Meesh the Bad Demon: The Secret of the Fang

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Meesh the Bad Demon: The Secret of the Fang by Michelle Lam

Ponderosa, six months after the events of book 1. Chai is with her wolf pack reminiscing. They’re settled where they are now, but it’s not home. They will make do, especially since they have the support of Mount Magma and Plumeria City. Maybe, Chai suggests, they can try to make things more comfortable here. Right now though, Chai needs to get to work. Before she can leave, one of her family in wolf form smells something strange and orders everyone to evacuate the area. Suddenly there is fire and a giant excavator pushing burning debris from the woods. Chai is caught on one side, her family on the other. They run in opposite directions with promises they will find each other. 

Meanwhile, in Mount Magma, Meesh is practicing breathing fire with her grandma. It’s not going well. Meesh is determined to be a good Guardian, and wants to be good now. Her grandma explains that it's simply not how it works and she needs to consider what is important. Grandma recounts when Meesh was a baby, being the Guardian was essentially being a glorified police officer without the glory. She offered to trade with Meesh’s mom who worked a very dangerous job as a Lava Sourcer and she could help take care of Meesh, but her mom declined. It was while she was dealing with some petty criminals she found out about her daughter's death: drowned at the volcanic site. After that, being Guardian meant nothing, what was the point when she couldn't protect her own family? As Grandma is imparting sage words of wisdom, Fairy Princess Nouna and Xavier have called for Meesh. They’re going into the forest! 

Meesh and Nouna grab Xavier and fly into the forest, landing on a big rock with a big X on it. The rock is Meesh and Nouna’s marker for flying practice. As Xavier starts to head home, thinking he is no longer needed, he encounters two crying trees making WAAAH! sounds. At their base is Chai in her wolf form and she looks really bad. Chai turns into her human form and tells her friends about the trucks, giant shovels, the destruction of her new home, and being separated from her family. They agree it must be the stranger Xavier met (see book 1). First things first, they need to find Chai’s family and logically they should go to her family’s cafe. To the trees!

The friends branch surf over the trees to Ponderosa before flying the rest of the way into the city. At the cafe, Chai finds her family in wolf form and sees that her mom’s leg is injured. Meesh has an idea… first, Meesh asks Xavier and Chai to take her family to Mount Magma and her Grandma for protection. Xavier would rather be out finding the bad guys with Meesh and Nouna, but Chai points out she’s grateful for him helping her family. 

Meesh and Nouna fly to where the trucks were last seen and spot tracks on the ground and a man, with very handsome antlers, resting against a rock, and he looks hurt. He explains that everything is being torn up and urges the girls to leave. Meesh and Nouna refuse, they’re going to get to the bottom of what is going on. The man doesn’t know who is doing it, only masked construction workers with horns and wings - fairy demons!? But they disappeared a long time ago…

Meesh and Nouna continue on, seeing families carrying all their belongings evacuating the area and realize the devastated land looks awfully like Mount Magma after it was poisoned. Meanwhile, in Mount Magma, Xavier and Chai have arrived at Meesh’s house with Chai’s family. They tell Grandma what is going on and Grandma is, obviously, concerned. She wants to inform the Queen in Plumeria City that what is happening in the forest could happen to Mount Magma or Plumeria City. 

Grandma gets ready to leave, telling Chai to stay with her family and Xavier to go home to his mom. Xavier is disappointed because he wants to help. Since Meesh became Guardian, the fact he was an A+ student and top of the class means nothing. In the meantime, Chai tries some demon snacks. 

Grandma races to Plumeria City and informs the Queen the poisoning is back, but different. Thankfully the Queen has been preparing since the incident at Mount Magma reminded her of another a long time ago. The Queen issues orders while she and Grandma strategize. Leon, her royal guard, however, hasn’t been seen for a while. 

In Ponderosa, Nouna wants to tell Grandma and her mom what's going on, but Meesh is still traumatized by the last poisoning where her Grandma was turned to stone and doesn’t want to involve her. Meesh wants to go and find the construction workers, so they start at the campsite. Everything is destroyed but they hear something strange. Sneakily looking over a ridge, Meesh and Nouna see a huge, tall construct coming out of a hole, it’s grey and giving off strange green lights. Is it some sort of laser machine? Fairies with demon horns, hi-vis vests, and hard hats are working on it. 

Meesh has an idea and dashes into the site, Nouna following. Inside a digger, Meesh puts on a hard hat, vest and goggles then sits on Nouna’s shoulders. Meesh does not have a positive history with disguises (see book 1) however, before the inevitable, Meesh and Nouna find out the machine is a big laser intended to destroy Plumeria City then Mount Magma after finishing leveling the whole of Ponderosa. While trying to “act normal,” they run into Leon who, at first, doesn’t realize it’s Meesh and Nouna in a vest, but when he does, he sends security after them. 

Nouna is caught in a rock snare and Leon grabs Meesh, but Meesh uses super cool fire breathing powers to break the rock encasing Nouna to free her. Unfortunately Meesh isn’t able to get free herself. Nouna flees into the forests where the trees protect her from her pursuers. Meanwhile, Meesh is alone, wrapped in poisoned rock, and around her are the plans to destroy Plumeria City, wanted posters for the Big Bad™ and some minions. Then, the Big Bad™, wearing a big floppy hat, goggles, mask and large coat, welcomes Meesh. GASP!

Nouna arrives in Plumeria City while Grandma and the Queen are strategizing and tells them what’s going on, except for lying about Meesh safely waiting for her outside. Before there are any awkward questions, Nouna races off to Mount Magma where Chai and Xavier are enjoying Demon Cuisine and brings them up to speed too. Xavier is excited to help, Chai less so because she’s still healing so her mom will help in her place. Time to plan!

Meesh and the Bad Guy™ are having a nice little chat, the Bad Guy™ telling Meesh she has no idea what it’s like to lose her home. When a worker is brought in who was hurt by one of the trees in Nouna’s escape, the Bad Guy™ shows compassion and helps relieve some of her pain and gives her time to recover. This is messing with Meesh’s head, Bad Guy™ is meant to be evil?! Meesh accuses the Bad Guy™ of trying to poison Mount Magma and making the demons think it was the fairies. Bad Guy™ tells Meesh they are not the problem, that’s far from the truth…

Flashback! Many years ago… Plumeria City was at its peak. Winged creatures from everywhere called it home, even Fairy Demons, everyone happily coexisting. Unfortunately, all good things come to an end. Food shortages put the city in a famine emergency and Fairy Demon spores were blamed before a full investigation was carried out. The Queen ordered all Fairy Demons to evacuate the city. The Bad Guy™ and their family went to stay with friends in Mount Magma, but they were of the few who had somewhere to go. 

The opinion of fairies in Mount Magma was turning, the fairies seen as always blaming demons of any kind. Then Mount Magma started turning against Fairy Demons. The Bad Guy™, Eva, was bullied really badly. Eva’s dad went to talk to the bullies’ parents one night, the same night Eva found a perfectly ripe fruit they used to eat in Plumeria City. Eva wanted to follow her dad and tell him, but was told he would be back soon. He never came back because he was killed by her bullies’ parents. Eva ran away, disguised so no one would know she was a Fairy Demon. 

Fear of Fairy Demons drove them from Mount Magma into Ponderosa. Eva went to Plumeria City to show them the fruit, that it wasn’t poisoned by Fairy Demon spores, that something else killed the crops but the guards were called and as she was dragged away. Eva saw Nouna TV Studio being built right over the Fairy Demons’ former homes. In Eva’s pain, she built her own home using her power. It was made of rocks veined with green. It attracted others and she showed them how to build. Eva would go out and find other Fairy Demons, bringing them to safety in the community she built underground to protect them. Eva shows Meesh the magnificent Fairy Demon city they created. 

Meesh breaks from her bonds and starts to turn Guardian on Eva. As she’s breathing her blue fire, Eva takes off her Bad Guy™ coverings, shouting “I’m also half demon!” and breathing her green fire. Meesh is still a kid and learning her power and isn’t able to keep it up so she tries to run, crying out that the Guardian didn’t have anything to do with everything that happened. Eva gives chase, shouting that that’s exactly the problem. Electricity sparks between Meesh’s horns, but Eva grows a rock enclosing Meesh. Meesh tries to beg, to make Eva understand why her Grandma retired from being Guardian, but Eva grabs Meesh’s Guardian fang necklace and crushes it. Meesh’s horns change and she becomes normal. 

To the amassed crowd, Eva declares that Fairy Demons will no longer be invisible to Fairies or Demons. The crowd is shocked because Eva has a kid trapped, and Meesh says she would have helped if she had known. This is all too much for Eva who uses her powers to send Meesh up into the sky.

Meanwhile, in Plumeria City, Grandma admits she kept out of world affairs once she quit being Guardian. The Queen admits once Nouna was born with her broken wing, she couldn’t take any chances but they later found out the famine was caused because of over farming, but she was too ashamed to admit her mistake. It’s time to try and right these wrongs, so Grandma and the Queen are going to find the threat and deal with it themselves. 

Meesh wakes alone, trapped in a cave with a glass wall. Watching her ineffectually using her flame and fists to escape is Leon. Above ground, Xavier, Chai’s mom and Nouna have arrived at the giant laser where they find the broken fragments of Meesh’s fang necklace. Suddenly green veined rocks rise from the ground, one that looks like a hand grabs them and drags them down into Meesh’s cell. Nouna asks Leon why? and he reveals his demon horns hidden by his luscious, well-coiffed hair. 

Eva arrives then. She’s changed her mind about keeping the friends prisoner until things are over and is about to PEW power at them when Leon stops her. He’s sick of her constantly changing plans and her needlessly hurting people. Leon flashes back to times with Nouna and uses his own PEW power to break the cell and give them a route to escape before leaving Eva himself. 

At Mount Magma, Chai’s family apologizes for not protecting her but Chai won’t hear it. She met her best friends, met so many other new creatures and found herself because she didn’t hide away. She’s learned so much about the world and is grateful and understands that home isn’t a place. Out the window, Chai and her family see Meesh and the others and they don’t look good. Meesh tells them about Eva’s revenge plan and how she destroyed her fang necklace. Meesh starts voicing her self doubts and putting the pressure on the others to save the day, but Nouna dissuades her of these notions. Meesh was NEVER going to save the day by herself, they’re a team! She no longer has a piece of costume jewelry she thinks gives her powers, and guess what, she didn’t last time either and her powers still worked. Meesh believes in Nouna, well, Nouna believes in Meesh, and Meesh should believe in herself. Suddenly Leon slams up against the window.

Leon tries to apologize for his years of lies and deceit and now he wants to tell Nouna the truth. He and a few other Fairy Demons managed to lay low in Plumeria City after the eviction. He landed a job as a Fairy Guard, intending on getting intel on the Queen's plans, but there was never anything about welcoming the Fairy Demons back even though the spores myth was debunked. Then he went in search of his family and found Eva and the Fairy Demon community. Though his family wasn’t there, Leon wanted to help protect the Fairy Demons so he continued his job and worked with Eva, but when she poisoned Mount Magma, things changed and escalated with the destruction of the forest and building of the laser. The other Fairy Demons are too scared of her powers to stop her. 

This is a great story, but they still can’t trust Leon so he gives them the plans to the laser. Eva created the poison from her hands and transfused that power into the laser and she is the only one who can control it. Leon thinks Eva’s powers are linked to her emotions and Meesh and her friends are the right people to stop her. Time to plan! Which is a good thing as the last piece of the laser is being put into place. 

In the forest, Meesh, her friends and Leon are hiding in the branches of a tree watching the laser when Grandma and the Queen happen upon them. The Queen calls Leon a traitor and is only saved from a royal smackdown by Nouna intervening and explaining that he’s helping them. She doesn’t, however, explain their plan to stop Eva. The next moment, some Fairy Demon workers hear a strange noise and are attacked by Chai and her family in wolf form, giving Meesh, Nouna, Xavier and Grandma a chance to get around them. The Queen and Leon stay behind to tell the worker there has been a change of plans. 

Xavier’s acid puking comes in handy when they need to get inside the underground lair and Meesh’s flashlight eyes help them see in the dark. No powers help them when Eva sneaks up on them, though. Eva targets Xavier, beating him up with some green veined rocks and he bites her in retaliation. Nouna throws up a crystal shield in time to save them from Eva’s breath attack, then Meesh uses the opportunity to ram into Eva’s stomach with her head, tackling Eva to the ground and allowing Nouna to bind her hands in crystal. Yeah, this doesn’t stop Eva, she smashes her hands free, flies to the laser, and activates it. 

In Plumeria City, the royal guards form crystal shields to stop the laser from ripping the clouds apart. On the ground, the laser and the city are rising up from being underground. As debris falls around them, Eva traps Xavier in green veined rock, then Nouna who fires a crystal on to one of Eva’s hands. Grandma orders Meesh to run, Leon rallies the Fairy Demon workers who now understand Eva’s Bad Guy™ plans. Eva is building power in her trapped hand and fires it at Meesh but the Queen steps in the way, creating a vortex. 

The guards protecting Plumeria City see the palace lights flicker, something is wrong with the Queen, but they continue holding their shields. On the ground, the Queen is unconscious, Grandma, Xavier and Chai are hurt, and the laser is still going. Eva approaches through the wreckage, questioning why Meesh even wants to help, Meesh wants to change things for the better but her self doubt is loud. She offers herself to Eva if Eva will stop hurting everyone. Xavier screams at Meesh that her inner voices are lying, she’s a good demon regardless of being the guardian. 

Something clicks in Meesh. Loudly and with confidence with her new shining green fang, Meesh declares “I’m the Guardian” and zaps Eva. Holding the Bad Guy™ down, Leon and the other Fairy Demons raise their home from underground. Eva’s power stops, the laser shuts down, and Xavier and Nouna are freed from their green veined rock bonds. The guards at Plumeria City watch the Fairy Demon city rise through the clouds. In their city, the Fairy Demons are cheering and watching the green veins disappear from the rocks, and Nouna adds some clouds to help the aesthetic. 

Meesh is still sitting on Eva, who is astonished at what Meesh has done. Chai points out to Eva that she took away her home, doing exactly what happened to her. Meanwhile, Nouna flies to the royal guards and confirms her mom is okay. She only has a few bruises but has important instructions. 

Within a month, Nouna Studios is dismantled and Fairy Demons are welcomed back to Plumeria City. All creatures are welcome to Plumeria City, it isn’t just a realm for fairies. Nouna Studios showcases the talents of all creatures everywhere and the Queen watches her daughter enact these changes with pride from her hospital bed. Mount Magma also welcomed back the Fairy Demons. Meesh has learned a lot of lessons, the power of believing in one’s self, of being surrounded by friends, of being kind. Eva was taken into custody but she also helped Chai rebuild her home. Compassion was shown toward Eva who is going to reunite with her uncle and aunt, and Leon will search for his family. At the Princess’s orders, Meesh, Xavier, Chai, and herself are to take a break.