Bridgette was pouring through book after book, looking for anything referring to the first demon king"s brother. She had found some books that started to talk about the first king, but they all swapped over to the language she couldn"t read after the first page. They were all starting to think it was a magical spell meant to keep them from finding what they needed. Aella had tried wearing the goggles, but there was so much magic in the library, it gave her a headache."If the magic circle that"s containing him needs someone to touch the circle, in order to free him, then let"s find someone we can sacrifice and just kill him when he exits the circle," said Alfred.
Aella looked at him in surprise. She would never have thought he could come up with such a dark act.
"Are you feeling alright?" asked Bridgette, looking up from her book, just as shocked.
"What? The guy"s obviously really evil, and keeps causing trouble. He needs to be dealt with or he"s going to continue causing trouble, so we need to do this in order to kill him. Killing him is the only way to ensure that he"s not going to cause trouble in the future," explained Alfred, looking around at everyone"s shocked expressions.
"You"re not normally the one who suggests we kill someone," said Aella.
"Well, the problem, is that once we get him out of the circle, we need to kill him quickly so he doesn"t do something horrible," said Bridgette, thoughtfully, getting everyone back on track.
"Maybe there"s something in the treasury I can use, that might help?" said Aella with a grimace.
"What"s wrong with the treasury room?" asked Alfred, noticing her facial expression.
"Nevermind. I"ll be back in a bit," she said, shaking her head. If the worst that happened, was a chicken wedding, she should be alright. The chickens will probably be sitting on their nest, cooing at the new eggs they"ve laid.
She couldn"t have been further from the truth. The main treasury room, when she first teleported in, was empty. The mimic and the chickens must be in one of the chests, but which one? Looking at them, the one with the miscellaneous stuff was open, so that must be where they were. Unfortunately, that was where she was intending to go. With a sigh, she stepped inside.
If she wasn"t standing in the middle of the entrance/exit circle, Aella would have thought she was dreaming.
A hot sun beat down from the sky overhead, and neat rows of crops poked out of a tilled earth before her. In the distance, she could see a couple of houses, sized for chickens, were situated around a lovely gazebo. Swinging on a tiny swing, was the first chicken she had brought over, and it was knitting.
Making her way carefully towards the scene, the chicken glanced up, and stared at her, the knitting needles stopping.
"Copper!" the chicken squawked, hopping out of her swing and running, in proper chicken fashion, towards one of the houses.
The rooster appeared, his neck feathers ruffled, running around the back building, carrying a hoe. When he spotted her, he slid to a stop and gawked at her panting. Turning his head to stare at her with one beady eye, he took a breath and crowed.
Aella had stopped the moment the chicken had spotted her. The ridiculousness of this was so beyond her, she didn"t quite know what to do. That mimic had some serious explaining to do.
As if thinking about him caused him to materialize, the mimic came from around a different house, looking around to see what was making so much commotion. He looked like a giant chicken, who may have eaten a few too much. His chicken waddle, was very exaggerated.
"Your Majesty! It"s nice to see you," said the mimic, settling down and flashing her a smile.
"What… How…" she couldn"t even figure out how to ask him what was going on.
"If you"re looking for the miscellaneous stuff, I moved it all over to the clothing chest. There was plenty of room for it."
She shook her head and motioned all around her, then pointed at the rooster. "Why does he have a hoe?"
"Oh, he was preparing the southern field for planting. We just harvested our first batch of corn, and are expecting a b.u.mper crop from the western field, of wheat and milo." His eyes shone as he spoke, and his arms waved around in his excitement.
"Mimic, how are the chickens…" she started to ask, but he shook his head.
"I am forbidden from using magic items, but no where does it say I can"t let chickens use them."
"Which ones did you… no, don"t tell me. Did you say you just harvested a crop? Are you using time magic?"
"Maybe… but really I"m not. The time that pa.s.ses in the chest can be manipulated from the outside. So, once we get the crops planted, we just hop outside for a picnic, and when we come back, they"re ready to harvest. Neat, huh?"
She stood there, shocked. Was this really happening? Could she use this? Her kingdom needed food…
"I will overlook your breaking of the rules, with a couple of conditions. Because this farm is within my kingdom, I am enacting a tax, to be paid in the form of food. The chickens are not allowed to use any single-use items, and they are never allowed to leave the treasury. If any trouble ever comes of this, it is entirely your fault."
The mimic smiled and nodded. "Let me show you the food stores!"
She followed him, as he went into the largest of the houses. The inside had several wheeled carts, sized for chickens, and large tubes sticking out of the ground. The mimic went to the back, where stairs leading down took them to a huge underground cavern. The ceiling was made up of stone and metal, to keep any moisture from seeping down. Huge vats, dug out of the stone, held mountains of corn, beans, and various other grains. The tubes from above, funneled the things down into their respective vats.
Swallowing at the quant.i.ty before her, she couldn"t believe her eyes. There was plenty of food here, for months and months, maybe even years.
"How many chickens do you have?" she whispered.
"Henrietta"s second clutch just hatched, and they"ve been very diligent with their studies. I imagine she might already have a third laid. I saw she started knitting again, and that usually means they could hatch any time. The little tykes are adorable, but we have an agreement. If any step out of line and cause trouble, I get to eat them, along with any eggs that don"t hatch."
Glancing at his round middle, she just shook her head. "You didn"t answer my question."
"We might have around 20 chickens? I haven"t counted recently. If you could bring in some more, though, that would be great. I"m not sure I want Henrietta"s kids marrying each other. Seems like a bad idea, honestly."
"Right, I can do that…" Aella was still trying to get her head to wrap around the fact that these chickens had just solved her food problem.
Shaking her head, she remembered that her original reason for coming down here, still needed to be done.
"So, do you know anything about the first king"s brother?" she asked.
"That jerk? What do you want to know about him?" he asked, shaking his exaggerated chicken head.
"Was he any good with magic?" she asked, excited to finally be learning something.
"I suppose. He spent a lot of time in the library, reading books. I think some of the people called him a sage or something. I figured it was because he hardly ever moved, that they would call him a plant. Whenever the king tried to talk to him, he was always stuck up and rude. I figured he had plans for the crown, but when the king disappeared, so did he. I honestly don"t know much more than that."
Aella smiled, and said, "Mimic, you have told me more than anyone else, about the guy. Do you know if there is anything here in the treasury that would help me kill someone? I have a guy in a magic circle I need to kill, as soon as he gets out."
"Hmm, I think so. It would be in the miscellaneous stuff."
She followed him out, ignoring the looks she was getting from the dozen, or so, chickens that were peeking at her from around one of the buildings. They left the chest, and entered the one that used to be only clothing.
"I saw it over here…" the mimic muttered to himself, as he moved crate after crate of things he hadn"t unpacked after bringing over from the other chest.
"What"s this?" she asked, picking up a strange shaped jar. It looked like a black gourd, with red writing inscribed on it.
"Oh! That"s it! Be careful you only point it at the guy you want dead, when you uncork it. It should suck his soul out."
"What?!" she exclaimed, looking at the jar like it was cursed.
"Well, it actually came from fairies, but the king discovered it would kill people and put it down here."
"Fairies made this? Why would they make something that sucked out the souls of people? They must be dark fairies!"
"No, actually, they made it as a prank. When you point it at a fairy, they revert to tiny specks of light, until they"re freed. Since people don"t tend to change size, it just sucks out their souls. The fairies were just as surprised as the king when it was discovered. I remember him talking about it. But it wouldn"t work very well, as a weapon of destruction, because you can"t use it again, without letting loose the soul. Depending on who the person is, you may not want to release his soul, or he might come back. I"ve heard of that happening."
"The jar is black. How can you tell if it has someone"s soul already in it?" she asked, tapping the cork.
"Good question… maybe if you rub it?" he asked, taking it and rubbing the side with his feathered hand.
The image of a sleeping fairy appeared on the side. It was curled into a ball, with its head propped on its hands, and they could see its side rising and falling as it slept.
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