Chapter 9 – The Anndr and the Faerie

As the squeals of pigs and the sounds of combat filled the field, one porker sneakily followed Daniel through the melee to the shade of a large tree, off to the wayside and away from the vision of the tutorial faerie.

His friend Donovan was struggling to strangle a pig about ten yards away, but Daniel didn’t go to greet him. He needed to get to the bottom of this mystery.

They arrived at the other end of the tree, shielded from view from most players.

“Alright,” Daniel began, looking at the pig expectantly. “What’s going on here?”

The pig opened its mouth, as if it was trying to speak, but only oinks came out. It shook its head frustrated, then oinked more urgently.

Daniel put his finger to his temple in thought. How could he communicate in this situation? Yes or no questions… that was the answer.

“Alright piggy, since you can’t talk, I’ll ask you some questions. Nod your head if you want to say yes, and shake your head if you want to say no.”

The pig looked confused for a moment, then nodded its head.

“Good. First question. You’re not actually a pig, are you?”

The midsized porcine shook its head, indicating that it was not really a pig.

“Hm… what are you then? Ah, you can’t answer that can you… Are you human?”

The pig shook its head.

Daniel frowned.

“Are you an animal?”

The pig shook its head, looking more aggravated. It stomped its feet, offended by the question. Walking towards Daniel, the ill tempered pig nudged at his pocket with its snout, where the life essence orb was.

Taking out the yellow orb, Daniel held it up in the air and showed it to the pig. “You wanted to see this?”

Nodding, the pig suddenly jumped up and pushed the orb out of Daniel’s hand, and it fell to the ground, rolling between the grass and dirt underneath the tree’s shade.

“Hey, what the hell!” Daniel cried, not wanting to break the fragile looking orb. But the pig had other ideas.

It raised its leg and stomped on the orb, then it stomped again, and again. Cracks began to appear on the orb’s surface, and then the orb began to gyrate on its own while pulsating light. With each pulse, the orb grew larger and larger, until it was beach volleyball sized. Finally, with one last pulsation, the orb burst. The outer shell fell apart, revealing a gorgeous female faerie that was about seven inches tall, with violet wings and glowing skin.

“Hmm?” the platinum haired faerie with glowing skin and brilliant violet wings said in a startled tone. “Where am I?”

She looked around, as her memories returned to her. “Oh… oh my… what have we done?” She darted out from behind the tree, then locked eyes with something that caused her arms and legs to tremble violently. “T-that monster! What is she doing with all of our brethren?”

She was looking directly at the human sized tutorial guide faerie.

Trying to understand the situation, Daniel spoke up. “The guide faerie over there told us to–”

“Guide faerie?” the small faerie said with a trembling voice. “Faerie? That thing is not a faerie, she’s an Anndr! She’s an evil being that eats faeries! And all of you humans are helping her, serving her dinner with each faerie orb you give her!”

“Shhh….” Daniel made a shushing motion with his finger, and waved for the faerie to come closer. “If what you’re saying is true, it’s best to stay quiet. We don’t want her to find out about us. And I’m still confused, why do you all look like pigs, and why does the Anndr or whatever you called her look like a faerie?”

The small faerie puffed up her round cheeks angrily. “It’s a glamour! That Anndr bitch is using a glamour to make her hideous true self look like a faerie, and to make us real faeries look like pigs… and it’s a high tier glamour spell too. In its current state, only a powerful mage or a divine entity can break her spell.”

“Hmmm~ Do I hear chatting over here~” a familiar voice said from behind the tree.

The small faerie let out a yelp and dove behind Daniel’s back, and Daniel’s eyes widened with fear as he saw the beautiful platinum haired tutorial faerie emerge from the side of the tree. She was smiling, but her smile was freakishly wide, and even through the glamor Daniel could sense the Anndr’s malicious intent directed towards him.