The Dog named Leonardo

A dog comes to visit Fayette.

‘Those who restrain desire do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained’
-William Blake, “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell”

 

    “Miss Fayette, there’s an animal in here!” The odd man yelled.
    “What have I told you about calling me that!” A girlie voice snarled from the back rooms.
    Leo wasn’t sure what he should think about this place. It smelled too strongly of sugar and vanilla, where it almost hurt his nose. And the man... He looked like a man but he smelled nothing like it. The odd-man smelled of the earth and rocks, with just a tinge of flowers to it.
    A strange looking girl came through beady curtains that lead to the back half of the shop. She even looked strange with her pale hair and dark eyes. Not to mention she stunk of rotted waters, like one finds in fish-tanks or old puddles. In fact, this entire store did, but it was masked up well by the sugar and vanilla.
    “Oh? Hello there Mr. Dog, what may I do for you?” She asked, bending down before him. “I trust that you’ve come here because you have a wish of me?”
    Leo sat on his haunches, cocking his head to side. He then gave a yap.
    “I see...” She said, now looking off into the distance thoughtfully.
    The odd-man looked at her skeptically. “You can speak dog?” He asked her gruffly.
    She shrugged. “Anybody can speak dog, they just don’t know how,”
    Already Leo liked her, his tail thumped against the floor.
    “So, Mr. Leo, do you know what I do?” She asked him.
    Leo barked again, knowing full well what she was capable of, and even some more.
    Her eyes widened slightly, but she gave him a scratch on the ear. “Do you now? Well, since you’re my first canine customer, I’m willing to give you a discount. What is it you want, Mr. Leo?”
    “Wait a minute, the dog is a customer?” The odd man gave the small girl an odd look, like she was insane.
    The girl, whom Leo is assuming is called Miss Fayette, looked back at him while she still scratched his ear. “Why not? Dogs have wishes and dreams too,”
    “But what do they have to offer you?” Hazrael said. “They’re not like people in the aspect that they covet material things,”
    “But that's just it, I don’t usually take material things. Most of the junk lying around here is stuff I picked up over time. Most of it offerings from the Courts, and King Lucius trying to make amends with me,”
    “Right, you still won’t tell me that, yet you dangle it in front of my face like a bone on a string,”
    Miss Fayette sighed heavily, annoyed with the subject. “Its not my fault you’re not willing to pay the price,” she then looked back at Leo. “Excuse him. He’s part troll and naturally a bit of a grouch. What is it you wanted of me, Mr. Leo?”
    Leo’s ears flattened slightly, and he told Miss Fayette his story, and his greatest wish.
    She listen quietly the entire time, only speaking to shut the part-troll up when he interrupted to ask what he was saying. When he finished, Miss Fayette chewed her lip thoughtfully.
    “What you ask of me is almost impossible. But it can be done,” she answered, standing up. “Due to your discount, you don’t have to pay my price, which would’ve been that girl’s love for you,”
    Leo swallowed, trying not to let his mind go to what could’ve happened.
    “But, I’m telling you now. Once its done, you cannot change back. You will never be a dog again. You will look, and eventually learn how to act and behave like a human too. Some of your instincts will remain, and you will have to learn to suppress them, do you understand?”
    Leo nodded, his resolve strong.
    She smirked slightly. “I like your attitude,” her head snapped to the half-troll. “Hazrael. Go get that sphere over there,” she pointed to the large black ball sitting on her table. Hazrael tossed it to her, and she caught it single-handedly.
    She held the orb between her hands, focusing her magic. Gray and white stuff swirled around her, then concentrated into a ball. Without a second warning, it shot at him, hitting him in the chest.
    Leo blacked out.

    Fayette sighed, then glanced over at her minion. "Go get Leo some clothes," she whispered harshly. She turned to walk, but stumbled slightly, bumping into a table and knocking down her many animal-banks which shattered on impact. Coins glittered in the candlelight. She stared at them, trying to focus.  
    "Are you all right?" Hazrael said, taking a step towards her.
    "Yeah. I'm fine, just a little dizzy," she replied. "I never like it when people ask me to change their species completely,"
    "Do you want me to help you?" Hazrael asked.
    "Yeah. Get Leo some clothes. I have a naked kid unconscious in the middle of my shop. Do you have any idea how bad that‘ll look if another customer comes in?" she retorted. “I’ll be fine, now go,” she spoke with finality, and Hazrael immediately backed off.
    He ran off into the back rooms, but then paused. “Where are some clothes at?”
    “Shove him in something of yours. I’d glamour him but I don’t think I have the concentration to do it,”
    Hazrael snorted, but did as he was told. Once finished dressing him, he simply dropped him off in the spare bedroom. When he came out, Fayette was eating. Again. For the fifth time this morning.
    It really mystified him, her appetite. She could eat so much yet gain absolutely nothing, and she ate with a ravenous hunger worthy of something five times her size. Today it was meat, she was sinking her teeth into a large leg of some sort of bird. Ripping a large hunk of meat off the bone, she looked up at Hazrael slightly, daring him to say something. Hazrael elected not to, merely sitting himself across from her and tried to reach for a piece of shrimp, but got his hand swatted away.
    “I’m hungry,”
    “You just got done eating a whole hunk of ham!”
    “You’re not the one changing a dog to human,” she growled.     
    “Still! You’ve had enough food this morning that would ordinarily feed the Bright Court for days!” he yelled.
    “And suddenly I understand why you guys always look so skinny,” she muttered, practically inhaling the shrimp and starting onto her ostrich-sized leg again.
    “Well, when most people eat a whole bunch of food, they gain weight and become fat,” he replied boredly, sipping from his drink.
    “What terrible lives you people must lead,” she replied before ripping more meat off. “One would think that you guys could simply glamour it away. Or, you know, go human and puke it all up,”
    “Its hard to glamour all that fat. Glamour simply puts something on top of something that really exists, like putting clothes on a body. It can’t get rid of it, you should know that by now,” he stated.
    She paused, looking at him with large violet eyes. For a moment, he thought she was laughing at him, but she simply sunk her teeth into the meat, ripped, and was chewing again.
    “Wait… you can do that, can’t you?” Hazrael asked, crossing his arms over his chest. “Are you really that powerful?”
    “Sort of, not really,” she answered.
    “Fayette! You went shopping again!” Kellen chimed, appearing out of nowhere and glomping Fayette. She snapped at him, and there was a small tussle over the remaining shrimp, and Kellen had succeeded to steal two, and he gave one to Hazrael.     
    “So whut were you two talkin’ about?” Kellen grinned, “Whispering sweet nothings to her, where you Haz?” he shot a smug look at his coworker.
    “Yeah, I’d totally whisper sweet nothings to... That,” he said, motioning towards Fayette who was now ripping at a large, bloody steak. Her violet eyes glared at him for a minute.
    “Even if you were, I wouldn’t have responded, to both of you for that matter” she replied, whipping her mouth clean. “I’ve got waaay better taste then that,”
    “Ouch,” Kellen said dramatically, placing a hand on his heart. “I think you broke my heart,”
    “We’ve got Band-Aids in the back room if you need them,” Fayette answered. She pushed back the plates, the table now empty of all food items. She promptly stood up, taking a napkin to her mouth, and tossed it onto the plate. “You two can clean this up, since it seems that today is going to be slow. I have other business to attend to,”
    Hazrael’s mouth fell agape. “What do you mean you have other business to attend to? All you ever do is go back into your room!”
    She stood in the doorway, her tone severe. “And what I do in my bedroom is actually very important, and before you even ask its none of your business. I’ve told you once and I’ll tell you both again. Do not go into my room without my permission. Am I clear?”
    “Crystal,” Kellen grinned. “See you in a few, Young Miss,”
    She walked back into the halls, not another word said. Hazrael groaned, while Kellen merely snickered, and they started to clean up Fayette’s mess.

    Leo awoke in an odd room. It was pretty basic, bed, dresser, and a sofa over to the wall, but it was odd because it wasn’t... Well... Black or white. It wasn’t even gray. It was blinding, and quite possibly the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He knew instantly that this must’ve been what color was, and he never felt so overjoyed and finally seeing it. Sierra always tried to describe these things to him, but he could never really visualize it.
    He rolled onto the floor, not used to such strange muscles. How could human’s walk? No wonder they were always so clumsy. It took him ages before he was finally capable of standing. Walking was a different issue all together. He had seen humans walk, and tried to mimic what he remembered, but his strides were jaunty and stiff. And the clothes they put on him were scratchy and rough against his flesh, but he supposed he would get used to it. Still, his mind was suspended in disbelief.
    He was human.
    Human!
    The girl really was magic! Now he could be with Sierra! He still had to figure out this whole walking business, yes, but he could do it.
    Using the wall as support, he staggered down the halls, and eventually found himself in the main room again. The odd man, Hazrael, was in there, chatting with an odd boy with black hair and dark skin. They looked up in slight surprise to see him, and Hazrael leapt to his feet.
    “Leo, are you feeling okay?” He asked him.
    Leo opened his mouth, but speech was foreign to him. He was used to yaps and barks, and he couldn’t figure out how to work his mouth muscles.
    Hazrael gave him an odd look. “Umm...”
    “He’s fine, he’s just getting used to that new body of his,” Miss Fayette breezed past him, carrying a glass of some sort of dark scarlet liquid and a plate of some strange food. “Give him some time. In fact, since you two are sitting around like lumps on a log, you two can help him learn how to behave like a two-legged,” she plopped down into her armchair, sipping from the liquid. “I’ve got an appointment in ten minutes,”
    So, the two strange boys helped him learn how to walk in the back room, and started going over speech with him. Eventually he could speak simple sentences.
    “Wwhat arrre you guyzz?” Leo asked.
    Hazrael and Kellen glanced at each other. “We’re Faeries?”
    “I knoow that,” Leo breathed. “What kkind?”
    “Oh! What kind we are!” Kellen exclaimed. “Well, I’m of the Drow,” he then stated proudly, striking a dramatic pose.
    “Drrroow?” Leo repeated.
    “Basically, he's a glorfied dark elf,” Hazrael explained dully.
    “We are two completely seperate species. My skin is darker, and my hair is naturally white! I just dye it!,”
    “Whatever, I fail to see the difference,” Hazrael grunted. “And I’m half Troll, half Nymph,”
    “Meaning that he’s a nymphomaniac who likes to troll around if you know what I mean,” Kellen winked, nudging the boy slightly.
    Hazrael’s cheeks flared. “I am not!” He snarled.
    Leo laughed slightly, and shifted in his spot on the sofa.
    “But really, how is that possible? I thought trolls were like, seven feet tall,” Kellen then said, standing on a tiptoe and raising a hand over the air, as if trying to show how tall seven feet was “And they’re all lumpy and gross, frankly, I don’t see a Nymph and a troll...”
    “Only the Mountain trolls are all lumpy and gross,” Hazrael then snapped, baring long canines that any dog would be jealous of. “The Plaines trolls are just a little bigger then humans and have odd markings,”
    “Oh, I see,” Kellen said, though Leo seriously doubted that he did. Leo barely got what was happening. Kellen sprawled out on the floor, and stared up at the ceiling, watching the fan circle around and around.
    “Kellen,” Fayette then said, peaking in through the door. “I’ve got some deliveries for you to make to the Solitary Faeries, I’d go myself but I’m not really up to it,”
    “Why? Suddenly feeling all that food?” Hazrael drawled lazily as he lounged in the armchair. “Belly starting to hurt?”
    Fayette snorted, and rolled her eyes. “No. But I do need you to go shopping for me again. This time bring me some organic fruits, human not Faerie. I adore human plums. Oh, and some more pork too,”
    Hazrael looked at her incredulously, and then groaned. “Oh come on! Can’t you make Kellen do it while’s he’s out?”
    Now Fayette made a face befitting a child. “But I’m hungry nooowww!” She whined.
    “Fine fine! I’ll go get some food,”
    “Um... Can I go to Sierra?” Leo timidly asked.
    Fayette shrugged, now leaning against the door-frame. Her long ponytail cascaded down her shoulder, like a thick swirl of cool-whip. “I dunno. Do you think you’re ready?” She replied.
    “I think so. I ccan at least speak now...” He answered.
    “Then Hazrael can escort you back to your house then,” Fayette said with a soft smile. “Don’t expect him to stick around though,”
    Leonardo nodded, his heart soaring. He could see Sierra.

     Hazrael walked Leo to his yard, then left without so much as a good-bye, though Leo heard him grumble about Fayette being a pig. Still, when the Fearie was gone, he felt a sudden chill down his spine, a cool wind rushing pass him. Hesitantly, he pushed the small white gate open, walked down the little sidewalk, and knocked on the door.
    It took a few moments, but eventually, the door opened. Sierra looked up at him, her soft brown eyes looking tired and worn. In color, she was even more beautiful then ever.
    “Can... I help you?”
    “Sierra, its mme, Leo,” he said, horribly nervous.
    She snorted. “Freak,” she tried to close the door, but he quickly placed his foot in the door-jam.
    “Ssierra, it’s really me, Leonardo-”
    “Freak! Get out of my house!” She snarled, now pushing on the door. “Get out or I’ll call the cops!”
    She pushed him to the ground, and Leo was sitting in her yard, a place where he used to play with her, and dig up holes. Now it looked desolate and trashy. Inside, he heard Sierra crying.
    “I want my dog back...”

    Fayette lounged on the sofa, her hand gently stroking the back of Spot, who sat below her, sound asleep. Work was stressful again, her newest client asking for eternal youth. She granted it to him, by shipping him off to the Bright Court. Time doesn’t flow the same way in the Courts, so technically he could live forever, if he wasn’t devoured by then.
    “I’m back,” Kellen said cheerfully. He bounced from the door to the recliner some ways away, gracefully folding himself into the overstuffed chair. “How was your few hours by yourself?”
    “Had another client. Wanted eternal youth, so I shipped him off to the Bright Court,” she shrugged. “I think Dearka’ll like him, he’s a bit of a romantic,”
    Kellen laughed. “That’s fantastic. Really, you are a Dark Courtier,”
    “Nng, not really. If I were a Dark Courtier I’d turn him to stone,” she replied lazily.
    Spot grunted seeming agreement.
    “How long are you keeping that pig anyway?” Kellen asked. “I’m surprise you haven’t eaten him by now,”
    “Personally I think he’s cute,” she said. “And I won’t eat Faerie flesh, not even Faerie pigs,”
    “How sweet of you, you’re a vegetarian,”
    “No, I’m just not a cannibal,”
    “Same same. Still, have you got a name for him yet?”
    “His name’s Spot. Not original, I know, but it’s good enough for now. Decides, I tried to name it Lucius but it wouldn’t respond to it, or Dearka for that matter. It’ll only respond to Spot,” she said lazily.
    And, as if proving the point, the pig twitched slightly when it’s name was said.
    “I see...” Kellen said, stroking his chin with his thumb. “Speaking of the Kings, apparently the Star Country is on the brink of war,”
    She snorted. “I don’t know what you were expecting. Two twin brothers who are heirs to the throne, and their old man is about to croak after, you know, a couple of millennia. I’m amazed it’s managed to stay peaceful for this long,” she replied.
    “Well, glad to see your the optimist. Who are you going to support?”
    “Neither. I’m a solitary Faerie, I don’t pick sides,” She said quietly, her eyes drifting close. For a while, there was silence between them. Kellen was playing with a trinket on a table next to him, some sort of handheld game from who knows when, and Fayette apparently in a light slumber. Spot was also sleeping, his triangular ear occasionally twitching. The only sound was the patter of rain.
    The door jingled open, and Hazrael stumbled inside, supporting a body. Both of them were soaked, the body Hazrael was carrying was covered in mud and grime. In his free hand, he had several bags full of food.
    Fayette opened a single eye. “Well, look what the cat dragged in,”
    “Kellen, can you give me a hand,” Hazrael muttered.
    Kellen popped up and zoomed over, taking the body by the other side. “Hey, isn’t this--”
    “Yeah. I found him in the street a couple of blocks away. He was near unconscious, looks like he’s been mugged,” Hazrael said
    “For what? He doesn’t have any cash,”
    Fayette merely rolled off the coach, then crawled into the armchair, huddling into a ball. There, she closed her eyes again. Hazrael glared at her, feeling irritated, while Kellen merely grinned. Spot groggily woke up when Hazrael nudged him with his foot, and he trotted over to his kennel before promptly falling over and going right back to sleep.
    “Miss Fayette, what are we gonna do with him?”
    “Let him stay here for tonight and if he wakes back up I’ll deal with him then,” she stated. “Did you bring the groceries?”
    “Yes dear,” he muttered. “I’ll go put them in the fridge,”
    “Did you get some plums?” She then questioned him.
    “Yes, I got you plums,” he sighed. Of course, Fayette doesn’t care that she’s got an apparently homeless, almost dead man in her shop; all she wants is some plums. He got one from his bag and handed to her, where she took it silently and started biting into it. Her dark eyes now looked at the boy sprawled out on her couch.
    “Get him cleaned up, and keep him in the spare bedroom. He and I will have a little chat tomorrow,”

 

Author's Note

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