Green - Part 2 (Patreon)

It didn't make sense; she hadn't heard anyone at any point, hadn't run into anyone... How could someone have snuck up on her? She didn't even process what had been said, just spun around, eyes wide, to find... nothing. She frowned, turning right and left, still not seeing anyone there.

"Down here!" the voice returned, just when Brynn thought she'd imagined the whole thing. She jumped again, and glanced down, where, sure enough, she saw the source... A tiny man, wearing a green suit and hat. It was so ridiculous, she almost still thought she was making it up, that she was hallucinating, that she was asleep and dreaming this whole heist... She wasn't sure what, but there had to be something else, other than reality, going on.

Blinking didn't make him vanish, however, and pinching herself didn't make her wake up. He waited, impatiently, while she tried both, then said, "I'm really here, lassie... And none too pleased with you. What exactly do you think you're doing with my clovers?"

"Do you... own this place?" She hadn't seen anything that would indicate a little person lived here, although she wasn't really sure what to look for. Stepstools everywhere? As soon as she thought that, she realized how silly it was; she was very much on the short side herself, so she had a couple stepstools, but this man was far, far tinier than her, smaller than any human possibly could have been. "Wait, are you... a leprechaun?"

"Oh, cute and smart... What a combination," the little man teased. "Now, answer my question."

But the wheels in Brynn's head were still turning. As unlikely as it all seemed, he certainly looked a lot like a leprechaun, and he'd just appeared behind her, with no indication that he'd been there before, like magic... She looked at the bowl in her hands, turning it slowly, looking at all the clovers, and smiled. "Well, I get a wish, don't I?" she asked. "Isn't that how it works? And look at all these... I get one wish for each clover, right?"

The leprechaun stared at her disapprovingly. "Don't get too greedy now, lassie, I..."

"Oh, hush," she rolled her eyes. "I thought this whole trip was going to be a waste, but this could really come in handy... Do you have to follow me around, or will you just appear when I touch one of the clovers?" If it was the former, she'd just have to use all of them now, or at least before turning the bowl over... If it was the latter, she just wouldn't deliver it. She could break the bowl, separate all the clovers, keep on with her at all times, especially on jobs, as a little extra insurance that nothing could go wrong.

"How dare you speak to me that way?! Do you know who I am?! I am the king of..." the leprechaun informed her angrily.

"You aren't the kind of anything," Brynn told him, holding up the bowl. "You see this? I own you... I can use these to make you do whatever I want."

"Oh, lassie," the leprechaun shook his head. "You have a lot to learn... But, more importantly... What color are your panties?"

"What?!" Brynn blushed. "What are you, some kind of little pervert, you...?!"

"I bet they aren't green, are they?" the leprechaun winked, then leapt forward, giving Brynn's leg a pinch. It hurt quite a lot, even through her pants, but, more importantly, as soon as she felt it, she found herself unable to move. "Lesson number one, little lassie... Always wear green on St. Patrick's Day. Have you ever wondered how that little tradition started? Well, just like this... Without our clovers, we really don't have that many powers most of the year... On St. Patty's Day, though, if we catch anyone not wearing green, it's practically our duty to fix that... And I have the perfect outfit for a wee brat like you."

He snapped his fingers, and Brynn felt her clothes transforming, shifting and changing on her body, transforming from her thief's costume into something far different... Her mask vanished, her corset and pants turning into a shirt and shorts, both of which looked rather immature, more like something a little girl would wear, something that was only reinforced by her hair being pulled into a cutesy side ponytail.

"I'll take that," the leprechaun said, hopping high into the air as Brynn stood there, stunned, snatching the bowl. Before Brynn's eyes, the clovers glowed, then vanished, before the bowl itself fell to the floor, breaking, while the leprechaun hovered in the air in front of the girl. "Ahh, that's better," he grinned. "Now, I think somebody's up past their bedtime... And their Mommy and Daddy are already not going to be happy about you breaking their nice bowl."

In a flash of green light, the living room was gone, and Brynn was sitting on the edge of a bed covered in stuffed animals, a place that, at the moment, as much as she hated to admit it, she seemed to fit into quite well.