Azalea PoV

I was finally – officially at least, an adventurer. Excitement coursed through me as I zipped about, happily doing barrel rolls and little loops. I was preoccupied enough that I almost didn’t notice when Ryel stopped walking and uttered “Oh,” quietly. 

“Ryel, is everything okay?” Kelcie asked, turning around to look at the half orc brat. 

The girl in question just stood there, like she was frozen in time. I buzzed over to her, and poked her green cheek. It was soft and warm, but she didn’t react at all. I waved my hand in front of her face. “Hello, earth to Ryel!”

Kelcie walked over quickly, her eyes full of concern.  Callie and Raya walked over, slightly slower but with concerned looks on their faces as well. 

“What's wrong with her?” Kelcie asked in a near panic, brushing Ryel’s hair from her face and looking in her vacant eyes. 

I poked Ryel’s cheek again, before attempting to tickle her neck in the spot that she’s ticklish in. A cold shiver of concern ran down my back at the lack of response. I had never failed to get a response from tickling her, ever. 

“Huh. Nothing. Hmm, what about…?” I mumbled, trailing off as I used [Inspect] on her. 

Ryel

Class: Class Selection in Progress

I let out a sigh of relief. “Use [Inspect] on her.” I floated in front of Ryel confused by all of this. When I got my Class, none of this happened. One moment I was Classless, and the next my HUD came online, showing me my information. Do the people not considered monsters get to choose their Class? I do remember some mention of that, especially by an excited Ryel. 

Kelcie gasped. “What do we do? I’ve never known the class selection process to start during the day before, have any of you? It’s always been the first thing when you wake up in the morning, as far as I know,” she said, frowning. 

Callie stepped forward, frowning as well. “That’s always been my understanding of it too.” She shrugged. “It shouldn’t take her long to choose and finish the process, we’ll just wait it out, make sure she’s not hurt until then.”

With a heavy sigh, Kelcie crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t like it, but you’re right. There’s nothing that we can do. Maybe this is a good thing? It’ll mean that she’s finally gotten her class and the sooner we get her leveled up, the safer she’ll be. We should all focus on increasing our levels, honestly. With the Dragon War, and an undead horde invasion, on top of random dragon attacks? The stronger we are, the safer I’ll feel.”

We all nodded our heads, affirming our agreement with her. I flew over and sat on Kelcie’s shoulder, leaning into her warm neck and cheek. “It’ll be okay, I promise. Ryel’s a tough kid, and we’ve got a really good mix of roles in our party. Hopefully we’ll get some good levels from this expedition as well.”

I was pretty sure that it wasn’t my imagination that Kelcie leaned her head towards me, but Ryel suddenly gasped, unfreezing, and I shelved the thought for now. I used [Inspect] on her again, curious to see what it showed now. 

Ryel

Level 1, Tinkerer (Rare)

Blinking in surprise, I flew over to Ryel, relieved that she was back from… wherever it was that she went. 

“Hey, everyone!” Ryel said cheerfully, waving excitedly. “You’d never guess what just happened!”

“You got your class,” I deadpanned. 

Ryel’s excitement dimmed slightly, before her smile brightened. “Oh, well I guess you could,” she giggled. “I got the rare Tinkerer class, most of the others were kinda boring, but this one will let me do explosions!” Her grin turned a little feral, and I swore there were flames in her eyes. 

Kelcie stepped forward, pulling Ryel into a tight hug. “I’m just glad that you’re okay. We were worried about you.”

Two little green arms wrapped around Kelcie’s back, hugging her back. “I’m okay, honest. I wasn’t even scared when Adam talked to me. He was weird and a little rude, but it’s fine,” Ryel said, her voice muffled from Kelcie all but strangling her. 

Callie made a weird choking sound, breathing in with a gasp. “Did you say that you met Adam? The Adam?”

Ryel turned her head to look at the rest of us, part of her face hidden by Kelcie’s pink hair. “Yeah… why? Who is he?”

“He is either a minor God, who doesn’t desire to be worshipped, or… and this is a theory that some theologians have speculated on, that he’s actually not just a major God, but the biggest major God around. The one that all of the gods and goddesses answer to.”

Ryel and Raya frowned, although I noticed that Kelcie didn’t seem surprised either, nerd. I smiled at Kelcie being a nerd, she always had books on her. I had offered to carry some in my inventory for her last night, and she had been so excited that she had babbled about visiting a bookstore soon after we’d finished all the important jobs. It was adorable. 

I eventually noticed that my focus had drifted. I had been staring at Kelcie dreamily, when Ryel waved to get my attention. I realised that everyone was staring at me, including Kelcie, who was blushing under my gaze. I blushed too, and clearing my throat, I lifted a quizzical eyebrow at Ryel. “Sorry, I was thinking about something else, what’s up?”

Smirking and glancing between Kelcie and I, Ryel giggled. “I bet you were.” She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. How old is this kid? I thought, trying to suppress a blush. 

Raya and Callie were giggling as well, while Kelcie’s blush deepened, her ears going as pink as her hair. I poked my tongue out at Ryel. That’d tell her who’s boss. The little brat just smirked, so I crossed my arms and pouted. That usually worked in my favour. 

“I said, Adam had a message for you.”

Score one for pouting cutely, wait… what?

“Umm… what?”

“I said…”

“No, I heard you the first time, well… second time actually. But why would he have a message for me? Actually, what is the message?”

Ryel’s smirk dropped as she tapped her chin, Kelcie having finally let her go. “He said something about you needing to stop being so reckless. That… umm, he didn’t bring you into this world just so you could kill yourself. Or something like that. Azalea, is Adam your Dad?”

I frowned as everyone looked at me in shock, Callie’s morphing into a thoughtful expression. “What? No, I’m only a fairy, not a demi-god or-or something.”

Kelcie looked at me with her big orange eyes, melting my insides into warm goo. “I don’t know, Azalea. You told me yourself that you never actually met your dad and that the other fairies never spoke about him. There is also the fact that you’re crazy powerful already. And he sounds worried about you. Did he sound worried, Ryel?”

The young half-orc looked thoughtful, clearly thinking. “Azalea’s dad sounded more annoyed to me than anything else.”

“He isn’t my dad,” I pouted. 

Kelcie looked unconvinced, Ryel was smirking at me, the little brat, and Callie and Raya just looked unsure. 

“Well… regardless of who he is in relation to you, Azalea, he does have a good point about you being reckless,” Kelcie said, looking at me. 

I crossed my arms and pouted even harder. “I know, I know. I’ll try not to be so crazy, okay?”

The Magical Girl nodded. “Well… I guess that’s the best I’ll get from you, for now. But until you’re reasonable, I won’t stop nagging you. That goes for you too, young lady,” Kelcie said, tapping Ryel’s shoulder pointedly. “Just because you’ve got a class now, doesn’t mean that you can be as reckless as our silly little fairy is.” 

“Yes, mum,” Ryel said, rolling her eyes with a sigh. I could see her cheeks blush a darker green though, obviously pleased that Kelcie cared so much about her. Kelcie’s face immediately went red again, and I couldn’t help but cackle at that. She had only just gotten herself under control from the last time that she blushed. 

“Right, well. We may as well go back into the association hall and get Ryel registered as an adventurer and sign her up for the expedition. That’s what you wanted, right?”

Ryel excitedly bounced up and down on her toes. “Yes, please!”

“I’m not sure that she’s excited enough, honestly, but I guess we’ll go and sign her up,” I said sarcastically, poking my tongue out at Ryel in response to hers. 

Callie and Raya looked at each other, before Callie turned back to us. “We might go ahead and look at what supplies the stores still have available while you do that. If we wait too long, there might not be anything left,” Callie said, looking a little concerned. 

Kelcie nodded. “Good idea. We’ll meet you at that cafe next to the outfitters for Ryel’s equipment. Keep in touch in the party chat.” 

Callie nodded, and Raya waved as they walked off holding hands. 

I frowned, watching them go. “I don’t like splitting up, but they make sense I suppose.” I sighed. “Still no idea about that Adam guy though. That’s bugging me, why would he want me to be safe? What does he want? And please don’t say that he’s my dear, old dad.”

As we started walking back to the association building, I couldn’t shake the idea that there was more going on here than I had ever thought. Clearly I had been reincarnated for a reason, I just wish I knew why.

Kelcie shrugged. I could see concern in her eyes as she patted the side of my shoulder gently. “I’m sure we’ll find out eventually. It’ll be okay, I’ll be here with you. We all will.”

Warmth flooded my heart, suddenly making my chest feel a little tight. I’d definitely gotten lucky meeting Kelcie. And the others too, of course. 

“Oh, yeah. Adam wanted me to protect you as well. I even got a quest for it,” Ryel spoke up suddenly, a perplexed look on her face. 

“What?” Kelcie yelled, startled, stopping in her tracks as she looked at Ryel. 

Ryel shrugged. “It’s not a big deal, I’ll be with her for the most part anyway. As long as Azalea doesn’t get herself killed, it’ll be an easy quest.”

I snorted, then attempted to cover it up with a cough as Kelcie glared at me. I raised my arms up, as if to say, ‘What can you do?’

Kelcie sighed, then looked around sheepishly at all the people who were looking at her curiously. She had just yelled pretty loudly. Either that, or they’re staring at me, or both of us. I mostly just ignored them now, it’s not like there are any other fairies around for them to gawk at. 

“That’s weird, and kind of flattering, I guess? But Ryel, I want you to promise me that you won’t put yourself in harm's way, again, in order to save me, okay?”

I raised an eyebrow at Kelcie, as if to say, ‘How’s that, better?’ I wanted to high five myself, I felt like I was really nailing nonverbals today. 

Ryel bobbed her head and shoulders several times in agreement, but didn’t say anything. Someone else was nailing their nonverbal language as well, I see. Good on her… copycat. I hummed, laughing under my breath at that thought, before a heavenly scent hit my nose. Floating towards the smell, I briefly got a flash back to watching cartoons as a kid… okay, and as an adult, where the characters smelt something delicious and their bodies floated towards it. Giggling, I sped up, heading towards a cart that hadn’t been there when we passed earlier. 

I heard Kelcie and Ryel follow behind, shouting after me. They had to dodge traffic though, I just went over everyone’s heads. As I approached, the line cleared, revealing a bunch of chocolate crepe-looking desserts, drizzled with chocolate sauce and some kind of whipped cream. 

A human lady sitting behind the divine treats looked up and saw me flying towards her, her eyes widened in surprise a little before she smiled widely at me. “Oh, g’day, miss fairy. Come to try my delicious wares, have ya? I can’t rightly say I’ve ever met one of your kind before. Tell ya what, first one’s on the house. Just for ya.”

My eyes lit up in delight. I hadn’t had chocolate in over fifty years. After I got sick, I could barely eat, chocolate had been the last thing on my mind. 

Kelcie and Ryel finally reached me, looking confused at what is no doubt a very hungry expression on my face. 

“Who wants one? My shout,” I offered. 

Ryel bounced up and down, a bright and happy smile on her face. “Me, me!”

We both looked at Kelcie, pleading. I blushed as I imagined sharing my dessert with Kelcie. I’ve never wanted to share a dessert with anyone before. 

“Oh, alright. What’s the harm in having just one?”

Mackenzie

She’s right. What’s the harm in giving a fairy sugar like that? Thanks for reading everyone! I appreciate your support and encouragement, it helps keep me writing :) have a good day!