Spellbound & Hellhounds, page 11
part #1 of Coven Chronicles Series
Why was that so grand? You might ask… well, for starters, they were wizzes with scissors and spot on with detail. But the main factor in why pixie ran hair shops were some of the best in the land was because pixies can read your thoughts. Dirty secrets and gossip don’t have to leave your lips. These crafty, flying, hell-with-wings will pluck if from your mind without you knowing and do it all without batting a perfectly mascara battered eyelash. But, aside from that small detail, the fact that they could read your mind made explaining the look you were going for a breeze.
The shop itself was two stories tall and had endless rooms and amenities, including a spa, private nail salon room, and a fitness center. Bobo double checked his attire in the faded reflection displayed in the window and opened the main door. The bronze bell overhead chimed delightfully as the trio entered the shop.
Mint green and pearl white tiled floors gleamed in the high-lighting of the beauty shop. A cluster of pixies stood at the register giggling while two other fluttering busybodies tended to clients. There were a few customers sitting in the chairs lining the wide windows facing the streets, browsing through magazines as they waited. Two rows of pink, tall backed salon chairs lined the sides of the room, and in front of each of them were magic mirrors waiting to drip with compliments at those that peered into it.
One chair spun relentlessly near the front desk, a woman gleefully clapping her hands therein as she said, “Cressi! Come, sit on my lap and spin with me!”
A woman wearing a wide-brimmed, black dress hat and a rather large pair of matching sunglasses sighed heavily and brought the glasses down to the center of the bridge of her nose and flickered a green-eyed glare to the hyper-active woman. The chair slowed in its spinning. Slower and slower until it came to a complete stop, and the brightly dressed woman in the seat pouted to the glare. “Fine,” she said, almost sounding defeated. After a short moment of silence, the woman kicked her foot off the counter and sent the chair spinning once again, making the poor pixie that was trying to style the outlandish hairdo on the young lady extremely difficult.
“How can I help you?” asked a pleasantly plump pixie with a curvy body – thick thighs, wide hips, large breasts, and happy round cheeks – and an outrageous lilac colored beehive hairstyle sporting a solid white band of hair that spiraled up the bumps of the hairdo. She wore a pale, dandelion-yellow dress with a large white flower slap dap in the center of her chest. Her deep mulberry eyes scanned the group awaiting their reply.
Her face was shoved to the point that her squished cheek made her lips form an awkward kiss pose to the side, the hand causing the face squishing belonged to another pixie who had short, electric blue hair and deep brown eyes. She wore black and white striped knee-high stockings and a black skirt with a blue tank top that matched the color of her hair. Freckles adorned her cheeks and gave her usual harsh stare a softer appearance. “You are so right, sir, you are in desperate need of a shave.” The hand, voice, and face belonged to the pixie co-owner, Nym.
Bobo looked relieved and happy at the same time. “I thought I looked like I did.”
“Oh, you do, and you are so right! You do deserve a clean shave.” She gasped, bringing the tips of her fingers to her lips. “I just thought of something. A warm towel on the face, open those pores up and then a nice, tasteful smelling sugar scrub to bring out that baby soft skin.”
“That sounds like a dream. Take me away. I’m all yours!” Bobo held out his massive hands in front of him, and the pixie took them into her own tiny grasp and tugged him with fluttering wings to the far end of the salon.
“Imp poo… I wanted to do that…” the lilac-beehive haired pixie said with her lower lip poking out. She sighed, shook it off, and faced Vanessa and Lyx. “Well, what can I do for you girls today?”
“Drop the formalities, Bidelia. You know I don’t come here for anything other than information,” Vanessa said with a bored expression. Lyx kicked an imaginary rock behind Vanessa as she pouted, with her arms crossed over her chest, and she looked absolutely pitiful now that Bobo was gone. The succubus was now engaged in her super sulk mode, and Vanessa couldn’t try to bring her out of it because she was hard-set on finding out any information that she could about the academy.
The pixie looked surprised, and she darted her gaze around the salon while looking for anyone that might be interested in her and the new customer’s exchange. Finding no one looking at them, she returned to Vanessa with a harsh whisper and narrowed eyes. “I don’t need my clients knowing that I freely exchange information with the Coven.” A single, small digit extended and pointed repeatedly into the top the register that Bidelia was practically laying on top of as she heatedly spoke in the softest voice possible. “I am swore-bound to keep the secrets of my clients and to not use the information that I have in order to sell it to others or use it as blackmail.”
Vanessa motioned her hands up and down to visually tell the pixie to calm down. “Bidelia, can we talk somewhere more private?”
The owner looked around and took note of a few people looking at them strangely. She straightened herself up with a bright smile and giggled. “Girl, I’m gonna manicure you so hard that you’ll swear I chopped off your own and sewed on a pair of hands that belong to the goddess herself!”
Vanessa mouthed I hate you before she forced a smile – one that held a promise of pain – and giggled loudly (annoyingly loud) and jumped up and down in a dramatic half-angry way as she bellowed, “Oh my goddess, yaaaasss!”
“Girl, follow me before you hurt somebody… Or I wind up hurting someone,” Bidelia said through gritted teeth, and Vanessa instantly dropped her smile and gulped.
Why is a one foot tall and eight-pound heavy pixie frightening? Because pixies can lift fifty times their own weight and Vanessa was only weighed a hundred and forty-five pounds. She’d fly like a sack of potatoes being hurdled by a veteran discus thrower.
“Looks like you were lucky today,” Lyx whispered in Vanessa’s ear, and the poor girl practically hit the ceiling.
Bidelia turned and fluttered her wings in place before heading for one of the back exits that would take them into the manicure and pedicure room. As Vanessa and Lyx followed close behind, there was a soft toot from the pixie leading the way and she swiftly turned around with a deep flush red all over her round face. “Oh, my goodness.” She waved at the bright pink puff cloud that clung to her backside. “I had poisoned apples at Merlin’s today. That poison is no joke,” she tried to make idle conversation as she frantically fanned at the fart cloud.
“You did it on purpose,” Vanessa claimed while trying to help wave the smell away from her face and the succubus at her side.
Lyx smacked loudly with her tongue hanging out and a look of disgust and confusion on her face. “Does anyone else taste cotton candy?”
“I’m so sorry…” The pixie, now glowing crimson in shame, turned and hurriedly escorted the two into the next room and shut the curtain behind her.
Chapter 17:
As soon as the curtain dropped, a privacy spell cloaked the doorway. Typical with most places ran by mythical creatures. Occasionally, wards and spells would have to be replaced by a contracted enchantment smith. Otherwise, you had to pay extra for privacy spells if you desired the secrecy.
“Well, are we actually going to do anything with those man hands of yours or is it all business and no pleasure?” Bidelia asked while throwing a hand up on her hip.
Lyx stifled a giggle that was sure to have been a bursting cackle and stared off in a random direction – any direction was better than the one facing the fiery glare of the short-fused Hunter. Taking in a long, thoughtful breath, Vanessa calmed herself before she sassed herself right out of any information she came here to possibly get. “Bidelia, what do you know about the academy?”
The pixie looked confused for a moment before speaking in a drone tone. “The academy was created in the heart of Aeristria, in the very center of Tolvade, to teach young magic users and aid in the growth of properly trained—” she started to recite the information on the academy like she was giving Vanessa and Lyx a history lesson from the back of a pamphlet.
“No, Bidelia, listen. I need to know if you know anything about….” she looked around the room, weary of saying anything too loud, and wondering if this was a whole new can of worms she was about to open. “… what was going on in the basement level of the academy?”
The pixie gasped and nodded, seeming to know precisely what Vanessa was asking. “That… is something that I don’t know anything about. Not in detail, anyhow.”
Vanessa looked disappointed and slumped her shoulders disheartened. “Double dip a candle stick,” she cursed under her breath.
“Hold your Pegasus, I didn’t say I didn’t know where you could get the information from. Just that I don’t have it.” She fluttered over to another door and motioned for them to follow. This door led straight into Bidelia’s office and, once there, the pixie started to dig through her desk drawers until she found her orb. “This is my personal crystal ball. I have a contact that I chatter with from time to time, and she’s the one you’d want to talk about when it comes to gossiping about the dark dabbling’s of the Coven and academy.” She withdrew the crystal ball completely from the dusty reaches of her desk drawers and blew some of the clinging cobwebs from its surface. With a smile, the pixie turned her attention fully to the orb and concentrated on the person she was about to contact. After a moment, the ball buzzed with life and levitated ever so slightly in her tiny hands. A one-sided conversation was overheard by Lyx and Vanessa as they waited.
“Hey there, sugar, it’s me. … Well, yes, I know you can see it’s me, but I thought it would be polite to let ya know. … Stop your sassin’ and listen to what I’ve got to say. … Yes, it’s important this time!” Bidelia looked over her shoulder with a quick grin and then back to the crystal ball. Now she was whispering, and the two of them could only wait until the call was ended.
It didn’t take very long for Bidelia to end the call and turn her attention back to them. “Good news, my friend said that they can fill you in on anything they know, and trust me, they’ll know something. You can find them at Tasgall’s Tavern.”
“Hold the crystal ball,” Vanessa said with a huff. “You mean the Tasgall’s Tavern?”
“Uhm… I only know of the one, sug.”
Vanessa pinched the bridge of her nose and tried to not yell out in frustration. “I could have just gone to the tavern from the start of this nightmare and gotten everything that I wanted. What a waste…”
“I wouldn’t say it’s a complete waste. Bobo got a little pampering in, and you found out that the information that you’re looking for is indefinitely there. And,” she turned her attention to Lyx. “Now, how about we do something with that hair—” her thought was cut short by the swift crack of Lyx’s tail slapping against the floor like a bullwhip. Two angry, golden eyes glowered at Bidelia daring her to suggest anything to her.
The pixie cleared her throat and clasped her hands in front of her and pouted playfully. “Guess that’s a no.” Instantly, that pout shifted into a devious grin that faded so no one would be able to tell that the flying creature was concocting a delightful plan in her head. “I thought that that ogre friend of yours would have liked what I had in mind for you … but, alas, you’re not interested.” She sighed heavily for theatrical purposes.
Lyx’s ear perked up at the news, and she looked out the corner of her eye to the pixie. One step was taken and then another before, slowly, the succubus had inched and scooted herself right up to Bidelia’s side. “What did you have in mind?” Lyx asked in a curious tone.
The pixie spun around and instantly grabbed one of Lyx’s hands. “Oh honey, that hair needs a touch up, and those horns need polishing,” she leaned over to fluff the succubus’s hair and then looked at Vanessa mouthing that the horns were in desperate need of a heavy filing. She pulled back and smooshed Lyx’s cheeks in her hands. “Girl, he won’t be able to look away!”
Sold! The poor succubus’s eyes were twinkling with hope and joy, and she was smiling crazily to the pixie’s promise. “Come with me, honey. You are going to look fabulous!”
With that, Vanessa was forced to follow the two that were in their own little world. Lyx was flushed at the cheeks and lost in a dreamy daze, while Bidelia was happy that she’d be able to do more than tend to the cash register.
It was about forty-five minutes later when Bobo and Lyx were both done. Bobo confidently walked out from one of the back rooms. Strutting over to one of the magic mirrors on the side wall with no chairs in front of it. Side to side, he inspected his close shave in the mirror.
“Your skin is absolutely radiant today, sir. And that shave was just what you needed,” the well-mannered mirror gushed compliments to the ogre.
The sound of manicured cloven hooves clicked over the polished tile underfoot and slowly the owner of them stopped at a mirror next to Bobo’s. He was standing, hero posed, while admiring his reflection, and his elbow grazed the being standing next to him. He turned and bowed halfway to them. “Extremely sorry for—” He forgot what he was going to say.
Lyx turned from fluffing her hair in the mirror and faced the flabbergasted ogre. Her hair had more pronounced layers and had been lightly styled, her horns had been filed smooth and polished to a perfect gleam, her smile radiated as she flipped her hair behind her shoulders and winked at him. “Like what you see, big boy?”
“I know I do,” the mirror in front of Lyx oozed with its praises. “You are absolutely stunning, girl!”
Shaking off physically, Bobo cleared his throat and looked back to the mirror to straighten his tie and fuss with his cuffs. “Stop flirting in public,” he muttered lowly before walking toward Vanessa.
The succubus looked deflated even with the mirror trying to lift her spirits, and she appeared to be on the brinks of tears. Soft flapping wings carried Bidelia over to Lyx, and she laid a hand gently on the succubus’s shoulder. “What’s wrong, sugar?”
“He didn’t like it…” the demoness sniffled.
Bidelia looked back to the ogre who had made it, almost, to Vanessa – who had passed out in one of the waiting chairs. He looked back to the mirrors and craned his neck, trying to get a better look. The pixie grinned wildly and patted Lyx’s shoulders. “I wouldn’t say that, sug. I wouldn’t say that at all.”
Chapter 18:
Vanessa woke up and wiped the drool that had collected at the corner of her mouth. While Vanessa attempted to wake up, Bidelia brushed through the young lady’s hair while the witch tried to tell Bobo what she and Lyx had found out. All the while, she swatted and shooed the persistent pixie away. In the end, Bidelia got her way and managed to make Vanessa’s hair look semi-presentable. It lasted only a brief moment before the witch put it up in a sloppy pony-tail.
“One of these days I’m going to make you look like a girl,” the pixie swore.
Vanessa retorted with, “Yeah, yeah. Thanks for the heads up,” and the trio headed out the door and on their way to their next destination.
Tasgall’s Tavern was run by a fiery ginger that had a love for money and information. She was the only one in the city that had more information than a nosey pixie. What’s worse? She had two pixies aiding her in running the bar. Talk about bad luck. To sweeten the deal – at least on Tasgall’s side – she offered drinks half off to Coven members.
Got a mind like a steel trap and enough will power to keep pesky pixies and other dirty information diggers out of your secretive mind? Doesn’t matter when you have a set of loose lips after consuming one too many ales in this establishment. And be warned, you’ll definitely have one too many at this tavern. Between the trio that run the joint, and your potentially wandering gaze, you’re going to be slipped a few tankards of booze you didn’t order and be charged for it to boot.
It was a harmless sham that no one felt the need to turn the girl in for because, hey, half off drinks, great food, and – for a few coins more – you can order a privacy spell and whisper whatever you want without fear of who’s listening.
Well, almost no fear…
Besides all that, she was the daughter of a blue cloak. What harm could someone associated with that kind of authority really do with random dirty laundry aired accidently in a bar? Didn’t like being slipped drinks and having a harmless eavesdropper looming about your barstool? Go to a different tavern. Rarely did anyone venture to a different establishment. At least, not those from the Coven.
Years ago, before the days of the academy and Coven, Vanessa would frequent this place with the few coins she’d made from odd jobs and pestering. Vanessa, even then, had a knack for getting into trouble and knowing things she shouldn’t. So, naturally, she and Tasgall hit it off tremendously. The short ginger would ramble about Coven secrets she got her hands on at the tavern, and the lazy witch would gossip about the dirty tidbits she heard on the streets. Together, they’d piece together some dark stories and gasp and giggle at their findings.
Today, Vanessa didn’t think she’d do too much giggling. The front door to the Tavern felt heavier than usual, and there was an unsettling feeling growing in the pit of her stomach as she braved the bard’s usual bellowing songs and loud chatter that was hidden behind the door.
As expected, the song was upbeat and worldly as the tune of the bard rolled through the afternoon crowd. Even if they weren’t there for a cup of ale, it was well past noon, which meant most were on their breaks and just grabbing a bit of cheap grub with good company. A few imps laughed as they played a card game in the corner, tossing in coin instead of chips to bargain with. An incubus whispered into the ear of a blushing woman while a few couples spiraled and laughed on the dancefloor to the music. A group of centaurs and a couple trolls sat in the corners exchanging tall tales of valiant battles, that never took place, with red dragons in the north. It was a usual day in here.
