It was in that moment that it dawned on the sprite that she never even introduced herself. She reached out her small hand and shook Velvet’s. “My name is Trix!”
Trix and Pix. How fitting, Velvet thought. What was not so fitting was the fairy’s outfit. Taking a better look of the small creature before her, this was nothing like what the young witch imagined fairies looked like. The two pairs of transparent wings on her back gave it away, but what was Trix wearing?
A pair of black leather boots went about halfway up her calves, with black socks poking out and ending just below her knees. In fact, everything she wore was black! Black leather shorts, a short black shirt that exposed her midriff, and over it a black leather jacket. The visor hat had a golden insignia of a fairy at the front and made her look like a captain of a ship. Her dirty-blonde hair was ruffled and bound together in a long braid that went down to the bottom of her back. Under her clear blue eyes, three stripes of black war paint were smeared on each of her cheeks.
“What's the matter?” Trix grinned. “Isn't really what you expected? Did you expect a girl wearing a frilly dress and holding a wand in her hand, singing a lovely tune while skipping on mushrooms? This is the wilderness! Out here you either kill or get killed! That goes for us fairies as well!”
“I guess…I wasn't quite expecting fairies to dress like this,” Velvet admitted.
“I could say the same for you humans!” the fairy said. “Nice hat you got there! I like your style! Kind of casual but with a spicy twist!”
“Uhm…thanks?” the girl was a bit confused by the assessment of her get-up. She didn't expect fairies to talk quite like this either. She thought they were timid, fearful creatures that hardly spoke at all. But this one here in front of her had a loud and excited voice and didn't seem to be afraid of her at all!
“You can let go of my hand now, you know…” Trix woke her up from her daydreaming.
“S-sorry!” Velvet immediately retracted her arm and let go of her hand. She didn't even realize that she had been shaking it all this time. “So…where are you two headed now? Do you live close by?”
The fairy scoffed at that. “I wish! Our home is almost entirely on the other side of the forest!”
“It probably won't be easy to carry him all the way back there for you then,” the girl deduced.
Now that Trix was standing right in front of Velvet, it was apparent that the two fairies were about a third of her size, reaching up to just above her knee. A journey across the Kamatayan forest would take more than a week even for her and that was if she was using her eagle transformation to fly a part of the way. For someone as small as them it would take weeks no doubt.
“If you'd like that, I can help you get him home as fast as possible.” Velvet offered on impulse. She wasn't even thinking about it. To her, it felt like the natural thing to do to help someone in need. And it wasn't like she had anywhere to be. The only person in these parts that cared about her was dead. It was only her now. All alone in this accursed forest. She felt tears welling up inside again as she remembered uncle Grogar, whose lifeless body lay only a few dozen meters away from them.
“You would really do that?!” Trix perked up. “That's amazing! I'd be glad to take you up on that offer!”
“Gladly,” Velvet mustered a faint smile. Her face quickly darkened again, though. “But first…I'd like to give my uncle a proper burial. This place was his home. He knew it like the back of his hand. It's only fitting that his body rests here.”
“Of course, I already promised to help you bury him,” the fairy said, glancing at the unconscious Pix lying on the soft mossy floor. “It's the least I can do for the man that saved our lives.”
Velvet nodded. “Thank you.”
And so they went to work. Velvet used her light magic to create a large hole in the ground and they dragged Grogar’s body into it, before covering it with fresh soil. While carrying him, Trix once again used the strange magic to cover her body. It seemingly made her stronger. Velvet took note of it, but was too distressed to really ask about it.
After they were finished, they sat in silence before a pile of moss and rocks they put over the grave to make it look nicer, paying their respects to this kind-hearted man that met his untimely death.
“I already miss him,” Velvet said, fresh tears spilling down her cheeks.
“It’s hard to let go of people,” the fairy agreed. “But your wounds will mend with time.”
They spent a good, long time at his grave before the young witch was ready to say goodbye. She took out a pocket knife and stabbed it into the soil covering him.
“He gave this to me,” she commented. “And he shall have it back.”
Trix only nodded in agreement before they made their way back to Pix, who was still lying unconscious in the same spot they had left him.
“What was that?” the always curious girl finally managed to compose herself enough to ask.
“What was what?” Trix cocked her eyebrow.
“That purple current your body got covered in while you helped me move uncle. I've never seen magic like that before. Is that something exclusive to you fairies? Fairy magic?”
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The sprite laughed, her shrill voice echoing throughout the forest and probably making even the deceased Grogar turn in his grave. “Fairy magic! That's a good one! Ahahaha!”
“What is it then?” Velvet wouldn't let up. “It sure isn't elemental magic.”
“You're right about that!” Trix said after she got a hold of herself. “This sure as hell isn't elemental magic. I don't know if you surface-dwellers have a word for it, but us fairies call it pure magic. This is magic's most purest form and can be used for a variety of things!”
“Surface-dwellers? Is that what you fairies call us humans?”
“Hoomans? What type of owl is that?!” Trix started laughing again.
“You fairies really don't know a lot about the outside world, do you?” Velvet realized. “We call ourselves humans. That's H-U-M-A-N-S. And by the way, we do know about pure magic. But isn't that just something that's extracted from creatures for teleportation purposes?”
“Hoomans, huh? Interesting.” The fairy flew up and landed on a branch above her. “As for what pure magic is and what it does, teleportation isn't even close to everything it can do!”
“Really?!” this made Velvet jump to her feet immediately. “Tell me more! Tell me more!”
“Nuh-uh!” she waved her finger dismissively. “These are fairy secrets! If I tell you more about it you could use it against us! We fairies have mastered pure magic and have been using it for generations already! What you are doing by taking it from creatures is a total idiot thing to do! Why gather it when you can make your own!” Trix quickly put her hands over her mouth, realizing her tongue slipped. “Damn it! I already said too much…”
“You can produce pure magic?!” the excited girl immediately latched on to this new bit of information. “Teach me! Teach me how to make pure magic!”
“No way!” Trix was adamant. “I am breaking the fairy code if I do that! And breaking the fairy code is punishable by death! I don't want to die, thank you very much!”
“Please, tell me just a little bit!” Velvet clasped her hands together and begged her. “I love, love, LOVE magic! I want to learn everything there is about it! This is so exciting!”
“Hmmm,” the sprite rubbed her chin, hanging down from the branch by her legs. “Well, you did sort of save our lives…” she thought out loud. “…so I technically owe it to you to put my life on the line for you. And if you're also going to help me get Pix home that's a big, biiiig favor! Eh, why the hell not? I guess I could break the code a little bit!”
“YES!!” the young witch was thrilled at this. “I get to do pure magic!”
“No, no, no, no,” Trix immediately rained on Velvet’s parade. “You don't get to do anything! I am going to tell you some less important stuff, but I won't actually teach you how to do it!”
“Awh,” Velvet's excitement died down a bit. “Well, I guess that's better than nothing!”
“Indeed! Here's what we will do!” She let go of the branch and elegantly glided towards the girl, landing before her. Now that they were standing face to face, or more accurately, face to knee, the huge size difference between them was clearly evident.
“We're going to mark a spot close to our home and I will be waiting for you there on every full moon,” Trix suggested. “Even if you don't come, I will be waiting there – it's not like it's a big chore for me to do that. And every time I will bring a book from our library for you to read! You bring the one I lent you out the previous time, so I can return it – if a lot of books go missing they will find out something isn't right. But if we do it one by one I can just say I was the one who took them! How's that sound?”
“That sounds amazing!” Velvet crouched down and hugged the tiny girl.
“A hooman hug!” the fairy exclaimed happily. “Now I can say I am the first one that got one in a thousand years! That's pretty neat!”
“I guess you are!” the young witch laughed after letting her go.
“Oh, but don't mention our little arrangement to Pix once he wakes up,” she reminded her. “He's a little bit of a stickler for the rules, you see. Myself…not so much. Life's not fun if you always stick to the rules, you know!”
This last sentence reminded Velvet of a certain old man she knew. “Old headmaster Argus also always says that! “Rules are for fools!” he says.” The girl giggled when she remembered.
“I already like this old man!” Trix laughed.
They paid their last respects to Grogar and Velvet shed tears for him one more time before she finally parted with him forever. She placed the injured fairy into her backpack and used the eagle transformation Arianna taught her to carry both of her new companions high above the treetops.
Thank you for reading this part of the story! Lots of love!
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A moment of silence for uncle Grogar. May he rest in peace.