The Faerie hourglass
"You seriously bought this thing," Willa said to her husband, "It's a worthless piece of junk."
Willa slammed the hourglass onto the table, making the hyena roll his eyes. She didn't break it, thankfully, but in his eyes, that thing wasn't as worthless as she made it out to be. Even the polar bear next to him, Zeke, agreed with the hyena.
The hourglass sure looked like an antique, almost like it was designed during the renaissance or maybe antiquity. The bulbs were round, bottlenecking in the middle as with all hourglasses. What may have thrown Willa off initially were the obviously wooden tops and the cages, but that wasn't what he and Zeke saw was the sand.
Unlike other hourglasses, which used fine sand, this looked to be pure gold. It even glinted a bit in the light as Willa slammed it onto the table. As they begun to sink through the centre of the hourglass, they glinted even more as they fell. Both he and Zeke thought that it might have been pure gold and not just painted sand grains. It even weighed a little more.
The much larger polar bear opened his mouth to speak, but Willa interrupted him.
"Don't try saying it's pure gold. How the hell can that sand be pure gold dust? I've never seen an hourglass with gold dust in it!"
"That pendant," Zeke finally grunted.
"That wasn't functional. Just....ugh," Willa responded, grabbing her forehead with her face, "Sorry."
She then walked off, hyenid claws clacking on their wooden floor. Zeke then looked down at the other hyena, who seemed to take this all in stride.
"Time of the month I bet?" Zeke asked the hyena, "How do you deal with that, Alex?"
The Hyena named Alex simply rolled his eyes again. Willa was prone to these kinds of emotional outbursts, followed by simply calming down a bit and then coming back to apologize a couple hours later. It was like clockwork, Alex could almost time it properly, and his eyes looked towards said hourglass.
As both Zeke and Alex were told, the hourglass was for one hour exactly. The much taller polar bear didn't seem to notice this, but Alex's eyes were on the bottom. Right now, the gold dust appeared to have filled up less than one quarter of the bottom bulb - 35 minutes, just about always.
The minutes passed in awkward silence, 10 minutes. 15 minutes. Zeke still looked at this, wondering why on earth Alex was watching it so much. Maybe it was because of the shiny gold dust, or maybe it was because of something else.
Zeke jumped a bit when the door to the shop opened, ringing the bell Alex didn't even seem to notice it. Before the person can even say anything, Alex held up a pawed finger.
"What?" A feminine voice asked.
"Wait for it," Alex responded.
The three stared in silence for two minutes before someone else walked in.
"Alex, I'm sorry," Willa said as she walked in, "I thought because you paid so much for that and there was no way to tell if that was actually gold-"
"That's alright," Alex said, looking up. Twenty seven minutes and fourty two seconds. It was a bit off, but maybe it was because he didn't immediately count down.
The spotted hyena then smiled and walked over to Willa the blue hyena, "You gave me an excuse to measure how well this thing keeps track of time in the first place."
"Oh you did?" Willa said, as she and Alex walked off to talk in private.
After the couple walked off, Zeke then looked up at who entered, thinking there might have been a customer. But it was only another one of their employees, Lindsay.
"What was that all about?" She asked.
"Just Alex and Willa doing it again," Zeke responded to the orange vixen, "They got in a fight over this."
"Really, this?" Lindsay asked, looking at what Zeke gestured to.
"Yep. An hourglass."
"An hourglass.... Willa has such a temper," Lindsay responded.
The blue furred hyena put that hourglass up on the shelf with the other valuables. Maybe it wasn't worth as much as her husband paid for it, but maybe they could at least get something for it. For some reason, it seemed to be getting Zeke and Lindsay's attention whenever it was there. Even more than her blue coloured fur.
Right now, a customer at their pawnshop was busy looking over at Willa's fur. She almost wanted to point out the irony, since the customer happened to be a very interestingly coloured horse, with a horn poking out of his forehead. Must have been that bit.
"Can I help you at all, sir?" She asked the unicorn.
The equine then jumped a bit, surprised.
"Yes, uh...can you do appraisals?" He asked the hyena.
"Yep, Zeke here used to be a jeweler," she gestured to the polar bear behind the counter, "He might be able to help."
This caught Zeke's attention as the unicorn walked over to the counter.
"You don't suppose I can, uhm, drop this locket off with you, can I?" the equine said, putting a locket down on the counter.
Zeke picked up the locket and examined it. It definitely looked a bit like gold, but it could have been imitation gold. The locket itself seemed to be rather circular shaped, and likely with a picture of a loved one inside. If he was going to pawn this off, he was probably going to ask that it be taken off.
"Yeah, I can," Zeke, responded.
"Thanks, should I come by to pick it up tomorrow?"
Zeke was just about to say that if he were to drop it off to get it appraised, it'd have to be picked up the next day. Great, another appraising job, not that he minded this at all.
"Thank you," The equine said, "Do I owe you anything right now?"
"Just a couple bucks," He said.
"Thank you," The equine said, putting down the payment.
Later that night, Alex and Willa had another fight. This time, Zeke at least had Lindsay with him, but it still was weird. He wanted to just facepaw himself whenever they fought, especially over such trivial things.
Although it wasn't polite to listen at all, he could overhear something about money issues, especially since they had taken stuff like that hourglass for too much, and nobody was talking about it all. Pawnshops may not have had a big profit margin, but they were making enough to at least keep food on their tables and roofs over their heads.
Lindsay set off first like she always did, then Alex and Willa did. Leaving Zeke to close up the shop by himself. Oh well, he could have done some appraisals by himself, namely that locket. The polar bear liked having alone time anyways.
After locking the door, so nobody else could walk in and ask if they were open. Then he got to look at that locket. Zeke spent a couple minutes working on the locket, before he thought he heard something. It sounded a little like something was moving. Thinking nothing of it, he got back to looking at it to see what it might have been made of.
He heard it again. Then after a couple minutes, more and more moving. He could have sworn that hourglass that was put on a shelf earlier was moving. Zeke stared at it and noticed that the sand was flowing down - strange, it was on the bottom bulb before.
A couple minutes later, Zeke heard a small tapping noise again and then stood up. He looked over at that hourglass - strange, why on earth would that happen there? The polar bear then picked up the hourglass and held it in his paws, looking at it. Why was it moving?
Unfortunately, it slipped right out of his hands and fell right to the ground, bulbs shattering and sending the gold dust onto the ground, wood cracking. Oops. He opened his mouth wide, thinking nothing but "oh shit, I broke it." They weren't going to be happy at this at all, there wasn't really any way he could get out of it.
Zeke then went back to the counter and sat down. What on earth could he have done to tell the hyenas and Lindsay? That he broke something that they paid a lot of money for? That there was gold dust all over the floor now? He was screwed.
But then suddenly, he thought he saw a couple sparkles. Zeke looked over at where it was, and there was nothing. Soon, he saw something land on his nose, and he looked crosseyed at it. And then he gasped.
On Zeke's muzzle was something that could only be described as a strange creature with wings that looked a bit like a mixture of a fly's and a butterfly's, and dressed in some kind of strange gold sparkly dress, almost like a small child's doll of some kind.
"You broke the hourglass," The thing giggled, poking his muzzle, "you should be more careful, butterfingers."
Zeke tried to say something but he couldn't respond.
"Heehee, nobody is able to find their voice to a faerie," The creature giggled again, floating off his muzzle and then going to the centre of the room, "Boy, what a mess."
Finally, Zeke found his voice and spoke back to the faerie.
"Who are you? What are you? How'd you get in here? What're you doing here? And why did you only show up now?"
"Awwww twenty questions?" The faerie responded, "Well, the hourglass used to be my home. It was a gateway to the world of Faerie but now you broke it, butterfingers. I'm not quite fond of that you know." She floated up to him and waved a small finger in his face.
"But I didn't know, it was moving," He responded.
"Well of course it was, I was trying to get out," The faerie responded, looking over at the ruins of the hourglass.
"Say, I got an idea," the faerie said, "I couldn't help but overhear those weird animals talking - you know, hyenas?"
"Yes, Alex and Willa?" Zeke asked.
"Well, they seem to have been so nice to you, even though the blue hyena fights a lot," The faerie said, "Why don't I help you guys out a bit? I am a faerie after all, I can help solve your money problems."
Zeke seemed a bit skeptical. How on earth could this faerie have solved their money problems? Unicorns and other magicians couldn't even do it.
"I can make this business worth a lot," The faerie said, "what do you say?"
Zeke was speechless, as she floated in front of him, hands on her hips, and with a strange smile on her face. He couldn't exactly make it out, but it was a shit-eating grin.
"Well I'd love to see you try," he said.
"Perfect," The faerie said, "The first thing we need to do is to make stuff a bit more priceless around here."
With that, the Faerie seemed to wave her hands around and started to fly around the shop, sprinkling gold dust over things. Zeke seemed a bit skeptical over this, but when he looked over some of these things, he gasped. Several of the random nick nacks hey kept around the shop appeared to be repaired, some even becoming more and more valuable looking.
He could see some obvious imitations they fell for becoming real, and looking almost too good to be true, as well. Several other items begun to look more and more ornate, even a fake flamberge egg appeared to turn real.
The faerie didn't stop there. She sprinkled her dust all around the room, even in the back. Zeke followed her, and gasped at what she was doing. What used to be empty storage rooms were filling up with what looked to be priceless artifacts. Even a fake mirror that they had turned into a more ornate looking one, crack even repairing itself in front of his very eyes.
"My god," Zeke said, looking around, "You sure are thorough, you weren't kidding."
The faerie then floated in front of his muzzle, smiling.
"I told you so," She said, "When they realize how much stuff you have here, people should give you enough to retire."
"I'll say," The polar bear responded.
"Now, it's your turn," She said, holding up a hand and blowing into it, gold dust flying in his face.
Before he could respond, Zeke begun to cough, shutting his eyes and hacking. The dust seemed to get everywhere! Up his nose and into his lungs.
"What did you do that for?" He asked in between coughs.
"I'm just making you mine," The faerie giggled, "Or well, ours. You broke our hourglass, you have to replace it somehow."
"What?!" He asked, coughing still, body feeling a bit tingly, "What do you intend to do?"
"Freeze," The faerie said, as suddenly Zeke felt all movement leave his body. He tried to struggle to move, but he couldn't find it. He even felt his lungs stuck! He couldn't breathe! Even his heart was paralyzed! How wasn't he dying?
"Hmm, what to do with you," the faerie said, floating around, "First I need to get rid of these ugly clothes." Zeke felt his clothes vanish, air feeling a bit cool, but he had thick white fur and his own blubber. He almost felt a bit embarrassed, being completely nude in front of a faerie.
"You have a nice belly," She said, giggling, "Well you are a bear, after all. Oh! I know! You shall act as the anchor point for faeries to enter this world, like the hourglass. You just need to be worth something, lessee..."
She flew around him a bit, before snapping her fingers.
"I got it," She said, "You will accept whatever I do to you, correct?"
"Yes I will," Zeke found himself responding in a monotone voice.
Why did he say that?
"Good," She said, stroking his muzzle, "I think maybe...I know! Perfect. You do not mind either way. Sleep now, you will not awaken until I tell you."
The room suddenly faded completely, as Zeke fell into unconsciousness.
Zeke couldn't tell exactly what was going on. It was almost like he was in stasis, a pure black void...nothing. He couldn't even think too clearly. Maybe that faerie really was a dream. Maybe sooner or later he'd wake up to his alarm going off, finding that it was all a dream.
Hopefully, hopefully. He tried to will himself to wake up. Nothing seemed to be happening. No matter how hard he was mentally pushing against this cage, it seemed firm. It wouldn't even shake. Zeke could almost imagine himself banging very hard against the cage walls, harder, harder.
Nothing. Not even a crack. He almost wanted to go berserk now. Anything to get out! That faerie was not doing weird stuff to him. He had to do it, he could get out.
But suddenly, he heard something that was like an alarm, and he found himself jolting to consciousness.
When Zeke awoke, he found himself standing somehow. Inside the shop. How did he get here? Never mind that. His vision wasn't clear yet...but then the light turned on. Oh crap. The store was just like when the faerie was doing stuff to it. He could see his muzzle in his normal void, but it looked rather funny.
"Well how are you feeling, Zeke?" A voice said, faerie appearing in his sight and sitting on his muzzle.
Zeke tried to respond, but he couldn't. He couldn't move his lips. Zeke trie to struggle against this, but he felt completely paralyzed.
"Oh yeah, I forgot," the faerie said, "Statues can't move, after all. Or talk. Heck, you don't even have a mouth."
Zeke wanted more than ever to see what this faerie had done to him now. Uh oh.
Soon, he found his entire body being moved, rotated. All of it at once, he was stuck standing, and then forced to look at the mirror. When he saw his reflection, he wanted to scream.
But he couldn't. The faerie was right; he didn't even have lips detailed on his muzzle anymore. He appeared to be completely petrified...yet not just into grey stone. Ornamental stone. His body seemed white, with a black tip for his nose and claws. His formerly brown eyes now looked to be pure crystal.
Zeke wanted to gasp, but he couldn't move. He was stuck standing, both legs on the ground, hands stuck in a position, as if he was greeting someone or holding a door open. He could have literally been a doorstop. But across his chest, and in his groin were a couple golden plates, as if censoring certain details. Other than the strange gold plates, he was a complete flawless statue of himself!
"Good," the Faerie said, appearing on his muzzle, "You should like it. Heck, if I wanted to, I can make you think like a statue too." She tapped on his onyx nose and suddenly, everything seemed to blur...Zeke could find it hard to focus, only thinking about stone and being admired...before he could feel another tap on his nose.
"Don't like that I see," she said, everything came back into clarity, "Thank you for volunteering your business to be the new portal to this world. With this amount of Faerie magic, in a thousand or so years you'll even get to become a Faerie, isn't that great?"
Zeke couldn't respond.
"Well, shame I can't turn you back anyways, and before you think, no mortal will know you're alive," She poked his nose again, and he could even feel it, "It's permanent, they'll only see a bunch of dumb opal and onyx. Don't worry, you'll enjoy it, and everyone else will. Your business is worth a lot, but it'll grow more by the morning," She said.
Zeke wanted to do anything to get out of this predicament, but he couldn't find it in him to move. Heck, he almost had no will to move.
"Well, enjoy being a statue," She said, rubbing his nose again, "I should ask my sisters to enter through you. Oh, it's not as bad as you think; they'll just appear in front of you, you're an anchor to the faerie world. Isn't it neat?"
Zeke wasn't thinking so.
"Now, I have some more things to make valuable. Stick around, why don't you?"
Not that Zeke had a choice, as the faerie vanished.
The next morning, the two hyenas walked to the shop. However, they had this strange feeling...something didn't feel right. As Alex unlocked the shop, Willa looked in the windows, and gasped.
"Alex! Look at this!" She almost barked.
Alex then looked over at where Willa was looking and gasped. It looked almost like they walked into a completely different shop. Yet the address was the same, the key even worked, and then Alex walked right on into the shop, with Willa in tow.
Neither of them could believe their eyes. There were so many more valuables inside the pawnshop...whom did this? Both of their tails were wagging as they walked around, Alex walking to the back while Willa looked at everything in the front.
However, when he walked in, he saw something that looked rather unusual. The first thing he noticed was that the lights appeared to already be on. That's strange; did Zeke leave them on last night?
But the second thing was that there was a strange statue inside the room, looking at a mirror. Alex then walked up to the statue to look at it. He almost gasped - it was surprisingly shiny. Almost like it was made out of tumbled stone. Alex rubbed his paw over it, feeling how smooth it was.
The second thing that seemed rather unusual about the statue was that it seemed realistic a bit, like it was of Zeke. But it didn't look like him too much...although Alex did look at it, finding that a lot of details were included. Strange indeed.
"Hey Willa, come look at this," Alex said as he turned around. However, the door appeared to be closed - and Alex came face to face with a strange creature. Zeke could see it in the mirror's reflection, the faerie was right in front of the hyena.
"Hello there," She giggled, "Like what I did to your business? It's worth a lot more, now."
Alex tried to speak, but couldn't find his voice.
"Heh, cat got your tongue? Well you won't need to speak anymore," The faerie said, tapping Alex's nose. Suddenly, he felt a strange chill spread across his body as it seemed to go stiff. He didn't know it, but Zeke was watching in horror at seeing what parts he could in the mirror.
Alex tried very hard to struggle against it, suddenly feeling heavier and heavier. He couldn't even shiver, before finally a bit of movement was allowed to him, causing him to fall onto the ground. For some strange reason, he heard a loud banging noise, that sounded almost metallic. Alex swore he could have seen his own breath.
"Wh-what's happening," He shivered, feeling heavier and heavier.
The door then opened, showing the blue hyena.
"What's going on in he-" She was interrupted by a gasp. Not only at seeing a white stone statue but also her husband.
"Alex! What's happening?" She gasped, looking down at him.
"I-I don't know," Alex mumbled, before suddenly feeling himself standing up of his own will, "Wi-Willa! He-help me!" He said, suddenly feeling his eyes freeze open Willa watched in horror as Alex appeared to turn completely gold and metallic, yet flawlessly polished. His eyes opened and froze, glazing over entirely and watching them turn into green emeralds, rest of his body turning metallic and gold. The hyena didn't respond anymore until he froze, standing in place.
"Alex? Alex what happened?!" Willa asked, running over to the hyena and tapping on his nose, only to hear a small clanging noise.
"Like it?" A voice said.
Willa looked over to this voice, seeing the faerie. She started to growl.
"You did this, turn him back right now, what can I do with a golden statue for a husband? And is that Zeke right there?" She pointed at the polar bear statue.
"Nope," The faerie said, "You're part of this business too, you know what that means.
Willa's eyes widened, as she sprinted for the door. Before she could get out, it closed and she ran right into it.
"You're part of this business too," She said, "The polar bear said he wanted it to be worth more. Now it's your turn."
Willa tried to open the door more and more, as the faerie flew closer and closer to her.
A couple hours later, more faeries had appeared in front of Zeke, some perching on his muzzle. The entire back room had faeries flying all over, almost like some kind of faerie party.
"Pretty perch," One of the new faeries said, watching more appear in front of Zeke. He must have made a better portal than that hourglass did.
"I like this crystal hyena. I didn't know mortals made these in blue," Another faerie said, perched on Willa's muzzle, turned to blue sapphire.
"Thanks," The original faerie in the golden dress said, "Imagine what the others would think...or even those mortals when they see this."
"So, this one's becoming a faerie in a thousand or so years?" Another faerie said, hanging out on Zeke.
"Well with as much magic I used, of course," The golden-dressed faerie said.
They were all interrupted by a bell ringing. Several of the faeries flew over to the door and found a strange sight.
"You were standing out here the whole time, and nobody was there?" they heard a vixen's voice say, as she walked into the store.
"I almost wondered if I had the wrong address," the unicorn from yesterday said, "Nobody was in here, and this looks nothing like it was yesterday."
"How do you me-" The vixen then spotted what the faeries had done to the shop, but not the three employees.
One of the faeries then looked over at her comrades.
"Whaddya think, two more then we can have more fun?"
Several of the faeries giggled, as the two anthros walked into the changed store...