THE RASPY SPRITE
The Raspy Sprite, hidden in the bright blue ball of light below, appears in a single chronicle, THE CREELY CROWN, and has a small but important role in delivering a clue to the Princess Wun, who is in competition with her sisters, Tuu and Thrii, in a race to find the Creely Crown.
“Who am there? Where am you?” said Princess Wun, whirling around on top of the broken stone wall.
There was a fair chumble of movement in the nearby tangled lumpish hump of slim yellow vines bristling with tufts of black stickers. A glow. Blue light. Fuzzy. Shup! An orb of shivery brilliance popped free and zzzzzhhhhed in loops around Wun. Brightly blue it dazzled.
“So you are the Princess Wun. I thought you would never utter the code words. Is it true that Dabber of the West married your father’s twin sister?” rasped the looping ball of blue light.
“Stand still or float still. Stop moving!” commanded Wun, stamping her foot. “What am you? Stop moving!”
The blinding bright blue light settled in front of Wun’s chalky turquoise face. Wun shielded her eyes. The orb’s raspy voice said, “So it is true about the eyes. Amazing. Yes, startling. I must tell the garl.”
“What am you saying? Who am you? Get back. Why amn’t you answering me? WHAT AM YOU?!” snapped Wun, not used to being ignored. After all, she was a Princess.
“Feathery wings, not Dragon. I’ll make a note of that for the garl,” said the blue ball of brightness.
“WHO AM YOU?! WHAT GARL?! Ow,” roared Wun, straining something or some other thing in her throat.
“Ah, there’s the Royalty. Elegance of thistles. Allow me to introduce myself. I am the Raspy Sprite. I speak for the silent garl,” said the blue ball of light, and it sank to land on a chunk of mossy pillar. “You, winged Princess, are searching for the Creely Crown. You, winged Princess, have succeeded in finding your way to Farl and Nizz where the Creely Crown was created. You, winged Princess, will be the one and the Wun to win the Creely Crown if you are able to follow the clue that the silent garl is holding for you.”
The Raspy Sprite paused, and Wun said nothing, though thrill fought excitement for control of her body. She rubbed her throat. It still hurt from screaming.
“You see, winged Princess,” continued the blue orb, “we here have been visited by Babba Ja Harick. You see, winged Princess, she brought to us a story of Prophesy. It was of a such and all nature to make the silent garl weep with guilt and shame. Never to mind. As waves crest and fall from here to there, that’s a fate gone by. Farl and Nizz may be a crumbled ruin, but it is still a home for us. And a pleasant one, at that.”
“What about the clue?” prodded Wun quietly, still holding her throat. “Where am this garl? Let it bring me the clue.”
“Oh, winged Princess, the silent garl is far too shy to deliver the clue to you herself. She never pushes more than the tips of her tentacles above the rubble and vines. I speak for the silent garl,” said the Raspy Sprite.
“Well, speak me the clue then,” demanded Wun.
“I don’t know it,” replied the ball of light.
“Can you get it?” said Wun with menacing gentleness.
“I can,” rasped the orb. “Shall I?”
Tight-lipped, Wun nodded, and she raked her fingers through her black streaked with green curly hair. The Raspy Sprite plunged to disappear beneath the glut of thin yellow vines bristling with tufts of black stickers. Red burrs on stalks of gaffrunners waved in the breeze. It was a windy day. I never saw a sprite before, thought Wun. I heard of Mimsy, but she were orange. This one am blue so bright. Pretty, though. I are glad that the silent garl am shy. Tentacles, uggghhhh! Clue! Clue! Clue! Ha, Tuu! I are not a lackwit! Wun continued to entertain herself with dreams of victory while she waited for the Raspy Sprite to return. She touched the top of her head with the tips of her fingers and imagined herself wearing the Crown. A smile of bliss played on her lips. And that is why the krunkle of vines and the sudden reappearance of the blue bright sprite startled her.
“Got it,” rasped the sprite, zzzzhhhhing close to Wun’s left ear.
“Oh, what?” gasped Wun.
“I heard the clue in gentle whisper directly from the seventh mouth, the one with double beaks. The silent garl says, ‘Fly, fly, fly, high, high, high, until you see the tallest tree in the wood of the witch’,” rasped the voice of the sprite.
Right then and right there the Princess Wun launched herself straight up without the least nince of hesitation and flapped her wings wildly to ride the sky over the Orrun Mountains and south to the Danken Wood, homeland of Babba Ja Harick, lavender witch. The Raspy Sprite watched her go and drifted among the ruins of Farl and Nizz to settle lightly on a tentacle tip which had wormed its shy way up through the tangle of thin yellow vines bristling with tufts of black stickers.
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