>>5789252But your current state was beginning to shift. Your wellspring of shirin-supplied energy, seemingly boundless, was beginning to fade away. The <Faerie Fire> in your fingers flickered and died. The night was dark again, darker than it ought to have been in fact—black at the edges, and empty, and that emptiness was moving inwards towards the centre of your vision slowly but surely.
“Then find me,” said the voice of Izirina Henzler, distorted and distant. “Find the real me, little half-and-elf.”
“Hey, wait, so ARE you—?”
You fell. Down, down, down, a hundred feet, a thousand feet, until you crashed upon the earth. There was no pain, though—only the softness of feathers or fur across your face and the warmth of summer soil, embracing you, burying you. You let the darkness close in, and your eyes flutter shut… And ceased to be.
When you awoke, it was to daylight—bright to the point of pain, invading upon a darkness that had come to seem a blessing. You groaned, and groaned again when the sharpness of the light was joined by the bludgeoning bass of a familiar voice, calling your name.
It was Logan Pearce.
You sat up and then, slowly, like a newborn fawn, you stood up on thin and wobbly legs. Braving danger, you stood upon your tiptoes to peek over the height of his family’s cultivated fields, and spied the tall boy looking about, with his hand above his dark eyes to shield them from the sun. You walked towards him, rather than waving him down, still feeling a touch of mischief.
“Damnit, Tips…” he muttered, when you were just behind him.
“Don’t go cursing my name,” you quipped. “or my nickname. It’s bad luck, you know.”
Pearce almost leapt above the grain-grasses form his standing start, much to your amusement, and made a sound that belied his usually-deep voice. He whirled around and glared at you, but you smiled and spoke up before he could admonish you:
“Sorry for worrying you, Pearce.”
He shut his mouth, glared, and then opened it again: “Where WERE you?”
“Sleeping under the stars,” you answered. “Exploring the deep questions of the cosmos. Learning about the true nature of men and beasts. You know, elf stuff.”
“Right,” Pearce replied. “Elf stuff.”
You shrugged, and nodded.
“Had me scared, you know,” he admitted, looking away. “You were SLOSHED last night. WILD. What happened?”
You cringed a little, and shrugged again, somehow embarrassed to admit the truth. Eventually, unable to help yourself, you asked: “Did I, uh… Do anything embarrassing?”
He regarded you coolly, considering his answer, then shrugged.
“Just human teenager stuff,” he said, with the twitch of a smile on his lips.
You grinned, and asked: “That bad, huh?”
“Come on,” he said, “let’s have breakfast, and I’ll tell you all about it. In UNCOMFORTABLE detail. With an AUDIENCE.”
