I yawned and tried to roll over but encountered an obstacle, more commonly known as Rose. She had snuck up on me in the morning and was draped half over me. I’m glad our wings practically molded themselves to our backs and were flexible enough to not hurt even if we lay on them. I’d definitely need to take a bath this morning, after yesterday's shenanigans and now Rose, I would have had one last night but the fact that a bath takes place in a cool stream makes it an undesirable activity in the evenings.

Lifting my head up slightly was enough to confirm that the day indeed had started. The sun was barely awake when I slowly extracted myself from my sister’s grasp, luckily without waking her and stood up. I stretched all of my limbs including my wings without a care who saw me in my underwear before grabbing my clothes. I looked around to see if anyone was watching. While there were Fairies about, none of them were paying me any attention. I focused on my top first, using the inspection skill on it.

Ksora Leaf Strapless Crop Top (purple)

Grade: Common

Created by one of the denizens that live within Fairy using the unusually tough Ksora leaf. This item has been further enhanced with enchantments written in Fairy. While an item considered good enough to protect your decency by the Fairies that wear it, it is not an item that is designed to protect you in combat.

Do you wish to equip this item?

Yes No

I clicked yes and immediately my top vanished from my hands and materialised on my body, comfortably covering up my breasts. What little there was at least. I quickly inspected my skirt and got much the same message and after I felt the strange sensation of my skirt just appearing on me like it had always been there, I launched myself in the air to head to the baths. Most Fairies didn’t bother to wear shoes, I was one of them. What’s the point if you rarely even walk on the ground? As I flew away, Rose seemed to shift around like she was resettling herself. Had she seen my use of equipping my clothes using the interface? Nuh, she couldn’t have. She was fast asleep. While I would have thought everyone could have done it too, I haven’t seen anyone else do it yet.

As I flew I viewed my inventory. My clothes were showing on the character equip screen in the inventory tab. After inspecting the fruit I had stored away, I couldn’t see if any of it had gone off yet. I should be able to tell by this afternoon. Fairy fruit grew fast but didn’t seem to last very long after being picked either. I was hoping by storing them in my inventory, it would at least slow the time they go off by a little bit, if not stop it completely.

Dropping down to the bathing area, I could see that there were already people busy washing themselves and their clothes. I landed and immediately started stripping all of my clothes and handed them to one of the fairies cleaning everyone’s outfits. Every fairy I walked past was completely nude and either drying themselves or walking to the large stream to bathe.

It always felt strange walking, now that I do so little of it. It’s amusing to think that that is the strangest part of my bath day for me. Not that I was walking completely naked among a bunch of other naked fairies, half of which were males. Nor was it that I was bathing in a stream in front of those same people. It was the fact that I was walking that was weird. When I first awakened to my former memories I thought that it was so strange that fairies did this and it didn’t seem at all sexual. Any glances at anyone else only ever seemed to be friendly and didn’t appear to have a hint of sexual desire at all. Even for myself, I never seemed to feel any desire for any fairy other than a friendly one. When I first discovered this fact I was worried at first, but I soon realised it’s not much different to how I felt back when I was human anyway.

My progress to the stream was slowed by pretty much every fairy I walked past stopping to greet me and see how I was going. I was surprised at first that I was known by every fairy but it’s hardly surprising considering I’m the youngest by nearly a thousand years. I'm not sure why there haven't been any other fairies born over such a long period of time but I do have a theory. I’m pretty sure there is some sort of population control on the fairies. Whether it’s natural or artificial I don’t know, but it’s the theory that most fits.

Shaking my head at my silly thoughts, I walked past a small stand that held a bunch of leaves with a particular type of sap that’s used as a natural soap substitute and stepped into the water. I couldn’t help but shriek a little from the cold water. Most bathing days I didn’t come in so early and gave the sun more time to warm it up. Normally you’d think using the sun to warm up water for a bath is a poor way to do it, but considering the size of fairies, we don’t need much, which means it doesn’t take much to warm up either.

“Good morning Azalea!” A girl's voice sang out from nearby in the deeper waters.

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“Oh, good morning to you too Holly.” I called back, waving with a smile on my face at the other fairy. She was a good friend of Rose’s and I liked to consider her my friend too. Being another [Guardian Fairy] like Rose, she had a more mature mindset than most fairies which meant she had a greater attention span than most as well.

“You’re not usually up this early.”

I smiled some more while I reached her side then I placed the leaf down on the water between my legs so it wouldn't float away. “I fell asleep early last night, must’ve been tired from all of the excitement from yesterday and I guess it made me wake up early as well.” I replied with a shrug. Trying to appear as innocent as possible. I didn’t want her to get suspicious over my motives for getting up early. I did usually sleep in until much later. It appears that just about everyone knew that about me, if most of the greetings from my fellow fairies were any indication. “Are you washing up after a patrol?” I asked. I wanted to try and distract her from any questions about me and my plans for today. I'm usually a terrible liar, so the less I have to lie or bend the truth the better. Plus she did look exhausted, she had dark circles under her eyes and her wings were all droopy.

“Yeah, we had to make sure we didn’t find any more of those monsters.” She replied while punching one fist into her palm.

I hadn’t realised that the guardians would take the threat so seriously when most fairies seemed to be so carefree, but that was the biggest difference between normal fairies and a [Guardian Fairy].

“I can wash your back for you if you’d like? That way you can get to bed quicker.” I offered.

Her eyes practically sparkled in happiness and gratitude. “Oh could you? That would be so great!”

It was funny, here we all are, standing around in the nude bathing together but for some reason it’s at the very least awkward asking someone you only have a passing acquaintance with and at the most downright rude to ask them to wash your back. It seems to stem from the fact that fairy wings are sensitive to the touch and it’s considered taboo to touch them without permission and definitely without knowing the person quite well. Washing each other’s wings was supposed to be a hugely intimate act between mates. Even though washing her back doesn’t require me to touch her wings, my hands do still get quite close and could touch them accidentally.

We chatted about random things while I washed Holly’s back for her and accepted her offer to wash mine in return, even though I had offered first so she could go and sleep quicker, it was nice that I didn’t need to find someone I could ask. I’d have to skip washing my back if it would take too long and I didn’t want to do that. I finished cleaning myself and washed the sap off of my body, leaving a pleasant flowery scent that’ll last for the rest of the day then got out. Unfortunately it was my turn to help clean the clothes of the fairies who were coming to bathe. While there were no strict rules that said you had to help clean, it was considered rude if you didn’t. Unless you had a good excuse like being up all night on patrol.

I gave Holly a quick hug goodbye when I bade her goodnight. I think the hug surprised her a little based on her initial expression but she seemed to welcome it nonetheless. As she flew off, she was waving to me as she went, her clothes back on her but still damp. I quickly got stuck into helping out until my own clothes were dry enough to wear, which thankfully because of the material it’s made out of it doesn't take long.

I was just leaving as Rose and Mother came down to have their own baths. I flew back home to have my breakfast. When I got back to our nest, I leaned back inside of it and unwrapped one of the remaining slices of papple. As I quietly munched away at my breakfast, I had my UI opened and was taking notes of all the things I had to do today before my departure. I was so absorbed in what I was doing I didn’t notice that my sister and mother had returned straight away, making me jump when Rose spoke.

“Morning Az, I’ve got a patrol on but I’ll see you later alright? Maybe we can have a race in wisp form when I get back.” She said with a smirk at my reaction.

“That would be great, Rose, looking forward to it.” I tried to say as excitedly as possible but she seemed to pick up on something yet didn’t say anything about it. She just ruffled my hair like she loves to do and vanished with a quiet pop of displaced air. “Show off,” I muttered quietly as I fixed my displaced hair. I mostly just left my light blue hair to hang down to the bottom of my back on it’s own, thankfully her mussing it up was an easy fix by running my fingers through the hair on the top of my head. I nearly ruined my own efforts when Mother spoke up and startled me next. I’ve really got to pay more attention to my surroundings.

“What’re your plans for today Azalea?” She asked, laughing at my reaction. All the women in my family were mean, except me of course! I was practically a saint putting up with them for this long. I pouted at the meanness of my own Mother then stuck out my tongue at her. “It’s a secret.”

It was pretty much exactly the wrong thing to say. She stuck out her own tongue at me before moving in to try and tickle torture it out of me or something. “Oh no you don’t!” I say as threateningly as possible, which was to say not at all when before I couldn’t even begin to move far enough away, she grabbed me and started tickling me. “Nooo hehe stoooppp!” I tried pleading then fighting to get away before resorting to tickling my attacker back. For some time all you could hear was giggling and the occasional exclamation of “Hey!” Or some variant of it before we collapsed on the floor, laying next to each other as we got our breath back. Mission accomplished: Successfully distract Mother.

“So what’re you going to be doing now?” Drat! Or not.

I sighed before answering. “I’m going to collect some of yours and Rose’s favourite berries and nuts as an apology for the worries I caused you yesterday,” And the worry I’ll be causing you this afternoon. The guilt was starting to weigh me down a little, I know my family and a great deal of other fairies will be shocked when they discover I have gone. But something within me was driving me, pushing me to get out and see the world. It was like a feeling of unfinished business or incompleteness within my heart, or soul or something. I just hope I don’t get killed in the process. That would really make exploring the world hard to do.