TearCRF

Hello everyone. It has been a while, but I promise I’ve been busy working on the story. I didn’t post any updates last week because my editor and I were revising all the previous chapters. I didn’t want to keep posting Raw versions, so from now on, all chapters will be the edited versions. Hope you enjoy the chapter.

Koralesca: Kor-a-les-ca     Lenadrea: Lee-nad-rea     Faraine: Faw-rain     Orianna: Or-ree-awn-uh     Zoelle: Zoh-ell     Skryver: scry-ver

*Thud, Thud, Thud*

The echoes of large raindrops continue to bombard the metal shelter, filling my ears.

“Garrick, make an opening for Miss Evetta to leave! Once you’re done, create a hole and we’ll take cover inside!” Glendale orders, “Miss Evetta, if you can’t stop the storm, do whatever you can to make it to Dels!”

I can do this? I’m such an idiot! There’s no way I’m going to be able to stop this storm. I stand on the wagon, trembling as Garrick opens a hole in the wall.

*BOOM* 

The roar of thunder erupts from the opening and the shelter is illuminated from the flash of purple lightning.

I- I’m- I’m going out there? No way…

“Miss Evetta!” Glendale roars.

“Ah, sorry,” I respond as I focus on the hole in the wall, “I’ll be back.”

I fly toward the hole, struggling as the wind enters through the opening. I reach the hole, standing on the thick wall, and look out into the raging storm.

*BOOM* *Thud. Thud. Thud*

The morning sky and sun are hidden behind an endless dark, multi-colored sky. There is no light shining through the clouds, making morning seem like night. Everything turns a shade of purple whenever lightning flashes overhead, exposing massive raindrops and hailstones, each much larger than myself. Static appears to course through the falling boulders, making them glow a slight purple color. The bitter cold fuses with the turbulent wind and rain, coating the grasslands in hail. The spyr-like fog drastically lowers visibility.

They want me to stop this! How?

“Evetta, be careful!” Myrna shouts.

I turn around and look inside the shelter, scanning the inside. 

*BOOM*

A flash of light illuminates the inside, revealing the terrified faces of Myrna and the knights. They’re just as scared as I am… They can’t do anything, if I don’t stop this, they’ll die. I turn back around and fly out of the shelter, the wind instantly throwing me off course.

“Argh!” I scream as I avoid an incoming mass of ice, “What am I even supposed to do?”

“Find the heart of the storm,” Vestele whispers in my head.

The heart? I look into the sky, avoiding incoming hailstones as I search beyond the rain and hail for what could be the heart. Scanning the sky, I notice a dense area where lightning, rain, and hail seem to be more prolific. The dark clouds fused with shades of blue, purple, and orange. The mixture of colors decreases as the clouds expand outward from that location.

That? 

*BOOM* 

The lightning brightens the sky, making the colors more pronounced. Okay, here goes.

I begin to fly toward the clouds, fighting against the chilling wind and avoiding the giant rain or hail that threaten to hit me. It’s so cold…

A violent gust of wind strikes, blowing me away from the clouds.

“Agh!” I scream as I am almost hit by another frozen raindrop. I can barely see these.

I stabilize myself as I continue flying toward the colored clouds, forcing myself forward against the wall of wind that refuses to stop. I manage to narrowly avoid several more frozen boulders that occupy the sky.

Damn wind…so cold… 

*BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.* 

Several bolts of lightning flash, brightening the clouds.

Ah, I can’t see… I stop flying as my eyes readjust to the flashing lights and perpetual darkness, the winds pulling me back down again. With the return of my vision, I look back up to see an especially large hailstone barreling down above me.

“AH!” I scream as I close my eyes and place my hands over my head, tensing up as I prepare to get hit.

*BAM*

…Huh? I’m okay? I look up and notice another incoming hailstone, but an icicle flies from below, crashing into it.

*BAM*

The two bodies of ice shatter and the resulting shards get carried off by the wind.

What was that? I glance down for a moment to see where the icicle came from. Wait, is that... Samina? What the hell is she doing?

*BAM. BAM* 

I turn and focus on the raining hailstones again, fighting back against the wind toward the mass of colored clouds. She’s covering for me. Thanks Samina. 

Moving forward is much easier now as the frozen raindrops are destroyed by Samina’s icicles before they reach me. It’s getting colder… need to keep going… My breathing becomes sparse.

The violent wind throws me around, the flashes of lightning blind me, and the crashing thunder resounds in my ears, yet I continue my advance through the storm. I move between the rain and hail in an everlasting dance that could kill me at a moment's notice. The freezing cold causes my fingers, toes, ears, and lungs to go numb, making my breathing more ragged.

*BAM* 

Argh…the storm’s…getting worse. Is there… less icicles?...

*BOOM. BOOM. BOOM* 

The higher I fly, the more lightning flashes.  Higher…

A bolt of lightning surges over me, and my vision fills with nothing but light.

*BOOM* 

…I’m alive? What’s this? I see an electrified screen surrounding me, still coursing with energy from the absorbed bolt.

“Be careful,” Vestele chimes, “You’re almost there.”

The screen dissipates as I continue on my path to the clouds. I scramble to evade the incoming rain and hail. No more… icicles… Am I… too far away? I reach the bottom of the thick veil of clouds and head inside.

*BOOM*

My surroundings alternate between pure darkness, and the purple flash of the lightning that illuminates the clouds. Pain shoots throughout my body from the static and the freezing cold.

“Argh!” I cry as needle-sharp pain courses throughout my body. Vestele… now what? I wait for a moment as I scan the clouds for anything that seems out of place. What do… I do?

I hear nothing. As I search for a way to stop the storm, the building pain causes my body to shake. Vestele… please… what do I do?

*BOOM. BOOM*

Still, no response. I scream out, “Vestele!”

“Relax your body.”

Relax…my body? Fierce pain causes my body to tense up, making it hard to focus, yet I try to do as Vestele asks. I relax my body as best I can, and as I do so, the pain coursing through my body starts to subside.

“Good, now close your eyes and calm your breathing,” Vestele instructs.

Following Vestele’s directions, I close my eyes and start to focus on controlling my breath. The more I focus, the less I hear the storm. It’s getting quieter…

A moment later an odd feeling envelops me. The only sound I now hear is a soft humming. What happened to the storm?

I open my eyes and see the dark clouds disappearing as colored fog starts to fill my vision. Blue, purple, violet, orange, cyan, all mixing together, spreading out, and painting the sky. The air no longer feels cold, and the static has all but vanished. Pain and numbness escape my body as a tranquil calmness washes over me.

“You did well, now pay attention. I’m going to show you how to deal with an elmite storm,” Vestele says.

A tingling sensation flows through my wings, I look back to see what is causing it. My wings!? My wings are now several sizes larger than before and the veins glow in various colors that match the colored fog.

The size of my wings continue to expand until they can completely envelope me, they then start to hum. I’ve heard… this before. As the sound of the humming increases, the colors on my wings intensify and spread over the translucent membranes.

The moment the membranes on my wings are filled with color, the veins start to radiate a white glow. The colored fog throughout the sky rapidly converges on my wings. Vestele…what’s happening? The fog travels quickly toward my wings, seemingly being absorbed.

As the clouds begin to disappear, the colored fog becomes more transparent. The flashes of lightning, the strong winds, the rain, and the hail all start to vanish as well.

Within minutes, the storm is gone, and the blue sky has returned. The warm morning sun shines down on the storm-stricken grasslands.

Is it over? I look around, seeing no sign of the storm anywhere in the sky. All that remains of it are the large, frozen boulders scattered across the ground.

My wings go silent and shrink to their original size. Once back to normal, the colors fade and the rainbow glitter reappears.

Thank you…

I try to descend to the ground, but my body starts to feel heavy. I… can’t move… My exhausted body goes limp, and I begin to fall out of the sky as my vision fades.

Just before I lose consciousness, an unknown voice calls out, but I can't quite make out what they are saying.

---

“Ugh,” I moan as I regain consciousness.

A warm breeze brushes past my face and wings. That feels nice. My head is heavy and drooping down. I open my eyes and realize I am airborne staring down at the beaten ground, yet I am neither flying, nor falling.

A pair of legs, similar in size to my own, hang down alongside mine. I feel pressure on my shoulders and under my arms. What’s going on? I try to turn my head to the left to look up and see who, or what, was next to me.

A high-pitched voice comes from my right and exclaims something I cannot understand.

“Shhh,” a sharper voice responds before calmly saying something else I fail to comprehend.

Ah, they’re speaking in a language I don’t know. I relax my still worn-out body and let the two carry me as we steadily sail through the sky.

“Thank…you,” I mutter.

After a moment of silence, the sharp voiced individual mutters something in response.

I slowly drift back to sleep as the warm wind embraces me.

---

I wake up resting on the branch of a tree. I sit up and look around to try to determine where I am. My body is wracked by soreness.

Nothing about the area resembles the grassland I was flying over previously. The sound of running water is quiet, but distinguishable in the distance. Trees are spread around sporadically, each growing with a singular trunk with lime colored leaves that expand into a sphere, making them look like lollipops. There are many small plants spread out along the floor of the grove, making the overall vegetation of this area much thicker than the grassland. There are large brown boulders scattered about, and the evening sun shines down on the area. The ground slopes up into a mountain that is on the opposite side of a small, nearby lake. 

Looking around, I see no one in my immediate vicinity.

Where am I now? “Hello? Is anyone here?” I ask aloud in Annic. I hope someone’s here. I don’t want to be left alone, not with everything that I’ve seen in the last few days.

“Good evening. Did you sleep well?” Vestele asks.

Vestele, is that you? There is a moment of silence as no response comes from Vestele.

“Vestele, can you hear me?” I ask.

“I can hear you, and I told you to call me mother.” Vestele replies, “So, how’d you sleep?”

So, she can only hear me if I speak…

“I slept okay, I guess. Wait, that’s not important, how are you talking to me!?” I respond, confused.

“Hmph. It might not be important to you, but it is to me. As for your question, remember how I couldn’t interact with your spyr?” Vestele states, “Well, now that you have your soul cores, I have a way to connect with you, and thus I can speak to you through them.”

“I see.. well.. um, thank you, for helping me,” I say looking down, my face starts to feel warm.

“Argh… this is so unfair. You’re being so cute, and I can’t do anything!” Vestele complains.

A loud snort suddenly sounds from a branch overhead. “What was that?” I ask, looking up at the branch.

“Snoring? Someone sleeping perhaps?” Vestele speculates.

I stand up to fly to the tree branch overhead, I stretch before taking flight. Another snort rings out. Definitely sounds like snoring. I fly up to the branch, and resting up against the trunk, is a fairy.

She has light tan skin and purple hair. Her hair is in two long ponytails that extend down to her knees. She has pointed ears similar to me and Vestele. Her figure is larger than mine, yet her being about my height still makes her look like a child. She is wearing a white t-shirt with green stripes, yellow short-overalls that cover her stomach, and short brown boots. Her wings are drastically different from mine and Vestele’s. She has four separate wings, with her two forewings having curved edges while the veins have small lights on them. Her two hindwings are thin and long, trailing down behind her with no lights. They all change from a light yellow to purple as they extend away from her back.

“A fairy?” I mutter questioningly.

“A volte to be exact. It’s a fairy that specializes in manipulating electricity,” Vestele explains.

“A volte? Oh right, there’s different types of fairies,” I remember as I walk over to the sleeping fairy and crouch down next to her.

“Yep, we are what you would call skryvers, or white fairies,” Vestele replies, “The others have a specific name too. However, the people of the realms just call us fairies, and distinguish us by our color or element.”

So, I’m a skryver… White fairy is easier to remember so I can understand the people of the realm’s reasoning.

I scan the volte once more and then attempt to wake her. “Excuse me. Hello?” I voice in Annic. The volte does not budge.

“Excuse me, hello,” I say again, this time in Parazic. Once again, the volte does not stir.

“Us fairies have our own language, Zoic, so she might not know what you’re saying,” Vestele comments.

Yay, another language to learn… I sigh aloud.

“Don’t worry, I can teach you. It’s not like I have a ton of things to do,” Vestele laments, almost as if she knew what my sigh meant.

“She’s awake!” a delicate voice shouts over the trees.

I turn in response to the words and see four more fairies flying toward me. They approach and all soar down. Three land around me, and one lands next to the sleeping volte.

The closest one to me has shoulder-length wavy pale-cyan hair with perfectly straight bangs. She has a healthy figure, snow white skin, and is about a head taller than I. She has large alluring cyan eyes, a soft face, large lips, and a small nose. She has two large wings, the edges and veins are snow white, while the membranes between are a translucent cyan and look like ice. She is wearing a pink sweater dress, with a belt around her waist, and long magenta boots that extend past her knees.

The next one has wavy orange hair that goes past her shoulders and brushed back bangs. She is the second tallest fairy here, being shorter than Vestele, has fair white skin, and is slim with a modest bosom. She has round orange eyes, a long face, a sharp jawline, thin lips, and a straight nose. Her four translucent orange wings point down, are thin compared to all the others, and lack any pattern. She has a frilly white blouse, a green over-shirt, brown pants, knee-high green and yellow boots, and a green and yellow butterfly hand bracelet.

Following her is a fairy with moderately long, straight blue hair, with uneven bangs covering her eyebrows. Her light skin and slender physique pair well with her long limbs. She is about the same height as the cyan fairy. She has sea blue eyes, a round face, small lips, a straight nose, and a worried smile. She has two large wings that are both separated into several sections, each a transitioning from a sea blue to a cyan; her wings have barbs that curl at the tips. She is wearing a coral and white sleeveless dress shirt, a coral-colored skirt, and white heeled boots adorning her legs. 

The final fairy, the one that landed next to the volte, has long dark-violet hair that is in one thick braid. She has deep-brown skin, an hourglass figure, and large breasts. She is the tallest fairy here and is about as tall as Vestele. She has a striking face, fierce violet eyes, a wide nose, large lips, and high cheekbones. Her wings are eerie, spreading into four parts, with thin black veins. The edge of her wings look like they’ve been torn. The translucent membrane between the veins changes from black to dark violet as they expand away from her back. She has a white tank-top, a sleeveless, tan collared-vest, thick, dark-blue pants with several pockets, a white belt, and white and brown shoes.

“Oh, a wint, a sylph, a nymph, and an umbra. They must’ve been sent to deal with the storm,” Vestele remarks.

“Wait, which one’s which?” I mutter.

“The cyan fairy is the wint, the blue fairy is the nymph, the orange fairy is the sylph, and the violet fairy is the umbra.”

“Hmm, did you say something?” the nymph asks in Annic.

“No, nothing!” I answer, flustered.

“What the hell are you doing!?” the umbra yells in a rough voice, as she kicks the sleeping volte off the branch.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” a high-pitched scream resounds from the falling volte.

“There they go again,” the nymph says in a sharp voice.

“Yep, never gets old,” the wint laughs.

Vestele and the sylph giggle simultaneously.

Wha… She just kicked her…

“What do you think you’re doing!?” the umbra shouts.

“I was taking a nap, duh,” the volte responds as she flies back up to the branch.

Well, that’s true.

“Ugh, you idiot! Is there something wrong with your head?” the umbra bellows, “I can understand why Faraine left you here, but do you have any idea how fucked you’d be if something happened to a skryver while you were the one watching her!?”

So, one of these fairies is named Faraine? I glance at them again, they’re all joyfully watching the heated argument.

“Ummm, I’d get in trouble?” the volte replies dumbly.

“Trouble wouldn’t even be the beginning!” the umbra continues, then stops for a moment, “You have no idea what I’m talking about.”

“Nuh uh,” the volte answers.

“Okay, to put it into perspective for you, you’d be put to work for the rest of your life without ever being allowed to take another nap,” the umbra retorts fiercely.

No naps? That doesn’t sound so bad…

The volte sits there quietly for a moment, then screams, “NOOOOO! Please anything but that, not my naps! I- I won’t survive!”

“Then make sure you watch the skryver properly next time idiot!” the umbra shouts, kicking the volte off the branch again.

The umbra sighs heavily, turns toward us, then walks over to me and says, “Sorry about that. I’m Koralesca. This is Zoelle,” she says, pointing at the wint. “This is Faraine,” as she points to the nymph. “The quiet one here is Lenadrea,” as she motions to the sylph, “And the one I kicked off a moment ago is Orianna.”

“Hello.” “Nice to meet you,” say Zoelle and Faraine simultaneously. Lenadrea simply bows silently.

“Hello, my name’s Evetta. It’s nice to meet you,” I reply, “Um, Orianna, is she going to be okay?”

“She’ll be fine,” Faraine responds, “This is pretty routine for them.”

Zoelle adds, “I think Orianna does it for fun.”

That’s fun…

“Don’t mind her,” Koralesca sighs, “If you give her any attention, she won’t leave you alone.”

“Hey! Did you have to kick me again? That hurts you know,” Orianna whines as she flies over to join us.

“You’re fine, aren’t you?” Koralesca rebukes. She looks at me and says in a serious tone, “Alright, jokes aside. Who are you, and who is your mother?”

“Huh?” I mutter. Oh crap, what do I say…

“I don’t mean your name either. You’re a skryver, but there should only be three skryvers in this area,” Koralesca clarifies, “Don’t misunderstand, I’m grateful that another skryver is here, but there’s no way someone would leave a young skryver like you alone. We will guide you back to Folian, but we won’t know where to bring you afterward, so, I’ll ask again. Who are you, and who is your mother?”

“Just tell them you’re my daughter,” Vestele states calmly.

“Um…” I mumble. Just tell them! Are they going to believe me?

“I’m… Vestele’s daughter,” I mutter looking down as my face becomes incredibly hot. I just told other people that I’m her daughter… dammit...

“Sorry, could you repeat that?” Koralesca asks, “A bit louder this time.”

“I’m Vestele’s daughter,” I reiterate anxiously, closing my eyes as I wait for a response.

The only response I receive is the sound of the running water in the distance, and the cool evening breeze.

Nothing?

I slowly open my eyes to peek at the fairies, each one has an astonished look on their face.

“Um, are you okay?” I ask.

“Vestele’s daughter…” Zoelle mutters.

“Impossible,” Koralesca states.

Lenadrea is covering her mouth with her hands and tears in her eyes. Faraine appears to be thinking something.

“Vestele, her majesty?” Orianna asks.

Do they believe me?

“Evetta,” Faraine speaks up, “How old are you?”

“Se-ah, um, ten,” I answer.

“Ten!?” Faraine shouts.

“No way…” Zoelle and Koralesca gasp.

Orianna walks over to Lenadrea and asks her something. The two fly off seconds later.

“Ten years old?” Faraine asks.

“That’s right...” I clarify.

“Wait, but if you’re her majesty’s daughter, and you’re ten years old, then that means…” Koralesca exclaims before trailing off.

“Is she alive?” Zoelle asks.

“Yes, she’s alive,” I answer.

Tears begin flowing from Koralesca’s eyes. The sounds of her crying fills the forest as she gets down on her knees and weeps aloud. She crawls over to me and wails into my legs, muttering “Her majesty” in between sobs.

Well, that’s not what I expected.

“Looks like I made this one worry,” Vestele says softly.

Both Faraine and Zoelle walk over to Koralesca and console the crying umbra, neither one crying themselves. I wonder why they aren’t as emotional about finding out that Vestele’s alive?

After several minutes of tears, Koralesca calms down. The sunlight is now gone, and darkness coats our surroundings.

“Are you okay now?” I ask, confirming that Koralesca has calmed down.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” she apologizes.

“Quite a shock to learn that her majesty’s alive,” Faraine comments.

“I’m surprised you believed me,” I state.

“Why wouldn’t we?” Zoelle asks, “If you’re her majesty's daughter, that would actually explain a lot I think. You're obviously a skryver, Faraine and Orianna claim they watched you stop the storm on your own, and.. it's gone. So even if we're skeptical, we have no real reason to doubt you.”

“Unless you’re lying to us,” Koralesca adds.

“No, definitely not,” I respond instantly.

“Well, then there you go,” Koralesca replies, “So, where’s her majesty. She is alive right?”

“Um…” Fuck, now what?

“Tell them that I’m recovering, but you have a way to summon me once you get to the spirit realm,” Vestele responds.

“Ah, well. M-mother’s recovering, but if I can get to the spirit realm, she gave me a way to summon her,” I quickly answer.

“Aww, you called me mother,” Vestele comments.

Don’t get used to it.

“Really!” Koralesca shouts excitedly.

“So, we’re bringing her back to Folian then?” Faraine asks.

“Yeah, that’s the idea,” Koralesca confirms.

Folian? “Um, take me where?” I ask.

“A fairy sanctuary. A safe-haven for fairies in the realms,” Faraine answers. “Essentially a home for most fairies living outside the spirit realm.”

“If you need to get back to the spirit realm, then the best way would be to return to Folian,” Koralesca adds, “There, we can regroup with the other fairies and head home.”

But… What about Myrna and the others?

“Um… sorry, but, I can’t go with you,” I say glumly.

“What do you mean you can’t go?” Koralesca asks, raising her voice.

“I want to make sure my friend is okay,” I respond.

“Was there another fairy traveling with you?” Zoelle asks.

“No,” I reply, shaking my head, “She’s an elf. She’s been taking care of me ever- she’s been taking care of me for a while now.”

“An elf?” Koralesca mumbles.

“What about her majesty?” Faraine asks.

“She was asleep most of the time. I recently left with Myrna, she’s my friend, and we got caught up in that storm. I managed to stop it, but I don’t know if she’s okay,” I state, concern apparent in my voice.

“Evetta, ah sorry. Maybe Princess Evetta would be more accurate,” Koralesca corrects herself, “I know this might sound rude, but… I think it would be better if you avoid getting close with people of the realms. Lately, there have been a lot of fairies that have gone missing.”

Great, now they’re going to start calling me princess. And yeah, that’s probably the fairy hunters’ fault.

“You really don’t have to call me princess,” I remark, but they continue on with the conversation as though I didn’t say anything.

“She’s not saying that your friend has any relation to this, but… we can’t trust the people of the realms,” Faraine continues after Koralesca.

“I think you’ll enjoy Folian more,” Zoelle comments, “If you’re actually her majesty’s daughter, then you’ll get to see your brother too.”

My brother?

“Oh, so either Nolodar or Alduin are there. I wonder how well they’ve been doing?” Vestele chimes.

“Right, there’s plenty of other fairies you’ll get to meet too,” Koralesca states.

“Hey, we brought food!” Orianna suddenly shouts, landing next to the others with three red berries in her arms. Lenadrea also lands, carrying three berries.

The two begin handing out berries to everyone, Orianna rushes over and gives me the largest berry among the five berries.

“Here! I made sure to get you the biggest one,” Orianna says happily as she looks down at me.

I take the berry, seeing that it appears to be a strawberry. “Thank you,” I say with a strained smile. Orianna stares at me for a moment. I ask, “Um, would you mind if I think about it?”

Everyone turns to look at me. “Think about what?” Orianna asks.

“About whether she’ll come with us back to Folian,” Faraine replies.

“Sor-” Koralesca says.

“Of course,” Lenadrea responds.

“Lenadrea!” Koralesca shouts. Lenadrea turns and glares at Koralesca menacingly.

Koralesca backs down immediately and responds, “Fine, but we leave tomorrow morning. Regardless of where you go though, we’re coming with you. That’s not negotiable.”

“Okay. Thank you for giving me some time,” I respond as I walk away from them, “I’ll be up at the top of the tree if you need me.”

I fly up through the branches, avoiding the leaves and sticks. What should I do? Go with Myrna or go back with them?

I stop before reaching the top of the tree, find a branch, sit down on it, and place the berry at my side. Now away from the other fairies, I pull my legs up to my chest, wrap my arms around them, placing my face in my knees. I begin to cry.

Stay with Myrna? Go with them? I don’t want to have to pick. I want to do both… Dammit, why? I hate this! And I’m crying again, dammit...

Vestele speaks up, “Sweetheart. Do you want to talk about it?”

“Vestele…” I sob quietly, “I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to leave Myrna, but I know the longer I stay with her, the more people are going to suffer, and I don’t want that either.” Tears continue to flow from my eyes.

“Evetta, do you remember what I told you during our first talk?” Vestele asks.

“No?” I respond.

“I told you I don’t care what you do, the only thing I would like is that you eventually make it to the spirit realm,” Vestele replies, “If you want to go see your friend, I will have no complaints. Just do what you want to do.”

What I want to do… My tears stop for the time being.

“I’m not sure,” I mumble, “Ever since arriving here, I’ve just been with Myrna. I’ve never thought about what I want to do.”

“Did you know, there’s a solution to that,” Vestele states.

“There is?” I ask.

“Of course. The reason you don’t know what you want to do is because you haven’t experienced enough of the world,” Vestele explains, “Since you lack experience, you’re unsure about what you like and dislike, thus, you don’t know what you want to do.”

“I lack experience?” I ponder. Will that really solve my issue?

“That’s right. Did you have a goal in your previous world?” Vestele asks, “Why were you working there in that forest?”

Why was I working in the forest? “Ah, because I liked the calming environment and because it reminded me of a place I went to as a kid,” I reply.

“Okay, so what makes this world any different? The world is vast and complex. There’s plenty to see and even more to do,” Vestele continues, “You’ll have many opportunities as a fairy. My great-great grandparents lived to be well over five-thousand years old.”

“Five thousand…? Vestele… I can’t even imagine how long that is…” I respond, stunned.

“Exactly. Let’s use the sky for example, what was the sky like in your world?” Vestele asks.

“The sky? It was blue in the day and black at night, the same as it is here, right?” I answer.

“Were there any moons in your sky at night?” Vestele continues.

Moons? “Of course there was a moon.” I retort as a tinge of anger starts to grow in me at the stupidity of the question.

“Well, this world doesn’t have one moon. Go up and take a look,” Vestele suggests.

I do as Vestele says, fly up to the top of the tree and, while hovering in place, look up at the night sky, clearly seeing it for the first time since arriving in this world. There, floating amongst the millions of white stars rest several colorful moons. “Wow,” I mutter in awe. They’re beautiful. To the left are a cyan, and purple moon. In the middle is a bright, glowing-grey moon. To the right are an almost non-visible black, and pink moon.

“They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” Vestele whispers.

“Yeah,” I reply, looking up at the moons.

“Each moon radiates energy for one month, hence where the months get their names,” Vestele says, “See how the grey moon is glowing? That’s how you can tell what month it is. Perseus is its name.”

“Perseus?” I repeat.

“Next month will be the black moon Musca. In the middle of the year, none of the moon's glow, while at the start of a new year, all the moon's glow, with the black moon, Musca, being the exception,” Vestele explains, “It’s one of the most wondrous sights in the world.”

“They all glow? I’d like to see that,” I mutter.

“Okay, you now have at least one goal. Just like that, you have to experience things to know what you do and don’t want to do,” Vestele consoles, “You’ll eventually come to understand, but just do what you want to do.” 

As I hover there watching the moons, the stress from earlier leaves my body. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Vestele replies, “Also, I told you to call me mother.”

I chuckle to myself as I land on a tree branch, sit down, and wrap my arms around my knees. Do what I want to do, huh? Okay, I’ll keep that in mind.

TearCRF

Hi again everyone, sorry the chapter was delayed so much. I have more chapters in the works, but I was struggling to figure out chapters 7-18. I now have a solid direction to head, and now that me and my editor are caught up, chapters should be released more consistently now. Thanks for your patience and I hope you enjoyed the chapter, see you all next time.

What did you think of this chapter? Any thoughts on the storm? How do you feel about Vestele's new way of communicating with Evetta? Who is your favorite character up to this point? How did you feel about the final dialogue between Evetta and Vestele?