A cold chubby hand poked me awake.

  “Welcome to the land of the living,” Sharon grunted. “I hope you didn’t plan to spend today frolicking around.”

  “Yesterday was very stressful,” I muttered in my sleep, pulling the blankets back around me. “Go away.”

  Sharon opened the blinds.

  Light scorched my eyes. I hissed, flinging myself to the floor with a pillow and blankets over my face. “Stop! MERCY!”

  “It’s already noon,” he sighed. “Grind, I made a promise to share my knowledge with you, in exchange for my rescue. As a being of immense power, it is my sovereign duty to enlighten a protective prodigy, as to bring about an end to the suppression of my people—

  I rolled under the bed, drifting into the sweet embrace of sleep.

  “You’re not even listening to me, are you?”

  “Ehmuhuhm.” I mumbled unconvincingly. “Every word.”

  “Don’t you crave the immense knowledge of an ArcFairy?”

  I grunted. “Not really. I’ll…help your people, though. That doesn’t sound too hard.”

  “You leave me no other options.”

  Sharon snatched Screech from his little bed and tossed him onto my head. He landed with a shout, clutching fistfuls of my hair.

  Screech yawned. “Grind?” He crawled up my forehead, bonking my nose with his foot. I didn’t respond. “Hello?” Screech glanced at Sharon.

  Sharon gave the boy a solemn nod.

  Screech squealed into my ear like a barrel of loose bells.

  “GRIND! I’M HUNGRY!”

  I jolted, knocking Screech to the floor as I bashed my head on the bed’s frame.

  “I’M UP!” I huffed, crawling into the living room. “What?”

  “Good.” Sharon rubbed his stomach. “Make us breakfast.”

  “Making breakfast is not part of your ArcFairy wisdom?” I muttered.

  He scoffed. “Of course not. PointFairies make breakfast.”

  “GRIND!” Screech shrieked. “I want bacon!”

  Wooden splinters bonked against my forehead.

  Geez.

  “You sure know how to make a guy feel special,” I muttered. I cut several black and purple squash into little pieces, serving them on nice ceramic plates. “There. Yummy.”

  Screech’s dish shattered on the floor, spilling mushy squash into the carpet. “I WANNA EAT BACON!”

  I rubbed my forehead, suppressing a wince. “Sharon, give me a hand here—”

  Sharon’s dish shattered on the floor, spilling mushy squash into the carpet. “Foolish mortal. Have you learned nothing? Fairies eat meat, not distressed vegetables!”

  I grit my teeth, scraping the food from the floor with two plates and a napkin. “I’m sorry but that’s all the food we have! I’d summon something if Soise wouldn’t kill me for it.”

  After Ardenidi and I went on a date, I went behind the apartment complex and started practicing my mental energy, like usual. Not three minutes in and my nose started bleeding, followed by doubled vision. Soise gave me a quick checkup, almost instantly realizing that I’d build up several dozen stacks of shock, not to mention internal brain damage which would take weeks to properly heal.

  Which meant until I got myself under control all my newfound mental energy was pretty much useless.

  I grabbed the table with both hands, breathing heavily. “Sharon. You summon something.”

  “The lard between your ears must be slowing,” Sharon growled, picking his teeth. “Summoning food is for PointFairies. I’m afraid I won’t be able to share my precious secrets until you prove your ability to provide proper nourishment for those under your care!”

  “Yeah!” Screech banged his fists on the table. “Food!”

  “You two may talk differently, but you’re both children,” I grumbled. “Seeing as I’m still completely broke, there’s nothing I can buy you two!”

  If I were to think clearly, I would have understood Sharon and Screech’s outrange, having breakfast as late as they were. But I just wanted to lie down.

  Maybe if I summoned something small…

  A heel blew the door off its hinges, smacking against the kitchen table.

  Ardenidi huffed. “Couldn’t get my stupid key to work.”

  She glanced around the room, immediately noticing the mood of three hangry children. Her gaze flicked to the floor (stained purple) then up to me.

  “You…uh…wanna eat at my place?”

  …

  Sharon stuffed his face with grilled pork and choice cuts of monster meat, fighting with Screech over possession of a mouth-watering beef platter.

  I drank a little more of the squash soup.

  “You know you could have something else, right?” Ardenidi asked, jabbing me in the shoulder. “I have food.”

  “I don’t want to be a bother,” I stated. “Besides, the flavor’s growing on me.”

  Sharon snatched Screech’s plate, downing its contents. Even as Screech started to protest Sharon grabbed the last of the beef.

  “HEY!” Ardenidi clutched Sharon by the collar, looking him dead in the eye. “You wouldn’t be stealing from a four-year-old, would you?! ArcFairy?”

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  The beef slipped out of his hands and onto the floor.

  “No ma’am.”

  Ardenidi let go, sitting down in her chair. “Good. Eat your own food.”

  She picked up the cut of meat, blew off the dust, and handed it back to Screech.

  Sharon sighed wistfully.

  I rolled my eyes.

  Once dinner ended, Sharon pushed me to the corner. “As promised, I shall teach you fairy techniques worth no less than two billion dollars.”

  I blinked.

  “Is this going to be about dating?”

  “Ah…No. No.” Sharon looked at the floor.

  “But it was going to be about dating before I asked, right?”

  He scuffed his feet. “Well, not anymore. Look.” He spread out his wings, flexing his biceps. “The most important rule in romance is to look like you have your life put together. And that means, you have to be strong!”

  “I always figured it was about caring and understanding.”

  Sharon cleared his throat. “This is all beside the point. I’m going to teach you how to be strong, and then, we’ll be even, right?”

  I raised an eyebrow.

  He blinked.

  “Please?”

  “We’re already even. You fought the nightmare.”

  “For all the good that did.” He flexed his biceps again. “The first step to ultimate power is physical exercise!”

  …

  After several hours of working out, I lay in a pool of sweat, delirious with exhaustion.

  Sharon grunted. “We’re just doing push-ups? Again!”

  He propped me up. “GO!”

  “Fifty thousand…thirty…” I hissed, bringing my chin to the stone.

  There was a sharp pop in my shoulders and my arms suddenly stopped working.

  …

  Soise buried her head in her robes. “Sharon. I am this close to stuffing you in a very, very small little box.”

  “The boy needs training!” Sharon snapped. “He—”

  Soise slapped him across the face. “NO! He needs rest!”

  Sharon choked in shock, pressing a hand against his stinging cheek. “Y-you think you can—”

  She slapped him harder. “NO! REST!”

  “B-but you—how”

  She slammed the door to her apartment.

  Sharon whimpered. “Ow.”

  Something flickered across his expression. He frowned. “I had over a hundred thousand durability up. It’s not a lot but…that still hurt.” He looked at me. “How’d that hurt?”

  I giggled, unable to string together a single coherent thought. At the time, I felt like “the emotional and physical state between cheesy bread and the ogre who lived under rainbows eating the leprechauns and taking their gold.”

  I actually chiseled those specific words into our kitchen table.

  Sharon grabbed me by the leg, flying the two of us through the living room window. “So much for having a productive day.”

  He glanced down at me.

  “Sorry.”

  …

  When I regained proper consciousness, Sharon had Screech in his lap. He shushed me. “The boy’s sleeping.”

  I pretended to zip my mouth shut.

  Sharon laid him in his crib, which was little more than a pile of pillows and blankets on the floor.

  It was deep into nighttime now, with the moon above the clouds.

  “Just say it already.” Sharon let out a sigh. “You’re not very impressed with my teachings, are you?”

  “Your teaching is fine,” I said. “I don’t mind.”

  “I can see it.” The fairy shook his head. “I never did tell you, did I? Why I’m in the second area?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  He smiled. “I don’t know. I probably forgot it who knows how many years ago.”

  “Why does that matter?” I asked. “You probably just spawned in the second area with some general knowledge about the third.”

  “Bah!” Sharon said, plopping on the couch. “Fairies don’t spawn anywhere but the third area. It’s cut and dry. I had to have been banished.”

  I straightened my back. “And you don’t know why?”

  “Probably something stupid,” Sharon grunted. “Might’ve insulted somebody important. But don’t you get my point? Grind, I don’t remember. Anything. That’s not because of some curse or whatnot, I’m just old.” He looked at me. “Fairies aren’t elves. Elves can live as long as they like with all their memories intact, but a fairy can only build up muscle memory. Out of all my life, I barely remember getting captured by some upstart Platinum, who stuffed my abstracted form into an orb. From that point, it’s pretty much just the same; reading mental energy day in and out, until you showed up.”

  “Sounds awful.”

  “Awful?!” He laughed. “Those were the best years of my life. I was too abstract to care about anything in the world! Then you had the audacity to break me out and now I wonder what I’m even supposed to be doing anymore.”

  He kicked the floor. “I just figured if I lived for a thousand years I ought to know something! I—”

  Screech stirred.

  Me and Screech froze, silent as death.

  Screech stretched. He nuzzled into his blankets, snoring gently once more.

  Sharon and I breathed a sigh of relief.

  “You’re strong, aren’t you?” I whispered. “Couldn’t you just teach me your moves?”

  “I don’t know!” Sharon snapped in a frantic whispery hissing. “I have moves that just do more damage than my strength, and I don’t know why!” He sunk into the cushions. “There’s nothing to teach you, Grind. I’m useless!”

  “Hey,” I said, pressing a hand to his shoulder, forcing him to look at me. “There’s a lot you don’t know. Okay. So, just do the best you can with what you have. That’s all you can do, right?”

  Sharon smiled. “A three-month old mortal has better advice than a thousand year fairy. I suppose that’s the sort of thing I deserve.”

  “The administrators at the Union seem to think you’ve got a lot of power,” I stated. “If you think about it, there’s probably something valuable you know. Maybe some sort of move you haven’t considered.”

  Sharon frowned. “Grind…I don’t know about that. The Union is wrong more often than you’d think.”

  We sat silent on the couch for the better part of the next hour.

  I stifled a yawn. “Hey, why don’t we go to bed? It’s late and we’re all pretty tired.”

  “You do that.”

  There was a glimmer in his eyes. He jumped over the couch, onto the windowsill. “Grind? I might be gone for a few days. There’s…” he hesitated. “I can’t teach you, Grind. But I will make you stronger. I’ll find you someone better. I swear on it.”

  “Thank you,” I said. “Hey, stay safe, okay?”

  “I swear on it.” He repeated, more to himself than me. “Goodnight.”

  Sharon jumped from the window, disappearing with a trail of sparkling silver dust.

  {Notice}

  [You have been afflicted by [Fairydust]]

  [You will take 50% increased damage from all sources.]

  I laughed under my breath, then started choking. “I really got to stop breathing that stuff in.”

  // {Notice} //

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