I woke up, and Mini Taury obviously moved in the night as she was lying, strewn on my head.

I yawned. The night hitting me a lot better.

“Wings… wake up…”

“…nirk…”

“Wings…”

“Hey, William, having trouble up there?”

Grace shouted at me.

“Wings won’t wake up, and I don’t want to move until she does.”

“Okay…”

She walked off, and I lay there in silence. I couldn’t actually see; Taurael’s back was over my eyes.

I could feel one hand on my neck and the other mixed with my hair.

I could feel her chest rising and falling.

“Wings, it’s time to get up.”

“Five more minutes, mom.”

“Wings?”

“I know Arthur needs to go back to Earth, just let me sleep for five minutes more… get Alvane to do it…”

“What?”

She yawned.

“You’re right, she can’t open the gate… fine, I’ll do it.”

Then she stood up and walked… straight off the edge of a branch.

“WOAH!”

I caught her. I looked at her in minor shock. A fall from this height would definitely cripple her when she’s this small.

“William…”

“Oh, you’re awake?”

“Don’t hurt William.”

“What? Wings.”

“Get away from him. Don’t hurt him!”

“Wings, wake up, you’re having a nightmare.”

“Please… don’t hurt him.”

A tear dropped from her eyes, then she opened them.

“William?”

“Wings… it was just a nightmare.”

“Thank goodness… it felt so real. I was so scared…”

“It’s not real.”

She smiled.

“Can you promise me something?”

“What?”

“Don’t be like Arthur, if something is too dangerous… survive. Please…”

I sighed.

“I can’t… because what if it’s you in danger.”

She blushed.

“You… idiot… thank you.”

“The pleasure is mine. Let’s go to breakfast… After getting a bit more decent…”

She looked at me with a smirk, her usual demeanor returned.

“Sure… want me to change in my cabin? Or~”

“Wherever you want.”

She scrunched her nose at my lack of playing along.

“Fine, I’ll change here.”

“Got it.”

I changed and left before she finished grabbing her clothes.

She looked at me flustered as I descended, so, I did what any man getting revenge would do, I smirked.

“That’s for last night.”

“Spiteful little human.”

She flustered me. I flustered her. We’re even now.

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I walked to breakfast and Wings fluttered behind me with a blush.

“Why did you have to do that?”

“You could’a pointed it out any time before, but nope, you wanted to fluster me. So, why not get you back.”

“You’re mean, you know that?”

“I do. Hey, what about, instead of Wings, I call you Darling~”

She full on flushed.

“You… jerk, you already flustered me once. You don’t need to do it again.”

“I know, I’m on a roll.”

“Who are you talking to?”

I jumped out of my skin and whipped around.

“Hi Cherry.”

“Hello. I never thought college students could have imaginary girlfriends, but I suppose you are sad enough to make one up.”

“Rude, but fair.”

“You’re lucky I was the one who caught you, otherwise your new title would be Miracle Virgin.”

I winced, that would be a bad title indeed.

“Or of course… you could be talking to a fey.”

She looked at me for a moment before snickering.

“I know, bad joke, some people actually believe that fey exist. Did you know that Grace actually believes that silly idea? For such a logical person, it’s odd she believes in them.”

“I suppose.”

Of course, her being a fey helped in that belief.

“Actually, I suppose you wouldn’t have to imagine a girlfriend.”

“What?”

“That girl, Tracy was her name, right?”

“No, Teresa.”

“Huh, well that closes the you don’t know each other theory.”

“What?”

“Oh please, miracle boy knows some hot girl that no one has seen before? People talk, a popular one was that she was some kind of prostitute that you hired to look less lonely.”

I blinked.

“I’m sorry, I believe I misheard you. What was the theory?”

She began to shiver.

“N-nothing important, I’m gonna go to breakfast now.”

She wisely rushed off.

Taury snorted.

“Please, a prostitute? If any knight heard that, she’d be dead.”

“I know.”

“… William, were you about to kill her?”

“No, I was going to make her tell me exactly who made that rumor, then see if I get any new magic.”

“Oh… you don’t need to go that far…”

“*Sigh* You’re right. I’m just tired and… I suppose I acted a bit harshly.”

“A bit? You frightened the girl half to death. Your aura spiked for a moment.”

“It did?”

“Yeah.”

“Shouldn’t Grace’s amulet prevent that?”

“It should…”

I looked at it and noticed a massive crack in it.

“What the heck happened?!”

“Hm… Maybe last night, when you hugged me, it clashed our magics and overloaded it.”

“Maybe.”

_

“Nope, not possible.”

“What?”

“My relics are made to withstand the magic of one blessed by the Dream, you two hugging wouldn’t chip it.”

“I see… then how was it-“

“That’s what I can’t quite tell… It was obviously some sort of clash, but I can’t tell how that would- William, you know something, don’t you.”

“Wings… It was him.”

She looked at me.

“Why do you think that?”

“Because he’s already shown us he can enter dreams… combined with your nightmare… his magic, plus mine and yours… that would definitely generate enough power.”

“But then that...”

“Was a threat.”

“Yeah…”

Grace had a confused look.

“I feel like I missed something.”

“It’s something that you hopefully don’t need to worry about.”

“ALRIGHT CAMPERS!!!”

We all turned to Maven who was at an 11 despite it being 6 in the morning.

“We are hiking again today, but today, we are going on one of the oldest hiking trails in the forest, and if we have enough time afterwards, we can do more swimming in the lake.”

People cheered at the notion.

Everyone started gathering hiking gear.

I found a big stick.

“I’m ready.”

“Wonderful.”

Me and Taury smiled at each other. Amy walked by with an amused look in her eyes.

“I’ve never seen a more perfect model of sharing one braincell in the world.”

“What? Hiking stick. It’s a necessity!”

“Whatever.”

Amy snorted as she walked over to Brent.

Grace walked over.

“Do you know why Cherry is shivering so badly?”

“That may be my bad.”

“I thought so, what happened?”

“Did you know that there were various rumors about Wings?”

“Yep. Which one did she say to make you snap?”

“That, get this, she was a prostitute I hired. How could anyone think that for a moment?”

“Yeah… I c-can see how that would make you mad.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It’s fine, but your mana pool is developing a lot. It’s odd.”

Taury sat on my head.

“Not really.”

We both looked at her, so she sighed.

“See it this way, William never walks his whole life, then he suddenly learns he has legs. His legs will be shaky for a while, but will quickly gain enough strength for him to hobble, then after that he can walk, and it progresses until he can sprint.”

“Oh… that does make sense.”

“Yeah, magic is a muscle, you simply haven’t been using it your whole life, hence why is was so easy to scar.”

“Alright, gather up, campers, we are heading out.”

Maven’s voice once again interrupted us.

“And we go.”

We began to leave the camp, all of the students looked around at the forest. Some bored, some in awe.

A few students brought phones. They were gaming on the trail, being guided by their friends.

I looked in awe at the luminescent forest.

“This… is all Morgan?”

“Yeah, incredible, isn’t it. You don’t get to be a multimillenia old spriggan without having a forest. And Morgan is older than my grandmother.”

“Woah…”

“Yeah.”

It was like mother nature barfed it out with how much life was here.

From moss to insects to birds and snakes to fey.

I saw fairies playing with a bird. Some gnomes were gardening moss on a tree.

Some cupids were chattering, their smiles and laughter livening up the woods.

Then a frog hopped in and snatched a fairy. I scissor-grabbed it’s tongue and glared at it.

The frog quivered and sucked it’s tongue back in fairyless before fleeing.

The fairy thanked me in a language I couldn’t understand and flew back to his friends.

Then another fairy flitted over to Taury and chattered for a moment.

“That could be a problem.”

She chattered back to the fairy who nodded smiled and flew off.

“What’d she say?”

“Apparently, there’s a big beast on the path we are going. The fey are avoiding that area for now.”

“We should tell Maven.”

“Agreed.”

I walked up the line and walked next to Maven.

“Ma’am.”

“Yes?”

“A fairy told Wings that there’s a big beast ahead of us. We may want to take an alternative path.”

“Sure, we’ll turn at the stream.”

“Got it.”

“Hello darling~”

I turned towards the voice.

“Get outta here, succubus.”

“No fun, pixie.”

The succubus moved away, it’s tail flicking.

“Woah…”

“Yep, they’re irritating, luckily, not many humans can see them naturally, otherwise the fey would’ve been revealed ages ago.”

“I’d imagine.”

I rammed into Maven.

“Woah, why’d you stop?”

“Everyone. Back away slowly.”

Her voice was soft. Almost… scared.

I looked over and froze.

It was on all fours, but a human shape. Drinking the water.

“What the **** is that thing?”

It seemed regular people could see it too.

Everyone started to back up… but I recognized it…

“There’s no way…”

“William, what is it?”

Taury began shaking.

“William, let’s go now.”

Me and her ignored Brent’s question.

“William, let's go…”

“That’s…”

“Yes, now let’s go…”

“Mordred?”