Luck of the Irish - Part Three (Completed)

After many years, here is the conclusion to my Leprechaun opus that was commissioned of me, even years before that. Because of the delay, this is actually double the length of the commissioned chapter, and I think it's a satisfying conclusion to the story. This is not exclusive to the Patreon, some more stories will becoming later in the month for that. I hope you all enjoy and without further ado...

-o-

Luck of the Irish - Part Three
Lucky Lucy and the Forest of Luck
A Commission by Hugo Prosperio

The Forest of Luck loomed in the distance, the trees arching high into the clear blue sky like arms swooping towards Lucy Tunstall, trying to snatch her up. She had been transformed into a Leprechaun like creature by a vengeful old woman who turned out to be a leprechaun herself, and now she was marching into an enchanted forest to try and save herself and her two friends who had also been wrapped up in this strange tale. She shook her head as she was followed by a male leprechaun named Shaun, who was chuckling to himself.

“Well, you have a bit more tenacity than I would have expected given the circumstances. That kind of fire will serve you well as a wee lass of the leprechaun type.” he mused.

“Not if I have anything to say about it.” she said with a snarl. “What is the first thing I need to do in this god-forsaken place?”

“Well there are ingredients to a potion that can cure you. They are all in the forest. Then you must find a pot of gold to finish your quest” He said. “The first ingredient is just ahead, if I am not mistaken.” he said as he pointed.

“Let’s get it over with.” she said. “You coming?”

“I am not permitted to assist, but I’ll be waiting at the end to see how you do.” he added with a smirk.

She sighed and began her trek into the forest, watching as the leprechaun she had been conversing with disappeared with a puff of green smoke. She resolved to get this over with and walked into the forest, thinking her quest would be full of peril and mystery, seeking hidden things, but when she came a brief clearing, she saw a sign that read “First Ingredient Here” that pointed to a small bottle on a table.

She walked over and picked the bottle up and looked at it’s contents, of which there were none.

“It’s Empty? Oh come on.” she muttered.

“Well, you need to fill it up” came a deep thunderous voice. “It is is supposed to contain nothing but the most pure delicious fear.”

A figure made of shadow and mist began to pour into the clearing, the only thing even remotly human about it was a pair of eyes that were staring out of it. It then started to become more solid as it approached her. Before her, the mist turned into her...as a human. A beautiful woman who was not a shortstack magical creature, and it was infuriating.

“What is the meaning of this?”

“Showing you what you lost.” the figure said as it shrank into a more accurate representation of her now. “And what you will never have again. You know you won’t win this quest.”

“I can damn well try.” she said, struggling not to be upset.

The figure shifted again, this time to that of her friends, splitting into two distinct giggling leprechauns, one fat, one a child. “They too will be trapped here forever, and it is all your fault.” hissed the voice.

“Stop it! How is this supposed to help.”

“You are afraid of losing everything you know. Your life, your friends, being trapped in this place, are you not?” she said.

“Yes.” Lucy admitted.

As she said the word yes, a black smoke poured from her mouth, which made her gag. It began to pour itself into the bottle.

The mist clapped. “Well, that was successful.”

It reformed, this time into a somewhat chubby looking man with a bowler hat and a waistcoat that was brown and red, atop high waisted slacks.

“Bobby Boggart, at your service. I show people what they be most afraid of. I was enlisted to help get that fear out of ya. Now you know what you stand to lose.” he said. “I’m to accompany you onto the next challenge, it’s a whopper.” he said.

“You asshole.” she shouted.

“Now, dearie, it’s nothing personal. I am just a boggart looking to make a buck, and they offered me this prime gig, and it benefits you. Not only did you fill the bottle with the needed ingredient, now you know that you are afraid, but it doesn’t define you. It hasn’t made you want to give up, has it?” the creature asked.

She looked at him and nodded. “I want to finish it more than ever.”

“Fear of fear itself is wise. Keep that up. Anywho, we should be getting on our way if you want to make the potion before you are stuck this way forever.”

The two of them began to venture deeper into the forest, where it was getting darker and thicker.

“Never met a former human before My grandfather told me stories of him frightening them from inside their closets, but I never thought I’d get to meet one.”

“Well, if I make it back to my original body, you can try to scare me then, how about that?” she said.

“Oh, don’t tempt me, missy.”

Ahead was a sign that pointed to the left, and read “The Banshee’s Lair”

“That’s...not ominous or anything.” Lucy said with a sigh.

“Banshees. Nasty things. Really tough. This isn’t going to be an easy one, depending on what you need to do.” Bob said.

Passing through some trees, they found another clearing with a small stone table in the middle with another bottle. A note beside it read. “Tears of the creature be required to secure your future”

“That doesn’t really rhyme as well as the person who wrote it thinks it does.” Bob said, when suddenly a terrible wave of chills washed over both of them.

“What seek ye in my domain?!” said a harsh raspy voice, like it was filled with shards of glass, and speaking was pure agony.
“I am here to become human again.” Lucy said. “And to save my friends.”

A tall hooded figure appeared before them, appearing out of the trees. A thin, gaunt looking face was visible from within the hood, and she moved, almost like a snake, over to the two. “A leprechaun and a silly boggart. I will make easy work of you two.” she hissed with a chuckle that was guttural and horrid to listen to.  

She opened her mouth, which widened to an impossible degree, sharp teeth filling the endless void in a menacing way. From inside the dark void came a horrific sound, both quiet and loud at the same time, as if it could only be heard by the two creatures before her. \

“BOW BEFORE MY MIGHT. TREMBLE AT THE SOUND OF MY VOICE!” she shrieked.

Lucy wasn’t frightened, but her ears were rattling. She knew that much more of it would be very harmful to her, possibly deadly. She looked towards her new traveling partner.

“WHAT DO I DO?” said Lucy. “SHE’S TOO LOUD.”

“YOU HAVE TO GET HER TEARS?” Bob replied.

“HOW DO I DO THAT?” she screamed back.

He merely shrugged as he covered his ears. Lucy thought for a moment and felt the wind from the scream pouring across her face. She then got an idea.

“YEESH. YOU EVER HEAR OF A BREATH MINT?!”

The Banshee turned and looked at the girl leprechaun, and stopped her screaming.

“What was that, girl?” she snarled. “You dare speak ill of my horrific scream?”

“Well, I mean a Tic-Tac would at least make it a better experience.” she said with a smirk. “Your breath would scare someone away before the scream even left your lips!”

“Hey!” she said, hands on her cloaked hips. “What are you trying to say?”

“And this look? The whole death and destruction look is so not in anymore. You look like you got dressed at a lame Halloween store.”

“I...What?” the Banshee said.

“You look like a kid playing dressup to try and scare her friends. Impressive...if the target is five year olds.”
The figure inside the cloak began to shrink. It looked less skinny as it did this, looking more like a normal human body than the stretched out corpse it had been before. The hood slid back and a young teenage girl with long black hair and dark circles around her eyes looked back at the Leprechaun.

“You wee folk are so cruel.” she snapped before suddenly beginning to sob. “I just want to be a good Banshee like my mother. Is that too much to ask?”

Bob looked at Lucy with a shocked expression. “You...you got her to cry.”

“Exactly” Lucy said. “I got into this mess by insulting someone, so I have my fair share of practice at it.” she said grabbing the bottle.

“I am sorry, miss.” Lucy said. “I didn’t actually mean it. I am trying to become human again, and the next ingredient in the potion I need is the tears of a Banshee.”

The Banshee looked at her, with the tears on her cheek. “You tricked me?” she asked softly.

“I did what I had to. I think you are a very loud Banshee. I am not sure if that’s all that’s required, but it’s very good.” Lucy said, which caused a smile to crack on the face of the young girl. She took the bottle and placed the open end on her cheek as the tears rolled down. She filled about half the bottle with but a few tears and handed it back to the leprechaun girl.

“Well, I don’t think that was very nice of you, but I suppose that’s how it goes.” the Banshee stated as she straightened up and started stretching taller.

“Wait. I think the real you is much better. I bet you can even been scarier that way.” Lucy exclaimed.

The stretching ceased, and the girl looked down at the red headed lass at her feet. “You think so?”

“Yeah! Go scream their ears off!” she said. The Banshee smiled, sharp teeth flashing, before vanishing back into the trees.

“How on earth…” Bob muttered.

“It was a guess. She didn’t seem all that scary beside her deadly voice. I assumed she was in practice, and wouldn’t be hard to take down to size. I suppose that’s the old me talking, but it came in useful, didn’t it?”

“I guess so.” the Bogart said.

A new path appeared before them that was much shorter than the previous paths. “Almost there.” said a sign as the two moved forward.

“Only one task left, but I am told it’s very hard to pass.” Bob said.

“I’ll be the judge of that.” she said.

Eventually they came across what looked like the ruins of an old temple.

“I cannot enter. You are to be alone for this task.” Bob said.

“What? You said you were to help...You’ve been no help at all.” she said.

“I do not think so.” he said as he smiled. “I’ve had kept you safe. People who travel with Bogarts are left alone by other spirits. The woods were crawling with them, and now you are here. I bid you a fond farewell, Lucy. It was lovely to meet you.” he added, tipping his bowler hat and vanishing into the air.

“Nice to meet you too, Bob.” she said softly, looking behind her, seeing many eyes blinking in the trees. She knew that he had indeed kept their watchful gaze to a minimum on her journey, and she sighed. She stepped into the temple, and inside, she saw Shannon, the leprechaun responsible for her transformation, standing in front of a large table. On the table were two goblets.

“Come, child.” she said.

“Shannon?” asked Lucy.

“Sort of. I am the guardian of the temple, and my form is not to be seen by beings such as yourself. I have chosen a form you would be able to handle. As she set you on this quest, I felt it was right.”

She welcomed Lucy up stone steps towards the table.

“This task is simple, I will show you a vision. In that vision you will be given a choice. What you choose will decide what comes next.” she said.

“I am ready.” Lucy said. “I want to go home.”

“I am sure you do. Close your eyes, child.” The guardian said with a soft voice.

She did as told, and after a few moments of darkness and silence, she felt it was okay to open them. When she did open them, she saw she was in her house, looking in a mirror. She was normal again. Her hair was short again, no longer red, and she was tall once more. In the reflection, she saw the face of the guardian as Shannon.

“Your choice is simple.” said the guardian as the room faded away into the city streets, where the real Shannon stood. “Rewrite the moment when you brought the curse onto yourself. Be warned though. If you do not instigate the wrath of Shannon O'Reilly, your two friends will take your place.”

“What?” she said.

“Changing history is fickle and hard to do. The events must occur regardless of how they occur, so if you stop yourself from being rude, one of your friends will do the same. So the question is. Will you prevent this from ever happening, dooming one or both your friends to a permanent fate?”

“They are already leprechauns because of me....and probably lost in this stupid world.”

“Yes, that’s true...but if you decide to let history stand the way it is, you can save them, bring them back to normal.”

Lucy stood there silent. “So the choice is save myself, or save my friends.”

“Precisely.” said the guardian. “ But you’ve known that from the start, haven’t you?”

“I had a feeling.” she said with a sigh, closing her eyes.

When they opened again, they were back in the temple, the two goblets standing there alone on the table.

“Do you have the other ingredients?” the guardian asked as she held out her hand.

“Yes.” she said finding both bottles, handing them to the guardian, who shook her head.

“The goblet with the red liquid will rewrite history if you take it’s potion mixed with your ingredients. The goblet with the blue will help you save your friends. Now is the time to make your choice.”

Lucy walked to the table and glanced at the goblets and sighed. She looked at the colors of each, wondering how she would feel with each choice, and she shook her head.

“I did this. Not my friends. I need to save them.” she said, uncorking each bottle and dropping it’s contents into the blue liquid in the goblet she had chosen. The goblet with red liquid simply vanished as if it had never existed.
“The potion will save your friends now that you have added the ingredients. Allow me to assist you back to them.” stated the guardian.

Above the table was a large stone pillar with a white gemstone in the center. It began to glow brighter and brighter with each passing second.

“The choice is made. A good choice, if I might add. Farewell, Lucy Turnstall.”

Soon, all Lucy could see was white, and when it dissipated, she was in a wide open field. Before her was Shaun and two leprechauns she didn’t quite recognize. A young pre-teen girl giggling madly as she adjusted her green dress, and a short, stout leprechaun that was making googly eyes at Shaun.

“Well done, Lucy. I was not sure how this quest would end. The few humans like yourself that we have sent on this quest have opted to return to their world and leave their friends behind...quite the feat to try and save them. Here they are!”

“Rebecca. Stacey” she said. “What happened to you two?”

“I told you, The O’Malley’s and the Giggle Gang were sent to find your friends and transform them. If you failed the quest, or sent yourself back instead, they would be forever trapped here in the land of the Leprechauns. However, now you have the goblet of blue drink, mixed with the ingredients you found in the Forest of Luck, and they need only consume it to return to their normal human state.”

“And me?” she asked. “I’ll be trapped here forever?”

“No, not if you don’t wish to be?” said a voice behind her. “You can choose to live amongst the humans, but you won’t be able to disguise yourself as well as me, I’d wager.”

Shannon O'Reilly stood there, her beautiful leprechaun form glowing in the sun of the glen. “You did so much better than I’d ever imagine. I am sorry about the deception and the transformation of your friends. It was necessary. You are not as selfish as I imagined upon our first meeting. Consider me very proud.”

“I can’t leave them like this.” Lucy said. “Not because of something I said and did.”

She approached her friends and offered them each a sip from the goblet. They were both confused, but in the end took their portion of it. With the goblet empty, each girl was surrounded by a blue glow and for a moment, she could not see them, but when the blue light dissipated, her friends stood there, human again, back to their old selves.

“What the hell happened?” Stacey said. “I was fat?!”

“And I was an pre-teen babysitter. This place is a madhouse.” Rebecca replied.

“You are both saved now.” Lucy said, her red hair looking even redder than before, her body seemingly shimmering. Her pointed ears looked sharper, and her face looked more fairy like than before.

“Lucy are you turning back too?”

“She chose to save you.” Shannon said with a smile. “But she will remain...a leprechaun. But fear not, she can return with you to the human world. She can live life even more to the fullest because she is now one of the wee people of the green glens. A pot of gold be hers now, and powers like mine she’ll have. She need not work a boring human job, or pay her boring bills, but she can live amongst you in peace and harmony, and come here to visit when she feels like it.” explained the leprechaun.

“I can go home?” Lucy said. She had given up all hope of that when she chose the blue goblet over the red.

“Indeed you can.” she said. “Go. Be with your friends, and I will take you all home soon.”

Lucy ran over and hugged her two friends, and sighed.

“I’m sorry I dragged you all into this. I am so glad you are okay.”

Shaun wandered over to Shannon. “Do you think Lucy realizes that had she chosen the red goblet, her place would be swapped with one of the two girls, and she could possibly still have wound up stuck here?”

“Probably not, but that’s for the best.” Shannon replied.

---

A Year Later.

St. Patrick’s Day.

Lucky Lucy’s was a new Irish Pub in town, run by the now redheaded Lucy Tunstall. Many of her friends and acquaintances thought her new job and look were odd, but most didn’t question it beyond that.

“I didn’t even know you were Irish.” said one woman who took a pint of green beer from Lucy.

“Yeah, it’s kind of a secret, but the secret is out now, lass.” she said as she took the girl’s money and watched her go back to her table with he friends. St. Patrick’s Day was a big money spinner for her, and she was proud of what she had created in a short span of time.

“Impressive.” said Shannon O'Reilly. “Most Leprechauns hold onto their gold, you used it to create a home for yourself amongst the humans. Quite impressive.”

“Sitting at home with no need of a job was boring to me, and besides, a little magic of the wee folk makes this place so much more fun.” she said, pointing at the girl who was sipping the green beer. She was shrinking into her outfit, her ears spreading up to points and her short blonde bob of hair was growing longer and turning a fiery ginger color.

“You are cursing your patrons?” Rebecca asked as she slid up to the bar.

“Not cursing.” said Stacy who had a pair of pointy ears of her own. “It’s in the beer. They get so drunk on it, they don’t remember turning into a leprechaun for the evening. Quite smart.”

“If I wanted them to stay that way, I’d just chant Shannon’s favorite little poem and be done with it.” Lucy said with a smile.

Shannon smirked as she looked around the bar. Many patrons were drinking the green beer, and were all in various states of transformations. Some were shorter than others, others were getting massive beer bellies from how much beer they were chugging, and some just had red hair at the moment, the only sign of what was to come. Lucy was not who Shannon expected her to be, and it was a wonderful surprise.

Lucy also took in the bar, and to her it was a new beginning. Life was different now, more fun, more free, and less to worry about. She saw many new friends she had made running the bar, some of them changing, others just enjoying their usual cocktail, and she even spotted a table where a man in a bowler hat sat next to a young lady with dark circles around her eyes. She nodded at them both, and they waved and smiled.

“How about a toast.” Lucy said.

“Yes!” Shannon agreed.

“To our good health.” Stacy said holding up her glass of beer. Rebecca held up a shot, and both Lucy and Shannon held up cocktail glasses. “And to the wee lads and lasses of the green glen, may they prosper forever.”

“And may none ever take their lucky charms” slurred a guest who walked by with his beer sloshing all over the place, his new statue of three foot tall making him very disoriented.

“That too.” Lucy said with a laugh as she turned to clean the bar, whispering an old song under her breath.

“When Irish eyes are smiling
Sure, 'tis like the morn in Spring
In the lilt of Irish laughter
You can hear the angels sing
When Irish hearts are happy
All the world seems bright and gay
And when Irish eyes are smiling
Sure, they steal your heart away.”

THE END.