Aisling woke up by falling off the hammock and landing on the hard wood floor face down. This wasn't the first time this had happened.
"Ow..." Aisling said picking herself off the floor and rubbing her throbbing nose. "Why do I sleep in a hammock in a first place?" She said to herself.
"Hah! You haven't changed!" A familiar small and cheerful voice said.
"Puck?" Aisling looked up and saw the card spirit hovering an arm length from her. "What are you doing here? Er, out?"
"I was woken up from my nap." Puck stretched his arms and crossed them behind his head. "By the way you need a new talking box."
"Talking box?" Aisling rubbed her eyes sleepily and looked at the empty futons on the floor. Where did Mari and Kaki go? She looked at the clock on the wall and it was around four in the afternoon. "I should call Emiko." Aisling said. She turned to her phone that she had left on the night stand and her jaw dropped. Then she let out an angry shriek. "PUCK!!!!!!"
The fairy page zoomed out of sight and was hiding in a shelf. "What did you do to my cell phone?!!!"
"Uh it was making this annoying ringing noise and I tried to make it stop." Puck's voice squeaked form behind a teddy bear.
"It's smoking!!" Aisling tried to pick it up put it was too hot and it was making burn marks on the table's surface. "Agh where's the fire extinguisher?!" She stood up and went to her closet. She found the fire extinguisher but the handle was jammed. "At least there's no real fire." Aisling muttered.
"Pour water on it." Puck suggested.
"It's electronic you can't get it wet!"
The smoke alarm downstairs was going off. "AAGHH!!" Aisling said running around in circles. "What do I do?! Oh I know!-FIX IT!" she commanded at Puck pointing her finger at him.
"I can't do that call Kelpie." Puck said.
"Who?"
"The Page of Cups." Puck said exasperated. Aisling automatically got her card case and pulled out the tarot deck. She shuffled through the cards and found the Page of Cups. "Okay what do I do now?"
"Call out his name."
"Kelpie?" Aisling said and the card started to glow and a spark of bright blue light appeared and then grew until it was Puck's size. It took solid and humanoid shaped. The card spirit looked just like it's picture. Long black stringy hair that looked wet and a cup for a hat and dressed in a blue and gray dress that reached for it's knees. This page also had dragon fly wings on it's back. The fairy creature raised her head and had huge watery blue eyes. "Hello M' lady," the page said curtsying. "What is your wish?"
"Fix that." Aisling said pointing at her smoking cell phone.
"As you wish." The fairy Kelpie said she put her dainty hands on her hat/cup and turned it around to her right.
A fist sized water ball appeared above the cell phone. "Wait!" said Aisling but too late it fall on the cell phone. Aisling expected a bad reaction like sparks flying but the cell phone sat quietly on the water drenched nightstand.
"Good work Kelpie!" Puck said.
"Yeah thanks," Aisling said wryly. "But now it's all wet."
"I can fix that." Puck said flying over to the phone. He waved his little wand and Aisling felt wind blowing. "Kelpie collect the water residue." Kelpie flew over to Puck's side and turned her hat again. Aisling watched as water puddles quickly evaporated. "There done!" Puck said pleased.
Aisling approached the nightstand and picked up the know dry and perfect looking cell phone. She turned it around expecting to see scorch marks but she found none. "Wow you really did fixed." Aisling was relieved she had spent six months and three weeks babysitting the terrible Mackenzie Triplets down the street to pay for the device.
"Is my services done for now?" Kelpie asked.
"Yeah thanks." Kelpie disappeared.
Aisling looked at her cell phone and looked at her messages.
"Aisling!" she turned around and saw her mother burst into the room. "What happen?! I smell smoke."
"It's fine mum." Aisling said. "Just a little mishap."
"At least air this place out." Her mother went to the window and jerked it opened. "Tsk tsk must get knew hinges." she said and turned around. Her face brighten when she saw Puck. "Well hello little fella? Where did you come from?"
Aisling remembered that she didn't tell her family about discovering her tarot cards are inhabited by spirits. "Uh this is Puck." Aisling said nervously. Puck bowed to Molly. "It's nice to meet you M' lady's mother again."
"Puck! Oh I remember you Aisling dear had you called out to play with you all the time when she was five." Molly said and Aisling stared at him.
"You know him?!" Aisling said bewildered.
"Yes I know him. So do your father, granddad, gizzard and granny."
"Gizzard?" Puck said and Aisling muttered, "My grandfather from da's side don't ask."
"Where's Mari and Kaki?" Aisling asked her mother.
"They're in the kitchen. I saw Mari sleeping in Kaki's lap it was the cutest thing. Are they a couple?"
"Uh..." Aisling said. "I don't think so Kaki is only a one year old well not anymore exactly."
"Huh?" Puck said perplexed.
"Come see for yourself." Molly said leaving the turret room. "I would like your help with the family bean sidhe. It's been acting strangely lately."
"Sure Miss Molly." Puck followed Aisling's mother out of the room.
Aisling stared after them. "Am I really the only who doesn't remember them." Aisling muttered to herself. She went to change out of the clothes she slept in. She changed into black and white shirt and dark khaki shorts and long black stockings. She brushed her hair and pulled strands of her hair in a small side pony tail (A/N: I have no idea what's the hair style called from picture)
She went down stairs to the kitchen and found Mari and Kaki being entertained by her granddad. "Hey Mari, hey Kaki how are you doing did you sleep well?" Mari blushed and nodded. Aisling wondered what was wrong and figured her mother saw them in that position and Molly must have made a big deal going on about how cute they looked and must have made the embarrassing assumption about them being a couple. Her mother loved to get into other people's love lives.
"Hello sleeping beauty," granddad Patrick said. "I was telling them about my days in the band."
Aisling cringed and turned to the two blond teenagers. "I am SO sorry." Aisling said solemnly.
"Hey!"
Aisling shrugged and went to get something to drink. "Mari are you planing on going back to the school tonight?"
"Yeah it's my school I need to protect the ghosts from the demons." Mari said her voice strong.
"If your going I'm going to." Kaki said.
"Alright but you stay close to me."
Kaki nodded.
"Can you see spirits Kaki?" Aisling asked him sitting at the table as she ripping the skin of an orange. Kaki blinked and nodded quieting.
"It's weird your so shy now." she commented, "When you were a baby not long ago you were different." Kaki didn't say anything but looked at the juice box in his hands.
"I think I understand why." Granddad said Aisling and Mari looked at him. "What do you think?" Aisling said putting a slice of orange in her mouth.
"Babies need to learn to socialize," Granddad said chiseling a piece of wood that was no bigger than his thumb. "They need to learn to get used to people but with Kaki's case he took a huge step and there's a lot of things he skipped that takes years to learn. The only one Kaki is comfortable is Mari and that could be because she took him under her wing and see's her as a mother figure or big sister and I right?" He looked up at Kaki and he slowly nodded.
Aisling looked at Mari and it looked she was contemplating this. "I guess it makes sense." Aisling said. She looked at the clock on the wall, "We have a few hours." Aisling looked at Mari and Kaki, "Have you given a tour of the house?" They shook their heads.
Aisling stood up and said, "Come on or would you rather listen to granddad's band stories." Mari stood up and Kaki followed suit.
"What?" Granddad said as Aisling led the out of the kitchen. "Are they really that bad?"
Aisling looked back and said, "Yes." and shut the door before her father could say anything. "Okay out here is the garden where some of the good neighbors live here." Aisling said as they walked out on the back porch.
"Neighbors?" Mari said. Aisling pointed at a woman sitting up in a beach tree brushing her long shaggy hair. At first glance she looked like a ghost but it really was a banshee or bean sidhe. "That's not a ghost that's a banshee." Aisling said to Mari and Kaki, "We call her Silvia."
Mari stared at the banshee and stepped back. "Doesn't the banshee's scream kill people?" Mari said in a hushed voice.
"No banshee's scream when someone is about to die they do not cause death they are harbingers of death. Silvia is our families banshee."
Mari looked at Aisling blankly and Aisling shrugged, "She sort of made an attachment to us when we moved here form Ireland*. Okay moving on."
Aisling showed them the tree house where the tree was actually alive, Mari and Kaki figured that one themselves when they saw the knot on the trunk opened and blinked like a giant eye. This actually made Mari scream out loud.
"I guess I should of mention that first." Aisling said trying not to laugh she felt bad that Mari was shaken afterwords.
They were going back inside when Aisling's cell phone rang. She took it out and opened it. She stared the screen in shock. "What's wrong?" Mari asked.
"...everything's in Spanish." Aisling said staring at the phone. "How did this..." she paused then yelled at the top of her voice. "PUCK!!!!"
Puck came flying as fast as humming bird and stopped in mid air in front of Aisling. "You called M' lady?" He said ten hunting like before.
"Look at this," she faced the screen to Puck. "Why is it in Spanish?"
Puck blinked and shrugged, "No comprende." Aisling glared at him and he said quickly. "I have no idea!" She continue to glare and then he sighed with sagging shoulders. "You always saw right through me." He pointed at the phone and it made little beeping noises. Aisling looked at it and the letters were shifting from Spanish to English. "How long will it go back to normal?"
"Dunno," Puck said. He looked at Mari then Kaki and did a double take. "Whoa! You remind me of the babe!" He said pointing at Kaki who looked surprised.
"What babe*?" Aisling said before thinking and then slapped her forehead in annoyance.
"How did you get from this big?" Puck used his hands and set them a few centimeters apart, "To this big!" He stretched out his arms as wide as he can.
"I don't know," Kaki mumbled and stepped closer to Mari.
"So instead of baby and teen mama," Mari glared at Puck, "It's more like brother and sister." He nodded at Kaki, "From the looks of it you could be the big brother."
"I'm sixteen," huffed Mari, "So no matter what I'm still older."
Puck gaped at Mari,"Sixteen?! I thought you were at least Lady Aisling's age." Mari shrugged, "Yeah people make mistake about my age a lot but I usually don't mind."
"I thought you were younger then me, and skipped a couple of grades which would explain why your in high school." Aisling said amazed.
"So it didn't seem wrong to call you teen mom. whoop!" Mari tried to whacked Puck but he dodged and moved higher until he was out of her reach.
"Will you stop with this teen mom stuff!" Mari snapped at him.
"I only call 'em like I see 'em." Puck said. Mari bend down to pick up a rock and before she straighten up Puck had flew off to hide.
"He is a real pain!" Mari said and dropped the rock.
"I'm sorry." Aisling said rubbing the back of her head and laughed sheepishly. "Let's go back inside."
They spent the rest of the day touring around the house and Aisling showed them the library and the rest of the house. She showed them the secret passage why and while she showed them behind a tapestry a secret door she heard her father's voice singing "The Bird".
"Hold on a minute." Aisling opened the door and stepped into the closet sized room. "Don't tell him I'm in here." She warned them smiling mischievously and she closed the door. She could hear a few lines of the song singing by her dad.
"Hi says the leather bat, I'll tell you the reason that---oh hello." Her father Richard Alvey said he must of noticed Mari and Kaki. "Are you two enjoying your stay here?"
"Yes sir." Mari said politely.
"Good to hear," he said happily. "Is Aisling around?"
"HERE I AM!" Aisling said slamming the door open and saw her father jumped a foot in the air.
"Oh Aisling! Haha I fell for it again." He patted his chest that must be pounding hard. "Who's brilliant idea was it to put in secret passages?"
"You." Aisling said, "Where have you been?"
"I got lost." Her father laughed sheepishly.
"Figures."
"You get lost in your house?" Mari said.
"Yes stupid isn't it. I even had a hand in building this place but I can hardly find my way around here. But I always manage to find a bath room if I needed it." He grinned and Aisling shook her head at him.
"Isn't it almost time to get back to the school." Richard said. "It's an hour tell night fall."
"Oh right," Aisling said. "Should we get ready for school?"
Mari nodded.
After a few minutes later they were ready to leave and Aisling tried calling Emiko but only got voice mail.
"How about I drive you three?" Richard suggested.
"Yeah it seems like Emiko's tied up or something."
When they got to Richard's car, Mari asked Aisling, "What happened to Emiko's cousin?"
"I think she's staying with Emiko." Aisling replied. She wondered if those two made up but it didn't seemed likely.
Richard drove them to school while singing the Beatles's "Drive My Car" off key and Aisling drowned him out by turning on the radio.
When they got to the school Aisling saw Emiko's van. "Thanks da," Aisling said waving good bye as he drove off.
The three turned to the school. Aisling closed her eyes as she sensed the ghosts' emotions of fear. "I think they might be back." she said after the moment.
"The demons?"
"Don't know yet. It could be Nino scaring them off," said Aisling with a half smile. "Let's go, I think Emiko could be in the classroom that we made our home base." They went inside of the school.
*****
That's all I feel like writing take it from here guys!
Ireland* -I marked this because I have no idea what country they are suppose to be. I'm guessing somewhere in the west.
"Your remind me of the babe-what babe?"*- did anyone got this joke? ^^
