Page 55 of The Pushy Pixies Are Going Down
In the center of the room was a huge dragon skeleton, standing up with its wings spread. It was absolutely humongous and took up almost the entire room. In order to walk around and see the smaller parts of the exhibit, museum goers had to walk under the wings. Seeing it made me both happy and sad. Happy to know such majestic beasts really existed, and sad to know this beautiful creature had died long ago.
How amazing would it be to see a dragon that big flying through the sky or landing in front of you?
Sometimes I wished I could travel the world to see all the amazing beings that lived among us.
Each section had a different part of dragon history, from them ruling the world to humans training them and riding them to historical wars where dragons fought and died alongsidehumans. There was a section on a dragon’s lifecycle. An area that went over all the different types of dragons. A dragon fossil section with teeth, claws, and eggs that people could actually touch and examine themselves. And a spot with a television that connected directly to the dragon channel—a channel where anyone could watch the biggest faerie zoo’s dragon habitat live.
I’d admit that I’d watched that channel quite a few times because even seeing small dragons was amazing and beautiful.
But this exhibit was so much more than I remembered it being. Honestly, it had been years since I’d been here, and I had to say I was impressed with everything they had.
“Wow, I haven’t been here since we were kids,” Winter said, stepping up beside me and staring at the huge skeleton. “It’s just as enormous as I remember.”
“Yeah, same.”
“Oh my god, right? Most places seem smaller, like going into the elementary school or whatever, but this place is actually pretty awesome and definitely huge.” Lyric said, now clinging to Win’s arm. I felt bad that they were in a place that was so overwhelming to their senses. Maybe we shouldn’t have asked them to come here. I loved seeing them, and I knew they and Win missed each other lately, but I didn’t want them in pain.
Aeson grinned at us. “I can give you the tour if you want?”
I glanced over at the museum worker who was overlooking the fossil area with a frown, and Winter must’ve been of the same mind because he said, “We don’t want you getting into trouble because of us.”
The teen glanced at his co-worker as well with a sigh. “Yeah, okay. Let me show you where the pixies have built their nest. It’s over in the lifecycle section.”
“Are there a lot of plants over there?” Lyric asked.
“Yeah, a few.”
“Hm.” Lyric shot Aeson a wink. “Lead the way, sweetie.”
That made Aeson grin, his cheeks pinkening a little.
Winter, Lyric, and I all exchanged glances, then followed him over. Luckily, this area was on the opposite side of the skeleton from the other worker, so we didn’t have to worry about being overheard, as long as we were quiet. It was honestly ridiculous that we had to sneak around like this, but I couldn’t blame Aeson after meeting his boss.
Ace stopped a good twenty feet away from the lifecycle section and pointed at it. “Sooooo… they’re over there. I don’t want to get any closer because they tend to start throwing their dust all over the place. I mean, I know if you’re only exposed to a little, you’ll just get itchy and stuff.” Pixie dust caused allergy-like symptoms in small doses in humans, but the more exposure, the worse it got. “But I don’t really want to walk around for the rest of my shift with a runny nose and leaky and itchy eyes.”
Winter clapped him on the back. “No worries, Ace. We can take it from here.” He gave the teen’s shoulder a squeeze before releasing him. “We’re meeting you guys at seven for dinner. We’re gonna order something. Chaos said you should pick.”
Aeson’s cheeks suddenly flushed as he took us both in. “You guys don’t have to do that.”
Before Winter could, I waved the kid off. “We want to. We haven’t seen you since the gnome house, so we thought it’d be nice to catch up.”
He eyed both of us for a few seconds before giving a nod and a small smile. “Okay. I’ll see you soon, then. Text me if you need me to come back up here.”
Winter gave him a salute, making Aeson chuckle, and I smiled at him, saying, “See you soon, Ace.”
Aeson waved and walked back toward the stairs.
I sighed as I stared at the area Aeson had pointed out.
From here, I could see little beings darting around in the air. They looked like tiny bugs from here, but since they all had trailsof dust following them wherever they flew, I knew what I’d see close up.
Pixies were the smallest faeries in the world with adults only reaching a quarter inch to some bigger—and much rarer—reaching up to an inch. Most were closer to the quarter-inch size, and their babies were super, duper tiny. They were built like humans with a torso, legs, arms, neck, and head, with the addition of sparkly wings.
Even though they were so small, they still packed a punch when it came to their poisonous dust. Flowers and plant life loved their dust—it helped them grow big and lush—but humans were allergic to it. In small doses, it made people itchy, have a runny nose and eyes, a scratchy throat, and sometimes hives. But in large doses, it’d been known to kill humans.
That was probably why it was in such high demand on the black market. People used it to hurt others. Although most cases were minor, it had definitely been used as a weapon many times before.
Yet another thing humans took from faeries for their own gain—like firebird feathers for luck.
