-Callen-

  For a moment my mind spiraled into darkness. Concepts of who I am battled against each other until one dominated over the other. I felt a measure of satisfaction as my mind finally cleared itself of the witch’s delusions. I am a demon, and the mortals of this town are prey I had invested significantly into raising. Slowly I pulled myself up from the ground. My eyes gradually adjusted back into focus, looking for Crescent. She had seen too much in my moment of weakness, and while she was a convenient pawn, she wasn’t irreplaceable. However, before I finished pushing myself back up, a wave of weakness hit, and my mind went blank. For a moment my face started to turn blue as I forgot how to breathe. The mind in control dispersed into nothingness. Spurred by the lack of oxygen, my survival instincts were the first piece of the real me that got back to work.

  I wheezed heavily on my back while I carefully twitched my fingers little by little, restoring my fractured connection. Bits and pieces of memories seemed to glue themselves back in place, leading to heavy degrees of confusion as I tried to figure out what happened. Clumsily I pushed myself into a sitting position, letting me vacantly scan my surroundings while the majority of my consciousness was distracted pulling the bits of me that had been shattered back together. A soft giggling echoed nearby, but I couldn’t seem to place it. Looking around me, I noticed nothing unusual except a strangely colored puddle of a primarily tan goo with a few other colors splotched on. I leaned forward, sending my body in an awkward instinctive crawl that brought me crashing down right next to the goo.

  I tilted my head inquisitively as I tried to figure out what the goo was. My mana sense felt an inertness iconic of dead monster materials. At least most of the goo was dead, but in the center I noticed a fading energy of something alive inside. I pushed my arm into the goo, almost losing my balance, but I managed to get my hand to latch carefully around the living energy at the center of the dead goop. I gently but firmly pull the solid object in my grasp out. I push myself back away from the goo and carefully lay what I salvaged from the core onto a rock next to me. Before I could examine my find, my mind reconnected with my gut, causing a wave of nauseousness to hit me. I rolled over and pushed myself slightly off the ground as my stomach returned its contents in the form of acidic sludge that erupted from my gut in the form of vomit. To make matters worse, as I vomited, my head and eyes dipped downward as I nearly passed out.

  “Ughhh,” I rolled back onto my back, letting out a deep groan that vibrated my throat. For a brief moment I take another break. Partially waiting to see if my stomach was done disgorging its contents but mainly because as motor control of my body returns, the rest of the signals in my body are reaching me to complain. To my side, I heard someone coughing violently in a very small voice. I pushed myself back up to look for the person coughing and immediately noticed a tiny person with wings kneeling like I had been moments earlier, coughing as she forced bits of goo in her lungs and throat back out. On her back were a pair of whitish bug wings that were flaring out and shaking off what remained of the goo clinging to them. I marveled at the sight of an earth-bug-sized person briefly, but when she turned to look at me, recognition finally struck.

  “Crescent?!” My voice cracked in disbelief. “What happened?” I tried to puzzle together what I was seeing with the blurry memories that filled my every moment since my first encounter with the witch. My voice echoed out at a normal conversational volume, but with my head so close to little Crescent, it was easily apparent it was far too loud. Her tiny voice rang out as she finally turned to address me.

  “Quieter, please! Much, much quieter, please!” I could tell from her posture she was screaming at the top of her lungs to get the statement to me. The giggling that got me off my back in the first place rang out again from above. I snapped my gaze up, and a small winged humanoid just like Crescent was sitting down on a mushroom that had sprouted from the side of the tree.

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  “Greetings, little one and mortal! I’m Luna! Or you could call me Crescent's mom or Ms. Fairy. The little humans prefer to use the last one.” As she spoke, she seemed to shine exuberantly. Except in her mention of "mortal," which sounded more like some kind of slur, “I noticed the both of you were bogged down with some nasty lies, so I figured I would fix them! Aren’t I considerate!” Despite my scattered mental state, I can only nod in agreement. Had the curse fully overtaken me, it was hard to imagine the kind of damage I could cause. Crescent, however, wasn’t nearly as calm.

  “Why both of us! I needed the mass of my body to change myself back into a human! Do you have any idea how much harder it is to alter the size of a person through healing? Not to mention I nearly drowned in my flesh!” Crescent buzzed aggressively at my side, her voice scaled down to match her size, unlike Luna, who was talking at a level that made her voice indistinguishable from a normal human. As Crescent complained, Luna's hands clenched, and what appeared to be a bug-like exoskeleton started manifesting. However, it was only a moment before she clenched down the reaction, forcing herself to continue with a sort of whimsical cheer.

  “No, no, no! Why would you want to be an ugly human? Saying silly things like that will get you in whole bunches of trouble! You're probably just upset because you’re thinking too much. So squeaky and small. Try speaking normally, and people will hear you like you’re talking normally.” I looked at Crescent and Luna a bit dubious as to how helpful that kind of advice was, especially with the sharpening tone. I wanted to warn Crescent against further protesting and complaining, but I wasn’t quite sure how to communicate it without Luna noticing. Crescent’s voice squeaked out several times before suddenly it came through loud and clear, sounding identical to how it did during her time as a human.

  “I don’t care about the voice; I’ve been a human my whole life, and I want to stay a human!” Crescent's statement was met with the coldest silence I’ve ever felt. The hairs on my arms slowly stood up, and my breath even began to mist the air as the two of them locked eyes.

  “You know the queen was upset by this choice. All of our kind belong to her absolutely, but for a silly little changeling to be audacious enough not to recognize her only out. I suppose that's only to be expected by a lower fey. I suppose it’s time for the games to begin.” Luna’s happy demeanor from before was gone, and her body morphed from humanoid into some kind of winged spider. The red hourglass shape on her stinger matched that of a black widow.

  “You have no need of the meat I helped you free yourself from. I’ll help you break your link to the queen and grant your wish, but I have terms you must abide by.” The human edge of her voice was mixed with the clickings of an agitated spider.

  I looked over to Crescent blankly. I did not expect the angry fairy to start throwing poetry and rhymes out, and the fact that the system decided to frame it and throw it at me as a pop-up was even stranger. Still, I’m part of the reason Crescent insisted on becoming human so I won’t leave her to face this alone. Nor will I have to if “Accompanied by just one" means what I think it does. I reach down and carefully cup my hands so Crescent can step on. I can see the icy demeanor she faced her mom with fade as she sits on my hand. Carefully I lift her up and slowly begin making my way back towards town. It was time for a nice long nap in my bed. As we walk, a minor intermissionary problem comes to mind.

  “Any ideas on how we’re going to explain your change to everyone we know?” I give her a soft grin as she face-palms in exasperation. The gesture is all the cuter coming from a three- to four-inch fairy.