Ah… Laughter… Merry laughter…
On the balmy summer nights, the gentle tittering of the Fae could warm the soul better than any flame…
Fairies were crafty, capricious creatures. Long has it been known that these mystic kind are anything but innocent… Yet, the Tinkaton were among the most beloved of them. They were artificers and blacksmiths supreme, interested only in designing new instruments of iron, and… well, for whatever reason, defending their skies…
They would ask for pay, and do their work to the highest degree. Simple, and dependable. And yet…
That trickster blood still lingered in their veins… A desire to show off… To be the best, in deed or tale…
This village of Tinkaton was the kind that had practised their traditions for generations untold… In one form or another, this beautiful glade had always been occupied by a fertile nest of lucky Fairies. But after so many repeated performances, they seemed to have forgotten why they performed in the first place…
Were they simply no longer worthy of nature’s protection? Had they drawn its wrath instead with their irreverence?
In a blazing moment, so many lives were lost… The valley itself was forever cursed… A lifetime of angst and agony, bottled away under a soft facade, rushed down upon them in a single furious moment…
They had done so well when they took in the lost, mischievous nature spirit… Yet they had strayed so far that they had killed him in the end…
The leader of the village by that point was a figurehead… Little more than someone who could tell a bawdy tale, as opposed to the heroes of old chosen by deed and might. When the flames engulfed her home, she could do little more than stand atop the burning hut and cry out orders that would not be heard, as the flame enveloped her body…
Her flesh was burned… Just as the last image she saw through the smoke was burned into her mind to haunt her through her days...
Twosa’s howl echoed into the night over the roar of the inferno, until a cold hand of steel clamped around her waist, and dragged her into the darkness through the smoke...
Deep within the woods surrounding the vaunted region of Unova, where trainer, nor Pokemon dared not tread carelessly, there was…
...a sylvan glade of the utmost beauty…
An immense, old tree had sprouted from the fertile soil, and its heavy vines had created a shaded clearing where shafts of sun and moonbeams pierced to create glittering, wondrous light…
It was nothing less than a gem… A sanctuary in the forest that had long ago been claimed by the ceaseless buzzing of fey wings.
Cutiefly and Ribombee alike busily flitted to and fro under the canopy of their home. When they had properly tended to the flowers that bloomed in their realm, they hovered back to the tree and slipped inside…
Its trunk was vast enough to host an immense hive in its hollow core, and yet still grow healthily. It was the perfect place for a kingdom of busily buzzing Bug types to construct an impregnable fortress. Their mastery of warfare left them expand; to breed ever greater numbers, and set their sights beyond a single tree… Perhaps, as every hive desires, they would eventually cover the whole of the land…
And the only thing that stopped them was their biology; every new soldier had to be produced by the Queen, and her alone…
Atop the tree, at the highest branch, there was a chamber carefully crafted from wood and stone. Within it, a throne sat… It was particularly made, seemingly designed to let the Ribombee atop it to part her legs with ease for her eternal duty…
“...hhyehh… Hnn.”
Barely a noise. The bored monarch seemed almost to ignore the new egg crowning at her thighs, where any other mother would be howling…
Ah… But royalty wasn’t rest upon Velvet’s brow for nothing, after all...
She settled her cheek on her fist and huffed heavily as the egg slipped from her and into the waiting arms of one of her attendants. They cooed stale praise and buzzed away… only for another to immediately and eagerly line up for the next…
Indeed, Velvet’s midsection hadn’t deflated at all. Her pregnancy was undeniably obvious, even just after she’d finished pushing. And the contractions… Well…
“...ugh.”
She set her head back and closed her eyes. She had command over this whole hive… Yet the few times she’d attempted to defy her cycle of constant pushing had ended… poorly. She winced and subtly rubbed her back at the memory…
For the moment, she had all but given herself to this fate. Her spirit dwindled every day, looking for something to distract her from the endless efforts. How had generations of Queen done this without their minds simply snapping… Or was it her fate too to go made with breeding desire, and spend all of her days delirious, fat, and reclined on this throne…
Velvet sat up and repositioned a bit. Her poor wings were cramping, and she fluttered them briefly to work out the kinks in her muscles. The stricter, larger Ribombee guards at the room’s entrance eyed her, but didn’t move so long as she didn’t try to escape…
She didn’t, of course. She had long since learned, even when she was a sweet little Cutiefly, that if she wanted to escape… She’d have to be crafty. And leaping up to fling yourself out of the window when you’re almost too heavy to fly was anything but clever.
Instead she merely adjusted for comfort, before the coming of the next egg would make that impossible. But as she did, she glanced from the window…
Her pretty throne room was surrounded by large panes of glass so that she could observe her realm. The view as gorgeous, and yet it was merely that; a view. If she couldn’t flit amongst those leaves, what good was it…
“...ah?”
Something distracted her from the mounting contractions...
A burnt clearing had appeared nearby. She remembered her advisors telling her about a minor fire, but since it didn’t threaten them at all, it was merely an offhand mention. She hadn’t realized the clearing was so close… Less than a day’s walk. She recalled there being other Fairies there that chose not to interact with her hive… though the fact that a few years prior, a honey stealing attempt had gone catastrophically wrong for those brutish fae females likely put them off of trying again either way.
But now, their village was gone. A great flame in its centre had drawn her attention, and she realized it was a funeral pyre…
“...ehhh…?”
She leaned lightly to look. She could see no one within the burnt out husk of rubble… No, wait a moment…
Two of the Tinkaton seemed to remain… One who had a large presence... and a feeble one, wrapped in oddly alluring bandages. Velvet couldn’t help but smirk gently at the idea of the two trying to repopulate their village after what must have been a disastrous inferno…
“Ahem. My Queen.”
Velvet glanced annoyedly at the Ribombee buzzing in front of her. They swayed eagerly, as if they truly were just a child asking for something simple and sweet…
“...The next egg?”
“You’ll get your egg when my body is ready. Don’t rush me.” she growled, causing the other Bug to back off quickly. Velvet slumped back in her seat in frustration and attempted to work the egg lower into her passage, but…
She found herself leaning again… The two Tinkaton were the ones who made the funeral pyre… Velvet squinted gently, taking in the details…
“...seems most of the others perished…”
Velvet gained a rare, precious smirk. Her antennae twitched, and tilted towards the window, glittering lightly with Fairy energy, as she began to listen closer…
“...ahuhuh…”
“My QUEEN.”
She jumped, and her expression faded to an annoyed frown again. The Advisor buzzed in front of her, while the two Guards had stepped up and now glowered down at her…
“...You… You need to push, my Queen. If you allow them to be backed up, our numbers could dwindle to dangerous levels…!”
Velvet rolled her eyes. After all, she could hear the hive buzzing below her constantly, and in absurd numbers already. There were few enemies powerful enough to take on a swarm of fairies…
“Fine. Fine… Yes, I got distracted… I’ll continue laying… But… I want something else as I do.”
The Ribombee settled her legs apart and draped her arms lazily on her middle. She glanced at the Advisor, patiently waiting to hear, and her smirk returned…
“...a journal, and a pen… I have something I’d like to write down...~”
“...They need their proper honour. They must turn to ash for the plants, and their weapons must melt back into the earth. It’s simply returning them to the natural cycle, and denying all of them that just because...”
“Well it isn’t as if we didn’t NEED those weapons… We could have reforged them into something far better…” the other Fairy suddenly interrupted...
“Feh. We. You can barely lift your own weight right now, let alone a hammer… You need just as much rest as I do.”
“No rest for us. We need to repopulate, Shuffle…”
The two Tinkaton were the same species, but the similarities ended there. One had a much heavier mane of fluffy hair that nearly dragged behind her when she walked. She wore a thick apron, a pair of thin goggles that had been tinkered together from a set of spectacles, and a morose expression on her face. Though her demeanour was usually fairly dour, she had earned the distant glare of contemplation on her face; after all, she was dealing with the loss of her village. She might not have been the most emotional, and she had few attachments to anyone there… Yet her home laid in grey soot around her feet, and she wasn’t nearly heartless enough to have not shed her private tears...
The other was in a far worse state… She was slender, nearly to an unhealthy degree. Her body was covered in criss-crossing bandages, and what few tiny windows there were peered unto her burned flesh, giving a glimpse as to why she was so heavily wrapped. She winced with every movement, and her face was constantly tear-stricken for it…
Shuffle was the healthier Tinkaton’s name. She dusted her broad hands on her thick apron and then placed her fists on her hips. She sighed with the exasperation of one who had to deal with irritation constantly… A bit like a mother to a bratty child…
“You… still want to do that. When we should be focused on surviving, you want to immediately knock me up… You might have been our leader, but you still have a lot to learn… Twosa…”
The scarred Tinkaton whirled furiously to face her… and immediately doubled over in pain at the sudden movements. She grit her teeth and pointed firmly at Shuffle...
“You don’t have permission to call me that… My name is Queen… QUEEN!”
“Oh, and here I thought it was ‘Queenie’…” mumbled Shuffle, turning her back and crossing her arms. Twosa stamped hard…
“SHUFFLE…”
The blacksmith glanced over her shoulder. Twosa’s expression remained infuriated, but beneath...
...Perhaps a sharp reminder of how little the injured Fairy truly had was all it took… She had an ego like a brick house, but standing in front of the burning corpses of your friends and family was akin to a Copperajah charging through the walls; no matter how tough the barrier, it shattered all the same...
“...Shuffle… Please. Don’t… Don’t deny me this… After what that… That horrid whore of a sylph did… Crescent…!”
Twosa’s teeth grit in fury, and for a moment Shuffle’s pity washed away. There she was; the Fairy that was so easy to hate. The smug, preening leader in name only… Blaming another, simply to have a target for her wrath…
...Like many in the village, Shuffle knew that this Tinkaton was headed for nothing but pain, guided there by a fury that burned her spirit far worse than her flesh could ever be scarred...
For a long moment, the name hung in the air between them. Shuffle stared, saying nothing... but her sympathy slowly returned as Twosa’s shoulders subtly slumped, and her eyes took on a deadened, broken glint...
“I just wanted… I wanted to be a good leader… I knew I could be! If it wasn’t for her…”
“Twosa… Stop.”
Twosa lifted her head tiredly. Shuffle sighed and pinched between her eyes…
“...look. I’m not calling you Queen… And I’m not taking orders from you…”
“But… But I’m your leader, and…!”
“But.” Shuffle cut her off, turning around to face her fully again… “If… You can follow that… And treat me as an equal... If you really want this to work, then…”
Shuffle paused, mulling her words. The silence deepened, broken only by the crackle of the pyre…
“...Then… Once you’ve recovered a bit… You’re the one carrying.”
Twosa’s eyes lit up brightly. She bounded forward and wrapped her arms tightly around Shuffle, squealing with delight… And pain. The motions had brought even more of a sting to her already aching body. Shuffle sighed heavily and curled one arm around her carefully, while the other reached into her bag and searched for more of the soothing balm… She was already running low...
“...What am I getting myself into…” she muttered, with a dry chuckle...
It seemed so long ago by now...
Twosa had woken in agony, unaware of anything but pain. Despite the bandages and balms, every inch of her body burned like she was still within the fire. Who had saved her…? She recalled being caught off guard by the blazing whirl… Then she had climbed high to escape, and tried to bring order, but…
...but her whole village was ablaze… It was bright as day, despite it being a cloudy midnight at the time…
...Twosa and the others, left to a grim fate, and...
She recalled the fires flickering violently around her… She recalled a sense of dire hopelessness that rose faster than the wavering heat...
...and then, just before her vision went black, she recalled something strange reaching through the fire and grabbing her about her waist;
A pair of Blacksmith tongs…
She had woken in a charred husk of a house, and had screamed in pain until the one who had saved her had returned;
Shuffle...
She was a stodgy fairy… The blacksmith was one who ignored combat and focused entirely on crafting new weapons and tools… The artistry of working with metal, rather than the feats of martial skill in wielding them. Unlike Crescent, Shuffle’s way of life wasn’t unusual enough among Tinkaton that anyone even cared to glance at her twice…
...but it had left her lonely, unmated, and without children…
For some time after, Twosa’s memories came to her only as a blur of pain. She remembered other Tinkaton talking to Shuffle, and then leaving… By the time enough of her body was healed and the debilitating agony reduced to a manageable (if constant) ache, the former village’s leader was left without every subject she’d ‘commanded’…
In the end, only Shuffle decided to remain as her companion...
They had gathered up the bodies of those fallen and placed them in a pyre to burn, as was tradition. And then, with all of Shuffle’s tools jingling softly in the voluminous mane she used as storage, the two Fairies had set off for some new and safer nest…
Despite that, Twosa didn’t leave the village behind…
“...It will take a lot, of course. Many Tinka-tots. Heh, I’m sure you’ll teach them oh so well, how to craft a weapon as sharp as those you made for me~”
Shuffle had stopped responding hours ago. She walked forward quietly, her hands tucked at her shoulders like she was hefting a backpack. Twosa herself didn’t seem to notice. Obviously, she was the kind to enjoy the sound of her own voice…
“Well of course, I’ll carry half of them, and you ca-…”
“I said…” Shuffle spoke up, as she lifted her head and shaded her eyes with an arm, peering around… “...that you were carrying…”
Twosa’s face fell for a moment, before it hardened once more…
‘Queen’. That’s the title she’d demanded. But she was no royalty now, and she was painfully aware of that fact…
“Oh please. There’s two of us. We both need to try and make up our numbers…!”
Shuffle growled softly to herself, and continued on. Twosa trotted to keep up…
“Besides, you’d look so cute with a tummy under that apron, eh~? I bet you’d look as adorable as the last mate I had…”
“And what happened to that brainless creature?” Shuffle asked, bluntly. Twosa stopped walking as her face fell once more, although this time it stayed that way…
Shuffle didn’t look back, but the silence between them was somehow worse than Twosa babbling about her plans…
“...I’m sure she died in the fire.” Shuffle muttered, adjusting herself, and causing her ‘hair’ to jingle lightly… “Sorry. I didn’t mean to… Remind you.”
Twosa began to follow once more, but she still didn’t speak. She was dead silent now, as if she had been sharply reminded of something she shouldn’t have forgotten. The Blacksmith ahead of her felt uncomfortable… After all, the view of Twosa that the village had was pretty simple…
‘Leader’ was a strange word among the Fairy types. They were fiercely independent creatures, after all, and so to be lead by anyone was a rare feat. The village’s leader was one who took care of making decisions about supplies, ordered the building of new huts if need be, and… Well, of course, kept the other Fey under their care happy and entertained.
That’s why the choice of leader was decided by a debate, rather than a fist fight like so many other Tinkaton clans. Unnecessary bloodshed like that would cost more brave warriors than it would make…
So the ‘comedy’ show had been devised instead. Few took it seriously, but…
Twosa held her authority with an iron grip, and revelled in the idea of telling others what to do. She was playfully indulged, because why wouldn’t they? Their life was so simple and quiet and…
...and then it had all burned down. Shuffle glanced off into the woods as she walked, her mind distant with memories, much like Twosa’s…
“...you were having a baby, weren’t you?”
Twosa suddenly lifted her head. Shuffle’s face was of course impossible to see past her ‘pack’, but the leader fairy could tell her tone of voice had changed to be gentler. It was a good thing too; the question was like a well crafted knife aimed at Twosa’s heart. She huffed and dragged a fist across her eye…
“So what? Lots of us were having babies when Crescent set that fire. Lots of souls lost to it. It’s why I still hate that wench…”
Shuffle’s expression twisted into a wry smirk of frustration again… If Twosa wasn’t speaking of the new ‘village’ the were going to found, then she was ranting about Crescent’s evils…
“I didn’t know Fairies could learn Thunder…”
Twosa’s stomach twisted at Shuffle’s sarcasm. She stomped up and stood in front of the bigger Fairy, who was forced to stop…
“Don’t you dare imply this wasn’t all her fault… First she has the gall to PRETEND she could be an effective leader, and challenge me…!”
“Pretty sure someone asked her t-…”
“And THEN… And THEN, as if it wasn’t enough for that… That DEMON of a creature, she burned down our whole village…! I won’t hear any question of whose fault it was… HERS! CRESCENT’S! Her and her little freak of a boyfriend…”
Shuffle’s expression went from annoyed at yet another rant to frustrated... and by the end it had turned to outright anger…
She shouldered Twosa firmly, knocking her aside and continued forward. The injured Fairy gasped and stumbled into a puddle of dust and mud…
“...Shuffle… WHY!? What is wrong with you?! Now you’ll have to change my bandages again…”
“Change them yourself.”
Twosa’s face went from indignant to stunned…
“Wh… What?”
“You heard me, fool. You and your little vendetta is what caused all this… If you had just left Crescent and that other creature alone, we would be FINE right now.”
Shuffle stopped her steps as soon as she finally said that aloud. The two Fairies stood apart from one another, with the Blacksmith once more refusing to turn around, and the ‘Leader’ slack with shock…
“I’m so sick of hearing about one Tinkaton you picked on. It’s worse than you whining at me to carry your kids, like we’re going to spawn a new village between us. You are the one who ruins everything, Twosa. Your ego. Your PRIDE, your… STUBBORNNESS! And… And if I ever hear about CRESCENT again…”
She fell silent. Twosa stood and stared as if she had been slapped across the face with a Tinkaton’s hammer. It was obvious in her distant, contemplative expression that Shuffle’s words had pierced through and stung worse than any blade might have…
“...If I ever hear about Crescent again…” Shuffle continued… “...then… I’m going to rethink this little arrangement I’ve agreed to…”
“...why…? Why would you abandon me, Shuffle…? I’m in a state where I wouldn’t survive…”
“You don’t think I know, Twosa? I could have left you in that inferno to meet the same fate as the rest of them, but I saved you, and I’m still here.”
She finally turned. Her eyes were dark, and tired…
“You are a Grumpig-headed fool, but… You’re still a Tinkaton. And when you aren’t obsessively ruining others lives, you… You are the kind who doesn’t deserve to be abandoned…”
Twosa blinked. By now, heavy tears had gathered at the edges of her eyes, and were snaking down her burnt face. She stumbled over her words for a moment before Shuffle rolled her eyes and came forward.
She lifted Twosa up casually, and settled her on the fluffy mane she had.
“S-Shuffle?”
“Shut up.” The stronger fairy muttered. She didn’t seem bothered at all by the extra weight… “Listen to me now… So long as you… You don’t whine about the past… We can start something new.”
“I d-don’t want something new, I want to rebuild our village…!”
“No, you want to have a kid with me.” Shuffle growled, as she moved through the woods… “A kid. Not some new villager to order around… A child.”
Twosa slumped and looked down at her middle. It was flat, fitting along with her slender body, but…
...she’d never really thought about… CARRYING… about being a mama…
“...so long as you keep that in mind… That your name is Twosa, not Queen…”
Twosa bristled. Shuffle didn’t pay attention…
“...then… I promised to do all I can to help you…”
“...right…” muttered Twosa, her voice still tinged with annoyance... although it was rapidly melting away as she was forced to realize how much Shuffle was doing for her…
“But… In that case… Why would you? You’ve made it pretty clear what you think of me by now…”
“No…”
Shuffle paused, and looked up at the Fairy settled on her shoulders…
“...I didn’t ever think of you that way, to be honest. You were an obnoxious brat with some bad habits… But in the end, you still spent your nights in the meal hall with your mate, laughing ALONGSIDE the rest of us. You’re not a tyrant, Twosa… So stop calling yourself one.”
Twosa settled back in the hair and contemplated this, as Shuffle carried her forward. She stared up at the sky, and in the dim of the growing dusk, she could see a sliver of a moon…
...her eyes briefly hardened… then, her thoughts were distracted quickly by this new concept…
...being a mama… Having her own kid… Always seemed annoying and not worth it, but… In her vulnerable state… Well…?
She soon fell asleep, listening to the jingle of Shuffle’s pack, and feeling the soft sway of her steps below.
When next she woke, it was to Shuffle softly shaking her awake. The exhausted, injured Fairy rubbed her eyes and winced as her burns stung… But she lifted her head, and gasped…
“...W-What did you… do…?”
“You were asleep all night. So I kept myself busy…”
Shuffle gestured to what she’d built. In the early morning light, Twosa could see a small hut crafted to lead into the side of a modest mountain… Barely more than a hill… And yet…
“Why here?” Twosa asked, as she pushed herself up and walked into the hut. It was bare, besides a fluffy bed made with a cushion Shuffle had been smart enough to pack from the rubble of the village… But despite not yet having any furniture or decorations, the construction was pristine. Shuffle, for once, lacked her dry, tired gaze and instead looked quietly proud…
“Well, because the cave behind has a surface flow of magma. I can use it to forge… Just gotta knock a chimney through the stone and then… Well, I can mine out ores here too, hopefully…”
Twosa turned to the Fairy stood at the entrance and, surprisingly, walked over to hug her tight. Tinkaton could be an affectionate species amongst one another… Yet this felt like so much more than mere gratitude…
...Their talk seemed to have softened something. It was hard to say, given how injured the Fairy was, that her hug felt different… Maybe it was just Shuffle’s imagination…?
...but it felt more genuine than many of the others had...
Shuffle lifted her arm and tucked it around the smaller Fairy to return the embrace, very gentle and attentive to the slow healing wounds scarring Twosa’s body... Perhaps the sharp words had taken root… and the injured fae was healing inside as well…
Shuffle could only pat her gently, and hope...
“...Heh~ It’s pretty perfect, Shuffle… Though it’s missing a baby’s pram, isn’t it?”
Shuffle smirked and rolled her eyes. Twosa giggled eagerly and walked around the hut like it was a mansion all to herself…
“It can go over here… The bed can be moved here… A counter-top for cooking, and… Yes! Oh this is so brilliant…”
Shuffle’s smile of pride grew a little wider. Just the same as Twosa’s burns were being treated with balm, having a new place to work and live was medicine for the Blacksmith’s spirit…
A workshop. A place she could focus on her crafts… She had felt suffocated without one, and now she had a better one… Albeit…
“...Well, I’m not sure what you’ll do all day. Just exercise and return to strength, I’d reckon…”
“Mmm… And then! Carrying your baby of course…”
Shuffle let out a soft chuckle and turned… But she turned back when she realized that Twosa had gripped her hand…
“Eh?”
“Shuffle dear… If I asked for that baby right now, would you give it to me~?”
Shuffle’s face went briefly red, and she quickly had to regain composure…
“...not with your body like that, Twosa…”
Twosa gave a heady little sigh and placed her hand to her forehead dramatically…
“Oh dear, oh my… I suppose we’ll just have to do it for fun, yes~?”
The sun rose slowly, illuminating the nest that Shuffle had built as her gentle laughter drifted from its window. Perhaps it would indeed sprout into a village, as Twosa hoped… For the moment, the two would focus on making it a proper home instead…
They would rise from the ashes left behind… if indeed they could avoid another inferno...
