Lost Girls, Part I

Posted on Tue Jan 13, 2015 @ 1:33am by Civilian 'Key Holder' Yolanthe Ibalin
Edited on on Sat Jan 24, 2015 @ 7:26pm

1,387 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Eye of the Beholder
Location: Promenade/Little Bajor
Timeline: MD01: 13:00

::ON::

The stretch of Promenade that the Box of Delights occupied was generally quiet around lunchtime, as alpha shift wouldn't give way to beta shift until 2pm, and most of the civilians were either working, or at the more lunch friendly places. As a result, Yolanthe rarely turned up for opening, leaving the morning duties to her manager Edward. But it was never deserted, so when she came out of the turbo lifts and headed towards her bar, the bokkai was surprised to see a small child, apparently on her own, leaning on the railings that let people look at the levels below, down to the arboretum, some fifty meters below. No-one seemed to be bothering with her either.

Yolanthe's body turned a ochre colour, and she went over to the dark haired little thing. "Did you escape?" At twice the girls height, she crouched down so the child could talk to her.

Eviess' eyes swivelled to one side. "Are you a teacher?" she asked not sure what to make of the strange lady. "I'm not going back to school. I hate it there. I can learn everything I need to know from my tutor," she added before her eyes flicked back to the swirling crowds below.

"I'm not a teacher." Yolanthe reassured her. "I won't send you back there. But even by my peoples standards, you look too little to be out on your own."

Eviess glanced back. She wasn't sure if the lady had changed colour - could people do that?

On Cariel if she chose to go out alone then she was safe. It *must* be the same here Eviees thought.

Slowly she unwrapped her fingers from the railings and turned. Eviess slipped down so she was sitting on the lip that supported the barrier she'd been holding on to.

"How do you do that?" she asked, "People don't like my ears. Can I change them like you do?"

"My ears?" Yolanthe flushed turquoise, and then bright blue as she realised. "You mean my skin?" Yolanthe sat down next to Eviess, dangling her legs over the edge. "Its something my species does. I don't think you can change your ears the same way. If you don't like them, you could ask a doctor to give you new ones."

Eviess struggled as the lady flashed and sparkled. "Amazing!" she said then eventually, "I like my ears, my tutor told me they mark me as part of the greatest race in the universe. My mum tells me it makes me one of many."

She paused then looking down. "Before I came here I was special. You're special, you must be because everyone else ignored me. I just wanted to get to the gardens but every time I can't."

The logic of children. "Great is a point of view. So is special." Yolanthe leant forward on the railings. "You tried the turbo lifts?"

"They don't listen to me. I thought everyone would want to go to smell the grass and see the flowers. I went up and down for ages and no-one helped. I got here. I can't get there I can see though."

"Well then, why don't you come and have a drink at my place, and we'll figure something out."

Eviess teeth nipped her lower lip, "You're special like me but my Mum would kill me if ... but my mum is a Queen. Are you?"

The blue deepened, and Yolanthe had to fight to keep a smile off her face. "I'm the absolute ruler of my domain. And as a rule. Queen's don't kill their daughters. They need them to be Queen in their turn."

"She has no king." As she said it Eviess flushed, her pale skin deepening to a deep olive shade, "My snotty brother doesn't matter. but she says I do, but she's alone. All her princes die. I heard her say that. Can I be a prince for her?"

Yolanthe took on a silver grey blue. Her heart went out to the child. "Your mummy doesn't need princes. She has you." She held back on her own culture's opinion of women who let their men die. "And people die sweetie. It's sad, but its true." And then old memories came back and the silvery blue-grey turned the colour of ash. "My prince died too. And it was awful. But I didn't need anyone else to be my prince. I needed them to be them. And I'm sure that's what your mummy needs too."

Eviess blinked. "I hate it here. I want to live in the garden." She reached out a small hand, "we could go together. I don't know any princes apart from my brother and he stinks. We could find you a nice one?"

Yolanthe got to her feet, and then pulled Eviess up. "Okay we'll go to the garden." Somewhere on the way down she might be able to find someone who could find out who the little girls's mother was. "But don't worry about a prince. I've got something better than a prince. We'll just have some fun. Okay?"

Reluctantly Eviess nodded. "We can look for the fairy. I saw one but I looked too hard and it went away," she said, "I thought you might be one, you're pretty enough, but you're still here."


"No I'm not a fairy." Yolanthe's skin returned to a sky blue, the difficult subject of matchmaking having been succesfully avoided. "But I can teach you how to hunt." They headed to the turbolifts, but there wasn't a security officer or marshal in sight. Typical. "Arboretum." Yolanthe told the lift, and they dropped to the floor of the promenade. The door went ping, revealing little Bajor and the small assorted shops and bars that nestled in amongst the forest in space. "Ready to hunt a fairy?"

"What do we do if we catch it?" Eviess asked with a mischievous glint in her eye. She moved back slightly behind the rainbow lady as she spotted the stall owner who had snarled at her earlier. "That Fengri troll said he eats children," Eviess said pointing to the Ferengi who was now pushing his cart away. "Can we make the fairy magic him away?"

"Squink?" Yolanthe glanced at the small ferengi who was nodding obsequiously to a customer at his food cart. "He doesn't eat children. No profit in it. Don't you worry about him. He's all miaow and no
fangs." She started towards the Jockey Wheel. "I just need to pop in there a sec. IF we're going hunting, we need equipment."

She navigated Eviess towards the sports bar, which was practilly empty. She nodded to the barman, one professional to another. "Joe? can I borrow your replicator?" She pointed Eviess to a seat. "Sit down honey, I'll be right back."

Eviess wrinled her nose. "It stinks here."

She slid behind the bar at Joe's invitation, and punched in her requests. "Cute kid," Joe murmured, "Didn't peg you for the mummy type."

"I found her wandering by the Box. Can you call security for me, see if they know who she is. She wants to hunt fairies in the Arboretum and I can't' persuade her otherwise?"

"Sure thing." Joe glanced at the kid before turning to the comm terminal under the bar. "You owe me one, Yolanthe."

"Fair enough." The bokkai scooped her creation from the mouth of the replicator. "Come on, Kid. Fairies don't hunt themselves."

"Okay," Eviess agreed, she was eager to see if she could find again the svelte whisp of a person she thought she'd seen, "it smells here. I'm Eviess, Rainbow Lady. What did you get?"

"You'll see, Eviess" Yolanthe led her away from the little shops and bars around the picnic area and deeper into the woods. "Here." She opened the bundle. "If you're going to hunt, you need something to catch it with." She held up a tube about 30 cms long and maybe five wide. "Net gun. point and shoot, you get a weighted net to capture your fairy with." Then she dealt with the rest of the bundle, swapping her billowy shirt for one that fit tightly, with tight fitting sleeves. and buckling on a belt with pouches. "This is in case we need things like bait."

"You believe me," she jumped as she said it.


TBC ...

 

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