“So, Gabby. Nice to meet you,” Pel said, extending his hand.

“You as well, Apple,” Gabby replied, shaking his hand. “This is a Human custom, right? We normally just hug.”

“Handshakes?” Pel asked. “Yea, I guess it is. Never really thought about it.”

“Where did you pick that up?”

“I was Human before I got reborn as a Fairy,” Pel explained.

“You were Human?!” Gabby exclaimed. “What was it like to be so huge? Could you lift boulders? How much ale could you drink? Wha- Ahem,” he scratched his cheek. “Ignore all that.”

Pel could tell that the two other Fairies in the room were practically vibrating with unasked questions.

“How did that happen?” one of them asked, finally unable to hold it in.

“I died. It was an accident,” Pel replied.

“Oh,” the unnamed Fairy said sadly, “I’m sorry.”

“Me too,” Pel said. “Shit happens I guess,” he followed up, trying to lighten the mood.

“Heh, yeah,” the other Fairy said. “Shit happens. I’m Fori, nice to meet you, Apple!”

“And I’m Palo!” the third Fairy said.

“Anyway,” Gabby interrupted, rapping his knuckles against the table, “let’s get you up to speed.”

He pointed to the table.

“This is a map of all the watchtowers spread throughout The Roots,” Gabby started. “They’re all glowing green right now, which means nothing’s wrong. If the mycelium within the tunnels detects intruders or gets damaged, the nearest watchtower will change color to red and the corresponding mushroom here on the table will also change color.”

Pel nodded. Fantasy security system, nice!

“These two are Wind Fairies,” Gabby explained while gesturing to Fori and Palo. “They can communicate with the teams stationed in the watchtowers from here. I’m an Earth Fairy, in addition to coordinating the parties I’m also the backup in case something shows up that the low Level parties in the watchtowers can’t handle.

“Each watchtower stations a full Party of five Fairies who are in charge of protecting the tunnels connected to their watchtower. The color response of each tower happens automatically, which warns the party just as much as it warns us here. They follow the glowing red veins of mycelium to the tunnel in question and handle whatever they find, or retreat if they can’t handle it. Wind Fairies are the most common type, and each currently stationed party has one to communicate back to us here in the event they require backup,” Gabby said, pacing around the table.

“I will assign you to one of these teams, and for this week your job will be to help them keep watch,” Gabby said to Pel. “If your team’s watchtower alerts, you will stay in the tower. Do not leave your tower! You have no Skills or spells to assist, so don’t put yourself in danger.”

I was right, this is going to be boring. Pel confirmed to himself.

“I can tell you think this is going to be boring,” Gabby said, smiling pityingly at Pel who tried to look like he was totally into it. “You’ll find out the details from the watch team I assign you to, but I assure you that you won’t have time to be bored.”

Turning to the Wind Fairy duo, Gabby pointed to Palo. “You, take Apple to…” he paused to look down at the map, “tower Q1-R1-T2. Make the introduction to the party leader and then return.”

Palo made a fist and put it over his heart before waving at Pel to follow. Once outside the main mushroom Palo angled slightly to the right, heading for one of the closest mushroom towers. I hope being a mote doesn’t feel that disorienting forever. Pel wasn’t sure he could use it at a moment's notice with how dizzy it made him. He’d likely be a tiny sitting target as he acclimated.

The tower they were approaching was roughly three quarters as tall as Gabby’s mushroom, and the cap was barely even half as large. Another transition to and from mote form saw them inside, looking at 5 surprised Fairies in the middle of...some kind of physical exercise.

“Got the freshest Fairy here with me, which one of you is the party leader?” Palo asked in a no-nonsense tone.

“That would be me sir!” one of the Fairies replied. Ah, a Wind Fairy. Color coded hair is so handy. Pel thought. The party leader was dressed in similar armor to Gabby and the two Wind Fairies from the central mushroom.

“Right, this is Apple. He was born yesterday,” Palo said. “Gabby wants them attached to this tower as an additional pair of eyes. They are not to leave the tower until shift change, even in the event of an intrusion. They’re the only Celestial Fairy in The Mother Tree, so the priority is getting them leveled up as safely as possible. That said, train ’em ‘till the stuffing falls out.”

With that, Palo turned back into a mote of light and zipped out the window. Pel looked at the Fairies, and they looked back. Seems like awkward silence is the same in any world.

“Nice to meet you, Apple!” The team leader walked over to Pel and hugged him. “I’m Ri! I was born a couple months ago!” he pointed in turn to each Fairy in the circular room. “That’s Raki, Flo, Liki, and Mat. Respectively they are a Wind Fairy, Fire Fairy, Earth Fairy, and a Water Fairy. They’re all about two weeks old.”

Mat has to be the most regular name for a Fairy I’ve heard yet. Pel thought. Mat had blue hair like a summer sky, and was wearing blue and orange robes with wave patterns that looked similar to a monk’s habit with the sleeves cut short. Physically, they all looked very similar with only a few small differences. Mat, Flo, and Raki had wider shoulders and wider chins than Liki did, and their ears were all at slightly different angles. Overall, Pel was happy that nobody except Ri and Raki had the same-colored hair, and since one was wearing wooden armor, they were easy to differentiate.

“I’m…” Pel paused for an instant, “Apple.” It hurts! “I’m a Celestial Fairy, I was born last night, and uh, it’s nice to meet you all.”

“Great!” Ri said. “We’re already a full party, but since you won’t be leaving the tower, we don’t have to worry about it.”

“Full party?” Pel asked.

“Oh, yea. The party system. Have you been in a party yet? No, probably not. So, it’s like this.” Ri breezed right through his own question. “We can make Interface Parties through our Self Help screens. It just means we can see how much health we each have, and any experience we gain is shared by other members of the Party. It’s useful to be able to see how everyone is while we’re in the tunnels or fighting, and sharing experience helps everyone improve at the same pace. Parties can only have 5 people in them. Any larger requires multiple parties to form a Squad, and both Parties have to be full to do that.”

“I see,” Pel said. “So, if I’m not leaving the tower...what will I be doing?”

“Training!” Ri replied excitedly. “When I was a Trainee, it was awful, but being the trainer is so much fun! Hey, why are you all just standing here? Get back to training!”

The other Trainees all jumped, gave fist over heart salutes, and started doing push-ups. Oh shit, thought Pel, it’s Fairy bootcamp!

“As you can see, we’re training to increase our physical Attributes,” Ri said. “push-ups, situps, hovering, squats, jumping jacks, and other exercises! By pushing yourself physically over and over and over again it drains your Stamina and works your muscles. If you do it enough your Attributes will naturally increase without putting points towards them!”

“How are we supposed to keep watch if we’re training the whole time?” Pel asked.

“We watch in intervals! Once you deplete your Stamina, take a break by watching out the windows!” Ri answered. “If our tower lights up and we’re low on Stamina we’re allowed to have one of those!”

Ri pointed toward the center of the room. Beside a round, wooden table with 5 chairs was a crate full of small bottles. Ri walked over and picked one up. The glass was opaque, and shaped like a boiling flask with a cork stopper.

“Stamina potions! They taste great! I’d drink one every day if I was allowed,” Ri said. “But they’re only for emergencies!”

“Who makes those?” Pel asked. Learning alchemy would be pretty cool.

“Mmm, I dunno! You’d have to ask someone at the central watchtower, that’s where they give them out,” Ri responded. “Enough talk! We’re not trying to raise our Charisma! Drop and give me all the push-ups you’ve got!”

It turned out that Pel had about 100 push-ups to give.

“I hate you,” Pel gasped from the floor. Ri just laughed, and the other Trainees nodded their heads in agreement. Pel was the first one done with push-ups by quite a bit. After catching his breath, he staggered to the nearest window and sat on the small ledge that ringed the interior room of the watchtower. Running out of Stamina sucks. The first twenty push-ups or so were easy. Pel had kept an eye on his available Stamina throughout the entire ordeal, his golden scroll laying open on the floor between his hands.

His Stamina hadn’t decreased at all at first, but once his muscles began to tire his Stamina began to go down. By the time he got to 75 push-ups his muscles burned, like being just one more pushup away from being his last. All the way to 0.1 Stamina and it always felt like just one more would be his limit, but as soon as he actually bottomed out his arms failed.

His face had hit the floor with a grunt, which had been when Ri’s laughter began. Pel’s arms were like limp noodles, and he was unable to move them at all until his Stamina regeneration brought him back over zero. Running out of Stamina is dangerous. If that happened while I was in danger I’d totally die!

Pel was eventually joined by the other Trainees, who had completely outclassed his push up game. They had completed around 350 to Pel’s 100. I wonder what level they are? Mat was the closest to him, so Pel scooted over.

“Do you mind telling me what level you are? You did so many more push-ups than I did,” Pel asked.

Mat looked away from the window and its dim, ghostly glow. “Sure thing! I’m Level 6!”

“Hey!” Ri called out. “Talking on watch is fine, but you actually have to watch!”

Mat and Pel both quickly snapped back to looking out the windows. “Don’t worry about how many you can do; you just have to do as many as you can!” Mat encouraged Pel.

“Hey Ri! Why do we have to actually watch even though the mushrooms will react before we can see anything?” Pel asked.

“Because actually watching will give you experience. As long as you’re doing something to protect The Mother Tree it will count for gaining experience. If you just sat here and waited for something to happen without doing anything, you wouldn’t get any experience!” Ri replied.

I... guess that makes sense? I still don’t understand how experience works. Pel thought. The landscape beyond the windows was actually kind of creepy. The green glowing mushrooms and mosses made the twisting roots and dark tunnel entrances cast scary shadows. This close to the ground he could see the thin, vein-like network of mycelium growing over everything. It didn’t glow as brightly as the mushrooms, but it had a faint pulse to it, and every so often a brighter sparkle would travel through some of the individual strands.

“Hey Mat. You’re a Water Fairy. Tina told me that Water Fairies can heal?” Pel asked.

“Mmm, yes we can, but we aren’t very good at it.” Mat replied. “My Mentor says our healing is more like speeding up someone’s regular Health Regeneration. I didn’t even have a healing spell option at Level 5. I picked [Water Ball]! It lets me send out a ball of water as an attack!”

“How does a ball of water hurt?” Pel questioned.

“I don’t know, it’s magic!” Mat said. “It just forms a ball of water, and shoots it forward like an arrow. I used it on some training dummies yesterday and it made a pretty heavy thunking sound.”

“You haven’t used it against any enemies yet?”

“No, there hasn’t been an intrusion for months I’m told. But some day!” Mat said excitedly.

“I was still a Trainee the last time there was an intrusion.” Ri said from somewhere behind Pel. “It’s pretty scary, you shouldn’t look forward to it. A bunch of Giant Ants came through the tunnels at one of the watchtowers near the one I was stationed at. The team in charge of that section barely held on long enough for Gabby to save them. He’s super strong! He killed a dozen Giant Ants with his [Crushing Earth] Skill!

“One of the Fairies from that watchtower lost an arm and nearly died when he almost got eaten by a Giant Ant.” Pel shivered at Ri’s words. “It grew back in a couple weeks, but almost being eaten changes you.”

“Wait, they grew their arm back? Did they get healed by someone?” Pel asked.

“No, we don’t have anyone that can heal that kind of injury here. But don’t forget, we’re made of Mana. Missing limbs regenerate on their own after long enough.” Ri explained.

Ri continued to explain the horrors of Fairy survival as Pel and the other Trainees kept watch. Almost an hour and half later Pel’s Stamina was fully regenerated and Ri forced him to do squats until he bottomed out again.

“How many times do I have to do this before I get an Attribute Point?” Pel asked.

“Well, one shift in The Roots is four hours and at your pace you can probably bottom out two and half times before the end of shift so…” Ri paused in thought, “probably two days? Once you get a few more levels, getting the first few Attribute increases will be faster. You’ll experience diminishing returns after a month or so, which is usually when your time as a Trainee will end. If I remember correctly I got 3 points in Vitality, and 1 point in Strength.”

So much effort for so little gain? Man, Fairies are bullshit! Hearing about the rough road ahead, Pel was disheartened. Having to spend four hours every morning working out in a mushroom did not appeal to his sense of fantasy and adventure at all. He was at least happy to discover that Fairies didn’t sweat. Blessedly, they didn’t smell bad either, otherwise being trapped in a mushroom with stinky, sweaty people working out for four hours would be more than he could tolerate.

Half way through his third round of workouts, sit ups this time, five more Fairies entered the mushroom.

“Shift change! Thank The Mother Tree!” Raki sighed.

“Alright Trainees! Let's go report to Gabby!” Ri announced. “Happy watching!” he said to their replacements before jumping through a window.

Pel followed just behind the other Trainees flying toward the central watchtower. Hundreds of Fairies were flying everywhere, many calling out to friends in passing as the shift change was carried out. Pel’s group stopped, hovering in place within a wall of other hovering Fairies about 50 feet away from the watchtower. No, not 50 feet...probably more like 5 or 6. Damn, this tiny perspective is totally throwing me off!

Everyone from the first shift was gathered in the air surrounding the watchtower, and Pel could see Gabby standing on the mushroom cap in the middle of the cloud of gathered Fairies. Once everyone was gathered Gabby spoke.

“Party leaders, fly forward!” he barked. “Quadrant 1, report!”

Ri and the other Party leaders flew out from the gathered wall of Fairies. Each Party leader said the same thing; ‘Nothing to report!’. The same reply was given by each quadrant until everyone had reported in.

“Good work everyone.” Gabby commended. More like ‘good workout’, Pel thought. “Everyone is dismissed!”

The majority of the nearly 100 Fairies present whooped with joy and rocketed upward as fast as they could. Heh, it seems like rigid structure isn’t something they enjoy any more than I do.

“Apple!” a familiar voice called out from above before he had a chance to bolt for freedom. Looking up Pel spotted a falling Tina, who summoned her wings to slow down as he watched on.

“How was your first day guarding The Roots?” she asked, coming in for a hug.

“I hated it.” Pel responded honestly, carefully avoiding her wings as he hugged Tina back. “I didn’t get any Levels or Attribute Points, and my everything feels like jelly.”

“Haha! Everyone says that!” Tina replied. “But it’s an important role, and everyone in the lower Levels has to take their turn!”

“So, what’s next?” Pel asked.

“I spoke with one of the Water Fairy Mentors and they agreed to talk to you about magic, and answer any questions you mi- Hey! You!” Tina interrupted herself, pointing to someone over Pel’s shoulder. Turning around he saw a confused Mat looking their way.

“Yea, you! Mat, right?” Tina asked, and Mat nodded back. “Your Mentor is Ty, yea?” Mat nodded again.

“Excellent! Have you met Apple?” Tina asked.

“Yes, we were stationed in the same watchtower today.” Mat replied.

“Wonderful! I hope you two got along! Anyway, Ty agreed to mentor Apple here every other day, would you mind taking them with you?” Tina asked.

“Sure, no problem! C’mon Apple, I’m headed there now!” Mat waved.

Pel waved to Tina as he departed upward with Mat.

“Ty is great!” Mat said over his shoulder. “He isn’t the highest Level Mentor, but he’s really good at explaining stuff.”

“Well, I’m not a Water Fairy.” Pel said. “I just hope he can answer some general questions about Skills and magic for me.”

“No problem! Ty’s been around for hundreds of years, I’m sure he can answer most things! If he feels like it,” Mat replied. “He really likes making you figure it out yourself though.”

“I can’t imagine what it would be like to live for hundreds of years.” Pel commented.

“Well, as long as we don’t get eaten by something we’ll find out!” Mat said happily.

The duo passed by Berry’s Bottle which was swarmed with Fairies finally free from bootcamp. Mat led Pel in a looping, upward spiral following the curvature of the interior walls. Why are we taking such a roundabout way? Pel wondered. Mat deviated from the gently, curving flightpath and headed toward what appeared to be a jewelry box. It was perfectly rectangular, with sharp corners and edges. The building even had a closed lid on the top, and a keyhole on the front.

“Oh, don’t touch anything inside.” Mat cautioned as they approached the keyhole. “Ty doesn’t like people messing with his experiments.”

They both turned into motes and flew through the keyhole. Pel was still amazed by how large everything appeared in this form. The keyhole was incredibly small, in his normal form Pel could probably fit his arm inside the opening, but the rest of the jewelry box looked large enough to hold several of Berry’s bottle buildings.

The interior of the jewelry box was filled with clear tanks, row after row of tanks filled with water and different types of plants. The entire space was illuminated by moss clinging from the ceiling. Blues, and greens of varying shades were all mixed together glowing softly in a way that made Pel feel like he was looking up at the surface of a body of water from deep below. The air was cool and damp against his skin as Mat led him deeper into the building.

Some tanks were filled with what Pel thought was seaweed, while others contained actual flowers that one might find in a field. They came to a door set into the back wall of the room, an actual door, with hinges. The first Pel had seen, with the exception of the trap door from the command watchtower in The Roots. He followed Mat inside, closing the door behind them.

This second room was filled with wooden tablets covered in the wave-like patterns of Fairese stacked on practically every flat surface. Tables, chairs, bookshelves, and even the floor contained precarious stacks of wooden tablets. Shuttered lamps held glowing white rocks which illuminated the room, as well as a Fairy bent over a table scratching something into one of the wooden tablets.

“Ty! I’m here for my lesson!” Mat announced. “I also brought Apple, Tina said you agreed to mentor him?”

Ty didn’t respond for several moments, he continued to scratch a few more lines into the tablet just long enough for the silence to turn uncomfortable before straightening his back and turning around. His hair was blue like the deep ocean, and long enough to fall to the middle of his back. His robes were blue and grey, cascading loops and rippled patterns hanging from his shoulders like a toga reminding Pel of flowing, frothy waves.

“Indeed, I did.” Ty said in a smooth, deep voice. He sounds like the tumbling of the ocean. Pel thought. Not the high pitched, bubbly water part of crashing waves, but the resonant sound that rumbles beneath it. Pel could feel Ty’s voice in his own chest.

“Well met, Apple.” Ty opened his arms wide, looking at Pel. He stood that way for a breath of time before Pel understood and walked forward to hug the man. I prefer the simplicity of handshakes. Pel thought. But I guess hugs aren’t that bad.

“Nice to meet you, I’m...Apple.” Pel said, resigned.

“Hm, good.” Ty said, holding Pel at arm’s length and patting his shoulders. “Not even 24 hours old and already Level 2.”

“Wait, how could you tell?” Pel asked.

“Because I can see your Level.” Ty replied. “I might not be a Celestial Fairy, but I certainly have plenty to teach you.”

“But how?” Pel asked again.

“We’ll get to that shortly, but first…” Ty turned to Mat, who was still standing by the door. “You can go upstairs and continue practicing [Water Ball]. I want you to continue focusing on the flow of your Mana as you cast the spell. Don’t worry about casting it quickly or accurately for now. Just the flow. In fact, I want you to try casting it slower. As slow as you can, alright?”

“Yes, Mentor!” Mat said, heading through an open doorway at the opposite side of the cluttered room.

“Come, sit with me.” Ty motioned to a pair of wooden stools at a small, square table free from tablets.

“What can you tell me about Mana?” Ty asked once they were both seated.

“I uh, don’t know. Nothing?” Pel stuttered, unprepared to be the one to answer questions.

“Nothing at all?” Ty asked.

“Well, it’s energy?” Pel ventured.

“Correct. Do you know where that energy comes from?”

“Uh, inside us?” Pel asked more than said.

“Nope! It comes from everywhere else!” Ty said. “While you do have Mana inside of yourself, you don’t actually create it. You simply collect it. Mana is everywhere, in the air, in water, in food, rocks, trees, living things, non-living things, in vacuums, and anywhere you can think of. Your body takes the raw Mana that surrounds you and stores it inside. Your Mana Pool is a representation of how much Mana you have inside that you can draw upon to use magic.”

“Your Mana Regeneration is a representation of how good your body is at collecting Mana.” Ty continued explaining. “Because Fairies are living beings created from Mana, our natural Mana Pools and Mana Regeneration rates are better than most normal races. Elves are the exception to this as they have even deeper Mana Pools, however Fairies are still better at regenerating Mana.”

“How do I use Mana? Like, how do I use it to cast spells?” Pel asked.

“You won’t be able to cast spells until you either learn one through studying, or by unlocking a Racial Skill at Level 5.” Ty said. “There are no books on magic here in The Mother Tree since everyone relies on their Racial Skills for spells. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t practice using Mana before then.”

“How can I do that if I don’t have any spells?” Pel wondered.

“There are a few things I can recommend, but to start with I’d like you to try doing some mindfulness exercises.” Ty answered.

Here it comes. Pel thought. Time for some Zen Fairy meditation techniques. Ty stood up from his stool and walked to one of the bookcases against the wall. He picked up a small pouch the size of an egg and placed it on the table in front of Pel.

“Carefully undo the string on the pouch, but don’t touch what’s inside.” Ty instructed. Pel untied the loosely knotted string cinching the pouch closed. The pouch was actually made from cloth, and not flowers like every other cloth-like object inside The Mother Tree seemed to be. Thick like canvas, and scratchy under his delicate fingers the dark red pouch opened to reveal a black stone peeking through the opening. The stone was dull, and hardly reflected any light at all.

“I want you to close your eyes, and keep your breathing even. Focus on your breaths, and the sound of my voice.” Ty said. Pel closed his eyes and began. “Slow breath in, then hold it. Hold it. Hold it. Exhale slowly. Slower. Take twice as long to exhale as you inhale. Breathe in, 2, 3, 4, 5, and hold, 2, 3, 4, 5, exhale, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Continue this pattern, count for yourself inside your head.”

Pel quietly continued the breathing exercise, focusing on the count.

“Fairies don’t need to breathe if they don’t want to, but this exercise helps calm the mind and body.” Ty’s voice rumbled softly. “I’m going to pick your hand up now, keep your body relaxed.”

Pel continued breathing, feeling Ty’s hands pick up his left hand. Breathe in, hold, breathe out. Ty extended Pel’s index finger and placed it gently against a cold, hard surface. Suddenly it felt like Pel’s soul was being sucked out through his finger, and the chill of the object Pel’s finger was touching creeped up into his hand, and then his arm. He violently ripped his arm away from Ty’s gently grasp with a shout, eyes flaring wide.

“What the FUCK was that!” Pel yelled. That was not Zen at all!