Chapter 76: Interlude Nine: Fiona - Bench-Pressing Marshmallows

Maria’s strong voice helped as the vibrations transferred through her chest to Fiona’s tiny body, somehow quelling her own shakes whenever the unicorn responded. Most of it was centered around her treatment, making Fiona’s lower lip tremble. It was challenging to keep her thankful emotions in check because she really wanted to cry.

Be strong! Don’t cry... Please, don’t make noise...

Maria was certainly a prisoner, just like her, but she seemed to be the boss of another influential gang that acted as an intermediary for a few criminal organizations. They handled a lot of courier business and were highly respected due to their loyalty and efficiency.

She was also affiliated with a much more influential organization called TNS, which dealt with international criminal networks. It seemed many of these smaller gangs feared a conflict between Terrell’s cartel group and TNS.

Her sharp ears picked up some mumbled conversations that indicated some members weren’t sure about their direction since someone named Relica showed up. Fiona didn’t want any part of this, though. If she could get some sugar to restore her power and her best friend, she’d be out of here in a second.

Careful with her hair and movements so she didn’t tickle or agitate Maria, Fiona got into a better position to release her tension and jitters. Her thoughts went back to how all of this happened, and she debated whether it had been a good idea to leave Ireland in the first place. She was falling into a darker place than she’d ever thought possible.

She’d graduated high school three years ago and was fairly popular in her small ocean town. Throughout her life, Fiona had been surrounded by the boys in their community and praised for her voice. Sure, some salty girls had talked smack, but she never paid them much mind, and they had generally only liked to hang around her to be near the more popular boys.

The attention was nice, although she never quite felt like she belonged. Everyone was so superficial; it was like they only wanted to get to know her so they could say they knew her. She was the star of her little town, yet Fiona couldn’t feel comfortable around them.

So, she did the minimum, was nice to people, and mainly focused on her Gaelic studies and online courses. Everyone said she was so mature and ahead of the curve, but they weren’t really seeing her; they all saw an ethereal picture they’d plastered over her face. It didn’t take Fiona long to realize she wouldn’t be satisfied with the few opportunities and limited circles of people there.

That being said, it wasn’t the thing that tugged on her mind. Sure, all of that was meh, and she didn’t like it; still, there was something just not right about how she was living, but she could never place a finger on exactly what that was. So, she left as soon as she could to discover what it was she was missing.

Now, she wondered if she’d made a terrible mistake in her life choices. Had her life felt off? Yes. But at least she had her family, her sister, who looked up to her—the last thing she wanted was to disappoint her. Had she by leaving? She’d gone home ten days ago for the first time in two years, and a lot had changed. Maybe she didn’t have enough time to process it, though.

Due to some channel problems involving unjustified copyright strikes from her bitter online rival and another Gaelic-instructing influencer channel, she’d had to cut her first home visit in nearly three years short; her income was at risk. Not ten minutes after returning to her small condo, she’d shrunk to the size of an egg. She wanted to break down at the thought.

An egg... I can fit in an egg; I’m smaller than a chick! My life sucks...

In a way, maybe this was her punishment for leaving her little sister when she was struggling a bit to keep friends. Something was up with Nora; they’d been so close growing up, and she didn’t know how much she missed her little sister until she went home for a few days.

Nora didn’t show it, but Fiona knew something was wrong, and her little sister had grown up so much in just three years. She’d been so focused on her own grind that the photos and videos she sent were all a blur. Her little sister was even the one who pushed her to try V-tubing during her junior year since she’d been watching a few influencers online.

Fiona started her channel in middle school and already had 35,000 subscribers by high school for Gaelic language lessons and singing covers in their native, dying language. It was her first language, and she’d become passionate about reviving interest in it. So being a V-tuber sounded like a good opportunity to reach a new audience.

Nora was the expert, so they worked together to make this fairy avatar, since Fiona already had a bright, cheery persona that fit the image. If that wasn’t enough, her sister had gotten her in contact with someone to make it a reality by asking for advice from an upcoming V-tuber in the industry she admired.

Their parents supported the project and helped to buy some basic equipment, and six months into her junior year, her channel blew up to 450,000 subscribers with 5,000 average stream viewers. Money started rolling in with sponsorship opportunities.

She was a family-friendly educational streamer, pulling in a young audience that kept growing by the month. Her demographic was mostly teens, but it soon mixed with parents who wanted their kids to hear her mix of language lessons with gaming, pop culture, and popular song covers.

During her senior year, unsure how to handle her growing fame, she reached out to an old neighbor who had gone to TC University for law and business. Since that time, Erika had become one of her closest friends. She’d prevented a lot of Ireland and UK labels from taking advantage of her in their predatory contracts.

As her agent, Erika took on a more prominent role and taught her how to run a business. A few months out of high school, she had enough saved up to move out of her small town and get into the bigger world. She’d put up a poll to her community on which general country she should go to, and the United States won out—her audience was big there.

Miami became her choice because she wanted to be close enough to fly back to Ireland, be somewhere hot (unlike her hometown), and be near the ocean. A new condo in her price range opened up at the perfect time in the prime location of Miami Beach. It was a dream come true, and citizenship wasn’t that difficult, given her age and Erika’s help with the legal stuff.

Now, all she wanted was to make sure Erika and her family were okay. She needed to get back to Ireland. Fiona didn’t know if that was possible since the two female assassins were on their way.

She wanted to bite her nails; oddly, it seemed to be taking forever for the two women and the panther man to come. Attempting to put her negative emotions behind her with Maria’s helpful aura, Fiona internally hyped herself up. It wasn’t like everything was terrible.

Okay! Gotta keep moving forward. Keep on track, Fiona! Live with no regrets; that’s the motto! Be grateful. You’re not alone anymore. Maria healed you. You’re not in pain anymore. If you’re enough lucky to be Irish, you’re lucky enough, as Dad says! Ugh... My stomach, though...

She rubbed her very thin belly as it rumbled.

No! Always shoot your shot! Bright side of the rainbow, Fiona! I have an excuse to be a sugar addict now, and I can practically live in a gingerbread house. Hehe. I just need to survive this. Think! Positives and negatives. Let’s see...

She scanned her thin and small frame; she and Erika had managed to get some Barbie clothes that mostly fit her.

Pros:

I’m elegant and pretty. That’s a blessing not to take for granted.

It’s cool that my hair, fingernails, and eyes change color with whatever enchantment I use. No need to dye my hair. Chat was going crazy about that... Oh-no. My face reveal seriously happened when I transformed into a real fairy. Hehe. Well, that’s unique, I guess. I don’t need the avatar anymore. That’s a plus.

I can hum and grant people elemental powers, which is...something.

If I’m not sugar-drained, I can fly... That’s fun.

Huh. Is that the end of my awesomeness? I suppose you gotta take the small potato with the big potato.

Cons:

I’m bleeding 7 centimeters tall.

I can’t bench-press marshmallows on a toothpick, for darn sake! And I can’t believe Erika would laugh at me struggling, at that... No, she would. She’s a fox beastkin, for St. Patrick’s sake. Crafty vixen... Please, be okay.

Oh, bugs... Flip-smackin’ bugs. How can I forget that I almost died to a spider just after changing? Can’t forget that traumatic experience—

She stiffened and looked up as she was jostled a little bit, seeing Maria’s index finger tug on her top a bit.

Sorry! Sorry! I’ll stop fidgeting.

Cons...cons... I can’t enchant myself. I’m practically a buff-bot.

I’ll probably die if I don’t get enough sugar... But I am rather fond of my sweets, so is that a con?

///SMENote///

How about a Power Stone Goal?

Every 200 Power Stones this week = +1 Extra Chapter

We could have the normal 2 Daily Chapters... Or +2 Extra Chapters Every Day. The power is in your hands! Or should I say Stones?