(A/N)

Hey Everyone!

I just wanted to start off by saying thank you guys for all the reviews lately! And they've all been so positive! Before I started posting on this website, my friend had warned me that she had always gotten more negative reviews on this website than on Ao3, so I had been worried about that. But I've gotten nothing but good reviews here, so I'm really happy with my decision to come here.

Also, I went to Momocon in Atlanta, Georgia this last Friday, and picked up a bit of Seven Deadly Sins merchandise (though it was near-impossible to find - as always). There were a couple of really cool Nanatsu no Taizai cosplayers, too! I really wanted to say hi to them, but I am far too shy for that. All in all, it was a really fun experience! Just thought I'd share.

Anyway, here's the new chapter. Enjoy!

It wasn't so much of a stream as it was a creek. The small waterway that wound its way through the trees and fields showed signs of being a frequent resting place for the local wildlife, and it appeared to usually hold crystal clear water. But currently its waters held a few clouds of murky pinkish-red water. At least in the area downstream of where Elizabeth was busy scrubbing the giant red patches out of my cloak, that is.

It was nearing dark by the time Zephyr and I made it to where Elizabeth, Harlequin, and Diane were. By now, the birds had stopped singing, with the crickets taking up their songs instead. There were even a few bats darting to and fro in their attempts to catch insects.

"There, I think that's most of the blood." I heard Elizabeth's voice from up ahead as I pushed aside some foliage that had been blocking my path. While I could have flown, I felt that it might be safer to walk here; the trees were pretty dense in this area, and I didn't want to run into any, and if I had just flown in from above, I might have lost the creek due to all of the greenery. Not to mention the fact that if I had flown, Zephyr couldn't have kept up with me with his current inability to enter shadows. Even walking next to the water as I was, there were many low-hanging branches that I didn't want to hit. I rounded a bramble thicket to find a small clearing opening up in front of me. It was just big enough to hold the other three, with a little bit of extra space in between. There was still a little ways before I would reach it, though.

"Why does Zinnia-chan always have this cloak with her, do you think?" Diane thought aloud as Elizabeth attempted to wring out the giant was sitting on the ground towards the back of the clearing, and she was fidgeting with the ends of her hair.

"Isn't it just to hide her wings?" Elizabeth guessed, trying harder to twist the cloak - it was very thick, so she was having troubles. "They're very pretty; I don't see why she hides them all the time."

"Zinnia-san has her reasons for hiding them. But I don't think that's the only reason…" Harlequin put in from his place floating on his giant green pillow beside Diane. While he appeared to be thinking seriously about the question, he also seemed pretty focused on the giantess. "Even when she isn't wearing it, she holds it in a bundle. She never leaves it behind."

"Well, now that I think about it, if what Howzer said earlier is true, it would make sense." Diane continued her thought process.

"What Howzer said?" Harlequin asked. Before Diane could answer his inquiry, though, he sighed. He had been watching Elizabeth struggle to get water out of the cloak, and appeared to be exasperated with the fact that she couldn't seem to do it. "Here, let me help." He easily plucked it out of the princess's hands with his levitation and, using the same ability, twisted my cloak so that a waterfall of slightly pink water just poured out of it. The Fairy King then, out of curiosity, pulled it closer to him and held it in his hands, allowing his Chastiefol to float at his side now. As soon as his hand touched it, though, his body went rigid, and surprise flashed in his eyes, followed by curiosity and some unnamed emotion.

In the pause, Diane continued with what she had been saying, though her words were hesitant after seeing Harlequin's reaction. "He said… that she had transformed it into a spear to fight… Isn't that kinda like your weapon, King?"

Of course, this was the exact moment that I finally managed to break through the trees that edged the clearing. I pushed aside a branch that was at the perfect level to catch my hair, breaking off twigs and leaves into the scarlet strands before coming free. And Zephyr, being who he was, elegantly stepped out of the forest behind me, not a single speck of dirt or debris in his fur, before taking his place at my side. He shot me a cheeky smirk before glancing back to the group in front of us.

"Exactly like it…" Harlequin's gaze landed on me, and the intense look made me embarrassed of the state of my clothes and hair. I was certain that I looked like I had just rolled through a patch of brambles.

"H-hey guys…" I couldn't stop my voice from faltering. I tried to pretend that I hadn't noticed the stare, but I could feel my extended wings twitching in nervousness. "Thanks for cleaning out my cloak, Elizabeth; I didn't expect it to get that dirty."

Both the princess and the giantess looked to me, but, unlike Harlequin, they seemed happy to see me. Elizabeth smiled, and Diane soon followed her lead.

"It was no problem, Zinnia! I just wish that I could've done more to help everyone," Elizabeth told me.

"You're telling me! I was out of commission for most of the battle, and during what little I was there for, I got knocked around like I was nothing." I laughed a little bit, trying to brush off the fact that what little pride I'd had had been shattered in the last twenty-four hours. "I'm actually not certain as to how so much blood got on my cloak, seeing as how I didn't get injured enough for there to be that much…"

"I think that it was mostly the Holy Knight Guila's blood. When you and Meliodas-sama suddenly appeared again, Meliodas-sama completely ignored you. And when he got back his sword from Guila…" Elizabeth trailed off, looking at her hands, which rested in her lap. She appeared uncertain, and I was pretty sure that I knew what of.

Judging by what happened while I was in that crystal and what Meliodas-san looked like when I first got pulled in there, before that nightmare began, he was probably using demon powers when he came out. He probably wasn't fully in control, either…

Diane tried to break the uneasy silence that had descended. "So Howzer told me that you tried to fight the Holy Knight that knocked me into that hole! I didn't know that you could fight."

"Neither did I." Harlequin's stare hadn't broken. His grip on my cloak tightened slightly.

"Hahaha… ha..." I looked to the ever-darkening sky as I tried to think of something to say. I could feel Zephyr's gaze boring into my side, as though prompting me to speak.

You said you didn't want any wrongly drawn conclusions. The longer you drag this out, the worse it will be for you. The fox shade's words whispered quietly in my head. Speak.

The words had been soft, as though only intended for me, but I was pretty certain that Harlequin had heard them, as his eyes narrowed slightly. Though the other two appeared oblivious.

"Well, I'm actually pretty crappy at fighting." I dragged the conversation on. "I don't think I even scratched the other guy." I was still staring into the sky, and I scratched the back of my head. Everyone remained silent, even Zephyranthes. I sighed, only to hear it echoed by the other fairy.

He tossed my cloak to me. "Hey, Zinnia-san, you asked me to show you mine. It's only fair if you show me yours."

The other two girls in the clearing looked pretty confused at this statement, but I knew exactly what he was talking about. My gaze fell from the sky to my shoes. I didn't say anything and busied myself at picking a few twigs out of my hair before feeling Zephyr nudged me in the side. When I looked down at him, he was glaring at me, so I looked back up to Harlequin, who had floated ever so slightly closer to me. "O-okay," I finally responded. I let go of the fabric, allowing it to hover in front of me. "Dyrnwyn First Form: Dyrnwyn."

Just as it had during the fight, the cloak glowed in a golden light for a moment before transforming into its spear form.

"Whoa!" Diane gasped slightly, overlapping Elizabeth's surprised squeak. Both of their eyes were as big as moons.

Harlequin, on the other hand, seemed more curious than surprised. He had flown closer to Dyrnwyn, and was examining it closely. My face started to heat up as he did this, because, rather than just being a weapon, Dyrnwyn was more like another part of me. "May I?" He gestured towards the spear.

"Um, sure." It's not like I could really say no at this point.

He twitched his fingers, taking control of Dyrnwyn's flight. He then started maneuvering it through the air, twisting it this way and that. I didn't even fully understand what he was doing or why. I was so entranced by watching Harlequin that I practically jumped out of my skin when Diane spoke to me.

"So that's what you used to fight earlier? King was right - it is exactly like his." She was also raptly watching the fairy fly the weapon around, but she turned a curious eye on me when she continued. "But if your weapon is just like King's, why did you have such a hard time with that Holy Knight? I know that King could've taken him down easily."

At this, Harlequin's face turned beet red, and Dyrnwyn froze for a moment in its movements. It continued after he shot a few self-conscious glances at Diane, but even after the spear was moving again, Harlequin's face was still red.

"As I said before: I'm not very good at fighting. Dyrnwyn wasn't even originally mine; it was my mother's. I heard that she was far more skilled with it than I am, but it was given to me after she died. Right before I left the forest, it was given to me as a sort of farewell present. I was surprised that I could even use it, given that most fairies don't have the needed power to wield a spirit spear. Not that being able to use something means that you're good at using it. I wish that I was half as skilled as my mother, then I'd have easily been able to defeat that Holy Knight. As I am now, though, I could probably not even take care of a normal knight." I paused as I realized I had been rambling. I had told them more than was necessary - probably more than they even cared to know.

"I've never heard of a spirit spear with the name Dyrnwyn. Just who was your mother?" Harlequin had stopped his inspection of the spear, and it now floated lazily at his side, opposite of Chastiefol. "And also, why does it appear to be missing a piece? Everything on its blades is in threes, except for these crescent blades. There's even a slot as though there once was another blade. Where did it go?"

"That blade was missing when it was given to me. I was told that my mother used it for something, but I'm not certain of exactly what." I looked up at the sky again, but this time my gaze lingered on the swath of stars that spread across it. Even as I was looking, it seemed that more and more specks of light were appearing. Only the smallest amount of light shone on the western horizon. "Shouldn't we be headed back soon? I'm sure that dinner's gotta be ready by now, and I don't want it all going to Hawk. And you wouldn't want to walk back in complete darkness, right Elizabeth?" I turned my attention to the girl who had been almost completely silent from the moment that I revealed Dyrnwyn.

"Well, that is true," She told me. I sensed a 'but' coming on, and was not disappointed. "But Diane just carried me to get here, since I'm slower than everyone, especially through this thick forest. I had hoped that she would carry me on the way back." She looked to the giantess as though asking a question.

"Of course I will, Elizabeth! I'm not just going to leave you here." She smiled.

But Elizabeth's words had made me notice something that I hadn't before. "Wait, which way did you guys even come from? The direction that I came from was far too overgrown for Diane-sama to get through, not to mention the fact that there were no signs that anyone went that way…"

"Oh, that's simple…" Diane stood up as she spoke, revealing a trail behind her. Branches and bushes were broken here and there, revealing that it had recently been used. "We went through the path that looked easiest."

"Of course there was an easier path…" I tugged another twig out of my hair.

Zephyr chuckled lightly at my side, causing me to look at him. I told you that if you had just waited for me to find their scent, we could have found them faster.

"Well I thought that the easiest way would be to follow the water. Then no matter what part of the stream they were at, we would find them."

You didn't have to start so far downstream, though.

"But what if we had-" I realized that Elizabeth was staring at me. Of course, she couldn't hear Zephyranthes. "Zephyr is just saying that he could have found you guys faster than me." I explained.

"O-oh." She gave a cheerful smile to try to cover up the fact that she had missed out on the conversation.

"Well…" I trailed off. "I guess that Zephyr and I will head back now, if you guys aren't."

"No, we are. Right, Elizabeth?" Diane held her hand to the ground so that the princess could climb on.

"Yeah," came Elizabeth's agreement.

Harlequin's only response was to slightly nod and to pass Dyrnwyn back to me. He still had a curious look in his eye, but he turned to follow Diane, who had already taken a few steps down the trail.

When I floated lightly into the air to follow, Zephyr spoke quietly. You should ask him to give you some lessons.

"What?" Lessons on what? How to be a fairy? I could sure use some of those.

He sighed. Lessons on how to use your spirit spear. It couldn't hurt.

"B-but, I couldn't ask him for that! He's the Fairy King! That'd be ridiculous." I tried not to shout so that the group ahead of me couldn't here me.

The fox shade couldn't help but roll his eyes. Well, normally only fairy kings have spirit spears, so you have no one else to teach you. There aren't really any other options.

"I can't… I just… No…" I couldn't really think of a reason to refuse it other than that he was the Fairy King, so I just went quiet. For some reason, I felt that whatever relationship Harlequin and I had, it wasn't one that I could just casually ask for lessons.

After that, the two of us fell into a silence that was only broken by the sounds of the crickets and the nocturnal wildlife around us. Not even Zephyr's paws made any noise on the forest floor.

The silence was broken by Zephyr's quiet words. You didn't answer all of his questions, you know.

"I didn't?"