October 10, 2011, Monday, 21:00

Cass had, in a few days, finished both the Fire Faery and the Water Faery (though a bit sloppily), and drawn a few snow-capped mountain peaks to boot. The mountains were only because she was bored.

She placed them on the window sill, satisfied with herself. Then she noticed the smudge of dirt on the side of the painting. She wiped it off.

She checked the paintings again, then went to sleep.
*****
October 11, 2011, Tuesday, 6:00

Cass felt cold and hot at the same time. She wondered why. Then she opened her eyes.

The first thing she noticed was that the paintings were blank. Well, not exactly. The painting of the mountains was now only a sky blue canvas, though the fleecy clouds she placed as a after thought was still there. The mountains were gone.

She looked at the other paintings. The Fire Faery was gone, leaving behind a background of flames. The Water Faery likewise.

Then she looked up.

And she thought, I had to be dreaming.
*****

The Fire Faery’s name was Ophelia, she was told rather angrily, while the Water Faery had a German accent and announced that her name was Sibyl.

“We’re both prophets!” Sibyl said excitedly, giggling like a brook.

“What?” Cass said, the world extremely unrealistic.

“Cassandra and Sibyl were both celebrated prophets!” Sibyl explained.

“I am not a prophet.” Cass snapped.

She’d felt hot and cold because when she was just waking up, Ophelia was having an argument with Sibyl, and was so angry that she was hurling fire balls. Sibyl had to shoot magical water balls to extinguish the magical fire and fix the charred walls.

How had her paintings come to life?

And they looked exactly like Cass had drawn them. Ophelia had a short red dress, slender long legs, pale skin, blood red boots, bright orange irises, and tightly curled red hair that flared exactly the way Cass had imagined it would. Not to mention the large yellow and orange butterfly wings that was on fire.

Sibyl had the same ink black hair flowing to the ankles, rippling at the slightest movement, as Cass had thought when painting it. The eyes were clear blue and wide, the chin and ears pointed, the long, sky blue dress swishing as the Faery’s pastel blue wings fluttered. The Faeries were as tall as her arm.

Cass looked mutely at her mountain painting, wondering where it would be right now. Then she wondered about Diana’s painting.

Hold it! Diana! The paintbrushes!

Cass sat up right suddenly, startling Ophelia out of her angry-silence pose.

“I’ve got to go somewhere.” She told the Faeries. Then rushed out of the room.
*****

As she walked swiftly through the streets, she noticed people out early in the morning, pointing. She looked.

There were new mountains at the horizon, behind which the sun was rising.

Cass pretended to be surprised, and kept walking.
*****

Diana lived in a small first-floor apartment on the edge of the school district with her mother. She had a very small room that equaled the size of Cass’s closet. It was barely big enough for a small metal bed and a small plastic table, plus a chest full of clothes and books randomly thrown in.

Cass rapped on Diana’s window.

Diana looked up and smiled, showing no surprise whatsoever. She unlocked the window and opened in.

“Come in.” She said.

Cass clambered in ungracefully, and finally saw the Faeries hovering behind her as Diana said, “Hello, Ophelia, Sibyl. Sasuke, will you please get the tea?”
*****

According to Diana, Sasuke was a delightful little Kappa, with a thick Japanese accent, a wicked sense of humor, and a few occasional sparks of magic, enabling it to create a miniature swamp in a corner.

Cass didn’t drink the tea.

“Did you know that those paintbrushes make things come to life?” She asked. “Before you gave them to me, I mean.”

Diana bit into a moon cake Sasuke had conjured up for the guests. “Well, it was an ancient heirloom.” She explained. “My father gave it to me.” Cass remembered that Diana’s father was Japanese. He and Diana’s mother divorced, so Diana had the White name of Lee. “It was said that it could create pictures so lifelike they will move in their paintings.”

“Just in their paintings?” Cass asked.

“Depends.” Diana said, still smiling. “There are several stories like yours. The paintbrushes once belonged to a Chinese man. He drew cranes that danced for guests and gave them to an innkeeper to repay his kindness. That was a famous one—people still tell it in China, and the inn was a major tourist attraction.”

Cass said nothing.

“The effects will wear off.” Diana reassured her. “Though when, one can only guess. It depends on the people. It lasted one whole year for the crane-man.”

“And will the pictures-came-to-life disappear then?” Cass asked eagerly.

“It might.” Diana said. “That’s what’s happened to the cranes. But it might not.” She gestured to the paintings on the wall. There was a basket of kittens, a squirrel and a tree, and a killer whale. All three were video clips. The kittens even meowed, and the tree swayed in the breeze. The whale was chewing up a squid.

They went silent and watched Sasuke entertain the Faeries.
*****

Cass ordered the Faeries to stay at home when she went to school.

“We can’t.” Ophelia snapped. “As long as the paintbrushes still work, we had to stay close to you.”

So naturally, Cass told her mother that she was sick, and stayed at home. Then, when both Mr. and Mrs. Richardson had gone to work, she sneaked out and went to Diana’s house.

“Yes.” Diana told her. “My paintings don’t move unless I’m in this room.”

“What about Sasuke?” Cass asked, puzzled.

“You intended to give him to me while you were drawing him.” Diana explained. “Like the Chinese man’s cranes. They dance all the time, not just when he visited. So he will always be near me instead of you.”

Sasuke was bobbing up and down in his swamp, which was a lot deeper than it looked, Cass was told. Kappa swamps were always like that.

“You should paint.” Diana suggested, stirring her tea with a small wooden spoon. “Maybe your quota will run out?”

Cass thought that was worth a try. After all, what else could she do?
*****

Just because she was so bored, she didn’t draw a simple apple, like she was planning to. Instead, she painted a large tree with a Tree Sprite. Then she smacked herself in the head, groaning.

And indeed, the next morning, she found Ophelia and Sibyl conversing with a tree sprite in the backyard, where a tree mysteriously appeared overnight. The sprite had a tunic made of soft bark and leaves, tawny eyes, and dark brown hair braided stiffly. They had a nut-fireball-water balloon fight.
It was lucky that Cass’s parents almost never went into the backyard.
*****

“My mom will get suspicious.” Cass said, still not touching the tea. “What do I do? I can’t stay home forever!”

Diana shrugged. “Then tell her the truth.”

“She’ll go ballistic!”

“Maybe.” Diana said, shrugging, sipping the tea. She was turning more and more Japanese by the minute. “But you’ll be surprised how resilient humans are.”
*****

Diana was right, in a way.

Mrs. Richardson shrieked for two whole minutes when Sibyl came into the living room. She shrieked for another minute or so when Ophelia made her appearance. Then the tree sprite (whose name was Robin, by the way) sent her mind reeling so much she had to close her eyes and take a nap.

But when Cass started explaining, Mrs. Richardson was all ears.

“Well, that explains the mountains.” She said, after a few minutes of deep thought. “It was all over the news. Apparently it destroyed someone’s farm.”

Mildly surprised, Cass then explained her Faery predicament.
Her mother rubbed her palms together. “I’ll think of something to tell the school. Ooh, I haven’t felt so rebellious in decades!”
*****

Diana laughed. It was a rare sight. Diana and her mother both had the throw- the-head-back-and-crow-to-the-sky kind of laugh.

“Your mom told the school that you hit your head and fell into a coma?” She finally said, gasping. Cass nodded.

Diana sipped the tea, then coughed half of it out as another laugh seized her.
*****

Cass started having sudden, irresistible urges where she couldn’t help herself but paint. And it was like her hand had a mind of its own.

Within days, a new Wind Faery and two Meadow Elves had joined her parade.

“They’re going to drive me crazy.” Cass told Diana once, while the Elves frolicked on the bed and the Wind Faery Melanie—who was just as proud and vain as Ophelia—countered the Fire Faery’s fireballs with tiny tornados.

“Oh, they’re not too bad.” Diana said, chewing thoughtfully on a Kappa-made rice cake. “And I’m sure the Faeries and Elves had a lot of interesting powers.”

“Powers?”
*****

“Will you two stop fighting?!” Cass finally lost her cool when Ophelia destroyed her desk and Melanie’s winds incapacitated Patience the Elf. Robin repaired the desk quickly with her woody skills, and the unicorn (Cass was in a half-trance when she drew it) healed Patience (which Cass wasn’t sure she was happy about or not), but that helped nothing.

“Cassandra?”

Cassandra clapped her hands over her mouth. She forgot that her father was in the house but not in on her secret.

Footsteps coming up the stairs.

Cass was only starting to worry about how her Father will react when she saw all her magical friends rapidly fade into invisibility. That must be one of the powers Diana mentioned.

“Cassandra, who are you shouting to?” Mr. Richardson opened the door.

“Um, nobody.” Cass did some quick-thinking. “I—was practicing for a play audition coming up.”

He left. Everyone let out a sigh of relief.
*****

“If I return to paintbrushes to you,” Cass asked Diana, “will those Faeries and Elves and the sprite and the Unicorn flock around you instead?”

Diana shook her head. “It won’t work. And besides, you can’t return them.”

“Sure I can.” Cass said. “I know it’s rude, but it’s driving me insane. Just this morning I woke up and realized I was halfway through painting a mermaid. My hand won’t even stop when I tried. I was lucky that Sibyl can make ponds out of nothing.”

Diana shook her head again. “You can’t return it. Try.”

Cass handed the box of paintbrushes to Diana, who promptly placed it in her bottom drawer. Then she turned around, sat down cross-legged on the bed, and pointed at Cass’s book bag.

“Open it.” She commanded.

Cass did. And there they were.

“There’s magic involved in this whole affair.” Diana explained patiently. “I thought you would like it. I just didn’t realize you would draw such—” She ducked a fireball “—feisty things. Usually the paintbrushes respond to a person’s needs.”

“What?” Cass cried, throwing her hands into the air. “Are you saying that I need these things?” She gestured wildly at the unicorn Robert, then the mermaid—Claire—in the pond floating in midair (both of which were only as big as the Faeries, the Unicorn perhaps even smaller). Then she pointed at Patience and Constance (the other Elf), Robin, Melanie (who nearly loosed a hurricane at her), Ophelia (who did loose a flaming arrow at her), and finally Sibyl (who stopped the arrow in mid-path looking a little hurt).

Diana smiled and patted Sasuke. “Well, they got you out of school with your mother’s permission, didn’t they?”
*****

“What powers do you have?” Cass asked Sibyl one day.

Sibyl yawned. “Well, we have whatever powers you imagined for us while painting us, and whatever powers you desperately need. Like that invisibility.”

Cass sighed. “No, I meant specifically. What can you do?”

Sibyl thought about it. “I don’t know. I surprised myself that day I made the pond, too. It’s very interesting being in this world.”

Cass felt a pang in her heart. She’d only thought about how she wanted to happen when the paintbrushes stopped working. How would she feel if she knew that someday she would cease to exist, all because of a paintbrush? Or a case of paintbrushes?

“I hope you guys will stay.” Cass said, realizing that she really thought that. Even Ophelia was slowly becoming tolerable, and sometimes amused Diana and Cass by making flaming circles for the unicorn to jump through.
*****

Another painting seizure. Cass didn’t even need to think as her hands set to work, choosing the colors, dipping the paintbrushes and applying strokes onto the canvas. Slowly, a mermaid and a dolphin took shape.

This mermaid, unlike the other one, had very pale skin (as opposed to light blue), long golden hair (as opposed to green kelp-like braids), and mesmerizing color-changing eyes (as opposed to midnight blue).

The next morning, there were two mermaids and a dolphin in the pond. The new members introduced themselves as Kathleen and the Dolphin. Cass didn’t like Kathleen. She was haughty and cold, while Claire was friendly and giggly, like Sibyl. The dolphin, though, was cool.
*****

“I like your new centaur.” Diana commented. Kevin the centaur had a palomino body and dark amber eyes, and he was the same height as the unicorn. Diana’s bedroom was starting to get crowded, so they moved the picture-come-to- life people outside (Diana thought it would be all right within a half-mile radius as long as the window stays open, and she was right), all except Sasuke, the little waiter, and Ophelia and Melanie, who were often so involved in their magical battles that they forgot to turn invisible when pedestrians passed.

“I thought he was a bit too talkative.” Cass said. “I like the Shadow Spirits better. They sparkle in the sun.”

“Sparkling isn’t good for them.” Diana said, frowning. “It’s like skin disease for them. And sun is really bad for them.”

“Really?” Cass asked, suddenly concerned.

“Yes.” Diana sipped her tea. “But not too bad. Once they’ve melted into shadows, they can heal themselves. I suspect that they’re in ours right now.”

Cass turned around to see a little hooded head and a dark hand coming out of her shadow and waving at her. She sighed. Her shadows were being possessed. Should she be scared?

“Don’t be scared.” Diana told her. “They just like darkness.”
*****

“Draw a Sylvan Elf!” Constance said one day.

Cass frowned, puzzled. “What’s a Sylvan Elf?”

The Meadow Elves both gasped and Patience faked a faint, while Constance threw her hands in the air. “Sylvan Elves are heroes of the elves!”

“Really.” Cass said, one eyebrow raised.

Patience came out of her faint and grabbed the paintbrushes. “Sylvan Elves!”

Immediately, Cass hands moved without her consent. She scowled darkly.
*****

The Sylvan Elf, Ash, thought that his middle name ought to be Gallantry.

He had long wispy blonde hair, pale skin, pointed ears, and large, pale blue eyes. He wore the brown calfskin boots, a green tunic over black leggings, and a leopard-patterned cape. Cass’s hands gave him a long sword, a bow, and a quiver full of arrows, all three of which he liked to show off with, and nearly demolished Cass’s bed.

“No, your middle name ought to be Trouble.” Cass told him. “Look what you did to my room!”

Ash, looking very hurt, lower lip wobbling, went into a corner and had a little cry. Cass growled with exasperation. Elf Heroes.
*****

“Cassandra, what is this?”

Cass followed her father’s voice. There was a large package and a bunch of flowers on the living room coffee table.

Oh dear.

“It says Get Well Soon.” Her father said, pointing at the large, obviously hand made card. “With your name on it.”

Cass gulped. What could she do but tell her father?

But before she started, she saw Ophelia and Melanie briefly materialize behind her father’s head. Ophelia wiggled her fingers with a wicked grin on her face, while Melanie was muttering something under her breath.

Mr. Richardson’s face went blank for a minute, then returned to normal. He nodded knowingly, as if they shared some secret. “Oh yes, I see. Well, that makes perfect sense.”

Cass was a little scared of her Faeries.
*****

Ophelia wanted Cass to draw a wizard.

“Why?” Cass asked curiously.

Ophelia did not answer, but Diana (they were at Diana’s again) did. “Fire Faeries have this long-standing rivalry with Wizards, something about a wizard and a Fire Faery having a child that could both cast spells and start fires at will. Nearly destroyed half of Osaka.” She smiled at Sasuke when he conjured up some more sesame balls. “Each side was firmly convinced that it was the other side’s fault.”

“It was!” Ophelia actually stamped, which created a low thump even though there was nothing to step on. “No self respecting Fire Faery will ever mate with a wizard. She had to be forced!”

“She probably wanted to you to make her one so she can burn him to ashes.” Diana added.

“And since he’s magically created,” Ophelia said happily. “He’ll just keep coming back for more! How perfect is that?”
*****

Cass decided to paint the wizard. Her hands created a tall figure with a permanent scowl, a tangled brown beard, and angry brown eyes, wearing long, sweeping Midnight blue robes and a midnight blue, lopsidedly pointed hat.

The next morning, Cass woke up to find Melanie, Ophelia, and even Sibyl torturing the poor three-foot-tall wizard. Ophelia (beaming) burned him until he melted, but when she stopped he reformed, giving Melanie the chance to form a tornado under him, to spin him until he turned green, then Sibyl enveloped him in a large water bubble, until he was purple, eyes bulging, mouth gaping for air.

It looked like fun. Cass painted another one.
*****

December 21, 2011, Wednesday, 6:00

Cass woke up as her alarm clock beeped crazily. She felt oddly cold, and thought that the morning seemed a bit quiet.

She sat up in her bed and stretched, looking out the window.

Something about the scenery felt a little out of place.

She fell out of bed headfirst with a thunk when she realized what it was.
Her snow-capped mountains had disappeared.
“Oh no.” She whispered. “No, no, no, no, no.”
Her Faeries had disappeared, like the Chinese man’s cranes. She felt empty, thinking about how she’ll never watch Melanie and Ophelia battle again, or see Ash trip over his own sword, or any of the other things she had been doing.
Tap, tap, tap.
Cass looked up, and nearly fell face first again. Her little friends didn’t disappear. They only returned to their paintings. Ophelia was tapping her foot, but stopped when Cass gave her a look.
“What?” She asked, annoyed. “I’m not allowed to make a little noise?”
Cass sighed. She looked at the painting she made just last night, the second wizard. It wasn’t moving. But everything else was. Melanie’s hair was whipping in some imaginary wind. The Shadow Spirits hid in the shadow at the corner of the painting, but raised their head in greeting.
“I’m glad I didn’t disappear.” Sibyl said happily, splashing in her small waterfall. “Though this space is a bit small.”
Cass smiled with relief.
She reached out to look for the case of paintbrushes, but realized that it no longer sat on her desk.
Confused, she went to find Diana.
*****
Cass and Diana were seated on Diana’s bed again.
Diana had showed the very shocked Cass the case of paintbrushes, and said that they will always return to the rightful heir once their time is due and their services finished.
“I have one more question.” Cass said.
“Ask away.” Diana said, gazing at the painting where Sasuke was half-immersed in his swamp, blissfully sticky. “And while you’re asking, why don’t you have some tea? This is the last of Sasuke’s tea leaves.”
Cass, rather reluctantly, drank the tea. It tasted bitter, like she had expected. Then she set down her cup. “How did you know all those things about the Faeries and wizards and Shadow Spirits? Didn’t I invent them?”
Diana finished Cass’s tea, then wiped the cup. “No, you didn’t invent them. Faeries and wizards and Shadow Spirits had always existed. You were one of the few who knew what they looked like.” She smiled vaguely at Cass. “My father used to tell me all these stories about them. It seemed like he and his brother drew Faeries and Elves too.”
Cass thought about how she had thought her own imagination had conjured up the first Faery images, and shivered.
“But anyway.” Diana said. “You’ll have to go to school again.”
Cass groaned. After another fifteen minutes of talking on and off, Cass left and went home to set the painting of Ophelia directly opposite of the painting of the wizard, so they could spend the boring days ahead shouting each other down.

THE END