“Freedom!”

The fairy’s mental shout echoes throughout my head. The endless joy she feels begins to swim through me like a wave of peace. I am overjoyed that I helped rescue the fairy, saved the boy, as well, as the bear. My soul feels complete, and all I want to do now is to share the love and joy I am feeling with others.

I could not have been more correct when I first described the glow as like a second sun. I gaze at the fairy, as my body begin to heat up. I should have known something was wrong from the fact that I could feel the heat. Earlier on, when my arm was almost sliced off, I felt no pain. The only thing that seemed to suck at my energy, or at least leave me feeling like I have run up a hill, was when I cast the weaving to heal myself. This is understandable, since I am drawing energy from my own soul. I have been wrong more than once in my theories for the day though, best not to hold anything to fact.

I feel like I am burning now; the fiery sensation from the glow of the fairy is intense . It is like when you open a really hot oven, one hot enough to scorch your eyebrows right off. The heat gradually becomes more intense. I drop both the metal box and the khopesh from my hands, raising both my hands to block out the glow. That did nothing, just another one of my human reactions. I should have started to run, but why did I feel so paralyzed.

The fairy begins to sing. I think I liked her more when she was still in the black box, she was much less Heartless back then. What was I even thinking by letting her out? I am screaming in my mind; the pain brings me down on my knees, with my hands in the air, not to block the light, but to reach the bitch and squeeze her little neck.

The scorching flames of hell then vanish, just like that. Not stopping slowly, but instantly gone: one second it is there, then next second the pain is gone. The golden glow that I saw around the fairy is severely receding. The glow around her is now average in size.

The previously awestruck young boy moves towards me with concern and worry on his face. He had watched the fairy’s transformation from a near death state to this energetic life. I raise my hand towards him in a signal to stop. He obeys, but his face shows his worry and feelings of helplessness. I honestly did not want another one of his hugs, if that is what he was planning to do.

“Sorry! Are you okay?!“ The fairy once again shouts her mental message, her voice is very high pitched, but soothing. I wonder how she does that: the whole mental-thought-thing. She is almost twelve feet away from me in the air above. I know for sure she cannot be speaking. Her voice is just too clear and unaffected by the surrounding noise. “Unnatural” would be a word to describe it. I had my doubts, since such a small creature should not be able to be make that loud a noise. She takes a sharp dive and starts to spiral around me. She smiles, then sticks her tongue out at me, and flies over to the boy.

I check myself over to see if I have any burnt bones. No sign of any newly blackened patches, just the same old ones, with the largest one placed on the left side of my rib cage. I am okay it seems, though it sure did not feel like that. Never thought I would think this, but I would rather lose an arm than be out in the sun again.

“She said that you're okay, uhm,“ The boy said, as he paused for a second. I can tell he is looking for something to say. After a brief moment he finally seemed to have thought of something. The boy then looks at a dense section of the tall trees around him. He is probably trying to find the fairy, who is twirling his short hair around with her arm. She stops when she became aware that she is now the centre of attention.“ I think they tied the horses somewhere back there. I'll go get ‘em.“, the boy said as he tries to get the fairy to stop.

The fairy flies off his head and instead moves somewhere around the fire. I am not paying much attention to her, as I pick up my khopesh. which fell from my hands during, well... whatever that was. I do want to know if the sun is all I have to worry about. Whatever the fairy just did could have destroyed me. It will be beneficial in the future to find out more about the reasons behind why I burn from the light.

Thank you for letting me out!” The fairy says in my mind. It appears that she has taken a liking to the dead body of the man I stole the gauntlets from. She walks along the corpse, pulling its clothes in various places, as if she is unsure whether he is alive. You could have just let yourself out, I think. If she is proficient enough to manipulate her mana, then that has to be within her power.

“I couldn't save myself, I tried, many, many times. There was no light… just darkness.“ It is obvious now that the fairy can hear my thoughts. At first I thought she could only speak to me through her telepathy, but it makes sense for her to also be able to read my thoughts. I will have to test that. Though, I could be wrong about it. She circles closer to the fire, eventually flying around the flames rapidly, spreading the shining dust that falls from her body. She sounds terrified of the dark, maybe she hopes the fire will keep it away. I am not sure if she knows, but she just gave me her weakness with those words, as well as her strength.

I want to hold my head and scream. There are people with magic, walking fighting skeletons, knights with horses, voices in my head, people swinging swords at me on sight, and I goddamn burn in the sun! Now there is even a fucking fairy. Honestly, I did not realize how easy I had it back on Earth. I try to calm myself, it is normal to feel scared and uncertain about things you do not understand.

I try to picture how some of the first humans felt back in the day. Sure, they were scared of thunder and lighting, but as time passed they learned and came to understand it. Some even worshiped the storms, thinking that the gods inflicted them. The main thing is that we adapted and, even though we can be wrong, we always try to create reasons why the things happen. As a species we have always persevered, and if I am still human, I will too.

I almost laugh to myself. It could very well be possible in this world that the gods do bring storms. No reason to stop the madness at fairies. I need to keep learning about this world, and the new set of rules that govern it. I am sure this choice will one day be critical to survival.

How do I talk to the fairy? I try to speak aloud in my mind, as though I am actually speaking to someone. “Hello? why did you burn me earlier? Testing testing 1,2,3... Is this thing working: skeleton to fairy.” I think. This does not help my mental health.

The fairy stops above the fire, I hear her laughing into my mind. She flies over to my skull, her constant giggling grows louder, then she finally stops in front of my face, smiling widely.

“You're funny! And hmmm, I already answered one of your question. My turn now! What's your name? Mine’s Nia!“

“My name?“ I say, as we continues our telepathic conversation. I am bit startled that she would ask.

“Yes, name! Everyone has a name.” She says as she begins to dance in the air in front of my face.

“I don't have one “

Her dancing immediately stops, then she looks at me for only a brief second, before walking vertically up in the air in a perfect circle.

“That's not good, let's get you one.“ She abandons her walk, and floats in front of my face again, She beams a smile at me, and says: “I've always wanted to do this!“

She flies up into the night sky with golden dust trailing behind her. I wonder what it is, could it be fairy dust? I sense that this is not just tiny sparkles that falls off of her to make her look pretty. The golden dust stays on the ground for a few second. Nia is different from fairies like Tinkerbell. I have watched too many Tinkerbell movies. I remember being an older brother, having to switch the TV channels so my little sister could watch her movies.

Nia floats all the way up, going as as high at the tallest tree. From my angle, she is between the two moons.. It does not expand and consume me like previously, but the glow is bright enough that it makes up for the loss of size. Then the singing begin: soft at first, then powerful. Her singing is like a wave of confidence, so beautiful that I find it hard to describe. It makes me certain of how beautiful life can be, or undead, I guess.

Her voice softens, as it slowly fades like a falling petal, until she is once again where she started, right in front of me. She gazes into the empty pits of my eyes, into the blue glow that I know is myself. Her hand is glowing now, as she writes in the air what would become my name.

“Laoch!”

She says in that high pitched sound, which really does not do her singing justice. I think I would have cried if I had eyes, maybe it is a blessing I do not have them afterall. For some reason I do not want her to see me cry.

“Okay.“ I say softly through the mental link. She frowns at my lack of words. I am simply speechless, and acceptance is the only thing that comes to mind. I know I have a name, a real one, the one I was born with, so I do not need a second name. I believe it is how much love she put in to my name when she said it. The Skeleton inside of me has hardened my feelings. Too many things have happened too fast. I never gave myself time to express my true feelings. I now feel the loss of the people I may, or may not, ever see again.

I feel a deep sorrow run through my whimpering soul. I do not know how long it lasts, as I stand too close to the fire. When I did get back to reality, Nia was hugging my cheeks, well the part of my skull that would be the cheeks if I had cheeks. She flies away silently, back to the boy who just came back. The youth is holding two reins in his hand, leading two draft horses, both brown in color.

“Is everything okay?“ The boy says, his question directed more towards the fairy than to me, for obvious reasons.

Nia flies towards him and sits down on his shoulders, slowly moving her legs back and forth as though she is on a swing. I can tell that they are having their own little conversation, because the boy’s expression changes several times over the course of a minute. However, I do not feel the need to interrupt. I have bigger things to worry about: dawn is here.