Paul

Paul, the young fairy prince, fluttered his transparent wings behind his back and lay belly-down on his bunk. He looked over his homeworld from his viewport and opened the window for some fresh air. His father’s palace was found on a baleen of a large whale and the breeze from the salt water refreshed his spirits. His view was uninterrupted and he could see some three centimeters to the horizon.

“I will miss our home, but the Dentist must serve the Dentaper as we all must,” thought Paul. He was taking a break before his mother fetched him for a training session with his father’s weaponmaster.

He was less concerned about the weapons training and more concerned about a test later in the day. His mother, Lady Jessica, insisted that he sit with a Mother Hygienist and that his cleaning abilities would be evaluated.

She had tensed when she had told him about this meeting. Paul thought, “She fears this test. Why? Her Bene Hygiene training should have suppressed any fear from showing. She must think it’s dangerous.”

He thought of his father, the Dentist Leto of fairy House Molar, “I wonder if my father even knows of this test. He does not even know that my mother has been training me in the Bene Hygienist ways.”

As Paul was his only heir to the seat of power, the Molar House AdjustableChair, the Dentist himself had left study materials in his room on their new assignment, the human mouth known as Oral.

Paul listened as his father’s holopack spoke, “The planet Maxillofacialium, known to their native Frefairy tribes as Oral, is home to the key resource for the entire dental lifestyle that powers all fairydom. Oral is the only source of Enamel, the psychotropic substance, that allowed fairies to live longer, see further, know themselves and build their Practices.”

“House Rabbit, led by the Bunny Rabban will withdraw to their homeworld of BunnyPrime. As custom, their prince, The Bugs, is ready to assume the Carrot throne of their kin. He is thought to be even more dangerous than Rabban himself,” the thing said.

Paul flitted upright and thought, “The Enamel. The Enamel must flow or House Molar will be exposed. Why does the Dentaper want us there?” The holopack offered no answers to Paul’s question so he calmed himself by reciting his Bene Hygiene training, “Decay is the tooth killer. Where there is decay I will drill. Where I drill, the decay will be no more. Only I and the tooth will remain.”

Paul felt a change in the air pressure around him and heard someone’s heart beating from the nearby hallway. He relaxed as he recognized his mother’s scent before she entered his room. “Good morning, Paul. It’s time for your martial training with Gurney. Are you ready?” asked his mother to his back.

Paul greeted his mother and they left his room.

His mother had trained him in her sect’s ways as a child. He was learning the cleaning way and, as a male, this was dangerous. Men who tried to become a Bene Hygienist always go mad. It was madness to even try; however, breeding the male Bene Hygienist, the legendary Der Tseyn-Gehilf, was the ultimate goal of the Bene Hygienist order. Jessica’s hubris in thinking Paul might be the legend himself would be tested later today.

Paul could sense his mother’s fear and wanted to ask about this test that consumed her peace. There was no time to talk as the weaponmaster, Gurney, flitted into the training area.

The boy complained, “I’m in no mood for combat cleaning today, Gurney.” Gurney darkened and flipped his dental shield up. “Defend your mouth, young assistant!” the old fairy said as he lifted his scaler to attack. The cleaning tool’s razor tip gleamed in the morning light and was headed straight for Paul’s number six on the upper right.

Paul barely managed to get his own shield up and dodge the well-timed thrust by his father’s weaponmaster. Gurney flitted to Paul’s right and the young prince attempted to riposte, but Gurney pressed and the weaponmaster’s tool headed to Paul’s twenty-two with deadly purpose.

“Is Gurney trying to kill me?” the prince wondered as he managed to gain space by a solid neuvieme and had tempo on his instructor.

“The slow scaler gets past the face shield,” the boy thought as he carefully aimed for Gurney’s thirteen from the right and low.

Gurney managed to deflect with a pronation seconde and the two fairies circled each other.

“Are you in the mood yet?” snarled Gurney as he closed the distance by pushing off his back foot and a wing snap.

Paul flitted out of line and drove forward towards Gurney’s seven on his upper jaw. He stopped just before drawing blood.

“Hold! I have you, Gurney. Drop your weapon!” said the prince triumphantly.

“Look down, young prince,” said Gurney. His scaler was touching Paul’s eighteen deep in his lower jaw.

“We would have cleaned each other in death, I’m afraid. Your form is excellent but mood is for singing and lovemaking. A Dentist must always be ready to clean—regardless of ‘mood’,” said Gurney to his student.

“Would you have drawn blood, Gurney? You came so close?” worried Paul.

“If you didn’t try your hardest back then, I might have given you a good scrape to remind yourself of your duty. Enough for today, your mother is waiting for you and your next meeting. Fare well, young Dentist, and I will see you again on Oral,” said the teacher as he left the room.

His mother said, “Please come with me,” but her wand moved slightly. She was using the House wandlang to warn Paul.

“Prepare yourself, Paul. We meet the Mother Hygienist who trained me and is my mentor. Please remember your training; she wants to evaluate your cleaning and your adoption of the Bene Hygienist ways,” said her wand movement.

Paul adjusted his lapel with his wand in reply, “I read you, mother. I will do my best.”

The two fairies flitted down the hallway and entered a reception area. A Bene Hygienist receptionist greeted them both and asked them to take a seat while they waited for their appointment time.

“I’m looking forward to a good cleaning,” Paul said but his wand was also communicating his concern.

“Why do I need to see a Hygienist, mother? Dr. Noah gave me a complete checkup just last week,” said the prince’s wandlang as he touched his nose with the sparkly star at the top of his staff.

“You’ll love how clean your teeth will feel after this, Paul,” said Jessica as her wand tried to calm her son.

“Dr. Noah is our trusted ortho and keeps us aligned with the truth; however, Mother Hygienist Debbie is my mentor and a Bene Hygienist. You will learn and be judged at the same time, Paul. Focus on your teeth for now and calm yourself for what is to come,” said Jessica’s wand when she placed it between her knees and rubbed her chin with her sparkly star.

“Paul? The Mother is ready to see you now,” said the receptionist.

Paul rose and started towards the receptionist. “Room four on the left, please,” she said as she pointed down a long hallway of closed doors with numbers on each one.

Jessica tried to smile at her son when he looked back, but her eyes gave away the truth. Paul took a deep breath and recited to himself, “Decay is the tooth killer. Where there is decay I will drill.”

The prince walked down the hallway and found Room Four. An elderly woman with a face shield was already there.

“Sit down here and open your mouth,” Breathed the Mother. The sulfuric cloud from her mastery of the Bene Hygienist technique flooded the young fairy’s nose.

Without his direct agreement, his body obeyed the command from her halitosis. “You could have just asked and I would have sat on my own, Debbie!”

“You will address me as Mother Debbie and be still,” said the master Hygienist.

Paul started to get up to show this woman what a prince of House Molar can do when displeased, when the woman moved at incredible speed.

A razor-sharp needle was in Mother Debbie’s hands. It dripped with a clear liquid and was hovering at Paul’s thirty.

“This is the gum jabbar. The clear liquid is a deadly neurotoxin that, in the hands of a Bene Hygienist, can either cure or, in the case of non-fairies, can kill. Are you fairy or not? We will find out if you are an Assistant or no. Move again and die, young prince,” growled Debbie.

Paul froze in fear as the fine needle hovered near his gums. The Mother Hygienist began and the pain began. It started as a small rip across the gums by her sickle scraper. “Have you been flossing?” Debbie sneered behind her face shield.

As she worked, Paul could feel his gums being pulled off their respective teeth and metal was jammed deep into his gums. “A six? This will not do!”

The pain increased as he felt his gums being flayed and the blood streamed down his throat. He recited the litany to calm himself through the agony.

“Decay is the tooth killer. Where there is decay I will drill,” thought Paul as he saw a piece of raw flesh fly from his mouth onto Debbie’s face shield.

“This simply must come out RIGHT NOW!” offered Debbie as she reached for a pair of needle-nosed pliers.

“WHERE I DRILL, THE DECAY WILL BE NO MORE!” screamed Paul in his mind as he held perfectly still. The sounds of cracking and crunching bone filled his ears as Debbie began her extraction without anesthesia.

Paul felt his tooth twisting and the nerve threads pulling out as long threads from his gums that Debbie snipped with a pair of poultry shears.

“WHERE I DRILL, THE DECAY, THE DEC.. WILL BE NO MORE. ONLY I AND THE TOO… THE TOOTH!! WILL WILL WILL REMAIN!” The prince shook in pain as he tried to get the litany out.

“Whoa! Big surprise! No female Hygienist ever felt such pain and still remained still!” said Debbie as the pain immediately ended.

“Rise, young fairy. You very well may be a Hygienist. I need to speak to your mother,” she continued.

Paul immediately jumped up and checked his mouth in a nearby mirror. His teeth were all there, and, well, they were perfectly cleaned.

He avoided Debbie and walked out to the reception area.

Jessica saw her son and thought to herself, “My son was cleaned and lived!”

“That fairy, if you can call her that, wants to speak to you,” said Paul with his wandlang.

“Thanks, mom. I’ll wait here. They want to talk to you,” he said out loud.

Lady Jessica flitted down to Room Four and saw her mentor awaiting.

“I should clean you right here. A male fairy? You know our plans were for Der Tseyn-Gehilf. The Bugs, he was to marry your daughter to create Der Tseyn-Gehilf and heal the feud between House Molar and Rabbit,” said Mother Debbie to her charge.

“Leto needed an heir. I could not refuse him,” Jessica offered.

“Well, now… now there will be war,” said the old woman, and she walked out of Room Four.

“My son lives. He lives,” said Jessica to herself as she sat alone and looked at her hands.