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Author Topic: Elida  (Read 8762 times)

Offline Sparky

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Re: Elida
« Reply #15 on: 18. May 2022, 21:32:18 PM »
Day 15:

Coffee / alarm clock out of the window / hairwash / eat toast / shower / get dressed / go to work.

'How many days did Bill Murray have to suffer this in Groundhog day?' Elida asked herself as she went down into the Archive. She logged onto the human internet, and started to search.

"No way! 12,395 days! That's over 30 years! I'll go mad long before that. Probably kill myself.... Ah, yeah, he did that a few times too, didn't he?". She cheered herself up by looking up a list of the ways he killed himself in the film.

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Day 16:

Elida magicked up a stupidly large cartoon-style mallet, and hit the alarm clock with it. Yes, that seemed to stop it beeping just fine.

Coffee / hairwash / eat toast / shower / get dressed / go to work.

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Day 17:

Today, Elida magicked up a flame gun. Not only did it destroy the alarm clock, it also took out the bedside table and the bedside lamp. Also singed the side of the wardrobe, but Elida reckoned that it will have fixed itself by the next loop!

Go to work / eat coffee / drink toast / wash the shower / take the hair. Oh, yeah, make sure you put clothes on too!

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Day 18:

Today, Elida got a LOT of pleasure from magicking up a machine gun, which she used to completely mess up the bedroom. However, she completely missed the clock, which continued beeping. Guns can be used to break clocks without bullets!

Go to coffee / wash the toast / eat the shower / have some clothes / drink the hair....

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Day 19:

A 22" Machete can cut an alarm clock in two with a single stroke.....

Have a pee / have a shower / wash hair / have a coffee / skip breakfast (get something on the way to work). Remember to put clothes on!

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Day 20:

Elida's alarm went off. With her eyes still closed, she magicked up a big heavy metal anvil, which she dropped onto the clock from a metre up. It ruined the bedside cupboard, but luckily it missed her phone, which escaped completely unscathed.

She opened her eyes, and looked around. Yes, still in her time loop! How many days was it now? It must be close on three weeks worth of todays.

She felt a little sorry for herself again today. What she needed was a hug. In fact, what she needed was to have a 'weekend' again. As she got dressed, she realised once again that, if she actually did NOTHING again today, it wouldn't REALLY matter. Ok, so maybe she would be no further on in working out what the heck was going on, but she might feel better in herself. Her 'Netflix day' last week had been good, but she needed something more than that.

In the kitchen, she looked at the unopened loaf of bread. No, she could NOT face another slice of toast for breakfast! She got dressed, and went to her local shop, where she bought some cereals. Heck, she also treated herself to some expensive Belgian chocolate - she knew that not only wouldn't she put on any weight from it, but the money would be back in her purse tomorrow!

Back home, she had a dish of cereals! So much better than goddamn TOAST! - the effort was so worthwhile! Then a quick shower - she wanted to smell nice and fresh today - and then got dressed. After finishing the last bit of her coffee, she flew over to the FI5 office, and went into reception: she'd been here once before, after 'The Dark Fairy Incident', when Lilly had shown her around and introduced her to Sir Donald. Hmm, maybe she needed to aim higher up the chain, get to speak with Sir Donald. But NOT today. She needed to take things a bit more gentle today.

"Good morning, Miss, how can I help?" asked the gentleman fairy on reception. His attitude was a little condescending, to say the least: from his perspective, he was wondering what a young fairy doing here so early in the day.

"I was hoping to see Puck, please".

'Ah yes' he thought, 'she's a young fairy come to annoy her brother or boyfriend...' Nevertheless, he still needed to be reasonably polite. "I don't know if he's available, who should I say it is?" he asked, trying to remain polite.

"My name is Elida; would you like to see my Fairy Pass?". Every fairy on any sort of active duty had a pass. It's the one thing that not only showed who you were, and where you worked, but also gave your security level. The same security level that Lilly had bumped up to 50, when they had visited the Dark Archive.

"Yes please" said the receptionist, expecting it to say something like 'trainee', with a security level of about 5. He took Elida's pass, and as he swiped it on his reader, then looked at it, he got quite a surprise, and his attitude suddenly changed. "I'm so sorry miss, I didn't realise who you were!". He gave Elida her pass back, and she looked at it: she hadn't noticed that her security level had been changed, and currently stood at 95! As he didn't recognise Elida, he assumed that she must be some sort of important visitor, and quickly guessed that maybe she didn't actually know her way around the office. "Do you know where to go, or would you like me to get someone to show you there?"

"I have no idea where Puck works, so yes please...". The receptionist picked up his phone and made a call. Less than a minute later a middle-aged fairy came out.

"Good morning, Miss. I believe you'd like me to show you where Puck works?" she said very pleasantly

"Yes please..."

"Follow me then, please". It was strange, since the receptionist had seen her badge, and seen her security level, no one had asked WHY she was actually there to see Puck, they simply assumed that she SHOULD be there, for some reason that they did not need to know about. And they had suddenly become VERY helpful. All useful information to remember for another day!

Of course, Elida did wonder WHY her security level had shot up, and had to assume that it was related to her meeting with Zia, a few weeks ago.... which was really only a few days ago.

Elida was taken up to the fourth floor, and along a short corridor, into what was clearly a test and development lab area. The guide led her into the office next to the lab area, where Ella was.

"Hello Elida! Nice to see you again!" said Ella cheerily.

"Hi Ella... is Puck around?"

"Yeah, he's around, somewhere... ".

Elida turned to her guide: "In that case, thank you for your help! I'm sure Ella can find Puck for me!". Her guide left. "It's so good to see you, Ella! So, where's Puck hiding then?" asked Elida.

"Yeah, he'll be somewhere in the lab... hey, come with me, I'll show you around as we go!". She led Elida past lots of technical stuff that the team were developing, very briefly explaining the sort of things they did. "Hey, you might recognise that over there, that's the magic detector you helped us with! Ah, there's Puck!"

At the mention of his name, Puck turned around. "Hey, Elida, what brings you here?"

"I need you" she said, going over to him, and putting her arms around him. "I need you to just put your arms around me, and hold me...". As Puck put his arms around Elida, she started to cry.

"Elida, are you ok?" asked Puck.

"No, not really.... Puck, can Ella manage without you for a few hours? If so, I just need you to come, and be with me...". Thick-skinned and inexperienced with girls though Puck was, he realised that - for some unknown reason - Elida needed him, so he went and spoke briefly with Ella.

"Ok," said Puck, "I'm yours.... where do you want to go, what do you want to do?"

"Somewhere, anywhere, as long as it's away from... well, everything... don't worry, I'll explain" said Elida, with tears still in her eyes.

Outside the building, they flew off, and out of the town, into the fields. As they left the town behind, Elida started to relax a bit. For some reason, they suddenly hit an updraft. "Come on, it's been AGES since I've done this!", and they both caught the updraft, a bit like gliders do, and let it take them higher. A LOT higher. Finally, after free-flying for some time, they landed, and sat on the gate of a field, looking out of the large green pasture. Elida felt a lot better.

"What's wrong, Elida? I know you wouldn't have brought me out here if it wasn't important."

"You're probably going to have problems believing what I'm about to tell you, but I promise you, it's true. I have lived today now about 20 times. I'm stuck in some sort of time-loop, and I don't know why. I've been working close to non-stop all that time, and whilst I do know a bit more dark magic, I'm STILL no closer to working out what's actually happening! And I just needed a day off. To relax...."

"A time-loop?"

"Yes, I keep living the same day, again and again. You must have seen the film Groundhog Day? Just like that. I'm feeling so stressed out! Now, right now you're thinking I'm maybe a bit crazy, time loops don't exist, so how about I tell you that I know that you hate peas and sprouts, also, as a kid, you had to go to hospital coz you got a bead stuck up your nose. I know those because you already told me, later tonight, in one of my time loops".

Today, maybe because he was a lot more relaxed, Puck's brain seemed to be working properly, and he was almost willing to accept that Elida was in a time loop.

"Why didn't you ask me for help... I mean, I'm not sure what I can do, but I'd like to help"

"My darling Puck" said Elida, putting her arm around him. "I have asked you several times, and each time you say pretty much the same thing. But it doesn't matter, I'm taking a day off today! I don't imagine it will change anything, but maybe I'll feel a little less stressed tomorrow. So, yeah, help me by simply relaxing with me!"

"If that's what you'd like me to do, then I'll try and help! Hey, fancy a drink?"

"Yes, that's a lovely idea. How about one of those stupid silly cocktails?".

"Ok, I'll give it a go". Puck called for his wand, and said a spell. Ok, not quite as fancy as you would get in The Golden Cup, but it was good enough for Elida.

Offline Sparky

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Re: Elida
« Reply #16 on: 19. May 2022, 16:17:37 PM »
Day 21:

7:15: the alarm went off. After spending most of the day yesterday with Puck, just relaxing, Elida felt a LOT calmer. She gently pressed the button on the clock to turn off the buzzing. Yes, definitely much calmer!

She put on some clothes, and went to the shop, to buy some of her favourite cereals. In the shop's fridge, she found some expensive Jersey Full Cream Milk to go with the cereals. And it also seemed so impolite to leave those two chocolate and cream eclairs there, all alone.


When Elida had visited FI5 yesterday, to see Puck, she'd got a pleasant surprise: her security clearance was stupidly high. Which meant that Zia must have spoken with Sir Donald and Lady Charlotte about her. Which she hoped meant that (a) they would both be willing to talk with her, and (b) they would take what she said seriously and (c) they might know, and be able to tell her, where Zia was. The university kept fobbing her off: it didn't matter if she phoned or turned up in person, was polite or rude, they basically ignored her.

She flew over to FI5. Today, she didn't mess around. She handed her pass over to the gentleman fairy on reception, and simply said "I'm here to see Sir Donald, can you get me a guide to take me up to him please". As soon as he saw her pass, he called someone on the phone. Elida decided she could grow to like being treated like this!

"Someone will be here in just a moment to take you up, miss". A few moments later, the same fairy who had guided her to see Puck 'yesterday' arrived, and took her up to Sir Donald's office. Like yesterday, she took mental notes on where she was being taken, so next time she probably wouldn't need a guide.

Yes, 'mental notes': she was getting a lot better at those. Normally, you could just write something down, or enter it into your tablet, and just read it later on... but that just didn't work in a time loop. Been there, tried that and failed. Anything she did one day would be 'blanked out' when she woke up the next day. The only thing that survived the daily reboot was her. In fact, just her mind and memories. She'd even tried writing stuff on her body, as Puck had suggested, that didn't work either! 

Elida dismissed her guide, saying "thank you!", then knocked on Sir Donald's door: she REALLY hoped he was there.

"Come in" said a voice from inside. Elida opened the door and walked in, closing the door behind her. "Elida?"

"Good morning, Sir Donald, I'm sorry for coming to see you unannounced, but there's something very important I need to speak with you about..."

Relaxing with Puck yesterday, then having another talk with him had helped to concentrate her mind. She only had so much time available each day, and really needed to get the most she could out of the time she had.

"Take a seat... now, how can I help?"

"I'm assuming both from the fact that you haven't instantly thrown me out, plus the fact that my security level seems to have recently had quite a boost, that you are aware that I met with Zia a few..... days ago". Elida almost said 'weeks', and to her it WAS weeks, but to anyone else it was just a few days ago.

"Yes, I am aware, and yes indeed, that's why your security level has been increased"

"I desperately need to speak to Zia, but try as I can, no one can, or is willing to, tell me where she is."

"I'm afraid that Zia is actually out of the country for a couple of days. Can your problem wait?"

"Not really, no it can't. Is there any way you can get a message to her?"

"I can try, but I know she's quite tied up in a lot of meetings"

"I really do need to speak to her today, it IS important"

"I'll see what I can do, but I can't promise anything". He opened his drawer, took out a pad and pen, and wrote a short note. She looked at the pen he held: it wasn't a cheap one.

"Nice pen..." she said, trying to sound nonchalant.

"Yes, I was given it for my 50th birthday!". Elida filed this information away: she had already discovered that remembering things like this could be useful.

A door on the other side of Sir Donald's office opened, and a fairy started to walk in, but then realised that Sir Donald was busy, so went straight out again.

"So, your problem, is it maybe something I can help you with?". Just then his phone rang. "Hello Julie.... can I call you back in a few minutes? I'm in a meeting right now." Once again, Elida tried to remember this, and glanced up at the clock on the wall to take a note of the time.

Eliza thought a bit: whilst she COULD waste time trying to persuade him about being in a time loop, she thought it might take time.... No, she would wait until tomorrow, when she could make her point a LOT quicker. In the meantime, she could continue her research.

"Erm, probably not, if I could only speak to Zia, I would be ok...."

Elida said goodbye, and left.

--------------

Day 22:

Same place, 23 hours and 59 minutes later:

.......she's quite tied up in a lot of meetings"

"I need to speak to her today, it really IS important"

"I'll see what I can do, but I can't promise anything".

"Ok, stop: you are about to open your desk drawer, and take out a pad and a pen to write a note. The pen is red, and it's a present you got for your 50th birthday."

Sir Donald did indeed open his desk, and took out the pad and pen. "You're quite right, it was a birthday present for my 50th birthday, how did you know?"

"That’s not important right now.... Your secretary - well I assume that's who she is, is about to walk through that door...". Sir Donald turned his head. As he did so, the door on the other side of his office opened, and a fairy started to walk in, then went straight out again.

Elida checked the clock. "And finally... your phone is about to ring: it will be Julie....". Donald looked at her, goodness knows what he was thinking. Just then his phone rang. "Hello Julie.... can I call you back in a few minutes, I'm in a meeting right now?"

"Ok, Elida, you definitely have my attention now: how DID you know about all those things?"

"Because it's exactly what you told me yesterday, and what happened yesterday"

"But you weren't here yesterday"

"Strange though it might seem, I actually was. Well, in MY yesterday, your today. You see, I seem to be stuck in a time loop. That's why I need to speak with Zia. Urgently!"

"A time-loop?"

"Yes, I keep repeating today, and I'm rather hoping Zia will be able to help, so I need to speak to her"

"Ok, I'll see what I can do for you. Can I help with anything?"

"Not at the moment, I don't think so, unless you happen to know about time loops?"

"Not really - so how long have you been in this time-loop?"

"About 3 weeks so far. And something tells me it's gonna be a bit longer, till I work out what's happening. Is it possible that Lady Charlotte knows something about time-loops?"

"I have no idea, let me call her. In any case, it might be useful for you to meet her." Sir Donald called Lady Charlotte, and asked if she could come to his office for a few minutes.

3 minutes later a lady walked in. Slightly taller than average. A great figure, and still looked reasonably athletic for her age. "Ah, Charlotte, I don't think you've actually met Elida, have you?"

"No, I haven't. Elida, so nice to actually meet you, I've heard good things about you! So, what brings you here today?"

"Well, I have a problem. I seem to be stuck in a time-loop, and am having a lot of difficulty working out how to get out of it". Charlotte looked slightly perplexed, and a bit unsure whether to actually believe Elida.

"Umm, I think she's telling the truth...." and he explained about the pen and the phone call.

"Time loops: no, whilst I've seen them in films, I've never heard about one for real." replied Lady Charlotte. "Did you look down in the.... errr.... you know about the Dark Archive, don't you? Of course you do!"

"Oh, I know the Archive well, the books have been trying to help me the best they can, but they don't seem to have anything relevant. That's why I'm trying to contact Zia, see if SHE knows anything!"

"Good idea, maybe she does, but... I hate to say it... I think you might be sort-of on your own with this... But if there's anything specific you'd like us to help with, then do ask."

"Thank you, I will. Hey.... I don't suppose you have a codeword that you two use, maybe with Zia, to flag something is important? I have a feeling that I'll be needing to ask your advice a few more times in the future, and I'd like to 'get your attention' somehow, without needing to 'jump through hoops' so to speak". Elida realised that it was no use inventing a NEW codeword, as it would be forgotten by the next iteration of today, she needed one that already existed.

"Yes, we do: 'Saint Petersburg'" said Sir Donald.

"'Saint Petersburg'? As in the Russian city?"

"Yes, that's the one"

"Ok, that's great. Well, thank you BOTH very much for your time today, nice to actually meet you, Lady Charlotte. And Sir Donald, sorry for just barging in on you. Look, if I need to come back again today - on another 'today' that is - will you both be available most of the day?"

"I'm free pretty much all day - Charlotte, what about you?"

"Unless something comes up, I'm around too"

"Thank you: I'm sure I'll be speaking with you again soon, although unfortunately you won't realise it".

Offline Sparky

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Re: Elida
« Reply #17 on: 20. May 2022, 17:12:20 PM »
Day 22 (later on):


Whilst Elida could have gone into her office, she decided to stay at home. She sent a text off to Zia "Urgent - Saint Petersburg - please call me as soon as you can!", hoping she might get a reply soon.

It was close to midnight when her phone rang.

"Hello, Elida, you texted me?"

"Yes, I have a problem, and I need your advice. Sir Donald suggested that 'Saint Petersburg' might flag it as important"

"Yes, I'm sorry I couldn't call sooner, Elida, I'm at a very important international conference, and have been busy all day. So, how can I help?"

"I'm in a time loop. Today keeps repeating itself, I've been in it for 3 weeks now..."

"I hope you're not joking, Elida."

"Absolutely not. I've tried a few things, but need some expert advice..."

"Well, I know nothing about time loops. I assume you've been searching the Dark Archive?"

"Yes, and no luck so far, but I've been learning a load of new magic along the way"

"Well, that in itself could be useful. I need to think about this, maybe ask around. I'll get back to you tomorrow morning...."

"No use, that will be too late, my day is about to re-boot! Look, I need to get through to you earlier in the day, what can I do?"

"Yeah, good point, well, you could always.... damn, my battery's about to die.....". And the call dropped.

--------------

Day 23

A day later, close to midnight: Elida's phone rings.

"Hello, Elida, you texted me?"

"Yes, I did, now Zia, this is very important, so please just listen, and PLEASE believe what I'm about to tell you. First your battery is about to die, so don't waste time. I'm stuck, in a time loop, been in it for over 3 weeks now, I've done all the obvious stuff. You told me you don't know anything about time loops. My day is about to reboot, and we need to talk for longer, and earlier in the day. Clearly 'Saint Petersburg' isn't important enough for you! Tell me how to contact you!"

"Text me like today, but use 'Constantinople' rather than Saint Peters...." Once again, the line went dead, as Zia's battery died.

--------------

Day 24

The following day, but just after she woke, Elida texted Zia once more. This time the text said "Urgent - Constantinople - please call me as soon as you can!". Elida was very pleasantly surprised to get a call from Zia only 20 minutes later.

"Elida, I assume that WAS you, sending that text. I hope this isn't some sort of joke, I'm incredibly busy right now. And where did you get the Constantinople codeword from?"

"This is no joke, I'm deadly serious, Zia. Yes, I know, you're at some sort of international conference, and very busy, you already told me. I tried contacting you using the Saint Petersburg codeword, and have spoken with you twice already, but each time your battery ran out after less than a minute, although last night you told me to use Constantinople."

"We've not spoken since I've been here.."

"Sorry, I forgot to say: I seem to be stuck in a time loop: today keeps repeating itself. I've been in it now for over 3 weeks.... I spoke to you later tonight, twice"

"A time-loop? What do you mean?"

"I mean that every day for the last 3 or so weeks, I wake up, and I'm repeating the same day. It's just like in that film, Groundhog Day! I've spent too many hours researching down in the Dark Archive, and still have no idea what's going on... or how to get out of the loop!"

"Ok, yes, definitely worthy of a 'Constantinople'.... give me a moment, I need to go somewhere we can talk...". There was a pause as Zia found somewhere more discrete. "I'm supposed to be on a Q&A panel, but I think they'll have to wait, sounds like your needs are rather more important."

"Thank you, Zia. I'm really at a loss what to do."

"Well, I've never been in a time loop, never heard of anyone else in a time loop, and never even read about a time loop, so I guess this is new ground for both of us! I assume you've spoken to Sir Donald?"

"Yes, briefly, also Lady Charlotte, mainly to get in touch with you! But they don't seem to know about time loops either".

"Ok, well don't be scared to talk to either of them, I'm sure they will try to help you if they can. I'm guessing you had to spend a while persuading Donald to listen to you?"

"The second time was easier, when I was able to tell him a couple of bits that he told me the previous day!"

"Ok. Look, here's another codeword for you: 'feather duster'. I'll understand it, so will Donald and Charlotte. It means 'This is very urgent, treat what I'm about to tell you as 100% important and 100% true'. But I'm sure both Donald and Caroline will do whatever they can to help"

"'Feather Duster'? Where DO those words come from?" asked Elida, giggling slightly.

"Semi-random words that are distinct, and that we're unlikely to use in normal conversation. Ok, back to your problem, tell me a bit more, like when you wake up, when you fall asleep..."

"I wake up at 7:15, when my alarm beeps at me, it's the same each day. Everything is reset to how it was the first time around the loop. Unless I do something different, everything around me happens the same. The only difference is that I can remember what I did all the previous times, but it's new to everyone else. As far as the end of the day goes, it doesn't matter where I am, soon after midnight I feel drowsy, and fall asleep. And yes, I've tried very strong coffee, and several other things, but I always fall asleep."

"And it's just YOU in the time loop?"

"Ummm... no idea, to be honest. No one obvious at least. How would I know if someone else was in the loop?"

"Well, I guess they might do different things each day. If they are the cause of the loop, they may try to do the same thing, but they will make small mistakes. Of course, you say you've done different things each day, so they will know you're in the time loop too. I guess it's also possible that there's someone else like you, that you've not found yet, that's in the loop, wondering what's happening to them."

"Yes, sounds reasonable. But how can I find them?"

"I guess it depends if they WANT to be found. I mean, you could just send out an email!"

"Not so stupid, although that might alert someone that I'm in a time loop... but it's something I can think about. More importantly though, you got any ideas how the heck I get OUT of the time loop?"

"I'm thinking that you need to discover the REASON for the time loop."

"Yeah, Puck - he's my boyfriend, and works at FI5 - suggested that too, but no luck with that either. So, what causes a time-loop?"

"Sorry, I have no idea. I guess magic might be able to... if someone has a reason for the time loop, and has used some strange magic that I've never come across to invoke it.... and maybe it's gone wrong. Or... maybe even the universe itself has created a time loop, to protect us all somehow?"

"Why would it do that to just me?"

"Because you and I are the two 'Protectors' of fairykind, and fairykind needs somehow protecting right now? And there's no way I can get back home by tonight, so it's up to you! And you're going to need to train yourself to fix whatever it is that's going on...."

There was a certain logic to that last idea, thought Elida.

"You need some help. I would suggest Lilly and Tats, but for the moment, they must NOT know that you are a Protector - please just accept that fact. Maybe you could ask Sparkle, she's pretty savvy... I believe you have a good relationship with her, and I'm guessing you trust her to keep her mouth shut?"

"Yes, I do"

"Oh, good, so speak to her, use her skills. Well, I can't think of anything else that might help right now...."

"Ok. Zia, thanks for chatting, I feel a bit more positive now"

"That's ok, call me again whenever you need to, and don't feel at all bad about using 'Constantinople' and 'Feather Duster'. Good luck, Elida!"



Well, a few ideas there. Yes, go and talk to Sparkle: not only was she was a bright girl, and might be able to give her some ideas, but they got on well together - probably something to do with a customer called 'Daisy'!. Elida finished getting ready, and went into the office. She grabbed a coffee - the second of several she knew she would be consuming during the day - then went to Sparkle's office. Sparkle wasn't there (and Elida realised she'd not seen her today for the last 3 weeks), so she went and spoke with Magic.

"Oh, hi Elida!" said Magic, pleasantly.

"I was looking for Sparkle..."

"Yeah, she's not in yet, which is unlike her. Maybe she's gone straight out to see a client... let me look". Magic logged into the diary system, and looked up what she was supposed to be doing today. Whilst Magic and Sparkle often worked as a pair, there were plenty of times they did things alone too.

"No, not seeing anything on the system for her... why don't you call her?"

"Yes, I will... thanks Magic!"

Elida went back to her desk, and tried to call Sparkle. No reply, so she left a message. She also texted her, and sent her an email. Normally, Elida would have checked her diary, but she knew exactly what was in her diary for today: nothing. So, as on many 'todays' before, she went down into the Dark Archive, to do more research, and more self-learning.

The Archive was a place that Elida felt quite safe: the books were a great comfort to her, always being as helpful as they could.

By lunchtime, Elida still hadn't heard from Sparkle, so checked with Magic, but she'd heard nothing either, nor had the boss. Elida decided that she maybe ought to go check on Sparkle, so flew off to where she lived: since they had both started doing 'extra duties' with Daisy, the two of them had got to know each other quite well, including spending a bit of time at each other's places.

When she got there, she discovered the front door was slightly open. Fearing trouble, she loaded up a couple of strong defensive spells that she had learnt and practiced over the last few weeks (or was that 'today'?)... kinda like the 'magic manacles' but rather more discrete, and more effective. She quietly walked in, and not seeing anything in the lounge, she checked the kitchen.

** Holy Sh*t! **

Sparkle's lifeless body was tied tightly to a chair, ropes around her body, arms and legs, her head flopped forwards.

"Sparkle! SPARKLE!!!" screamed Elida, tears welling up in her eyes.

Offline firesonga

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Re: Elida
« Reply #18 on: 20. May 2022, 17:38:43 PM »
Wow. Not that this story wasn't already interesting, but things just got more interesting. Keep up the great writing.

Offline Sparky

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Re: Elida
« Reply #19 on: 21. May 2022, 16:57:23 PM »
I did think about leaving it for a few days, to increase the tension a tiny bit, but it's not THAT exciting....

However, I can tell you that Elida's time loop is about to get a lot more interesting!

=================================================

Day 24 (continued):

Holy Bloomin' Sh*t!!!

Sparkle lifted her head, turning it towards Elida, opening her eyes at the same time. With the rest of her body incapacitated, it was the only part of her body that she could actually move.

Elida saw Sparkle moving. "Thank goodness, you're alive... I thought you were... dead... for a moment!"

Sparkle would have loved to have replied, but she had gaffer tape over her mouth. "Mmmmhhhmhmh" she grunted. Her eyes were slightly red: clearly - at some point recently - she had been crying.

"Sparkle, what happened?" asked Elida, hugging Sparkle. She carefully removed the tape from her mouth, revealing a load of dried blood underneath.

With a lot of difficulty, Sparkle replied: "When I woke up this morning, there was a couple of Elven thugs waiting: before I had a chance to do anything, they pulled me out of bed, brought me through here then tied me up to the chair with these anti-magic ropes... then ripped out my braces, along with some of my teeth!!!". Elida just stopped, and winced, then continued to untie the ropes that held Sparkle so tightly to the chair.

With all the ropes finally all undone, Elida put her arms around Sparkle, and hugged her again. "You'll be ok now!" said Elida.

"No, I won't" replied Sparkle, crying. "You don't understand, it will happen again tomorrow, and the day after. It's been happening for about the last 3 or 4 weeks... Always the same, they come in, grab me out of my bed, tie me up, pull out my braces, then just leave me here, all alone till I fall asleep in the evening...". Sparkle was sobbing and crying. "This rope stops me doing any magic, and without any magic, they are far too strong for me - I know, I've tried!"

The severity of what Sparkle had just said hit Elida: if Sparkle's been in the same time loop as she has been then she's been suffering like this non-stop for OVER THREE WEEKS!

... Tied to a chair the whole day

... unable to move

... unable to shout out for help

... all alone.

It really didn't bear thinking about. Elida held Sparkle in her arms for quite some time.

"Something tells me that you're in the same time loop as I am,” said Elida. "Come on let's see what I can do for you now, then see what I can do to stop it happening again tomorrow". She took Sparkle through to her living room, then got her a glass of water, plus a warm damp face-cloth. After looking at her mouth, she could see that poor Sparkle had 4 teeth missing, she assumed pulled out when the elves ripped out her braces.

"Would you like me to see if I can sort out your teeth?" asked Elida. "I mean, it's kinda what I do....". Sparkle nodded. Doing tooth magic on other fairies is much harder than doing on humans, but after a few false starts she sorted out her teeth pretty well.

"I don't think it's any use getting anyone else involved, I've already spoken with a few people, and they know nothing about time loops, so it's going to be up to you and me to sort this all out. First of all, any idea WHY they are doing it?" said Elida.

"No idea. Absolutely no idea. I don't suppose YOU have any ideas, do you?"

"Not really... hang on... your braces: didn't Santa give you those braces?"

"Yes, he did, plus Emily and Wendy used a special bit of magic to let me keep them. Why?"

"Well, I'm thinking that there must be a lot of magic in those braces. But I can't see how that would be any help or interest to a couple of elves. Ok, in the morning, what time do they arrive?"

"I'm not really sure..."

"Ok.. well has your alarm gone off when they get here?"

"No, but thinking about it, it goes off a few minutes later, I hear it for a little bit as they start to tie me up"

"... and how long do they hang around for?"

"I'm guessing no more than 10 minutes, they seem to know what to do, and they just get on with it."

"What time is your alarm set for?"

"About 7:15"

"Damn, that's going to be close, but I can give it a go...."

"What do you mean, Elida?"

"My alarm goes off at 7:15 too. Allow a minute for me to get out of bed and throw on some flying clothes, then about 10 minutes flying time, I MIGHT just make it here in time! It's got to be worth a try...."

"Oh, I see, yes..."

Elida explained to Sparkle that she was a 'Fairy Protector' (but please, don't say anything to anyone else). She explained about Zia, and Sir Donald, and Lady Charlotte. Explained that Zia reckoned that, to be able to get OUT of the time loop, they needed to find out why they were in it in the first place, then they might be able to find a fix.

"We need to talk to those Elves! And I'm going to need your help, because I may not be able to do what is needed!"

"I just had a terrible thought" said Sparkle a bit later on.

"What's that?"

"Well, I'm not the only fairy with metal braces: what about Lilly?"

"Good point. Very good point. Hey, look, you know Lilly much better than me, why don't you call her, see if she's ok"

"Yeah, but what do I say? I can hardly ask her 'hey, I don't suppose any elves have tried to tie you up and take your braces from you', can I? Well, I could, but there would a a LOT of explanation needed."

"Yes, good point! To be honest, we just need to know that she's ok, so simply seeing if she answers the phone will tell us that.... but I guess you still need a reason to call her... how about asking if she'd like to join you for dinner later in the week?"

"Ok, yes, that would work."

Sparkle made the call. Lilly picked up quite quickly, and Sparkle asked about dinner, agreeing to get in touch later on to sort out the details. "Lilly seems fine, at least for now."

---

Elida spent the rest of the afternoon and evening with Sparkle, it was the least she could do. Whilst Sparkle's body had been getting plenty of sleep the last 3 weeks, the same could clearly not be said of her mind: Elida could only guess the effect it had had on her.

The good news is that the food that was in Sparkle's fridge was as fresh as it had been when the time loop had started, so Elida was able to make them both some dinner. She had considered calling Magic, to tell her that Sparkle was ok... well, ok-ish. But she'd not remember anything beyond tonight, so why bother? To be honest, that's why Elida had spent so much time down in the Dark Archive: down there, any reading and research she did was useful, as SHE would remember it the next day. The only time she really bothered asking someone else was if they had some sort of information that would help her.

She had also got used to being a bit brusque with many of the people around her: she had realised that anything she did would be forgotten, so the quicker she could get what she needed the better.

Over the last 3 weeks, she'd only actually had a couple of days off, so it was rather pleasant to spend some time doing something else, apart from learning magic. She got on pretty well with Sparkle these days, so spending time with her was good.

Come bedtime, Elida decided to just fall asleep on Sparkle's settee. If there was any chance that was where she would wake up, then that would be a positive, although she doubted it would happen. She fully expected to wake up back in her own bed.

--------------

Day 25:

Elida's alarm went off, and she woke up. Yes, she was indeed in her own bed, as she guessed she would be. Sparkle... she HAD to get to Sparkle! Took off her pyjamas, put on her flying suit, and got on her way. She flew as fast as she could, but Sparkle lived on the far side of town. When she got there, the door was open, so she went in, spells prepared. All she found was Sparkle, alone, in her kitchen, tied up the same as yesterday. She ripped off the gaffer tape from her mouth.

"You missed them by about 2 or 3 minutes.... Go, see if you can find them!" said Sparkle. Whilst she hated leaving Sparkle all tied up, she rushed out the flat, and started searching. She tried casting several spells, including the one she had used to find Sebby, all those weeks ago. And a collection of other 'angst detection' and similar spells, and whilst she detected a couple of worried fairies, there was nothing else, no elves.

Back at Sparkle's, she untied her, and fixed her teeth, plus stopped the bleeding: having worked out what she needed to do yesterday, it was a quicker job today.

"If only you could get here quicker!" said Sparkle. "I don't suppose you know a good 'teleport' spell, do you?" she added, half joking.

"No, but maybe Zia does...". Once again, she texted Zia, with the 'Constantinople' key word. Zia called back less than ten minutes later.

"Zia, thanks for calling back so soon. First of all... I would like to confirm the 'Constantinople' and also add in a 'Feather Duster'...".

There was a slight pause. "Well, I'm not sure where you got those from, but you have my complete attention! Let me find somewhere a bit more private.... Ok, go ahead, Elida"

"Ok, well, I'm in a time loop, I keep reliving the same day, so far it's getting on for over 3 weeks. We've spoken before, but, of course, you won't remember. And you told me that you know nothing about time loops. You suggested that I should see if anyone else was in the time loop: I've found her, it's Sparkle. And as for the 'Constantinople ' and 'feather duster', you told me them a couple of days ago!"

"Ok. So clearly we've already discussed that I can't get back quick enough, otherwise I would have already done that.. or have I? Ummm, do you know the cause of the time loop yet"

"Maybe. Sparkle gets attacked, and her magic braces get removed by some elven thugs - they're the braces that Santa gave her, so I'm guessing there's something a bit special about them. The problem is that, if I fly here, I get here a couple of minutes too late. I don't suppose you happen to know a teleportation spell, do you?"

Zia laughed. "I wish! I've never even read about one. But...."

"Yes?"

"Well, I'm wondering if... look, you know how we talked the other day about being able to combine stupidly large numbers of spells... it's something you and I can do, but other fairies seem to have a problem with. Go down the Archive, think laterally, try and work out what you would need to do to teleport: break the whole thing into multiple individual components, and solve each one. Call me as much as you need to. If it's possible, it's gonna be quite a few strong spells. And make sure you also look in the "Old Magic" library, as well as the "Dark Magic" one, the spells you need may not be particularly dark!"

"Sounds like I've got some work to do. Shame Sparkle isn't actually cleared to go into the Archive"

"Well, technically, you now have the authority to take her in with you, but that might need a certain amount of explaining to Posy. Why not ask Sebby to help - she might have some 100-year-old insight..."

"Good idea. Zia, thank you!"

"The least I can do! Tell you what: it sounds like you're gonna be a much better Protector once this is over! As I said, call me!"

"Oh, don't worry, I plan to!"

---

"I'm sorry, Sparkle, but I think you may need to suffer a few more days yet..... assuming I can work something out!" explained Elida.

"That's ok... to be honest, I felt a lot better about things this morning, knowing I wasn't going to be alone all day like before."

"Tell you what, I can leave searching the Archive till later, why don't we go out for a fly in the countryside?"

"Thanks Elida, that would be nice. Hey, why don't we go and visit Runesdale. I'm not thinking about visiting Daisy, just take a fly around..."




Offline Sparky

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Re: Elida
« Reply #20 on: 22. May 2022, 18:34:43 PM »
Days 26 - 33:

For the next week, Elida would go straight over to see Sparkle as soon as she woke up, untying her and sorting out her teeth. Then she spent a lot of time searching in the archive, helped by Sebby, and regularly calling Zia for advice. The books themselves had actually been VERY helpful, even making a couple of helpful and relevant suggestions. Whilst there was nothing that stood out to say 'you need this spell to be able to teleport' there were things in other spells that, once you saw them, became relevant.

For example, in many spells you have to 'define the extent of the spell'.... so, two people holding hands, you want to turn one of them to wood (yeah, not nice, I know, but it WAS one of the spells!), then you need to define what that 'person' was... does it include their clothes? Other things they are touching? Like that second person? Similarly, if you are wanting to teleport something, you need to define it. If you're going to teleport a fairy, then you probably want to take their clothes with them! (yes, I suppose you COULD teleport naked, then have yet another 'give me clothes' spell the moment you arrive... but it all has to be thought about!)

Sparkle had offered to go to the Dark Archive with Elida, but she had explained that, whilst, technically she could do so, it would be hard to explain to the boss how she - Elida that is - suddenly had a rather high security clearance. "Besides," said Elida, "how would you explain your lack of braces to everyone?" However, Elida did try and share some of her research with Sparkle, and occasionally Sparkle was able to make a few useful suggestions.

Elida had thought about who else could help her: it really needed to be someone that she could take into the Dark Archive without needing a lot of explanations, which is why she had got Sebby to help so much. Yes, she could ask Lilly or Tats to help, but Zia had asked (before the time loop started) that she not tell them anything about being a protector. Yes, she could also ask Magic to help, but like with Sparkle, that would need her to explain too much every time.

So, she usually asked Sebby to come over and help: she was actually pretty good, and very willing to do - with few questions - what Elida asked her.

And, unlike in the first 3 weeks she had been in the loop, she now had something VERY specific to research and learn about, which made it a bit more interesting.

--------------

Day 34:

The problem is that the research work was pretty intense, and Sparkle could see that Elida was getting rather stressed, so 9 days into working on the teleporting spell, just after Elida had flown over to Sparkle's, and released her from the magic-preventing rope, and then fixed her teeth, Sparkle stopped Elida.

"Elida: you're completely stressed out, you need a day off! So, the last few days I've been doing some searching, and boy are we going to have a fun day today!"

"You sure you want me to just take the day off?"

"Hell yes! Another day in our loop will be worth it if you can work out how to teleport, and then hopefully get us out of this goddamn loop. But without a break you won't do that any time soon! Look, Elida, those first 3 and a bit weeks were... well, 'hell' doesn't do it justice, but I'm coping ok with you coming over each morning first thing. Yes, it's maybe ten to fifteen minutes of pain and discomfort, but I KNOW you'll be over to be with me, so I'm coping."

"Ok then... and yes, you are right, it's about time I had another day off, it's just that...." Elida took a deep breath, deciding not to finish that sentence. "If you're ok with things, then so am I! So, what we doing?"

"Well, I thought we could start the day with with a bit of flying..."

"Flying? I just did that, to get here..."

"No, I mean FLYING..... you'll see.... let me go get washed and dressed...".

It took the two of them about 15 minutes to get there: they were apparently at a small airfield, with several human airplanes parked up. Above one of the buildings was a sign: 'Accelerated Freefall - Learn to SkyDive!'.

"I'm sure they won't mind if we go along with them" explained Sparkle. "Ok, yes, I know we can fly, but how high have you managed to actually GO?". Elida had the most enormous smile on her face! "So, from what I could see on their website, they tie two humans together, then jump out of the plane at about 10,000 feet! You up for it?"

"Try and stop me!" said Elida. This was EXACTLY what she needed to get rid of the stress from the last few weeks!

They went inside, where the humans were being trained. They looked at the pictures on the wall, showing pairs of people flying through the air. "I reckon if we magic up some harnesses, and a rope, then we can just clip ourselves onto them..." suggested Sparkle

"I'm thinking two ropes, one connected to each of those shoulder clips, then stand on their shoulders, ride them down like we're riding a chariot! We'll need to keep our wings in though!". Elida was definitely enthused.

So, an hour or two later, they are at 10,000 feet. They have both got themselves clipped on to the shoulders of a couple of the instructors (who also had a second human attached to the front of them)... and moments later, the noise of the aircraft was gone, replaced by the wooshing of them falling through the air. They were both 'surfing' through the air on the back of a human.... well, two humans each, I guess. They were plummeting through the air FAR faster than if they had 'fallen out the sky'. Elida was screaming out loudly "Amazing!!!!". Yes, she had flown up high before, but never THIS high!

They were in freefall for about 30 seconds: then the parachutes came out, and they spent the next four or five minutes drifting back to the ground. Both fairies were having the time of their lives.

"I've got to do it again!" said Elida.

"Maybe another day, I've got something else lined up now... something similar, but different...." said Sparkle. After relaxing for a bit, to get over the sheer thrill of what they had just done, Sparkle led them to the middle of a field, several miles away. They stood at the base of a large TV mast.

"Ever heard of BASE jumping?" asked Sparkle.

"No... do explain..."

"Well, BASE stands for 'Buildings, Antennae, Spans, and Earth'.... spans are things like bridges, and the last one is stuff like tall cliffs. This is an antenna. We're gonna jump off the top of it, with our wings IN!"

"Wings in? Ok, that definitely sounds stupid.... but a lot of fun! I guess we're gonna need to fly up there first?"

"No, this place is big enough that there's a small lift most the way up! With great views too! We just need to break in first...."

For a pair of fairies, adept at magic, they could open the door locks with no problems. Another bit of magic, and they were going up in the small lift, which was little more than a wire cage attached to the side of the large mast, giving great views of the surrounding countryside.

Yes, Elida had flown as high as this before (for example, when she rode the up-draughts with Puck, a couple of weeks before), but this was pleasantly different: she was able to just relax, and enjoy the views. Once at the top, they got out the lift, sending it back down again.

"I'm thinking we should go all the way up" said Sparkle: they were currently on an open platform, full of wires and big aerials, but still a short way from the actual top of the mast, where there were many more - mainly smaller - aerials. It was a little breezy, so they were both holding on carefully. "Come on, climb up the ladder....". A few minutes later they were right at the top, with just the flashing red lights and the lightning rods above them. They moved over to the down-wind side, and sat there - legs dangling over the side - for a few minutes, just taking in the peacefulness of where they were, and the views. Yes, they could easily fly this high, but normally they never would, there was no real need to. And usually when you're flying, you're doing it for a reason, and don't bother 'looking at the sights'.

"So, humans use a parachute to do this" explained Sparkle. "But we'll free-fall a lot slower than humans would, so I'm thinking we just throw ourselves off the top here, wings in, free-falling for most of the way... you up for it? The wind will probably take us over towards the trees over there". Throwing themselves through the air with their wings IN was not something that fairies normally did, so this was FUN for them to try!

The adrenaline was pumping through Elida like it had never done before: when they did the free-fall earlier, they were 'safely' on top of a human, who actually know what they were doing. This time it was just the two of them! "Yeah, let's do it!". They took each-others hands, and jumped...... and fell.... and fell....

The good news for Elida and Sparkle is that the terminal velocity of a fairy is indeed a lot lower than that of a falling human, so as they approached the ground, they slowly unfurled their wings, both landing gently on the grass some way from the trees. Both of the girls had big smiles on their faces.

"Excellent! Just a different sort of fun from before!" said Elida. It was clear that Elida's earlier stress was starting to wane.

"Ok, so let's go find some lunch, then I'll give you a choice for what we do next, depends on how extreme you'd like to go!"

They managed to find a small place in the country, run by a lady fairy and her daughter, where they were able to have a rather nice lunch.

"So, you said I had a choice for this afternoon."

"Yes, a choice for the first thing this afternoon... we can either do a bungee jump, or mountain-bike down a pretty steep hill - the latter definitely looks quite scary.

"In that case, sounds like we need to go mountain biking"

"I never realised that you were such an adrenaline junkie, Elida!"

"Neither did I, but you got me going this morning. I'm already feeling pretty good, but I think I need a bit more, to straighten my brain out! So... mountain biking... do you have some fairy-sized bikes we'll be using then?"

"No, there's a small group of guys who will be going downhill on mountain bikes. We just need to hold on tight, and enjoy the ride!". Sparkle and Elida flew for 20 minutes, which ended up with them flying up to the top of a pretty rough looking hill. At the top, a small group of mountain bikers were unloading their bikes from a couple of 4x4s.

"You've got a choice: that guy in the blue top with the braces is ok-ish, but he's gonna fall off halfway down. The guy in red is pretty good, but we'll need to hold on VERY tightly with him, he doesn't hang around. All the others are a lot slower, and much less adventurous, but 100% safe!"

"Mr Red, please! Mr Red!! So, how do we hold on?"

"I'm thinking we start by sitting on the handlebars, one of us each side. Then we rope ourselves on to the handlebars very tightly, with a safety rope between us, just in case....."

"Ah, right, ok...."

While the guy in red got himself ready, Elida and Sparkle tied themselves very firmly to the handlebars of his bike, with another rope tied between them. "Not too late to change your mind...". To be honest, Elida did feel a little apprehensive - what she didn't realise was that Sparkle was feeling just as bad!

As Sparkle had said, Mr Red was a good cyclist, but didn't hang around, and was very happy taking large jumps though the air, landing with quite a thump. Overall, the ride was a bit like a roller-coaster, just a bit longer, and a lot bumpier! It's just as well that Mr Red couldn't hear our two fairies: they were screaming pretty much all the way down.

"Phew.... that was amazing!" said Sparkle. "A bit bumpier that I expected, but wow, that was good. How you feeling Elida?"

"Oh, I'm good, but I think I'm gonna need to change my pants before we do anything else!"


Offline silver-moon-2000

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Re: Elida
« Reply #21 on: 22. May 2022, 19:18:24 PM »
Again, you manage to make me laugh. Imagining two elves strapped to a handlebar holding on for dear life and screaming their souls out while their human chauffeur is totally oblivious to that...
You really have a special way, evoking pictures in our minds. Love it!

Offline Sparky

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Re: Elida
« Reply #22 on: 22. May 2022, 19:37:08 PM »
Again, you manage to make me laugh. Imagining two elves fairies strapped to a handlebar holding on for dear life and screaming their souls out while their human chauffeur is totally oblivious to that...
You really have a special way, evoking pictures in our minds. Love it!

Oh, if you liked that, then I suspect you'll enjoy tomorrow's episode too!

PS: they are FAIRIES, not ELVES!!!! The fairies are the good guys, the elves are the bad guys   :D

Offline silver-moon-2000

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Re: Elida
« Reply #23 on: 22. May 2022, 20:40:40 PM »
PS: they are FAIRIES, not ELVES!!!! The fairies are the good guys, the elves are the bad guys   :D

I hang my head in shame  :-[

Offline Sparky

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Re: Elida
« Reply #24 on: 23. May 2022, 18:57:51 PM »
The excitement for our two elves fairies has not yet finished: Sparkle has one more bit of fun lined up for Elida - she's trying very hard to clear all that stress from Elida's mind. And who would have guessed that Elida would be such an adrenaline junkie?

==============================================

Day 34 (continued)

A while later....

Sparkle waved her wand, and two fairy-sized deck chairs appeared, along with a small table. Another wave of the wand, and there was a pitcher and 2 glasses on the table. They were in yet another small field. At one end was a row of 4 archery targets, at the other end were tables and so on, for the archers.

"Take a seat, and pour yourself a glass..."

"Ok, what is it?"

"Fairy Pimm's of course! Now, if I got my timings right, we'll be getting a bit of sunshine in a moment...". Sparkle sat in the second deckchair, and grabbed the other glass, which Elida had filled for her.

"Well, this is very nice, I must say, but I'm not seeing that this is any form of 'extreme sport', in fact, it's pretty much the opposite...."

"The extreme bit comes shortly, but we actually get to do three things here. Relaxing and having a drink in the sun is just the first of the three." And that's when the sun came out.

"Oh, yes, nice, I can live with that!"

There were currently 2 people practicing their archery, but it wasn't long before another couple came out, and started preparing themselves.

"From what I can make out, these two are brother and sister. And they are BOTH pretty good at shooting arrows...."

"Oh, ok..." They were sat just a short distance from them, so Elida looked at them: it was hard to be exact about their ages, but late teens, maybe into very early 20's would seem about right. After a couple of minutes getting things sorted out, they both put their quivers over their shoulders and picked up their bows. The first couple of shots at the targets were 'ok' at best, but between shots they were making adjustments to the sighting systems on their bows. Over the next two or three shots, they got closer and closer to the centre of the targets.

Sparkle finished her glass of Fairy Pimm's. "Ok, ready for the second bit? Follow me...". Sparkle led the two of them to in front of the male human. His sister said something, and he smiled, revealing a shiny wire across his front teeth, top and bottom.

"Oooh, nice, Hawley retainers......" said Elida. Yes, it was actually nice to see a good looking human with some form of shiny metal over their teeth. And his teeth looked really nice - just made ten times nicer by that silver wire. Definitely a lot nicer than those rather boring clear plastic things that so many people got nowadays.

"Now go look at his sister!" said Sparkle. Elida flew over to the girl. She was also good looking (for a human), and had an even nicer smile... not because her teeth were straight, but probably more to do with the fact that HER teeth were covered in metal brackets. Clearly NOT the large NHS ones, they were substantially smaller, but they suited her. The red ligs looked nice too. A tiny shiver of pleasure went down Elida's back as she looked at her mouth. The girl then smiled wider, revealing that she also wore a Herbst appliance.

"Oh, yes, very nice! I mean, her brackets could do with being a couple of sizes bigger, but no, these look nice on her!"

They returned to their seats, and poured a second glass of Fairy Pimm's.

"Well, very nice so far, but I'm still not seeing anything particularly extreme here..."

Sparkle smiled. "While you've been working hard trying to figure out how to teleport, I spent a bit of time doing some physics research"

"Physics research?"

"Yeah, stuff to do with mass, amd momentum, and velocity. You know, I discovered something VERY interesting".

Elida was interested to hear more. "Go on" she said.

"Well, did you realised that the 'stuff' in our Fairy world is quite different from the 'stuff' in the human world. I mean, when we interact with the human world, it's either with magic, or it's quite minimal. This morning, for example: we roped ourselves onto that sky-diver, but he had no idea we were actually there, and we didn't upset his balance or anything. Same on the bike. It seems that we have close to no effect on the human world, certainly as far as momentum goes..."

Elida's jaw was wide open, as she realised what Sparkle was saying. Then her brain connected that to where they were, and what was going on.... and her open jaw became a massive smile.

"Are you about to tell me what I THINK you're about to tell me?"

"Most probably. You up for it? It IS pretty extreme..."

"Hell, yeah, DEFINITELY extreme!! So have you worked out exactly HOW we can do it?"

"I'm thinking we'll need a brief bit of 'Fairytime' (ed's note: stops time for the humans for a while), and I think we'll need to rope ourselves on VERY tightly - just holding on probably ain't gonna be enough!"

Once again, they put their drinks down, and flew over to where the brother and sister had started to do a few 'synchronised' shots. They both reached behind themselves, pulling another arrow each from their quivers, then loading them onto their bows. At the same time as each other, they pulled back on their bows, almost ready to fire.

"And we're in Fairytime..." said Sparkle. "I don't know about you, but I'm a bit nervous"

"Nah, I mean, what could ever go wrong?"

"We're too fat??? I mis-calculated??? The universe thinks we're not worthy???". Both Sparkle and Elida carefully and gently flew down and sat astride the front of the arrows, then leaned down, hugging the arrow with their arms, and wrapping their legs around it too. They each ran a 'rope spell', making sure they were both very tightly bound to the arrow.

"Ready when you are!" called out Elida. Sparkle released the Fairtytime spell.

Twang!

A LOT of acceleration, as the arrows left the bows.

Whoosh...

They silently flew through the air at over a hundred MPH. Then, less than two seconds later...

THUD!

And a massive deceleration, as the arrows hit the target, about an inch or two below the centre of the 'bull'.

Neither of the two said anything for several seconds, I think they were both in a bit of shock. Sparkle looked over at Elida, and Elida looked over at Sparkle: they were both smiling stupidly.

"That extreme enough for you?" shouted Sparkle from the adjacent target.

"Yeah, definitely!... fancy doing it again?" suggested Elida, as she cast a spell to remove the ropes. She was just starting to get up when 'whoosh, thud!' and another arrow came screaming in. Sparkle looked on in horror as the arrow went straight through Elida, and into the target (luckily for Sparkle, she had't yet undone her ropes yet, and the arrow that came into her target just missed her). The arrow had gone into Elida's b*m, and came out of her right shoulder!

"Elida!!! Elida!!! are you ok?" screamed Sparkle, sounding very worried.

"Yeah, why shouldn't I be" replied Elida.

"Well, you look a bit like a fairy kebab right now. Doesn't it hurt?"

Elida looked down, and could see that she had been indeed 'skewered' by the arrow. "It's odd, whilst I can't actually move, I can hardly feel it, and I'm not seeing any blood either. Must be that fairy versus human physics of yours. I guess I'll just have to wait for Mr Archer there to come and pull the arrow out of the target, so I can 'slip off' the arrow!"

Whoosh! Thud! And another pair of arrows struck the target, both missing the two fairies by a hairs breadth. "They are good shots though, aren't they?" commented Elida.

Sparkle, seeing that the brother and sister were now walking towards the targets - she guessed to retrieve their arrows - finally undid her ropes, and went over to Elida, and looked at her carefully. "It's odd, it looks like its both inside you and not inside you, all at the same time!"

Five minutes later, they were back at the other end of the field. Once Mr Archer had pulled the arrow from the target, a little bit of magic helped Elida slip off the arrow, with no apparent injuries.

"You REALLY want to do this again?" asked Sparkle.

"Yeah... but no ropes this time...."

---

Back at Sparkle's place, the doorbell rang: they had decide to get a 'Deliverah' takeaway. The day had been a LOT of fun for both of them, but I think they had both finally had enough excitement for one day.

"How you feeling, Elida?" asked Sparkle.

"Physically quite exhausted.... but mentally, I feel so refreshed! Thank you Sparkle, you were absolutely right, we needed that today. I think I can cope with things for another week or two now."

"I never realised you were such an extreme sports junkie! So, you think it's gonna be as long as that?"

"It's so hard to say. I've made a lot of progress, but I still seem to be missing one or two important bits."

"Sounds like you need a bit of extra help.."

"Well, Sebby has been really great, sometimes her just being there keeps me going, but she's not actually all that experienced"

"Sounds like you should ask Lilly or Tats for help"

"But Zia said I shouldn't involve them, not let them know for the moment about my skills"

"That's easy for her to say, but she's not the one stuck in the time loop! Even if you DO involve them, they probably won't remember anything - well as long as you don't tell them anything on the last day we're in this damn loop. And you don't actually need to TELL Zia."

"Yeah, I'd never really thought about it like that. But, to be honest, I know Lilly is good at doing magic, I've never felt she had the ability to create new stuff..."

"So ask Tats then, she knows you, know's that you're quite able..."


Offline Sparky

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Re: Elida
« Reply #25 on: 24. May 2022, 21:22:56 PM »
Another day in 'the loop': I think Elida is feeling very (mentally) refreshed today, after her rather 'extreme' day yesterday!

------------------------------------

Day 35

"Hi there Tats!" said Elida as Tats answered her phone.

"Oh, hello there, Elida. Didn't expect to hear from you... You looking for Lilly?"

"No, it's you I wanted to talk to. Are you particularly busy today?". Elida already knew that she wasn't.

"Not really, what you wanting?"

"I was rather hoping you might be able to spend a couple of hours with me in the Dark Archive today, doing a bit of research"

"Oh, ok.... you know, I've heard about the Dark Archive, but I've never actually been there, so yes, why not? I might as well come straight over, if that's ok for you."

"Thank you Tats. Just one thing: probably best not to say anything about this to Lilly yet. I'll explain when you get here. I'll be at my desk....". Elida actually knew Tats more by reputation, than from spending time with her. It was Lilly who she had worked with, when tracking down 'the Dark Fairy' (aka Sebby!), and Elida hadn't been there when Tats turned up, right at the end.

Yes, they had met at that now 'famous' pub incident, and Tats had seen Elida in action there, first hand, so it was clear she knew about Elida. Sparkle actually knew Tats better, she had met her a few times before.

"Hi there, Elida!" said Tats, as she arrived at Elida's desk. There was a certain amount of whispering around the office: it wasn't that often they got a visit from a real princess (strangely, noone really considered Sebby to be a princess - probably partly due to a lack of familiarity, and partly because what had happened when she was 'the Dark Fairy' had been massively played down), and certainly not one with the reputation that Tats was starting to get! (I guess I should add that it was a GOOD reputation she was getting: capable, but not someone you want to mess with).

"Oh, Tats, good to see you again!". More whispering... 'Elida KNOWS her?' sort of thing. "Lets go get a coffee...."

"Good morning, Elida" said the boss, as Elida walked into her office. "Oh, Tats, nice to see you again too! Looking for something downstairs, or you here to help Elida?"

"Well, I've never actually been into the Archive, only heard about it from Lilly, so when Elida called and asked if I could help her, it was very easy to say 'yes'. So where IS it then?" asked Tats.

"In the storeroom....". Elida walked over to the door, and opened it, showing Tats that it was indeed just a storeroom, then closed the door again. "Ok, boss, can you let us in please?". Elida opened the door, and Tats could see that the storeroom had been replaced by some stairs"

"Very nice" said Tats, "an excellent disguise!". Elida led the way downstairs. "So, 'old magic' in this room, 'dark magic' next door. At the end is 'historical stuff'."

"And that door?" asked Tats.

"Oh, the most important door of the four: it's the loo!" explained Elida, smiling. "Lets start in the old magic room....". As she opened the door, the light came on (not electric, it was magic). "Good morning books, I have another visitor with me today, a PRINCESS no less, but she likes to just be called 'Tats'!".

"You talk to the books?"

"Yeah, of course? How else do I find stuff? Ok, let's try this. Does anyone have anything about Princess Tatiana?". Elida looked around at the books near her. "Ok, if I can't see you, why don't you just gently come around to the table?"

Tats was amazed as one book flew from around the corner, and landed gently on the table. "Ok, who are you then?" Elida asked the book, which then opened it's front cover, to reveal it's title: 'An almanac of the Royal Family'.

"Ok," said Elida to Tats, "I guess it makes sense." She turned back to the book "So, what do you know about Princess Tatiana then?". The book opened towards the rear, to a page which had a part of the family tree that covered Tats' immediate family, with a short bit of detail for each member of the family. After they had both read the entries, Elida sent the book back to it's shelf, with a 'thank you'.

"You're very polite to them"

"Doesn't hurt to be polite - in return they do try to help me!"

"Ok, so you asked me to help you with some research, which is odd, as you hardly know me: I would have thought you would have asked Lilly"

"Correct, Lilly would be the obvious choice, but I know Lilly, I've searched with her down here before, when we were looking at stuff to stop Sebby being a Dark Fairy, and I know she wouldn't be able to help me. I have a feeling that your mind works differently to hers, so maybe you can help me. But first, I need to tell you a bit of a story. It's going to be a bit of a hard story for you to believe, but I promise you it's true. I've already spoken with Sir Donald and Lady Charlotte, and they have already been quite helpful." (She hadn't mentioned anything about Zia to Tats, as she probably knew nothing about her.) "I'm hoping you have a different set of knowledge and experience, that might help me...". Elida spent about 10 minutes explaining about the time loop, about Sparkle, and about needing to invent a teleportation spell.

"Clearly you can talk with Sparkle about things, but the others won't know anything about it - yet, although I can probably get Sir Donald or Lady Charlotte to 'authenticate' me." (by which she meant that she could invoke 'Constantinople' and the 'Feather Duster'!). The good news is that Tats was sensible enough to realise that Elida simply couldn't make this up.

"No, that's fine. So, how can I help you? I'm yours for as long as you need me, which I guess means all of today!"

Elida spent some time explaining about needing to combine a large number of spells together, to be able to teleport. "I've worked out some of the obvious bits, but I'm getting a bit stuck.... let me show you what I've worked out so far...."

The day was good in several ways. First of all, Tats had some VERY helpful ideas and suggestions, and they found several spells that could indeed be helpful to Elida. But more importantly, they got to know each other better: Elida's respect for Tats' abilities grew, and Tats started to see that Elida was actually far more than a mere 'young tooth fairy', and clearly understood what magic was about, and how she was indeed able to combine multiple magic spells to do some clever stuff. Shame she'd forget it all by tomorrow.



"Hey, Elida, how was your day" asked Sparkle, as she arrived there for dinner.

"Today has actually been a VERY good day. Tats came to the Archive, and she came up with some really helpful ideas: I'm starting to really believe that I WILL be able to teleport! Meaning that we MIGHT get out of this bloomin' time loop!"

"Sounds like you got on well with her"

"I did, she's very intelligent, like Lilly, but in a different way: I can see why the two of them work together so well! And I think that she understood that I'm quite able too...."

"Maybe you need another session with her again, maybe tomorrow?"

"Funnily enough, that's exactly what I was thinking!"

Elida and Sparkle had dinner, and spent the evening together again: they were becoming really good friends.

Offline Sparky

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Re: Elida
« Reply #26 on: 25. May 2022, 17:48:14 PM »
day 36:

Buzz buzz buzz. Click.

Coffee

Shower / hair wash

Dress

Get some takeaway breakfast on the way to work.

Call Tats again. For the first time in a while, Elida felt enthused and amazingly positive: yesterday with Tats she'd made so much progress.

Explain everything to Tats again, including how helpful she'd been 'yesterday'.

It was just after lunch: Tats had made a suggestion which it turned out was a VERY significant one.

"Oh my god, I think I actually have enough here to try a simple teleport!"

"Of you?"

"No, no, something small and inanimate. Come on, let's go to a training room!". Elida didn't even need to check whether training room 2 would be free: she just remembered! Lock the door. Plus a locking spell on top: you can't be too careful you know!

"So how many spells are you going to need to use?"

"Eight, I think....."

"And all at the same time?"

"Well, yes and no. Some you just start off, and they keep going. Others are... how would I describe it?... 'momentary'?... sort of a 'checking something out' spell, then the rest of them together".

Elida's first attempts were close, but didn't quite work. The object she chose (a simple pencil) disappeared for a moment, but then just reappeared in the same place.

"I have an idea" said Tats, "There was something in that really old book...". Back in the Archive, they found the book that Tats meant. "Here, read this...". It seemed that one of the spells that Elida was (ab)using needed a second 'supporting' spell in certain circumstances, to make it work properly.

Back to the training room. Elida loaded up the nine spells she needed. Nine spells at once was more than she'd ever done before, but she had a feeling that, after a few tries, it would become a lot easier for her.

As she waved her hand to cast the spells, the pencil disappeared from where it was on the table, and re-appeared on the table again, a couple of feet away.

"Well done, Elida!! Well done! That is pretty spectacular! Time for a celebration: I'll treat you to a cup of coffee from upstairs!". (the last bit was actually just a joke: the coffee upstairs was free!).

Elida was over-joyed. "Thank you Tats, you probably don't realise quite how helpful you have been!". Elida also felt VERY relieved: she had proven that the CONCEPT of teleportation was valid: it was now 'relatively simple' to scale it up, and make it work with a living thing, such as a fairy.

(Where 'relatively simple' means just another three or four days of work!)

------------------------

Days 37 - 40:

By the 12th day (after she had first found Sparkle, that is), Elida was managing to combine a total of 9 spells without too much effort, and could teleport small objects over small distances - she would go up into the practice room with Sebby, then double lock the door before trying out the ideas. If you're wondering why she was working with Sebby, rather than with Tats, it was simply that, whilst Tats had been really helpful, Elida just never felt fully relaxed working with her. By comparison, Elida felt quite relaxed when working with Sebby. If she got stuck, she could always have another day with Tats.

By the 15th day she had combined 12 spells, and managed to safely send a large plant - so something living - over to Sparkle's place. The following day, using 14 spells all carefully combined, she sent a small rabbit, which arrived pretty unharmed (ok, it seems like it was a bit disorientated for a couple of minutes when it got there).

"Ok, this is it, Sebby,” said Elida. She was about to try and teleport herself across the room.

"Are you sure, Elida, I mean, what happens if...."

"If I kill myself? I think I'd just wake up again this morning, and be able to try it once again!". To be honest, Elida WAS worried. She COULD actually die if she screwed up. But she wasn't planning to do so... and even so, it seemed likely that the time loop would just resurrect her.

Elida concentrated VERY hard: she was now up to 15 spells, and combining 15 spells at the same time was NOT easy (well, not the first few times you do it, it isn't!), and she knew that, before she could do what she REALLY had to do, she'd need to add in a couple more spells, which she would be wanting to invoke on landing. After a deep breath, she summoned up those 15 different spells, each responsible for a small part of moving her from one place to the other - heaven only knows what would happen if they didn't quite synchronise properly!

With a wave of her hand, she disappeared, re-appearing instantly on the far side of the room. She felt slightly dis-orientated, but she felt that partly because it was the first time she had done it, and it felt a bit weird seeing something one moment, and something different a moment later. But after just a few seconds, she felt ok.

"Oh, wow, you did it, Elida! Do you feel ok?"
 
"Surprisingly yes....". Over the next hour, Elida repeated the teleportation spell within the room several more times: she felt that she needed to be both familiar with the spell, and improve her accuracy. Landing was a bit like when you're flying, and need to land: initially the landings aren't particularly good nor accurate, nor elegant for that matter, but you quickly get a lot better at it. Also, the more she repeated the spell, the easier she was finding it to actually combine all of the 15 spells. 

After taking yet another coffee break, she announced "Ok, next jump I'm going over to Sparkle's". When she had teleported the other objects, the difference between a short and a longer teleport - from the magic perspective, that is - was pretty minimal. She just needed to visualise where the object should land (and make sure Sparkle wasn't in the way!), and it just worked.

"Ok, Sparkle, I'm going to aim for your bedroom, near the bed" she said on the phone that Sebby was holding. Once again, she concentrated, and invoked the many spells...........

"Oh my god! She did it!" screamed Sparkle down the phone, so that Sebby knew she had landed ok.

"I feel a bit like.... I hit some turbulence on the way" said Elida taking some deep breaths, "but that was pretty much where I was hoping to land!"

Sparkle passed her phone to Elida. "Hey, Sebby, want to head over to my place?". They planned to continue with a few jumps between Elida's and Sebby's: she needed to land in just the right place at Sparkle's tomorrow morning, to be able to hit the two elves hard.


Over the last 2 weeks or so, the first thing Elida had done every morning was to fly over to Sparkle's to release her, and fix her teeth. Then she debriefed Sparkle regarding EXACTLY what the elven thugs did, and where they walked. Over those 2 weeks, Sparkle paid more and more attention, and her descriptions became more and more detailed, which helped Elida, as her landing place needed to be somewhere they never walked (as she wasn't yet 100% sure of her timing relative to theirs), but somewhere she could quickly see where they were, and launch her defensive magic against them. The great thing was that, from what they could tell, the elves were NOT part of the time loop: they did *exactly* the same thing every day, so if Elida failed tomorrow, they could always try again the next day!

Elida teleported back to her place, where Sebby was waiting - she was expecting the 'side effects' this time, so didn't feel at all bad when she landed. The more she teleported, the easier it came. Each time she teleported, she loaded up an extra couple of 'retaliation spells', practising for the next morning.

"Ok" said Elida to Sebby, "once you know I'm there ok, fly over and join us, Sparkle has made us all some dinner!". For this last jump, they had lined up a couple of plants (ones that Elida had teleported earlier in the week!) where they thought the two elves would be, as targets. As Elida landed, she launched off the couple of small fireball spells that she'd loaded up, turning both plants instantly to dust.

"Well, I think I'm as ready as I'll ever be!" said Elida.

Sparkle went and hugged her, holding her tightly. "Elida, thank you SO much for everything you've been doing for me these last couple of weeks! I finally have some hope back again..."

Elida, Sparkle and Sebby spent the evening together at Sparkle's place, and in fact they all fell asleep there. Yes, an amount of alcohol WAS involved... but being in a time loop did have a couple of advantages: you never got a hangover, and you never needed to go shopping - apart from the Honey and Nut Cornflakes, that is! The only downside was Elida would never get paid for all the extra overtime she was putting in!

Offline Sparky

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Re: Elida
« Reply #27 on: 26. May 2022, 23:18:24 PM »
Day 41:

Elida's alarm went off: she gently pressed the button to turn the noise off. She shook her head a couple of times to get her brain working. Her brain reminded her that she needed to teleport straight away over to Sparkle's. Still in her pyjamas, she loaded up the 15 spells she would need to teleport over to Sparkle's place, plus two more: one to incapacitate the two elves for a short time, the other to tie ropes around them.
 
Elida cast the 15 simultaneous spells, and instantly she was in Sparkle's bedroom. The two elves were walking out of the bedroom door, with Sparkle in front of them, the anti-magic rope around her, stopping Sparkle from doing any magic. She couldn't have asked for an easier target: the two elves had heard something behind them, and had just turned, to see Elida there launching the incapacitation spell at them... followed immediately by the spell to tie them both up.

"OH YES!!!!!" screamed out Elida. By now, Sparkle had turned around, and had a huge smile on her face. "Elida, that's just AMAZING!". For the first time in nearly 6 weeks, Sparkle still had her teeth and braces!

"You ok?"

"I will be once you get this rope off me!". Elida undid the anti-magic rope. They dragged the two elven thugs back into the living room, and the elves started to come to.

"Good morning gentlemen!" said Elida, who was still dressed in her pyjamas. "Although I think that's being a little rude to REAL gentlemen. I have some good news and some bad news for you. The good news, as far as you're concerned, is that, apart from what I've already done to you, there's not a lot more I can do to you. The BAD news though is that Sparkle there doesn't have that restriction, and I think she's built up a lot of anger over the last 5 or 6 weeks, what with you coming in every morning, tying her up, pulling off her braces, along with a few teeth, then leaving her alone in her kitchen for the rest of the day"

"6 weeks? What you talking about? This is the first time we've been here!" complained one of the elves.

"Well, it may be the first time for YOU, but because of you two, Sparkle and I have been stuck in a time loop for about the last 6 weeks, and Sparkle has built up a bit of an anger issue. I suggest you tell her what you're up to, and who you're doing it for, unless you want to feel very sore in several places. Sparkle, I'm going to go into your bedroom and call Sir Donald, I'll leave you to deal with your anger issues!"

Elida walked out into the bedroom, and called Sir Donald: it was only 7:22, and she guessed that Sir Donald would be at home, but this WAS important. VERY important. She started with a text: "Constantinople - I will call you in a moment, Elida". Next, she called Sir Donald, who answered immediately.

"Hello, Elida?"

"Good morning, Sir Donald, I'm so very sorry for calling so early. First can I repeat the 'Constantinople' and also add in a 'feather duster'. Don't worry, Zia explained to me what they mean, and I'm deadly serious in using them"

"Ok, Elida, you have my complete attention, how can I help?". Elida was VERY relieved that Sir Donald appeared to be taking her seriously.

"It's a bit of a story, so here goes: about 6 weeks ago, I got stuck in a time loop, repeating every day. I've spoken with you, Charlotte and Zia several times in those 6 weeks, and you've all been very helpful to me. About 3 weeks ago, I discovered that Sparkle was in the time loop too. Every morning, just before she awoke, two eleven thugs broke in to her apartment, dragged her out of her bed, tied her up with anti-magic rope, and pulled out her braces - along with a few teeth - leaving her tied to a chair in her kitchen until the end of the day, until it all happened again the next day. She had been suffering like that for three weeks, till I found her". As Elida paused, there was a loud scream in the background.

"What's that? Is everything alright there?" asked Sir Donald.

"I think so... I left Sparkle looking after the two elves, I have a feeling she's getting rid of six weeks of anger onto them... I'm guessing she probably just kicked one of them in the nuts, sir! Now, where was I? Ah yes, so after I realised that Sparkle needed my help, I flew over as soon as I woke up: sadly, I was a couple of minutes too late. So, I have spent the last 2 to 3 weeks working out how I could teleport from my place to hers: I finally did it this morning, about 10 minutes ago". There was another scream in the background.

"Excuse me a moment, sir.... Sparkle, they talking yet?" called out Elida.

"No, they're not!" said an angry voice from the other room.

"Something tells me that Sparkle won't actually manage to get them to talk, so maybe you'd like to organise a couple of your beefy FAS* guys to come over, collect the two elven thugs, and see if THEY can persuade them to talk!"

(FAS: Fairy Air Service... like the british 'SAS', or US 'Special Forces')

"Did you just say 'Teleport'?" asked Sir Donald, sounding VERY surprised.

"Yes, sir, I did sir. You know, it only takes 15 spells to teleport, so I was also able to bring a couple of extra defensive ones with me to use when I landed! So, will you be able to organise a couple of guys?"

"Teleporting... I'm impressed! As for the FAS team: I certainly can. In fact, maybe I should come over there myself....". Elida made sure Sir Donald had the correct address, then they hung up, so he could organise the needed manpower.

Elida went back to the lounge, where Sparkle was simply standing on top of one of the elves.

"Feeling any better for that?" Elida asked Sparkle. Yes, Elida knew that Sparkle had probably 'overstepped the mark', but she didn't mind, they deserved whatever Sparkle had just given them. Besides, if the loop repeated, you could easily claim that she'd never actually done anything to them!

"A bit! Tell you what though, it feels so good to still have all my own teeth and braces in my mouth for a change, I'd almost forgotten what it felt like. Elida... would you mind if I hurt them just a LITTLE bit more?"


About half an hour later, Sir Donald turned up: of course, Elida was in her pyjamas when she had first teleported to Sparkle's, but she had popped home in the meantime to get dressed. Almost the same time that Sir Donald arrived, a couple of noticeably burly FAS guys also arrived, and took the two elven thugs with them. The two elves hadn't told Sparkle anything of use.... but she guessed that they may change their tune soon, once the FAS guys 'played' with them!

"As soon as they tell us who they are working with, we'll go to apprehend them" said Sir Donald

"Something tells me that, by the time you get anything out of them, their accomplices will be long gone, and we'll need to do all this again tomorrow". Elida spent a few minutes explaining what had been happening the last 5 to 6 weeks: she knew that she would most likely need to do it all again tomorrow, but there was a SLIGHT chance that today could be the last day in the loop, in which case being polite to Sir Donald would be worth it. More importantly, she needed him to really understand how important it was for him to tell her ANYTHING they discovered today, so she could tell him again the following morning.

"So, Sir Donald, as soon as you know anything, can you please let me know. From your perspective, our tomorrow will just be another repeat of this morning for you, and you won't know anything"

"Yes, I understand, very good point.... so yes, I'll let you know by the end of the day at latest what we find out" said Sir Donald.

"Hopefully, if we can tell you the details first thing tomorrow, you might have a better chance of finding them."

"So, you say you actually teleported here? To my knowledge, no one has achieved that before...."

"Would you like a quick demonstration?" asked Elida.

"Oh, yes please, that would be very interesting!".

"Ok... Sparkle, I have an idea" said Elida, picking up an orange from a bowl. "Stand over there, then when I tell you, throw it in the air, and I'll try and teleport over and catch it.". To be honest, she didn't really imagine that she'd actually manage it, but it would be fun to try. With Sparkle on one side of her lounge, and Elida on the other (with a settee in the way too!) she prepared herself, loading up the 15 spells she would need. "Ok, Sparkle, throw it up". She looked where the orange was, and cast the spells. The next moment she was in front of Sparkle, and actually caught the orange!

Sir Donald was suitably impressed. "So, do explain in simple terms what you did..."

"I ran fifteen different spells, almost simultaneously, each handling part of the process. At the moment, I'm limiting myself to somewhere I know, and with the proviso that I KNOW it's an empty space. If I'm going to use it more, I'm going to need to add a few more spells, to do some safety checks...."

"Fifteen: very impressive - how on earth did you manage to do that?"

"It's not that easy, but it does get a lot easier the more you do it. Since YOUR yesterday, I've been working on this pretty solid for close to 3 weeks! So I've been working up the number of spells over that time. After a few tests, I finally managed to teleport yesterday."

"And you've been in the loop for 5 or 6 weeks in total you said?"

"Yes, somewhere between 5 and 6, to be honest, I've lost count. And I'm going to assume that we'll need to do it at least one more time"

"Well, I can manage to do 2 or 3 spells at the same time, how you manage 15 is beyond me! I know Zia can also do that sort of thing too, but it's still very impressive. It's very clear that you will make a very worthy 'Protector' for us all! Ok, I'll let you know what we learn, until then, I think you two deserve to take the rest of the day off! And I'll look forward to hearing from you tomorrow... or maybe that should that be 'earlier today'?". Elida was very pleased that Sir Donald not only trusted her, but also appreciated the implications of her being in a time loop.

 
Late in the afternoon, Elida received a call from Sir Donald: the 2 elves had finally given them some information, including an address, but when the FAS team had got there, the place was empty.

"Looks like we get to do it all again tomorrow, Sparkle,” said Elida.

"Yeah, not to worry. Hey, why don't you try a different spell to immobilise them tomorrow?"

"Nice idea, suggestions?"

"Hmmm.... how about pull them up by their legs? Have them hanging upside down?"

"Yes, I'm very ok with that! Hey, my glass is empty....". The girls had taken up Sir Donald on his suggestion of taking the day off - they certainly deserved it, as well as needing it - and they had gone out and got a couple of bottles of wine, and a load of food that they shouldn't REALLY be eating.... they had realised that it didn't matter WHAT they did today, they'd be quite normal and sober again when the morning came!

Offline Sparky

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Re: Elida
« Reply #28 on: 27. May 2022, 20:52:52 PM »
Day 42:

Elida's alarm went off. She shook her head a couple of times to get her brain working. Yes, she needed to go and sort out two elves.... yet again! Still in her pyjamas, she turned off the alarm (hopefully for the last time in a while), then loaded up the 15 spells she would need to teleport over to Sparkle's place, plus two more, similar to yesterdays, yet slightly different. At least today Elida pretty much knew what to expect when arriving at Sparkle's place.
 
Elida ran the 15 simultaneous spells (every time she did so, she found it easier to do), and once again she was instantly in Sparkle's bedroom. The two elves were walking out of the bedroom door, but today she was a second or two earlier, which made them even easier targets.

"Hey, punks!!" she screamed. They turned around, and were rather surprised to see a second young fairy in the room, still in her pyjamas. "Prepare to die, punks!!!" she added, just as loudly. She paused for another couple of seconds: she knew they couldn't do anything to either Sparkle or her in that time, but it was so worth it, just to watch the reactions on their faces. She launched the two spells on them, and moments later, they were dangling upside down, hanging from ropes that were held in the air by magic, their hands also tied together, and gaffer tape over their mouths - all purely 'protective magic' mind you!

Once again, the elves had no idea what had just hit them! Sparkle had turned around to see what Elida had managed to do. "Oh yeah, nice one Elida!". Elida rushed over and removed the anti-magic rope from Sparkle, then gave her a hug - she could only imagine what had been happening inside Sparkle's head when these two had, once more, broken into her flat and dragged her out of bed.

"And as for you two, hopefully this will be the LAST time you try and attack my friend! The good news for you two is that I suspect that she's not feeling QUITE as stressed out as yesterday. But Sparkle, they are yours to play with, I need to call Sir Donald!". Sparkle and Elida dragged the two (currently floating) elves into her living room, then - as she did the day before - Elida walked into the bedroom, and called Sir Donald, leaving Sparkle alone with the two elves: again, it was 7:22, and she knew that Sir Donald would be at home, but this WAS important. She started with a text: "Constantinople - I will call you in a moment, Elida". Next, she called Sir Donald, who answered immediately.

"Hello, Elida?"

"Good morning, Sir Donald, once again, I'm so very sorry for calling so early. First can I repeat the 'Constantinople' and also add in the 'feather duster' too. Don't worry, Zia explained to me what they mean, and I'm deadly serious in using them"

"Ok, Elida, you have my complete attention, how can I help?"

"It's a bit of a story, and hopefully it's the last time I'll need to tell you, but here goes: about 6 weeks ago, I got stuck in a time loop, repeating every day. I've spoken with you, Charlotte and Zia several times in those 6 weeks, including yesterday morning, and you've all been very helpful to me. Around 3 weeks ago, I discovered that Sparkle was in the time loop too. Every morning, just before she awoke, two eleven thugs broke in to her apartment, tied her up with anti-magic rope, and pulled out her braces - along with a few teeth - leaving her tied to a chair in her kitchen, until the end of the day. Then it all happened again the next day. She had been suffering like that for over three weeks, till I found her".

"Oh no, not nice.... but do please continue".

Elida explained how she'd taught herself to teleport, and how she had actually captured the two elves yesterday, and how Sir Donald had organised some FAS guys to elves take them away, and do some 'persuading' on them. "Of course, you're not in our time loop, so you won't remember any of that. But you managed to get an address off these two, which you gave me"... she gave Sir Donald the address. "I'm hoping that if you can get a couple of your guys over there straight away, you should be able to catch them. In the meantime, once again we've got the two elves here, incapacitated....". There was a loud scream in the background. "Sorry, that's just Sparkle, she's probably doing some torture on them again... now where was I? Ah yes, maybe you can also send a couple of FAS guys to Sparkle's to collect these two?"

"Well, Elida, what you have just told me sounds far too amazing to be a prank, so you can be sure I'll get things sorted straight away. I think maybe I should come over there too, if that's ok?"

"You are very welcome to visit, Sir Donald....". Once again, she made sure he had the address.

"Umm... are your two 'captives' going to be ok with Sparkle...?"

"Oh, she's actually a very pleasant torturer!" replied Elida. They ended the call.



"So, Sparkle, what HAVE you been doing to them, to make then scream like that?" asked Elida.

"Did you know that elves hate having their earlobes crushed?", Sparkle went to one of the elves, and pressed his earlobe tightly between her thumb and forefinger, making him scream in pain. "It's very cathartic you know, you should give it a try...."

"Well, it's NOT magic, and they aren't fairies either.... so why not!" Elida went and squeezed the other elf's earlobes - both at once, making him scream loudly. "Ooooh, yes, that DOES feel good, doesn't it!". I don't need to tell you what the two fairies were doing to the two elves for the next couple of minutes!

Offline firesonga

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Re: Elida
« Reply #29 on: 27. May 2022, 22:49:31 PM »
Let's be honest, do non-elves like having their earlobes squeezed tightly?

Really enjoying the story.