Land of Mistique

Chapter Five

Peveri had WHAT?!!

She'd already summoned Leroy to the Fairyland without even asking Leanne. Clearly, she'd expected Leanne to say yes, but that didn't change the fact that that stupid dragon had summoned her twin brother and put him in danger.

Now he couldn't leave, either. He was trapped there with Leanne, and neither of them could leave until the Titans were gone. This life was awful.

And there he was, spluttering and coughing after the journey, looking utterly terrified, and her heart broke when his eyes widened with such love and hope upon seeing her.

"Lea?" he called softly, and he reached out to her. She took a running leap at him and bowled him over in a grappling bear hug. "Ouch, Lea," he coughed again. "You are... A lot taller than when we last met."

"So are you - but you're still a shorty."

He glowered at her but laughed anyway. It was true. Leroy had always been shorter than Leanne, and the gap in their heights had only increased overtime.

"But all that aside... Where are we, Lea?" Leroy asked.

"Care to explain, Luna? Or you, Peveri?" Leanne asked, shooting dry looks at the two of them.

"He cannot understand us," Lunari whispered.

"Yeah, well, that's great. Why don't you just shower him in some more magic pixie dust, then?" Leanne challenged.

"Um... Lea? Are you talking to them? And what's this about magic pixie dust?" Leroy asked, confused.

"We're in some kind of magic Fairyland, Roy," Leanne said with a sigh. "I picked up some weird amulet in the forest and it brought me here. She summoned you." She pointed accusingly at Peveri, "even though I explicitly told her not to, and apparently we can't leave until we defeat some elemental Titans that's wrecking their homeland."

"And... How come you can understand them?" Leroy asked, still looking as confused as ever. Leanne sympathized. She'd be confused too. She was confused a few hours ago, still was.

"She - the dragon, her name's Peveri - bonded me and now she's apparently my familiar and I've got magic for some reason while the fairies don't," Leanne said.

"Whoa, slow down, Lea," Leroy said, holding up a hand. "Tell me everything from the start."

She did, without any gaps. The amulet, crushing the caterpillar, meeting the king and queen, discovering fairies didn't have magic anymore because their magic apparently came from these weird Copperstones, and she was the human meant to save them all, and they couldn't leave until the Titans were defeated because Peveri wouldn't let her use her magic to escape.

"That is... A lot to take in," Leroy murmured. "I'm not sure how I feel about this..." He grinned suddenly.

"You insane?" Leanne asked good-naturedly. "Why're you grinning?"

"Well, at least we're together," he pointed out. He continued grinning like a hooligan until Leanne elbowed him.

"We might die here, Roy! You have to remember that."

"Well, what's the fun in life if we don't get into near-death situations?" Leroy asked innocently.

"I forgot how annoying you were," Leanne grumbled, but she was smiling.

"Are you two done?" Peveri demanded.

"Shut up, psychopathic dragon-cat. If you decided to summon my brother, you should've seen this coming."

Leroy choked on his own saliva as Peveri snarled, "Psychopathic dragon-cat?!"

Leroy laughed. "I'm pretty sure I know what she said this time," he grinned at Leanne. "She clearly does not like you."

"Well, I don't like her. And what else am I supposed to call you? Super-tiny dragon?" she fired at Peveri. Then dragon-cat looked insulted by the very prospect of it.

"I am descended from the original line of shape shifting dragons! You might as well call me Princess Peveri!"

"Sounds like Princess Purry to me."

Leroy choked again, fighting down a laugh. "Of Princess Curry. I wouldn't mind some of that, by the way."

He couldn't understand whatever insults Peveri threw at him, which might have been for the better as the dragon-cat swore so much and so many times that Leanne had to remind her, "I'm only sixteen, remember. I'm a minor, and if you keep swearing I might just report this as traumatization-"

"Whoa, she's swearing?" Leroy asked, turning his eyes to Peveri. "I do not like you, dragon-kitty."

"Ooh, that sounds better than dragon-cat," Leanne agreed, grinning at her brother. Man, she'd missed him. Sure, his snarkiness got a little too much sometimes, but he was still enjoyable company.

And he was certainly frustrating Peveri enough. The dragon - ahem, dragon-kitty, was so mad that he could insult her in a language she understood, but she couldn't insult him back in a language he did. She was trying to get Leanne to pass along the insults, but of course she wouldn't do that.

"There is a slight problem," Lunari whispered. "Your house is designed for one."

"We'll make do. Or you can get me another house."

"Tough," Leroy said, winking. "Tough."

"Why tough?" Leanne asked.

"They either have to disobey their sworn savior, or they've got to ask someone to give up their house! Tough."

She tried her best to refrain from smiling back at her brother but failed.

"There could be more than one free house," she argued.

"Somehow I doubt that." Leroy looked around at the seemingly rundown houses in the village. "Man, this is worse than Cyrinal."

Cyrinal was the city Leroy and their father had moved to after they'd fallen into poverty. Cyrinal was a tiny city, barely classified as a city at all; some called it a town. And Leroy... Leroy had loved their old home, which Leanne had continued living in. He hadn't wanted to leave, but he'd loved their father a lot.

"What... Happened to Father, anyway? How did you..."

"Become paupers? Well, he lost his job and got into gambling. I asked him to save up money so we could travel back to you and Mom, but he said no, said he was going to earn lots of money from the horse races." Leroy's eyes darkened. "Then we became poor, and every scrap of money I got, he took. I... Well, actually, Lea, I've been living alone for... For a while." He swallowed slightly. "I abandoned Father two years ago."

"Wait, you what?" Leanne asked. Abandoned Father? Wasn't it usually the other way round, the father abandoning the child? But she could see the resolve and the slight guilt in Leroy's eyes.

"He was going to make us starve, Lea! He gambled away all the money I worked hard to earn. At first I started keeping the money to myself, but he wouldn't let me sleep in peace until I gave him all I had. It was too much, Lea. I had to go."

"You... Never came back to us?" Leanne asked quietly.

"I was saving, Lea. Saving and saving and saving. I didn't even have a phone - do you know how hard it is to get by without a phone?"

No, she didn't, because Leanne hadn't been without a phone since she'd got hers at thirteen years old. She shook her head slightly.

"If we ever get out of this mess, I'm bringing you home," Leanne said softly. She was sure she owed that to him. He was her brother. She loved him.

"That's not all, though. I got some news last year. Father's dead. He couldn't pay off his gambling debts and a gang killed him." Leroy sighed. "He... He was a good father, for a while. But I don't know what separation from Mother did to him. He should never have left her. He was broken after that, got into gambling, lost his job."

"Mother never seemed to sad about the breakup," Leanne murmured. "She just... Continued on. Got promoted, actually. We were living quite a good life."

"I know," Leroy sighed. "I should probably have stayed. But who knows? If I'd stayed, maybe I wouldn't be here." His eyes sparkled. "Are you ready to start this adventure?"