Morning comes while I am still on the road.

And like a bat, I decide to take my rest.

I sleep nicely under a breezy and cool tree. Well, my human body is. My chicken body has been resting in my pocket all this time so it gets the turn to carry my consciousness now.

I see a couple of carriages pass by while I am asleep. It seems this road is more populated than the former.

Then, I get an idea. Why don't I just hitch a ride on one of those? In a town central to trade like this, it won't be too odd for a stranger to hitch a ride, no?

So, I wake myself up, and wait until the next carriage passes by.

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"Hey, boy, we're here!"

Groggily, I open my eyes. Only my human body though. My chick body is already up and ready looking at the scenery before us.

And what a scenery it is.

We enter a massive arc made out of what seems to be a huge tree root. I cannot imagine what kind of tree is big enough to have roots as big as those.

Around us many people gather; other travelers either by their own carriages or by foot. There really are so many of them I understand why this is the capital of this country.

"Look boy, that's the Yggdrasil over there."

Then, I see it. The tree that is big enough to have said roots.

Its size is impossibly giant, from its thickness to its tall, dwarfing even the tallest skyscrapers I know of in my previous world. It keeps going to the point that I can't see the top at all. And they're lucky it doesn't come with branches, or else the whole city will be covered by their shadows.

"Beautiful, ain't it?" the carriage driver says, "Used to belong to the Fairy Queen before Lady Mira kicked her arse into oblivion. If you're interested, you can enter, though you won't be able to get to the higher floors."

I thank him for the info before bailing out from the carriage, running as fast as I can towards the giant tree.

I have an almost assurance that the little girl is being held there.

As I run along, I don't just focus all my thoughts on the tree. I also obverse my nearby surroundings. The entire city is made by wood. Not a single house has any stone in their construction. Some of the houses are in your usual form, while others are in the form of treehouses.

They really have repurposed the entire fairy forest at their dwellings.

This Mira, just who is she exactly?

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No gates bar the way to the giant tree, and not a single soldier is seen standing on guard. Is this lady naive or is she just so confident of her capabilities that she welcomes anyone who dares to sneak around her castle? Or maybe the security is all inside, waiting until the thief is caught off-guard by the lax security on the front?

At any rate, I enter the tree, right alongside a couple of other people. Some has the look of a tourist in them while others look like they have a job to be accomplished in this place, going straight to the upper floors via the elevators.

Yes, there are elevators here. But instead of made of steel and powered by electricity, it's instead made out of wood and powered by magic, or at least that's what I think powers it. There are dozens of small, circular notches on the wooden walls. You just step into one of them and say where do you want to go and the wooden platform below will move upwards/downwards and take you where you want to go.

I try riding one of them myself.

"Take me to... umm, Lady Mira's throne."

It doesn't move.

"Lady's Mira's chamber?"

still no movement.

"Lady Mira's bedroom?"

Absolutely no movement.

"Lady Mira's bathroom?"

No way it's going to move.

Letting out a little chuckle after playing the joke, I decide to change the question.

"Bring me to the highest floor you can bring me to."

The platform moves.

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I come out a minute later; my stomach feeling a tiny bit queensy due to the sudden upward acceleration.

The corridor I come out to has not a single soul in it, making it feel somewhat eerie.

I can hear my own steps echoing as I walk on the wooden floor.

Then, I walk into a clearing of some sorts where there's a balcony where you can go outside.

And wow, what a wonderful sight it is.

I am now around 300 meter high from the ground. The houses now look like tiny toys from this distance. And I can see the clouds clearly if I look up.

Well, time to fly upwards, I suppose.

I take off after releasing my wings. Carefully, I fly upwards, not wanting to be caught off-guard by any strong winds that may come in this high altitude skies.

But then, I am blindsided by something else.

Without any warning, my body freezes. I can not move a single inch. I can only watch as I fall down from the skies right towards the balcony where I had lifted off from.

The landing hurts. But it doesn't hurt so much that it unables me from sending my consciousness to the chick I keep in my pocket. With the little body, I run away, leaving my human body behind.

"My, my, a butterfly man. What is a butterfly man doing here?"

With my shared consciousness I see the girl that has suddenly appeared near my human body.

She wears a poofy and, quite frankly, ridiculous looking green dress that ends right at her knees, only to be continued by a little showing of her drawers; those pumpkin pants used to be worn as underwear. She also has a long and wavy green hair and a pair of bright and shining green eyes.

But the most important part is that she has a pair of bug wings behind her back.

A fairy.

"Butterfly man, butterfly man, what are you doing here, butterfly man?" She dances around my paralyzed body like it's just a broken doll.

Then, I find that my human body's mouth can move.

"I... wish... to meet... Lady Mira..." I say at once. I didn't exactly lie. I also want to meet her though it's not my primary goal now.

"Ohohohooh? Wish to meet Mira? Wish to meet Mira, you say? Ohohohoho!"

She begins to kick my human body with her barefoot feet as she dances around it.

"No you're not! No you're not! Bad liars are bad! Bad liars are bad!"

Her kicks aren't particularly strong or even damaging, but it still hurts my pride to be kicked around like that.

"If you really wish to meet her, you'd ask for an audience! An audience! Yes, an audience!"

"T-then... I ask for an audience..."

"Too late! Too late! An intruder won't get an audience! Intruders will be brought to Milady to be judged!"

"Well... isn't that... convenient?"

"There's nothing convenient about it, Mr. Butterfly Man! Mira's gonna dissect ya, find out how in the world a man can become a butterfly! Yes, yes, there is no "butterfly man" race in this world, so you have to be an anomaly! Outsiders! Dangerous Outsiders! Yes, yes, Mira will judge all dangerous Outsiders, just like that little girl!"

I was right! She is here!

But what does she mean by "Outsiders", exactly?

"In fact, speaking about that little girl, Mira and her friends should've finished the judging right now! That means you can have your turn right away! Well, aren't you one lucky butterfly man!"

She grabs my two arms, lifting my whole body as she files upwards. Surprisingly, she's strong enough to do so without any real difficulty, as she's still humming cheerily to herself as my human body goes higher and higher. I can only watch from below in my chick body.

I just hope my mind's connection is strong enough. I should try to redirect all my concentration to maintaining the human body's sight, hearing, and capacity of speech. The rest is paralyzed anyways.

And if anything happens, I must be ready to abandon my connection with my human body. I just hope it works how I think it will work.

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PS: Had lots of fun writing the dialogue for our new fairy. xD