Disclaimer – ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

Note – "Jingli" is the equivalent of "Manager," which is Zian's position at work.

"Jingli?"

I glanced upward from the papers on my desk and halted my fountain pen mid-signature. The bright face of my newest employee grinned expectantly at me from the open gap of my office door. It was an expression I was not at all used to seeing yet, since most of the people at work either seemed to see me as an annoyance or an object of fear.

"What is it?"

"I have today's report for you!" he explained quickly, waving a small stack of papers in the air. Something else to read. Just what I needed, I sarcastically thought.

"Thank you," I said, patting my right hand on top of my desk, "put it here, please."

"Yes, Jingli." He hurried forward to obey.

I returned my attention to writing the rest of my signature, then shifted the paper out of the way. Afterward, I looked up in confusion. He was still there, staring at me with a small smile. "What is it?" I repeated quietly.

His mouth dropped open a bit and he looked slightly embarrassed. "O-oh!" He chuckled, clasping his hands together. "I just…You're looking so lively these days, it's nice!"

Hours later and I was still hearing the words he audaciously blurted out at me. In some ways, that sentence was even more surprising than my father randomly telling me to take a day off. And not surprising in a good way. It was the kind of surprised feeling one gets when they flush a public toilet without knowing that it's backed up and everything overflows all over the floor for everyone to see. Yes, I was surprised.

Lively? Me? Never before had someone used that word to describe me. I didn't even know the man very well; he'd only been hired around four months ago. How could he tell the difference? Certainly, I hadn't been feeling very stressed since my secretly-very-eventful day off, but going so far as to say "lively"? Had I been? Just how lively could I be, sitting in an office, reading and signing papers all day long?

I hadn't known my behavior had noticeably changed since before. Change was not what I wanted. In fact, it was something I didn't want at all. If something changed, my father would definitely see it. His damn superior perception was always so annoying.

I doubted I'd be able to pass my mood off as enthusiasm for my work. It wouldn't take him long to discover the source of my relief, and that was a very terrifying thought. I didn't want it taken away from me. I'd grown rather attached to my Second Life character over the past month since I'd bought the game. He was another me, for goodness sake. How could I not feel fond of him?

Logging into Second Life each night was like taking a deep breath of fresh air after being under dark, murky water for an entire day. The game world had shown me just how small my own life was in comparison. I supposed that to the outside world my real life seemed wonderful. I used to think the same. After all, my father was rich and he had given me the position of manager in the Accounting department of his company directly after I'd graduated from an exclusive business school.

I had the world at my feet.

And my arms held fast in shackles.

My extraordinary life. My life as his loyal tool, doing whatever he asked, whenever he asked. Led in circles, around and around. Like clockwork I was always moving, but never going anywhere. Simply frozen in place.

"Lively?" I murmured to myself, almost scoffing at the word, and contemplatively drew my eyebrows together. "I will have to be more careful from now on."

For the moment, I set those thoughts aside and tapped the heel of my boot against the rock I was standing on. My prey, the giant, slimy orange slug not far below me, turned its large, tentacle-like eyes upward. They lazily waved around for a moment, searching for the source of the vibrations in the ground.

I carefully drew my bow back, aiming for each stalk poking out of the fat creature's head. With two soft whistles, a pair of arrows were loosed and they flew side-by-side through the air and hit their respective targets.

The slug gave a shriek of pain and lifted its front end into the air, swaying this way and that, looking for me. I calmly stayed in the shadow of the rocky outcropping I was standing underneath and shot several more arrows at its exposed belly, lowering its health to a fatal level.

As it furiously turned in my direction, acidic spittle flying out of its mouth and melting the ground nearby, I took a deep breath and readied myself. "Piercing Tempest," I named quietly, releasing my arrow. The nearly-overwhelming force of the wind created by my finishing move made my long, black hair blow backward.

When I'd first learned that attack, I'd fallen out of the tree I'd been in. It was a very ungraceful and humiliating moment for an angel such as myself and I'd been extremely glad that no one else had been around to watch. Fortunately for me, there'd been a large bush underneath my perch. Unfortunately for me, there were also several wolves I'd been shooting, and I hadn't quite gotten the hang of using my wings. Not that I would have been able to use them in that particular situation; I'd been laying on my back, tangled in branches and getting gnawed on by mobs. Since then, I'd been much more cautious when using that particular attack.

I quickly blinked my slightly dried-out eyes as I watched the brightly glowing arrow shoot swiftly through the air and bury itself deep inside the creature's mouth. With a gush of dark blood and I didn't want to know what else, the slug collapsed, part of its head blasted off by the impact of the arrow. Though it was rather disgusting to see, I was very satisfied with my training on the slugs. Not only were they slow to move about and relied on light to find their targets, their squashy bodies were ideal for peppering with arrows. Plus my windy attacks dried them out, impairing their movement capabilities.

"AEOLUS HAS DEFEATED POISONOUS SLUG! EXPERIENCE +200!"

"Oh, shut up," I grumbled at the overly enthusiastic game as I rolled my eyes and quickly unstrung my longbow, tucking it safely away in the quiver set between my shoulder blades. Stepping off the cliff, I unfurled my wings and easily lowered myself down to the filthy, slug-corpse-covered ground. Covering my mouth and nose with one hand, so I didn't breathe in the putrid fumes roiling up from the dead slug, I quickly picked up the loot it had dropped and the few arrows that were still usable.

Walking several steps away to a patch of cleaner air, I looked over my new items—twenty copper and five silver coins, a small ring, a thick belt, and a bottle of poison. I carefully tucked everything into my pouch and frowned. I was out of inventory space. I'd been able to prolong my stay somewhat, wearing some of the loot and using other things, but I'd exhausted my options.

"How bothersome." With a sigh, I quickly lifted myself into the air again and flew out of the damp chasm I'd been training in for the past week. Adjusting my course to the nearby Sun City, I watched the green land scroll by in a blur underneath me. Killing monsters was oddly satisfying and very nice for stress relief, but I found flying to be much more rejuvenating than watching slug heads explode.

Raising my gaze, I watched a large flock of birds soar past over a wooded area near the city gates. Letting out another sigh, I smiled happily as the strong wind flew past in gusts and I stilled my wings, letting myself lazily glide along on a warm draft. I loved it up there in the sky. I felt so free. So limitless. A feeling I'd never had before.

Half an hour later, I was leaving the city again, having sold all the loot I didn't want. Other than replenishing my potions and arrows, I'd also bought myself a larger pouch so I could train for longer spans of time.

Feeling slightly bored of killing slugs at the dreary cliffs, I decided to go to the woods for a change of scenery. Following the path that flock of birds had taken earlier, I searched the leafy ceiling of the dense forest for an opening I could go through.

A faint scream from below made me halt. I listened closely, turning myself around. For a moment, I couldn't tell which direction the sound had come from, but then another scream came from my right, closer than the first.

I flew toward the area and dropped myself into a tree. Retracting my wings so they wouldn't get tangled, I deftly slid through the thick branches until I was able to clearly see the shadowy ground. My eyes widened slightly as I watched a tiny boy run through the underbrush, grass and moss at the base of my tree. He was followed closely by four very angry-looking bears.

Not pausing to think, I ran to the end of the branch, pulling my bow out of the quiver and stringing it. I jumped off the bough and opened my wings again, ignoring the pain as they snagged on several tree branches during my descent. Nocking an arrow, I dived toward the bear closest to the fleeing boy and let it fly. The head of the arrow buried itself in the bear's left foreleg and the monster stumbled. A second bear tripped over the fallen, but the other two simply sidestepped the collision. The boy fearfully glanced behind himself as he heard the crash and his progress slowed.

"Keep running!" I yelled at him and his mouth dropped open slightly as he looked up at me in bewilderment. He hurriedly turned back around and resumed his escape. I beat my wings furiously to get ahead of them, feeling thankful that the enormous, mossy trees actually weren't very close together, though their height and width had given the wood a very pressing look when viewing it from the top.

Giving one last burst of speed, I darted through the tree trunks and twisted around in mid-air as I folded my wings close to myself. I shot the third bear through the eye while I fell to the ground and landed heavily in the grass, cramming my bow into its quiver while I had the chance. When the boy made to run past me, I grabbed him around the middle and launched us both into the air before the last bear could catch up. Holding him close, I burst through the leafy ceiling of the forest and flew over the trees for nearly ten minutes to get us to safety, then finally set us down on a thick branch as gently as I could in my exhaustion.

The boy shakily clutched at my arm and glanced about the ground below us as if convinced the bears had followed us all the way there. I patted his thin back and leaned against the tree trunk. "They will not catch up," I wheezed at him, trying to sound convincing through my gasps for air. The muscles in my back and shoulders were burning from carrying the weight of another person, even if he was very small.

After a moment of silence, I carefully raised a hand and pushed his short and curly blond hair away from his bloody forehead, revealing a long, thin gash stretching from the left side of his hairline to the top of his right eye. "Do you need–"

My hand was slapped away before I could say or do anything else. He unexpectedly glared at me while he wiped away the blood. "What'd you grab me for?"

I stared at him in shock. Whatever I'd been expecting as a response, it hadn't been one of anger. If anything, the boy should have been thanking me for rescuing him from getting torn to smithereens at the claws and teeth of four merciless bears.

"I beg your pardon?"

"I had the situation under control!" he corrected sharply and frowned as he stood up and began to brush leaves and twigs out of his messy hair.

"Well, that is not what it looked like to me," I said quietly, feeling completely bewildered as he planted his booted feet as far apart as he could on the wide branch and crossed his arms.

"Well!" he echoed, raising a pale eyebrow at me and smirking, "maybe you shoulda watched for a bit longer! I coulda taken all four of them down, no problem at all!"

I refrained from smirking back as I ran my eyes over his more-than-lacking stature. He looked like he was barely eighty centimeters tall, if even that. I was sitting down and he still had to look up to meet my eyes. And the fact that he appeared to be only a few years old wasn't helping him seem very impressive.

"I apologize for my mistake. Will you allow me to take you back so you can finish your fight?"

Terror flashed through his bright blue eyes and he glanced downward again. "No!" he refused firmly, sticking his chin out further. "They probably ran off from fear and stuff…" he added in a mumble, his stern look faltering somewhat, but he quickly regained it, ending with a huffy addition of "So don't bother! They're gone!"

"Ah, yes. I am sure they are. You are so terribly frightening, after all," I remarked sarcastically as I stood and shook out my sore wings in preparation to take off and purposefully leave him there on top of that tree. "Goodbye."

"WAIT!" he hastily screamed and tightly wrapped his little arms around my leg. I looked down in bemusement at his worried expression. I was very much starting to wish I'd gone back to the slugs rather than coming here, regardless of how he would probably be dead now if I had. He would have respawned in Sun City, anyway, so it wasn't like it would have been too terrible an end. Then again, even if the pain was thirty percent of that in real life, getting eaten alive by bears still seemed…not very nice.

"Yes?"

"Where are you going?"

"Somewhere else," I told him evasively, not actually knowing where I was headed.

He opened and closed his mouth a few times, though no words came out. Taking a deep breath, he steadily tightened his grip around my leg. I winced slightly at how strong he was. It felt as though all of the blood to my foot was getting cut off.

"M-may…" he finally said, and then gulped.

"Hm?" I raised an eyebrow at him, trying to keep myself from forcefully yanking my poor leg out of his clutches and instead settled for light wiggles, all of which he ignored.

"May I come with you?" he anxiously blurted.

Both of my eyebrows shot upward at the unexpected request, since he'd been acting so superior a moment ago. His very unbelievable impressiveness was replaced with a pleading and rather tearful stare—even his lower lip was quivering. The sight was unwantedly heart-wrenching and I was abruptly filled with the urge to comfort him.

But why in the world would he want to come with me?

I forced my mouth to close and looked away from his pathetic face, toward the countless leafy tree branches surrounding us, giving the somewhat stuffy air a green hue. I'd never thought of playing the game with someone else. After all, I was doing just fine on my own and preferred to keep to myself. Plus being by myself would lower the risk of having Second Life discovered by my father. But this boy…I doubted he was an acquaintance of my father.

Glancing down at him out of the corner of my eye, I attempted to come to a decision. He was starting to look extremely panicky at my lack of response. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, nodding once and hoping I wasn't going to regret this. "Yes, you may."

His face brightened immediately as I spoke and he smiled for the first time. The excited, childish expression nearly made me smile as well, but I kept my face blank. He looked so cute, I involuntarily relaxed in his still-very-tight grip. His abrupt changes in mood were not only confusing, but they were also weirdly infectious.

"Really?" he asked happily, leaning backward, but not letting me go just yet. "You don't mind?"

"I suppose not." I shook my head at him and drew my wings against my back so they would stop twitching. My cheeks started burning at his extreme enthusiasm over my agreement. Was it really necessary for him to look so gleeful over something so small?

He finally unwrapped his arms and took my hand, energetically shaking it up and down. "Great! I've been wanting a teammate!" He smiled at me again. I nodded awkwardly, not really knowing what to say in response. "What's your name?" he curiously inquired after a moment.

"…Aeolus," I answered hesitantly. It was getting harder and harder to look at his shiny expression. I could nearly feel the hyper energy spilling out of him as he squeezed my hand. No one had ever treated me in such a friendly manner before, and I was positive no one would have ever yelled at me like that. My mind flickered to my friends in real life. They were all so quiet and reserved toward me, I'd always thought it was normal for friends to behave so distantly. But this boy was acting so familiar and close, even though we'd only just met. It was bizarre, but made me feel a bit happy.

"O-oh," he breathed, looking impressed at my name. "That sounds so…so, um." He paused and gave me a complicated expression. "Confusing. Say it again?"

"Aeolus," I repeated and frowned at him in sudden annoyance. It was only three syllables long, how difficult could it be to remember?

With a nod, he said it to himself several times under his breath as if trying to figure out how to pronounce it. Afterward, he looked back up at me and grinned. "I'm Dib! Nice to meet you!" Without warning, he suddenly jumped into the air and hit my back with what felt like all of his strength.

I nearly fell off the branch, but managed to catch myself at the last moment by grabbing the rough tree trunk. It was a complete mystery as to why people kept feeling it necessary to slap me all of the time.

Heart pounding, I straightened and let go of the tree. "Likewise…"

Thus enters my second OC, Dib. The one who has the capabilities to balance out (and overwhelm) Aeolus' awkward silence with large amounts of unneeded chatter. xD

Race: Halfling
Class: Warrior, focuses on strength and agility
Weapon: Dual short swords (narrow-bladed scimitars)
Curly blond hair, bright blue eyes, around 2½ft tall, thin and light-weight silver armor, large, pointy ears…