron looked around as the fairies in the trees multiplied and worked more frantically. It felt like Christmas. “Only, you forget every once in a while, you know? You forget to sustain the effort. Then things don’t change, and you don’t realize why. You just…accept it. When it doesn’t have to be that way.” She shook herself from her thoughts. “I don’t care anymore what other people want my body to be like. I think I know what
I
want my body to be like – so I’m just going to go with that. I’m most comfortable being who I’ve always been. I
want
this
body.”

Tai sniffed and patted at absent tears, then applauded slowly and loudly. He blubbered, “I need a hug.” And pranced to Saffron’s side.

She giggled and shoved him away. He landing squarely on his rear on the forest floor. He grinned back at her and reached to grab her calf, pinching it none too lightly.

“
Ahhhhhhh!” She howled and jumped to the ground to wrestle him.

“
Tsk, tsk, now!” Wo admonished and separated them, “Look, nightfall is approaching and we have work to do!”

Tai helped Saffron to her feet. “Okay, we’re good with the body and we’re — we’re not changing hair color, right?” He eyed Saffron. “We’re just styling it?”

Saffron smiled shyly and agreed. She would keep that fiery bush of a hairdo, and keep it with pride. “Just try to tame it somehow, dress it up. I can go back to being wild tomorrow.” She addressed her answer to Wo, but he shook his head and pointed to his brother. “Right there is your master hairstylist — that’s not my specialty.”

Saffron was pleasantly surprised. “Tai? Really? Well, I wouldn’t have guessed
that.”

“
Hey, just because I’m incredibly stud-like and could rock any woman’s world, doesn’t mean I don’t have fascinating hidden talents.”

Saffron slapped a hand to her cheek, “You don’t say!”

Tai whispered to Wo, “Can’t I just give her a good beating before we start? No? Not just
one?
”

They worked.

Of course, they drew a crowd; you can’t start doing magic as they were without drawing a crowd.

Saffron stood on the large mushroom. They had gouged trenches in the mushroom cap so Saffron could stand in them without wobbling. Tai raised both hands a-la-conductor, frowned at her in deep concentration, then began waves of magic that pulled and worked through Saffron’s tresses. Several combs worked out the snarls, lotions and crèmes appeared to tame the frizz and add shine, and her curls and waves were encouraged to bounce higher. In the end, her hair was very big, very beautiful, and dusted with hundreds of tiny diamonds that twinkled like fire every time she moved. Tai crossed his arms and smirked at Wo in challenge.

Wo saluted Tai. He worked for the next hour, trying one color after another, all beautiful, but none perfect. He went back to antique gold for the third time. “This is it, isn’t it? Gold for our golden girl. And I know what I can do with that…,” he mumbled but didn’t explain to anyone else. He kept working.

The forest animals, the fairies, the elves — all had ringside seats, and cheered or vetoed each change as it was made. Someone made batches of popcorn and passed bowls out to the crowd. Darkness was creeping in. Torches were lit and a runner was sent to find Orji. Orji had to come back, or Wo and Tai wouldn’t have enough time to do him up. As it was, they were both feeling exhausted, their energy depleted on Saffron. They didn’t have to go as crazy as they did, but it was the first time in a long time that they were allowed to do more than parlor tricks.

Finally, Saffron was done. She stood tall on the mushroom pedestal, seeming to float in the glittering fairy smoke that veiled the entire circle, as if she were an illusion —a magical princess standing in an immense snow globe.

Everyone broke out into applause. Saffron had to concentrate on keeping her happiness from swooning her right off the mushroom. She stepped down carefully, holding the hands of both Tai and Wo, while they hovered in the air. On her feet was a pair of finely-tooled leather boots to wear in the snow, and dancing slippers were tucked into a gold-beaded reticule for later in the evening. Saffron curtseyed to the mesmerized crowd and murmured her thanks. She smiled at Wo. “Can I see?”

Wo slapped himself in the head. “But of course, how could I forget?” He waved his hand across the air in front of Saffron until a shimmering started that turned into a mirror big enough for Saffron to see her entire dress in.

She gasped loudly, then lost her breath altogether. Her voice was filled with wonder when she spoke. “Oh, my God — this can’t be.” Tears filled her eyes, but didn’t fall over and mar the swirls of gold dust that decorated her cheeks. Light, coffee-colored paint warmed her lips, and a faint, russet shadow curved on her eyelids and lit up her bright, grey eyes. Her tresses were curled and bejeweled, and her creamy skin was rubbed with gold dust.

She looked down at her dress.

It was made of golden silks – flowing, golden silks of several different shades, which spread out around her and floated on the air. She squinted. There was something in the air around her — more gold — glowing and swirling wherever she walked.

Tai narrowed his eyes and glared at Wo. “If I had known we were allowed to enchant the air
around her,
I
would have done something different with that hair!” Then he started to cough and gag. “Blahhh! Hack! Hack — for the love of nature, Wo — we have enough haze residues around here from all of that magic without you adding to it by giving her an orbital field!”

“
Oh, shut up, you big baby. This isn’t your moment.” Wo didn’t even look at Tai when he admonished him.

The dress was of medieval style, with a little room for fantastic embellishment —fairies would have it no other way. It fit to her upper body and was tied off under her chest with a golden rope. The rope was intricately woven and spanned her midriff, its tails hanging past her knees. Golden brocade bands surrounded her biceps, gathering the sheer sleeves close, but letting the fabric drop at her elbows. The ends of the sleeves were so long they nearly touched the ground.

Tai whispered to Wo. “Do you think it’s too much?”

Wo shook his head. “Nah, who could ever have too much gold?”

Tai sighed. “How right you are, brother. How right you are.”

Just then, Orji emerged from the trees. He took a short look at Saffron. His face never changed, never showed an ounce of the fire that suddenly welled up within him. But it was not her hair that fired him, not her dress, nor the golden mist that danced around her. He knew she was beautiful. He had always known she was beautiful. What caught him up and nearly made him lose his stiff countenance, was the way she looked at him — her starving eyes begging for his approval, as if his opinion mattered most. He could have kicked himself for his fantasizing.
She gave you no such look,
he admonished and forced himself to get control. He didn’t even blink. He disappeared into his tent.

Saffron’s smile fell and her shoulders drooped. As if it had been a wild party broken up by the cops, the music suddenly died, beings lowered their jubilant shouts to a low grumble, torches were snuffed, and everyone but Wo, Tai, and Saffron slunk off into the woods, leaving the camp with a completely littered, smoky, after-party ambiance.

“
Well, obviously I don’t look
that
fabulous,” Saffron muttered and crumpled to sit on her mushroom.

“
No! No!” Wo ran to her side and pulled her to her feet. “You can’t sit in this dress, Saffron — it will ruin the effect. You’re going to have to wallow on your feet this time.”

Her frown deepened.

“
I’m sorry. Look — who cares about him anyway? Who cares what he thinks?” Wo patted her back, but thought correctly that there was little he could do to console her.

I care,
Saffron thought. A tear slid down her cheek and made an obvious streak through her gold-dust swirl.

Tai huffed. “Freaken’ Orji.” He hurried off after the lout, followed him right into his tent. Kaleidoscope swirls of fairy dust puffed out of the tent door, like someone was having a fight with an array of electric, cotton candy sugars.

Several minutes later, Orji and Tai came out. Orji was garbed in the strangest eveningwear Saffron had ever seen, but it wasn’t unattractive. As a matter of fact, the more she stared at him, the more she liked the ensemble.

His pants billowed like those in an Arabian Nights tale, puffing out, then gathering close around his ankles. The fabric was decorated in what looked like Chinese-style dragons. But they weren’t dragons…. The pants were a darker gold than Saffron’s dress; the ‘dragons’ were a faint detail in crème embroidery. On top, Orji wore what looked more like a medieval tunic, forest green with gold embellishment, and fitted so very nicely to his wide shoulders.

Saffron decided to ignore his rude behavior and try to start their evening off on a pleasant note. “That is a very beautiful outfit — how did you think of it?”

“
I gave Tai the details of my officer’s robes — the clothes I wore at court in my realm.”

Saffron gasped. Officer? At court? She hadn’t questioned him enough on his past! She had tried, but he was never forthcoming with answers. This display of his court uniform, surely, was inviting her questions, right? Otherwise, why would he show her something so personal? He could have chosen to wear anything….