Hate to Burst your Bubble: A Project Spellcheck Short Story

“Come on, little man! Move those feet!”

Meeko raced like the wind with his hand fixed to his giant hat as the chinking of erupting spears clattered close behind. The loud buzzing to his right was assurance that Pashmina was still next to him, speeding like an arrow through the sky.

“What did I tell you!?” she asked rhetorically, twisting her head to Meeko with fury and fright in equal doses. “‘There’s obviously gonna be some kind of trap. Nobody makes a ‘secret study’ if they don’t want fools coming in all willy-nilly!’ And what do you know!? Like usual, I was right!”

“H-hey! Look on… the bright side!” Meeko said, spraying words between hasty breaths. “It wasn’t… getting in… that set the traps off!”

“Not much of a bright side if it’s not gonna save us from getting impaled!"

Somehow, even in the midst of a life-threatening crisis, Pashmina found a way to beat on Meeko with the meanest elbow she could muster. It was honestly quite impressive to the young wannabe magician, even if he wished her frustrations didn’t manifest themselves so… physically.

As the greens and browns of the woods outside finally felt within reach, Meeko took one last look back to the wave of pointy poles rising upwards row-by-row towards him, a sight which reminded him to tighten his hold on the magenta ball that started this whole mess. He learned how tight may have been too tight, however, once he started to feel his grip slip on the sweat of his palms. The resulting, clumsy attempt at recovery only slowed and stumbled him, until the spikes were right on his heels.

“Meeks!” Pashmina cried from ahead, having reached safety before him.

After his last step on the cold stone floor, Meeko met the moist soil of the outside with his face, flopping forward and tumbling down the hill with a yelp as the orb he carried bounced off in its own direction.

Once he came to a stop, Meeko propped himself up with one arm while using the other to mop away the sod stuck to his face. Pashmina was quick to land gracefully atop a hardened root next to him, watching as Izis Fonniet’s secret study, cluttered into inaccessibility by massive spikes, slam shut and sank once more into the earth.

While Pashmina chose to rest against the towering tree behind her, Meeko wasn’t ready to relax just yet. He scouted for the prize that almost quite literally slipped through his fingers and quickly followed a magenta glimmer stuck in the bushes.

“Alright!” Meeko exclaimed victoriously, seizing the treasure before hustling back to his fairy friend with it.

“This is it, Mina! The secret treasure of Izis Fonniet!”

“Ok,” Pashmina said, instantaneously exhausted at her boy’s enthusiasm. “So… what is it? A magic… bubble… thing?”

“The treasure is what’s INSIDE the bubble, Mina,” Meeko said, gently shaking the orb to reveal the silhouette of treasure that dwelled within.

“And that treasure is…”

“That’s the best part! I have no idea!” He said giddily as he pulled out his small book of scribbles and notes. “All the riddle Mr. Wesley found said was to ‘seek trees west of Dwarf’s Hill’s foot to find the tomb of my’— er, Izis Fonniet’s ‘treasured loot: a prize, not made for person’s use, but meant for heirs of long misuse.’”

No amount of mystic wording could impress Pashmina, as she stared critically at his beaming face with arms crossed. “Well, with all due respect to this lady. I say if you’re gonna invite people to take stuff you aren’t gonna use, setting up traps seems like kind of a jerk move.”

“Hmm… Well, maybe she made the traps to keep it safe, and then she forgot to turn them off before she died? Oh! Or maybe they’re her way of telling people that the treasure is really, REALLY important! Y’know, like a test!”

“Uh-huh… Well, we put our necks on the line for this thing, and we got it. Question now is, how do we get to the good stuff?”

Meeko hemmed for an answer, then shrugged. “I guess we’ll have to resort to the time-old magician tactic of experimentation!”

“Oh, joy,” Mina said with a sarcastic chuckle.

After a few steps away from Pashmina, Meeko started with the basics and got the expected results back. Knocking on the bubble’s surface only made a bizarre rubbery sound, while squeezing it didn’t cause so much as a single distortion in its shape. Luckily, the magic wasn’t harmful to the touch—just a little tingly.

“Not gonna open up gently, are you?” Meeko asked the charmed treasure. “Guess I gotta kick things up a notch.”

Meeko’s next course of action was to wrap an arm around the bubble and let loose a hammering blow. Instead of popping, though, the stubborn bubble simply jetted out of his posession, then bounced back up and bullseye’d his funny bone. While Meeko jittered in uncanny pain, Pashmina stifled laughter, and the orb came floating down with nary a hint that his attempts at breaking through it were working.

As the treasure slowly descended, Meeko caught it and inspected the area for the toughest tree he could find. Then, after a deep breath, he charged at it, giving his best battle cry as he held the treasure above his head.

“Hiiiii-YAH!”

Just short of colliding with the tree, Meeko hurled the treasure at the tree, but the magic repelled harmlessly off its bark and began to ricochet off the neighboring trees. While trying to track down the magenta speedball, Meeko felt it knock the magician’s cap right off his head, then heard a blood-curdling shriek.

“M-Mina!” Meeko screamed instinctively. “Are you alright!?

Rushing right back to her root, Meeko found Mina in an utterly stunned and panicked state.

“I-Idiot! Be more careful!”

“Are you hurt!? Did it hit you!?”

“Nearly! The thing was headed right for me! I don’t even know how it missed me!”

Although he was relieved Pashmina was safe, Meeko immediately set out for the treasure as it finally began to slow. Between his hat and his friend, this magic bubble made it personal. It was time to up the ante even further.

With two fingers pointed outwards, Meeko lifted his thumb and concentrated. As he reached for the fire burning inside his heart, a tiny light sparked at his fingertips, then coalesced with other sparks to form a flaming ball of magic power.

When the spell was ready, Meeko didn’t hesitate. A single bend of the thumb launched the fireball right at the bubble. Then another. And another. And another. Over and over, until Meeko and the orb both vanished into a magical inferno.

Exhausted from the endeavor, Meeko lowered his hands and waited for the treasure to show itself, only to see that its shield had outlasted even the most intense magic he could conjure.

Gritting his teeth and clenching his fists, Meeko grunted in frustration, then sighed in defeat, crumpling over to rest beneath the scorched earth.

“So…you done?” Pashmina asked while flying overhead with Meeko’s cap in her grasp.

“Yeah,” Meeko confessed, “I guess so.”

“Ehh, don’t beat yourself up over it,” Pashmina said, putting the cap right back where it belonged while giving Meeko a rueful smile. “You’re still pretty new to this whole ‘magic adventure’ thing, after all. Maybe we can bring it back to Cindrel and have Wesley help us find a solution.”

“Maybe, but… ugh, give me a second here, Mina. There’s gotta be something…”

Meeko pulled out his notebook again, trusting his past self to have left something his present self was missing. Mina backed away until she was right over the magic bubble and prepared to land on it for a pep talk.

“I can’t believe I’m the one saying this, but you’re worrying a bit too much about this. Just give yourself a b-WOAH!”

At Pashmina’s alarmed reaction, Meeko jutted up, assuming she may have slipped. However, looking revealed she had all but disappeared.

“Mina?” He called. “Mina!?”

“What the!?” Phasmina’s muffled voice called.

“Wh-wha? Where did you go!”

As quickly as he asked, Meeko’s head popped up from inside the bubble, much to Meeko’s surprise.

“Woah! Are you… inside the bubble!?”

Pashmina looked around before giving an answer. “…I guess?”

“B-b-but how are you—” Meeko’s confusion was cut short by a cathartic realization. “Wait! You’re inside the bubble! That means you can get to the treasure box! Are you able to open it!?”

“I mean, I can give it a go,” Pashmina said uncertainly. “Just don’t expect too much, alright?”

While Pashmina dove back inside the bubble, Meeko sifted through his notes, tearing through pages at a blink’s pace. Clearly, there was something he had missed.

“Doesn’t look like there’s any kind of lock,” Mina mumbled as she worked. Following her observation came a sudden thudding sound.

“Alright! I got it!” Pashmina declared. “Look’s like it’s…”

…

“It’s…”

“Yeah? What is it, Mina!?”

“Some… kind of brooch.”

With Pashmina’s answer and touch, the bubble vanished in thin air. The empty box that rested at the bottom of the bubble fell into the dirt while Pashmina held a magenta-colored piece of jewelry.

“Ah, I see! A brooch!” Meeko exclaimed. “…What is that, exactly?”

“It’s like an ornament that you wear,” Pashmina explained while inspecting the treasure. “I don’t know about humans, but they were pretty trendy back home in Glitterglee. Still… this one seems pretty peculiar.”

“What do you mean?”

Pashmina flew up to Meeko’s face to offer a closer look. “See, this one’s got this weird crystal inside—the same color as the bubble it was making.”

“So then we can assume it was the reason behind the bubble? Does that mean the treasure… was defending itself?”

“That seemed obvious, but yeah,” Pashmina said with a nod. “It’s strange, though. Usually, Majus treasure is more…human-sized, but this seems like it was made for—”

“A fairy.”

Meeko’s eyes and mouth opened wide as he made a realization.

“That’s it! The treasure was made for a fairy!”

“…It was?”

“I’ve got it right here in my notes: Izis had a fairy companion of her own named Santhimum, and apparently her aptitude in the arts of fairy magics were well beyond the capabilities of normal fairies. Maybe this brooch thing had something to do with it! That would no doubt explain why it was practically impenetrable to just about everything except, well, you!”

“So, it’s a magic charm for fairies?” Pashmina asked, eyeing the brooch curiously as she began to gently shake it “I wonder how it—”

Pashmina was interrupted—and Meeko blown back—by a sudden flash of magenta magic. For a brief moment, the magic bubble seemed to have materialized before immediately dissipating again to reveal a bewildered and discombobulated Pashmina.

“…works.”

Looking at Meeko, Pashmina found the lad practically drooling in the wake of her unwitting demonstration. He was giving the exact look that Pashmina quickly learned to dread, the look that would be proceeded by long hours of escapades.

“Looks like it’s back to Cindrel,” Meeko said, rubbing his hands together. “Just wait until Mr. Wesley gets a look at it!”

Pashmina groaned as she realized her part in stirring him up. As much as she tried to regret it, however, even she had to admit she was curious about the tiny trinket in her hands—and what she could do with it.