When Harry awoke the next day, the first thing he registered was the sensation of warmth on his face. Right after that one, came the abnormal brightness he could perceive through his closed eyelids. Neither of those two sensations was familiar to him in such a setting: his cupboard was a cool, dark place. As such, the only light he usually got while locked in was a thin ray of artificial light threading through the door. Certainly not enough to feel warmth, of all things...
Abruptly, the young boy shot awake. The only times he'd felt those same sensations were when he'd had the misfortune of falling asleep in the middle of his chores! Which also explained the chill he felt at his back: Aunt Petunia was going to punish him for being a lazy freak again!
As Harry frantically swerved his head left and right, momentarily disoriented due to the unfamiliarity of his surroundings, the events of the previous days slowly filtered through his mind. Gulping deep lungfuls of air, the boy attempted to focus on the nature around him to feel more at ease.
However, with the calm came some unwanted doubt.
"I could still have dreamed part of it," Harry reminded himself. After all, who could ever convince themselves of having seen and talked to a living snowman without being completely bonkers? Uncle Vernon would probably consider it the height of freakishness and lock him in his cupboard forever, should he ever learn about it.
Still... It couldn't hurt to hope, right?
"Olaf?" the boy asked hesitantly. No answer.
Before he could fall prey to despair, he reminded himself that the forest was very large and that Olaf could have easily wandered off. 'Or left me...'
"Olaf? Ooooolaaaaaf!" Harry then started walking towards the dense vegetation.
The human's search went nowhere very quickly. Everything seemed so distracting! For instance, it wasn't as though Harry had never seen a tree before, but the one in front of him happened to have a very pretty pattern of frozen sap etched on it. It actually seemed like one of those paintings Aunt Petunia had thought about buying to impress the lady from Number 8, when he tilted his head a bit.
The same head movement enabled Harry to see the frosted pattern etched upon the only surviving leaf of a bush nearby. As the boy approached closer, he could even make out the single snowflake that had landed on it. With the perfectly symmetrical shape made by the six branches as well as the way it glittered in the sunlight, it was really no wonder why Harry marvelled at the snowflake.
"That's the prettiest snowflake I've ever seen."
He continued moving his head at different angles, trying to observe the different colours that could be observed due to the sunlight. The young boy was so focused on his observations that he positively vaulted backwards when the beautiful snowflake seamlessly melted into a tiny flying creature, at least as big as half his hand! Even though the snowflake was smaller than his fingernail.
Now. Harry knew, instinctively, that he had changed since being left on the mountain by the Dursleys. He may not have been there for a day yet, but it seemed like he'd spent weeks in Olaf's presence already, if not years! Olaf talked to him, and let him listen, and didn't think he was too freakish! With such a wonderful friend, it was no wonder the boy had started to open up more, and say whatever came to his mind. Because Olaf would just laugh, and enjoy what Harry had to say.
However, there were also times when the attitude he'd adopted with Olaf caused inconvenients. And that moment when he met the flying creature happened to be one of them.
"You came out of a snowflake! Are you a troll? Because if you are, you're the first one I've ever-"
Harry's sentence trailed off as he pondered upon what he wanted to say next. He'd been about to add "miss" at the end of his sentence, because he'd believed the being to be pink. However, now the he looked closer, the skin also had a blue tinge to it. And blue was a manly colour, right? Uncle Vernon always said so, and scoffed loudly every time he saw pink in the boy's section...
Harry's trail of thought cut off as his eyes opened wide. The troll hadn't sat idly while the boy had been pondering gender. Instead, the being was rapidly becoming bigger. And didn't look too happy either. Backpedaling as quickly as he could, Harry eventually felt his back hit the trunk of a tree.
By that moment, the flying creature had already doubled in size! That still didn't make the troll much bigger than Harry's face, but with a finger thrusting close to his face and the wrathful expression darkening quickly... Yeah, Harry silently cursed the loss of the silent behaviour he'd adopted at his relatives'.
Harry curled his body in anticipation for the violence that had always taken place when a similar expression could be observed on his cousin's face. However, instead of feeling a meaty fist collide with his back, Harry heard instead a series of... chirps?
Startled out of his defensive pose, Harry raised his head in surprise. The sound reaching his ears still didn't change. It wasn't quite a bird's chirp, but whatever the troll was saying certainly wasn't any type of language Harry had ever heard. The boy then hurriedly ducked his head between his knees as he realized the fact that he was staring, and silently berated himself for his thoughtlessness.
Of course, trolls don't speak English. They're trolls! Stupid, Harry, why would they ever have a point in common with you...
Perhaps realising that Harry had failed to understand a single word of that angry tirade, the winged being seemed to change language. Or languages, rather. Because Harry was quite sure he'd heard too many different sounds, for the speech to be in a single language. Some of them sounded familiar, like Spanish or German, but others were completely alien, with one of them even sounding like a dolphin!
"Boy, BOY!"
Harry immediately snapped to attention. "Yes Aunt Petunia, I'll be here right away!"
He hurriedly made to stand, only to stop when he realised the words had come from the flying troll. As soon as that fact registered in the boy's mind, he opened his mouth to confirm his guess, but closed it reflexively as he remembered what had happened when he'd done that a few minutes earlier.
"Ugh, you humans! Why couldn't you be more like us fae, I'll never understand," the... fae? replied.
Harry was preparing to apologise again, but the fae shifted, letting more blue highlights show on the skin.
"Because, yes, I am a fae. Faeee, F-A-E, you hear me, you dimwit? Not a troll, not a fairy, a fae! Do I look like a lumpy rock to you? Don't lie, I heard you call me "the prettiest snowflake" ever!"
To punctuate the impassioned speech, the fae had poked him repeatedly on the nose. Harry didn't move and barely dared to breathe in fear of eliciting further wrath from the winged being. Yet, another compliment might soothe some ruffled non-existent feathers, right?
"You were! Are. The prettiest snowflake I've ever seen. And fae too!"
Harry quickly shut his mouth to keep himself from further embarrassing himself. His words seemed to have accomplished their objectives though: the fae no longer seemed intent to brain him and had taken to smirking in satisfaction instead, butterfly wings flapping.
"Of course I am, if even an idiot like you could figure it out. You are lucky I am in such a good mood today. Had I not met that delightful fellow made of snow earlier today, I would have frozen you where you stand for daring to compare me to those pudgy lumps of rocks."
At the mention of a being made of snow, Harry finally managed to offer some input.
"Oh, that's Olaf! He helped me find my way here yesterday. We decided to sleep in this forest together, but now he's not..."
The child trailed off, mildly disturbed at the complete change of expression on the fae's face. Instead of scorn and barely hidden condescension, the fae's features now bore a wide smile and glittering eyes.
"You know him!" The being's hands clapped together enthusiastically. "You must not be so bad after all!"
Unsure as to what would be considered the wisest course of action, Harry adopted his standard behaviour at the Dursleys' and simply nodded silently. He was dearly hoping the fae's expression would return to normal, as such a big smile simply seemed eerie on that face. He was then relieved to turn as a familiar voice rang out.
"Oh, there you are! I've been looking for you a-ll day! And then I thought: Oh no, what if he got lost? And I was all ready to come and help you out, but- Why hello, tiny flying person!"
And here is the newest installment of Let It Go, after an 8-months hiatus. Eesh, I am not proud of myself for that one. The chapter's longer than usual, as I've been working on my length a bit during my break. So they should be coming faster. No real update schedule so far, but each story should be updated at least once a month.
And I just introduced a new species! The fae may seem incongruous for now, but I do have some outline of a plan for the future. And I can tell you that our newest character's presence will have an importance :) So tell me what you thought, and thanks for all the love guys!
-Yoshishisha
