Who ever heard of Shellycoats? (1)

Shellycoats are considered to be relatively harmless; they may mislead wanderers, particularly those they think are trespassing upon the creature's territory, but without malice. A common tactic of a shellycoat would be to cry out as if drowning and then laugh at the distracted victim.

The butterflies on the flowers the likes of which she had never seen before were larger than her hands, though whether her hands were simply too small, her race was too short or the butterflies were too large was up to debate. Certainly, the insects were rather large, but then there was the fact that she was still a child. Shellycoats had never been a large race, those of the fairy kind that could neither claim oceans nor forests nor meadows nor even the dark earth or the mountains for themselves.

Thus, the young Shellycoat lady sat at the mouth if the great river and admired the flower fairies' garden with a smile. Nobody would mind her, after all, she was a Shellycoat. Her home was the border between water and land, so as her kind left little gifts as a thank you for every visit and never destroyed anything or fought anyone the little lady had yet to experience an occasion where anyone would have minded her presence.

Young as her apparent age was, her nanny was never far and thus, the little lady was soon called away to be given a lecture on the mysteries of morning mist and the life of their beloved shells and fish.

The little lady was not as she seemed, though what she had learned in her previous life held no relation to her current one and thus every day was new. A human student working on her thesis, taking courses in math, economy and agriculture along with some biology aiming to optimize her country's agricultural development in a time of climate change held nothing at all in common with a Shellycoat, a fairy kind she had never even heard about before she woke up in a shell, fully formed if tiny, in a game like world at that.

With a shy smile towards the flowers, she jumped back into the river and swam with her nanny, out to the place where high cliffs met wild ocean as the water calmed before them to allow them safe passage.

Into the caves under the ocean and into the cliffs they went, past rows and rows of shells gently opening and closing just a little bit while schools of fish flitted past. Glowing fish and plants lit their way and the little lady thanked them by sending a bit of her life power and mana their way, pleasing the nanny. As the little Shellycoat got her head rubbed they arrived in yet another part of the cave system, where one of her teachers was already waiting. Her lessons were held only for her as her past life had given her an advantage in intelligence, wisdom and certain skills. But in the eternal life of a Shellycoat this was merely a small advantage, a starting point just a tiny little bit more advanced. But as she would remain a mere child for a thousand years, then become a youngling for the next 9.000 and finally an adult at the age of 10.000 with no other children within 500 years of her own age none of that mattered. What were 25 years to even a slightly older child of her new race? The little lady had been a Shellycoat for 258 years and studied all water and many kinds of magic for just as many years. By this point, her human past was nothing but a distant memory, her percieved maturity the illusion only one of very few years could take seriously. Maturity was wisdom and wisdom came with great age.

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The young Shellycoat gazed at her teacher with eyes full of expectation, but her teacher only smiled at her tiredly before he opened his palms and allowed an image to form, an image of a great wave crashing into open land. The image changed, rising up to a bird's eye view, revealing a new mass of land in the ocean. Time appeared to pass, green covered the desolate mass of rock, before finally darker green, blue rivers and lakes and finally vast jungles seemed to form.

Confused, the young Shellycoat looked at her teacher.

"The gods have created new land for all to live in peace. To settle there, the leaders of the future have been called to go to a great school built for all races."

"We have no leaders, only wise ones." The little lady's voice was like little waves meeting the edge of a river where her teacher's had been like a quiet stream deep under the surface of a great lake. Even their voices could let one guess a Shellycoat's age.

Gently, the teacher nodded, but his words remained firm. "We were asked to send children and younglings so that the other races may know us from their youth. As we have very few, all will go, though it is only for a few years. The younglings will go for three to ten years while the youngest children of at least 5 years need to stay between thirteen and twenty years. As you are our youngest you will stay with the other races' offspring from the first year at that school." The image of a vast complex appeared within his hands, showing buildings and rooms that reminded the young Shellycoat of her other life. Classrooms, clubs and sports fields, lakes and mountains, huge trees and houses of all kinds for each race. "Teach them well of what it means to be of our kind, but be open to their ways. It will be an experience many of us were never given."

"And every experience brings a seed of wisdom." The words were spoken gently in her plinking voice. It had been her very first lesson.

Even so, inside of her, there was a voice from the past, wondering idly just what an extravagant otome game's setting was doing in her world.