"Yes. I could hear you. You are incredibly beautiful. Are you a Fairy?" Lone had answered before he repeated himself. Although he wasn't usually swayed by feminine charms, he couldn't help but find himself to be drawn into this girl's natural allure.
"You can even see me..." the purple-haired girl murmured. However, her expression soon became clouded. "I'm not a Fairy," she finally replied before she flew towards Lone and Sophie and began gently circling the two while looking at their golden-hair with a strange light in her eyes. "My people are, or were, known as the Tylwyth Teg."
"My apologies, but 'were'?" Lone asked while he continued ot stare at this short girl's face. Sophie couldn't blame him because she too was infatuated with the Tylwyth Teg. In fact, she was certain that the being floating around them was far more gorgeous than she herself was, and Sophie had ample amounts of confidence in her own appearance.
"Yes..." the Tylwyth Teg replied with a hint of melancholy to her tone. "I am the last of our race. You see, we were always low in numbers, but we were all exceedingly powerful. You might not know the term, but all of our kind had the potential to at least reach the Cosmos Level." This statement startled Lone greatly. If he had the chance later, he would love to learn from this being since it's knowledge seemed to very superior to his, and maybe even Clicker's.
"Unfortunately, we are drawn to golden hair. We always had the urge to kidnap such haired children and replace them with a changeling, which I'm sure you know, isn't the best of ideas considering their parents were very powerful and influential people." After having said that, she stopped circling the two and flew a few meters away before she landed on the ground, letting her bare feet spread the dirt apart while her short one-piece purple dress mingled with the flowers. "We were wiped out. All of us, except for myself."
"I'm so sorry. That must have been very hard to deal with," Lone replied with some empathy to his voice. The Life-dream of the Golem had really changed his view onto certain things, and a species wide extermination was certainly one such thing.
"It's okay. It happened twelve thousand years ago," the Tylwyth Teg said. She giggled a little at Lone and Sophie's shocked faces, but the look of depression never left her eyes. "Anyway, you asked a question, and I have answered. So, please answer mine. What brings you to my meadow?"
"Greyfus brought me here. I wish to learn blacksmithing from, presumably, you," Lone answered honestly.
"Eolande. That's my name," was her instant response before she put on an expectant expression.
"Violet flower..." Lone mumbled. His knowledge of Earth's history wasn't limited to historical facts and actually included the knowledge of several myths. He thought the term 'Tylwyth Teg' had sounded familiar, now it clicked. Celtic legends.
As far as he could remember, the only thing that struck him was the two facts that, one, they were immortal, and two, they could only be killed by iron.
"I'm surprised. You know the true meaning of my name. This... complicates things," Eolande said before she wore a thinking expression. Lone simply remained silent. "Another time I suppose. Anyway, Foxkin, Human. Your names?" she finished.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"Ah! I'm Lone Immortus." "S-Sophie... V-Vladim-mirovich," Lone and Sophie said at almost the same time. They were simply too distracted by the girl's story and good-looks to think properly.
"Lovely to meet you both," Eolande said with a curtsy. "You wish to become my apprentice, yes? It's certainly possible, but please know that no one has ever passed my tests. However, I have a good feeling about you. You already passed two tests; only two left," Eolande said before she flashed a dazzling smile and jumped up to fly again.
"What would those two tests be?" Lone asked cautiously, but he was mostly excited at the thought of proving himself.
"Hehe, well, the first one is your talent for blacksmithing, the second, you're quite close to failing already," she replied with an all-knowing smile.
"What exactly is the second one?" Lone asked still with a decent amount of reverence in his eyes for the Tylwyth Teg.
"Hehe, honesty," Eolande responded before she put one of her small white hands over her mouth to cover her light laughter.
Lone's eyes widened with shock before he dropped his head down and sighed. "Sorry. I'm trying to be more honest, really, I am. But c'mon, you're so powerful, I suddenly felt an illusion being put over me before I cancelled it. You managed to entrance Soph with it, and I've only seen a Cosmos Level Being do that so far, so was it wrong for me to be careful and just play along for the moment?"
"How interesting... you don't find me beautiful? You don't feel compelled to belong to me?" Eolande asked with nothing but bemusement in her tone. She was very stumped by the fact that Lone had managed to break her Charm Illusion which worked on even Cosmos, and maybe Divine Level Beings.
"I do. You are very beautiful, but physical appearance means literally nothing to me. Nothing that is, unless you're Soph. She's the only woman I appreciate both physically and emotionally, so I believe that even if my passive skill to see through all illusions didn't activate, I probably could have broken it with my willpower." Lone had said before he turned to face a now heavily blushing Sophie. "Just like you will, right?"
Sophie's eyes widened a bit at this proclamation of Lone's. Right, what was she doing ogling another person right in front of the man she loved?! Obviously, due to being a loner for basically her entire life, the opposite sex had never interested her, and neither had the same sex. Lone's body meant just as much to her as her's did to Lone. It was his personality that she loved, despite how flawed it was.
Eolande was shocked while she watched her illusion literally being ripped apart from Sophie. "You," she said with a point of the finger directed at Sophie. "You're no mortal being, are you?"
"She's a Cosmos Level Being that I stupidly sealed. So her willpower is a notch above the norm," Lone answered for the roughly breathing Sophie with a proud expression. Sophie, upon seeing the face of Lone, walked up to him and fell into his embrace, letting herself be enveloped by his tails. She was ashamed that she felt lust for the girl standing in front of them, even if it was fake.
"What an interesting pair. You say you sealed her, yet she now loves you. Why? Truly, fascinating. Well, since that's that out of the way, care to test your smithing skill now?" Eolande asked with a mysterious glint in her eyes.
"I wonder that myself all the time," Lone whispered as he gazed lovingly at the small girl hugging his waist. "But it doesn't matter. All that matters is that my feelings for her are real and she receives them. Anyway, yes, enough about us. Time to learn. So, where shall you test me?"
"Right here," Eolande answered before she waved her hand in a theatrical manner. Lone gaped in awe while he watched the meadow split apart to reveal a tunnel that seemed to lead underground. "You see, us Tylwyth Teg, we tend to live either underwater or underground. I'm the latter type." Eolande then gently hovered into the cave she had created with Lone and Sophie cautiously following her.