A new mission - Part 1

Gathered on the huge mustard yellow sofa, near the centre of the room, were Blur, torso curled into the corner, legs splayed across her best friend’s lap, Pages, one hand clutching Blur’s and one hand clutching her sister’s, Cocoa, her head leant on Pages’ shoulder and Hardy, his head resting in Cocoa’s lap while his legs dangled off the end of the vile sofa.

 

It was so... hard...to stay... AWAKE.

 

For the last fifteen minutes, Blur had been trying to tell her tale, but sleep deprivation had robbed her of words and her tongue felt too heavy to form even the few basic words that did pass through her brain’s sluggishness. Another fifteen minutes passed and Blur’s own patience ran out, “I turned around and saw Cen-. Cenhi-. Cwenhile, s**t, sorry.”

 

“Don’t worry,” said Cocoa, “Sleep does funny things to people.”

 

Like yield fears you don’t want to face, thought Blur.

 

“It’s okay,” Pages said, clearly glad the dragging explanation was over, “Think I’ve got the gist of it; you went to protect some girl in Little Town. Maya or something... and the changeling, who you now know is Kel, managed to lure her away to Bunlock Manor where he made her agree to betroth him, then you sat and talked to Lady Cwenhild for some time, then you took the boy home and wiped away some memories.”

 

“Yep, that’s it in a nutshell.”

 

“Pretty small nutshell for the amount of time it took to tell the story,” said Hardy, but anyone could see he wasn’t really listening anyway.

 

That didn’t stop Pages from hitting him on the back of his head and scolding him, “Shut up Hardy, Blur has had a hard day and if she’s right (and she usually is about this kind of stuff) and Chief is angry about it, then things aren’t going to get much easier for her. Now let her sleep.”

 

“I wasn’t stopping her.”

 

“Yes you were. You were just-”

 

Cocoa interrupted, “Kel’s having a lot of business going on with humans if he’s marrying one and working with another.”

 

Pages relaxed against the back of the sofa and pulled out a book, unperturbed by the sudden change in conversation, “Yes, I suppose he is.”

 

Smiling, Blur leaned back and reflected on her happiness here with her friends, but just before she drifted off, she noticed Cocoa had a very troubled look on her face and Hardy had noticed it too.

 

“What’s up Chocolate-bug?”

 

Blur smiled when Pages glared into her book and gave a disgusted sigh, Pages didn’t have much patience when it came to nick names. She didn’t have much patience with Hardy. She didn’t have much patience full stop.

 

“Do you think we should send someone over to Lady Cwenhild, because she can’t go outside the grounds? It can’t be healthy for her to be alone so much.”

 

“Cocoa?” Pages asked.

 

“What?”

 

“You do realise that Lady Cwenhild is dead?”

 

“Yeah,” Hardy had to add something, didn’t he, “I’m pretty sure health isn’t much of a problem anymore.”

 

Blur had to laugh, which earned her a death glare from Pages peering from behind the yellowed, frail paper, Blur subconsciously imagined the book bursting into flames from the intensity of that look. “I just wish some people would take our job a little more seriously.”

 

“And I wish you could find a sense of humour sometime, but that’s not gonna happen either,” Hardy said, slightly bitterly.

 

“Excuse me,” Pages retaliated, “I’m not the one-”

 

“You silly-Billy,” Cocoa interrupted, as always she was seemingly unaware of the dispute going on around her, “I know she’s dead. I just thought it was a nice idea.”

 

“It is a nice idea, Cocoa,” Pages said softly to her little sister, “but it’s impractical; we can’t afford to lose anyone just for pleasantries.”

 

Cocoa sat in silence for a few moments before she answered, “Okay,” in her usual optimistic tone.

 

She was definitely a glass-half-full kind of girl, while Pages liked it half empty, together they filled the glass. They were the best duo in the place and Pages knew it, but she wasn’t careless as a result, rather, it made her more careful, whereas the knowledge didn’t really affect Cocoa’s performance; she just went along in her happy bubble. She didn’t realise that her best friend and her sister were constantly involved in a verbal war.

 

“Do you know what I’ve always wondered?” Hardy started, unnecessarily loud, “How do mermaids mate if the male doesn’t have a-”

 

“I’m out,” said Pages as she stood up to leave the room, “I’d rather read to the children then give him ‘The Talk �" mermaid style’.”

 

Blur generally stayed out of their arguments, but this time she couldn’t resist, “Instead of ‘the birds and the bees’ you could use the turtles and the shrimps,” she said, earning herself a little wink from the boy with his purple eyes.

 

However, just before Pages left the room, Nark whizzed around the corner, almost toppled her over and screeched, excitement filling his voice, “Chief’s back and he’s ordered a meeting with the Central leading unit.”

 

Hardy sat up, “When?”

 

“Now!”

 

Ugh, this day just wasn’t getting any shorter...