I'm sorry your wings fell off, he said. This might help.
He held the mug out toward the creature, wondering if it would sip the flavored milk or just climb inside the cup.
Instead, it snapped at him, barely missing his finger. Seth jerked his hand away, sloshing hot chocolate onto the counter. Hissing, the agile creature dropped to the floor, raced over to the bathtub, and vaulted inside.
Before Seth could react, the creature squirmed down the drain. A final garbled burst of complaints issued from the dark hole, and then the creature was gone. Seth poured the remnants of the hot chocolate into the drain in case it* could be of use to the deformed fairy.
He looked back at the jar, empty now except for a few wilting flower petals. He was not sure what he had done wrong, but he doubted Maddox would be very proud.
Later that morning, Seth sat in the tree house trying to find puzzle pieces that fit together. Now that the perimeter was finished, adding pieces was a challenge. They all looked the same.
He had avoided Kendra all morning. He did not feel like talking to anybody. He could not get over how foul the fairy had become. He was not sure what he had done, but he knew it was somehow his fault, some accidental consequence of catching the fairy. That was why she had been so frightened the night before. She knew he had doomed her to change into an ugly little monster.
The puzzle pieces started to vibrate. Soon the whole tree house was trembling. Were they having an earthquake?
He had never been in an earthquake before.
Chapter Ten
Seth ran to the window. Fairies hovered everywhere, gathered in the air all around the tree house. Their arms were raised, and they seemed to be chanting.
One of the fairies pointed at Seth. Several glided closer to the window. One held her palm out in his direction; with a flash of light, the windowpane shattered.
Seth jumped away from the window as several fairies flew in.
He ran to the hatch, but the tree house lurched so violently that he fell to the floor. The shaking was becoming intense. The floor was no longer level. A chair tipped over.
The door to the hatch had slammed shut. He crawled toward it. Something hot stung the back of his neck.
Multicolored lights began flashing.
Seth grabbed the door to the hatch, but it would not open. He tugged hard. Something seared the back of his hand.
Panicked, he returned to the window, struggling to keep his balance as the floor quaked beneath him. The flock of fairies continued to chant. He could hear their little voices. With a loud crack, the tree house suddenly tilted sideways. The view out the window switched from the fairies to the rapidly approaching ground.
Seth experienced a momentary sensation of weightlessness.
Every object in the tree house was floating as everything plummeted together. Puzzle pieces filled the air. And then the tree house imploded.
Kendra smeared sunblock across her arms, disliking the greasy feel of the lotion against her skin. She was tanner than when she had first arrived, but the sun was hot today, and she did not want to take any chances.
Her shadow was a small puddle at her feet. It was almost noon. Lunch was not far off, and then Grandpa Sorenson would take them to the granary. Kendra quietly hoped she would see a unicorn.
Suddenly she heard a tremendous crash from the corner of the yard. Then she heard Seth screaming.
What could have made such a huge noise? She did not have to run far in order to see the broken pile of rubble at the base of the tree.
Seth was sprinting toward her. His shirt was torn. He had blood on his face. Scores of fairies appeared to be in pursuit. Her initial thought was to make a joke about the fairies wanting revenge for him trying to catch them, until she realized it was probably true. Had the fairies thrown down the tree house?
They're after me! he yelled.
Jump in the pool! Kendra called.
Seth swerved in the direction of the pool and began pulling off his shirt. The ominous cloud of fairies had no trouble keeping up with him. They hurled sparkling streams of glitter. Casting his shirt aside, Seth sprang into the water.
The fairies are after Seth! Kendra cried, watching in horrified dismay.
The fairies hovered over the pool. After a few moments Seth surfaced. In flawless synchronization, the cloud of fairies swooped, diving toward him. He yelled as blazing rays of light began flaring around him, and ducked underwater again. The fairies plunged in after him.
He came to the surface gasping. The water churned.
Seth floundered at the center of an underwater pyrotechnics display. Kendra rushed to the edge of the pool.
Help! he cried, raising a hand out of the water. The fingers were fused together like a flipper.
Kendra screamed. They're attacking Seth! Help!
Somebody! They're attacking Seth!
He flailed toward the side of the pool. The roiling mass of fairies converged on Seth again, hauling him to the bottom of the pool amid eerie bursts of light. Kendra ran and seized the pool skimmer, swinging it at the relentless horde of fairies, never touching any of them no matter how dense the swarm appeared.
Seth resurfaced at the edge of the pool and threw his arms up onto the flagstones, trying to drag himself out of the water. Kendra stooped to assist him but shrieked instead. One arm was broad, flat, and rubbery. No elbow, no hand. A flipper coated in human skin. The other was long and boneless, a fleshy tentacle with limp fingers at the end.
She looked at his face. Long tusks curved down from a wide, lipless mouth. Patches of hair were missing. His eyes were glazed with terror.
The frenzied fairies mobbed him again, and he lost his grip on the side, vanishing in another pulsing succession of colored flashes. Steam sizzled up from the seething water.
What is the meaning of this? Grandpa Sorenson hollered, hustling to the edge of the pool. Lena followed behind him. The water in the pool flickered a few more times. Many of the fairies whizzed away. A few flew over to Grandpa.
One fairy in particular chirped angrily. She had short blue hair and silvery wings.
He did what? Grandpa said.
An unrecognizable monstrosity heaved itself out of the water and lay panting on the flagstones. The deformed creature had no clothes. Lena crouched beside him, placing a hand on his side.
He had no idea that would happen, Grandpa complained.
It was innocent!
The fairy twittered her disapproval.
Kendra gaped at the freakish form of her brother. Most of his hair had fallen out, revealing a lumpy scalp stippled with moles. His face was broader and flatter, with sunken eyes and tusks the size of bananas protruding from his mouth. A misshapen hump swelled high above his shoulders.
On his back below the hump, four blowholes puckered for air. His legs had united into a single crude tail. He slapped the ground with his flipper arm. The tentacle writhed like a snake.