The Box

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The Box

Postby Miki Yamuri » Wed Jan 08, 2020 1:28 pm

The Box

by LilJennie and Miki Yamuri


Characters:

Alvin -- human first-person viewpoint character
Zahrina -- human sorceress with dark fairy allies
Ondine, Cyrene, Flynn, Bayard, Melusine -- Baby Fairies
Muirgen, Maraja, Ashera -- dark fairies, allies of Zahrina

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I took the ring off my finger and put it in the box. But I didn’t close the lid yet.
It was something I often did when I came home from work -- after the glimpses I’d seen of what joy and beauty were out there, I was often so depressed after a long day of unappreciated labor that I just wanted a break. I was glad that she’d given me the ring so many years ago now. But I couldn’t share it with anyone. No one would understand or even believe it.

I changed my clothes. I would need diapers, of course. And the denim shortalls and blue T-shirt. Red socks and white shoes. And a red bandana around my neck and a little engineer cap I’d found. All of these things were baby sized, but because of the magic of the ring and its box, they somehow fit me. Until I closed that lid, I was in sort of a transitional world between baby and adult.

I got some snacks ready and some cartoons playing on the TV. Soon I’d close the box and I’d truly be a baby in body. Well, more of a toddler, really. But still, I would need those diapers. It was such a wonder, being able to take a break from adulthood. I went to close the box, which I’d left on the coffee table …
The box was gone.

I started to panic. That was where I’d left it, right? I was absolutely certain. That’s where I always left it. It was off the floor but within easy reach once I got ready. Was someone in the house? I checked the front door -- it was locked. I checked all the doors. I searched every horizontal surface in the entire house. The box was gone, and the ring with it. I went back to the living room, where cartoons were playing on the TV. What would I do? I couldn’t go through with my plan for the evening without the box. Had someone robbed me? Why wouldn’t they take anything else? And obviously they hadn’t closed the box yet, because I was still adult sized --

Suddenly I wasn’t adult sized. Everything was suddenly huge. And my legs were weak. My knees wobbled, and I fell to the floor on my bottom. Fortunately it wasn’t a very great distance anymore, and besides that, my heinie was now padded. But … now I was a baby, and without the box I couldn’t change back! What was I going to do?
How had this happened? I should never have let the box out of my sight! But I was sure that I was alone in the house! That wasn’t necessarily true, though, I reminded myself. There had been one other time when I’d thought I was alone in the house. When I’d met her, and she’d changed my life.

I’d been relaxing in the usual Adult Baby way, wearing adult-sized baby clothes and diapers, drinking from my bottle of chocolate milk and watching cartoons as I loved to do even then. I was a teenager, and my parents were out of the house. But suddenly there was a rainstorm, a real cloudburst, the water falling on the roof loudly enough to sound like thunder all by itself.

“You’re … a baby?” asked a voice. I was suddenly very scared. Somebody had seen me! I looked around and saw … a tiny little woman. She stood on the back of the sofa, her bluish skin complemented by yellow and white clothes, but … what was she? I was too stunned to answer.

“You’re bigger than most of the babies I visit,” she remarked. “And all alone. Well, I can change sizes.” Suddenly she was taller than me. And still standing on the back of the sofa, which started to tip over from her increased weight. “Oops!” she said and hopped to the floor. Her dress had poofy shoulders but no sleeves to speak of, and didn’t cover a lot of her body. It was yellow with white decorations, but it was almost all decorations. Her feet had similarly yellow shoes with pointy toes decorated with white pompons. Her hair was indigo, and she wore a yellow hat with white fringes and a white pompon as well. She looked like she was wearing some sort of cosplay outfit. Except that under her very short dress, she was wearing a thick, very obvious diaper. It didn’t stand out -- the rest of her costume was obviously designed to fit together with it. But that was a diaper. I could tell.

“Hmm, must be too little to talk,” she said. “Oh well! Let’s see, are you wet?” She reached down to feel my diaper -- from outside my romper, I might add.

“I-I can talk!” I said. “But … who are you? I’ve never seen anyone like you before; That I can remember, anyway …” There was something vaguely familiar about this, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

“My name’s Ondine,” she said, “and I’m a Baby Fairy. You’re a baby all alone, but you’re in luck -- I’m here! And you’re wet!”

I blushed brightly. “I’m … uh … I guess you’re right,” I stammered.

“Well, we can fix that in a jiffy!” she said with a giggle, spinning around and waving her wand, yellow and white striped with a jingly plush star on the end. There was a huge cloud of baby powder, and suddenly I felt completely dry. She’d changed my diaper with magic!

“How -- oh, right, Baby Fairy,” I said. “I -- thank you, first of all! But … what? Fairies are real? Magic is … a real thing?”

“You talk really well for a baby!” said Ondine. “You’re clearly a very bright little one. But of course I’m real, silly! I’m right here, aren’t I? Ooh, what’s this you’re watching?” She sat down next to me on the sofa in a twinkling.

“Um, it’s a story about some magical bears that live in a cloud castle and try to make people happier,” I explained. “There’s a bad guy who wants to make the people sad, though, so it’s hard.”

“Oh,” she said. “I don’t know why there has to be a bad guy. There’s lots to make people sad without that.” She looked a bit glum.

“Oh but I’m happy we’ve met!” I said. “You seem like you must make babies happy!”
“Yay! I try!” said Ondine, brightening up.

“I’m glad we met too! I’ll come back and see you again! Right now I have to go. But I’ll be back!”

She was back the next evening, and she came back about once a week for a long time. We got to know each other better, though I didn’t really understand all she said about the world she was from. I’m not sure she understood the human world either, but somehow it didn’t seem strange to her at all that I liked to dress like a baby and even use my diapers. That seemed very natural to her.

Then one day she brought me the ring and the box.

We’d known each other for over a year now -- human time, I guess. It’s hard to say how long it was for her, or if she had a real concept of time other than one event following another. But one night I was in my room and she popped in carrying the little golden box with the little golden ring with the sparkling gemstone in it. “Hi, Jules!” she said. “I brought you a gift.”

Maybe I should have read more stories about fairy gifts, but she did explain it to me before I accepted. “You’d call it magical. But here, what happens is, you put the ring on your finger, and the first time you close the box, all your adulthood, all of your age that isn’t baby, it goes into the ring!”

“Um, what’s that mean?”

“Well, it means that after that, when you wear the ring, it’s all normal, just like every day. But if you take the ring off, you’re kind of in between ages. And if you put it inside the box and close it … you’re all baby. All your adulthood is shut away inside the box. And you’re a baby for real!”

I had often wished that I could become a baby for real. She said she couldn’t make that happen, not by herself, but she’d see what she could do. Apparently she’d found a way. “And … if I open the box? Do I grow back up?”

“You do if you put the ring back on,” she replied. “Until then, you’re in between again. Kind of both at the same time.”

“I’ll try it,” I said, “but … only if you’ll watch me. In case something happens.”

“OK, don’t worry, I’ll be right here!” she said.

So I put the ring on and closed the box. I felt … kind of funny. Then I opened the box, took the ring off, and closed the box, and … sure enough, everything else seemed to get huge. She was a lot bigger, despite the fact that she was sitting on my bed post, which was also a lot bigger. And I was wetting my diaper and couldn’t do anything to stop it. And I found myself sucking my thumb without realizing it. And I couldn’t walk very well.

Kind of like now. I sat on the floor and sucked my thumb worriedly, not knowing what to do. Without the box and ring, would I be a baby … forever? Usually I opened the box and put the ring back on before I went to bed, or at the very least right after waking up in my crib in the morning. But now … would I starve to death? I couldn’t even call in sick to work -- I couldn’t reach either phone! And even if I could, nobody would believe it was me if they heard my tiny voice.

I didn’t know what to do. I cried. Emotional stability was another thing that was locked in the box along with my ability to walk steadily and my potty training.
But then … I heard other voices. I stopped and looked around.

There were more of them! Ondine had said, all those years ago, that she was only one of the Baby Fairies. These were obviously Baby Fairies too. They had variations of outfit, but they all had the same yellow and white color scheme, though some were boys and others were girls. They were looking at me with concern on their faces. “Oh, I hope he’s OK,” said one girl.

“Ondine?” I asked. “Do you know where Ondine is?” Of course, my voice was tiny, and my tongue unskilled, so it came out as kind of “Da oo know wheawe On-Deen iss?” But they understood nonetheless.

“Oh, Honey,” said a boy, “none of us have seen Ondine for years. She disappeared. We’ve been worried about her, but we don’t know what to do except do our jobs looking after the world’s babies.”

“Are you the one she talked about, the big baby that she gave Nerissa’s Box to?” asked another girl.

“I … fink so,” I said. “Ondine my fwiend.”

“It isn’t often any fairy makes a mortal friend,” said another boy. “What happened? Did you leave the Box out of reach?”

“No … it gone,” I said. “It not wheawe I lef it.”

“Oh -- yes, I’m feeling it,” said the first girl. “It’s fading, but I feel a dark presence. Muirgen, maybe, or Maraja. Or Ashera.”

“Or …” whispered the first boy, “Zahrina.”

“I … don’t want to think about her!” said the second girl. “But if somebody stole Nerissa’s Box, we’re going to have to get it back.”

“We’ll have to take him with us.”

“He’s a baby! He can’t even walk. He’ll slow us down.”

“I’ve got an idea.” The first girl took out a pacifier.

“Oh, Melisande’s Conduit,” said another.

“Here’s the thing,” she said to me. “I can’t just undo the power of Nerissa’s Box. But I can kind of … shunt it to one side a little bit. If I try to just give you your age back, it’ll push back, because your age is in the box, with the ring, and it knows who you are. But what if you aren’t exactly … you? Open up …” I opened my mouth, and she popped the pacifier in.

Suddenly I was slightly bigger. And … my hair was longer? And my shortalls were pink? I seemed to be automatically sucking on the pacifier, but that wasn’t unusual -- when I was in baby mode, I usually found myself sucking my thumb without realizing it, so if I wanted the use of both hands, I always had to use a pacifier.

“So, you’re gonna have to be a girl -- sorry, but it’s the only way. It’ll work for as long as you keep that in,” she said. “And that lets me ‘push’ against the Box enough to make you a couple of years older, at any rate, because it isn’t quite sure who you are. I’ve got it set to make you a four-year-old girl instead of an 18-month-old boy, and it looks like it’s working.”

“Oh, now she can walk and run and find the Box if it’s near,” said the second boy to talk.

“But whoever took it certainly took it to our world,” said the second girl. “We’ll have to go there. Luckily that spell will work the same way there too. And … just for safety’s sake, you can’t take that pacifier out, and it can’t fall out accidentally. Somebody else has to take it out for you, though anybody can do it.”

In a place beyond places, in a location that looked like a deep grotto beneath a fuming volcano, a tall woman dressed entirely in black and red sat on her throne and laughed. She held up a rather ornate golden box and looked it over.

She was dressed in black and red with small streaks of gold in places. The black was so dark it seemed it absorbed all the light around it.

The woman tapped the small gold box with her finger and said with an evil cackle, “Lets see just how well you like being an infant for all eternity.”

A really strange looking creature, like a lizard or an alligator crossed with a man, entered the woman’s throne room and went to a knee. “Most Malevolent Sorceressssss, I have grave newssss,” he said in a hissing voice.

The woman stuffed the box into the folds of her cape and said harshly, “Well? What is it? I don’t have all day to sit here and wait for you to lick the ground in front of my throne.”

Without moving, the creature replied in its slithering, hissing tongue, “O my Queen, there are intrudersssss in the realm. Four Fairiesss of the Light … and a human toddler girl.”

The woman’s expression became one of real concern as she replied and pointed out the large arch of an entrance, “Go then, immediately. Inform the General to mobilize the insurgent guard. Time for us to make things a bit colorful.”

The creature sprang to its feet and brought its fist to its armored chest, “By your command, Milady, it sssshall be.” With this he swirled around and quickly left.

The woman sat back and cackled evilly, “So, you Baby Fairies think that by coming to the Realm of Darkness you can just retrieve it, do you? And you think it’ll be such a walk in the park that you’re just bringing some human child with you? We’ll see about that.”

High cliff walls rose up hundreds of feet on both sides, jagged with sharp crags. Large black birds perched on the stones and croaked at us as we passed slowly by.

“Are you still sensing the Box?” asked Cyrene, the Baby Fairy who had given me the pacifier. “Is it still this way?”

I nodded and pointed. I could somehow just feel the direction it was in. The fairies had said that because my age was in the Box, there was a connection between me and it, so I would always know which way to go to find it. I sucked on my pacifier continuously, not wanting to so much as speak, because it was so comforting in this frightening place and uncertain time.

“This was once Fairyland, a bright realm full of beauty and light,” said Flynn, one of the boy fairies. “Then Zahrina came. She’s not even a Fairy. She’s a human like you, but she knew some magic, and she had help -- some traitor Fairies she made a dark alliance with. Now she knows even more magic, and she still has her allies. Our home used to be down in Toyland Glade -- now they call it the Vale of Woe, and we have to operate out of a shack on the edge of the Marsh of Decay. There are hundreds of us Baby Fairies, too. No wonder we spend all our time in the mortal world.”

“What do you think Zahrina would want with the Box?” asked Bayard, the other boy. “I mean, all it does is a time trick.”

“I’m not sure,” said Cyrene.

Melusine said, “Isn’t it obvious? The Box draws the time magic that would normally be going into you.” She looked at me. “Zahrina’s just taking that time magic so she can use it herself. It’s a constant source of power.”

“Even though she’s human and could use her own?” asked Flynn.

“This way she has twice as much,” answered Melusine. “And if she uses too much, she doesn’t have to worry about turning herself into a baby.”

“Of course, if she draws all the time out of it, you’ll be a baby until you grow up again,” said Cyrene. “And as long as she keeps the Box, you’ll be a baby forever.”

“I wonder what happened to Ondine?” Bayard wondered.

“Who knows?” replied Flynn. “Maybe she’s in Zahrina’s dungeon. Or Muirgen’s, or Maraja’s, or Ashera’s. Maybe Zahrina did away with her, or drained her powers. All I know is that we haven’t heard from her for several mortal years.”

“Or maybe she’s in hiding because she knows Zahrina probably wants to do those things to her,” said Cyrene. “She got some attention, giving Nerissa’s Box to a mortal like that.”

They were speaking in hushed tones as we moved slowly through the pass. The wind wasn’t cold, but it did howl as it blew through the crags.

“Zahrina probably already knows we’re here,” said Bayard. “She has a lot of spies and informants. So we should be ready.”

All four of them had their wands out already, in fact, so it was possible that they already knew what Bayard was warning them about.

“She probably thinks Baby Fairies are weak,” said Cyrene. “Not that we should tip our hand until we have to, but she’ll find that she’s wrong about that.”

Ondine had sat in this dark and forboding cell for a long time. Her powers had been drained by the very wicked Zahrina somehow, and utilized for Zahrina’s nefarious purposes.

Ondine sat up from the grimy straw pile that was her sleeping place. She knew, without a doubt, the light had found its way back to this forsaken location. She could feel it as the smallest of embers began to grow within her spirit. Ondine jumped up and waved her hand over the scrap of wood that had acted as her table for these years. The first sumptuous meal she had had in all that time appeared on what was now a proper table with a matching softly padded chair.

Ondine immediately sat and devoured her very first real meal in a good long time with complete wanton abandon. Ondine savored each mouth full and each swallow of the wonderful tea. It had been so long.

What little power had accumulated had been used to create the meal. Now that Ondine wasn’t worried over starving, she had the time to wait. She knew beyond any shadow of doubt, at least two of her companions had entered this realm and brought enough light with them to begin a recharge. Now, if only she had time …

Our intrepid group of Baby Fairies and their adorable little toddler girl escort slowly navigated through the dark and forboding trail. Each gnarly tree seemed to be some sort of nasty monster critter waiting for them to pass so it could jump on them through the swirling mist.

Flynn whispered fearfully to Cyrene, “How many of those are shadows, and how many are real?”

Cyrene replied, “We have to assume some are real -- after all, they do know we’re coming. Our light must shine very brightly in this darkened realm.”

About that time, we had rounded a small bend in the trail and entered a clearing. What sunlight there was shone through the dark gloom and brightened the spot a bit.

But then, a dark mist began to ooze from the ground. Amid the greasy black swirls, creatures appeared. They were ghostly white, their bodies skeletal beneath their emaciated flesh. Their fingers ended in talon-like claws. The creatures more than adequately showed that they were razor sharp by the damage they did to the small brush and trees present in the glade as wave after wave of the nightmarish creatures appeared and rapidly began approaching with an eerie wailing noise like lost souls.

Just as the creatures attacked, two of the Baby Fairies drew out their wands, tips glowing brightly with the pure magical white light of innocent infancy.

The result was instant and drastic as the first several rows of the creatures exploded in a bright flash and vanished in thick greasy black fire. Many rows behind that, the creatures fell over, their emaciated bodies smoldering, with many catching and burning with that strange, greasy black fire.

The Baby Fairies and I watched in wide-eyed amazement as the huge horde of creatures stopped their massive charge, then sublimed back into a black mist that vanished.
Bayard commented, “Now, I’ve used my wand many times, and never have I seen anything like that.”

Cyrene replied, “I’m fairly certain that what we just saw was a trap -- an automatic conjuration designed to lure and attack users of light magic who might come near here.”

“Then let’s hide!” whispered Melusine. “Now!” After we got out of sight behind the thorny bushes that ringed the glade, she continued, “If it’s a trap, its purpose is no doubt to slow down whoever springs it until someone can come investigate. Let’s hide ourselves and see who comes.” She swirled her wand in the air, and with a flick of her wrist we all became invisible.

We couldn’t even see each other, but I could feel someone’s gentle hand on my wrist -- probably Cyrene’s, because she whispered to me.

“Now, no matter what you see, don’t be scared, and try to stay quiet,” she said to me in a whisper no louder than the breeze through the leaves. “I’m not sure what they’ll send --”

There was no need to wonder any further, because a huge flapping of wings came from above, stirring the trees and bushes with its downward wind, and a pale white dragon-like creature landed in the clearing, ridden by a fairy with deathly gray skin, hair as white as fine ash, and wings like dusty cobwebs.

“It’s Ashera,” Cyrene whispered to me. “But she can’t see us, I hope. There’s only one of her and four of us.”

“Let’s get her,” whispered Flynn.

“Let’s watch first,” Cyrene replied.

Ashera hopped from the dragon’s back and used her wand to drag up one of the needle-clawed creatures from the black mist that still oozed along the ground. It melted in reverse until it stood before her as if she were holding it up by the tip of her wand.

“What did you see?” she asked it in a rasping, breathy voice like the wind blowing through winter trees.

“Foooour,” the creature breathed in its dead voice. “Foooour, and a chiiiild.”

Ashera made a disgusted face and flicked her wand at the ground, as if shaking off the creature’s residue, and indeed, the creature dissolved immediately back into oily black mist.

“Seriously, I’ll take the west,” whispered Flynn, “and Bayard can take the east, then Mel can take the north, and you can stay here, and we’ll just take her down right now, before she reports back.”

“Do it,” whispered Cyrene. “We can’t have her reporting. Deal with the dragon too.”

Cyrene never left my side, because I still felt her gentle hand on my wrist, but the others must have been moving silently to surround the deathly pale fairy and her white dragon, because suddenly there was a shout of “Now!” and four beams of white light converged upon Ashera and her dragon.

The four Baby Fairies appeared out of invisibility at the same instant. Both the pale fairy and the dragon struggled, but they seemed to be stuck in place, and the beams seemed to be drawing something out of them rather than attacking them with some kind of energy.

It affected the dragon first, because it grew smaller and smaller, finally becoming a tiny dragon hatchling -- kind of adorable, really -- and then it was suddenly an egg, silvery white with glowing blue-white spots. Meanwhile, Ashera was by this time smaller, about the same size as I was, shrieking in frustration and anger, but her shrieks grew higher and higher in pitch until they were the cries of a tiny baby fairy.

The actual Baby Fairies advanced into the clearing, then, picking up the baby Ashera with the light from their wands and conjuring warm diapers and blankets for her. She stopped crying when Melusine held her and put a bottle into her mouth, rocking her gently.

“Now, now, Ashera, don’t worry, taking care of babies is our specialty,” Melusine said calmly. “We’ll make sure you and your friend grow up better next time.” Bayard had already been summoning something, looking up into the sky, and soon two large white birds appeared.

“Storks?” I asked, around my pacifier, as I realized what the birds were.
“We use them as messengers,” said Cyrene, smiling at me.

I guessed that made sense. Maybe that’s where the stories about storks bringing babies came from. But the storks soon had the dragon egg and the baby fairy bundled up and carried them off.

“They’ll be fine with the other Baby Fairies,” said Bayard.

“Meanwhile,” said Flynn, “I’ve got Ashera’s wand, so she won’t be causing much trouble.” He held the silver-white wand up before making it vanish into whatever space they used to keep things at hand.

“Now we only have to worry about Muirgen, Maraja, and Zahrina herself,” said Cyrene. “And that’s assuming that the two sisters don’t abandon Zahrina once things start going poorly for her.”

“But we still have to find Zahrina’s … what does she even have now? Castle? Fortress? Dungeon?” asked Melusine. “And deal with whatever she’s got in there.”

“No way to know until we get there,” said Flynn. “And the sooner we get there, the less time they’ll have to prepare.”

“You’re right,” said Cyrene. “Let’s keep moving. We’ll be able to find her from the old watchtower.”

Zahrina sat on her throne and frowned. “It’s been several hours, and Ashera hasn’t come back,” said the sorceress. “And whatever sprang the trap in Murky Gloom Glade hit it hard and fast. Are those good signs?” she suddenly asked her alligator man minion.

“Nnnnnno, O Most Malevolent Misssstressssss?” the minion replied uncertainly.

“Correct!” she said, standing up. “And yet whatever happened there is not here. I suppose something wild and dangerous could have happened to the Glade and Ashera, such as a herd of Manticores or a magical flux storm, but I want it checked out. And can you find someone to check it out? Someone … reliable?” she asked her minion.

“Oh, yesssss, my queen,” the minion replied. “We sssssend the Sssssquadron.”

“Let it be so,” said Zahrina. “Let them scour the Glade and return with any news they have.”

“At oncccccce, O Dark Missssstressssss,” said the minion, scurrying from the throne room.

The Baby Fairies and I had traveled forever, it seemed. The forests were dark, creepy, and filled with that greasy misty kind of fog. We had managed to cross a shallow stream and entered what appeared to be a glade of some sort at the top of a hill.
All around the perimeter were fragments of ruined walls, outside of which were the same foreboding gnarled forests, and in the center were the ruins of an old stone tower of some kind.

We could see far into the distance from this hill. Off about another half day’s toddle away rose a high peak. From a large cleft blasted out of the side of the mountain there emerged an eerie looking castle.

Deep inside my soul, I could feel something … it seemed like it was approaching, and very fast. The Baby Fairies stopped and surrounded me, with Cyrene taking my hand once again.

Cyrene cooed softly and reassuringly, “Don’t be afraid, baby girl. We can feel whatever is approaching too. We will defend you.”

Suddenly, seemingly stepping out of thin air, many creatures that looked like they were a cross between a large constrictor type snake and a very ugly woman appeared. Each carried a strange weapon with a long staff.

Their hissing screeching calls were not only nerve wracking but apparently were also some form of sonic attack. I could feel each screech penetrate me deeply. It actually hurt.

One of the serpentine women lowered her staff weapon and fired a burst of some sort of reddish energy. Flynn reacted quick as a flash, deflecting the blast with another from his wand. The two powerful energy streams impacted halfway between them and us. A massive whopping explosion knocked a huge amount of dirt into the air, creating a large divot. The sound of the dirt falling all around made a scary hissing sound.

Before any of the snake women recovered from their surprise at the ineffectiveness of their attack, Bayard gave his wand another flick. The pure white light of innocent infantile magic lashed out and engulfed the lead creature. It screamed a terrifying and painful ear splitting screech, as it shrank away and became a small blue, soft shelled kind of sphere with pink speckles.

The other creatures warily launched another attack, and this time Bayard was hit. His light dimmed almost immediately, although if not for Cyrene’s quick actions, I was positive Bayard would have been killed.

This angered the Baby Faires as they launched the first offensive attack I had ever seen them do. Although I hadn’t been with them in battle before, so this wasn’t saying a great deal … but enough.

The light against the dark, the explosion was massive enough to scare the serpentine creatures into retreating. Of course, one of them immediately went to tell Zahrina what they had found.

Cyrene knelt by Bayard, whose white and yellow outfit showed a black burn mark, but through it I could tell that his skin, though burned as well, was quickly healing itself. “You still have the Light within you,” she said, with a smile. “You will be all right.”
Bayard got up. “They aren’t prepared to deal with the likes of us,” he said. “But they know who we are now. We have to hurry.”

“What about … this?” asked Melusine, watching the small blue creature crawling on the ground.

“We’ll send that back to the other Baby Fairies too,” said Cyrene. “With a note.”

“So, four Baby Fairies and a human child,” said Zahrina after the serpentine creatures had reported what they had seen. “And no sign of Ashera. Why a girl-child and not the baby boy whose age now fuels my power?” She turned to her crocodile-like minion. “Alert the sisters.”

“At oncccccce, Dark Lady,” the minion said and again scurried off.

“So, I will be having more Baby Fairy guests,” Zahrina said to herself. “They clearly have some strength together, but it cannot have been easy for them to defeat Ashera. I suspect they will be tired. Baby Fairies. Ha! But … just in case … perhaps I should make use of the guest I already have.”

Ondine sat in her new comfortable chair. She could feel the warm glow of the innocent infantile magic of the Baby Fairies as it grew within her. She knew that very soon, she would be able to leave this horrible place whether Zahrina liked it or not.

Suddenly, Ondine started to feel really funny inside. As a matter of fact, this is what she had been taught it felt like when the adult energy was being drained from your body.
Ondine screeched in frustration as she used what little magic had accumulated since she had eaten. It was enough to maybe postpone the inevitable for a scant few minutes, before Ondine began to become even more baby than she had been.

She knew if Zahrina didn’t stop the siphoning soon, there would be nothing left of her but some kind of goo on the floor as she rapidly became an actual infant Baby Fairy and beyond. She helplessly plopped on her bottom on the cold stone floor, her clothes piled all around her, too big for her ever-shrinking body.

Zahrina stood in front of her conjuring table as the Crystal Orb of Siphoning glowed ever brighter with the addition of more adult energy from her prisoner. Zahrina laughed evilly as she thought about not stopping and allowing all of Ondine’s adult energy to be drawn into the crystal.

Zahrina had read, in the great tomb of Lynchinweir, that this technically wasn’t killing the subject. It just returned her to the primal state before birth and to whatever constituent material comprised her body at that time.

Zahrina cackled again as she waved her hand towards a very old, banged up, and decrepit looking mirror. The frame of the mirror began to glow as a mist seemed to swirl deep within the viewing glass. An image appeared of an adorable baby girl swallowed in a pile of extremely oversized clothing, kicking and fussing at the situation.

“So … what u tink she gonna do ta gets ready for us?” I asked, around my pacifier.

The Baby Fairies understood me perfectly, though, probably because they were used to hearing children speak. “I expect Zahrina will present us with three factors to deal with,” said Cyrene. “First, there are the two sisters, Muirgen and Maraja. Second, there are her various minions. And third, there is Zahrina herself. She’s increased her power by stealing the Box, so that will be feeding her energy. Also, she’s probably the one holding Ondine, and she wouldn’t be doing that unless she had something to gain from it.”

Melusine added, “She’s probably siphoning off Ondine’s energy as well. That must mean she’s got some kind of item permitting her to do that. If we can find and destroy or deactivate that item, we’ll cut her off from that source of power and help Ondine at the same time.”

We continued to walk through the increasingly craggy terrain. Bayard said, “As we’ve said, the sisters will only be an issue as long as they’re loyal to Zahrina. Once it becomes clear that she’s not an asset to them, they’ll find something else to do with their time. We just have to hold them off until we can weaken Zahrina.”

“As for the minions,” said Flynn, “there are her Serpentine Squadron and her goblin guards, and that crocodilian butler thing of hers. None of them are really a problem.” When Bayard looked at him with a raised eyebrow, he added, “They got lucky.”

“We should make a plan for the minions,” said Melusine. “Each one that’s active when we face Zahrina herself is another factor. The more we can take out of the equation, the simpler it becomes. So how about this …”

They started talking about spells and other magical things I didn’t understand at that point.

“The Misssstresssss wantssssss to know if there have been any sssssightingssss of the enemy,” said the crocodile-man to the guards on the castle parapets.

“Nothing so far,” said the sergeant of the goblins in his raspy voice. “And they all report to me. Except the Squadron. They’re separate. But I think we’d notice if they noticed some … thing … what’s that?”

They all turned and looked out into the night, where the very Squadron they’d been talking about had gathered on the ground outside the castle. They clustered around something, then looked off down the narrow mountain pass that was the only way to approach. Then, all together, they went half charging, half slithering, in that direction.

“They mussssst have ssssseen ssssomething,” said the crocodile-man.

“Hey! Alla you! Be on alert!” yelled the sergeant. “The Squadron’s after something. Could be a distraction. Look sharp.”

Suddenly there was a high-pitched wailing sound from below, in front of the gates. It sounded like a small child. “Wahhhhhh!” it said. “I wan’ my mommyyyyyy! I’m hungwy an’ my diaper needs changin’!” It was me, but I wasn’t really there. I was somewhere else.

“Huh?” said one of the goblins. All were looking down at me.

“Go away, kid!” shouted the sergeant. “I dunno who your mommy is, but she ain’t here!”

“Wahhhhhh!” I continued to cry, as loud as I could. Nobody expects a child to listen to reason, not really.

“Look, we’re gonna start shootin’ arrows atcha if ya don’t go away!”

But then the rocks on either side of the pass started to rumble. There was soon an avalanche, completely blocking the narrow pass. The Squadron was trapped on the far side now.

“That’sssssss … probably bad,” said the crocodilian minion. “Yet the child … ssssshe keepssssss sssssscreeching.”

“That’s it,” said the sergeant. “Open fire! I don’t care if it’s a kid! Shut ‘er up!”

The goblins all fired arrows at me -- it was dark, but they could all hear me just fine. And their arrows all struck the ground in exactly the right place. OK, that’s overstating the case. Some of them would have hit me, but the rest went wide. Still, it would’ve been bad for me if I’d really been there.

“What?” said one of the goblins. I was still there, untouched and still just as loud. They looked even more intently.

And that was exactly what the four Baby Fairies wanted. They’d been sneaking in through the gates, my wailing masking the noise caused by the squeaky hinges, and now stood behind all of the goblin guards. This was just when they started simply pushing them off the walls.

“Ha ha!” said Flynn, flicking his wand and sending a goblin flying off the wall and down into the gloom. “Not too many of you left, are there?”

“Aaaaa!” shouted the crocodilian minion. “Misssstressssss!” He ran for the nearest stairs that led down off the wall.

“No you don’t,” said Melusine, flicking her wand and sending him falling down into a large urn that was situated against the stairs. He appeared to have been stunned by the fall, as he was silent.

Finally only the sergeant was left, but Flynn wouldn’t spare even him. “Aaaaaaa!” shouted the goblin as he dropped down out of sight into the night.

“If any survived, they’ll have the same problem the Squadron is having, getting through the pass,” said Melusine. “The equation just got a lot easier to solve.”

“Good, let’s keep moving,” said Cyrene. “I think I can sense Ondine, now that we’re close.”

“I’ll do some recon,” said Melusine, waving her wand and becoming invisible.

“I’ll look for more guards,” said Flynn.

“I’ll stay and look after our friend,” Bayard said, holding my hand.

The whole time I’d been right with all four of them. They’d used illusions to make my image and voice appear to come from a point outside the gates, even as we had all opened the gates and moved inside. From my point of view, the next few minutes were very uneventful. Bayard stayed with me, wand at the ready in case a guard showed up. But Melusine was actually the first back, followed by Cyrene.

“Ondine’s in a cell in the east wing of the dungeon, two levels down,” said Cyrene. “I didn’t see her -- I can feel her presence, though, and I think she can sense us.”

“Zahrina’s got some sort of orb,” said Melusine, “and she’s using it to drain Ondine of her adult energy. She doesn’t have much left, though.”

“Move Ondine, or go after the orb?” asked Cyrene.

“Move Ondine,” said Melusine. “Zahrina’s far from the cells, but she’s never far from the orb.”

“OK, I’ll do that,” said Cyrene. “Where’s Flynn?”

“Probably having too much fun,” said Bayard.

“I’m back, I’m back,” said Flynn. “Can’t find any more guards.”

“I’m off, then,” said Cyrene. “Head for the orb and the Box.”

As we were already inside the walls, we just hopped into the central building through a window. It had bars, but the Baby Fairies could change size, and I was small enough to fit between. The bars were probably for creatures such as goblins or trolls, both of which were larger than small human children.

“This is getting boring,” said a voice, echoing down the hallways from somewhere farther in. “Can we go? Or is anything going to happen?”

Melusine held out a hand, the rest of those left backed against a wall with me in the middle … Bayard was still holding my hand. Cyrene had already vanished off on her mission.

Flynn said in a soft whisper as he brought out his wand once again, “I’ll check it out and see what’s facing us.”

Melusine waved her wand, and Flynn became invisible. She said in a hoarse whisper loud enough for Flynn to hear, “Be careful. Invisibility doesn’t make you invulnerable.”

Down the hall from us, several of the ugliest goblin guards I had ever seen sat around a rickety table, playing some kind of board game. I shivered with disgust as I realized the game pieces were made from bones that looked a lot like human.

As we watched from our hidden position around a corner, one of the goblin guards looked up and over his shoulder, “Urrrrrggghhhh … Dja hear dhat?”

Another stood and knocked over the makeshift stool he was sitting on. “Yups, heard it. Wunner whut …”

He never got to finish his statement as a bright pure white flash of light surrounded them and the group of them shrank away and became … well, they were anything but cute … goblin infants wallowing in way oversized clothing and armor. Flynn seemed to materialize from thin air as he stood over the infants with his wand out. He smiled and waved to us.

We walked quietly up to the … well the infants. Melusine made a face as she said, “I never realized how ugly goblins were. I mean …” she looked at the others with a pained expression, “We are Baby Fairies, and we’re supposed to love all babies, but those are perhaps some of the ugliest babies I have ever seen.”

The inevitable happened, though -- when you’ve got babies, you’ve got crying. One of the baby goblins started to wail, and it sounded like a cat being strangled. That set off the other one, and now we had a chorus of mistreated felines.

A panicked Flynn pointed his wand at them, and there were now two shadows in the shapes of the baby goblins -- with nothing casting them. The important thing, though, was that they were silent.

Flynn and Melusine looked at each other. But Bayard looked down the hallway as a voice came echoing from deeper in the castle. “What was that?”
“Didn’t sound like the guards. More like some kind of … cat.”

“Oh, I hate cats.”

“There are no cats in my castle. And where’s my butler? I haven’t seen him for too long. You two should go find him and get his scaly butt back here.”
“Hey, we’re not your butler!”

“What I’m saying is, something could be wrong, and I have to stay here. So you should go check it out.”

The Baby Fairies all waved their wands and became invisible again, and Bayard held my wrist as before.

“OK, fine, I’ll check it out. You stay here. Don’t worry, you won’t have to lift a finger. But you’ll owe me.”

“Fine, fine.”

There were no footsteps. I wondered when the speaker, probably one of the two sisters, Muirgen or Maraja, would come down the hallway, when suddenly she zoomed right by on her wings, blue dress and hair, and she was gone. She didn’t even notice the goblin baby shadows. It wasn’t the butler, I guessed, so it wasn’t important. We heard her muttering to herself, “What a sow. I can’t believe we made a bargain with such a …” Her voice faded into the distance.

“That’s going to be a problem once she either finds him or gives up,” Melusine whispered quietly. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t.”

“Meanwhile that leaves only Muirgen and Zahrina, because that was Maraja,” whispered Flynn. “When you get back, it’s three against two, unless Cyrene gets back, then it’s four against two. Not really sporting, but this is Zahrina we’re talking about. Mel? Still here?”

Melusine didn’t answer. “Guess she didn’t waste any time,” Bayard whispered.
“How come you guys can’t fly?” I tried to ask quietly around my pacifier.
“You have no idea what kind of other things we wouldn’t be able to do if we’d wasted magic on that,” Bayard whispered. “Like change diapers with magic.” I assume he waved his wand, because suddenly my diapers felt very dry and comfortable again.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

“It’s my job,” Bayard whispered back with a soft chuckle.

“OK,” said Melusine’s voice in a whisper, “we have to hurry. She’s searching for the butler, but he’s asleep and invisible inside a closed chest. She won’t find him unless she starts opening random chests and looking for invisible things in them. She’ll give up eventually, but it buys us time. Any word from Cyrene?”

“No, but how would she find us?” whispered Bayard.

“Good point,” whispered Melusine.

“I say we storm the throne room now,” Flynn whispered. “It’s three against two.”

“And Cyrene would be able to find us then,” whispered Melusine. “OK, here’s how we do it. Hit Zahrina hard. Bayard, it’s your job to occupy Muirgen if she tries anything. Alvin, you stay invisible and stay out of the way, in a corner or the like. We beat Zahrina, and the sisters won’t be a threat. Got it?”

“Got it,” whispered Flynn. “Let’s go.”

Bayard picked me up and carried me. I could hardly hear his footsteps, let alone those of the other two. We came to the doors of the throne room, which were open, of course, because we’d been hearing their voices. Zahrina, I assumed, was the one sitting on the throne at the opposite end of the room, tall and pale, wearing black gauzy robes and holding a glowing green orb. Muirgen was hovering near the ceiling, with red hair and a red dress, and she looked in our general direction when we came in, as if she sensed something.

I didn’t see where Melusine and Flynn went, but Bayard set me down in one of the corners, the one to the left of the door, and I didn’t see what he did next. I tried to stay still, looking around.

“Nope!” said Flynn from over Zahrina’s left shoulder, appearing and pointing his wand at her orb, which went flying like a shot out of her hand, straight through the room, out the door, and down the hall. An instant later Melusine appeared, her wand also leveled at Zahrina and emitting some sort of ominous black beam.

“What? No!” shouted Zahrina. She flicked her hand, and some kind of blue lightning flashed at Melusine.

“Ow!” Melusine cried as she was knocked over backward, but she didn’t let go of her wand, and Bayard appeared, apparently casting the same spell as Melusine, judging from the black beam pointing at Zahrina.

“Oh, this is hilarious!” said Muirgen, actually sounding as if she were on the verge of bursting into laughter. “Baby Fairies? Here to challenge Zahrina? That’s great! Unfortunately I gave my word I’d help her, so I’ll just have to give you babies a spanking!” She flicked her wand in an arc, and three bolts of red-orange fire flew toward the three Baby Fairies.

“Don’t think so!” said Flynn, flicking his wand and blocking the fire, which seemed to burst against an invisible barrier. Meanwhile, Melusine recovered and resumed her black beam pointed at Zahrina.

“Noooo, they’re draining my magic!” Zahrina whined. “Got to stop it --” She stretched out both hands, and a bubble of some kind surrounded her. The black beams from Melusine and Bayard’s wands no longer reached her, playing instead on the surface of the bubble.

I’m not real sure exactly what was in my mind as I sat in the corner and watched the others fight. What I do remember is that I saw my golden box sitting on the arm of the Witch's throne. Right then, my entire existence suddenly became focused on that box.
I could feel it as something was slowly draining from within my spirit and my thoughts became more infantile. This only made it more imperative that I retrieve my prize as my thoughts focused on what ever baby thing happened to be there at the time.

It was fortuitous that Zahrina and her minions didn’t see an adorable little human toddler girl as a threat. I sucked on my pacifier more intently as I more crawled than toddled over to the throne. Massive amounts of ethereal energies crackled and exploded all around me, but somehow managed to miss me entirely.

I know the concept of danger meant nothing to me in my current mental state as I used the edge of the throne to stand, then took the box. I felt it as the remaining adult energy began to flow. I opened the box, I became a young teenaged girl. Quickly as I could, I removed the ring from the box and placed it on my finger. Immediately, I became a very pretty teenaged girl of 18 to 20 years old? Oh, yea … the pacifier, as long as I had it in my mouth I would remain female, and younger than I was supposed to be.

Cyrene had set up the … what was it called? Melisande’s Conduit? She’d set it up to create a “pull” toward being a 4-year-old girl, and it seemed to work both ways. My proper age was older than 18, although Zahrina had certainly stolen some of it, but the pacifier was doing what Cyrene had told it to do, which was try to make me 4 years old. I still couldn’t take it out of my mouth myself, but 18 years old was better than 4.
What had happened to Zahrina as soon as I had opened the box and put the ring on my finger was dramatic. The sorceress obviously lost several orders of magnitude’s worth of ethereal energies when what remained of my adult energy had left her and flowed back into me. Her shield instantly showed signs of failure as cracks began to spread through it, and it shattered like a smashed eggshell.

The black beams from Melusine and Bayard’s wands were no longer hindered by the bubble as the energies began to impact on Zahrina’s body. She screamed a soul curdling scream as her mystical energies rapidly bled off -- well, they weren’t really hers; they were stolen, from me and from Ondine, though I didn’t know that at the time.

Cyrene suddenly faded into view, holding the hand of a very cute toddler girl Baby Fairy who could only have been Ondine. I’d seen Ondine as an adult, but this toddler had a similar facial structure and twinkle in her eyes. Cyrene held up Zahrina’s orb, made eye contact with the panicking Zahrina, and waved it over her head for an instant before taking the adorable Ondine in hand and leading her to a far corner before turning and pointing her wand at me -- specifically, at my pacifier, which she’d called Melisande’s Conduit. It flashed once, but … what did that mean? Then she flicked her wand at Zahrina -- a bright flash, perhaps just trying to get her attention.

Flynn was still keeping Muirgen busy, in a proper duel. When he wasn’t blocking her fire bolts he was blasting at her with dazzling white energy, and Muirgen was spending most of her time dodging and weaving in the air. Melusine and Bayard were quite obviously still draining the stolen magic from Zahrina with the black beams from their wands.
But Cyrene had grabbed Zahrina’s attention with the orb. The sorceress’s brow furled as she reached for it, and although Cyrene kept a tight grip on it, it seemed as if she pulled some energy out of it, coming to her like a wisp of translucent mist. Apparently there’d been some power stored within it. And as soon as it reached her, she gestured expansively with both hands, and there was a shock wave that exploded outward from her, flinging everyone against the walls, including Muirgen, who squeaked and dropped to the floor. I had been right in front of her and was knocked sprawling. My pacifier almost fell out. Cyrene and Ondine had already been against the walls, however, so they had been braced -- as if Cyrene had expected this.

The fairies were seemingly stunned momentarily, except perhaps Cyrene and Ondine. Zahrina’s shield was back up, and she straightened up and smiled. “So, four of you, and you still can’t win,” she said, stepping down from her throne to where I lay on my back on the floor. “And this … human. Who is this girl? Some sort of … champion? No … the ring. This is the boy whose time I’ve been using. You made him a girl so you could loosen the ring’s grip -- creative. But I’ll need that ring back.”

She had reached me by this time, and I put the hand with the ring behind my back, underneath me.

“Oh, come now,” she said, bending down over me. “Don’t be difficult. It’ll all be over soon anyway.” She reached for my arm to pull it out.

I knew what I had to do. Closer … closer … I let her face get as close to mine as I dared, reaching my other hand up as if to ward her off. Then, in one quick motion, I plucked the pacifier out of my mouth and popped it into hers.

She stood up suddenly, making indignant noises as I knew she was involuntarily being forced to suck on it. She tried to pull it out, but now I knew that Cyrene had only lifted that restriction for one removal. And now it was doing what it had been programmed to do -- make its user a 4-year-old girl. Pure, white, innocent infantile magic washed over and around Zahrina’s tortured body. A diaper appeared under her gauzy black gown as her body itself shrank to its new size and shape. In a matter of seconds she was wearing a cute black baby dress that did little to hide her white diaper, and shiny black silk baby booties.

“Wha?” she asked around her pacifier. “No faiw!” She struggled to walk back up to her throne but fell on her padded rear. With effort she got back to her feet. “What you do?”
“I’m not really sure,” I said, my male voice sounding strangely deep; I’d gotten used to my little girl voice over the past day or so. “You’ll have to ask the experts.” I looked back at Cyrene.

“Oh, that pacifier’s just doing to you what we’ve been having it do to Alvin, here,” Cyrene said. “In his case it was to fight what you did to him using Nerissa’s Box. But in your case it’s justice. Turnabout’s fair play, after all, and magic loves fairness.”

“I wouldn’t, if I were you,” said Flynn to Muirgen, who looked as if she was about to get up off the floor. Flynn had his wand pointed straight at her, its tip glowing brightly. By now, I knew what that meant. One move from Muirgen and she’d be a baby fairy in under a second, and not the capitalized kind.

Zahrina tried to wave her arms and wiggle her fingers, but everything she did was clumsy. She tried to say some magic words, but the pacifier got in the way. She whined in frustration.

“Now then, we’ll just be taking back whatever energy you’ve still got left,” said Cyrene, holding the orb and pulling a wisp of mistlike translucent magic from Zahrina into it. “I see. Well, Alvin, you’ve gotten a few years younger, but I don’t think you’d mind if I gave this to Ondine instead.”

“Not at all,” I said, looking at the toddler Ondine had become. Cyrene held up the orb toward Ondine, and wisps of energy flowed into the little girl, who soon grew bigger and became the Ondine that I’d known.

“Thank you,” she said to Cyrene, taking both her hands and looking into her eyes gratefully.

“Glad to have you back,” Cyrene said with a smile.

“Alvin,” Ondine said, running over to me with her restored grace and hugging me. “I’m so sorry this happened.”

“Oh, Ondine,” I said, “You’ve brought so much joy into my life -- it’s a pity this one had to ruin it.” I glanced over my shoulder at Zahrina, who had fallen to the floor again and started to wail.

“I know a human who should definitely be returned to full infancy to start life over again,” said Bayard. “Perhaps she’ll grow up to be a better person once we allow her to, in a century or so. By then she won’t remember any magic -- just beautiful memories of being a baby.”

“Look, look, I just made a deal,” said Muirgen, her hands in the air, her wand put away. “Just a bargain. Any of you would probably have done the same. I mean, you know, if you were a freelancer like me instead of having steady jobs.”

“I’ve got an idea,” said Flynn. “Two, in fact. In one of them, you go find Maraja and tell her that your deal is over, and you both make yourselves scarce. In the other, you join Ashera in our nursery -- oh, right, I forgot to mention that’s what happened to her. So you can go far away and not come back, or Ashera gets two new baby friends.”
Muirgen gulped. “Going, going, you don’t have to tell me twice, even though you just kinda did. Bye … see you never!” She giggled nervously and backed out the door before turning and flying quickly away down the hall.

“Cyrene,” said Melusine, “Suppose we send a message to the Queen that she can come back out of exile. She’s going to be pretty pleased with the Baby Fairies as a whole when she finds out we’re the ones who caused Zahrina’s downfall.”
“I’ll just do that,” said Bayard, conjuring up a magical scroll and quill pen, then summoning another stork messenger to carry it.

It was in another palace, this one built of the finest gold and white marble, where Queen Titania set up her court again, in the center of a rapidly rebuilding Fairyland. The dark clouds had cleared from the sky, the trees were aglow with luminous blossoms, the ground was sprouting bright green grass and colorful flowers, and fairies of all sorts were returning from hiding and repairing their beautiful homes of all descriptions.
“So in the end, it was this brave group of five Baby Fairies and this baby human who chased away that nasty human sorceress?” asked the Queen.

“We did what we could, Your Majesty,” said Cyrene, and all the Baby Fairies bowed and curtsied. I bowed awkwardly, never having addressed royalty before. They had told me that the fairies knew about all kinds of humans, even the adult ones who were babies on the inside, so I wasn’t surprised that the Queen knew. I guess when there are Baby Fairies who look after the young and are young at heart themselves, Water Fairies whose bodies are made of water, Animal Fairies who have antlers or tails or claws, Dawn Fairies with eyes like the Sun, Dust Fairies who can coalesce out of the air, and all manner of others, a human who has a double life as a baby isn’t really unusual at all.
“Baby Fairies, your service to the Crown is exemplary,” said the Queen, “and your Nursery and its grounds shall be expanded to include the Oriole Meadows and the Morningdew Hills. The babies of all worlds should count themselves lucky to have those such as you watching over them.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” they all said, bowing and curtseying.

“And you, Alvin,” said the Queen to me, “it is not often that the Crown finds itself grateful to a human. What boon would you ask?” In a less formal tone she added with a smile, “That means I want to reward you, but I don’t really know how -- this doesn’t happen very often. The Baby Fairies have been wanting more space for their nursery for a long time. But I only just met you, and I don’t get a chance to talk to a lot of humans.”
“Well,” I said, “my time with the Baby Fairies has taught me a few things about myself, and there are things I want that I didn’t know I wanted before. Except … I don’t know how possible they are.” Ondine’s eyes were glittering, and she looked very happy for me as she nodded at me. We’d talked about this.

“I … well, as you know, I’m a baby and an adult at the same time,” I said. “I’m not really an adult by choice. Time happens, and humans don’t have a lot of say in that. But also … I think I’m a baby girl, not a baby boy. Aside from crawling through swaps Zahrina corrupted, I’ve felt a lot more at home being a little girl. I can’t really imagine going back to my old life. So … is there a way that I can help the Baby Fairies as a sort of baby girl assistant?”

“You would give up your human life to be a baby girl?” asked the Queen. “To be forever young but forever dependent, forever helping babies while needing help yourself in some ways?”

“It seems … right to me,” I said, blushing. “I don’t feel right being male or adult. Or even … human.”

“Then … so shall it be,” said the Queen, waving her ornate wand at me. “And so shall you be.” I could feel unimaginable sensations going through my body, and my perspective began to change. There are no words for what I felt. I was closing a chapter and opening another.

So that’s how I got to be here, little ones. You wanted me to tell you a story, so I’ve told you my story. That’s right -- I wasn’t always a Baby Fairy; I started out as a human. I was very lucky to meet my mommy Ondine, and then I had an adventure, and I did the right thing at the right time, and now my dreams have come true. I’m a Baby Fairy in both senses of the words, and I know all kinds of stories, songs, and games to keep you babies happy. I learned how to change diapers with my wand -- believe me, the magic way is much better -- so when the Wet or Messy Diaper Fairies come to visit you, I can help make it all better! I love to help my mommy and the other Baby Fairies take care of all the babies who stay here! You’re all so cute! So I want you all to be happy so you can grow up to be happy adults someday, if you want to, or stay a baby forever like me if you want to. Now, who wants a bottle?”

Two adorable baby girls began bouncing on their thickly diaper bottoms and started to screech loudly as they waved their hands above their heads. I smiled as I waved my wand and cooed softly, “There we are, baby Zahrina and baby Ashera.”
Two bottles appeared in each infants hands. They nursed eagerly as the cutest little baby dragon I had ever seen played between the two of them.

~~ The End ~~
Miki Yamuri
 
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