Peace at last, peace at last, at last, I am at peace at last~

“Spider Monkey Attack!”

Yet a certain green fairy plans otherwise. Bouncing off the treetops I see a dashing green blur, before I see her falling form, and...

One step to the side, aaand…

“Kya!”

Grab.

“Caught yah,” I whispered into my little assailant's ear, as she hangs uselessly upon my arm. “Spidermonkey? Really? Where do you even get these ideas?”

She gives me a blank look.

“Oh… yeah. Whoops?”

Keeping my promise we're playing at the edge of the forest where monsters are null to nonexistent, and where we can go out playing with magic without restrictions. Having been under Laws wing for several weeks there were several restrictions he had in place for the sake of 'safety.' Although I could agree with them to a degree, I could see it was just an excuse to keep me under control, and teach Sylphy less bad habits.

Hah! Jokes on you, I'm nothing but bad habits!

Obviously he was looking out for us, but I found it rather restricting, and so did Sylphy, and so we're now hitting multiple birds with one stone as we take out all our stress on each other playing little pranks and games all the way home.

A part of me agrees Laws was right about me.

I'm still going to have fun though.

“Sylphy surprise attacks are all fun, and good, but you have to be careful when you land. What would you have done if I didn’t catch you?”

“But Rudy WAS going to catch me.”

“You’re it. I’m literally supposed to do anything, but catch you.”

“But you did.”

I pinch her ear, lightly, but she needed ‘some’ punishment for all her backtalk.

“So much cheek for such a little body. Who raised you to be so smart with your elders?”

“Awwwuuu! I’m soooory!” She squirms under my hold.

I let her go, and fall gently to her knees.

“That’s good. Now enough about that. Lets keep going, and-oh,” leaning down, I whisper in her ear. “No spider business.”

“Mmh… got it,” she mumbles, a blushing mess.

“Alright. Sooo… one, two, three…”

Panicking, she realizes what I’m doing, and makes a run for it. Waving her arms frantically, she summons a wind, and starts leapfrogging, bouncing like a rabbit as her magically enhanced legs make indentations on the trees as she pushes against them.

I taught her well.

“Six, seven, eight…”

Unlike traditional tag, we give each other a ten second head start, before we start chasing each other. It’s more fun that way. Seeing as we both have magic at our disposal, our fun would end too easily if we didn't give each other that much of a reprieve.

Now where is she going?

She’s going west, and if I remember correctly, that is… the place we placed our kite-shields. It’s far, but I know the location.

I see what you're doing.

“Nine, ten. Ready you’re not here I come!” Bending a knees, I gather a force of wind, and blast myself in that general direction. Her visage becomes clearer, as I make haste, and start nearing her form.

Poof. Poof. Poof. Small pops of air sound as I bounce off the trees.

Her eyes widen, as I feel the mana gathering, and her leaps becoming wider.

Nice jump, Luigi, but everyone knows Mario has better hops. I think.

That said, she has gathered enough lead that she reaches the kites before me, and starts strapping herself in. Half a second later, and I just miss her as a small streak of green shoots between my fingertips.

“So close… Well, all is fair in love and war. Now time for my-” the sentence dies in my throat.

“...where’s my kite?” Looking around all I see is grass.

I could have sworn I put my kite next to hers.

Did she…

Looking up… I see her dancing in the wind, and… swaying back and forth as a very familiar kite lies in her hands.

I definitely taught her too well.

You little spider monkey!

“Bweh!” She stops her swaying and turns towards me sticking her tongue out, and waving my kite at my face. Flying a small distance away, she does it again, her smile playful.

She’s taunting me.

“Oh, you want to play. Let’s play.” I jump, and reach for her.

Only for her to maneuver out of the way.

Then I do so again.

And again she flies.

Again and again.

We’re playing a game of cat and mouse… except this mouse flies.

“Okay… let’s get creative,” I jumped once more, blasting myself up to her. Maneuvering out of the way, she tilts to the side, and lets me fall while she sways gently in the wind.

I’m not done yet though.

Creating an Ice slide, mid fall, I position myself, and slide down then, building momentum, then up and… I blast a wind behind me once more, shooting towards her, turning myself into a hot wheel.

“Eep!” Caught off guard she barely avoids me.

But that’s only the beginning.

Pft.

Creating an ice block mid-air, and shattering it, I bounce off it, and blast myself her way once more.

If one don’t have the environmental advantage, then make it.

Pft. Pft. Pft. Bouncing once more I bound up the ice blocks one step at a time. Shattering them as I do so. My own little staircase to heaven.

It’s funny.

Water Ball, Fire Ball, Earth Bullet, their all offshoots of each other, but they all have the same gravity defying property all spells have. Hovering in the place over the area their cast, they defy gravity before being released. While running it even follows you, orbiting its caster, despite gravity and inertia still being a thing.

So despite the laws of physics saying that I shouldn’t be able to do this. Despite gravity saying I should fall. I say…

Fuck you Physics!

Pft!

“Wahh!” She sways to the right avoiding me.

Pft. Pft. Pft.

Again and again we repeat our little dance. A zig for her zag, a sway to my swish, and a hover to my cover.

Until…

“Got yah!” I landed on Sylphy’s back grabbing her kite.

“Kyaah! Rudy?!” Her balance is shaken, and we plummet a little.

It’s fine though. It’s only temporary as I’m taking what’s mine.

A sway to the left, and I roll of her form, our bodies intertwined, flipping myself to face her, I see her dazed expression as I reach for her hands. Befuddled, she could do little to stop me, as in a breath before she could react, I reached for her wrist, wrestled my kite free, and pushed myself off, letting myself freefall.

“R-Rudy?!” She yells, reaching instinctively.

Giving her a wink and a two finger salute, I hope to calm her nerves.

Who do you think I am? I’ve mastered the skies since I was six years old, harumph!

“You’re it!” I yell. Forming a wind blast I slowed my fall, adjusted the kite mid fall, and gilded safety as the wind carried me to a safe landing.

Whew… that was… more exhilarating than I thought it would be.

Turning to the sky, I see her standing there aghast, floating in place, her eyes wide and mouth agape figuring out what to say.

“What? Cat got your tongue? How long are you going to float there… slowpoke.”

“Mmm!” Her ears start flapping, like a hummingbird, and the mana rises. “One, two…” she starts counting.

“Ha ha…” gathering a wind, I exit stage left.

I have just raised the stakes. And I love every-little-thing about it.

“Come and catch me, green fairy!”

Don’t blame me. You’re the one that brought kites into the equation.

“Seven… eightnineten!”

“That’s cheating!” I yell.

She zipped behind me, trying to catch up. Emphasis on try. I am the teacher for a reason.

But… it wouldn’t be fun if she didn’t stand a little bit of a chance.

I slowed down, allowing her to catch up.

“Mmh… mmh… almost theeeere,” she reaches, and at the last second, I maneuver just out of her reach. “So close.” She tries again, and again I maneuver just out of her reach. "Almost their little mouse. Keep at it. I believe in you," I teased. “Or did you want me to slow down?”

“Mmu!” she pouts.

Heh~ Surprisingly fun.

“Hey don’t look at me like that. You’re the one who brought kites into the picture. If you couldn’t handle it, you should have kept it a foot race, now how are you going to-”

“Water ball!” She casts.

Whoosh. I dodge a water ball aimed at my face.

Well, aren't you a regular Kazuma? Who taught you the North god style?!

Well, whatever. I’m down for this too.

“Blergh!” I stick out my tongue.

Childish? Of course, but who's going to tell on me? Oh no, that seven year old is acting like a seven year old. Ground him!

“That's all you got~”

“Water ball, Water ball, Water ball…” and I continued to dodge here and there, again and again.

It was an effective strategy, as it is slowing down my flying speed, as I have to take time to dodge the water balls again and again, but it’s not enough.

Still fun though.

“Ha ha…” I laugh.

“Mmh! Ruuudddy, look a dragon!” She hollers.

“Really?” I flipped, turning to her. “Of all the things you can say, you think I’m going to-”

Splash.

A water ball hits me from behind.

Cold water running down my eyes, and dripping down my back. My vision is blurry before-

Bop. I feel a tap on my forehead.

“...”

In the moment I let my guard down a flying creature came by my front and gave me a love tap on my temple marking my loss.

Danger; fairies are closer than they appear.

“He he~ Did I say dragon? I meant Water ball.” Sylphy smiled, swaying in place.

…I can’t tell if that was really dumb or really clever. A distraction tactic, with an obvious lie, but attacking me by my blindside. Nice, I approve. I still fell for it though.

All the sparring lessons are having an effect one way or another. Even if she never becomes a swordsman, she can definitely fight them head on.

“Sooo… wanna keep going?” She says, floating like a dandelion in the wind, as she sashays all around me.

“One, two, three…” I counted.

“He he he~” she stops her swaying, and zips away.

Give this girl a yard and she takes a mile, that’s what I get for going easy on you.

“Fourfivesixeightnine… ten! Ready, you’re not, here I come!”

“That’s cheating!” she yelled.

“Turnabout is fair play!”

“That’s just cheating!”

“It’s called strategy!”

Be careful what you wish for, you wanted this.

///

“Hah… hah… hah… why… why aren’t you breathing… hard?” Sylphy asked.

Before me, the little trickster, laid sweating, gathering her breath, as we just finished playing. We haven’t flown extensively since fall, so I suspect she’s forgotten how to conserver her energies.

“I have better control. Even if we do the same things, I can do them for longer, and more efficiently than you.”

“I… see…”

Her chest goes up and down, slowing down, as her breathing calms.

“It’s also because I’m amazing.”

“...”

That’s what you get, you little spidermonkey.

That said…

“Sylphy…”

“Hmm?”

“Here,” I created a waterball in mid air, and per a casting before it’s sent out, it simply hovers in place. It’s funny, it takes almost no effort to have it defy gravity like this. As long as the waterball is close to the caster who initiated it, it stays within their field of range, like a moon orbiting its planet, but it loses its structure the further it gets from its caster.

Taking a knee, I knelt down, and lowered the waterball down, and offered it for her to drink.

“Here, have a drink.”

“Mmh…” she drinks from my hand. Nourishing herself, and recuperating. “Puah! That’s good. Thanks Rudy.” She beams at me, smiling widely.

Gathering her bearings she gets up into a sitting position, and stretches her hands out to me.

“Hmm?” I questioned.

“Ups.”

“Hah?”

“Ups. I’m tired, carry me,” she continues holding her hands while wiggling her finger slightly.

“Pfft, you sure have grown bold haven’t you, but if it’s only this much, I suppose I can do it,” reaching my hands beneath her, wrapping them under her arms and legs, I give her a princess carry, and start carrying her to our tree. “It’s still kind of early. Want to go home?”

She snuggles against my chest, rubbing her face against me.

“No, not yet. Let’s rest. I’m tired.”

“And comfortable I bet.”

Carrying her to our sparring hill. I wonder what people would think if they saw us at this moment.

I look down at her peaceful form. Her eyes closed, a small smile.

At the very least she’ll be happy.

“If your father saw me right now he would be throwing a fit.”

“He he, probably. How dare Rudy attack me?”

“Who attacked who?”

“Rudy attacked me.”

“Language! And we were playing, theirs not a mark on your body. If anything, you attacked me, you shot spells at me.”

“He he, that’s true, but daddy probably wouldn’t see it that way.”

“Well, thank god he’s not here.”

“Yeah… he isn’t,” she snuggled her head closer to my chest.

Infinitely bolder…

“You know… no matter how much you do that. You’re not going to burrow yourself into my chest.”

“We’ll see about that~”

“Ha ha,” I laugh.

This girl sure is something else.

She’s becoming more and more unpredictable by the day. The day she was just the shy girl, has come and gone, and although there are still remnants of that girl here and there, she sometimes throws me off. Like right now.

It’s a bit odd. To have someone behaving so differently than what I expected, but still being familiar.

“You’re awesome Sylphy.”

She looked up at me with big eyes, staring at me for a good second, before her face reddened, and immediately turning her head away.

Well… Sylphy is still Sylphy.

“Ha ha…”

As I thought, her shy girl core is still intact. It makes it fun teasing her. Don’t grow too quickly have you. I will miss the days we could do this if you did. My life’s greatest pleasures right now is seeing her blushing face.

“We’ve sure come a long way huh?”

“Rudy?”

“Just thinking… how we met. Remember… the first time we met you were wearing a hoodie, and hiding your face, and I was… well I was a bit of a jerk. Sorry about that by the way. And now we’re here. Talk about messy beginnings right? Now that I think about it,” I looked down on her as she’s looking up at me, “you used to think I was scary right? A regular monster. Heh~” I smirked, “whatever happened to that?”

The blush she had hit again, her already rosy appearance becoming a strong crimson.

“It couldn’t be helped. Rudy is too eccentric for his own good. Theirs not a girl around that wouldn’t have been scared of you. And then that ‘monster,’ picked me up by my collar and started calling me a pervert. You were a bully.”

“Ah… I did do something like that, didn’t I?” I tilt my neck, “tee hee?”

“...I don’t know what that means.”

“It’s a forbidden technique that means I’m sorry.”

“Like puppy dog eyes?”

“Like the puppy dog eyes.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter. I’ve forgiven Rudy a long time ago, and besides,” she tilts her head looking up at me. “Rudy’s not a monster.”

“Oh?” I smirked, “are you sure about that. You thought I was taking you to our tree. You fool! I’m taking you to my cave! You’re my supper. You have fallen into my net, and now I’m going to eat you up, muahaha…”

“Rudy…”

“Hai?”

“Your acting sucks.”

I flinch as if struck.

“...you couldn’t let me have one could you.”

“Nope. You’ve already won enough. I have to win sometimes too.”

“Well, what did you win?”

“I won Rudy!”

“Ha ha, you little devil you.”

“Mhuu!” she puffs her cheeks. “I was serious though…” she whispers. Being in my arms I hear it clearly.

Let's ignore it.

While we were talking we made it to our tree, without her notice. Looking down at her, I get ready to let go, before meeting her eyes and seeing a smirk.

She can do that?

“I-know-something-you-don’t-know~”

“Hmm, and that is?”

“This,” she moves one of her hands away from my neck, and attacks my armpit. She tickled me. “Secret technique, tickle blast.”

“S-S-Sylphy ha ha, s-stop t-t-that.”

That's not fair. That’s cheating. I can’t defend myself right now.

“But, this is so much fun~” she wiggles a finger underneath a weak spot of mine.

How does she know this?

“S-S-Sylphy, ha ha, t-that’s unfa-airrrr, I-I-I’m going to d-drop youuu.”

“It’s not unfair. It’s… what does Rudy say…” she stops tickling me, tapping her bottom lip, as she thinks of what to say. “Ah!” Her eyes brighten. Leaning up, she reaches my ear and whispers, “it’s strategy.”

“Strategy?” I questioned.

“Strategy.”

Wanting to rest my body… and mind a bit, I bent a knee, and rested under our tree's shade. Still holding Sylphy in my arms, as I rested.

“Strategy.”

“Strategy.”

“...”
“...”

We stare at each other for a moment, resting after a long day, before…

“Pfft ha ha ha…”
“Pftt he he he…”

We burst into laughter. It’s not even that funny. It's just… it’s just nice.

“Sylphy…” I wiped a tear from my eyes.

“...Hai?”

“Never grow up.”

“I said no!”

“Teacher’s orders!”

“Rejected! This is bullying! I’ll tell Rudy’s mom about this.”

“I’ll owe you one?”

“You owe me two! Besides,” she pouts, “we have to grow up, else we’ll never be real adventurers.”

“We could always pretend to be Migurdians?”

“Rudy…”

“Alright, alright… we’ll grow. I am tired of looking up at adults anyway. Any chance elves stay the same age for a century?”

Her eyes widen, as she looks down in contemplation. “I… don’t think so?”

“I’m just messing with you. That hardly matters. A promise is a promise.”

That and the plot says you do. You’ll age at half the rate, but you’ll live to be two-hundred, approximately.

“You promise. A promise is a promise, promise?”

Not quite the way you use that phrase, but whatever, it’s cute.

“Hmm…” I fake that it’s a hard decision.

“Rudy!”

“It’s a pinky.”

“Hai!” She raises a fist in the air.

“Here,” I held out my fist towards her, my pinky extended.

Her eyes gleaming, she reaches for it, and locks it. Intertwining our fingers, and sealing it.

“And like that… it’s done.”

“Where did Rudy learn about this anyway? I asked mom about it, and she said she never heard about it.”

“Oh, you know… it came to me. I have a habit of coming up with the weirdest of things.”

“Yup, you do.”

“...you’re not supposed to agree with me their…”

“Eh? Why?” She tilts her head. “Everyone knows you're weird.”

I flinch.

“But… that’s part of Rudy’s charm,” she nods. “A Rudy that isn’t weird isn’t Rudy!” She hollers proudly, her eyes gleaming, and a serious look to her.

“I changed my mind… grow up quickly so you can realize what you do to me.”

She tilts her head.

“Anyways,” I look to the sun. “We still have some time left before I have to take you home. Want to play Life?”

I just finished my version of the Life board game the other day. I could use a new partner to test it out with.

“I am playing life. This is fun,” she leans on me. Still sitting on my lap, she nuzzles on my chest. “Let’s just stay like this a little longer.”

“Sure…”

Well… this is a part of life too.

///

I needed that.

No worries. No drama. Just two people having fun. After all the drama, just having someone in my life who I don’t have to walk around eggshells, or think too hard about; makes for a world of difference. It’s peaceful. And exactly what I needed.

And yet…

“What the hell are you doing here?” I questioned.

“Hello to you too Rudy,” Paul said.

Trouble has a way of finding me.

I couldn’t have one nice day could I.

Funny… after leaving Sylphy at home, I was walking home minding my own business, and look and behold who ‘coincidentally’ runs into me, but a second later.

I smell conspiracy.

“...”

“Why are you looking at the sky?” He asked.

“I’m waiting for god to strike me down.”

“Why?”

Because he clearly hates me.

Spidermonkey, where are you? What happened to ‘everyone gets one,’ come save me?

Maybe he’ll go away if I ignore him?

“So, Rudy…”

Guess not.

Fine, I’ll just deal with it. Like always.

“Hah… I wanna go home.”

---

AN: Should I delete the first half? Thirties went through heavy rewriting that I feel the beginning might be redundant. Please leave your thoughts, and I might come back to it if this scene needs it.