"Oh, right. Selune said Fey are the cause of the mist and vines. She also said they might be a demon with them, so we should be super careful." Elba and Ov nodded as we started heading through the mist. Ov took the front, Elba was at the back, and I was in the middle. As soon as I entered the mist I felt oddly relaxed like I wasn't in a life or death situation.

Ov slipped in front of me and fell forward. I heard giggling from around me. From Elba, yes. But even from somewhere, deeper in the mist. I cast Faerie Fire(Anyone near her glows a color of her choice). There was 1 light, then 2, then 17. They were floating in the air, fairies?

"Oh, darn! We got caught. Bremicir isn't going to be happy about that..."

"Don't tell the humans his name! You dimwit!" The fairies erupted into a childish back and worth. I decided not to attack them, probably due to the mist, so I helped Ov off the floor.

"What should we do about the fairies? They don't seem to be the brightest tools in the shed."

"Fairies are imbeciles! I've never heard a human, so right before!" So they're not fairies? I heard a few of them start digging into fairies.

"Fairies, they are so vain!"

"The best way to catch 'em is to give 'em a mirror!" A singular fairy-like creature floated up to me.

"Excuse my sisters, they are terribly childish. If you are wondering, we are Pixies. As you can probably tell, we loathe fairies' vanity, and they hate our, often childish, pranks."

"Oh, I see. So do you know what happened here? There used to be dozens of humans living here." She thought for a second.

"We came here after our Master verified it was safe, so he's the only one who might know what happened."

"Could we speak to him?" I was having trouble remembering his name. She shook her head aggressively.

"Master doesn't take too kindly to outsiders. We could relay your question."

"That would be great!" She nodded and flew away. I sighed after she left.

"Elba, are we actually going to wait?" Elba and Ov were now playing tag with the Pixies, making me to sigh again. I had a weird feeling that the unstoppable laughter had something to do with the mist. I decided to just sit around 'till the pixie. After a few minutes, a humanoid figure emerged from the mist.

I've never seen an elf, but he was exactly how I imagined one to be. He was 6 foot 6 though shorter than Ov, the elegance in his step made him seem taller. He had flawless straight white hair, complemented by his crystal blue eyes. His face was slender yet still had an otherworldly beauty.

"Hello, I'm Bremicir. Thank you for showing restraint against the Pixies. They're often annoying." Since he said 'the' instead of 'my' he doesn't believe he has ownership of them even though they consider him their Master, weird. I shook his smooth hand.

"I'm Mercedes. That's Elba and Ovrutunt. We're here to investigate the absence of people in this area." I found it annoying that Elba and Ov were having fun while I had to do the diplomacy. Bremicir lost the faint smile on his face.

"I see. Whoever sent you must be scraping the bottom of the barrel, eh?" Did he just make fun of us?

"And what do you mean by that?"

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"Do you think an elf and a few pixies could've caused this?" He gestured towards the building as opposed to the mist. I guess he's right... Though someone could destroy a building with magic, solely the roofs are missing.

"Do you have an idea who could've?" He sighed.

"I have a single guess. A humanoid wouldn't need to destroy just the roofs, and beasts that size with such precision are a dime a dozen."

"Could you get to the point? Man, you must be a bore in bed." Revenge! He chuckled.

"Wanna test that?" What?

"I jest, of course. It's most likely a giant. A mountain giant to be more specific, especially since there's that small mountain." He pointed behind, though I couldn't see through the mist. A mountain giant? We definitely couldn't beat even one giant. Giants were a fairy tale a legend though some of them still popped up here and there to cause havoc. So maybe not as legendary as dragons.

"Thank you for your help, sorry we bothered you." He shook his head.

"No problem. Teasing you was pretty fun." I decided to ignore the last part. I was glad that you couldn't see if someone was blushing or not through the pink mist. I walked over the Elba and told her what I learned.

"Okay! Mercedes, you can head back now. Me and Ov will locate the giant. You can head back to Asogas. I told the carriage rider to come back at in an hour so you'll have to stay here till then." Right, I can't tag along forever...

"It's fine. Help you guys out a bit more, free of charge."

"Really? Thank you!" Ov said something under his breath about me scamming Elba out of 420 already.

"Well, let's get moving. It's probably going to take us until sundown to reach the base of the mountain."

"Oh, I can help you with that. Would anyone mind finding a horse for these humans?" The Pixies started hurriedly flying through the forest after complimenting Bremicir.

"I'll do It, Master! Must I say your hair is looking Divine today!" After my ears finished figuratively bleeding. I deduced that most Pixies had quite the crush on Bremicir.

"Sorry about that. The Pixies have some trouble not falling for my charm." He swept his hair back.

"Are you sure about that? The only way they'd like you is if the mist produced something other than giggles."

"Ah, so you noticed? Most humans can't resist the temptation for a giggle, and at that point, they don't know they're under a spell."

"It was pretty obvious after you made Ov laugh."

"I see, I'll keep that in mind for next time."

"Let's hope there isn't a next time." Bremicir chuckled. I heard the galloping of hooves to the right, when I turned and saw a herd of Horses approaching us. Really went overboard for Bremicir, huh?

"Sorry about that, the Pixies often go overboard when they try and impress me."

"No problem..." They were a few feet away, so I approached the nearest horse, a white stallion. He seemed to be a bit stressed, so I stroked his face. It came as no surprise he was soft. I jumped unto the horse with little success as I overshot my jump and was now heading towards the floor.

I was caught by... Bremicir? How he cleared 10 feet in the blink of an eye was beyond me. I was just glad he did, and a bit flustered that he caught me in the princess position. Also, his hand was dangerously close to... I eagerly jumped off.

"Are you okay?" I dusted myself off.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"You shouldn't have just jumped unto him. You could've gotten hurt!" Though I didn't like getting scolded. I decided to take his sincerity to heart.

"I'm sorry... You mind helping me up?" He sighed.

"I will. But you don't have a saddle or reins for him." Oh, right. I guess I skipped that step...

"Do you have a saddle?" He smiled.

"No. But that doesn't mean I can't make any." He cast a spell that I didn't know of. Which made 3 saddles and reins appear in his arms. He gave 2 of them to Elba and Ov and started suiting up the horse.

"You have to teach me that!" He chuckled.

"Are you willing to stay the night?" He finished fastening the saddle unto my horse.

"I'm not against it..." For the time since I'd meant him, he seemed to be at a loss for words.

"Ahum! Some of us here haven't gotten our horses saddled."

"Right, sorry." I sighed, saved by Elba. After he finished with their horses, he came back to me.

"Usually someone of your height would use a stool to get up. B-"

"Hey! I'm not that short! You're just freakishly tall!" I was less than a foot shorter than him. I was 5 foot 7.

"Yeah, sure. As I was saying. I'm a bit too lazy to make a stool, so I'll just lift you up." I nodded.

"Like lift me up with magic?"

"Nope." I yelped as he grabbed my waist and started lifting me unto the horse. When he was done, I was red. I was not expecting that.

"Good luck. If you manage to make it back. I'll take you up on your offer for staying the night." He winked at me as the horse started galloping towards the mountain.

"I'll keep you to it!"