{Xhez}

{A Few Years Ago}

"U-Uh, Xhez, please, do not wander off," Saria told the water sprite as she had been in the middle of jogging toward a bird she saw in the distance.

"Sorry," Xhez said as she turned toward her.

"No, no, it is fine," Saria said, pulling her into a little hug. "You are such a curious soul. It is genuinely astounding sometimes," she chuckled.

"We should be arriving soon," Vortell said, up ahead, and both sprites turned toward her. "Just a little farther."

The family of sprites had been walking for a few weeks now, taking short rests in whichever small pools of water they could find. Currently, they were looking for a place that, apparently, Vortell had been told about by the Bright Ones during her last visit to them. It was a place that had several small ponds, where they could remain and call home for a while, at least, until they felt like stretching their legs again, and they could find some other place.

Sometimes, Xhez would see those big, stretching bodies of water in the distance, and even though she'd heard the answer already, she'd ask why they couldn't just live there. But, according to her mothers, there was no safety to be found in those places.

"I see one," Vortell said, "over there. See? Another pond."

They'd been growing increasingly common with every day that passed. Xhez wondered how many other places there were like this, and if she'd ever get to put her feet down in a river like the ones her mothers told her to steer clear of.

That sort of daydreaming though was interrupted when Xhez saw a blue hand poking out from the pond ahead.

"M-Mothers, what is that?" She pointed at it.

"What is- EEK!" Saria yelped.

"Stay back," Vortell told them, "let me check it out. Remember, anything happens, you run."

"Keep close to me, child," Saria told Xhez and the two sprites hugged each other, both scared. Vortell, on the other hand, maintained a steel-eyed expression as she walked up to the hand. Slowly, she crouched and reached out for it.

With the lightest of touches, Vortell tapped the limb, but it did not react.

"Hm..." Vortell hummed before grabbing the blue arm by its wrist and pulling it out of the water.

What came out was a girl who looked a lot like Xhez herself, limp and lifeless, with a gaping hole in her chest.

"A sprite," Xhez muttered as Saria then breathed a sigh of relief.

"Ah... This sister must have died recently," Vortell muttered as she looked over her body. "Her skin is still deeply colored."

Xhez noticed that too, but more than that, she saw another detail that hinted at what had happened to this woman. And that was, her head carried no hairs.

Even if Xhez had barely run into them, she didn't need to think too hard about it to know whose work this was.

---

{Now}

"Xhez?" Rin called out to her, and the sprite's eyes blinked open, as she woke up.

"R-Rin?" She asked. [What a bad dream,] she thought as she saw Rin's yellow eyes looking down at her from above.

"Wanna come out for a bit?" The human asked and Xhez smiled.

"Yes, thank you," Xhez replied and, after just a second, Xhez leaped out of the bag and was standing in front of the human, in her full size.

Despite the bad experiences she'd had surrounding humans, including the one that had happened when Xhez walked into the city, she still felt herself warm up whenever she saw Rin's kind eyes aimed at her.

"Soooo, today I wanted to show you a bit more of our food, how does that sound?" Rin asked.

"Ohhh, sounds fun," Xhez replied and Rin gave her a thumbs-up.

"Alright, get your disguise ready then, and we'll walk out."

Xhez did just that, however, during the process of trying to cast the spell, she had some anxiety creep in, due to what happened with Maria.

"... Are you sure?" Xhez asked. "W-What if someone else sees through my disguise?"

"Well," Rin responded, "like Maria said, we just need to keep you out of any strong mages' sight. So, we definitely can't let Harriton, one of my teachers, see you, and if Sye ever comes around, we can't let her see you either. Aside from them, though, we should be alright."

"Uh, I see," Xhez nodded, though she didn't know who those two people she named were.

With that said, the sprite changed her colors, Rin lent her more clothes to put on, and the two were ready.

"Okay, come on."

Outside the sky was a brilliant mix between violet and orange as the sun was heading down the horizon. It was late in the day, and as Xhez looked to the side, out the Academy, she could see many humans walking into the building and out. She couldn't help but wonder how many of them would have a hostile reaction if they were to find out about her identity.

Regardless of the answer though, she intended to keep her disguise on at all times.

As the two walked up the nearby stairs, Xhez recalled the images she'd seen when she shared Maria's memory. She'd been meaning to ask about that, as Xhez had seen so many strange things.

She'd seen Maria fighting a creature bigger than any Xhez had seen so far and watched a human die in the process. She saw Maria laying in a bed, in a dark room, with another woman in front of her, naked, the two of them looking into each other's eyes just a few centimeters apart.

There were things she understood, especially now that she'd spent so much time learning with Rin, but there was still a lot that confused her.

After a short while, they arrived at a massive room, where there were many silver-colored tables spread out and plenty of humans sitting down and eating.

"Follow my lead," Rin told her, as the two walked up to a large woman who was standing behind a counter of sorts. "Hey, Jessie."

"Ah, Rin, what'll it be? Oh? And, who's this?"

"This is my sister," Rin gestured toward her casually. "I'm just showing her around. Could you give me something for her too?"

"Eh, sure thing."

"Thanks. Uhm... Oh, is that mashed potatoes?"

"Yep."

"Okay, two plates of that, please."

"Alright, alright, here you go. Enjoy."

With that, Rin handed her a plate full of some white fluff and the two sat down alone, at a table to the back. There were two metallic objects on each plate, and Rin picked one up.

"Okay, see this? It's a spoon, you just..." She then cut a piece of that fluff off and put it in her mouth. "Just like that."

"I see," Xhez nodded and she grabbed one. Then, hesitantly, and awkwardly, she did the same.

What she ended up tasting was sweet and flavorful, in a way that Xhez hadn't experienced before. She savored it, looking down at her plate with some wonder before taking another bite.

"Mmm!" She let out a noise that made Rin giggle.

"Glad you like it," Rin told her as she took bites as well.

And, at that moment, someone came over to the table that nearly made Xhez choke on what she was eating.

"Hey, Rin, who's this?" A high-pitched voice asked and Xhez turned toward it.

What she saw was a very small human with multi-colored eyes, floating on a pair of glittery wings.

Xhez was absolutely stunned.

"Oh, Eve. This is Xhez, my sister," Rin explained and the human's eyes turned toward her.

"Wow, yeah, the resemblance is definitely there," the girl with the wings laughed. "Nice to meet you!"

"U-Uh, yes, y-you as well..." Xhez replied, staring at her.

"Oh!" Rin seemed to catch onto what was happening. She laughed a little. "Uh, sorry, Eve, she's never seen a fairy before."

"Y-You are not a human?" Xhez asked when she heard that.

[Come to think of it... Her spirit does feel different. It's much brighter than a human's spirit is.] Xhez thought.

"You really haven't seen us before either? Oh, ho, ho. Well then!" Eve then said, before spinning around and striking a pose. "You're in luck, kid because you're looking at future adventurer, mage, supreme, Eve of the Northern Clan!"

"..." Xhez remained in silence. She hadn't heard of humans who could fly before. She was absolutely baffled.

"I think your introduction would hit a little harder with people who know what fairies are," Rin told her with a smirk.

"... No, it usually just gets me laughed at. But, they'll see!" Eve glared at no one in particular. "Anyway," she turned toward Rin, "wasn't it awesome getting to train as a group?"

"... Uh, it was okay," Rin nodded slowly.

"Hmph. Maybe it was a little awkward at first, but you'll see. On Friday, we'll do the same thing and it'll be better. Just need to spend some time with each other. We're young, rookie adventurers! What's the point if we don't hang out, every now and then."

Hearing that, Xhez looked around.

"A-All of you are adventurers?" She asked, surprised.

"Yeah," Eve looked back as well. "Never seen those either?"

"... Not this many in one place," Xhez muttered.

"Well, get used to it, the whole Academy's filled with us. Anyway, my potato's getting cold. Be right back."

Just like that, Eve flew away. However, as Xhez looked around, she was still reeling from the surprise.

Not just of seeing so many adventurers, but seeing other non-humans like her. She came to that conclusion because there were others here who, now that she was focusing on it, she could tell their spirits were different too.

And, only now, she realized that Rin herself had a unique spirit, though she struggled to tell why that was.

"Xhez? What's up?"

"I did not know non-humans in this place were considered normal," Xhez said, as she looked out at the others.

"Hm? Well, there's Eve and Varyn, but I wouldn't say they're normal," Rin responded. "I-I mean, other people wouldn't, you get what I'm saying, right?"

Eve, of course, was the fairy they'd just spoken to, and judging by her line of sight, Xhez assumed Rin was talking about the boy with the animal ears when she said "Varyn". As surprising as his appearance was too, however, there was one other non-human here.

"What about him?" Xhez asked, pointing at a boy sitting with a few others. He had ashen hair and dim crimson eyes, with a kind smile aimed at the others around him.

"What? Dylan? No, he's human," Rin responded.

"... No, I can tell he is definitely not," Xhez shook her head as she watched him. "His spirit is... darker. How do I say this...? Muffled, maybe."

"... Seriously?" Rin narrowed her brows, confused.

"Yes," Xhez nodded at Rin. "I am certain. His spirit more closely resembles that of the skeletons we encountered than any humans here."

---

{Rin}

{The Next Day}

As Rin woke up, with the sun rising to indicate the start of a new morning, Xhez's words circled in her thoughts. [Dylan isn't human?] Rin asked herself. Sure, he had strange eyes, but so did Rin herself. She hadn't entertained the idea that he might not be human at all. She hadn't felt like she had a reason to. That said, it wasn't like she'd talked to him much anyway.

Maybe, the next time she and the others got together to train, she could investigate a little.

She wasn't allowed too much time to think on that, however, as someone then knocked on her door.

Elisa was still asleep to her right, so Rin stood, yawned, and rubbed her eyes as she walked over to it.

When she opened the door, Maria was standing outside.

"Maria?" Rin asked. "W-What's going on?"

"Get dressed, and get ready."

"For what?"

"We'll be heading out into the woods," Maria told her. "We're going to hunt some monsters together."