Golden Glade [NaWOWriMo] Flying to Neverland

Challenge No.7: Elfie becomes a toon from a fairy tale. Inspired by J.M.Barrie's "Peter Pan"

"Ain't you a cutie pie?" the fairy kneeled down and patted Elfie's head, while the kid had sprawled on his back, all four feet and the round belly upwards and was purring approvingly. The little, stubby tail was wagging excitedly, sending little clouds of dust up in the air.

"What would you say, if I took you somewhere very, very special?" she asked then and since Elfie had no clue, what she was babbling, he continued to smile at her and give that "more cuddles, more cuddles" look dogs do, when they are in particularly good mood. "I take that as a "yes"!" the fairy clapped her hands and picked the puppy up and shot up in the air. 

However strong fairies are, they have their limits and, while the lady in question managed to get as far as away from Firebirds, she almost dropped her valuable luggage on more than three occasions. Elfie being an awkward puppy, who had just had his brunch, was not much help either. All the while his kidnapper was slaving under the additional weight, the kid enjoyed the flight, observing everything down below with wide-open eyes and a goofy grin spread across his face.

"Nope. This is not gonna work," the fairy said, when she had reached a sturdy tree and positioned the fat kiddo so that it would not fall over either way. Elfie craned her neck, licked her face and as the fairy pulled away and he tried to keep the distance between them the same, he almost fell down. The fairy caught him by his tail in the last moment, pulled him back up and with a stern gaze pinned him on the spot.

Then she rummaged in the little pouch she had attached to her lime-green dress and picked out a handful of golden, sparkly dust. "Stand still, kiddo," she warned him and then blew the dust right in his muzzle. Elfie scrunched his nose, achooo-ed once, twice, thrice and tried to rid himself of the dust. While doing this, he slid backwards, then some more and then all of a sudden he was in the air. But instead of falling - he was floating. 

"Wooo-wooo-wooo!" he chimed, looking up at the fairy with bright eyes. "Now you have fun, while I return with another one," she told him, placed a kiss atop his black-button-like nose and disappeared in the trees. Elfie - the newly appointed flying puppy (just think - is there a kid, who has mastered flying before they even knew, how to walk properly?), first of his kind - was left alone. A second later he was whizzing and buzzing around the forest wooo-wooo-wooo-ing along the way.

Sulkity sulkity stomp stomp stomp. Recent events were whirling around her head in the most aggravating of manners, like a maddening itch she couldn't reach to scratch, and keeping her from sleeping well to boot. Talos was therefore up and restlessly pacing and muttering to herself under her breath as she paid very little mind to where she was going or why. It was not entirely unwelcome when the dazzling spark off among the trees caught her eye and distracted her, though as Talos lifted her head, blinking, she wasn't entirely sure if she was missing out on more sleep than she'd thought and possibly starting to hallucinate things. She gave her head a quick little shake and poked her nose in the direction of the flash she'd seen as she took several careful deep sniffs of the air. Could it maybe, just possibly be...one of the dragons she'd been seeking awhile back? They did breathe fire, after all, right? Talos wasn't sure quite what she'd seen, if anything, but she did have some suspicions.

She moved forward with a few more experimental snuffs, and then sneezed. She paused to scrape a paw across her nose, and worked her jaw as she wrinkled up her nose, tweaking it exaggeratedly side to side and then sneezing again. Whatever it was, it didn't quite smell like anything much and yet somehow still managed to tickle her nose. She was about ready to turn around and leave in disgust, when instead another blaze of color went whipping by much closer, with a strange doppler effect to the "woooo, woo-woo-woooo!" noises it was making. What?! managed Talos, snorting in surprise, and then, Hey! Hey! interrupted by another sneeze. Hey you, get ba' 'ere! she yelled upward, having sworn she'd just glimpsed a strange puppy zooming by in midair. Wha's wrong wit' you? Get BACK 'ere! Nooowww! Okay, so maybe this whole thing was just some sort of bizarre sleep-deprived hallucinatory dream, she wasn't sure, but if so it was her dream still and either way she wanted some answers, right now dammit! She was not any more pleased when in the process of scuttling after the unidentified flying-puppy-thing with her head jutted up into the air a large stick on the ground rose up to trip her and put her chin down into the dirt instead.

The longer Elfie flied, the more he enjoyed himself and the more proficient he became in the skill. If at first near-crashes in trees, being hit in the face by small branches and on five occasions at least head-diving straight in the soft moss underneath, then an hour or so later, he was so ellegant and agile, as if he had been flying around all his life. 

More "woo-woo-woo"s echoed in the forest, until someone called out to him, making Elfie stop mid-air and turn around to see, who it was. A dark pelted wolf on the ground had fixed it's gaze on him and the demanding tone meant that Elfie was supposed to come closer. Innocent, happy and not the least bit suspicious, the little cub floated lower and lower, and lower, until he was fluttering a foot above Talos's head and was inspecting her with a curious and kind gaze. "WRUFF!" he barked at her cheerfully, wagging his little tail like a propeller and making a little air-zoomie. Come on - join me! He seemed to say.

Talos squinted sourly up at the little pup, who was still making his nonsensical wroo-woo-woo types of noises as he drifted down toward her, mockingly she suspected. He finished up with a louder and more-definite WRUFF! that flattened back her ears in annoyance. He was very, very young though, she noted... maybe even only freshly-weaned? Talos wasn't quite sure. She hadn't been spending much time around any proper packlands, after all, and so it had been a while since she'd seen much of any other pup to compare him to. It made her feel just a little better to think that small as this brat was she could probably have squooshed him with one swat of her big black paw, if necessary, however. Talos worked her jaw a moment as she stood up again and gave a quick irritable brush of one of those paws across her chin to try and dislodge a bit of the dirt. The paw that had tripped over the stick, as it happened, and gotten slightly scraped—perhaps smearing it with a touch of blood instead wasn't the biggest of improvements, but then Talos had never been known for her acute fashion sense.

Wha' 're you doin' in midair?! she demanded, though she wasn't in fact sure this little guy was of an age to actually coherently speak as of yet either. ...Not that she had any grounds to stand on, criticizing others' intelligibility, but that had never stopped her yet. 'Ow'd you get up there? Wha' 'appened?! Her irritation was quickly dwindling as the sting on her chin receded and the other pup whirled and spun about like the most bizarre sort of elaborate bird acrobatics. This looked fun, actually. I wanna try too! announced Talos, starting to feel envious as her eyes followed the stubby little tail that propellered the young boy along and shot him forward in the air another few feet. Wruff! she tried on impulse, just in case that was the magic word to make this whole flight business possible.

No dice.

No such luck.

Talos would not gain the ability to fly by voicing her protest out loud and Elfie was unable to tell her, how he had got there and what should she be doing to get kidnapped by fairies. Had he got the faculties, he would have told that first - she needed to become small and cute just like him again. Second - well, she needed to catch eyes of the fairies. They were fickle little creatures, they stole an occasional kid, but only special ones got chosen. The rest were left for gremlins to deal with. 

So wrapped up in his ability to fly, Elfie overestimated his skills and in an attempt to make a somersault in air, he hit a tree.

[The image went black and he awoke, being squished tightly against the floor of the den, because one of his parents had rolled on him accidentaly.]

Wrapping up all of the old threads. Thank you for joining and I hope that these two can meet, when Elfie is older and can travel.