Elf and feline followed the fairy, while Pikshbxgro fluttered to and fro. He was sometimes following them, and sometimes exploring the surroundings. He was excited to be there, as it was unusual for spirits to visit the fairies’ home.
It wasn’t until he passed the fairy princess that she stopped and stared at him.
“Little spirit, come closer.”
Goldmi feared that Pikshbxgro attitude had angered the fairy, who was staring at the obedient spirit she had called. He was looking back at her, and was still smiling.
“You’ve been through a lot. Tell me,” asked the princess, after placing her small hand on his small head.
“They caught us. They hurt us. They were very bad. But Aunt Omi came and saved us. And then evil surrounded us. But sister one-horn protected us. And Aunt Omi appeared again to save us. And then, we went through the bad forest. It was very scary.”
The explanations were rather brief and vague, but they were enough for what she wanted to find out. Although she was curious about those events, at the time, what really mattered to her was finding out how they had affected him. She was pleased by what she had discovered.
“You’ve grown up,” the fairy praised him with a smile.
“Really!? So…!?” Pikshbxgro got excited.
“Yes, you should go.”
The spirit was so excited that he departed from the small group immediately, to Goldmi’s surprise. But, suddenly, he turned around and went back to them.
“Aunt Omi. I’ve grown up! Now I have to go. But I’ll come back. See you soon!”
He left again, before the confused elf could open her mouth. She then turned to the fairy, and questioned her with her gaze.
“He has grown up. He has matured. Now, he can complete the cycle,” answered the princess, as she started walking again.
“What do you mean?” the archer insisted, since she didn’t understand anything.
The princess didn’t stop walking, but she didn’t stop speaking either.
“Young ones needs to play, and explore the world by playing. Thus, little by little, they gain knowledge, they grow up, they mature. Hundreds of years may pass, or thousands. It’s really unusual for someone to mature so quickly, but he’s had very intense and dangerous experiences.”
Goldmi kept walking and looking at the fairy. She didn’t know to where that explanation was going.
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“When a young one matures, it means that his mind has developed. All that remains is for his body to mature. He’ll go from being one of our children to one of our sisters.”
“Will Pikgro turn into a fairy?”
“Rather than turn, he’ll grow into one. How a seed opens and grows into a plant. Like a worm grows into a butterfly. Like an egg grows into a chick. The spirits are our seeds, our worms, our eggs, our children. As his mind has matured, he has transformed into a chrysalis, one step away from his adult form.”
“I see,” Goldmi finally understood.
It is true that most fairies’ figure doesn’t seem very adult, nor did their demeanor, which is cheerful and apparently childish. But that is only when compared to the physical development of a human being. In reality, most of them are hundreds or thousands of years old, no matter how much they look like a girl.
So, although their appearance and attitude may be deceiving, they are beings with great knowledge, and much less innocent than it might look like. Unlike spirits, who are really innocent, and often oblivious to the fact that there are evils in the world, pain or suffering.
Fairies themselves aren’t kind or cruel, but the personification of nature, where death and life coexist equally. However, they are honest and never treacherous, vindictive or spiteful. If a spirit had that type of personality, he couldn’t grow up, he couldn’t grow into a fairy.
Because of this, some spirits stay in their form for more time than they should. Sometimes decades. Sometimes centuries. Even millennia. Therefore, some of them resent the fairies, thus believing that they deny them their right, when, in reality, it is that resentment that holds them back. For this reason, some accepted the corruption, both as revenge and to obtain a power that they believed was theirs.
They continued through the land of fairies, a world that is a mixture of reality and illusion. It may seem that there is a forest, and behind a lake, and a little further on a mountain, but it is reality and illusion at the same time. It is reality because they exist. It is an illusion because they aren’t there.
It could be said that the land of fairies is a nexus that links different parts of the world. It reflects the forest and the lake side by side, when thousands of kilometers separate them in the real world.
Fairies can travel freely, in and out of this nexus, which is their home, and into the real world, even if only to get hold of a cherry.
Only fairies can travel through it, as they are part of both reality and illusion. Though guests may enter, they must return the way they have come, or they would leave part of themselves behind.
Without a doubt, it is somewhat unreal, since places of humid lands are mixed with those of drier lands. Colder lands with warmer ones. Areas at sea level with the highest mountain peaks. But that contrast also makes it uniquely beautiful, or at least much of it is.
“I don’t like it,” groaned the lynx.
“Neither do I,” her sister confirmed.
The path they followed the fairy, the one that crossed many parts of the world, skirted a dark and lifeless area. It was a world that they could only see because, unlike others, its presence couldn’t be felt, since the ties were broken. That area couldn’t be accessed from the road, nor the road from it.
Therefore, there were no fairies that came and went, as in the other areas. Instead, there was what they hadn’t seen before.
Along the perimeter of that dark area, there were several fairies. They appeared to be women in their thirties, though they were in their thousands. They were sitting, with their eyes closed, and a great power was emanating from them, a power that was directed to the places bordering the dark area.
“Our sisters have been containing the corruption since it appeared,” the princess explained solemnly. A deep pride, respect and sadness could be felt in her words.
The elf and the lynx looked at them with respect too. It was a fight that had been going on for some years now, and one that could go on for many more.