Malapert's Mushrooom
By Sarah Ashwood
Annoyed,
Kaynelle in her red tunic, blue skirt, golden armband, and braided red anklet, hunched on the yellow toadstool.
Was it my fault, she pouted, that my little joke turned out to be a disaster?
Daughter of a fairy princess and an elvish prince—the miniature variety, not the human-sized sort—her ears were long and pointed: a gift from her elvish father. Delicate blue wings sprouted from her back: heritage of a fairy mother. Her frame was petite, but lithe and graceful. Long blonde hair flowed to her waist: a gift from both parents. Nevertheless, none of these physical attributes compared with her real inheritance; namely, her ability to don any sort of costume and truly become that which she feigned.
However, surpassing even that, her greatest talent was mischief…a dubious talent that had gotten her into her present, unenviable position: prisoner to her mother’s fairy relatives.
Who would believe Uncle Rodzie would take on so just because he choked a little when I transformed back into myself?
In all reality, Uncle Rodzie—Chief Counselor to her grandfather, the King, had turned several interesting shades of blue, purple, and red. His serving man had been forced to perform maneuvers meant to dislodge the vegetable chunk lodged in this throat. His debatable success had caused her uncle to spew vegetable vomit across the table and into the laps of the visiting pixie dignitaries.
Was that my fault? fourteen-year old Kaynelle grumbled.
She didn’t think so, but it was the last straw for the fairy court. Nobody could take any more of her rash pranks. Yesterday’s visiting the human castle and disguising herself as a lobster, merely to see what sea creatures talked about had been a bad idea, she admitted ruefully. But who knew lobsters were simply picked up and dropped alive into a pot of boiling water at cooking time? She’d certainly given the pudgy chef a ghastly shock when, upon glimpsing her fate, Kaynelle had transformed back with a shriek.
“Fly!” the cook had squealed, “demon fly!” Instantly, every scullery maid present was chasing her about with flyswatters. Thankfully, she’d managed to escape out an open window, but was it her fault the cook’s piggy eyes were hidden between rolls of fat, making her mistake Kaynelle for a fly instead of a fairy?
Not my fault at all!
Alas! Her grandparents had, naturally, blamed her. Kaynelle, visiting their fairy court for the summer, was under their protection. Locking away the great quantity of costumes stored in the castle for future balls was not sufficient punishment. Especially after today’s episode. Her magical talents proved an excellent resource for eavesdropping on conversations adult fairies wished to keep secret. Today, she’d been hiding as a gnat, absorbing the confidential diplomatic exchanges between the fairies and pixies when a private supper was served. She’d never meant to land in Uncle Rodzie’s soup. Conflicting wind currents from the open window had caught her, tossing her down. Anyway, was she supposed to let Uncle Rodzie chew her up and swallow her down?
Better to make a fool of oneself than a cannibal. Right?
Apparently, she was the only one who thought so. In order to teach her to use her gifts more wisely, Kaynelle had been placed here, in fairy prison.
Fairy prison was a giant, yellow toadstool. Called the Malapert’s Mushroom—a malapert being an impudent, bold, saucy person—it was used for the punishment of those with fey blood. Something about the composition, the makeup of this unusual plant glued anybody of fey blood to it until magically released. Meaning Kaynelle was planked there on her backside, unable to rise despite her best efforts. She and the mushroom were partners—Probably for life, she groaned—or at least until her grandparents decided she had learned her lesson.
Over her eyes was a tight blue mask lacking eyeholes. It was really a cunning blindfold: though her hands were free, she couldn’t untie it. The knots simply refused to budge. Her grandmother was a master of such irritating little tricks. The mask was meant to check her one useful sense. Out here in the middle of nowhere, stuck on a toadstool, there was nothing to do, nothing to touch, nothing to taste, nobody to talk to, nobody to hear. To prevent her gazing around, she had been blindfolded too. The purpose of this exercise was to deprive her of her senses, forcing her to think—something her grandparents swore she never did. And until she learned to think before acting, she would remain on the Malapert’s Mushroom.
Strange to relate, Kaynelle was not bored. Her grandparents accused her of not thinking? Very well—she would think. So think she did, her elvish-fairy brain buzzing, the mixed magic churning in her bloodstream, begging for release. How can I escape? How—
Abruptly, she had it. Simple, really, but if not for the butterfly she perceived flitting by the edges of the forbidden zone, it would never have worked. A slow, wicked smile curved Kaynelle’s mouth.
Fairy prisoner, eh? Not for long, Your Majesties. Not for long.
In their haste to punish her, they had forgotten one very important thing. When dealing with a Shapeshifter akin to herself, Kaynelle needed no mask or costume to transform. The peculiar magic of one Shapeshifter sings to another, which was how she’d perceived the creature. Now, all she need do was call it, touch it, become it…and fly away.
“Oh butterfly! Happy, pretty, little butterfly,” she whispered seductively, her low, sweet voice carried to the vain, simpleminded creature on a sly, elvish wind. “Come to me, little butterfly. Come so I may admire you. Come, come…”
The butterfly, glorying in its recent metamorphosis from slug-like to stunning, only too happily complied. Her smile widening, Kaynelle put out one forefinger—an inviting perch.
“Here, lovely one. Rest here a moment. Pray, let me admire your newfound splendor.”
Dancing on wings of joy, the butterfly drew nearer, nearer…
Freedom beckoned.
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Sarah Ashwood is a twenty-three year old, full-time college student working towards a B.A. in English with an emphasis on creative writing from American Military University. She is a member of the International Honor Society, Phi Theta Kappa, and has been selected for the National Dean’s List. Sarah has recently joined a second honour society, The Golden Key, and has been invited to join a third—Delta Epsilon Tau.
Sarah’s poetry was first published in the October 2007 edition of Art and Prose. In November of 2007 she won first place in a local literary contest for an essay on the importance of reading. Since that time, her work—poetry and prose, fantasy and non-fantasy, fiction and non-fiction—has appeared in such publications as Aoife’s Kiss, Flashing Swords Press, Mindflights, Outdoors Spectacular, The Lorelei Signal, Abandoned Towers, New Myths, TeenAge, Silver Blade, and Wanderings Magazine. As of March 2009, future work will appear in Homeschooling Today and Devozine.
Sarah’s first book, a volume of poetry titled A Minstrel's Musings, was published by Cyberwizard Productions in April 2009. In 2010, Sarah’s Young Adult fantasy novel, Knight’s Rebirth, will also be published by Cyberwizard Productions. Sarah’s western-fantasy short story, Twenty-Two, has been selected to appear in a Best of 2008 anthology published by The Lorelei Signal; it will be available later this year. Along with her cousin, Carol Green, Sarah is co-editor of the fantasy ezine, Moon Drenched Fables. For more information, visit www.sarahashwood.homestead.com.
