As it turns out, I wouldn't be able to figure what the rest of the faeries looked like immediately upon arriving. Ard continued to walk, stopping next to a tree and finally looking over my direction. It was warm here, almost hot compared to the temperatures I've gotten used to those weeks out in the wild. That wasn't welcome, as I was overheating from the constant running. Being forced to take off my cloak, I waited for whatever Ard is about to say, or do.

"Let's start your healing practice." Simple words, said with Ard's usual blank face. She lifted and extended her right hand towards me, palms up as she always does when she wants me to give her my hand. I do so and wait for anything else. I'll bear through whatever she wanted me to do, despite my confusion. There has to be a good reason for why she'd want me to practice healing now, just after we've arrived in what looks like her home, or something very close to her home.

Ard took out her knife and did what she did the first time she wanted to teach me healing magic, a small cut on the tip of my middle finger. Just like last time I didn't feel any pain from the cut, her movements and her knife sharp enough to make the entire process painless.

"Do as you've showed me before, gather your essence and attempt to knit together the cut." I nodded, standing still and concentrating on the flow of magic. Gathering the fire essence from within my blood, I shifted it downward into the marrow of my bones. Again I imagined who I was, what I am, where I've come from, and watched as the magic started to deepen in color. Satisfied, I moved the magic towards the cut and... did nothing. I didn't know what to do. Knit the flesh back? What exactly does that mean?

Ard kept a hold on my hand, watching the wound carefully. I would think she'd also be watching the movement of my magic as well, that would be logical. But, she provided to me no help, instead letting me flounder around trying to figure out what the concept and procedure of knitting even was. I know a bit about weaving, a casual understanding of the entire method, but I had scarcely any experience doing so. But I got the sense that even if I did it wouldn't help me knit back the wound that was still bleeding on my finger.

What would be the point of gathering up my essence if I had to weave it manually? Is it possible to let the body do most of the work? I tested out the thought, but was almost immediately interrupted by the voice of Ard.

"Wrong. You'll only accelerate the natural healing process," Right, and that's bad. I stopped the movement of the magic once again. Next I tried to shove the magic into the wound, to see if that would do anything. Unfortunately it did nothing. Who would've thought trying to brute force it would do nothing? Apparently, not me.

I'll stick back to what I know about Ard's method of magic. An almost aesthetic method of doing magic, not one that relies heavily on logic and sound reasoning. The fire resistance spell required me to accept an absurd solution to not burning, that is to be hotter than whatever could burn me. In reality, the effect of the spell didn't have me literally become hotter, instead my flesh had become more resistant to the heat of the flame. The thought process didn't affect my body as I willed my magic to, instead it provided the desired effect of 'not burning.' How does this map to healing?

I tried to imagine my finger, as it was before it was cut. The pink and calloused skin, the folds across the joints, the bones that are hidden by flesh and the flat nails that probably should get cut. I tried to visualize the wound, the weeping of the cut, and saw it within my mind close up.

I opened my eyes and stared at the same cut, still bleeding. I knitted my eyebrows, frustration started to take hold of me.

"Visualizing isn't enough to do magic. Healing is much more complicated than the first spell I had taught you, and there's a reason why I taught you that spell with the expectation of your success." I looked up to Ard, but she didn't return my gaze. "Continue."

Biting my lip I nodded. She's intent on having my figure this out by myself, only providing commentary when I've failed with a method or went along the wrong thought process. Why was she having me do this now, anyway? Did she walk me all the way to her home just to teach me how to heal? I know that's wrong, but this is getting very frustrating. I didn't have any other clues. So instead, I studied the wound at the level of elemental sight. What does the wound represent itself there?

Water, fire, and broken earth. What was my essence? Earth and fire, no water. Small amounts of wind could also be felt. I don't know what to do with this information. I know that even beyond the basic category of the fundamental elements there was different subcategories for the mixture, and arguably even in the basic concept of what a specific fire element was. The magic from the sun is different from the magic from a fire, for instance, but both are still fire. So I tried to feel out the magic's 'subcategory', once again examining the wound and then examining my essence.

The wound was cleanly cut, if I push it back together it'd heal within a day, leaving no easily visible scar in the process. Blood vessels had been cut, which was what caused the bleeding. The overall picture was that of a minor wound, not worth much attention or consideration beyond the initial care. My essence, on the other hand, I couldn't get a basic reading on. When I tried to focus on it, on what it was beyond the level of basic elementals, I felt a jumbled mess of information. I didn't know what any of that meant.

"Alright, that's enough for now." Ard suddenly said, forcing the control of my own essence out of my metaphorical grasp and healing the wound herself. I still had no clue what she did. Ard looked behind me and once again began to speak, "it's time to meet the Móráns."

I quickly turned to look behind me. I had expected to see something, something that resembled Ard in some way. What even are the Móráns? Literally translating it as many, it would make sense to think of the as the numerous. But from what Ard herself had said, there's only two of them. Perhaps their name means something else? Disregarding the thought, what I faced in front of me was something I hadn't expected. That is, nothing. Just trees, the same ones that held their green leaves despite it being fall. The same dirt, the same floating insects.

Turning back to Ard, I waited for an explanation. Instead of returning my look, she walked over to a nearby bush and started shifting for something within it. Were they hiding?

Ard pulled out a mass, humanoid in shape, wearing clothes that closely resembled Ard's own. Its skin was brown, hair and eyes the same eerily green as Ard's. And, strikingly feminine looking, as Ard's own face was. So I'd guess it was a she. Is this a Mórán? She's even smaller than Ard. Her face was expressionless, her ears long and still. Ard pulled her onto her feet and patted out the dirt and leaves from her clothes. What caught my eye the most was her dimunitive size, she barely stood to the shoulders of Ard! And Ard is tiny herself. This Mórán, if this is what she is, stands to my hips in height. She's tiny!

"Say hello, Aoibheann. As you saw, Attie didn't attack me even after I cut him. It's rude to not greet yourself after meeting someone, you've taught me that." Ard spoke to her, her hands on Aoibheann's shoulders. She walked behind her and started to push the little thing towards me, but she resisted. Somehow she managed to overpower Ard's pushing, barely even budging from her pushing.

"Aoibheann."

"Yes?" The little creature finally began to speak, her voice not as high pitched as I would've thought. Girlish, sure, but not squeeky. She was keeping her eyes away from me, not directly looking at me but I'm sure I was in her peripheral. Her eyes were open enough to reveal the white on all sides of her iris. I didn't need to be familiar with Ard's body language to know she was very wary, and possibly frightened, of me.

"Why are you resisting?"

"Because I don't want to get near him." A sound reason.

"Didn't you promise me you'd at least greet him?"

"Yes. But that was two days ago, when I didn't know he'd be so big."

"I call them fathachs for a reason, Aoibheann."

"I see." Still Aoibheann kept resisting Ard's pushes. She must've been doing something beyond physically resisting, she didn't look as if Ard was pushing at her with as much strength as Ard could muster. Almost like she was standing, casually.

Ard gave up trying to push her and instead lifted her off the ground, holding her by her armpits. "You're going to keep your word, aren't you?" She asked, no strain appearing in her voice. Aoibheann nodded in response, not resisting against Ard's grasp on her. Ard began to walk towards me, stopping a good distance away from me and placed the girl back on the ground. Aoibheann still didn't look directly at me, and she wasn't close enough for me to touch but I could if I only took a step closer.

"Hello, Attie." I reluctantly nodded. "I guess you really can't speak, despite looking so similar to us." I nodded again. "You won't hurt me, will you?" I shook my head. She nodded and looked down, playing with her hands.

"That wasn't very difficult, was it? He won't bite. His teeth are too dull for it to do any harm, anyway." Ard placed a hand on Aoibheann's head and patted it. Aoibheann in response shook her hand off her head and retreated behind Ard, no longer speaking or looking at me.

Why was she so scared of me? I don't think being large was that big a deal, nor that I looked that scary. I might've stunk, but that wasn't that big a deal. And it wasn't anything either she or Ard commented on, much to my relief.

"Now for the other one. Saraid, you saw how Attie didn't bite. Will you show greater courage than our sister? Get down from there and come here." Ard turned around and looked at a tree, one to the right of us but not directly behind. Another tiny creature appeared, a girl of the same color as Aoibheann. From here the only striking difference was the color of her eyes, a deep blue. Deeper than any blues I've seen before, not on men or in plants. And that meant something, considering I was the apprentice of a herbalist.

Saraid, as Ard had called her, walked slowly towards us. She kept her eyes on Ard and on me, taking painfully slow steps, her hands awkwardly still and looking as if she didn't want to be seen. Unfortunately for her, it's extremely hard not to notice eyes as striking as hers. And, of course, she was moving. Closer. Couldn't ignore that.

She stopped, standing next to Ard. She didn't cower behind her as her sister had, instead looking to the ground.

"Hello," was all she gave before sprinting back behind a tree. She was deceptively fast, I barely could see her move despite keeping my eyes on her the entire time. Neither of them looked directly into my eyes, for whatever reason.

Ard looked behind her and then back at me. "That's settled. You know both of them, now. Unfortunately, they'll also be the ones who'll remove the curse for you. Learn how to deal with in the meantime, they should get use to your presence in a couple of weeks. Just don't move too suddenly, and do not, under any circumstance, hurt them." Ard intoned the last bit with a bit more menace than I was comfortable with. Her eyes were directly staring at my own, something neither of the girls had done. "Other than that, you'll be fine. Aoibheann, Saraid, walk with me. You too, Attie."

I nodded, and waited for a bit before following her. I wanted to see what Saraid would do, but it didn't look like she was going to leave from behind her tree. I shrugged and walked to the left of Ard, keeping my gaze around the scenery. I looked behind me as well, and as far as I could tell the world seemed to continue on as if it had always been spring instead of fall. It felt like spring, from the scent of the air and the sight of the trees.

From what I remember of Ard's telling, Aoibheann is fifteen decades old. That's extremely old, our village hadn't been founded back then. That isn't that big of an accomplishment, to have lived before the founding of my village. Ronan, the chief, himself lived longer than its founding, considering he's he founder and all. But still, that's old. Yet she's still so tiny. The same goes for Saraid, who was ninety. I would've thought the both of the were barely past five, at best.

This is all failing to mention the fact that they'll be the ones to release me of this curse. I don't think they'll be able to do much if they're so scared of my presence, Saraid is still walking a long distance away from us, behind the cover of trees. She cowers at my sight, and tries to hide when I look at her direction. I stopped trying to find her at that, since it's both adorable and a bit bad for my heart.

After a couple minutes of walking we arrived at the sight of many buildings. Squirrels could be seen climbing on trees, and short-tailed weasels running between buildings. The buildings themselves were rectangular, an odd sight. They looked to have been made from wooden planks and logs, a slouching roof of similarly wooden planks, and being covered by the shade of the forest canopy. Openings in the wall were present, latches made of wood and held up by a stick were spotted here and there. It looked to have been professionally done, although a bit old, and was a peculiar and interesting sight.

Save for fact that at its tallest it was shorter than me.

"That's where the two sleep. Don't pay attention to that, you won't be able to enter that anyway. And they might try to kill you if you break it." Ard mindlessly commented on my gawking. I quickly turned my gaze away from the building and walked a bit closer to Ard. I didn't want to accidentally break anything, and I knew enough about Ard to know that even despite their size they might have much more than enough magic to vaporize me in an instant. But, why would they be scared of me if they could?

"They've not constructed anything for you. They will, eventually, once they've accepted your presence. Right, Aoibheann?" Ard looked down at her sister, I guess, continuing her walk to whatever destination we were headed towards. There were more buildings than the one I was gawking at, some buildings were hanging from tree branches, although the majority was hustled near to the initial one. And the ones on the branches weren't large, but small.

"Granted that Attie doesn't break anything I'll be able to do something," Aoibheann responded, still playing with her hands.

Finally we stopped in front of a bigger building. If I could guess, it looked perfect for Ard to live inside. So, probably Ard's own house. Ard turned to me and looked me up and down, and then at the building. She sniffed.

"You can probably fit."

Could I? I would have to be heavily slouched if I had to stand up. Crawling would've been better, the house was too small for me to fully stand up inside of. The roof was taller than me only at its highest point, being similarly sloped as the other building I had been looking at.

"We'll figure it out. Aoibheann, Saraid, you can leave now. I'll speak to you two later. Attie, let's see if you can fit in here, come in."

With that, Ard opened what looked to be her entranceway. A strange wooden contraption serving as a makeshift openable wall served as the point of entry. It was tall enough for Ard to comfortably walk through, but not tall enough for me to do the same. I slouched down heavily and walked inside the building. The interior was lit only by the openings within the walls, the soft rays of light that could make it through the canopy of the forest provided me enough sight to see what laid inside.

A bed, what looked to have been a chair, stones of various sizes on top of wooden cabinets. Sticks, poles, none of any great size. The bed itself was the oddest thing, raised from the ground and boxed in with oak planks, there looked to have been dry grasses for cushion and a sheet of some sort of fabric on top. The interior wasn't breath taking, it was almost mundane save for the colorful rocks that were collected and placed on the cabinets.

Ard turned around and faced me. The hood of her cloak had long ago been pulled off, and her ears could be seen moving in the way they do when she's excited or happy.

"Welcome to my home, Attie. Don't break anything, or better, don't touch anything." I nodded.