Alta, back in her Blossomflame shape, observed the shining fairy wash herself on the lake. The sun threatened with coming out on the horizon.

“Don’t you want to come in?” Icasondra invited her.

Where does she get the energy from? The chimera pondered. She has recently died but has the mood to take a relaxing bath before going to the village.

“I don’t need it.” She taciturnly responded.

“Alright, alright.” The fairy nodded to herself playfully and hummed as she washed her body.

It was difficult to say if death had traumatized her or healed her. There was a dissonance between her current self and the one before dying. Alta liked the current Icasondra, but she couldn’t know if that was good or bad.

“Oh, it’s cold!” Icasondra walked out of the water hugging herself.

“It’s early in the morning and you just took a bath outdoors, what did you expect?” And though Alta protested, she went next to Moonlight fairy and dried her with fire that spawned from her hands.

“Cozy~” The fairy replied as if she was going to melt.

Alta didn’t understand why, but she found herself able to use the abilities of her phoenix self without shifting into its shape. That was impossible to do with other shapes, not that she had more magical shapes besides the Blossomflame, but it was still curious to her.

She shaped the flames around Icasondra’s body as if they were extensions of her body. Fire followed different rules from biomass, but she still had no problems whatsoever understanding them.

They truly were her body.

It didn’t take Alta more than a couple of minutes to dry the wet fairy by controlling the temperature of the flames. Not hot enough to burn, but strong enough to dry Icasondra’s long hair without ruining it.

“Hmm!” The Moonlight fairy nodded in satisfaction and was quick to cover her naked body. Even after going to hell and back, her turquoise dress shone with pristine and undirtied light. “Well, shall we go?”

Alta nodded and took flight fluttering her leaf-like flame wings. Icasondra smiled upon seeing her, she flew next to her.

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The village was silent in the early morning. Icasondra could only be thankful that the villagers didn’t appear to have made a funeral for her, meaning they wouldn’t know of her demise.

Coming back to life is... weird. Her careless death should have ruined her nefarious mental state, yet as she flew next to the Blossomflame fairy, Icasondra found herself unable to worry about anything. She’s a torch that ignites the skies. A sun of my own.

She felt invincible next to Alta as if nothing could kill her whilst she was next to her. The feeling was paradoxical and downright stupid because that’s how she had died in the first place, but she found herself unable to not think like that.

Alta had defied Icasondra’s death. Her death. Death.

She didn’t understand much about legends or magic, but defying death was a thing that people did to negate their own ending, not others. With her basic comprehension, she understood it was far harder to take another person back to the world of the living.

In a way, it scared her to ask about the specifics, something told her if she knew, she would be sad again. And she didn’t want to be sad. She wanted to be strong and shine like the Celestial Triumvirate. Akin a flame she knew.

And she’s a phoenix! She exclaimed to herself. It isn’t that surprising that she could revive me! They are known for being truly immortal, the bird of rebirth and fire!

But that didn’t matter to her now. What bothered her was the tree the in the middle of the village... the house of the elder.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

She stopped mid-flight, scared to see Flrynwydl again. According to Alta, she had seen her dead. That’s an image she would have loved to spare her. Icasondra gave a look to Alta at her side, the Blossomflame tilted her head in confusion but ultimately smiled at her.

Moons... Icasondra was unable to decipher how a simple and innocent smile could be such a force to be reckoned with.

The fairy took a deep breath and the two of them entered the dryad’s abode. This time not by the gate at the trunk, but the fairy way. They flew inside from the balcony.

There, on her throne of vines and roots, Flrynwydl sat.

But before Icasondra was able to say a word, the dryad jolted away from her seat and pounced her.

“Oh, Icasondra!” Flrynwydl locked her into an embrace. “My Icasondra!” It was constricting and painful, but she found herself unwilling to separate from the dryad, instead keeping her closer as she returned the hug.

“Hi... Mom,” Icasondra responded with a weak smile. She had selfishly floated away in death, unbothered by the details of the mortals. Yet the dryad had been lamenting the death of her daughter alone. “It’s good to see you.”

“Yes. Yes, it is.” After a while, the colossal dryad who outsized the fairy threefold, liberated her from the embrace. Icasondra saw the hints of diluted sap coursing from her visage. “Oh, chimera, I cannot thank you enough for your gift. For bringing me back my daughter. You’ve truly kept your word.”

“No,” Alta denied. “I’ve told you I would slay Death, but I didn’t do that. It wasn’t a hard-fought battle either, but I didn’t keep my true word. I did manage her to give me Icasondra back though.”

“You’ve... you truly fought Death?” For the first time ever, Icasondra saw her mother show fear.

It was inconceivable. She was a powerful fae, an age-long dryad, the sole protector of the Evergreen. A fragment of Nature itself, yet she was scared.

“I finally understand.” Flrynwydl bowed down to Alta, her knee on the floor. “I’m elated to meet you, Incarnation.”

Alta looked at the dryad impassively. Her face was totally neutral like she had been when Icasondra had met her. The Moonlight fairy was unable to discern the thoughts going through the chimera’s mind, but she finally nodded.

It would seem Alta was more than just a chimera.

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A few after coming back from the dead, Icasondra had finally made her decision.

She waited next to the tree below her house as Alta carried down some bags. The chimera defied logic being able to lift colossal objects when flying in a fairy’s body. It shouldn’t be possible, by any means, but Icasondra wouldn’t deny it was useful.

“Are you really going to go?” Aecansomdrys, the dark-skinned Losttime fairy, asked.

The tailor hadn’t known about her friend’s death as Flrynwydl had kept it to herself, hoping Alta would stay true to her word.

“Yes,” Icasondra affirmed. “I think I need some time away from the village, a long time. And I’ve talked about it with Alta, and she agrees that we could benefit from exploring the world.”

“We?” Aecansomdrys quipped, not believing the Moonlight fairy’s words.

“Okay, mostly me,” she admitted, “but she agrees with me. Alta does not know about the outside world, and I want to show it to her. Besides, she’s kind of an orphan and I hope we may be able to find her parents in our travels.”

“You haven’t told the last part to her, haven’t you?” The Moonlight fairy smiled and the Losttime rolled her eyes. “Never change Icasondra, never change.”

They stopped talking after the subject in question descended with the final bag. They were three in total, not many for a long journey, but overwhelming for two little fairies. But Aecansomdrys didn’t know Alta wasn’t just a fairy.

Icasondra didn’t normally give her goodbyes when she went to explore, even if sometimes she disappeared for weeks. Though this time she would be gone for much longer.

Aecansomdrys herself was here because she brought them a new set of dresses for Icasondra and Alta. One couldn’t know when the feeble garments of a fairy may give up. She also told her to add some human clothes the tailor had lying around. The Losttime would think they would use them for spare clothing or even blankets, but the truth was that Icasondra planned for them to visit the human kingdoms, and a human Alta would make things easier.

The dresses took a few days to make with the tailor’s full attention, that was one of the reasons they stayed in the village for this long. The other was that Icasondra didn’t want to leave Flrynwydl alone yet.

The dryad appeared once Alta loaded the bags around her body, the Blossomflame looking more like a mule than a fairy. Alta lent one of the smaller bags, a satchel to Icasondra which she gladly accepted.

Aecansomdrys went away the moment she saw Flrynwydl, giving her a respectful bow.

Icasondra looked at the dryad.

“I guess we won’t see for a long time.” It was the elder fae who talked.

“We won’t.” The fairy admitted. “But I’ll be safe.”

“I’m sure about that, my daughter.” Flrynwydl smiled as she looked at the Blossomflame fairy.

“Thanks, Mom.” And she hugged the dryad.

“Fare well in your travels.” The mother told on the embrace.

“I will.” The daughter undid the embrace and moved next to her companion. “We’ll try to visit!”

“I’m sure.” Icasondra waved energetically and Flrynwydl waved calmly back.

Icasondra looked at Alta who smiled at her. She grabbed her hand.

The two of them fluttered her wings at the same time and took to the skies.

Alta the Chimera and Icasondra the Moonlight fairy began their travels across the world together.

The end.