Click to play audio title from Pippi.
By mid autumn, Nick, the boy who had befriended NT during the summer, came around every day now, he just wanted to be near her, and he enjoyed the friendship she returned. He was even more sweet toward her after the night of the great confrontation,.
This worried the other women, who were pretty sure he was trying to get too serious with NT.
The young girl was inwardly scared as well. She just didn't feel as close to Nick as he apparently did to her, and this made her feel as if she was as bad as Monica. On the other hand, he was the only friend she had besides her mother, Capri, Pippi and Ameh. What could she do? She didn't see that Nick had other feelings besides simply wanting a best friend, or more likely, didn't want to see it. She believed Nick was just needing to feel special to someone as a good friend. She did not want to believe he was attracted to her in a way he shouldn't be. Besides, that was impossible. She was not attractive in that way, and she certainly didn't want to be.
Nick's conversation unnerved her. He was always going on about how wonderful he thought she was, and it made her feel terribly shy and embarrassed. Nick kept on about what he called his adventures in Hell, with demons and the whole bit. NT didn't believe him, and she wished he would listen to her and stop making time for the devil. His visits always left her feeling drained and discouraged, but she didn't have anything solid to support the breaking off of the friendship, such as it was.
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Nick was reunited with his twin brother Jacquan, who sometimes came around with him to visit.
But Jacquan was an arrogant, rude sort, who tended to put off the others with his attitude, especially Capri.
On Christmas day, Tonya Harper, a foul mouthed, combination computer geek gangstagirl mage who Nick and Jacquan started hanging around with, showed up at Pippi's house with Nick, and she caused a fight. She ended up stabbing him in the front yard when she along with Nick and Jacquan were told to take it outside.
NT saw the whole thing from the front window and was traumatized.
More frantic rushings around from people trying to get help for the boys, though It wasn't really necessary. Nick had some magic healing ability, so by the time the EMS got there, there was not a mark on him. Jacquan had also completely healed up, and both boys were willing to make as if it never happened, that it was nothing more than a prank.
There was spilled blood, though, which they couldn't explain away.
Ariel took time trying to comfort NT while Capri confronted Tonya. She told her she would have her sent to jail for what she had done. But of all shocking things to happen, Nick and his brother Jacquan spoke up on Tonya's behalf.
Tonya really played up the troubled, mixed up, frightened little girl routine enough to make Nick and jacquan dote all over her. They were sorry for her because she claimed she had no parents, and anyway, what were a few stab wounds when they could heal themselves?
This made no sense to Capri, who remained unimpressed and unmoved.
In a while, they were all opening gifts, trying to pretend nothing had happened.
Everything was tense, because Tonya had Nick's family feeling quite sorry for her, while NT and her guardians were anything but accepting after the stabbings.
Nick's doting over Tonya and neglect of NT earned him an incredulous, disgusted glance from Pippi.
She and Nick had originally conspired to get NT two tickets for a show that he wanted to take her to.
Instead, he had changed his mind. Hastily, he had rubbed out NT's name on the gift and put "Merry Christmas Tonya." In addition to the show ticket was a cd.
All NT got from him was a chincy little music box that looked far from new, and nothing from Jacquan. As it was, Nick had to go home and magically produce the music box. It was a replica of one he'd gotten long ago when he was in preschool, the only "girly" thing he could find among all his possessions over the years.
This resulted in Pippi taking Nick aside and confronting him about it while Tonya basked in her ill-gotten glory.
NT, for her part, was downcast and bewildered, unable to figure out why Tonya got the far better gift after she had nearly killed Nick while NT hadn't lifted a finger against him or anybody else and had bought Nick some flash drives, which he had told her was on his Christmas list.
When Pippi brought Nick back in, she turned away from him and asked Capri to join her in the kitchen to help bring out the holiday snacks. She whispered something else into Capri's ear, evidently not wanting certain others to overhear.
Capri nodded and approached NT to take away the music box.
NT had no objection, though she was inwardly curious about what Capri wanted with it. For a moment, she gazed after Capri and Pippi as they went into the kitchen, and then resumed looking down at her hands.
"Sorry about that, NT," said Nick flatly, "But if you knew Tonya's story, I'm sure you'd want to give her everything and more. She's really had a tough life and this is her first real Christmas."
Thrown for a loop, NT only turned away from Nick and bit her bottom lip. "It's my first Christmas too, and she could've killed you."
Here was Tonya, who had just tried to kill Nick in front of her, and Nick was treating her like long lost family. What was up with that?
To make matters even worse, Jacquan joined in to gang up on NT. He chastised her for expressing her dislike of Tonya.
She said nothing, too afraid of making things worse for herself by speaking up, and too shocked and hurt to take much more of this.
Pippi and Capri came back with the food, and with a different, better gift for NT.
Now, that seriously twitted Tonya's ego. She fumed! Here she had thought she was so special and had them all in the palm of her hand until she saw that Capri had just given NT a gift that was similar in value to her own, in addition to something else Tonya really wanted for herself.
She knew Capri detested her. She hated Capri for not liking her, but tried to tell herself she didn't care.
But to make things even worse, obviously Pippi agreed with Capri and was determined to slyly put Tonya back in her place.
So, Tonya burned with anger and wounded pride that her play for sympathy didn't impress everyone the way it had Nick.
NT was surprised, but still downcast. She knew Pippi and Capri were only trying to make her feel better, but that wasn't making the Tonya situation go away or become any clearer.
Then came a fight between the two girls and Jacquan joining in to help Tonya gang up on NT.
Disgusted by the two boys and Tonya's conniving behavior, Capri blew her top at them. After reading them the riot act, she abruptly turned Tonya's show ticket into a piece of coal, then threw Tonya off the property, along with Jacquan and nick. Glaring at Nick, her parting words to him were, "Don't come back until you get your head screwed on right an' not before!" Her dire warning to Tonya was "I'll put you back a century or see your sorry butt behind bars!"
Nick called his family over in order to try making the peace.
Nick and Jacquan demanded and pleaded with Capri not to punish Tonya.
Capri was determined to go ahead and put Tonya in her place until of all things, Nick's and Jacquan's folks, it was unclear if they were their real parents or adoptive or foster, said they'd take Tonya in and asked Capri not to charge her just this once.
It was a long time before Capri finally gave in, but very reluctantly. she didn't want to cause trouble between this family and Nick's folks.
Just after Christmas, a local girl had gone missing.
Nick and his brother Jacquan who thought the girl looked hot, wanted to find her. So they had tried to all on their own and couldn't. So nick told NT, who alerted Capri.
She tried to find the missing girl via magic and drew a blank...nothing, not even a body.
Warning bells went off, big time. The girl was not dead, she was abducted by some evil magic user who was blocking any magic search.
The only one who could cut through such magic blockers just like that was NT, and much as the others didn't want her putting herself at risk and wearing herself out, they had to let her try. Even Nick and Jacquan tried to talk NT out of searching, without success.
When NT failed to return or even contact anyone after 24 hours, Ariel called Ameh at her apartment, saying she might need her help in locating NT as well as Jacquan's friend.
Ameh agreed to help out however she could.
Once Ameh arrived at the house, she, Capri, Ariel, Nick, Jacquan, and Pippi all made plans.
Ariel first tried a magic search. Nothing. Ameh was next. She too, drew a blank.
"I'm blocked too." Capri said in disgust, and she tried to unblock the link. "Hmmmm." She frowned. The magic she was picking up from the source of the block was anything but good, but she didn't say this aloud. There was no point in making Ariel panic. "Wherever they are, they just keep movin on. Every time I think I've located them, it goes dead."
"Maybe we should zap to a world where nothing's going on and we can concentrate better." Ameh suggested. There's got to be places like that around."
"There are, but this time it's--" Capri's explanation was sharply and rudely cut off.
"Don't you idiots know anything?" Jacquan demanded impatiently.
"Excuse me!?" Ameh began to retort, glaring at Jacquan.
Jacquan assumed a superior attitude. "That's not how this magic works, you have to follow the trace. everywhere the captor goes, she leaves a magic trail."
"Young man..." Capri said sternly, taking a step toward him. "We don't need mouthy little brats calling childish insults on this search...Now, you can act like a man an' keep yer arrogant mouth shut er stay behind., it's up t'you."
Jacquan rolled his eyes. "Yeah sure whatever...c'mon, Nick, we can find her ourselves."
"And NT too." Nick added.
"Yeah yeah, let's go." Jacquan barked impatiently at Nick.
"Well, I was gonna add that there is a trace we gotta try pickin up an' followin, if Mr. Know-It-All hadn't shot off his ruddy self-important mouth." Capri said irritably.
"Yeah, like wow, isn't he just dripping with concern for those missing girls?" Ameh sniped, giving Jacquan a dirty glare.
"Fat lot you know, dweeb!" and with that, Jacquan hustled his brother out of the house while the women looked after them in disgust.
"'Dweeb'? If that's the best he can do for an insult..." Ameh rolled her eyes.
"No, he knows how to say 'idiot' too, don't forget." Capri sniped back. "Obnoxious kids, both of them."
"Very." Ariel added.
Capri resumed laying plans. "Tell ya what. Why don't you just lemme have a go at this first. There's no chance of getting detected that way, an' I think I'm pickin up some traces here.
the others agreed, and remained at the house for Capri to return.
Capri warped out of the house and into another world. This was the first one on the magic trail.
She was just about to examine the magic trace when it seemed to disappear, and to Capri's horror, a swarm of wasps descended on her.
"Get lost, you stupid bugs!" Capri hissed, she was in no mood for inconveniences, especially painful ones.
Now the wasps that came out and stung Capri had upset a bee hive some distance away, and they too, swarmed, ready to fight off the intruders, both wasp and faerie.
Capri felt as if she couldn't scream, and couldn't not scream, and there was no magic trace.
She tried her best to ward off the wasps and bees to no avail. They kept coming, and each sting felt worse than the last.
Time was running short, Capri didn't feel she would last much longer, and where the heck was that darn trace?
But wait, there it was. She had almost given up hope and finally she could track and zap out of this nightmare.
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The next world Capri found herself in was also a surprise. It was sweltering hot, and the gravitational pull was tremendous. The very last thing she needed after all those stings.
~Blast it! Whoever's responsible fer this is gonna be very sorry when I catch them!~ She thought, and entertained the notion of making NT's captors, whoever they were, retrace this exact route with ten times the discomfort.
There was nothing but a stretch of road before her, no buildings, no trees, no sign of life at all.
Normally Capri would follow it and track from there, but she was tired from the concentration, and the fright and misery of the stings, and they were so many that Capri wasn't at all sure she wasn't getting sick from the venom. The intense heat didn't help any, and very soon, the faerie's face, neck and arms, wherever she had been stung, swelled up a great deal.
The gravity pull in this world prevented her standing up straight, and she gave in, just for a little while, to lie down on the sun baked road.
The heat was dulled by the clothes she was wearing but Capri knew that if she didn't transport soon, trace or no trace, she could get heat stroke on top of everything else.
Finally, after several minutes of rest, Capri sat up with a lot of effort, and worked hard to pick up a trace. She couldn't be sure if, after some time, the sensation she was getting was it, but decided it was just as good as it could get, and transported.
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Blackness, and biting wind that made her catch her breath.
Capri found herself sitting on something soft. It was snow. She was on a mountain top.
The high altitude and thin air made it even harder to catch her breath, which was already made short from the bee and wasp venom and the heat.
For a few moments the cold was almost welcome, maybe it could bring down the swelling a bit. But it soon had a sting of it's own, and Capri was certainly not dressed for this climate!
she tried to stand up, but her shifting weight caused her to fall off a ledge she didn't know was there, thanks to the snow covering, and into a drift that buried her in over her head.
"Oh, give it a rest!" She mumbled to herself, "Whatever next?"
She didn't have to wait long for the answer. A rumble in the distance, off to one side, but it was getting nearer. An avalanche! The wind had picked up, and great swirls of snow were being blown around. It was a terrible snow storm.
Some bolder was dislodged from it's place as snow was piling against it, and it rolled, causing more and more snow to tumble.
The drift that was holding Capri, now started to have a life of it's own, and it carried her a way down the mountain. She had to get out now before the weight of the snow crushed her underneath it!
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one more transport, this time she didn't care where, and she ended up lying by the side of a stream.
the climate was gently warming as the sun was just rising.
Sick, exhausted and dehydrated, Capri tested the water for magic properties. It had none, it was perfectly safe. Then, she edged herself on her front, toward the water, put her face down into it, and drank desperately. The cool, clear water felt wonderful on her burning face and arms, and she couldn't down it fast enough. Even her lips and tongue had been stung and were dangerously swollen.
The warm breeze played with her hair, and the gentle sun took the shakes and cramping out of her.
Finally, Capri drank her fill, and she rolled herself back from the water and lay on the bank, her hair shading her face and neck from the sun.
whether all of this had taken minutes, hours, or even days, she didn't know, it seemed forever. Now, weakened and spent, she was unable to fight it any longer, she fell into a light sleep, starting awake every time she sensed or heard something.
Finally, she awoke, rummaged about in her backpack, took out something to treat the stings now that her head was clear enough to think of that. Within an hour, the swelling had gone down, she looked normal again. The pain had been completely gone some time before that.
Now, Capri had another problem, she was hungry. She took out some beef jurky and then a bottle of cranberry juice she had brought along and hastily ate and drank while trying to pick up on the next magic trace. Anything else that was there, Jacquan's friend and possibly NT may need if they had been hurt or starved, or both, which Capri knew was more the likely by now.
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When Capri arrived at the final destination, she took the place by storm. she caused several misfortunes for the head mage and minnions. She froze every guard in place she came across, skewed the magic of the chief magicians, passed forged notes among the servants, and pretended to be a messenger of the mage in charge of the place in order to get the guards at the dungeons to release not just Jacquan's girl, but everyone else as well.
The guards responsible for torture met varying fates as Capri, who decided to make herself invisible and undetectable, went through the maze of dungeons in search of victims. Instruments of torture mysteriously broke or melted away. Cells were being opened, and the prisoners that could leave under their own volition, did. Others had to be taken out and either transported to their homes or medical centers for treatment, others were simply found dead.
Finally Capri came to the last two cells which held two girls. She decided she'd take care of the first, being Jacquan's girl, and transport Pippi down here as well to take care of NT, who had fallen sick while trying to rescue people.
NT had freed a good many before becoming too ill to stand on her own two feet, and that was when the evil mage discovered and imprisoned her as well. This was because NT didn't know how to make herself and her magic undetectable the way Capri could, nor did she have the same degree of forethought and planning ability, being so young.
On getting Capri's call, Pippi agreed, and waited for the transport. Once it happened, she found herself in a dungeon with many prison cells.
Pippi walked into the cell and found NT, a miserable huddling skeleton in the middle of the floor.
NT had evidently been neglected, starved and possibly drugged. One hand was in her mouth and the other was clinging tightly to her own body.
"Oh, good lord. What have they done to you?" Pippi breathed as she picked up the stiff figure.
Feeling the warmth, NT started shivering violently.
"It's all right, NT, it's me, Pippi. I'm here to take you home, and you're never coming back to this terrible place again. Capri is looking after Jacquan's friend, who will be all right with the right treatment. There, there." NT shook and uttered weak moans.
shhhhh." Pippi tried to reassure NT as she wrapped her up in warm blankets.
They were soft and heated, and NT squirmed and shivered, then relaxed as much as was possible.
"Mom? Ameh? Capri?" NT breathed.
"They're all just fine, but anxious about you, NT.
"Nick?"
"Nick and Jaquan are all right."
"They told me he was dead." Nt said barely above a whisper. "They said all of my friends were being killed."
"It's not true. Nick and Jacquan got themselves into some trouble trying to save you girls, but they're fine."
Next on the agenda was getting some nourishment into NT. Pippi turned back the covers that hid NT's face part way, and removed the scrawny hand from the girl's mouth. "Here, let's get a little something into your stomach, and take it easy. We Don't want you getting sick...not that you aren't already, but you know what I mean." Pippi gave NT something warm to drink.
NT wanted nothing more than to just glug the stuff down as fast as she could, but did her best to listen to Pippi. Still, she took it at a desperate speed, and Pippi kept having to take the straw out of the girl's mouth to prevent her drinking too much too quickly.
NT tensed and shook, she wanted it all right now if not sooner.
A little more, and Pippi decided that was enough for now. When she took the drink and set it aside, NT gave her a wounded, almost savage look.
But Pippi reassured her, "I can't give you too much, not yet, but you'll get more in fifteen minutes. Just fifteen minutes, I promise. If you can take what I just gave you without any trouble, I'll give you some bread then as well."
"Wha hbout now? Jis' little piece?" NT breathed.
"You'll get it in fifteen minutes, don't worry." and Pippi replaced the covers around NT's neck, then took the opportunity to sit and rest for a few moments.
After a little time passed, "Now?" NT's barely audible voice broke the silence. Pippi looked at her watch. "No, it's only ten minutes yet, NT." "They stole my watch." said NT.
"Well, you can get a new one when you're up to it." Pippi assured her. "Now lie quietly for a few more minutes." she kept up the gentle physical contact to keep NT reassured and calm. It wasn't much of a challenge. nce NT stopped trembling, she nodded off, weak and exhausted.
In the mean time, the surprise Capri had in store for the head mage was particularly nasty. She planned to take away all of her magic.
The mage in turn, had a surprise for Capri. "I'm not the one responsible, not really." she pleaded.
Capri looked unconvinced. "Oh? How's that since you've been runnin this show up to now?"
"If you will please let me keep my magic, I'll tell you who ordered the two girls done away with."
Capri scoffed. "You'll have to do a lot better than that, and you can't...what's done is done. It isn't just them, but a lot of prisoners tortured, sick an' dyin in miserable conditions. I don't see anyone else responsible for this but you and the ones who carry out your orders.""
Just as Capri was about to deal with this unbelievably vapid mage princess, the girl broke down. "It was Tonya Harper!"
"What's she got to do with this?" the fairy demanded.
"She forced me into this!"
"You don't come across as unable to defend yourself to her." said Capri.
"That's because she gave me all my magic."
"Why would she do that?"
"I thought she was being kind at first. She gave me the magic to get a lead in a Christmas choir during a couple of numbers. But then she made me live here in return, once it was over. She gave me more magic and told me to run this place like a wicked queen in history or a fairy-tale and make sure the girls she brought here wouldn't survive, or else she'd have me killed - and I have seen her nearly kill one of the prisoners here with this huge knife!"
"Why didn't you fight back with magic?"
"Because she took it away and made me paralyzed same as the poor guy she stabbed, so I couldn't lifft a finger to help him! And I wanted to! Then I was afraid she'd do that or worse to me!" the princess cried. "She only gave it back again when I told her I'd listen to her! She's really after some guy she wants, and part of it is because he's got a lot of magic, she had his girlfriend brought here as a lure, but then this fairy she really hates, showed up!"
Capri wasn't convinced yet, but she nodded. "I won't take all of your magic away, then, but you'll have to lose some of it. You wanted to be a good singer originally, so I'll let you keep that as a magic ability. But you need to get out of here and back to where you came from in the first place. And if that Tonya woman bothers you again," the girl felt something tingling as Capri apparently did something to her, "your magic will react, causing her to freeze until you're safe out of her reach."
"Thank you! And I'm so sorry!""
"I hope you'll be okay after all of this. You can get back to your own home now." said Capri, as she touched the girl on the shoulder.
The girl disappeared.
"You got a lot to answer for, Tonya..." Capri said to herself, and one of these days, Nick or no Nick, that girl was going to have to face Capri again unless someone else got there first.
Some time later, Capri came back for Pippi and NT.
With the others Tonya had brought to this tiny pocket world also freed and back to their real homes, the place simply vanished once every other living person or thing had left it.
They all went home and had NT hospitalized. She was treated for severe malnourishment and drug withdrawal. That meant around the clock care for the first week or so and then an extended stay when she was found to have contracted diphtheria on top of everything else.
Ariel stayed with NT at the hospital as much as she could, although the class action suit against Horace Tompkins, Ariel's former master was going on, and she was needed to testify.
This was why NT would've otherwise recovered and been on the way to improving her motor skills even more by spring, but she wasn't. The past winter had given her too many setbacks. Pippi spent a lot of time working with her, trying to help her achieve the best recovery possible.
But since Christmas, and the day Tonya had knifed her way into nick's heart, Nick had gradually started to change. This was partly because of Jacquan, who broke up with his girlfriend and was jealous that Nick had such a good friend in NT, and partly because of Tonya, who had wormed her way into his and Nick's affections since that fight she started with them on Christmas day.
Tonya was determined to have Nick to herself, and his magic, and she resented NT for being in the way of that. Tonya harassed Nt in public, calling her all kinds of names, and saying she made her sick. Nick did nothing to defend NT, and Jacquan agreed with Tonya. Though Nick and Jacquan argued a little about it, Nick was only half-hearted in telling him and Tonya to lay off NT. They all fell to harassing her online since Capri had set up a magical barrier that prevented any of them from setting foot on the property.
NT was miserable. Nick had told her he'd never betray her, that he really cared, and she was the most special friend. What on earth had she done to lose him, and what did Tonya do to gain his respect? What had NT done to deserve such dislike from Jacquan? It made no sense.
Jacquan had accused NT of wrapping Nick around her little finger and playing it up, when in actuality, that was Tonya's game. But that's why manipulators are so good at what they do, and Tonya excelled at getting people to feel sorry for her while becoming suspicious or hateful toward anyone she saw as a rival or just in her way.
Tonya did her very best to lay low and stay well away from Capri, who, thankfully was too busy with other things to go after her.
For her part, Capri was biding her time. Between various other missions and helping out with NT that winter, Tonya wasn't exactly top priority.