Daire awoke with a start. He only intended for a short mid-day nap, but falling asleep in Trinket's fur made him doze off longer.

"Ow."

Looking around, Daire saw Violet rubbing her butt. He must have thrown her when he woke.

"Oops. Sorry, Violet. I was startled awake."

"I'm fine."

She seemed groggy but okay.

Daire wondered why he even got up. He didn't have anything to do today, so resting longer wasn't a problem. He'd barely gotten a good night's sleep since he arrived. Either uncomfortable or in some form of pain. Leaning back against Trinket, he felt himself calm.

Why did I even pay for a room?

It was only him up there. Trinket was softer and warmer. Violet didn't use the room. The bed offered was itchy straw...

"On second thought, why don't we sleep longer..."

Daire yawned.

After they decided on a name, Daire mentioned the Strickles would be the first resident of their secret city. She agreed to let the smelly man reside in Silvis only because he was needed and only if he was put in a place where they couldn't see/smell him. It wasn't a hard task, so Daire agreed.

He had started making plans and sketches for city layouts and even individual home layouts. The architect in him was eager to start. Even if his focus wasn't city planning, he'd done it dozens of times while hosting online DND sessions. Putting things into practice wouldn't be easy, but it would definitely be fun, especially with his access to Earth Magic.

"I'm up now. We still have half the day."

Daire peeked around the corner.

Yup. Still bright as can be.

Scratching his bedhead, he was irked that only laying down for an hour ruined his hair. Getting up at last, he decided to fix it.

Trinket mooed.

"I appreciate you, buddy. But we still have stuff to do. We'll take you for a walk, and I'll feed you in a bit."

Trinket sniffed, turning his head up and away.

"Aww. I wish Pebbles would communicate like Trinket does. All he does is stare at me. Or stick his tongue out.

*Plap*

A wet tongue smacked Violet's cheek.

Daire looked at her sideways.

"Please don't jinx it. I'll have nightmares."

"Where did you put the journal? You made sketches of the city; I wanna see."

"I think it fell underneath the toilet paper. Ugh. I'll need to renovate the cart to carry everything to Silvis."

"It sounds better than I thought it would."

"Doesn't it?"

"Yeah... Hey, these sketches are cool. You already have so much laid out. What are these lines running through the trees?"

"Waterways."

"Are they raised? They look familiar."

"Yup, they're aqueducts. The water will flow through the city like a lazy river. No idea how it's gonna work, but I loved the idea, so I drew it. The practical stuff like Strickles lab is on the previous pages."

The sound of flipping paper.

"Hmm..."

More flipping.

"Why are you so good at this? It's not fair."

Flipping.

"..."

The sound ceased.

Daire bolted.

=

"Huff-Huff-Huff."

Ragged breaths as Daire stumbled on loose cobble. He got back up quickly.

"Gate? Gate... Which way's the gate?"

He shouted frantically at the befuddled onlookers. They were of no help.

"Daire!"

It never occurred to Daire that running was the wrong decision.

*ROAR*

The trouncing footfalls of a rapidly approaching bear made his heart stutter.

Ah, Fuck. Not again.

"Daire!"

"Out of the way! Make way, make way!"

Daire waved his arm, skipping between a group of lizardmen, dashing forward before they could reach their claws out to catch him.

"Hey, watch it, Asshole."

"Damn softskins..."

"What's that sound?"

"Bear!"

The gathering of green parted for the electrified bear. Fur full of static, Trinket appeared more like a bouncy ball.

Daire scooped up a giggling child in the way and deposited him in his mother's arms before turning a corner.

"Momma, Teddy Bear."

"Daire! You come back here!"

His head start wasn't holding out against a supercharged bear and an enraged pixie. His lungs burned, and his throat felt dry already. He wasn't built for endurance. Daire's voice cried over his shoulder as he ran.

"Sorry! I'm sorry. I don't even know what the numbers mean!"

It scared him that no reply came.

"Haha? ...Violet? Can we talk about this?"

Running on empty, Daire turned the corner and saw the East Gate. The goal line of freedom. Like an idiot, he stopped in wonder.

"Ack!"

The next thing Daire knew, he was flying through the air in the worst possible manner.

During one of his abstract rotations, he witnessed an approaching blue spark.

"Oh no."

*WHAM*

=

Violet played tag with Pebbles like before. With such a wide-open space outside the city limits, Violet could more easily fly out of range and dodge. But since dodging felt like cheating, she made it her goal to touch Pebbles with a hand without getting slapped first.

Daire admired her tenacity of changing a simple game into an intense training session. It was as if Violet was hoping to dodge arrows and get within arms reach, going for the kill.

Violet didn't understand when he tried to explain the genius of it. She responded with a tilt of her head. She spoke like she was stating the obvious.

"It's a game. Games aren't fun if they aren't challenging."

To which he shut his mouth.

It became too quiet, so Daire decided to fill the air.

"Usually, I would be missing the soothing hum of air conditioning, but watching you sweat makes me forget all about that."

"Hmph."

Daire used two fingers to pinch his smoking hair.

"Alright. Teasing you was the wrong choice to make. But I already apologized and explained that the numbers mean nothing to me. Why are they so important?"

"Hmph."

Violet had to contort her body to dodge Pebbles' next attack. Gritting her teeth, she backed up.

"Violet, you look amazing. Truly. Why do the numbers matter so much; can you explain it to me?"

Anger. A lavender steam rose off her skin. She flashed in closer to Pebbles.

"Hey, Violet? Talk to me. Please?"

In slow motion, Violet saw the incoming attack but couldn't evade it. At the speed she was going, the impact whacked her out of the sky like a flyswatter.

"Violet!"

Daire ran closer.

"Woah... Violet, are you okay? Are you injured?"

"ARGH!"

Violet exploded in color.

"NO! No, Daire. I am not okay. You think I am okay after getting smacked out of the sky by a gods damn tree frog!?"

"I-"

"SHUT IT! Enough out of you. You think you're so smooth with words, don't you? Always teasing me and making fun of me. You enjoy watching me squirm, and I am sick of it."

Daire's mouth hinged open, trying to say something, but no intelligible sound came out. Violet threw her arms up, not even bothering to fly up to Daire's eye level. She stomped the ground uselessly in her fury.

"Look at me! Just a fragile girl who can't even protect herself. I can see the pity in your eyes."

"That's not true..."

Daire's protest trailed off.

Violet continued to rant and rave.

"Isn't it, though? Isn't that why you ran over here? Isn't that why you tease me? Because I am weak and stupid and powerless? You have the nerve to pretend to care about me when you don't even care for yourself."

"Some things are private, Daire! You don't get that. You wrote the numbers down because they meant nothing to you. Because you didn't understand them, but you thought it would be funny... With your sick sense of humor, you thought I was a joke! That my body is a joke? Because I am tiny to you; the numbers don't matter!"

Daire sucked in air through his teeth and held his tongue.

"You play games and pretend to know everything when you understand nothing. Is this world just a game to you?"

"Am I just a potential heroine to woo? I bet you planned on choosing someone else, didn't you? Iris? Another character? I bet you were so lonely that you thought that the characters from your book would fall in love with you. Don't deny it. I've felt like that too. I know the feeling. That was why I was happy when you appeared. It turned out I was in the book all along."

"But I am just a side character to you. An NPC, right? A non-player character. Do you see my affection rate dropping?" "

"Am I a game to you?"

Her lungs heaved hard as she yelled. It felt like it was all crashing down at once. All her suspicions and doubts. All her worries were true. Daire was a manipulator. Lying and speaking half-truths. A know-it-all who wanted to capture her as a pet. Partners? No. That was just the best dialogue option.

Hot tears streamed down her face. Her fists opened and closed, wanting something to strangle other than her own heart.

"God Damn You."

Violet turned and walked away. The direction didn't matter. Her wings didn't matter. Walking was her purpose. Running. Her feet caught on clumps of dirt and grass. The stalks became tall enough to overshadow her. The world was too big. Too big...

Crushing.

Heart-Crushing.

=

She didn't know how long it had been. Time came and went. When her mind caught up with her, she found herself sitting in a cave. A dozen charred carcasses of earthworms rested at the back of the tunnel. They'd crawled up through the ground like monsters and died pitifully, trying to crawl away.

The cave wasn't large. It was more like a rabbit burrow hidden underneath a solid rock. The comparison made her cringe.

She thought everything would seem so clear once she left. Her life had changed. Before, she had been lost in her own birdcage. Then she had been found.

But she wasn't the one to find herself. Someone else told her where to go and what to do. She fluttered into a new birdcage without even realizing it.

"No. Daire isn't like that. He is kind."

He loved books too. He laughed with her. He cooked her food.

He was luring you. Pretty words. Telling you what you wanted to hear and giving you treats to distract you.

"Daire is kind."

You wanted a prince charming so bad that you made him into one.

"ARGH!"

Violet clutched her head, ruffling her dirty hair. Her knees came closer to her chest. She felt more tears leaking out.

"Stupid. Stupid. Stupid."

Open palms hit her head—nails digging at her scalp.

She declined back into madness.

When her eyes dried out, she felt numb. Like everything had left her, and she was a shell.

Absently, she stood up and walked out of her respite. Darkness greeted her. She wandered through the towering grass, unconsciously zapping insects that crossed her path. She thought the sun was rising, but it was a campfire instead. The orange-yellow aura playing into her dress in the same way the depressing shadows wiggled.

The stalks of grass bent away to show a man sitting cross-legged on the ground, hands so close to the fire that flames licked his knuckles. The sticks he held out shook with fright. Just like his hands. Just like his shoulders.

The flickering light tickled his face. Taunting him. Teasing him.

"I..."

He wanted to say he understood. But that would be ignorant.

He retracted his shaking arms and placed the skewered meat on dinner plates. Mashed potatoes that looked like they'd been beaten to a pulp sat on the plate. Ants threatened to disturb the meal but were warned off by magic. Tiny streaks of lightning shot from the man's finger, scaring the ants away.

"You haven't yelled at me before."

Violet accepted the words. They weren't an accusation, but a statement. More like the words of a little boy.

She didn't care about anything. She didn't think. All she did was walk. Then she ate.

"Thank you."

Daire's words, not hers.

Violet slept.