I suck at titles

As he flew off in search of their quarry, Brazik was thinking about the happenings of the morning. He was horribly confused by Simile's behavior. He wasn't in love with her, not by any stretch of the word. In fact he'd been thinking about breaking it off with her the previous night. But no girl had ever given up an opportunity to spend more time with him before, and because it had never happened, he had assumed it to be impossible. He was going over what, in his mind, seemed to be the two options - Simile was crazy, or she was a lesbian. He'd been trying to reconcile one of these options with what he knew of her when the squid incident took place. That's when a new idea came to him (a rare event in the life of someone like Brazik). Maybe he wasn't being manly enough. After all, he didn't step in and try to tackle the squid. He'd just been too startled to think about it. This, he reasoned, must be why Simile would want to spend less time with me. I must show her how tough I am. The fact that the supposed cause came after the supposed effect did not matter to Brazik. When present with a problem, he tended to choose the situation with the simplest solution, even if it had obvious logical flaws. This is what was going through Brazik's mind when Poji alerted the others to his discovery.
"D-D-D-Down there!" he let out.
"Found one?" asked Brazik.
"N-n-no, b-b-but, l-l-l-look,"He pointed down. Four creatures were marching, carrying something between them. A fifth rode in front, on some sort of giant cat. They looked sort of like a cross between a man and an Armidillo. They were heavily armored with long tails ending in spike-balls. They were carrying pikes, and had swords at their sides.
"Orks?" asked Brazik
"Orks are more reptilian," answered Tether, "And they're too tall to be goblinoids. I can't recall ever studying a creature like that,"
(Tether had never been outside the colony any more than the others, but he was an avid reader and had amassed far more knowledge of the world than most pixie's his age)
"Who cares?" asked Isa, "They're not our problem,"
Simile was staring at what they were carrying between them. Lying on a make-shift litter, still unconscious, was the little girl.
"No," she answered, "It's mine,"
And with that she dove down towards them.

Almost got a title..really

For a time, no one moved. Everyone just stared in silence at the spot where the squid had been. After a while, Brazik decided to end it. Having no idea what had just happened, he chose to ignore it.
"Well," he said, "I think we're short a tent. It'll be tight, all five of us sharing one, but we can make do. Let's gather up the fabric and the rest of the provision's and get going,"
Most of the others seemed to come out of the trance-like state and started moving about, following his instructions. Isa, however, just sat there.
"What about breakfast?" asked Poji after a while. The others agreed and they sat down to eat before they left. Isa slowly stood up and walked over to join them. The shock of being attacked had not yet worn off of her. They ate in silence for a while. This made Brazik uncomfortable, so he decided to say something.
"You know what our objective looks like," he said. "We agreed that a squirrel or a badger, though powerful, would be too easy. As you all know, we've decided to go after a Phidgeon*,"
"We know all this," said Tether. "The question is where to find one. We've seen no sign of them since the flock we past yesterday afternoon. Many have already migrated south. I fear we may have waited too long."
"Nonsense," answered Simile, "It's barely Arkatz.** It's not nearly cold enough to have driven them away,"
"I'm confident we'll find one," assured the leader, "But when we do, we'll have to act fast to restrain it. Tether will attempt to get a harness onto it it, while Simile, Isa, and Poji try to rope it's feet. I will have the most dangerous job, attempting to clamp shut it's beak so it cant burn us,"
"My hero," intoned Simile sarcastically.
They finished their fruit and lifted off through the canopy.

___________________________________________

*A mere nuisance to the larger races, these large birds, cousins of the Pheonix, often try to roost in pixie colonies, starting dangerous fires in the process.
**The 6th month of the 8 month pixie year.

Bonus pixie update! The story finally gets interesting!

As Simile approached the camp, two things about the girl at the orchard still bothered her. The mystery of her appearance and attire rested heavily on her mind, along with a mix of guilt and anxiety for leaving her unconscious in the forest. She was mulling over this as Brazik flew up to meet her.
"Good morning, sweetheart" he said in his deep, husky voice. His unusually large wings were beating furiously to keep his Bulky, muscular body in the air. He moved forward to try to kiss her, but she darted backwards, then up and over his hear, turning around as she passed him, then flying backwards towards the ground. When he got done being confused, he turned around towards her.
"What was that for, baby?" he asked
"You're getting a little to comfortable with me," she answered, "I'm cutting you off,"
He looked stunned.
"Not forever," she continued, "Just till we finish the ceremony. Consider it an incentive," she turned around to make her landing, then looked over her shoulder at him.
"And the gentlemanly thing," she finished, "Would've been to offer to help with the bags. After all, I did get us breakfast,"
She turned and walked toward the camp, and Brazik walked behind her. Poji was already sitting out side the other tent, and Tether exited it just as they approached.
"Rashez*, Simile!" he said as he saw them.
"He smiles indeed," she answered traditionally.
"What's for breakfast?" asked Poji
"Crab-apples," answered the young woman. "Why aren't the tent's up?" she asked.
"Folding the tent with Isa inside would probably be a bad idea," answered Tether
"Well why isn't she up? She's had her chance to sleep in already," she set down the bag of apples and marched into the tent.
Isa was inside, braiding her hair and humming softly to herself.
"Isa!" said Simile as she entered. "We're not going to a party, we're going hunting. I'm sure the rodents will forgive you if you don't look your prettiest. Get out of the tent now,"
"Well aren't we the bossy one today?" asked Isa. "Someone didn't get enough sleep today. Or did you have a fight with your Omatzi?"
"I'm not kidding Isa. We have a lot of work to do, and I, for one, am looking forward to the initiation. Your hair can wait,"
"You're just jealous cause you don't have any," she said. Simile's turquoise hair was close cropped, growing out only slightly in the back,"
"I like it that way," she answered. "It doesn't get in the way, and unlike yours, it's ready to go when I wake up. Get moving now if you want breakfast," she walked out.
"Tether," she said, "I've been thinking about your idea, and I've decided I like it,"
"What?" asked the other.
Simile bent down and put her hand on one of the tent stakes, motioning the others to do the same. Tether immediately got it. The other two puzzled for a while, then bent down. Simile counted on her fingers. 1...2...3
"Now!"
They pulled up their stakes. The tent collapsed. At the same moment, beam of purple light shot out of Simile's forehead into the tent. Isa screamed.
There were two lumps in the fabric of the tent. One was pixie shaped, definitely Isa. The other appeared to have tentacles and a very large head, and soon ripped through the fabric of the tent. The tentacles had blades on them. It looked like a squid with scimitars. It raised one over Isa's cowering form.
"No!" yelled Simile. To her amazement, the creature stopped, and lowered it's blade, then turned to look at her. The others were staring in amazement.
for a long time, nothing happened.
Simile looked at the squid.
The Squid looked at Simile.
Everyone else looked at the scene with disbelief.
And then the squid vanished.

____________________________________________________

*Ancient pixie greeting, shortened form of Rashez smile on you. Rashez was either a diety or a great king, no one really knows.

**deragatory term for a lover.

The untitled first Doom pixie story, part iii (of part I)

No novel means time to work on pixies. That's a good thing for you.

Back at the camp, Tether was just waking up. Having taken first watch, he had gotten to bed pretty late, and he considered it acceptable to sleep in a little, especially since Simile had volunteered for breakfast duty. Expecting to see his rotund friend, Poji, on the other side of the tent, he was pleased, if a bit confused, to see Isa lying there instead. She had shuffled her blanket down to her feet and was lying on her side facing him, snoring softly, with a gentle contented look. A red-orange night shirt-like garment hung loosely around her sleeping blue form, and her luxuriant dark green hair fell over her shoulders. She was not quite as shapely as Simile, Tether mused, but she was very beautiful in her own right. At least, while she was asleep.
His ponderance was interupted by Poji entering the tent.
"What are you doing up?" asked Tether, "I thought she had third watch"
"I thought so too," said the boy.
"Well,, why didn't you wake her then?" asked the other
"I was.. " Poji began. He stopped, unable to think of a convincing excuse. "H-h-how is it m-m-my fault?" he asked eventually. "Sh-She should have been up,"
"Then wake her," said Tether. He turned to leave.
"W-why don't you?" asked Poji.
"You had the last watch, you wake her,"
By this time, Isa has started to stir. she turned overand stretched then slowly sat up.
'What time is it?" she asked, rubbing her eyes.
"J-j-just after sunup-p," said Poji, angrily "L-longg past you're w-watch,"
"I'm sorry," she said sweetly, "I must have overslept. I need my beauty sleep every so often. Thank you for taking my watch for me,"
Her sweet voices, pitched like a child's, melted the look of rage from Poji's face. "I-it was n-no problem," he said.
Isa stood up and took her hunting clothes off of the rack. "Would you too mind waiting outside? A girl needs her privacy,"
"O-of course," said Poji. He left back through the tent flap.
"May I equip myself first?" asked Tether, " I have a feeling we'll be moving out pretty quick after breakfast,"
"You can stay," said Isa, "I really just needed to get rid of Poji. I don't enjoy being gawked at,"
But you have to admit," pointed out Tether, " His attraction to you has it's advantages. You probably got more sleep last night than anyone else. I'm worried he can only work double shifts for so long, though"
"You think I did that on purpose?" asked the girl
"I didn't say that,"
"I'm not trying to take advantage of the poor boy," she responded.
"Good" said Tether. He collected the rest of his things and headed out the door.

That's four out of five main characters somewhat developed, and we're almost ready to start a plot. Please tell me what you think.

still title-less part I continues

Above the top layer of leaves, Simile began to get her bearings. The mountain was just to the west of her, so it would be easy enough for her to retrace the path they'd taken before. She was looking for a grove of fruit trees they'd passed the previous day. A few crab apples would be a good enough breakfast to get them started today. Once she's worked out the way they'd gone, she zoomed off in search of the trees. She spotted them a few minutes later and headed back down through the foliage.
Below, however, was a bit of a complication. A young girl was standing at the foot of the tree trying to scramble up it. As a rule, Doom pixies were to avoid contact with the big people unless it was necessary. Simile puzzled over this for a while and decided just to wait until she left. Hiding behind a leaf, she watched the young girl struggle with the tree.
She couldn't have been more than eight years old. As with many young children, it was hard to tell if she was human or elfish, but since the elf population was so small in this area, Simile assumed the former. One thing was certain though; she was not attired for tree climbing. She was wearing an ornately patterned green dress with silver trim, identifying her as nobility. This came as a bit of a shock to Simile since, in her understanding the humans who lived nearby had no aristocracy. The only elves in the forest were wood elves, who would never wear such a costume; they detested gold and silver, and found dresses far too restricting. Thus what a girl so attired would be doing in this forest was a bit of a mystery.
She was having quite the time of it, trying to climb the tree in that dress. Eventually, she succeeded in getting to the lowest branch. Standing on it, she reached for one of the few ripe apples on the tree, but it was too far away and she nearly fell. So she struggled up to the next highest branch, but now the apple was out of her grasp. This was taking longer than Simile had expected, and realizing the girl's intentions, she decided to speed things up a bit. She spotted a ripe apple on one of the highest branches and moved towards it. Grabbing it at the stem, she succeeded in yanking it off of the tree. It was heavy, but she could manage it. With the apple, nearly her size, in her arms, she flew to wear she was directly above the girl and dropped it. The girl reached out for the falling apple, lost her balance, and tumbled out of the tree.
She was unconscious when she hit the ground. Simile flew towards her, horrified. She breathed a sigh of relief as she realized the girl was still breathing. She'd probably wake up with nothing more then a nasty headache. Simile certainly hoped so. She felt kind of bad for the girl, but she was a big person, even if she was only a child. She'd be alright. Since there was nothing else she could do, Simile picked her crab apples and headed back towards camp.

The Doom Pixie Chronicles: Part I

Ok, here goes. No title for this story yet, cause I haven't thought of a good one. I feel kinda weird posting these stories in segments since each one is a chapter in and of itself, so it's kinda of like posting a chapter of a chapter, but I figure my readers (if I have any) would just as so have something as wait another couple months. Wow, that was a long sentence. Anyway, when this story is over, I'll probably archive it as one post for people reading back. With some changes and, of course, a title. Consider this the beginning of a rough draft.

Dawn was just breaking over the forest as Simile opened her eyes. She looked over and saw Brazik next to her, snoring softly. Quietly, so as not to wake him, she slipped out of bed, and pulled on a clean moccra* and one of her generic hunting skirts. Then she grabbed one of her bags, folded it up, and stepped out of the tent.
She looked around at the camp, past the leaf-tents and the small fire-pit. Her eyes settled on a sleeping turquoise figure. She walked towards him, stepping carefully around a fallen leaf so as not to crinkle it. When she stood above the sleeping figure, she kicked it rather forcefully in the side. The pixie stirred, looked around dazedly, then sat bolt upright.
"I'm so sorry," he began, "P-p-p-p-please don't tell Brazik! I was just s-so tired, from last night, and Isa didn't show up to take her shift and I thought, I'll just rest my eyes a moment and then-" he looked up and into Simile's ice-cold stare and stopped. Her stare tended to have that effect on people. It felt like a laser sight on your forehead.
"P-p-please don't kill me?" suggested the terrified pixie.
Simile's face melted into slightly mischievous laughter. She smiled. "Fortunately for you, Poji, sleeping on guard duty is hardly a capital offense. And Isa's as much at fault as you - the girl's probably sleeping in. I'm not gonna tell Brazik. Don't worry,"
"Thank you so much," said Poji, incredibly relieved, "I was just so scared when I woke up and saw you, I mean his mistress of all people, and then you started staring at me and -"
"You should talk less," interrupted the other. "And I'm not his mistress. We're ....Close friends, that's all,"
"I saw you being friendly with him at the party last night," answered Poji.
"How dare you accuse me of monogamy? With Brazik of all people. Me, a daughter of the royal house**, with that obnoxious -"
"Alright, get ahold of yourself. I just figured, you spend enough time together..."

"Well, you figured wrong. Now, I'm going out to get us all some breakfast. Wake Isa then go in and sleep for two hours. We've got a big day ahead of us,"
With that, she spread her wings to shake off the dew that had accumulated that night and began beating them furiously. She rose into the air, dipped a little, then zoomed up through the canopy.

_____________________________________________________________

*A one-piece garment for Pixie women designed to be easily slipped on without damaging the wings. It is not immodest to wear one alone, but a skirt is usually worn with it.
**Doom pixies haven't had nobility in hundreds of years, but back when it did, they had purple skin. Anyone with purple skin is now said to be of the royal house, and many look at it with a sense of pride.

Concerning Doom Pixies, pt. II

On their warfare, family structure, and life-cycle.
Doom Pixie warfare is unique among all the peoples of the world. Because doom pixies are so small, for them to use the conventional tactics would be absurd. Instead, the have three major tactics they use in combat - Sabotage, Sorcery, and Sight-seizure.
The first tactic is sabotage. If the pixies have some grievance with a group of people, they will send warriors to break things, steal food, move objects from one side of a house to another, and cause general mischief. They are also fond of stealing one half of a pair of socks, and hiding all the writing utensils so you never have one when you need it. If this fails to get results, however, they move on the something a little more dangerous.
The next tactic is sorcery. This involves getting the most powerful of the Ojeki to get together and wreak havoc on the enemy, by summoning up a storm or some kind of monster under their control. This is sufficient to get all but the most stubborn enemies to back down.
If an enemy won't back down at this point, they'll generally decide to fight back by finding and attacking the pixie colonies. This is when pixies resort to their final tactic. If a mob is approaching a pixie colony, the Ojeki will make a general announcement giving the assailants one last chance to turn back. Then he lets out his cry of "Carpe Occulum!" and swarms of pixies will surround each member of the mob and gouge their eyes out with toothpick sized spears. The mob members often strike out in a blind rage and end up impaling each other. This is a deterrent to most mobs.
If it doesn't work, pixies consider themselves defeated and move on to form a new colony elsewhere. These migrations are very dangerous, and it can be years before a colony finds a new home.
In part one, the unusual family structure of the Doom pixies was alluded to, but I think it would be a good idea to elaborate somewhat. For the most part, Doom pixies do not mate for life. The dominant religion among the Doom pixies, in fact, encourages promiscuity, and since children are raised by the entire colony anyway, pregnancy is seldom a concern. Most Doom pixies, therefore, take part in a free love sort of philosophy, living alone or with close friends of either gender.
In recent years, however, Christianity has been growing among the pixies of many colonies. Christian pixies prefer to couple permanently, which authorities frown upon, but generally don't mind. More of a problem is the desire of some pixies to raise their own children exclusively.
In pixie culture, children are generally left to themselves to wonder the colony freely and discover the world for themselves. It is the responsibility of every pixie not only to care for the young and protect them from harm, but to take an interest in them and make them feel loved. On the rare occasion parents wish to raise their own children, they are seen with a mixture of scorn and pity. "Seperation anxiety" is seen as a disease of the mind, and such people must be kept away from babies until they get over it.
An interesting side-effect of this is Doom pixies names. Generally, as the colony gets to know a pixie child, a nickname sort of naturally emerges, based either on some physical trait, a personality trait, or something amusing that happened to them once. These names, like Eriswalneth (Triangular ears), Gunalae (Curios one) , or Tumtakolesthemwallock(kept trying to climb the walls until he broke his leg), generally stick with the child until the child grows his or her second set of wings. When a Doom pixie is able to fly (usually around 15 or 16 for girls, 17 or 18 for boys), he or she is considered an adult and allowed to choose a name which better describes them.
This is also the age where a young Doom pixies decides if he or she wants to be a sorceror or an artisan, in which case they are apprenticed, or just be a warrior/drone, in which case they go out into the wilderness with other young people and try to catch some local animal. The tradition varies based on what wild life is available, but the fundamentals are the same. Until the creature is caught and tamed, the group will be considered children. They will not be called by their chosen names, allowed to work in adult jobs, or do any adult things. They are also denied the priviledges of children. Because of this severe punishment, most groups return with a tame rodent of some sort, which is used as a hunting, herding or pack animal.
What you've just gotten is a basic overview of Doom pixie culture. It should be enough for you to better understand the stories which are to come.

Concerning Doom Pixies

In an effort to be more like my brother, I'm close to starting my first story feature, the Doom pixie Saga. Before we do, you'll need to know some things about the background. I wrote this introduction in Study Hall today. Hope you enjoy it.

Concerning Doom Pixies, pt. I

The piece you are about to read deals rather heavily with Doom pixies. The author, therefore, has thought it prudent to include in this short segment some basic information about Doom pixies, their culture, and how they differ from regular pixies.

The thousands of creatures which inhabit our world range from the three and a half kilometer Leviathan of Mograb to the diminuitive angel, twenty-three of which can dance on the head of a single pin (unless they're swing dancing. That takes more space.) The temptation, when dealing with such creatures, is to assume the largest to be the most dangerous. This is, in fact, seldom the case. The aforementioned Leviathan, for instance, is completely harmless to most lifeforms because it moves so slowly that it takes sixty or seventy years to blink. Contrast with ten centimeter pixies, who could the traverse the Leviathan in a matter of hours. (Unimpressive as it may seem, it's comparable to one of us encircling the globe in an hour.)

As well as being fast, pixies are incredibly strong, capable of hauling up to one hundred times their body weight. Even a colony of regular pixies is not something to be trifled with.

Doom pixies are far worse . While normal pixies have some inborn magical qualilties, most notably, the production of valuable pixie dust, these pale in comparison to the powers of the doom pixie. Doom pixies have been known to perform higher-level wizard spells without books at the age of twenty-five. (It's worth noting that this is closer to twelve in pixie year. Pixies live fast, but they don't die young. While they mature at the age of twenty-five, they can live up to two-hundred and fifty years.) Unlike wizards, however, few Doom pixies can control this talent, so spell-casting is usually pretty random and inefficient.

Doom pixie is, in fact, something of a misnomer, as they are not especially prone to evil or violence. They call themselves the Ojeki-milunn, which means 'Pixies with better magic' in their language. The name doom pixies comes to us through one Sir Edgar Flemmington, who, mistaking them for regular pixies, attempted to extract some of their dust for a potion. When one frightened pixie accidently summoned an enormous demon which ate four of Flemmington's men, he wrote the following in his famous Journal:

"While most pixies be of a

friendly nature, and of a

generally good humour,

these be pixies of a highly

irregular sort. Yeah, verily

these be the pixies of doom,"

The journal was wildly popular, and the name stuck. We have called them Doom pixies ever since.

Besides the obvious magical advantage, Doom pixies resemble normal pixies in most ways. They are slightly taller, averaging ten to twelve centimeters for males and eight to eleven for females. Their skin has a light blue or purple coloration, and their wings are tinted in the same color. Their hair tends to be blonde, green, or occasianally turquoise, with yellow-green being overwhelmingly the most common. Their eyes are bright red.

Most Doom pixies live in large colonies, in chambered hives which they carve out of rock. They are amazingly resilient, thriving wherever there is adequate rock for hive-building. They can eat almost anything, but require massive amounts of food. Doom pixie colonies have minimal division of labor. All pixies in a given colony can be hunters, warriors, miners, farmers, or scavengers, as the need arrises. There are two exceptions - the few artisans, who strive night and day to produce high quality clothing and tools for the whole colony, and the Ojeki, or sorcerors. Each colony generally has one, the Ojek prime, who rules the colony. Under him are the rest of the Ojeki. Since Ojeki are by nature ambitious, they are always suspicious of each other. An old saying goes the only one who can't trust an Ojeki is the next one up, as they resort to any means to advance. This is odd, because most Doom pixies are incredibly honest and industrious.

Doom pixie children are raised by the entire colony. Most grow up with no knowledge of their parentage. Children who show exceptional paranoia, decietfulness, or ambition are trained as sorcerors. Magical aptitude is seldom a factor. Those who are especially clever or hard-working tend to become artisans. Most become workers, and are generally happy.

Occasionally though, someone doesn't want to share their land with Doom pixies. Maybe their afraid. Maybe a magical misfire destroyed a crop or killed an animal. Maybe someone was trying to steal the pixies' dust. Whatever the reason, sometimes the Doom pixies are forced to go to war.

That's all for now - prt. II will be up next time I get that bored. Thanks for reading.