(A/N)

I'm back!

For the moment, at least.

Sorry again about my updates becoming so infrequent of late. At this point, you probably think I'm making up excuses as to my late chapters, but I really do have an insane life, particularly more so recently. Though most of my lateness this time stems from the fact that I moved.

Anywho, I'd love to get back to posting regularly, but I've come to realize that I can't promise that, so I appreciate your patience.

My responses to the reviews while I was gone:

Maison Martin: I'm glad you've enjoyed it! Thanks for picking up the story even though you don't normally read.

Salenahaileen: Thanks so much! To have read it all in one go must have taken a bit of time, considering the chapter count - this is already enough to fill a small book.

APridefulSin: Don't know exactly which part you're saying "Woah" about, but glad that I've caught your attention enough for you to say that.

CrystalVixen93: Glad to know that people are anticipating chapters! I'm trying my best to update when possible, so thanks for being patient.

Hopefully, the next chapter will be out a lot faster than this one was, since I know most of what I want to happen in it, but I'm not guaranteeing that. In the meantime, I hope everyone enjoys the new chapter!

It took about another hour for the shade of the great tree's leaves to flicker over the trundling cart. It was surprisingly bright under the canopy, but the shadows caused a thin chill to seep into my bones. I shivered and tightened my cloak further.

Harlow only laughed and clapped my back, making me jump as the shock spread through my covered wings. "Hahahaa! You'll get used to that, you will! That is, if yer gonna stay here fer very long. It's the infamous Akshur chill. No matter what we've done, we just can't seem to get rid o' it. Well, guess it's not much trouble in the winter months, but then we have to deal with all o' the fallen leaves and the cold that comes from the season itself."

That didn't sound pleasant; was it even cold here during the middle of summer? One word caught my attention, though, and I tilted my head slightly. "Akshur?"

"Oh! I brought you all the way here, and forgot to even tell you the name o' the town. Akshur's where we're headed, little lady. It's settled snugly at the base o' the largest oak fer miles around. Some say it's the largest tree in the world, though the kids'll say differently. They're determined that the fairy folk have a bigger 'un." The old man held his hand gently to his chin in thought before continuing. "Though accordin' to legend, it was the fairies that planted this 'un, so I don't see why they'd have need fer it if they had a bigger 'un…"

He trailed off into a silence that I couldn't bring myself to break. It wasn't just any of the fairies that planted the tree - it was me. I didn't think that I should tell him that. It would be… weird. Even though the Sins had made me feel accepted as a fairy, I still wasn't comfortable just letting everyone know. At least I was comfortable in my fairy form now, even if I was still hiding my wings.

It was only when the first buildings of Akshur started to loom up around us that the silence was broken - not by us, but by the townsfolk. Chatter filled the air in the light-dappled town, drowning out the clopping of the horse's hooves and the rattle of the cart's wheels. The buildings here weren't in even rows like most of the other towns I had visited over the years, but instead seemed to be on either side of a roughly defined path. Some were further back, some were twisted away from the street, and some spaces had no buildings at all.

"Why are the buildings placed so weirdly?" I asked the man beside me.

"When buildin' at the base o' a tree, you gotta work around the roots." He nodded toward an open space between a couple of buildings, where I now noticed huge, half-buried roots being climbed on by children wrapped in thicker cloaks than even mine. "It'll be even more noticeable the further we go. See how the buildin's farther in are raised up?" I focused my attention closer to the base of the tree, where the houses were indeed at a higher elevation than where we were now. "The buildin's get even crazier up there. That's where we're headed."

We lapsed back into silence as I took in the sight ahead of me. This time, though, it wasn't nearly so awkward. I spent my time observing the people as we passed by. We appeared to be passing through a marketplace filled with stalls of such bright colors that they almost appeared to be fruit that had fallen from the gargantuan tree above. The surrounding buildings added to that fantasy, as they were such odd colors and shapes that it wouldn't be difficult to imagine them having been dropped from the sky before settling in their current positions. The people here also seemed slightly odd, though I couldn't quite put my finger on why I felt that way. Many of them wore cloaks - or at least many layers of clothing - and most of them had a similar pasty complexion and wiry build.

As we got further into the town (with the size of this place, it could rightfully be called a small city, but Harlow had called it a town, so that's what I would continue to think of it as), I noticed more and more on the townsfolk watching me - particularly children. People shot looks in my direction, and the children that I spotted on the rooftops openly stared. It was getting increasingly uncomfortable, and I tightened my cloak further around me.

"U-ummm… Harlow-san? Why are so many people looking at me?"

"Hm? Are they?" He didn't even look around before continuing. "Probably your hair; no 'un around here has hair quite that bright. Makes you stick out like a sore thumb."

I don't like it… I could hear Zephyr grumbling in my shadow. Even though he could move pretty freely in this shadow-filled place, he appeared to be sticking to my side. I don't think this is just about your hair…

As I opened my mouth to comment, one of the cart's wheels hit a root, causing the cart to jolt and me to bite my tongue. Pain seared my mouth, spreading quickly through my face. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow…"

"You won't be wantin' to do that; it can be painful. I'm recommendin' you keep your mouth shut 'til we reach home - unless you wanna bite your tongue again, that is."

I took his advice. It wasn't a hard decision, seeing as how we were now hitting constant bumps from the tangled roots littering the ground. The market disappeared, and the buildings' shapes became even more eccentric, curving around giant roots or attempting to use small platforms to keep them off the ground cover, only to have the platforms themselves be swallowed by it.

Something else seemed to be happening, though. The closer we got to the tree that housed the village, the more I felt like I was being beckoned forward. What was going on? What was drawing me toward the center of this place, and why? I was staring so intently into the branches far above my head - so dense that I couldn't even make out the color of the leaves due to a lack of sunlight - that I didn't even notice that the horse in front of me had come to a stop.

"We're here." Harlow's voice broke me from my half-trance.

I turned my attention to the house we had stopped beside. My immediate thought was that it looked like an apple. It was a bright red, with thin strips of paint peeling at the edges, and was one of the ones I'd noted earlier in that it was built to accommodate the curving of a root half the size of the house itself. The second story had two round windows, further making me feel like it was where a worm had eaten through the fruit. The first floor, on the other hand, had walls covered in windows of varying shapes and sizes, as though the house had originally been built in a much brighter place, but the inhabitants had been continually trying to let more light in the house. With a quick glance around, I noted that this appeared to be a common feature this close to the base of the tree.

I had started climbing off the side of the cart when I heard the loud pattering of footsteps inside Harlow's house, followed by the bang of the door opening and an excited shout. "Grandpa! You're home!" As I hopped the final distance to the ground, I turned in time to see a young blonde boy jumping at Harlow and hugging him, getting a tight hug from the man in return. "You were gone forever! I'd been worried you might never come back!"

"O' course I was comin' back, my boy! Who'd take care o' you and your sister if I didn't?" Harlow tried to ruffle the boy's hair through his hat, but only succeed in turning the hat, which the child corrected after a moment of laughter.

The little boy only then noticed me, and his eyes widened as they landed on me. "Woah, Grandpa! Did you bring home a fairy?!"

I nearly fell over from shock. I'd thought I'd been hiding what I was well enough.

Instead of being surprised, Harlow only laughed. "Zinnia-chan here isn't a fairy - she's just a little girl! If she was a fairy, do you think I'd have found her lost in the open plains?"

"Hmmm…" The kid stared at me harder, and I couldn't help but look away. "No, I guess not… But only fairies have such bright hair!"

"There you go, Zinnia. I was right. Maybe the people you saw just thought you were a fairy." Harlow said the words like they were supposed to bring me relief before explaining to his grandson. "You've never been outside Akshur, Elrick. Out there, people have all kinds o' different hair. And not only that, but they're different shapes and sizes, have different skin and eye colors, some may not even look like people as you know them. But remember what your parents always said…" He urged the boy - Elrick - to finish.

"Just because people are different, doesn't mean they deserve to be treated differently," he recited from memory.

"That's my boy." Harlow patted his head. "Now hurry on inside. I'll be right after you." And so Elrick obeyed and went back into the slightly run-down house to await his grandfather.

Instead of following, I waited out in the chill, attempting to help Harlow unload boxes and bags from the cart before being turned down. While waiting for the man to put away the cart and its horse in a location unknown to me, I caught a glimpse of Elrick and another child watching me from the windows of the house. While the boy was smiling excitedly, the other - an older girl by the looks of it - seemed more reserved, almost annoyed if I had to label her expression.

Turning my face back to the branches above, I took a moment to absorb the almost unnatural, cave-like feeling that being here induced. It was only when I felt more than just the two children's eyes on me that I decided that I should wait a bit closer to the front door - maybe even just inside.

Please don't be more trouble that I've gotten myself into...