Mature Content Warning: Origin says a bad thing, and there is naughty fairy business.

Author's Note:

Chapter 10: Fairy Business

The first rays of dawn, a signal to the world that a new day would begin. It brought with it new possibilities and the hope of a brighter future. However, for one person it brought all of that plus the loud and excitable noise of a newly awakened companion.

“Scott! Scott! Wake Up!” exclaimed Ero.

The sorcerer grumbled a little then slowly opened his eyes. “Wha...?”

“It’s morning!” piped the voice of the tiny girl.

Scott blinked then rolled over toward the sound that was interrupting his pleasant slumber. He saw Ero sitting cross-legged on top of a pillow, still just as naked as she had always been.

“I’m all better! See? Do you see?” She jumped up with a tiny bounce and started to spin and twirl in place.

You have completed a battle with your new guardian. She was deployed and would normally gain experience after the battle, however she was defeated and will not receive any rewards. Please take better care of your companions in the future!

You now have expanded capacity to use the power of Ero, the Sacred Water Fairy.

When deployed she will appear in your party menu and you will be able to see her status.

You will have to expend your own ability points to increase her powers and you will need to transfer your own experience points to increase her level. Ero, the Sacred Water Fairy will appear in your skill menu as an optional upgrade.

Ero can be called to battle, dismissed from battle, and called to battle at full power for a single major effort. Due to her low level, she may only use her greater powers once every four days. She will also be weak and unable to be called to battle at all for up to twenty-four hours.

Scott blinked at the image screen then looked at the happy naked girl. “Neat.”

She would not gain experience from battle, but he could share his experience and ability points to increase her power. That could be useful.

“What’s neat? Am I neat? What do you mean?” She asked him in a series of rapid-fire questions.

“I found out how to make you stronger.” Scott smiled at the excitable fairy.

“Yay!” She jumped up and down on the pillow and clapped her hands several times in the process.

Scott could not help it. He started to laugh. He had wanted to sleep in longer, since he was more or less forced to take a day or two off. Still, the happy girl’s joy was infectious. “I’m glad you are alright. You had me worried.”

“I did?” She leaned forward and looked at him with wide, innocent, eyes.

“Yeah, when you took that arrow I feared the worst.”

Ero jumped forward and hugged Scott’s face. She started to shake and cry. “Oh, you were worried about me? Oh, I’m so happy!”

Scott flailed his arms and legs around a little as the diminutive naked mythological creature shut off his air supply. He tried to tell her to get off but it came out heavily mumbled.

“Oh, Scott... that tickles!” Ero giggled and hugged him with greater intensity.

If this had been a cliché and poorly scripted television series, Rhea or someone else would have barged in right then.

However, life did not always synchronize in such ways. Instead Scott was forced to think quickly. He performed an action known as a ‘raspberry.’ His lips and tongue made a rude noise that caused Ero to giggle louder and start to squirm.

She loosened her adorable death grip just enough for him to pluck her off of him. He held her up in front of him and said,

“I named you well...”

Ero smiled at him sweetly then lowered her eyes and flapped her wings in a shy and demure manner. “I was just happy... Was it OK?”

“You can hug me whenever you like, just... Put on some clothes or hug me somewhere other than my face.”

“Somewhere else, huh?” She eyed him critically then grinned.

“Not there, or there, or there either.” said Scott.

“Hey, how did you know what places I was thinking about?” asked Ero.

“I named you well, remember?”

She placed a hand to her lips and unleashed a surprising chuckle. “Fu fu fu.”

She started to squirm in his hand. “If you’re going to hold me so tightly at least feed me first.”

“Man, how am I going to explain you to Rhea?” asked Scott aloud. How does a man inform his not quite, but sort-of fantasy world girlfriend, that he also has a permanent bond with another girl? Also, said girl lives inside his head and likes to hug his face when she’s naked? Somehow, he did not see that conversation ending well.

“I can hug her too, that might help.” replied Ero.

Scott released Ero and she dropped onto the pillow. She sat there, her fairy business openly displayed to the world, while she casually observed her master.

“Will it be a problem? I’m sorry... I should not have asked to bond with you.” Ero looked down at the pillow and sighed loudly.

“I don’t know. Don’t worry about it so much, though. You asked, but I’m the one who said yes. Besides that, you helped me a lot. I hope Rhea understands that, but it’s really something she’ll have to decide on her own.” said Scott. It was done and could not be undone.

He liked Rhea, but she kept holding back. She hid things from him. She seemed honest, even sincere, in what she told him regarding her feelings for him. Yet, others had done that in the past.

Sarah was the most recent culprit. They had spent three years together, but she had hid things till the very end and then discarded him easily. It was not possible for him to truly accept someone as more than a friend if they could not be honest with him.

Ero had saved his life and helped him a great deal. He owed her. There were no secrets there. Scott had no romantic interest in the girl that he was aware of, but he trusted her at this point. Hopefully that would not come back to haunt him later.

“OK. I hope she will like me. You think about her a lot...” said Ero. She did not look at him while she said it. She continued to look down at the pillow while her hair shaded her eyes.

“Me too. We’re BFFs, right?” said Scott.

Her head snapped up and she looked at him with growing excitement. “Yeah!”

Scott started to smile but she lunged forward and hugged his face again. “Not the face! Not the face!”

She giggled at him, but refused to move. Ero believed that he would forgive her in the end. They were best friends forever, after all.

***

The sound of loud grumbling interspersed by the occasional loud and angry shout permeated the air. The ill-will and general frustration were brought on by the fact that only four people had arrived so far.

“Look, I get why that weak ass Karsh is not here. Why isn’t anyone else here, yet?” asked Redfang, the hobgoblin.

“Askrida is another week’s walk from here. Even riding some of them won’t be here till tomorrow. We won’t go after him till Karsh can log-in again anyway.” said Aen the Orc.

“Shit, having to wait four days just to take out one weak ass Noob.” growled Redfang.

“Whatever, the guild’s paying us to sit here. It’s boring, but easy Fayth.” said Aen.

“I know. I know... but aren’t we a bit exposed? I mean doesn’t it look suspicious that an orc and a hobgoblin are just hanging out in the woods. Neither of us have stealth builds. It’s not like it would be hard to spot us.”

Aen looked at the hobgoblin then snorted. “Who the hell cares about us standing out here? No player would have a reason to give a damn. Meaden’s a tiny shithole. There aren’t enough guards to patrol the woods and the town.”

“Maybe, but you know what... I still feel exposed. It’s like the forest has eyes, man.”

“Stop being paranoid, you wuss. There’s no one watching us.” said Aen.

Redfang grunted then looked around. It certainly felt like someone was watching them, but maybe Aen was right. Who would really care about them hanging out in the woods if you discounted the guards? If it had been town guards they would have had a confrontation anyway.

Monster races were not particular welcome in human towns at the moment. That was the price everyone in the guild had been forced to pay for taking over Askrida. They had gained partial control of a decent-sized town through underhanded dealings but other towns hated them.

A brief gust of wind caused Redfang to look around wide-eyed, but he say nothing unusual. No, it had been sudden but it had been nothing but the wind.

***

“Oh, what’s this?” Ero fluttered around a pie sitting under a clear case cover.

They had gone down to eat breakfast and in doing so, had discovered that the kitchen staff had already begun to make deserts for the day. Scott watched the constantly intrigued fairy flutter around various cakes and pies while she continually asked what they were.

“It smells really nice!” said Ero.

“Hey, what is that thing? Keep it away from my desert tray.” said an older man after noticing the fairy fluttering about.

“I am not a thing!” shouted Ero. Of course, her shout sounded more like someone speaking in an overly loud voice.

“Sorry.” said Scott, before grabbing the naked girl and putting her on his shoulder. How the man had not known that she was a fairy just by looking at her was anyone’s guess.

“I’m not a thing. Oh...” Ero started to flutter around Scott’s head in an agitated manner.

“Would you like a piece of pie?” asked Scott.

“Uhm, sure!”

Ero landed on top of his head then pointed at an apple pie nearby. “Can I have that one?”

“Alright.” Scott decided to indulge his fairy BFF. He also bought a piece for himself.

It was an interesting moment, to say the least. Scott had never seen anyone attempt to eat a pie using a fork that would be the size of a battle trident if it were expanded to human size. Ero eventually defaulted to simply pulling off chunks of pie by hand. She occasionally looked up at him with an absurdly pleased grin while apple pie dripped down her face.

After their early morning dessert they hit the town. Scott’s equipment would not be fully restored till tomorrow evening, so he had a great deal of time to kill. He could go out and hunt, but he felt like that would not really work out. The monsters in the Meaden zone would be fairly weak to him now and might not give any experience outside of that mine.

Instead of hunting, he opted to walk around town with Ero.

People occasionally stopped to stare at the naked girl as she zipped around, but apparently she was not that unique. No one started to scream about how great it was to see a fairy, so Scott assumed that fairies were not as rare as he had originally thought. They might also be so rare that no one had even heard of them. He doubted that, however.

The day wore on, and Scott indulged the happy little fairy. She had been cooped up in a closed off spring for years. She had not traveled too far from the mine before that, and this was her first time actually visiting a human town.

Night came, and Ero grew tired. She returned to Scott’s mind and the sorcerer opted to get some sleep. He had enjoyed spending time exploring town with Ero, but he was starting to feel a little stir crazy. He had he itch, he needed to hunt. Before going to sleep he thought, ‘What would it hurt to hunt without my gear?’

***

A happy cry echoed through the room as a blue haired goddess found her way free of entanglements for the moment. “Eight hours, I have eight whole hours...”

Origin leapt to the side to avoid an oncoming truck and continued running down the sidewalk at high speed. Normally, she would drive for the sake of authenticity. However, her running speed was much higher than a simple automobile could match. She was also able to avoid crashes with greater ease.

She sprang over a Cadillac that ran up on the curve and kept going as it slammed into an office building. Sometimes she believed that they took the crazy driver side of authenticity too far. Either way, at least traffic was a bit lighter than usual.

“Eight hours, that’s more than a day. That’s plenty of time to tell him...” Of course, it would take several minutes to make it back across town since she could not run at top speed without causing damage to nearby windows when she passed through the area. Still, it was much faster than taking a car. In the end, she would be able to spend a little over one day with Scott before she had to come back and finish her work.

“Whee!” exclaimed Origin as she leapt from atop a bridge then plummeted a considerably lengthy distance. She slammed down on the concrete sidewalk far below, shattering it in the process.

She took off again, an elated look on her face. “Almost there!”

The blue haired goddess launched herself up the side of an embankment, caught the railing above, and then flipped onto the sidewalk above. She could have avoided all of this if they were simply allowed to fly like a normal person. However, humans do not typically fly in such a manner so it was not allowed.

The family tower loomed ahead. Origin picked up speed now that she had a clear shot. She raced up to the entrance and hurled the doors open with great excitement. The goddess immediately ran for the stairs, they would be quicker than the elevator. However, there was a large and annoying sign on the entrance door.

“What do you mean out of order? Dammit! Who broke the stairs this time?” She grumbled loudly then walked over to the elevator. She puffed out her cheeks and poked the elevator call button with the type of grace and elegance that might be shown by a petulant and frustrated child.

“Come on, come on...I hate waiting for this thing.” Origin paced around for a full minute, one precious irreplaceable minute, while she waited for the elevator to descend to the first floor.

“I’m going to have to have a talk with mom about having a ladder installed on the side of this tower. This is ridiculous.” Origin continued to gripe about the wait while the elevator made its descent.

She started to dance from side to side while making weird hand gestures at the elevator door. Maybe it would move faster? Curiously, the elevator door chose that moment to finally open.

Origin cried out, “Finally!”

The excited gamer-goddess ran into the open door and quickly entered her floor number. Quirky elevator music began to play in the background as part of the elevator riding experience. Normally, she would smile and nod to the music. Right now she just wanted the ride to end.

It was torture, that long ride. The torture eventually ended and she was released to her floor. The entire floor belonged to her, but she spent most of her time in her private room. That was her destination and she reached it quickly.

Origin entered her private bedchambers then locked the door behind her. Her command chair awaited, and so did that certain someone. She sat down and lifted up her tiara. She smiled at the largely unnecessary device. It was used mostly for the purpose of authenticity. It served a purpose, limiting the power of a deity by permission, but mostly it was window dressing. The truth was that it made the whole concept just that much more fun.

She ran her thumbs along the cool surface of her personal tiara. “I wonder if he missed me?”

She stuck out her tongue and then grinned. Of course he did! He had kissed her cheek after all.

Origin settled into her chair then placed her tiara atop her head. It was time to get serious and play a game.