The Project

Chapter 13

The Project Chapter 13

As they were being escorted to one of the guest cottages, Kelly suddenly gasped,

"Hey! I just remembered, I've got a book about elves and fairies, my dad gave it to me for my tenth birthday, it's packed in my stuff, I wished I'd remembered it earlier." The house Carl overheard her and stopped.

"Forget something?"

"Yeah, I have a book the queen might be interested in seeing, but it's back on our ship," said Kelly.

"Well after I show you to your quarters, I will get one of our staff centaurs to run you back out there,"

"That's not necessary," she replied, "I don't want to put anyone out, besides they're all having their supper now." The house Carl gave her a puzzled look.

"Having supper, who told you that?"

"Those Centaurs that brought us in, mine was named Zyndon I think." The house Carl snorted,

"Lay bouts! The queen keeps those fools on a retainer when all our regular staff is out on business or otherwise doing something else, it's no bother, that's what they're paid for." Their "quarters" turned out to be a very cozy looking stone cottage; one Kelly said reminded her of something out of a fairytale.

"Well kook around you Kelly, I'd say we're right in the middle of one right now." There was a desk in the cottage, and on it was what looked like an intercom. The house Carl pressed a button, and asked for guest services. When a response came, he asked for someone named Euto, and that he be sent over to guest cottage 2.

"Euto will be here shortly miss; he will take you where you need to go." With that, the house Carl departed. While they waited, Alex and Kelly looked over the cottage.

"Man-o-man, look at this place, it sure beats one of those fancy hotels any day," exclaimed Alex. There was a beautiful fireplace, along with two large bedrooms and one smaller one,

"No doubt for the servant," observed Alex. There was also a small kitchen area with a metal stove, along with a large bathroom with a big claw foot tub.

"Would ya look at that!" announced Alex, "Now I would never have figured them for having indoor plumbing and running water, I'll have to ask about that."

Shortly, another centaur came trotting up, this one wore a similar green and yellow with gold trim uniform.

"As long as you're going back out there," said Alex, "Grab that world atlas book I brought, it should be in the rack next to my bunk." Kelly then asked Arna for the code to lower the ramp, then stepped outside to meet the Centaur.

"Greetings all, my name is Euto, I was told that someone needed a ride out to the landing area."

"Me," replied Kelly, "I forgot a couple things," Offering his hand, Euto said,

"Grab my hand." When she did, he immediately swung her right up on his back.

"Wow! She exclaimed, "That was cool!"

"Well you I could do that," replied the centaur, "However that fellow, I doubt it. Well hang on, we're off." The centaur turned and quickly trotted off.

Alex went back inside, where the two droids were sitting at the table, Garmik was paging through a book.

"Say," announced Alex, "I hope you two don't mind all this, you look kind of bored." Arna smiled,

"Oh we're not bored Alex, just because we don't say much doesn't mean that at all."

"She's right," added Garmik, both of us have been studying and analyzing everything, we've probably observed a hundred times more than you could ever imagine."

"So if you happened to detect anything suspicious, you'd let Kelly and I know it?"

"Absolutely, which by the way, should Arna or I casually touch or brush you and your skin and it feels like we are shocking you, that's our signal that something is very amiss."

"Thanks Garmik," I'm afraid Kelly and I can be too easily distracted, nice to know you guys aren't"

There was a sort of couch in front of the fireplace, which Garmik told Alex that he and Arna would be very comfortable spending the night in,

"We do not require beds, and sitting in front of the fire would suit us nicely." This puzzled Alex.

"I wasn't aware that you droids liked fire?"

"Actually we are designed to withstand short term exposure to fire, but in this case, simply gazing at the flames puts our optic sensors into a sort of "standby" mode and allows us to re-sort our data." Alex then realized what Garmik was saying,

"In other words Garmik, what Kelly or I would consider romantic, you and Arna look at it as merely time to "defragment" your files."

"Well I suppose that's one way of looking at it," replied the droid.

While they waited for Kelly to return there was a knock on the door, opening it, Alex saw two male, and two female elves,

"We are from guest services," announced one of the females,

"The queen has invited all of you to dinner this evening, we are here to see that you have proper attire, but if you have none, we will see to t hat as well. I was told there was a young lady here as well."

"She had to go get something from our ship, Euto took her out there," explained Alex.

"Well hopefully she will return before we are finished here," replied the Elf.

The service staff weren't quite sure what to do about the androids, dressing them all up in evening wear would look ridiculous, so after much fussing, one of the female elves hit on the idea of just wearing simple white over shirts and trousers, almost like hospital scrubs. Alex marveled at how fast they settled on the idea, along with taking body measurements. Just as they were finishing up, Kelly returned, only to have all four descend on her taking all sorts of measurements and testing cloth samples against her skin and face. While they were going over Kelly, Alex explained to her about the dinner request.

"Actually I had already thought of it," replied Kelly, Euto told me about it all as well."

"Did you find the books?" Asked Alex,

"Yeah, I've got them right here." He looked at the picture book of elves, fairies and pixies. It was a tie-in to a movie he'd never seen but then Kelly said.

"That book is the only thing I have from my dad; I guess you could say that's what got me into all this."

The palace staff then left, promising to return later, with the finished cloths but suggested that Alex and Kelly make use of the tub. Alex let Kelly go first, while he talked more with Arna and Garmik. Not long afterwards Kelly called from the bathroom,

"Hey Alex, come on in, this freaking tub is big enough for four people!" Going to the door, he called in,

"That's all right; I'll just wait until you're done in there."

"Whatsa matter, never seen a naked girl? I'll bet you saw Palmer plenty of times naked."

"Sorry Kelly," he replied with a little more determination, "Maybe some other time OK"

"Oh well, suit yourself, came her reply."

"That's all we'd need," he thought, "We'd be getting it on in the damn tub and those elves would show up again. Although his impression of Kelly had improved considerably, he wasn't sure about his feelings as yet.

Later, as he was bathing, Kelly barged in announcing that guest services had returned with their cloths for the evening.

"Hurry up and get out of there, our cloths are here, and I have to put some make-up on."

"You aren't putting on all that Goth stuff again, are you?" He asked

"f**k you Alex Russom!" Exclaimed Kelly, "No I am not, I'm past all that now."

"I'm sorry Kelly," he replied, "I had no right to say that." She gave him a cold stare.

"Just get dressed OK; I'm looking forward to this." Alex was given some light grey dress pants along with a pair of shiny black boots, along with a fancy white shirt and a waist coat to match the pants. The cuffs were ruffled, and the shirt collar was unusually large. There was no belt, but a series of buttons acted like a belt keeping his pants up which were covered by a red sash.

Garmik wore a similar outfit, while Arna wore a light grey dress that complimented her "skin" color. She also wore slipper type shoes. Kelly was outfitted in a simple white gown type dress, which wasn't overly "frilly," but was short sleeved, and displayed her cleavage which was buttressed by a sheer camisole.

"Don't you be staring at my "boobs" all night Alex," snapped Kelly, or you'll be in big trouble."

"Well I certainly didn't make the damn dress Kelly," he shot back, that must be what they wear around here so settle down." Kelly also wore slipper type shoes as well, but she complained that they felt too tight.

"These boots are the same way," added Alex, their shoe sizing must be way off or something, only the boots and slippers worn by Garmik and Arna seemed to fit fine.

The house Carl then returned to escort them over to the main hall where the dinner party was being held. As it turned out, Kelly's boobs weren't what he tried to avoid staring at. Both queen Breca and Mullein Shade wore gown type outfits comparable to some of the dresses he'd seen starlets wearing on the Oscars show. The queen's appearance was completely changed from what she had appeared like earlier. Mullein on the other hand, had an incredible sultry and exotic look to her.

"Damn, this is going to be one rough evening," thought Alex. Along with Lord Morrone, they met Lord Giselbert who was introduced as Deneva's prime minister. Other guests were introduced as Whisp, who was a pixie, Fergus Fergus, who was an honest-to-god leprechaun. Two more elves made their appearance as well, Dully Amero who was the mayor of Urgon, one of the villages in Deneva, and Rora Dalewick, a scholar, at the university.

Everybody was standing around chatting, and both teens felt very self-conscious entering a room filled with very well dressed adults they didn't know. As they entered, Alex leaned over to Kelly, and whispered,

"Prom night!" She gave him a scowl,

"Well just don't make an ass of yourself, one of my secret dreams is about to come true." He stayed with Kelly as she went up to the queen and bowed.

"Oh that's not necessary," she replied, "Bowing is just for state functions, what is that you have in your hand?"

"This is the book I was telling you about your highness, my father gave it to me; these are artist's renditions of elves and fairies." Handing the book to the queen Kelly took a step back while queen Breca and the others looked at it.

It didn't take long for Kelly to realize she really had something, not only the queen, but Mullein Shade, as well as Morrone, and Lord Giselbert, the prime minister were staring at the pictures with serious intent. It wasn't long however before they were joined by a couple fairies that fluttered over and perched on the queen's shoulders.

Tears were starting to come to Kelly's eyes, ever since her father gave her that book she had simply wanted to believe. Her life hadn't been the greatest, and her parents were on the verge of divorce at the time. Just staring at those pictures envying the simple creatures who lived in such a magical and untainted world. Now here she was, standing face to face with the real thing, then when a short little man ambled up Kelly realized he was a leprechaun. Bending over, she asked,

"Are you a leprechaun?" The little bearded man looked up at her and replied,

"Why yes I am Miss Parkinson, however the name is pronounced "Lepreehun.

Oh by the way, my name is Fergus, just Fergus." Kelly then realized someone was speaking to her, it was Lord Giselbert.

"These pictures are absolutely fantastic, it is now clearly obvious that the Aos si tribe did indeed land on your world, otherwise there would have simply been no frame of reference for these artists to create what they have." The book also depicted "Brownies" which brought puzzled looks, then Rora had a look. "Your Highness, I think this book is referring to the Brùnaidh." Queen Breca and Mullein thought for a moment, then the queen replied,

"I believe your right Rora." Then speaking to Kelly, she said,

"Alas, the Brùnaidh are no longer with us,"

"What happened to them?" Asked Kelly. Rora answered that one.

"The earliest records we have indicate that they made the initial journey from Ae'L war, but that within ten seasons they had simply disappeared. Many of us think that there is something growing here, or even the environment in general that was poisonous to them. However others say that if that were true, why have fairies and pixies continued to thrive. Unfortunately, they were all gone before effective research methods had been developed." The queen then said,

"Kelly, might I ask a favor of you?"

"Certainly your highness," she replied.

"I know how much this book means to you, but it is something we would very much like in our research library." Kelly then became very sad.

"Your highness, that book is the only remembrance I have of my father, I would very much hate to give it up, but because you wish it to be placed in the royal library, I will give it up, but I do have one request."

"I will honor any request within reason," replied the queen. Kelly then took the book, and thumbed the book until she found the picture she was looking for.

"Your highness, I have had a very um, messed up life." Then holding the book up so the queen and the others could see the picture, which was of a shaded glen with a babbling brook. Pixies and Fairies danced over a tuffet of lush green grass while a beautiful unicorn drank from the brook.

"Ever since I've had this book I've dreamed of just lying on that grass as the pixies and Fairies helped me to clear my mind, and make sense of my life. Surely there must be such a place as this?" The queen looked at the fluttering Fairies, then at Mullein.

"Why yes Kelly, I think there is such a place like that."