Consider this a down payment on kelkyag‘s commissioned request.
Dragons Next Door Verse. DND has a landing page – here (or on LJ)
This comes after Fears (LJ Link) and Loopholes (and on LJ).
The neighborhood had been getting weird.
Juniper, babysitting Baby Smith as she did most afternoons after school, found that there were three pixies sitting in the windowsill – not kids, either, but adults, armed with tiny spears and wicked-looking knives. She fed them sugar-water and a well-diced tomato, and, since they didn’t seem to want to play, went back to reading to Baby and playing Pirates Against the Mean Monarchy and Princesses Held Down by the Cruel Oppressors and Adventure on the Island (which was her favorite, though it helped to have more people).
Baby was starting to follow what she said, although it still only answered on belches and burbles (and the occasional tiny steam-gout, which mostly only curled her hair). But even Baby noticed something was up when the Harpies started flying by the next day.
It only got weirder. Juniper would have thought that the Smiths and her parents had decided she couldn’t be trusted, except that all the kids in the neighborhood were getting the same treatment. Three centaurs had started galloping alongside the bus home from school – just their bus, just the bus to Smokey Knoll, not the busses to the human neighborhoods – and the gremlins that you never saw were suddenly a little bit visible, sticking out of mailboxes and, on more than one occasion, hiding in Juniper’s backpack.
“It’s the poacher, isn’t it?” she asked Jin, who was spending a lot more time around the house lately. She didn’t know if he’d answer her – Jin was in that weird place between kid and grown-up – but when he nodded, she risked another question. “Nobody poaches human kids. I can see protecting Baby, but what are the gremlins doing following me at school?”
Jin’s face did the switch-thing it had been doing lately, kid-adult-kid, and, instead of giving her a decent answer, he squished her into a hug.
This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/165780.html. You can comment here or there.
hrrrmmmm… Bait?
Ooh, I hadn’t even thought about that option!!
It seemed vaguely less sinister than the would want to stuff and mount a human child if it was an ‘honorary’ dragon. *is a wuss* 🙂
I hadn’t gotten much further than “there are people that will prey on humans, too,” and in re. Hostage Situation/Ketchup/Salt.
I realize Tir Na Cali or Fae Apoc isn’t in this universe (correction: I hope they aren’t) but if they were, Juniper’s status would certainly attract the attention of those who would like to Take something mildly exotic.
They are not (although crossovers are tempting)… but yes.
Not with THEM, I’m begging you. Poor Juniper doesn’t deserve that kind of misery. On the other hand having a bunch of fae kidnappers get speared by centaurs and then roasted by angry dragons is an extremely pleasing image.
it kind of is, isn’t it? Juni is too young for either group to grab, but Jin would be fair game.
Jin being Taken would make Juni cry. Which would make Baby Smith cry. Which would make Mommy and Daddy Smith ask what was the matter. Hilarity Ensues.
<giggle> I approve of this notion. Slaver/kidnappers totally deserve barbequeing.
Hey! I like those characters! *grins ruefully*
I don’t! I think the fellow down a leg who’s been hanging out with the mermaid is the only one on the slaver side I’ve found at all sympathetic.
Hee 🙂 I do like her.
I apologize for mis-reading . . . I was leaning more toward, “Juniper isn’t pure human”.
No apology needed! It was awfully vague in the story!! (That could be, too. And Jin would probably know that)
Maybe their worried the poachers will grab Juni to use as leverage – help us get to your neighbours or your kid gets it.
Mmm… that could be
Crossing threads with the girl bullying Juniper at school? Gremlins might make good unobserved witnesses and if necessary, good discouragement … The pixies are armed adults on watch, but the phrasing of “Juniper fed them” and “they didn’t seem to want to play” somehow feels like she can’t communicate verbally with them and is guessing. Can pixies and humans talk to each other, or are the pixies too high-pitched for humans to hear or something like that? They’re presumably in communication with other adults if they’re part of the neighborhood watch?
Hee, yes, that would help (the gremlins at school). hrrrm. “We could play aliens and soldiers.” “Maybe later.” “We could play Dragon and Princess.” “We don’t know that game.”
Heh. That would be an amusing interaction, and give them a little more character weight. But even just “They didn’t want to play, so she offered them sugar-water and a well-diced tomato, and went back to …” Or just drop “seem to”.
This is amusing. And I really like the way Jin is portrayed here – that kid-adult-kid thing is very realistic. Also, I totally approve of a neighborhood watch.