“You are gorgeous!” Aecansomdrys, the Losttime fairy shouted and lunged at Alta. “Oh, you are a little precious cute fairy.”

The dark-skinned woman rubbed her face against Alta’s with fervent passion, as if she had been enchanted by her. Meanwhile, Alta’s expression shifted between the thin line of impassivity and uncomforting.

“You’ve rubbed yourself enough against Alta,” Icasondra shouted and removed the tailor from the chimera. “Look at her, you are annoying her.”

“What do you mean?” Aecansomdrys smiled, her white teeth shining in contrast against her skin. “She loves it!”

Then decided to take a look at the Blossomflame fairy. Alta was stuck between a frown and pout, but overall, an expression of disgust.

“Alright, maybe she doesn’t like it. But look at her, she’s so cute when annoyed!”

Alta was confused.

The fairy was overflowing with happiness because she was bothering her. Alta could understand the happiness of a successful hunt or a good meal, but happiness out of bothering others? It was illogical.

Icasondra tried to hide her expression, and whilst she had succeeded, Alta could smell the fear. One thing she had found out, is that the Moonlight fairy scared easily, and also was incredibly indecent by her very own standards.

After a long ponderation, Alta decided to flare the flames on her back. That got a reaction out of the fairies as they backpedaled.

“Okay, no more snuggling. Roger that.” Aecansomdrys quickly said. “But on a more serious note, we have to talk about money, Icasondra and I.”

Aecansomdrys walked behind the counter and looked at a light brown paper.

“The silk was expensive and of good quality so that already covers any expenses the dress and other clothing may have supposed.” She explained while reading. “But there’s still a quite significant amount of money left, so here you have it.”

The tailor dropped a heavy bag on the counter, impacting with a loud thug followed by several smaller metallic clings. Icasondra flew toward the counter and opened the bag.

“Oh, wow.” Her eyes shot wide open. “This is too much...”

“Nonsense,” Aecansomdrys replied. “I’m only paying you the price of the bolt minus expenses; it was just that good. And besides, the dress was quite simple, in comparison, yours gave me headaches to imprint the lunar essence onto the fabric.”

“But it can't be this much, no matter how good the silk was...” The Moonlight fairy was truly left speechless.

Alta couldn’t comprehend the commotion. She went next to Icasondra and looked inside the bag, but she only saw grey and yellow cylinders inside. Are they really valuable? The chimera pondered, not understanding the value of money.

“Nah,” Aecansomdrys negated.

For an instant, Alta thought the Losttime fairy had read her mind, but she was only replying to Icasondra’s statement.

“You just aren’t used to money, girl.” The tailor added with a knowing smug. “Now that you finally have some coins under your name, how ’bout you go to the market and buy something? You have to maintain another mouth, haven’t you?”

“I... thank you.” Icasondra slightly bowed.

This interaction was strange for the Blossomflame fairy. She didn’t understand much of the concept of money, but apparently, it was used for equivalent exchanges, so why was Icasondra so thankful, even on the verge of tears, when the exchange had been fair and all associated parties had won?

Truly strange. Alta looked at the dark-skinned orange-winged fairy and the clear-skinned blue-winged fairy with confusion, unable to discern hidden meanings.

“I guess I will take Alta to the market now, then.” Icasondra wiped her humid eyes with her arm.

“Sure!” Aecansomdrys smiled at her. “Come back whenever you like. You too, Alta!”

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The chimera nodded solemnly, and the not-weeping fairy bowed down.

Once they were out of the shop, Icasondra took a deep breath, almost scaring Alta with the sudden movement. She took more air into her lungs than it should be possible for her petite body, and then took even more time to expel it out.

“Alright,” she nodded, “do you want to see the village and other fairies?”

“Sure,” Alta repeated the expression the tailor had used, albeit with a lack of the joyful mannerisms of the Losttime fairy.

Icasondra guided Alta straight into the village, no more detours. The Blossomflame fairy followed the flying Moonlight fairy on foot, walking on the uncomfortable root streets. Why not have just dirt instead of hard roots? It seemed downright stupid to the chimera. Then she remembered fairies didn’t walk much.

Two other fairies passed beside them in a hurry, and whilst they gave Alta a wonderous look, they didn’t linger on it and went their way.

“Why did they look at me like that?” Alta asked her guide.

“There are a lot of reasons,” Icasondra explained without stopping. “You are a newcomer, you are of a fairy type they have never seen, and you aren’t flying.”

“Huh,” The chimera grunted in realization. “I guess you are right.”

The village wasn’t very big, certainly not as expansive as the seemingly endless prison, it had around fifty grounded houses like Aecansomdrys’ shop, and a handful more like Icasondra’s tree house.

Alta fluttered her wings, not in order to fly, but to get used to them. Perhaps it was because of the magic she had copied, but she was unable to use the new appendixes with the same instant dexterity she had with the hunter’s eyes, the rodent’s claws, or the warden’s muscles.

As she had done with words, she would need to learn to use her wings before flying.

It took them less time than she had expected to go to this ‘market’. But it was to be expected as they no longer were hiding from other fairies, instead walking in a straight line, or the most straight these sinuous walkways allowed them.

“What do you do at a market?” Alta asked.

“You exchange products for money,” Icasondra replied. “I normally use it to buy food.”

“So you don’t hunt?”

“Moons, no.” She chuckled. “I would not be capable of hurting critters for food, and either way, I mostly eat fruits and vegetables so it would be foraging rather than hunting.

Foraging: hunting the immobile plants on the ground or trees. The chimera thought.

“But where’s the fun and thrill of the hunt then?”

“Em...” The fairy stopped in midair. “Well... I eat to survive, not for entertainment, so I’m bothered by the lack of... fun.”

“I see.” It was curious to learn the difference between their lifestyles. Fairies were prey, whilst she was a hunter.

“Anyways...” Icasondra lingered on that word. “Welcome to the market!”

Behind the fairy of dark blue wings, an avenue with plentiful and colorful fabrics lay.

“Follow me, I’m going to buy some jam and other fruits so we have food for the coming days.” She explained and the chimera complied.

The market wasn’t filled with people, but some fairies sat on stools behind the products they were offering. Some sold wood-based products, like the furniture from Icasondra’s house, but in that repertoire, they added other trinkets that the chimera couldn’t recognize. They stopped before one fairy that sold fruits and... Glasses? Alta thought dumbfounded.

“Oh, if it’s you Icasondra!” The male fairy at the stool greeted them. “Who’s your accompany?”

“She’s Alta, a Blossomflame fairy.” She explained.

Alta inspected the male fairy. He was fat and weak looking, not what she would expect from a male of the herd. He wore a green open shirt and brown pants. His wings were also different from the ones Alta had seen before. They were made of the same roots that composed the village’s houses and roads. The shape was similar to other fairies, butterfly-shaped as Icasondra had explained to her, but they looked infinitely heavier than the intangible wings of other fairies.

“Akorodei, Rootweaver fairy as you can see, and the best jam-maker of the village.” He offered Alta a hand.

Now she knew what that meant and accepted the handshake.

“Is that what those things are?” Alta pointed at the glasses on display.

“Of course. Tars of the sweetest and most delicious jam.” Akorodei smiled. “Right, Icasondra?”

But the Moonlight fairy didn’t respond, her sights fixated on a figure in the background. Alta instantly recognized the twice-as-tall-than-fairies figure as a human, like the ones she had killed yesterday.

“Something wrong?” The jam-maker asked.

“Oh, nothing.” Icasondra finally responded. “I just thought it was weird to see a human here.”

“Ye, I thought that too,” Akorodei confirmed. “But that bloke is a nice one. A traveling merchant that offered me some human jams, though his accompany was more peculiar.”

“He was with someone?” Icasondra added with surprise.

“Yes, did you know him?”

“Not really, but I have seen that man before...” The words died in her mouth by the end. “How was that company of his?”

“She was colossal!” The man narrated. “I’m talking like three times as tall as a fairy. She could even be three meters tall!”

“Was she also a human?” This time was Alta who asked.

“Impossible.” Akorodei laughed. “Humans don’t grow that large, and besides she was pink. Like a bright pink as skin. And then she had these horrendously long ears. They were bigger than my wings!”

“That sounds like an elf, doesn’t it?” Icasondra added.

“Well, I thought the same thing, but elves aren’t pink, no?”

“I guess not.” The Moonlight fairy shrugged. “How peculiar.”

“Indeed.” The male fairy nodded.

“What are elves?” The Blossomflame fairy asked, tilting her head to the side.

“They are another type of fae,” Icasondra explained. “Besides fairies, the most common fae are pixies, elves, gnomes, and spirits.”

“Hmm.” Alta meditated. “Those are a lot of types.”

“I agree,” Akorodei added with a hearty smile. “I have only seen pixies and spirits in this village, I hope we have more fae someday.”

“Indeed.” The chimera nodded. “I would love to inspect them closely. Especially their magic.” She responded with an even greater smile than the man.