An Unlikely Hero (Part 1. Beginnings)

Piper was different from all the pixies, and it wasn't because she was an orphan, or that she lived alone in the Moon-drop woods; it was because she was a prankster. Once a week the other pixies, living in local village, would be pranked by her in different ways, but it would be on a different day every week, so they didn't know when to expect the weekly trick.

It would be hard to believe that this little prankster would be the one to save all the pixies in her village. To discover about her transition from prankster to savior, a deeper look must be taken into the full story.

-*-

Piper's eyes fluttered open, and she found herself on the wooden floor of her hut, and felt her head throbbing. Sitting up on her knees, Piper rubbed her head and looked around. She was in the same hut made out of wood and leaves, and her blanket and pillow was on the floor next to her.

After picking up the bed items, and placing back on the leaf hammock, Piper yawned and walked to her doorway. It was warm and sunny; the perfect day for her next prank.

Snickering softly to herself and rubbing her hands together mischievously, Piper flew over to the calendar next to her desk.

"Today's the day." she whispered to herself, as she spotted the red circle on the date.

Piper gathered her pranking "tools", placed them in her shoulder bag, and then put her long brown hair into a bun. She then ran out of her hut, and flew to the village.

The rest of the day, Piper did pranks from pales of water on top of doors to sticky mud that would make the others lose their shoe. Prank after prank, Piper hid behind the corners of the huts and laughed to herself. Finally sundown came, and Piper's prankster game was over.

She snuck out of the village making sure no one else saw her, because Piper knew if anyone saw her they would send the soldiers after her.

Piper finally made it back to her home just as the moon started to rise, and shined it's white light across the woods. The little pixie dangled her legs over a branch's edge, and watched shooting stars fly pass the dark sky.

Piper knew pranking her fellow pixies was wrong; she's known that for a long time, but how else is an orphaned pixie supposed to get pa back on the village that turned her back on her after her parents died?

Piper stood up, and saw the village in the distance with it's torch light making it look like that it glowed. Pixies were flying back and forth, probably cleaning up the mess that she had made.

Without saying or thinking anything to herself, Piper made her way back to the hut, where she fell asleep with a smile on her face.

-*-

Piper was woken up the next day by the sound of screaming. She jumped from the hammock, and ran out to the porch. There was a cloud of dark smoke coming in the direction of the village. She didn't know why she was worried about the other pixies, but something inside of her made her so.

Jumping from the wooden porch, Piper flew toward the smoke and found the village destroyed, and covered in....spiderweb? A male pixie came flying towards her at high speed, and they collided before Piper had time to move.

The two crashed to the forest floor, but luckily the male pixie regained his sense, grabbed Piper's wrist, and flew up to the nearest branch. Piper sat on the branch rubbing her head, while the male pixie caught his breath.

He knelt down next to her and reached out with one hand. Out of instinct Piper flinched and backed away from the male pixie. "Hey, calm down. I was just examining the wound on your head." he told her.

Piper relaxed, before looking down at the wrecked village. "What happened?" she asked softly. The male pixie helped her to her feet before answering, "Arachnids attacked at dawn, and we were overpowered."

Piper looked and examined him, before spotting the metal piece placed in the middle of his chest; this pixie was the Captain of the Guard!

Gasping with terror, Piper shot into the air and tried to quickly fly away from him, but the Captain managed to grab her ankle and keep her in place.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked, pulling her back down to the branch. "No, no...Go away!" Piper shouted, trying to break free from the captain's grasp.

The male pixie clearly saw Piper's terror against him, so he gently let go, and the little prankster fluttered down until her feet touched the branch. "You're the young prankster aren't you?" the Captain asked.

Piper thought about lying, but knew he would probably see right through her, so she nodded. The Captain sighed, and mumbled, "No wonder you were so scared of me."

Piper rubbed her arm, and a silence fell upon them. The Captain looked at her, and stretched out his hand. "Captain Draco, and you must be the mischievous Piper." he said.

Hesitantly Piper shook the Captain's hand, before Draco exclaimed, "Well, we need to work together then. The Spider clan has taken our fellow pixies captives, and taken them back to the Arachnid Kingdom."

Piper crossed her arms in front of her chest, and asked, "Why would I help rescue the village that I've been pranking for the past 8 years."

"Because deep down in that mischievous heart of yours's, you care for your fellow pixies. You were flying to investigate why there was smoke coming from the village, were you not?" Draco explained. Piper looked away knowing the Captain was right.

"Alright, I'll help." Piper answered, giving up on arguing with him. "Good, now come on. We have to search the village for any pixies who might have escaped." Captain Draco replied, before flying toward the village; Piper reluctantly followed.

-*-

"Hello!" Piper called, as she and and Draco flew around the village looking for others. No one answer, and it dwindled the hope Piper had.

There was nothing but smoke, spider-web, broken huts, and weapons the soldiers had dropped. "Here." Draco's sudden voice made Piper jump, and she saw him holding a a stone dagger. "You can have this in case you need to protect yourself." Draco explained, placing the weapon into Piper's palms.

Piper placed the dagger in her belt and continued to follow him. Coughing then caught both pixies' ears, and they raced to the hut. Inside, Draco and Piper found a scratched up female pixie. Draco flew to her side, while Piper stayed frozen in the doorway.

"Can you sit up?" the Captain asked the injured woman. She nodded and was helped into a sitting position. "Are you the only one?" Piper asked, finally walking over to the female pixie.

"I think so." she answered, before coughing. Piper examined her, and saw that she looked more different than any other pixie she had met.

The injured pixie had milk pale skin, a weird marking going across the right side of her face, and pitch black hair with a purple streak going down the center of her hair. Out of the corner of her Piper's eyes, she saw what appeared to be a wooden staff.

"Hey, I think this is yours." Piper said, crossing the floor toward the staff while the Captain heled the woman to her feet. "Oh, yeah. I must have dropped it during the attack." the woman responded. Piper pulled the staff from the rubble, and discovered that it a purple orb at the top.

"Can I please have that, darling?" the woman asked, with a sweet smile. Piper looked closer at the orb and saw the symbol of the Spider clan!

"What the!" Piper shouted, moments before a purple beam shot out of the staff, and blasted Piper into the wall. "Piper!" Captain Draco shouted, before he found himself also being pushed into the wall next to her.

The woman clicked her tongue and said, "You Pixies are such fools, well, some more than others." She grabbed her staff and held it in front of her body. Draco and Piper was forced inches above the ground, and were held there by an unknow force.

"I will keep you two alive and free, only so you can play my little game." the woman said. "Who are you? Some sort of spider whisperer?" Piper asked, through clenched teeth. She couldn't move her arms, wings, or legs, and if felt like they were being held by gravity.

"Not a whisperer, just there queen, darling. I am Queen Stormy Nightfall." the woman answered, giving them a wicked smile. Both Draco's and Piper's eyes widened, as they continued to struggle against their invisible restraints. "Anyway, you have four days before your people are all killed." the Queen explained.

Suddenly chains made out of the same purple glow, appeared and wrapped around Draco and Piper's wings causing them to wince and yelp in pain.

Another smile crept on Stormy Nightfall's face, before she said, "Have a nice trip down." The purple orb glowed, and Draco and Piper were flung from the hut and off the platform the village was built on.

Their yells and screams quieted the further they fell. The two pixies toppled on to leaves that softened their fell until they hit the ground unconscious, and rain started to fall.

To be continued...