She was still tightly wedged between the two green haired twins that she could not do much more than cast a weak smile at him.
"Help!" She mouthed a single wordless plea.
"Move!"
Slate growled and threw his arms out, separating the twins from Candi with the force of his magic powers.
Their bodies rolled away from Candi from the strength of Slate's magic.
One banged into the wall with a loud THUMP and the other tumbled onto the floor with a CLATTER.
They both turned towards Slate, their droopy down-turned brown eyes still half asleep.
"What is your problem, Baby Brother?" Jason scowled, rubbing his head where it had banged into the wall.
"You and Jared are not allowed to touch her. Dear Old Dad has specifically laid this out!" Slate pointed at her.
"Didn't you touch her already?" Jared sat on the floor trying not to grimace as he rubbed at his buttocks where they landed on the floor.
"He most certainly did not!!!" Candi retorted! "Well…we kissed a bit, but we did not do anything more than that!" She blushed.
"Whooo! I told you, didn't I?" Jason whooped. "I could tell that she's still a virgin."
"Did I argue with you? No. It was quite obvious to me as well." Jared retorted with a smug look on his face.
Slate scowled and pointed at both of them with a warning finger.
"You two are not allowed to touch Candace. I'm warning both of you!"
"Alright, alright. Sheesh." Jared rolled his eyes with a chuckle.
"Jealous, aren't we?" Jason crinkled his eyes but then he turned serious.
"You can relax. We had been working all night and were completely exhausted. We just crawled up next to her and fell asleep. We barely shut our eyes when she awakened."
"I woke up because you were both on top of me and you're too hot!" Candi protested.
The twins threw their heads back and laughed.
"Aaaahhh. I can die happy now. She just called us hot." Jason guffawed. "Hey, Slate. Tiny Dancer said we're hot!"
Jared wiped tears of mirth from his eyes.
"I bet she never called you hot, eh Slate?"
Slate stood there, legs apart, arms folded across his chest staring at the twins with furious eyes.
"We have exactly two hours to get Candace to the Sky Walk." He informed them in no uncertain terms.
"Bring her wardrobe there and watch over it yourselves. Don't trust any of your underlings and don't leave it alone even for a moment," Slate warned. "Nothing must happens to her wardrobe."
"Brother dear, you take care of security for us, as you've been doing and we will handle the wardrobe. That is where your part of the job ends and ours begins."
Jared snapped his hands and three young maidens dressed in white entered the house from outside.
Candi's eyes widened.
She did not remember seeing any people on this island. In fact, the only living entity larger than a bird or a bunny was Bugaboo.
"These are flower nymphs. They will help you prepare for the event. Go with them."
The young maidens took hold of Candi's hands and led her outside.
Now that the sun was shining, Candi could actually see that the floating island was truly a mound of dirt held together by tree roots and magic.
The nymphs said nothing, merely held her hands and led her through the tiny sun-warmed stone path that led into the shallow stone paved pool.
They waded into the cool water with her and indicated for her to sit on a stone ledge within the pool.
As Candi sat down into the pool, it began to warm up considerably.
She could see one of the nymphs touching the water surface with her palms, transferring magic to the water.
Where she touched, steam rose. In a short time, the pond water was as warm as bath water.
When the nymphs were satisfied with the temperature of the water, they remove her bodysuit and submerged her into the water.
Another nymph held up a white lily blossom and poured some scented oils onto her hair. The flower vessel held something that was sudsy and aromatic and they began to wash her hair and body with the floral nectar.
Once they were done, they led her back out of the water and wrapped her with a warm thick towel.
They bowed to her once and their bodies began to wilt. Within seconds, on the ground beside her were three wilted stems of white lilies.
"Oh no!" She gasped and picked up the stems. Then she ran back into the house.
Slate was nowhere in sight and only the twins remained.
"Jared!" Candi ran up to him and deposited the three wilted flowers into his hands. "The flower girls died! What do we do???"
Jared stared at her horrified tragic eyes and looked down at the three flower stalks.
"Darling, they are flower nymphs. Their lives are short because I only needed them to bathe you. Once they did their jobs, I sent their spirits back into the flower glade where each of them will be reborn again as another flower."
Jason smiled gently.
"Don't be sad, Tiny Dancer. Such is their short transitory life. They need to come back many more times before they can graduate to become even a tiny animal."
Candi bit her lip.
"I see. I was just sad to see them die in front of my eyes like that."
"They will return, when you next visit us. I promise." Jared smiled. "Now. Let's get you into the entrance outfit, shall we?"
He and Jason pulled out a gown that looked almost like a ballerina wedding dress with a hugging bodice and long white tulle skirts reaching the floor.
They dressed her in the frilly outfit and laced up her ballet pointe shoes.
"These are NEVER going to fly off your feet, Tiny Dancer." Jason nodded with satisfaction.
Once they were happy with her dress, Jared pulled a small cushioned bench.
"Sit here and let us get you ready."
For the next hour, Jared worked on her makeup while Jason styled her hair and worked on her nails.
While they worked, they chattered to each other and sang little songs to keep her entertained.
"Look up for me Baby. That's right. We need to add a bit of powder right here." Jared muttered. "And this shade of lipstick is perfect for the first outfit!"
He pulled out a gold pot that had a dark pink paste inside and touched his pinky to it. Then he gently touched her lips, transferring the color on in tiny careful touches.
Jason's eyes grew large.
"Hmmmm. That color is gorgeous! Her lips look so luscious, I want a taste!"
He leaned over and was about to touch his shapely lips to hers when Jared plonked him over the head with a brush.
"Don't you dare touch your mouth to hers. You'll mess up her lipstick!"
"Well you have a whole tub of that goop. Just put it back on her!"
"Stick with your hair designs and leave my makeup creation alone!" Jared fussed.
"Speaking of which," Jason turned back to his work. "Her hair is so thick!"
He rolled the ends of her blonde tresses through his fingers.
"It's almost too thick, but we are not complaining, no we're not." His fingers moved on their own accord as he arranged her hair into whatever fantastic ideas he had in his head.
"Where did Slate go?" Candi asked as darted her eyes around, unable to move her head.
"Oh he went to take care of some security details." Jared replied as he concentrated on drawing her eyes with some colored powders.
"Apparently the fake Candace Farrah had a bit of trouble with anything that was more complex than a yes or no question." He chuckled.
"I'm sure Slate spent all night trying to keep her from turning back into a dummy." Jason laughed. "Meanwhile, the real Candace was sleeping in our bed and we were too busy to join her."
"We did join her. For just a little while at least. It will have to be enough for now." Jared sighed.
Suddenly, he looked up.
"There he is. Just in time."
From below the ground, a hover pod rose up and flew to the clearing out in front of the house.
It was a large faceted clear crystal with touches of gold and pink, hovering in the morning sunlight.
Slowly rising above the hovering crystal pod was the large dark Prime Warrior Prince, his wings wide open in a protective stance.
"Your chariot awaits, dear Tiny Dancer," Jason crooned.