Finley Cai Aies Hall May 17th,20XX

“Woah!” 

Jake jumped backwards as Galen shot him one of his signature smiles. The wings on his back fluttered anxiously and launched him into the air, having mistaken his surprise for panic. He ended up doing a few cartwheels in the air as he adjusted to suddenly being airborne and landed in a handstand. 

Galen was taken aback by his surprise as well and turned his large head toward me, blinking pitifully and letting out a small whine. I quickly put out an arm and began to stroke his head in response.

“Its okay Galen, you didn’t do anything wrong. He’s just a big scared-y cat.”

 As the Fluttermoth had gotten older, he had taken to biting at people that got too close to him. I’d had to come down here more than once to scold him because of it.  

The beast began to purr and rub his head against my palm. 

He was a lot bigger now than the last time I’d seen him and had needed a new stable built for him, as the previous one had only suited his status as a newborn royal flutter moth. 

Yeah, it was for propriety's sake and not because I spoiled the beast. 

“What is that thing?!”

I hissed at him. Even if he was my friend, I wouldn’t let anyone talk down to Galen like that. 

“Galen isn’t an ‘It’ or a ‘Thing’ Kiorn. He’s a Fluttermoth.”

He scowled at being called Kiorn instead of Jake but it was a necessity. We weren’t inside my quarters anymore, since Galen’s stable wouldn’t have fit and I also didn’t want the people who would have to take care of the Fluttermoth walking around my place. I couldn’t risk someone hearing me call him Jake and it is becoming an issue. 

“Fluttermoth? Like Mammoth?”

Corin who had finally come to visit after being absent on missions I wasn’t allowed to know about stifled a laugh at his reaction. 

“Maybe it’s a human thing?”

She mumbled under her breath. Cambridge graced the joke with a slight smile but otherwise said nothing and kept glancing over me worriedly. 

I’d called the two of them back at Mei’s request. She wanted them to help train her aides and to help her with some of her work. 

We’d framed the rescue mission as an excursion so people wouldn’t be suspicious of where we were going, otherwise, I was sure that Cambridge would oppose it. 

Corin would encourage my little ‘rescue mission’ but would insist on going with us but we needed her here to help manage the queendom while we were gone. Either Mei or Corin would have served fine as an escort but between the two I’d rather not go with someone that still treated me like an infant. 

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Ever since we’d found out Sparrow was with he witches the tension had died down a lot. I still wanted to go and make sure it didn’t have anything to do with me, and to get her to show will that she was okay but I didn’t plan on making her return to the human world if she didn’t want to. It was weird enough that I wanted to stay there when I had such a great life here… well, most of the time I had a great life here. I could recognize that others may not want to juggle the two worlds. 

Jake was still pretty clearly stressed out and wanted to leave as soon as possible. But that was because he wanted to get back home as soon as possible. 

At some point today I would make a point to return to the human world and make an excuse for his absence. Maybe I would send his family on a vacation trip?

But would they accept, was another thing. 

I’d tried to headhunt his stepmother from the company she currently worked at as a screenwriter but she seemed pretty attached to them. At this point, I may have to buy out the whole company. It was annoyingly difficult to give stuff to people that didn’t work for me. 

Maybe I could say it was a benefit because of Jake’s employment? But going off what I’d heard from her she would probably want to talk to Jake and make sure he was okay with it. Maybe I could use his phone to text them or something. 

As I took my time pampering over Galen I checked over his saddles to make sure they wouldn’t be too tight. Galen could now comfortably fit three fully grown fairies and was quite a lot faster than Mei’s Fluttermoth. So, he would be the main hero of our story. 

Once we got Sparrow I would teleport her over to the human world and Mei and Jake would fly Galen back to the Queendom, where I would meet them. 

Galen would probably be distressed at my disappearance but he was pretty familiar with Mei since she had started keeping her own Fluttermoth in the palace and Galen seemed to be infatuated with the other beast. Sometimes when Mei took her Fluttermoth out for flights, she would hook Galen’s saddle and let him tag along

On some level I knew that she was anticipating the day he would be old enough to race her own Fluttermoth but it wasn’t something I was opposed too, so I didn’t say anything. 

“So, Kiorn was it? The boy from the Ruan family?”

At some point, Corin had drifted over to Jake’s side and had started talking to him. She was probably a bit suspicious of him since he’d come out of nowhere. I couldn’t judge her suspicions but I was also a bit offended that my speaking for him hadn’t been enough to validate his identity. 

Jake at first didn’t react to the name but he played it off by pretending to be dizzy from the stunt the wings had pulled earlier. 

“Ah, yes. Mei found me earlier and convinced me to return to the human world with her.”

He smoothly recounted the story we had created for him and kept his voice level as he did so, but he wasn’t an actor and his eyes darted around the stable as he spoke. This what when I needed to cut in. 

“Mei didn’t like having only Akseli as my aide and personally recommended Krion as another. It didn’t seem like too big of a deal so I accepted.” 

I felt bad about using Mei and Akseli’s history like that but it was a ploy that Mei herself had suggested, and it was better than any of the ones I could think of. 

Corin turned to me as I cut into a conversation that I hadn’t been included in but I avoided her gaze. I ended up looking at Jake, who tried to give me a thankful smile but I avoided that too. It was still a bit awkward to interact with Jake while I was in my fairy appearance. 

Jake kept half an eye on Galen, half fascinated with the beast and half terrified. It was by virtue of comparison that I finally realized just how used to this world I’d become. It was terrifying to think that it had been less than three months and so much had already happened. 

The Deal I’d made with Will looped itself in my head and I resumed brushing Galen’s soft fur. 

One day left. 

After that, I could get Sparrow back and the Deal would be kept.