An Unlikely Hero (Part 5: The Prank Defense)

Piper didn't know how she knew Draco was in danger; just something in her senses told her the Captain was in danger, and that sense was what woke her up.

The young pixie jolted awake and found herself in a doctor's room, with Wolf by her side.

The  soldier flinched when Piper awoke, but he composed himself and put a gentle hand on Piper's shoulder. "Are you alright?"

Piper placed one of her hands on her bandaged head, and groaned, before remembering Draco, and the danger she sensed.

"Captain Draco..." Piper moaned, looking at Wolf. An explosion outside the castle sounded before Wolf could answer her. 

The pixie’s wings flew up, alert, and she suddenly felt awake. “Is Captain Draco out there?” Piper asked, leaping from the bed. 

Wolf nodded, and said, “I’ll go check it out.” 

In response, Piper shook her head and exclaimed, “Wolf, you need to alert the soldiers about the potential attack.” She then started to fly away, but the soldier grabbed her wrist. 

“Where are you going?” he asked. Piper freed her hand from Wolf’s grip, and said, “I’m gonna go do what I do best. Set off some traps, and cause a little chaos.” 

Without another word, Piper flew out of the room, and then out of the city to collect some “supplies” from the woods. 

_*_

Draco stared at the dead body, and heard Flint’s mom scream behind him. “Well, well, well, we meet again Captain Draco.” a familiar voice said. 

Draco looked up, and saw the Queen of the Arachnids; Stormy Nightfall! The captain peeked over his shoulder, and saw Flint and his mom looking terrified at the evil pixie. 

He took out his dagger from his belt, and said, “Leave them out of this.” 

The Queen rolled her eyes, and smirked, before saying, “As you wish, Captain Draco.” 

Draco felt himself get lifted off of the floor and flung out of the hut. He recovered quickly, and stood his ground against the Arachnid Queen, though he was pretty scraped up from the fall. 

He lunged at her swinging the dagger, but Stormy easily deflected the attack and grabbed Draco by the throat. As she slowly caught off his breath ways, she hissed coldly in his ear, “You lost the game.” 

However, something stopped Draco from meeting his fate; it came with a whistle and when it hit Stormy’s face purple dust exploded from it, causing The Queen to drop Draco, and go into a coughing fit. 

The Captain groaned, and looked up, confused at what saved his life; he was greeted by Piper stepping in front of him with a pouch slung around her shoulder, and holding spheres made out of leaves. 

“You couldn’t leave us alone for one full day, now could you?” Piper sassed the Queen. 

“I was just making sure you wouldn’t be able to enlist any help. New rule, you cannot ally with an army.” Stormy hissed, fluttering down to the ground. 

Piper clenched her teeth, and exclaimed, “You never said anything about not being able to enlist help. Why can’t we?” 

In an instant, Stormy’s face was only inches away from Piper’s, an evil grin plastered on it. 

The Arachnid Queen proceeded to grab the young pixie’s shirt collar, and lift her up inches off of the ground, before muttering, “Because this game is meant for the two people who have the most background with my clan.” 

Piper may have seemed unfazed by the explanation, but mentally she was confused; what background did Draco have with the Arachnids? 

 “There’s no time to think about that right now,” she told herself; Piper then proceeded to swing both her arms at Stormy. The result of the action: two leaf bombs hitting the Queen square in the face, and a purple cloud that made Stormy sputter appearing from the bombs. 

Piper was dropped back to the ground, but she wasted no time into kicking the queen in the gut. Stormy recovered, and caught her breath; she glared down at the prankster and Captain, and smirked, “I will leave and wait for you with my Cluster. You two know where the Arachnid clan lives. If you live and defeat my soldiers, I will allow you to pick one person to join your group, but that’s it. I will not hesitate to burn down this kingdom, and it’s residents.” 

She flew off into the night sky, leaving Draco and Piper alone. Piper helped the Captain get to his feet, and they looked around at the smoke, and listened to the screams. 

“We need to drive them out of here.” Draco sighed, turning to Piper. He was surprised when he saw that she was holding two more leaf bombs.

“A lot of the skills I learned being a prankster could help drive the Arachnids away, since they’re too powerful to take on physically.” she explained. 

Draco sighed a second time, and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Can you take them on your own?” he asked. 

Piper raised an eyebrow, and said, “With my speed and pranking skills, maybe, why?” 

The Captain gestured to the houses around them, and said, “Someone has to get the residents of the kingdom to safety. That someone must be me.” 

Piper’s eyes went wide, before she looked down at her feet and asked, “Do you really think I can do it?” 

“I believe in you Piper, now go get those beasts.” Draco encouraged. Piper looked up at the Captain, who had a hopeful smile on his face, and smiled back at him. 

“Aye Aye Captain.” she exclaimed, before flying off. Draco went on his way to check Flint and his mom. 

_*_

An Arachnid soldier scurried across the cobblestone street; he was certain that he had seen a pesky pixie fly this way. 

Suddenly he heard a whistle behind him and turned around; there she was, the pixie that he was searching for. Why was she wearing a smirk on her face? Shouldn’t she be terrified?

“You think you could hide from me?” the spider hissed. 

Piper retaliated with, “You think I was hiding? Please, you're just blind. I’ve been following you for about ten minutes now.”

The Arachnid soldier hissed angrily at the insult, and scraped his pointed legs on the cobblestone, signalling Piper that he was about to charge, which was exactly what she wanted him to do. 

“Aw, is the baby spidy angry?” Piper taunted, making a mocking pout-face. The angry Arachnid charged, lunging after what he thought was easy prey; he was wrong. 

Piper shot into an alleyway, where she could easily watch the show; the Arachnid soldier tripped over a rope that the prankster had tied down only minutes before. 

As the Spider stumbled over his eight legs, and collapsed to the ground, Piper took the rope, quickly untied it, and wrapped it around the Spider’s legs. 

Before the confused Arachnid soldier could process what was happening, he was lifted up by the pixie; she may have been young and a bit small, but she was stronger than she looked. 

With the Arachnid defenseless and in tow, Piper flew him yards outside the city, and dropped him knowing how tough Arachnids were, and that the spider would most likely survive the fall. 

Piper did this to a couple of spiders; however, like the pranks in the village, each one was different. 

Some pranks included the leaf bombs, while others included trip wires or water buckets to disorientate the spider soldiers. Though each prank was different, the result was the same; spiders leaving the city. 

In a span of an hour there were no more spiders lurking in the city, and the kingdom’s guards could clear out the fires. 

Piper hovered above the cities, and stretched her arms. “Oh that felt good to prank again!” she exclaimed to herself, but then a thought hit her, and she was left pondering. 

_*_ 

Captain Draco was watching a few soldiers put out a fire when he heard wings flapping above him. He wasn’t surprised to see it was Piper; she landed next to him a few moments later. 

“You look confused, Piper. What’s wrong?’ The Captain asked. Piper looked up at him, and sighed. 

“I’ve pranked pixies hundreds of times, and it’s usually to get at them for turning their backs on me.” Piper admitted. 

Draco looked over at her confused, and asked “Turn their backs on you?”

“I’ll explain some other time. Anyway, my pranking was supposed to annoy, anger the pixies in my village. I never thought I would use my pranking skills to save them.” Piper explained. 

Draco put his hand on Piper’s shoulder, and said, “Your pranks have taken on a new meaning. Instead of hurting pixies they’re defending them.” 

Piper smiled to herself, but glared up at Draco a second later. “My pranks never harmed anyone!” she exclaimed

“You knew what I meant.” The Captain laughed. Piper gave him a smile, and thought about what he had said. Could her pranks really save lives? 

She was knocked from her thoughts when Draco elbowed her arm, and said, “Let’s go.” 

“Wait, we need to pick a person to help us out, remember?” Piper reminded him. 

“Have anyone in mind?” Draco asked, raising his eyebrow.

 Piper thought about it for a second, before saying, “Actually, I just might.” 

To Be Continued….