“As I said! Deities don’t do well against fairies! Deities have problems against fairies because fairies aren’t from this dimensions!”
My eyes fluttered. I tried to process all of this information. “What? Wait these things are fairies and they’re not from this dimension? Wait… are they like those multi eyed scorpions that attacked Boshi town? They did appear from behind a dimensional tear after all.”
The midget looked at me in horror. “What?! Another invasion? While it might not necessarily be fairies an invasion is an invasion… ugh this is why this is all Biian’s fault. It wouldn’t be such of a problem if she didn’t wipe out nearly all the spirit foxes.”
Pieces started to slowly fall into place. Is this what happens if the spirit foxes get wiped out? And this petrified jungle, will that become more common if the forest rabbits get wiped out? But these ugly loud and creepy creatures being fairies…
“I did not expect this… I always thought… hoped that fairies would be nice and pretty…” I hoped that Bellia had made a mistake.
The rabbit guy shook his head disappointedly. “That’s why I told you that you would be better off not knowing, it would only disappoint you.”
I joined the rabbit guy in disappointment. So much potential wasted.
“Hey, I know that I asked you to run but… can you help me out a bit?” The rabbit guy had an empathetic look but still asked me to help out dealing with these...fairies...
“But those things are so unsexy and creepy!” My disappointment didn’t allow for me to be near them any longer.
“I know that you’re disappointed but they will take the form of how most people think fairies look like if you let them be. They will then use that appearance to trick and kill!”
I had no idea how to react to this. “Wait… so what about fairy tales?”
Shrimpy blocked the flying stingers that got shot at her. Some went straight through her defences and blew holes in her body. It was a strange sight. She didn’t seem to be affected by it as vines and leaves connected to fill up the holes. “Fairy tales are stories that humans like to tell. They are either fiction or are a pretty front to hide the ugly reality, quite similar to these fairies. I’m sorry but this world isn’t as pretty as you think it is. Deities… at least some of them are doing their best to make it pretty though…”
A strange energy emanated from the Midget and she grew. She was still flat like a washing board but she seemed like she was in her late teens now.
“Alright. It seems I have to expend some divine energy.” A dark green wave washed over everyone and everything. The jungle had been completely restored and the fairy bugs got swept away but not defeated. A large ugly hornet started to change and slowly took on the appearance of a beautiful fairy, the ones that look like gorgeous women. The fairies started to sing but it was mixed with the buzzing of hornets and it sounded horrifying.
A lot went through me. I would have been totally fooled if I didn’t know this beauty was an ugly multi-eyed hornet underneath. I couldn’t accept this deception. Anything that I thought was beautiful might have been a lie.
“Nooo! This is wrong!” I started to thrash around wishing this was all a lie.
The rabbit guy applied nature energy to me to calm me down. “Hey, what’s wrong? The disappointment? Hey guys help me out here! We have a severe case of ‘Fairy Disappointment’ here!”
The group of fleeing rabbits consisted out of 2 groups. Those that knew and those that didn’t. Those that did knew were helping those that didn’t. The rabbits that didn’t know had a similar reaction to me but only 2 had it as bad at me.
The rabbits flocked around those in disappointment and denial and flooded us with nature energy to calm us down.
I rubbed my head. “Ugh, thank you. How well is this known?”
The rabbit guy, that had been carrying me all the time, shook his head. “Not well known as not many races can survive encounters with fairies as they tend to move in swarms. So those that know are mostly individuals belonging to the mythical and legendary races and maybe some deities. I almost died on my last fairy encounter.”
He showed off a deep scar on his chest. It sent shivers through my spine as that must have hurt immensely.
The rabbits that knew, assisted teenage Shrimp. It seems that nature energy works well against fairies but more and more of the hornets started to turn into beautiful women that would be easier recognized as fairies. With butterfly wings and frilly dresses. Everything. They could even speak. But it just creeped me out even more.
The big fairy, which I’m going to call the Fairy Queen had provoked the Teenage Midget Nature Goddess. It seems that gods are easily provoked as I had no trouble provoking Biian or Zarrazax.
“So… what do these fairy imposters want?” I asked the kind rabbit guy.
“Still in denial, eh? I can’t blame you. Well… most likely the destruction of our dimension. They seem to be quite parasitic. Wren is in charge of educating the rabbits that know… about the fairies. Wren had been quite active in Hourai before she came here to the continent and had lived through a fair share of attempts of invasion as she was a part of the group that would aid Empress Edea in dealing with those threats. Those fairies seem to be one of the many things trying to get into our dimension or any dimension and according to Empress Edea, they won’t stop until they completely destroy the dimension until they hop to the next.”
“Fairies… are parasites…” My image of fairies had been completely shattered. I looked over at the fairies slaughtering the rabbits and the rabbits responding by slaughtering the fairies. The fairies returned to their disgusting hornet form whenever they died. The forest rabbits had many lives luckily but it was quite clear that most lost several lives in this battle.
“I’m sorry, this must be a lot for you but you must know, now that you… know. Any encounter with a fairy after this could lead to your death so please… accept this information.”
I felt several mana waves go out. The fairy swarm was slowly getting pushed back.
The area had large flowers growing everywhere and strange air pockets appeared everywhere. Wind was picking up and blowing around multi colored petals.
“Is… is this a fairy attack?” I looked at the rabbit guy who smiled.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“No this happens when we release our true form. We call it ‘Rabbit Mode’ the environment changes when we do that but it makes us many times stronger look!” He pointed at some forest rabbits that looked a bit different. They had 4 tails out but they looked longer and fluffier. They hopped around from flower to flower or from air pocket to air pockets and were using the petals for cutting attacks while shooting strange flower lasers.
“I have no idea what is going on…” I tried to follow the battle. The rabbits were extremely agile as they used the flowers as trampolines and used the air pockets to jump off from when there were no obstacles nearby.
“Every tailed beast has a true form and all true forms alter the environment it’s related to their race though…”
I suddenly remembered something. “Oh, I noticed space and time acting strange in Boshi town."
“That must have been a nine-tail spirit fox.”
“And masses of shadows acting as if it was a body of water or as if they were alive?”
“Sounds like the three tailed shadow cat’s true form yeah.” Rabbit guy kicked a stray stinger to the side. The fairies were barraging the rabbits with stingers and they were showing off their agility by evading or kicking the stingers to the side.
“I see, so that’s what it was… it doesn’t seem like you guys need my help.”
Me, rabbit guy and other rabbits were looking by as the teenage Midget and 15 forest rabbits in their ‘Rabbit Mode’ were driving the fairies off.
“Well, it seems so. We’re lucky to have the aid of the Sarian goddess Bellia, this might have been a messy fight without her. But remember. Fairies aren’t pushovers! They have adapted to become strong against those that are supposed to keep them at bay, which are spirit foxes. Anything fire, spatiotemporal or spirit magic related won’t work on fairies, remember that. I also would advise you against using illusion magic on them.” I looked at Bellia and she seemed to continuously get punched full of holes but she always returned the favour by wiping out large parts of the fairy swarm.
“So [Meteor] won’t work on them?” The rabbits backed off in shock to which I apologized. I assume a destructive fire skill like that is a huge threat to forest-loving rabbits.
“This is so much to take in sorry but do you know anything about Verruka Saltpeter? A witch like me and possibly a similar face to mine?”
We dodged some stray attacks. “Hmm while the name doesn’t tell me anything your face does seem familiar now that I think about it but it’s only familiar, the face I’ve seen looks quite different from you.”
“Well, I’ve changed a lot! Don’t I look stunning?” I spun around and blew a kiss at him.
“Ah charm magic… I never understood that branch of magic, can you tone it down please? I have a wife...”
“Oh sorry.”
“The person of your description took up her residence in this jungle 1528 years ago. I wasn’t alive then but our race knows of almost anything that goes on in the jungles or forests they inhabit. The older rabbits are keeping an eye out on problematic elements of which she’s one, even on the top of the list but while some have put up a good fight against her main body, they haven’t been able to kill her yet. We might need a specialized group but we’re currently busy in dealing with the petrification.”
Rabbit guy kicked a stray air pocket aside. A rabbit got sent flying at us, Rabbit guy lifted his leg for the rabbit to bounce off on. “Hey! Watch out! But we will be glad to give you any information you might need. Even though she has become a problem to us, she must have been a problem to you or your race before she appeared here, I assume.” He kicked and launched the rabbit back into battle. These rabbits were weaponizing air pockets by kicking them around at high speeds.
I nodded.
“I see, we believe that races should attempt to solve their own problems. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t help but we will put you in charge of this problem then because we…” He kicked another stray air pocket away from us.
“We’re quite busy as you see. Our problem might be shifting from the petrified forest to dealing with these obnoxious fairies.” I noticed that he had furled his ears.
I had forgotten that he might have good hearing. The fairies were quite far away but I could hear their giggling and they were a noisy bunch. To him it might sound like they’re giggling right next to his ears. I can’t imagine how irritating that must be.
“I…I will pick up the conversation later, do you mind if I vent my annoyance?” He pointed his left ear to the noisy fairies.
“Go ahead.”
3 more of his tails appeared, a mana wave erupted from him as he hopped away and his tails elongated and became fluffier. He created air pockets, which he used as footholds, and hopped towards the fairies and started to vent.
I collected my thoughts. This chase after the Imposter had revealed more of the world to me than I had ever dreamed. It was bittersweet though. The words of the teenage Midget were stuck in my mind.
“The world isn’t as pretty as it seems, eh?” I already knew it but hadn’t fully accepted it yet. I remember cursing at fairy tales as they always painted beautiful stories. I got freed in the end but would my story categorize as a fairy tale? I don’t think so, the story is too ugly to become a fairy tale however if some details get omitted and someone makes the story a bit more pleasant it might turn into a fairy tale. Is this how humans create their fairy tales? It is indeed covering up an ugly truth with pretty words.
I gave a crack at it.
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A beautiful witch strove for excellence. Everyone around her became envious and sent her to fight a god out of envy. The witch, not realizing what the consequences were did so and won! But only for a short period of time. The god that got defeated had a lover. The goddess locked the witch up to teach her a lesson.
The witch that got sealed away cried, wishing for someone to save her. She waited and waited and it happened! 4 brave warriors appeared and saved her and they lived happily ever after!
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Something feels off at the end. Isn’t one of those warriors supposed to end up together with the beautiful witch? And what about the goddess? Did the witch get justice? Or did the goddess get away with this? Doesn’t sound like most fairy tales. I might need a human to make a better fairy tale out of this. Creating fairy tales isn’t a Misha thing but a human thing.
More and more rabbits snapped out of their disappointment and started to help in driving the fairies off. It didn’t take long for the fairies to get driven off.
“The goddess and the rabbits versus the fairies, eh? Sounds like some human fiction.”
Most of the rabbits started the chase after the fairies. Aren’t rabbits the type of animals that are the ones getting chased? Sure the four tailed forest Rabbits are beast kin and look more like humans with rabbit ears and rabbit tails but they’re still rabbit like in most of their behavior.
Thoughts flashed through my mind. What if I started research on the tailed beasts. I’m sure no Misha has ever attempted this, then again finding them is quite hard but I’ve already encountered 4 out of the 9. I will consider this after the Imposter is dead.
The rabbit guy with the scar on his chest returned. He seemed refreshed.
“Sorry about that, do I need to drop you off somewhere or do you want to return to our burrow?”
“Uhh, to your burrow please. I want to know what information you have on the Imposter.”
“Very well, hop on.” He gestured me to climb on his back.