Ganainm and the Knight entered the obelisk. The black stone's surface undulated as the pair traversed yet another barrier between the plains of reality. When they entered, as always, they saw a corridor. Was it brighter now?
The two advanced through it and made it to the room at its end. Inside of it, there sit a god. It screamed no longer. The creature — the thing — that had taken Katsugi's name away, the one that could barely calm itself to formulate a thought the last time they were here, now sat quietly. That is because it knew its curse was about to be undone.
It sat there, wordless, speechless, a calm air of collectiveness about it. There was no wind inside of the room. No sounds, nothing. The thing didn't even seem to be breathing. Ganainm neared it.
"We got it," she said, the Queen's comb — conjured from her sporran — appearing in her hand. The creature's eyes lit up, a thing invisible to both Katsugi and the girl, considering the length of tangles shadowing over its face.
"Have at it, mortal," it said. the thing then kneeled, its head lowering to where Ganainm could reach it. Then she combed.
The girl pulled at the hair, the comb doing a fantastic job. The tangles undid themselves almost entirely, leaving only smooth lengths of jet-black perfection. She brushed the creature's hair and as she continued, it appeared to be taking on a golden tinge. As if someone had sprinkled fairy dust over it.
But that was no dust. Merely the dark corruption receding. The malevolent blackness finally pulling away, only after years of imprisoning the starry colour beneath it. Ganainm scrubbed and combed and brushed, the disease flaking away like ashen embers from a dying bonfire. After hours of it, the fire was put out.
Before them there now sat a god. Its hair golden like the beauty it not only represented but embodied, like the beauty it conveyed and exemplified. Like the beauty it was.
Ganainm now sat down next to the Knight and they both watched the creature examine its hair with utmost scrutiny. Metres of it were pulled through the thing's bony fingers, a pair of magenta eyes surfing across the waves of blonde. They were finally visible. Like two glints of the same sun at the time just before dawn, when the single ray of pinkness first touches the surface of the earth it overrun.
After a good while the creature decided its hair to be proper. A thanking bow towards Ganainm followed, then a question:
"I am most aware of our striking a deal," it sounded inside of her mind, "and I intend to honour it. Yet... I find myself lacking in my gift-giving for ridding me of such a curse. Is the re anything else that could be provided to you as an expression of my gratitude."
Ganainm was stumped. She'd never expect a fairy to act in such a way. Maybe save for her fairy but that was a whole other story. Literally. Was this thing... at all a fairy? Hell, it might as well be, she thought, the kindness and all.
"Before this meeting you told us of a dragon," she remembered.
"Yes."
"You may have mentioned the dragon as the key to travelling."
"Yes. It is."
"..."
"Your question being?"
Ganainm took a big breath. If there turned out to be a proper answer to what she was about to ask, their troubles were over. Katsugi could get onto that dragon and soar away to his homeland.
"Explain please." She said, "how do we get onto one and how do they work."
"That is very simple," the thing said, "as far as I am aware, there is a dragon in this...region, in the neighbouring realm if anywhere else. It should be residing among a fortress of grey spires, at least that is what I sensed to be its homeland while falling.
