FicWad

A.N: This chapter is pretty descriptive, just in case you care
Sorry I took so long updating. I've been busy

Over the course of the next few days I spent what free time I had trying to help out little sis. Both Stepmother and the Piglets were laying on every extra task they could think of on Ella, and unfortunately on me too. (You'd be surprised how many times their stupid Pekinese managed to "accidentally" roll in the mud. Guess who's job it is to wash the grime off the little devil.) It was funny how all of Madame's staff decided to take all these "brakes" and not get themselves fired...
Ah well, it wasn't TOO bad. Over the years we'd trained a couple of our animals for little jobs. Like my Hawk for example. Lightning, (the name comes from the lightning-shaped mark of reddish feathers on his back) he will only fetch things for me. Oh, and my collie Angel, the one Lutty torments, (smartest dog EVER in my opinion) can do a world of things! Then there's Ella's sparrows and mice of course. Quite intelligent little things all around. We also got to work on her dress. You know, those little mice could get jobs as seamstresses if they wanted! They'd just have to get past the mousetraps in the dress shop...and the cat too...Anyway! Unfortunately, Madame noticed a few of her clothing rejects were missing after she went through the rag-bag ( I'm telling you! Paranoid or what? At that moment I wanted to tell her to Get A LIFE! Then I remembered that I didn't have one either and kept quiet for once.)

Finally, it was the night of the dance. Poor little sis was so dejected that she had nothing to wear, therefore could not go. I did my best to console her, but she was devastated. After the three leeches ridiculed her a bit, they left in their over-extravagant, more-than-a-little-bit tacky silk finery, Ella ran to the garden and began sobbing her eyes out kneeling beside the bench. I followed her at a descreet distance, then I caught sight of a shimmering light glowing in front of my sister. I increased my speed and crouched behind a rose bush.
From the glittering light, a woman appeared. Her hair was a chestnut colour that gleamed in the moonlight with eyes that were only a couple shades darker that twinkled with a touch of mischief. (nice mischief though, like someone with a good sense of humor) Her dress was gorgeous. It was made of a soft, delicate-looking material and white at the shoulders and sleeves that melted into a soft pink at the bodice and then into lilac to about her knees and finished off with a baby blue. She also had a tiara of flowers on her head and a long white wand with a bright green handle that looked to be studded with emeralds or something. Now I'm missing something...Oh yeah! I CAN'T forget her wings! They were large, butterfly wings with a yellow center that went out into lilac, baby-blue, bright pink with white flecks on the edges. Oh yeah, she was gorgeous all-around. It would have KILLED the three hags to see her (made me want to grab Ella's paint set and make an attempt at a picture. Man where was one of those enchanted paint brushes when you need it! No one would believe me when I told them my sister had a fairy Godmother!) Just then she spoke.
"Do not cry child. All will be well. I am your Fairy godmother" (See, wink-wink-nudge-nudge what did I tell you?) Ella looked up at her through teary eyes.
"My F-fairy g-Godmother?" She stammered
"Yes. And I shall help you. You shall make it to the ball tonight."
"But...I have nothing to wear...I"
"Sis, she'll fix it don't worry." I groaned with a roll of my eyes. (I hadn't meant it like that, but hey! I was grumpy! You try mucking out stalls, weeding the garden and doing other such jobs all day AND looking out for your twin! It's not easy. Plus, living with the piglets make permanently irritable) The bush jumped aside. Oops. Guess they'd heard me.
"Traitor." I muttered at the rose bush. I watered, clipped and weeded that thing every day! And what thanks do I get? The fairy raised a finely-shaped eyebrow at me. I looked around for an escape route, but I knew the cat was out of the bag.
"Uh...hi." I said with a little wave and an attempted smile, then sighed, and straightened. "Okay, okay. I'm Crys, Ella's twin sister. Sorry for the outburst earlier. This won't ruin Ella's chances or anything...will it? Because, okay, the life of Ball-room dancing and parties isn't for me but, she likes it...and-and okay I'm out of excuses. Can I please stop groveling now?" The Fairy Godmother smiled warmly.
"Of course no harm will come of it. We-I mean I have also observed you too. I know your heart is also good and kind." I was flattered, but still a little suspicious. I hadn't missed that little slip there.
"Why thank you. Please continue, pretend I'm not even here." The Fairy and Ella proceeded to do just that (though, they definitely didn't forget I was there)
"Now dear, you cannot go to the ball looking as you do." The Godmother stated, waving her wand over Ella's clothes. Immediately, her rags turned into a-a...alright, I know I'm supposed to say beautiful gown, but lets face it! It wasn't! I couldn't have kept my mouth shut if I'd wanted to.
"Oh no. No way is she wearing That!" I drawled. The Fairy cringed when she looked at it and murmured
"Oh dear." The dress was a terrible style, and hideous colours (now I know I say that about a lot of dresses, but this one was Terrible!) The bodice was clearly corseted and far too tight and was a bright lemon yellow emerald green lacings around it over a skirt that was extremely wide at thewas bright orange trimmed with hot pink. Oh, it gets worse. One word. Ruffles. Ruffles of all shades were all over the place: The ridiculously puffy sleeves and skirt, the tight corset, the low neck line, even her hair (don't even go there. Ringlets, small ones. Not pretty, actually, that's wrong. My sister can pull of any look, well almost. Let's just say it wasn't as...flattering as it could have been) Ella started nervously looking around for a mirror. I quickly snatched away the hand mirror and stood between her and the pond. I shook my head at her and plastered on the best smile I could muster (which was pretty pathetic.
"Not yet." I managed to get out. She swallowed hard, but took my advice. I sidled over to Miss Pixie and said quietly,
"I take it that wasn't supposed to happen?"
"Not exactly"
"What is this? Your first job or something?"
"Actually...yes." I slapped my forehead with my hand.
"Greeaaatt" I drawled then sighed and moved my hand down my face to rest under my chin and cocked my head at Ella, a thoughtful expression on my face (at least I think it was. I know I was deep in thought at the time certainly.) "Well, first let's change that style."
"You think you can do my job better?" Oooo. Fairy has a dark side, or at least a temper. I suppose I couldn't really blame her. Thinking back, I guess I might have been a bit arrogant...
"No, but I can't exactly do worse on the dress front." Yeah I know, I can be obnoxious sometimes. Nobody's perfect!
So we got to work. By the time we were done Ella had gone from "oh" to a 'Woah!"
Her dress was now a simpler, more elegant style with a bodice that "hugged" rather than strangle and a skirt that flowed rather than poofed. The sleeves were now long and close-fitting and the neckline was only moderately low and showed off a little of her shoulders. The colours were also much more tasteful. For the most part it was lavender with a light blue lacy trim along the shoulders, neckline and the bottom of the dress as well as along her torso and down the sides of the skirt-thing. The fairy had also given her some jewelry including a diamond necklace, dangling sapphire earrings and ruby hair ornaments that held some of her hair pulled back whilst the rest of her curls hung loose at her shoulders.
"Nice." I said with an approving nod at Ella's godmother and handed my sister the mirror. She looked to be stunned to see her own beauty, (actually, it was probably the refreshing lack of soot and grime that had ended up caked there due to the all the house work she was forced to do.) She picked up her skirts daintily and walked over to the pond to see her entire reflection. As she did so I noticed her foot where.
"Woah woah woah. Glass slippers?" I asked the fairy. She rolled her eyes sympathetically.
"I know, I know. I'm not exactly happy about it either. But apparently we have to follow "TRADITION" sometimes." she replied, air-quoting the word tradition. I was liking this pixie more and more!
"Now. To get you there." She said to Ella, (though I suspected the comment was directed more towards me) tapping her wand against her chin and partially folding her arms. She scanned the garden around her and rested her gaze on a big, round pumpkin. A coy smile spread across her face and she flicked her wand at it...nothing happened. She flicked at the tip with her thumb and fore-finger and tried again. It sprouted viney legs and walked over.
"Closer." she muttered and made a great flourish with the glorified stick in her hand and it turned into a beautiful, if oddly-shaped, carriage. "Perfect." was the mutter this time. She started looking around again.
"Hmmn. We'll have to work with what we have. How about four fine horses!" The wand turned on 4 of Ella's mice friends and with a wave, a flourish and some magic words she managed to get decent sized horses after only 2 tries.
You can probably guess the rest, well part of it anyway. The cat in the corner became the footman, dressed in fancy livery and everything. However, when the wand turned towards Angel, I stepped in.
"Ah, if you're looking for a driver, I could do it! And you'd only have to make my outfit match puss-in-boots over there!" The Fairy liked that idea and soon I was in boys clothes too. (Not that that was anything unusual, but this time I actually looked like a boy...sort of. I just would have to be careful not to let anyone get too close)
"Thank You Godmother! Thank you so much!" Ella cried joyfully as she got into the carriage. Suddenly the lady with wings got a look on her face as if she'd just remembered something.
"Oh! Here!" She said, creating a mask out of thin air (with one try too, she was getting the hang of this!) I jumped down and took it from her.
"Thanks Godmother. Don't worry. I'll look out for her there as much as I can."
"I have no doubt that you will. You can call me Lucinda." I raised an eyebrow and asked sarcastically,
"Lucinda?"
"Comes with the job. You have to have a fancy name. Oh by the way, tell your sister that she only has until midnight. The magic will wear off after that" I shrugged at that. Made sense I guess, in some weird way
"Okay. Thanks again" and with that I skipped back to the carriage and tossed Ella the mask through the window.
"You don't want any of the hags recognizing you now do we?" I told her before she could ask. With that I climbed into the drivers' seat and flicked the reigns. I love magic. They were TRAINED.
And so, we were off to the ball.
"This won't be so bad." I thought to myself. "One evening of fun for Ella, only a couple of hours at that anyway! How hard could it be?"
Was I in for a surprise or what!