Rumerra - The Journey Begins

Chapter 9 - A Fairy Odd Encounter (Part II)

It was in that moment that it dawned on the sprite that she never even introduced herself. She reached out her small hand and shook Velvet's. "My name is Trix!"

Trix and Pix. How fitting, Velvet thought. What was not so fitting was the fairy's outfit. Taking a better look of the small creature before her, this was nothing like what the young witch imagined fairies looked like. The two pairs of transparent wings on her back gave it away, but what was Trix wearing?

A pair of black leather boots went about halfway up her calves, with black socks poking out and ending just below her knees. In fact, everything she wore was black! Black leather shorts, a short black shirt that exposed her midriff, and over it a black leather jacket. The visor hat had a golden insignia of a fairy at the front and made her look like a captain of a ship. Her dirty-blonde hair was ruffled and bound together in a long braid that went down to the bottom of her back. Under her clear blue eyes, three stripes of black war paint were smeared on each of her cheeks.

"What's the matter?" Trix grinned. "Isn't really what you expected? Did you expect a girl wearing a frilly dress and holding a wand in her hand, singing a lovely tune while skipping on mushrooms? This is the wilderness! Out here you either kill or get killed! That goes for us fairies as well!"

"I guess...I wasn't quite expecting fairies to dress like this," Velvet admitted.

"I could say the same for you humans!" the fairy said. "Nice hat you got there! I like your style! Kind of casual but with a spicy twist!"

"Uhm...thanks?" the girl was a bit confused by the assessment of her get-up. She didn't expect fairies to talk quite like this either. She thought they were timid, fearful creatures that hardly spoke at all. But this one here in front of her had a loud and excited voice and didn't seem to be afraid of her at all!

"You can let go of my hand now, you know..." Trix woke her up from her daydreaming.

"S-sorry!" Velvet immediately retracted her arm and let go of her hand. She didn't even realize that she had been shaking it all this time. "So...where are you two headed now? Do you live close by?"

The fairy scoffed at that. "I wish! Our home is almost entirely on the other side of the forest!"

"It probably won't be easy to carry him all the way back there for you then," the girl deduced.

Now that Trix was standing right in front of Velvet, it was apparent that the two fairies were about a third of her size, reaching up to just above her knee. A journey across the Kamatayan forest would take more than a week even for her and that was if she was using her eagle transformation to fly a part of the way. For someone as small as them it would take weeks no doubt.

"If you'd like that, I can help you get him home as fast as possible." Velvet offered on impulse. She wasn't even thinking about it. To her, it felt like the natural thing to do to help someone in need. And it wasn't like she had anywhere to be. The only person in these parts that cared about her was dead. It was only her now. All alone in this accursed forest. She felt tears welling up inside again as she remembered uncle Grogar, whose lifeless body lay only a few dozen meters away from them.

"You would really do that?!" Trix perked up. "That's amazing! I'd be glad to take you up on that offer!"

"Gladly," Velvet mustered a faint smile. Her face quickly darkened again, though. "But first...I'd like to give my uncle a proper burial. This place was his home. He knew it like the back of his hand. It's only fitting that his body rests here."

"Of course, I already promised to help you bury him," the fairy said, glancing at the unconscious Pix lying on the soft mossy floor. "It's the least I can do for the man that saved our lives."

Velvet nodded. "Thank you."

And so they went to work. Velvet used her light magic to create a large hole in the ground and they dragged Grogar's body into it, before covering it with fresh soil. While carrying him, Trix once again used the strange magic to cover her body. It seemingly made her stronger. Velvet took note of it, but was too distressed to really ask about it.

After they were finished, they sat in silence before a pile of moss and rocks they put over the grave to make it look nicer, paying their respects to this kind-hearted man that met his untimely death.