The guests tasted all the flavors of the party with loud cheers and big grins, much to Arthur’s bitter dismay, for he seemed to be the only one bored with everything. He slipped past the tables, abundant in everything eatable, just to find himself in front of the bar. The bartender, weary of too much talking, watched him with a corner of his eye, then blinked happily and turned his face to the newcomer, forgetting his lack of interest in favor of satisfying the customer:

‘I greet you, mister. Ah, you have all the looks and gestures of a notorious drinker. What is your desire regarding wine this evening, sir?’

Seeing that the fellow didn’t answer, the bartender straightened his shabby looking hat and asked again:

‘Or perhaps sir doesn’t have a taste for wine. That would be of no problem, for I can assure you, this barkeep has every drink invented in the lands of Bathrariel, should you ask for it.’ As he finished, he curled his lip, an usual habit for a bartender, got from opening bottles by ’first sip’, a magical way of convincing the drink to ‘pour itself’.

‘Mno, thanks, Arthur muttered.’

‘Oh, aren’t you special?’

‘What? Was that you, barkeep?’, he ruffled, in a most uninterested tone.

‘No, actually, it was my hat.’

‘Your hat…finally, a thing worth turning my head.’

‘Hello there, grumpy. Oh, what a silly face! Keep it to yourself, mate, wouldn’t want to scare the children with that.’

‘I usually don’t do idiots…’hissed Arthur. That very moment, hand to his belt, he got his dagger out, pointing it to the hat. The barkeep intervened.

‘I am most sorry, sir, for this inconvenience. I assure you, he’s usually well behaved. It’s the smell of alcohol that made him dizzy. Please, Hat, cease.’

‘Of all the stupid heads I could’ve chosen, I chose this one. Aah…think that I could’ve been a ninja hat…’

‘If I get my dagger out again, you’ll be a dead hat’, said Arthur with a yawn.

The bartender suddenly ran in the back, kicking some bottles. Next to Arthur sat a dark-haired beauty, smiling at the hat, left on the bar. She turned to Arthur and said:

‘You shouldn’t wave your knife like that…hats don’t like it.’

‘Yeah, that’s right. In fact, you know what, we hate it. Yes, sir, we do.’

‘Now hat…’

‘Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just keep the big guy silent, his breath …’

‘Hat!’

‘Too much nerve. I hate magic.’, snorted Arthur.

‘Still, you are here, at the Carnival, on Magic’s Day.’

‘I know where I am.’

‘Or do you?’

Arthur stood silent. He was getting bored again.

‘I’m Alana.’

‘Good for you.’

‘Alana, how good it is to see you. I’ve brought you your favorite.’ The bartender hands the girl a cup which she thankfully grabs by its delicate handle.

‘So I saw, Gregory. I’m most grateful.’

‘Oh please don’t. The lady’s presence is an honor.’ Pressing those last words, Gregory took a mean peak at Arthur, who was starting to walk away.

‘Sir, begging your pardon, but ladies such as miss Alana are not to be mistreated.’

 ‘Gregory…’ Alana faked a blush, but Gregory knew better. He bent over:

‘I really find this chap rather boring.’

‘He’s more bored, that boring, I’m sure.’

‘Well, it’s all the same to me, if you don’t mind.’

Suddenly, the bar trembled, hit by what it appeared to be a human body. Startled by the shaking, Alana and Gregory looked back, waiting. Soon, a silhouette emerged from under the bar.

‘Heeeey, nobody leaves my Alana alone! Baby, I’m here to keep you company!’

‘Sonia, you all right?’

‘Oh girl, I’m in the best shape ever! Gregory, your wine…mmmm!’ She pressed her fingers tightly against her lips, and continued: ‘Girl, you have to come dancing with me! It’s crazy, the wizards are all there, making lights and summoning beasts…have you brought Mickey along?’

‘Sonia…really, you shouldn’t tangle with magic when you drink, you…’

‘Are you implying, my dear Alana … that I’m drunk?’ She burst into a powerful, apparently harmless laughter, until she lost her touch at standing and went bumbling right into Arthur, standing a few paces behind Alana.

‘Sorry, oh … dear me. Alana, where…are you?’

Helping her to her feet, Arthur looked into her blue eyes and saw that she was a fairy. Moving his hands along her back, he felt her soft wings pressed around her ribs. Hastily, he pushed her up.

‘Oh…fairy’, he whispered.

‘Mister, I’m curious,’ Alana approached, ‘ of why are you so reserved when it comes to … powerful magical creatures.’ She brightened her words with a discreet smile, enough to make Sonia burst into laughter again. This time, Alana grasped the fairy’s hands tightly. Sonia, feeling her long, golden hair tangled into her friend’s hands, screamed:

‘Alana, hands off, you’re ruining my hair! Leave…me…’

‘I have to hold you, or you’ll fall again, dearest.’ Turning her head towards Arthur, she continued:

‘May I present you, sir, my fairy friend, Sonia. She’s a little fond of the bottle, but she’s an elegant young lass, otherwise.’

‘Am not!’

Alana smiled at the protest, pushed Sonia up, then turned to Arthur:

‘About magic, then.’

‘Sorceress, don’t toy with him now!’ called a sleepy Hat. ‘I’m too tired now, and I want to hear it. Could you just wait a few hours?’

Sonia, who had somewhat regained her balance, was leaning on the bar with another glass in her hands. Gregory was filling it with wine, his best, if you were to judge by his large grin and slow pouring. Alana took Hat’s unspoken advice and forgot Arthur. Anti-magic people weren’t worth it, after all. A glass fell on the bar and got the sorceress’s attention. She shook her head, looking at the spilled wine: ‘Sonia, again …Ah! And are you not elegant, my girl?’

‘I think she meant not drunk, but, even if you were, fairy, I think it would be hardly noticeable.’ Arthur laughed alone, his poor joke having no effect on anyone else. Hat, waking from it’s slumber on the bar, yawned:

‘Oh, you just had to make a bad joke…are you not aware that I’m sleeping? Don’t you know that hats sleep at parties?’

‘Alana, come dance with me. Bring Mickeeey! And Hat…shut up already!’

‘I mean, how ignorant can you get? I see you’re big and fat, but…’

Sonia pulled Alana to the dance area, where wizards and magical creatures of all sorts gathered to perform arcane spells of greatest power, putting up a show to remember. The crowd made such a noise, that Sonia didn’t hear Alana shout  she’d left Mickey at home.

Arthur went slowly after them, ignoring Hat, who kept rambling on. Gregory left his bottles and got up on a high stool to watch the party.

 

‘Alanaaa!!!’ Sonia was spinning, dancing back an forth, so happy and careless in her dizziness that she enjoyed every wizard she hit, every fairy she knocked to the ground. Once in the air, Alana couldn’t help from bouncing from one creature to the other. The music was taking them higher into the night and the lights sparkled brighter and brighter, spinning and flying, dizziness that tingled everyone’s senses.

            When the music stopped and the dancers floated back down, Arthur approached a stool near the bar and sat.

‘I think I’ll have that wine now.’

‘You what?’ started Hat.

‘If you could just behave…’ snapped Gregory, bringing the wine. Arthur sipped, then took the glass up and over his head.

‘Lousy drinker’, mumbled the hat, unaware of the barkeep’s angered look. Arthur didn’t notice, much as he didn’t notice anything, and sat up, glancing into Alana’s direction. He could hear Sonia’s whining on the dance floor, but could barely see her face, for the beautiful human sorceress was standing in front of her, trying to calm the fairy.

‘Sonia, I didn’t bring Mickey. He didn’t want to…fix his hair.’

‘But Mickey’s great! We could’ve drank together, just the three of us.’

‘Spiders usually have a bad taste for these things, Sonia.’

‘And then…we could go off scaring people! And…drink! Ah, girl, where’s my wine bottle?’

‘Sonia, you didn’t fetch the bottle.’

‘Anyways, please summon Mickey.’

‘Now girl, you know I can’t wake him.’ Alana tried to sound convincing, but Sonia didn’t seem to understand. She turned her back and put her thin, nicely curved legs in motion. At that very moment though, an elf was moving past her and, as she turned her lovely, small body, he hit her hard to the ground; she fell smashing the elf’s pots, pulling him down with her. Alana hurried to help, but Sonia was up in a flash and screaming her lungs out:

‘You stupid little clown! You pathetic mockery of a waiter!!’

Sensing the little fairy ever so disturbed, not to mention the slight smell of wine that hung about her, the waiter paced backwards, mumbling a shy ‘sorry, miss’ and looking terribly scared.

Alana tried to catch her hand, but Sonia was way off her track. She stumbled past the broken pots, raging at the poor elf:

‘Waiter! Take my order, please! I’ll have…you! Boiled or roasted?’

‘Sonia, stop!’

‘You were supposed to ask me, twig! Petty excuse for a waiter! Ask me: boiled or roasted! Ask me, or I’ll have you both ways!’

Saying that, she raised her hands into the air. The elf froze: fairy magic practically disabled his. Alana tried to make her way through the crowd, which was too amazed to even move out of the way. When she reached her, Sonia already cast her spell.

‘Presumably, you failed’, said the human sorceress. The fairy was scared, her face tormented between suspicion and terror.

‘But…but…I called Mickey!’

‘You try, girl. You try.’

Alana was confident. A fey spirit couldn’t do much damage. Then again, the elf wizards could do nothing to it. Winning over her fear, Sonia’s suspicion roused the little fairy, who started shouting at the newly arrived fey spirit:

‘From all the spells you could’ve ruined, you picked on mine?’ Sonia heard whispers, probably Alana telling her to stop. ‘Stop? This mister – pointing at the spirit, that stood frozen, trying to understand – is an senseless brute! Ha! I’ve said it! I’ve always wanted to say this! Ha-ha, just like in those stories you used to read me, girl…girl? Alana? Hey, who turned off the lights?’

All was getting darker and darker around Sonia, and she could hear dimming sounds of battle. ‘The spirit has gone mad’ she thought. His caster though, must never be harmed. Sonia was the spirit’s only way of getting back to wherever he came. That was the reason for him isolating the fairy, protecting her from the mayhem. ‘Well, that’s expected. I wonder what Alana will make of this. She’d probably want to spank me or something!’ Sonia laughed and waited for the lights to reappear. She knew fey spirits, they never tend to linger much in one place. They also were crazy on quick bash-n-run kind of things. ‘Oh my wings, that would be so weird! Alana giving me a spanking. Or some other weird things I hear she’s been doing.’ The dark haze was lifting now. Sonia looked around her, things starting to get clear. She had a few images of torn curtains, broken glass and shredded wood, then her view came back to normal.

‘Ok, I think Mickey would have been nicer…’

‘Yes, I should think so. This is such a mess he made. Can you actually believe all those wizards ran like scared cats? Oh, how cruel fate is with them. Actually, how stupid can you get? I mean… ’ Gregory was taken aback by the velocity with which his wine bottles broke, hit by the raging storm. That, and the sudden thought that nobody was going to pay for it made him feel dizzy and silent; so Hat took the pleasure of speaking in his name.

‘I tell you, I’m better off here than on a head of a wizard. At least I’m sitting on clean hair!’

‘I wasn’t talking to you, Hat! Keep that leather mouth of yours shut tight!’

‘Fine, fine, miss Sonia-cranky-head…oh, women! Never had’em, never will want to…’

‘Well maybe that’s your problem!’

‘What is my problem, Sonia dear?’ Alana appeared out of nowhere, looking tired and a little upset.

‘Hey, you’re doing it again, sis.’

‘Is that being upset with you, or maybe is it my everlasting desire of hitting you?’

‘Hey, stop it! We both know you’d never do those things. You love me!’

‘Yes, I do, sweet fairy. Not on this occasion, though.’

‘Hey, yeah, ok, thanks for banishing that spirit. Have you seen Gregory? He’s torn apart. Hey, Greg, what’s all the fuss about?’

Alana tried to remain calm, for she was angered at Sonia’s lack of remorse. She watched as the fairy realized the barkeeps grief and started to sing a mocking fake cry. ‘Are you making fun of my friend, Sonia?’ Sonia looked up, saw the sorceress looking down on her, and grinned: ’Yeah!’ Within moments, Alana’s hands were raised high in the air, sparkling white balls of pure light.

The little fairy stood up and, touching her thin lips with her cute fingers, said: ‘Oh! Ok, now she’s definitely in the mood for a spanking! Oh. Hey, Alana, there’s Mickey!’ Sonia seemed truly happy, but then again, it could have been the wine that made her that. Any of the ways, Alana didn’t care. She’d posted herself in front of the little fairy, lifted her eyebrows and whispered: “Where?”, when a big, hairy foot placed itself between her and her “victim”.

‘See’, began Sonia in her usual light voice, Mickey loves me! He protects me from bad, ugly witches like you!’

Alana’s fury was beginning to cool down. She brought her hands back and cast a dreadful look to the giant spider behind her. The beast looked calm and certain, as if nothing could move it.

‘Let’s just go home before the mages come back.’, said a defeated Alana.

‘Ok. We can drink some more there. Wait! Has anyone seen that big guy…you called him Arthur?’

 

The bored Arthur lay under a table, too scared to get up and face that dark magic. Scared of anything he couldn’t kill with a blade, he decided that this night hadn’t been so boring, after all.