I'm back from vacation and through my first week of school! Now that I have my schedule down, updates should come more often. Expect one once a week or every other week. Enjoy, m'dears!

I probably should've mentioned this in the first chapter I brought up Davesprite, but despite John's assumption to the contrary, I'm saying that while sprites can be summoned from a distance by the necklaces, they can also live in them if they choose to. I'm kind of assuming Davesprite has his own pimped out room within the necklace, but can still hear the outside world.

Dave: give the lovebirds a little space and be the other bird... er, guy, who's also sort of you?...

You are now the other guy... bird... birdguy...?

You know what? Fuck it. Your name is Davesprite and you are sick of dithering around thinking about semantics while your alternate non-bird self gets sappy with some prettyboy. The only problem is that when you're escaping your genie necklace whatchamacallit, they're gonna see you, and you don't really feel like a confrontation. Maybe you can utilize this size-changing thing to get away. You're pretty sure you can control it, though you don't have a direct understanding of how.

"Mmmh"

Oh sweet baby jesus with a kitten. They're making out now. You'd better get out of here fast before they pick up the pace. You decide to just think small and hope it does what you want it to. Focusing on that, you fly out into the open and take a look around. Seems like it worked. Sweet. Still, you'd better get going. You're pretty small, but a a bright orange glow is still pretty obvious in the move away hastily, trying not to hear the sounds of pleasure coming from behind you, when you hear a shimmery sound off to the left and a soft bluish white glow streaks by you.

"Navi?" You call after her. She seems too far to hear you already, but if she heard, she's showing no signs of slowing. You follow after her, wondering why she seems so hurried. Keeping up with her is surprisingly difficult, and eventually you lose track of her, but the only place in the area she could have gone is through a large hollowed out tree that formed a sort of makeshift tunnel. You pass through and find yourself in a very different type of place. Floating on a small suspension bridgeyou take a look around and see that you're in some sort of forest. Navi's nowhere to be found, but there's another tunnel up ahead. As you approachthe tunnel, you hear a quiet sobbing. That's probably her, you think. You walk through to find her, wondering what to say. You don't have much experience with crying girls, aside from Jade. But that was your own fault, really, so you doubt there was mch you could've done to help her calm down. In hindsight, you wish Rose had been there. John was probably not the best shoulder to cry on, either. Once on the other end of the tunnel, you look around again only to realize that you still haven't caught up with the ingénue in question and the sound you'd been hearing was now echoing from another tunnel. You roll your eyes behind your bright orange shades and trudge, erm, float onwards. You spend a long while searching the forest for her . You aren't sure how long it is as, ironically, you have a terrible sense of time, but the sky is nearly black by the time you finally find her. The area is small, dominated by a single dead tree, and mostly covered in a soft blanket of undergrowth. There is now a loud shuffling accompanying Navi's gentle sobs which you find extremely annoying. Apparently, navi agrees with your assessment.

"SHUT UP! I JUST WANT TO BE ALONE BUT YOU JUST KEEP TURNING AND TURNING AND IT'S TOO LOUD! UGH! IF LINK WERE HERE HE'D..." She cuts off her rant and begins sobbing again. You figure it can't hurt to give the lady a hand. You fly around to the other side of the tree and see a giant weird-looking spider. It's quite a bit lrger than you are at the moment, but you've dealt with far worse in the past. You pull out a shitty sword and slice the bastard in two, picking up the small golden trophy that drops from it.

"Link?"

"No, "

"...Dave what are you doing here?"

"I'm not Dave. Well, I am Dave, but I'm the other Dave. The bullshit Dave with bird par-"

"I don't care. Go away." you notice that her voice isn't quite so high pitched as usual.

"But you're crying. You don't have to talk to me, but you shouldn't cry alone. You can just pretend I'm like some super bullshit pet dressed up in a shitty Halloween costume. Like Junior Birdman except I don't have a shit song and I have actual wings and I wear shades instead of goggles. So I guess that makes it a shitty costume of a shitty character, but I'm still a pet so I'm not gonna talk back and shit. Unless you want me to. Which I guess would make me like an animal in a cartoon. You know, when they tell kids about how to solve their problems. It's like So Dear To My Heart except they talked about Columbus proving the world was round which is a giant pile of steaming shit coming out of a horse's ass, 'cause he was an idiot who thought "hey let's get to India and ignore the fact that there's a HUGEASS ocean there that will kill us because I don't listen to the people who say how big the earth is and its motherfucking huge" and then accidentally ran into America which saved his bitch ass." You hear another sob and facepalm. Way to go, idiot. You're the best fucking therapist EVER. The sound comes again and you decide you ought to ought to take your leave now before you make a complete idiot of yourself again.

"Sorry, I'll just go..."

"No wait, please." As she speaks, you realize that it's not a sob but a giggle. Significant improvement, you think. "You're right. I don't really want to be alone." She sighs heavily. "Come and sit with me."

"You'll have to tell me where you are first." You see a small shimmering hand stick up through the undergrowth and wave you over.

"Over here." You drift over to her and burrow under the mossy covering.

"So you have hands? Color me surprised" you say, planting the end of your sword into the ground.

"Hey! That's mean!" She accuses. "And you're colored enough as it is." She stands to face you and you can finally see her. Her eyes are rimmed with red, almost certainly a result of the crying. She has a soft glow in the surrounding darkness and her wings completely dwarf her tiny body. A body which you immediately notice is entirely unclothed. She is perhaps the most beautiful thing you have ever seen. You do your best to look away and, difficult though it may be, you manage. It's obviously not the time for your legendary Strider libido to take center stage.

"Well, to be fair, you just looked like a ball of light and wings before."
"Why would a ball of light need wings?" she asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Huh. Hadn't really considered that... Uh, It's not really my place, but could you maybe, um, cover yourself, please?"

"What? OH!" A blush rises in her cheeks and she grabs for a piece of moss, wrapping is around herself quickly. "Sorry, I..."

"It's okay I just didn't..."

"Yeah, usually I don't have to but..."

"Why is that?"

"Oh. I'm just so bright it doesn't really matter usually." She says, now intent on shaping the moss comfortably to her body.

"Well, yeah. But... why aren't you right now?"
"Ah... When I'm tired or really sad, I just" she pauses to find the words, "I just start to fade."

"From the crying, I'd guess it was the second option, yeah?" Navi hangs her head and nods slightly, another tear forming at the corner of her eye. "Do you want me to ask why?" you say gently, moving forward and gingerly wiping the tear from her face. She bites her lip and shakes her head, blinking away more tears. "C'mere." you coax, opening your arms to her. She gladly accepts your invitation, folding her paper thin wings and burying her face in the downy feathers around your neck. You wrap her arms around her as she wraps hers around your waist. You rub her back gently, trying to quell the tears. "It's going to be okay. Everything's going to be fine." The two of you share in the silence for a time, basking in the faint glow of each others' light and warmth, before she pulls away with a ghosted smile and sits down on the forest floor, patting the ground next to her. You sit alongside her and she leans up next to you, absentmindedly stroking the soft downy covering on your chest. It feels nice – soothing. You rifle your fingers through her short silky hair in the hopes that it has the same effect for her. She relaxes into your side and casts a melancholy glance up at you.

"It's Link." she murmurs. Ah, so she already has someone on her mind.
"You like him." It isn't a question. She nods.

"But he hardly seems to notice me. It was bad enough before and then Dave came along and suddenly it seems like I don't have a chance in the world." She lets out another quiet sniffle and you can feel the tears on your shoulder. You let the silence hang in the air for a moment as you search for the right words.

"Do you love him?"

"Maybe."
"That's not an answer, Navi."

"He's handsome, kind, and smart. Strong, too. I thought I was supposed to protect him but he's so capable already I feel... useless. I end up pestering him instead of helping him. He masters everything he does so easily and he's a hero, inside and out."

"But do you love him?"

"He's everything I want in a man." She says, as though that settles it.

"Look at me, Nav." She flinches at the casual nickname. "Navi." She looks into your face questioningly. "That's not necessarily love. That's like handing someone a bowl of flour, eggs, sugar, baking soda, vanilla, orange peel, raspberry jam, powdered sugar, and almonds and telling them it's the best princess cake you've ever eaten. Because many things can contribute to love, but just because you have all the best ingredients doesn't mean it IS love. Because love... love changes you, Navi. If the other Dave and I are different, it's because of that." Tears form in your eyes as her gaze meets yours. "We act the same a lot of the time, sure. And we're both still Dave. But we've experienced love very differently. And underneath the cool and the irony and the aviator sunglasses, we're pretty different."

"No."

"Why wou-"

"No I don't love him. Not the way you love... whoever it is."

"I'm not in love with him anymore. It changed over time. Became what I thought it had been from the beginning. I only realized I'd been in love with him when he died. It's strange. In a way, that death created me. But I healed. I loved him, but first and foremost he was my best bro. He gave me these, you know." you say, gesturing to the sunglasses. "He's not dead anymore. Or, I suppose, in this timeline he never was, but I remember him dying. When I went back to where he was alive, I realized he wasn't my John anymore, even though he was the same John who'd left me. Over time, I let the love go. We're just friends now. Bros." You smile calmly at Navi. "Sorry. Guess I'm rambling again."

"No, it's fine." She reaches up and cards her fingers through your hair. "I think I understand a little better. It still hurts that he wants Da — other Dave over me, though." You laugh halfheartedly.

"Jealousy always does. And even a crush is enough to cause a good deal of pain. But I promise, Navi, you're gonna be just fine." You smile at her. Slowly, the two of you lean back look up at the stars peeking through the leaves and moss. Navi places her head on your chest —right over your heart— and wraps drapes her arm across you.

"Thank you, Dave. I'm glad you were here. That skulltulla was shit company." You grin back at her playfully.

"Call me any time you need a night in feathery armor, milady."

"You can count on it." she says with a smile. Her fragile frame shivers against you, and you pull her closer and wrap your wings around her to protect her from the cold.

"Goodnight, Navi."
"Goodnight, Dave."