Illumina

Chapter Three: A Rough Place To Sleep

Chapter Three: A Rough Place To Sleep

Meanwhile in Illumina, at the Dividing Forest...

The young half tiger boy skipped happily down the wide and twisty path, carefully dodging all the twigs and branches that got into his way.

According to the map, he thought, stepping on a stick, breaking it and continuing on, I should arrive at Faerie Meadow as soon as I make it out of this forest...

With a smile on his face, excitement in his eyes and adrenaline pumping through his veins he paced forward, his stripped tail wagging wildly behind him sharing his excitement.

“Hmm… I wonder what I should do when I get there…” he thought out-loud to himself.

The stone was said to be somewhere in Illumina, there were some kind of clues he needed to find, but the truth was, he didn’t know where to start or what to do for that matter. Despite that little side-fact, he snickered gleefully, his arms behind his head, elbows sticking out in opposite directions.

“I sure hope the food there is good” His mouth began to water and he frowned slightly. “Food… I should’ve eaten before I…huh?”

 The thief stopped dead on his tracks when his gaze fell upon a body lying in a pile of leaves, twigs and rocks. It looked like someone did a poor job of hiding it from something or someone. Or maybe the creature just decided to sleep like that.

That’s not a very nice place to sleep… He thought to himself with a pout, walking over to the mysteriously sleeping creature. It doesn’t look comfy at all…

“Oi! You’ll catch a cold if you sleep in a place like this” Reiji said as he stopped in front of the patch of leaves.

“Eh?” he uttered as he squatted down and observed the creature more thoroughly. “A girl…?”

Her light brown hair looked soggy, messy and a little muddy, her clothes had a lot of wrinkles on them, looking like they just finished drying up, but her face looked peaceful, like a child in their favorite dream land. Still, it didn't stop him from trying to wake her up.

Reiji put a hand on her shoulder and started to shake her violently, “Wake up, if you’re gonna sleep, do it in bed, idiot!”

“Get away from her!” he instantly shot up when he heard a high-pitched boy voice. A grass vine whip smacked down forcefully in front of him, creating a loud thack-ing sound and making him jump back.

“What the hell?!” Reiji exclaimed, confused as he eyed around him, looking for the creature who almost injured him.

“You will not touch a fellow Faerie” the same voice spoke as a figure emerged from across Reiji’s view.

As the shadow got closer and closer Reiji could’ve sworn it gotten smaller and smaller. Finally, when the creature fully appeared in front of the tanned thief, he found himself needing to look down to see the beings face.

Pointy ears, dark green fairy wings on his back, chestnut brown hair wavy at its tips, moss green eyes with a hint of gold around the pupil, light olive skin with a golden-yellowish aura glimmering around it, a green knitted top with leather pants and a bracelet around his left foot.

“A midget?!” Reiji said out loud, happily surprised. “How cool!”

“I’m not a midget!” exclaimed the green-eyed boy, “I’m a Faerie!”

“Oh…” the thief replied, a little disappointed, “I’ll just call you Midget then.” he grinned.

“Didn’t you hear what I just said!?”

“Did you say something, Midget?”

How dense is this guy? The fairy thought.

“I’m Reiji,” the tiger boy introduced himself warmly, “Nice to meet you Mr. Midget!” he smiled brightly.

The faerie sighed in frustration. This Halfling’s arrogance and stupidity was getting on his nerves.

“I’m Theodore, the earth fairy, and you, Halfling, have invaded our territory and abused a fellow Faerie, do you have any last words before you’re arrested?”

“Oh you mean her?” Reiji said pointing at the lump in the leaves, “When I found her she was already buried in those leaves.” he stated, his face stayed calm and collected.

“Lies!” the fairy shouted, “I saw you shaking her!”

“I’m not lying,” the thief assured calmly, “But, are you sure she’s a Faerie?” he asked as the two turned to look at the girl for a couple seconds before gazing back at each other again.

“What do you mean? Of course she’s a Faerie!” Theodore shouted in disbelief. “She doesn’t have that kind of Halfling aura around her like you do, and by that I mean practically no aura at all, and she can’t be a witch or a vampire, their kingdoms are too far away!”

“She’s neither of those, she’s something else.” the tanned thief said calmly.  “My instincts told me that.”

“You’re lying.” the fairy declared, not giving it a second thought.

“Instincts don’t lie.” Reiji said nonchalantly, stretching his arms. He really did feel some kind of strange vibe off of the girl.

“Then what is she?” the confused earth fairy said almost to himself in hesitation.

“What else is there?”

 “No… It can’t be…” the faerie said wearily. “It’s not possible!”

Reiji could only nod silently with a childish smile on his face. “Nothing else, but that”

 “H-h-h-human?!” the faerie exclaimed, his eyes growing wide and his nerves going into complete shock.

“Yup!” Reiji replied, glad the faerie had finally listened to him.

“But… how can she survive being here? No normal human can handle it.” Theodore asked looking at Reiji desperately, almost expecting him to answer.

“How should I know?” the thief muttered shrugging his shoulders, confused by that mystery himself. “Maybe she’s just not normal.”

The earth fairy paced back and forth with his finger on his chin before abruptly stopping in front of the half-tiger boy.

“We need to get her to a safe place. Fast.” Theodore announced to him, fear was detected in the fairy’s eyes. He turned around, “Jiro’s house is the safest place… for now” he muttered the last part quietly.

Without a word Reiji headed over to the sleeping girl and picked her up in his arms bridal style before walking to the earth fairy with a silly grin saying, “Lead the way, Midget!”

“My name is Theod-Oh whatever” the annoyed fairy gave in to the thief’s stupidity and began walking toward his best friend’s house located deep, deep in the forest.