“You’re actually here…?”

I look towards Shiona and see her still lying down while looking at me.

‘Yeah.’ I answer her, however she doesn't seem to be able to hear me so I try again, this time using the bangle.

“Yeah, I’m actually here now.”

She reaches out one of her talons and grabs one of the fruits laying next to her and-

*splat*

Throws it at me.

“Hey!”

“Just making sure… That you're… Actually… Here…” Halfway through she starts to talk slower and slower, eventually breaking down and starting to cry.

I hug her and lends her a bite-sized shoulder to lean on.

“You're actually here… You're here…”

“Yes, I'm here.”

We stay like that for a while.

“Come now, we've got to get down from here.”

*!* “How…?” She asks while still crying.

I cover my whole body in a green light, I then hold her wing and try to cover her as much as I can with Phasing, however it only covers her wing and torso.

“What is…?”

I try again, this time after having made the green light recede from half of my body, this time successfully going in a thin dark green line to her lower body and covering everything from her hips to her talons, however I don't submerge us yet to not shock her.

“This is how we get down from he-” *CREAK*

As I try to tell her how we will be going down the mountain I’m interrupted by a loud series of creaking sounds, both I and Shiona turn towards them and see that copper colored tree with all the multicolored fruits is twisting and turning, shrinking and elongation, stretching like a tendril, shooting towards us before we can react and coiling itself around Shiona’s waist, then uprooting itself and pulling the rest of itself towards Shiona.

It then stops moving and we see that it has now turned from a large tree the size of a small house into a loosely fitting copper colored wooden belt hanging around Shiona’s waist.

The inside is covered by small green foliage, and on the outside there are circular indentations, most of which are covered by small colorful beads, the same colors and patterns which were on the trees fruits.

“This is…?”

“... I think I know someone who might know what this is… But for now let’s focus on getting down from here, we’ll stop in a cave halfway down to meet some of my friends who came along, but I think you’ll want to close your eyes.”

“... Okay.”

“This might feel weird.”

She closes her eyes and I phase us both into the floor of the bird’s nest, as a trial run I move us around a bit before feeling that I’ve got the hang of it, I then quickly slide us both over the bird’s nest’s wall and down the mountain, Shiona is screaming next to me throughout the trip, and after a few seconds we’re inside of the cave which was halfway down the mountain.

“Okay, you can open your eyes now.”

As I say that Shiona slowly stops screaming and a small line can be seen glowing through her feathery mask while she’s holding her breath.

After she half-opens one of her eyes she then fully opens both of them and starts panting heavily.

“... Please… Not again…”

“Sorry, but we’re going to need to do that once more to get to the ground, at least it only took a few seconds. Also these three are some of the people that helped me find you, this is Charlie.” I motion towards Charlie.

“You must be Shiona, it’s nice to meet you.”

“... Same…”

“And these two are Diifan and Baom, I’m pretty sure they’re a couple.” When I say this they both start blushing.

“H-how did you-”

“Oh please you guys, can’t have been hard for him to figure out when you’re always hugging each other when you sleep.”

At this they both go silent.

“... Well... it’s nice to meet you two…” Says Shiona, finally breaking the silence

“Li-likewise.” “Yeah” They respond.

“Alright, greetings are over, here-” She says and hands Shiona bowl of food. “Plush here says you’ve been stuck up there eating nothing but fruits for years, have some meat.”

“... Plush? Ah! I forgot… you got a new name…”

“What? That’s not his real name?”

“Forget that, the new one fits better either way.”

“Pft... Agreed.” Says shiona, most likely with a wry smile under that mask.

The four of them then start eating, and after they finish I slide myself and Shiona down the mountain, causing her to scream again, the pickits walking behind us.

Once the two of us reach the ground the pickits are still very far away, so I decide to take some things with Shiona.

‘Not yet, I need to explain some things to her first.’

I take the book off of my back and open it in front of us.

“This book is a bit special you see, I found it after I came to this country, well not this country, in fact it was a few countries away, but still.”

“And what does it do…?” She asks while looking at it curiously.

I then explain to her about how it shows my abilities, how it allows me to store items, and what’s currently most important:

“When I found this book I found it together with a person who was doing research on it, apparently they had been staying there for years trying to understand how it works, and by doing so they had somehow bound their soul to the book, making it so they can’t be further than a few meters away from it.”

“But if they can’t be far away from it…” She starts imitating the act of scratching her chin, though I can’t imagine it would work to well with the feathers and all.

*gasp* “Did you kill them!?”

“What!? No! What made you jump to that conclusion!?”

I ask the book to flip its pages to where Lizz is staying.

“An apartment?”

“Yeah, apparently due to them having bound their soul to the book they were able to be absorbed by it and live inside of it, look in the kitchen.”

“A fairy?”

Asks Lizz, this time letting us both hear her due to the book being open on her page, surprising Shiona.

“That’s Lizz, she’s the one who was researching the book when I found it. Be careful around her, she can be very rude.’

“Hey!” Says Lizz while sticking the top of her body out of the book.

“!” Shiona flinches for a moment before looking at Lizz with even more curiosity

“Well here I am, nice to meet you, I’m Elizabeth, bla bla bla, can I go back in? I was in the middle of eating…”

“Again? Weren’t you the one who got all excited about the tree belt before?”

“Well yeah, but you can’t expect me to enter my research mode on an empty stomach! Food first, fun and games later!” As she says that she goes back in.

“She really is a fairy…” Says Shiona.

‘Actually Lizz, since it’s taking so long for them to come down, could you come out again with some food and keep Shiona company?’

She flies back outside again, this time followed by a blue hand carrying two large plates of food.

“Here, you can have one.”

“Sorry, I’m already full.”

“At least someone here has a stomach proportional to their body. Shiona I was planning on going back up and getting those guys since they’re taking so long, I’ll be back soon.”

“Okay…”

“Hey, don’t sound so glum, you’ve got me to talk to while he’s gone.” Says Lizz-

“... That’s what I’m worried about…”

“Hey!”

“Ha! Glad to hear you’ven’t lost your sense of humor, later.”

I then scale the wall and explain the situation to the pickits, taking them down one by one until we're all gathered.

‘So which way is back to the Eastern lake city?’

“Oh no you don’t! You promised we were going to get you some clothes, and seeing she doesn't have any either we'll get her some too.”

At this Shiona perks up and asks:

“Shopping?”

As I resign myself to my fate I put the plates in the book while the pickits aren't looking and we depart.

While we're walking the three girls have started talking to each other, making me feel happy that Shiona is able to talk to someone.

‘Hey Charlie.’ I whisper in my mind, checking whether she can hear me, however judging by her not reacting in the slightest I judge that she couldn't.

‘Hey Baom, Diifan.’ I whisper, seeing whether Charlie was just too occupied to hear me, however the don't react, so I try again, this time saying something I'm certain they wouldn't be able to ignore.

‘You guys are cute together.’

However still no reaction, they don't even blush.

Judging that it's safe I then ask the book:

‘Hey book, since I got the telepathy bangle I don't need the notes page anymore, think you could take it back? I feel bad keeping you from being in one piece.”

At first the book starts vibrating in a manner similar to someone doing a poor job at holding back their anger, however when I said how I felt bad for it the way it shook changed to be more like when you’re shaking of happiness, a blue arm then came out of the pouch and put its palm on my mask, then with a sound just like velcro it pulled back the arm, holding the page.

‘!’

Except it’s not holding the page, it’s holding my mask.