Page 89 of The Pushy Pixies Are Going Down
Miles hummed, clearly thinking through options as Chaos and Clucky came out of the booth to take us inside—without paying for a ticket this time.
Chaos led us straight over to the manager. The man turned, looking grumpy but also relieved to see us. What a far cry from the other night.
“Oh, thank goodness. Thank you for coming,” Dexter Sharp said.
“Of course,” Miles said, and when the guy held out his hand to shake, I intervened, stepping in front of Miles and offering my own hand.
As we shook, I asked, “Why don’t you show us where the problem is?”
He was so flustered he didn’t seem to notice that I’d blocked his handshake with Miles. Miles shoulder-bumped me with a smile, a silent thank you. I winked at him.
Sharp led us back over to the same spot where we’d put the dragon egg fossil the other day, but we stopped down the walkway where someone had put a cone and caution tapeto keep the patrons out. At least they were trying to take precautions this time.
“This is about as far away as we need to be. Any closer, and the damn pixies start attacking.”
Chaos said, “They’ve been purposefully dusting people, pushing them, flying into them, and cutting them with their little talons. I’ve lost count of the number of people I had to refund today because they got hurt, and I had to leave the booth a few times to help with first aid.”
That made me wince. “Really? It’s been that bad?”
Chaos nodded. “Yep, and we’ve only been open for three hours.”
Damn. That really was bad. No wonder he’d called us.
Miles had been quiet, so I turned to him and noted the frown on his face. “What’s up? What’re you thinking?”
“I’m just wondering how we’re going to stop them from doing this. Either block off this entire area more permanently or get rid of the egg fossil altogether.”
The manager gasped. “We can’t do that.”
“Well, I’m sorry to say this, but I don’t think you can leave it out hereorput it back in the museum’s storage. Not without having pixies invade the museum again in their search for it. They’d be able to smell it or follow the magical trail or whatever since they’ve clearly marked it as theirs. There’s no way you can hide it from them. At least not anywhere nearby.”
The manager’s frown deepened, and he let out a long sigh. “Isn’t there anything else you could do?”
“Not unless you want us to remove the pixies themselves.”
He gasped again, as if that was the most shocking thing he’d heard this century. Wow. He needed to get out more.
Miles added, “We’d take them to a sanctuary far away from here so they can’t find their way back.”
Sharp looked scandalized, but Miles shrugged.
“I’m honestly not sure what else to do. Unless you have a different area you’d like the egg to be moved to, and then block that off, I’m kind of at a loss. I’ve never seen them this aggressive before.”
“Me either.” I shrugged. “They do tend to get a little more active and territorial in the fall when they’re getting ready for winter, but they’re not usually harmful to humans. This is all very strange.”
“Agreed.”
Chaos opened his mouth to add something to the conversation, but a big swarm of pixies suddenly flew out of a nearby bush and headed right for us.
All four of us let out yelps—and a scream in Sharp’s case—as we ducked and covered our heads with our arms. The pixies buzzed right over our heads, spraying us with their dust. A few ran into my arms, leaving tiny cuts and making me hiss, but it wasn’t too bad.
I was more worried about the amount of dust covering our skin.
After they passed by, I slowly looked up, and my nose immediately started to itch. Chaos sneezed a second before I did, and Miles did right after. Sharp was on the ground, curled up in a fetal position, whimpering and sniffling—I was pretty sure it was from an itchy nose and not from crying, although I couldn’t see his face.
“What the hell?” Chaos asked. He had his arms spread out, clearly afraid to touch anything and risk contaminating it with dust. “Why’d they do that? We’re nowhere close to that stupid—oh shit!Duck!”
I listened without hesitation, covering my head with my arms again, even though pixie dust got on my face and my eyes started watering. The swarm rushed us again, sprinkling us with even more dust and hitting my arms with their sharp talons.
