Talia seems to be slowly calming down.
Yet, our bonding time is rudely interrupted when something suddenly forces itself between us, seizes me, and carries me off.

“Mieeep!”

“Aaah, Nibi!?”

“Waah?”

Why me?
She puts me down after only a few moments, but it seems she got jealous and is now clinging to me with everything she’s got.
My sister recovers first.

“Um. W-who is this?”

“Meet the source of my recent distress!”

“What?”

Unable to rid myself of this creature whose sole purpose is to cling to me, I settle near the edge of my enormous bed.
Over the next few minutes, I introduce Nibi and roughly explain to Talia what transpired after I ran away that led to my current state.
At least, as far as I can recall.
As I tell the story, her expression changes from mild amusement at the watery pranks, to anxiety about the “monster”, and then, finally, to anger.
Once I’ve finished speaking, she responds.

“So she did all this to you!?”

“I would rather divvy the fault between all the fairies involved in this. In addition, due to the language barrier and her babyish mentality, any blaming would stay at the level of scolding a toddler for running in front of a carriage. It’s not like she knew any better. All the other fairies that aided her, however…”

Most seemed to merely see me as entertainment, not caring if I suffered.
I’m not sure if I’ll ever forgive them.
Yet as for Nibi, I’m willing to hold my decision till she can at least speak and explain herself.
Having had some time during the night to ponder her actions, I now have my doubts as to whether she was intentionally being cruel or if perhaps she was merely trying to reward me for saving her life, in her own way.
After all, nearly the first thing she did once I awoke as a fairy was to heal me, instead of leaving me in the agony I caused myself in my ignorance.
And while I am angry with her, I would never stoop so low as to hate a child who can’t even understand why I wouldn’t appreciate her “gift”.
Even one that isn’t human.
At least, not till she's capable of telling me why she did it.
Or ignores me and attempts to do something equally terrible.

Upon hearing my words, Talia calms, but now she seems slightly confused and ponders for a few moments before replying.

“Um, are…are you actually okay with this?”

“No! Do I look okay to you!? Shit, I’m nearly the same height as the length of your hand!”

“But still, you brought her with you!”

“Yeah, sure, any idea how you get rid of a child with this level of infatuation? An honest question, by the way, cause I couldn’t come up with a favorable solution.”

I wave the arm which this fairy is attached to, trying to shake her off.
Without any success, of course.
Although I did manage to bring a quick smirk to my sister’s face.

“Um, n-no... But you didn’t replace me with a new sister, did you?”

“Huh? Oh, not you too, Talia!”

Dealing with one jealous person is more than enough, I really don’t need another.
Although if she’s merely falling back into her teasing habits, this may be a good sign.

“But you look like you’re getting along so well!”

“Yeah, sure! It’s more like parenting one of those annoying barnacles that mum speaks about!”

“Heh. Sorry… It’s just, seeing you together, well… This is all so confusing. I mean, you look, uh, well, you almost appear to be my age, but tiny. Except for…you know!”

“Gosh, I know! At least my face is still fine… right?”

She leans in extremely close.
Her giant, blue eyes gaze at me intensely.

“W-well, I guess? Your face still looks more adult-like, at least compared to hers, and is mostly the same as it was, yet your ears are a different shape, long, somewhat pointy, and your hair and eyes look kinda…weird? Especially your hair! While your eyes are strange, they’re, honestly, quite fascinating with the constant swirls of color, but your hair is... I mean, with all those colors together, and then your matching nails, I must say, that is very unusual! Where’d you get the paints and dyes?”

“Urgh! Again, it’s nothing I wished for. I’m currently filled with four different kinds of elemental energy, and it makes me appear in these colors that you see. I need it to survive now, but the downside is that it messes with my head. Either I keep it balanced, or whichever one becomes dominant starts controlling me. You have no idea how easily this can play with my mind!”

“Elemental energy?”

“Fairies absorb magic from whatever element is around them; however, it also comes with different feelings. As I said, I’m trying to balance mine in order to not go crazy. For example, I may be urged to constantly zoom through the room if I have too much wind essence.”

“A-and what about her?”

“Nibi? She seems to have settled on water. As long as I’ve known her, she’s been like this. Water essence has a rather calm feeling, but it makes you quite determined to pursue one thing continuously. I don’t plan to only have that since, as I said, it messes with my mind. I was told it could even change my personality! Brrrr!”

The mere thought gives me the shivers, yet strangely, they only seem to run through my wings.

“Um, okay. I don’t think I really understand it though.”

“My experience also merely consists of a two day crash course. This is correct, right? It’s only been two days, right!?”

“Yes, yes. But it was an awful two days. Why did you wait so long to come back to us? We were worried sick!”

“The first day I was rather occupied with panicking from my world being turned upside-down. You know, waking up as a fairy is not that easy to come to terms with! As for the second day, I had a choice to either learn how to use these-”

I point at my wings.

“-or start walking. With an approximate stride of a few centimeters, it may have taken a while!”

“Right, sorry. Sounds like you did the best you could with what happened to you. Still, you really couldn’t find a way to leave her behind?”

“I tried! She was asleep when I left, but apparently, she woke before daybreak and used magic to track me! When I was almost home, she caught me and left me no choice but to bring her along! It’s not as if I can prevent her from flying wherever she pleases!”

My sister looks around.
At me, at Nibi, at the window, all around the room.

“Huh… This is a really weird morning!”

“Yeah, sure, but the morning I became a fairy kinda tops it for me.”

“Oh, you really are Akari!”

“Did you truly still doubt me?”

“You know how you look! But the only one who says ‘yeah, sure’ so much is you.”

“I suppose I ought to be glad about that.”

“Sorry, but you know what I mean. I’m really unsure about how to react right now!”

“Yeah, sure, I know. It’s not like I have much of a plan either. I don’t think there are many jobs I can do now. Although, it’s possible I could become the best tailor ever. You can’t say there is anyone who could make finer stitches than I with the size of my hands. For example, I made these clothes myself, another reason it took me so long to get home. What do you think?”

I free myself from Nibi’s grasp long enough to do a spin.

“Um, basic?”

That makes me feel a bit disgruntled.

“Sorry, but it’s just a rag!”

“Well, forgive me! All I had available was a giant’s clothes lying on the ground! Don’t worry though, the former owner voluntarily gave them to me. She didn’t have much use for them after she shrunk down to the size of a mouse!!!”

“Seems I hit a sore spot. I'm sorry.”

“How about we say everything related to that incident is one huge sore spot and treat it as such, hmm!?”

“Okay, if it makes you feel better.”

“Good! Now that that’s settled and we have kind of confirmed that I’m me, where’s mum? We’ve been making quite the racket, or at least, you have.”

“Oh right, mum!! She needs to know! She’s been… sis, she’s…she’s…”

Talia pauses, seemingly at a loss for words, with an expression of anguish on her face.

“Talia! Focus, please! You’re scaring me! What’s been going on with mum!?”

“She…she’s been going into the forest! The last couple days she looked all over the woods. Trying to find you! After you didn’t come home for the little party we had prepared, we thought you may have stayed late with your friend. But come dawn, you still were not home, and mum grew worried, so we went to check on you. We started with your friends, who said they hadn’t seen you since the morning before, and then mum started panicking when you weren’t at any of their homes. Asking around, we discovered that you went into the forest, but were never seen returning. Then we asked Mr. Velo, the hunter, for help. His dog found your trail, and we followed it into the woods, but then it suddenly ended! It was as if you had completely vanished into thin air!”

“Rather sure the fairies had something to do with that.”

Cruel little bastards!

“Mother broke down right there… She started to scream and cry… *sniff* … Th-that day and the next, she spent searching the woods. I did too, at first, but I had to come home when I couldn’t keep going any longer. When mum finally came back, her eyes were…hollow. I think she’s still sleeping, considering yesterday.”

Utterly miserable, I can only hang my head.

“I’m so sorry, sis. I… I didn’t know.”

“N-no, it’s completely understandable! At least, if you don’t consider the not understandable parts, ehm, you understand?”

Shit!
Talia is completely at a loss.
This circling of her words only happens when she is absolutely overwhelmed.
Last time was when she dropped all of our tableware.

“I understand, Talia…”

*Sigh*

“…but I don’t really know what I should do. Do you think we should let her continue sleeping?”

“Probably a good idea, but we should tell her right when she wakes up.”

“Yeah, sure. Before that though…you see, I believe convincing you was the easy part. Telling mum…I think she might suspect that fairies are trying to play a trick on her. Also, you know how I never paid too much attention to mum’s stories..? Well, do you think she actually has any fairy traps? I truly don’t want to get caught in some kind of magical fairy net!”

“Of course not! They’re just stories, mum wouldn’t actually make one.”

“Have you looked at me recently, Talia!? I just stepped out of those stories.”

“Ohhh, right… But we don’t have the money to spare for something like that, and I’ve never seen her make any. I don’t think she has them.”

“Hopefully, you’re correct. It’s just, in my state, there are so many things I need to watch out for, and with many of them I have no idea how to do so. It’s rather scary being this size, you know?”

“Even so, you need to tell her! I’ll be there for you!”

“Yeah, sure. I’ll tell her that I’m still alive. Even if, in a certain way, that’s not completely true.”

“What do you mean!?”

Crap, I thought she couldn’t hear me.

“Talia, please don’t go crazy on me, but my body sort of exploded and got put back together as this. Also, I’m apparently made entirely of magic now, so I doubt that I’m really alive in the same way humans are. I was basically killed.”

…

…

…

“Uhhhhhh. Yes. Maybe you shouldn’t confront her with that part right now.”

“Yeah, sure.”

…

…

…

“Do you still eat?”

“I’ve kind of been eating essence, but regarding normal food, I don’t actually know.”

“Well, I’m hungry. You want breakfast?”

“Yeah, sure. That sounds great, sis.”

So the two, erm, three of us head into the common room while I try to figure out what I’m going to say to my fairy-obsessed mother.