The transition happened in an instant. The sky turned from the dark-green haze to a wide-open blue speckled with white clouds. Kim Hajun blinked a few times, the glare from a massive red sun shining in his eyes. His eyes rolled downwards, but thanks to the way the tentacles held him, he couldn’t see anything but the clouds in the sky.

“Is this the Wisty?” Vur asked.

“Sure is,” Stella said and poked her head out of Vur’s snout. She looked around before nodding. “You can polymorph back into a human.”

Vur crossed his eyes to look at Stella. “If the Wisty likes fairies and elementals, shouldn’t I polymorph myself into a fairy?”

“And shrink the door to my home?” Stella asked. “No way.”

“Alright,” Vur said and nodded. As his body shrank, turning back into his human form, he caught Lindyss and placed her on the ground, which was the Wisty’s massive tentacle. They lowered their heads before raising them, taking in the view of the gigantic octopus’ head. They could only see a small portion of it due to its humongous size. It was pink and fleshy with wrinkles akin to valleys filled with vegetation similar to moss growing on a rock. The tentacle was still approaching the Wisty’s head, and vegetation on the Wisty’s head became more detailed: green bushes with flowers of all colors, trees with a variety of different fruits growing on individual branches, lush vines blanketing the ground.

“It must be as big as a continent,” Lindyss said. “I wonder if there are any elves living in those forests.”

“Nuh-uh,” Stella said, shaking her head. At some point, she had flown out of Vur and taken a seat on his shoulder. “Fairies and elementals only.” She glanced down at Vur’s chest. “Don’t come out, Mervin. If you do, I’ll never talk to you again.”

“Oh, uh, okay!” Mervin said without questioning why. “Just let me know when I can come out again.”

“Why can’t he come out?” Erin asked, crawling out of Vur’ chest. She flew onto the same shoulder as Stella, taking a seat beside the fairy queen.

“The Wisty doesn’t like genies and phoenixes,” Stella said and pursed her lips.

Erin chuckled while grinning. “If that’s the reason you want to give me, that’s the reason I’ll believe.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Stella asked, pushing Erin off of Vur’s shoulder.

“Hey!” Erin said, flapping her wings to prevent herself from hitting the ground. “Violence isn’t nice. Don’t make me command you!”

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“Do you want to hear me scream?” Stella asked, narrowing her eyes at Erin. She took in a deep breath, and a finger tapped her head, causing her to choke and cough a few times. The fairy queen raised her head and glared at Vur.

“Play nice,” Vur said. “No screaming.”

Stella grabbed her head and pouted at Vur. “She started it,” the fairy queen said with a sparkling film of tears covering her eyes.

Vur reached out and tapped Erin’s head, causing the fairy queen to nearly tumble into the ground. Stella leaned over and placed her thumbs in her ears. She wiggled her fingers and stuck her tongue out at Erin, causing a vein to bulge on the great Erin Koller’s forehead. Before she could do anything, Vur grabbed Erin and placed her on his shoulder.

“How do I talk to the Wisty?” Vur asked, scanning the massive wall of flesh, looking for anything resembling an ear.

“The Wisty has a hard time hearing things,” Stella said. “You have to speak at its eyes and gesture a lot. Sometimes, it’ll understand what you’re trying to say.” She nodded. “The easiest way to communicate with the Wisty is to say whatever you need to say to Kim Hajun, and let the Wisty eat that memory.”

Were there no easier ways? Kim Hajun wanted to ask; instead, only strangled grunts came out from behind the tentacle covering his mouth.

“He’s more useful than I thought,” Lindyss said, nodding her head. “Here I was thinking his only purpose was to act as bait.”

“Should you be saying these things out loud?” Erin asked while flying over to the cursed elf’s shoulder. “He’s stuck, but I’m pretty sure he can still hear you.”

“He’ll be fine,” Lindyss said. “Haven’t you been paying attention? The Wisty will eat his memories; he won’t remember any of my words.”

Erin turned her head to look at Kim Hajun. The word “fine” couldn’t be used to describe his appearance. His skin was pale, and his limbs were bound, the tentacles holding him up towards the sky as if they were folding pretzels. Then again, according to the cursed elf words, he wouldn’t remember being in such a terrible situation, so … it wasn’t as bad as it seemed?

“We better pack him full of our requests soon,” Stella said, gesturing towards the Wisty’s head. “It won’t take long for us to arrive in front of its face.”

“I want a blueberry pie,” Erin said, her arm shooting up into the air as she raised her hand.

“We can request for food?” Vur asked. He turned his head to look down at Stella. “I want to snack on a bear’s soul.”

Stella glared at Erin. “Not those kinds of requests,” she said. “Let the Wisty know we need to get back to Erde from the tower.” The fairy queen blinked before standing. “Actually, I’ll do it.” She flew over to Kim Hajun. “Hey, Wisty, it’s Stella! I’m trying to get home from a big tree, but your tentacle isn’t letting me go back. Can you do something about that? Thanks.”

“That’s it?” Lindyss asked, raising an eyebrow as Stella flew back onto Vur’s shoulder.

“Isn’t that what we came here for?” Stella asked in return. “To give the Wisty a message to let us through?”

“It is,” Lindyss said, “but it’s a lot less troublesome than I thought it’d be.”

“Thanks to one man’s sacrifice,” Erin said, turning her head towards Kim Hajun. “How many of his memories do you think the Wisty’s going to eat?”

“It’s hard to tell,” Stella said and shrugged. “Volearden said he stinks, so maybe, the Wisty won’t like the way he tastes.”

Kim Hajun was speechless—not that he was able to talk in the first place.