(A/N)

Not as late this time as I have been recently, so that's good.

Remember how I once said that a lot of this is me figuring out what happens as I write, and that you're pretty much learning what happens at about the same time as me? This chapter is a good example of that, as I actually had no clue this was going to happen until I wrote the previous chapter. So at this point, a lot of it's being figured out at the exact point it's written. So that's fun.

Anyway, as usual, please enjoy the chapter!

"Did you hear?"

"Hear what?"

"There's a new one in the town."

"Really?"

"How can there be? Where did it come from?"

"I don't know."

"Is it one of us or…"

"I don't know."

"Should someone check it out?"

"I don't know."

"Wait…"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Did you hear that?"

"No. What?"

"Something is with it."

"There are two?"

"I only saw one, though…"

"There was certainly a second voice."

"Who did the voice come from, then?"

"I don't know."

"Did you hear what was being spoken about with the man?"

"No."

"I heard some."

"What did you hear?"

"I only caught one word."

"What was it?"

"Fairy."

It turned out that a house shrouded in eternal shade could be a lot more cheerful than I had imagined. The inside was more colorful that the market we had passed through - if that was possible. The place wasn't clean, that was for sure, but it had a contented feeling of being lived in.

The first room I entered might have once been a reception room for guests, but it had been turned into a mash between a dining room and a living room, with tables and chairs on either side. Shelves stacked high with papers and knickknacks lined the splotchy walls, and thin carpets covered most of the faded hardwood floors. Most of the chairs had piles of blankets accumulated on them, leaving only a few spots here and there free. One of said spots was already in use by the girl I had seen through the window. She stood up, making me immediately notice that she was quite a bit taller than Elrick, who was standing next to the chair - in fact, she was almost the same height as me. She had the same light blond hair as the boy, along with matching pale golden eyes. They could have been twins, were they not so obviously different ages.

As she approached me, I came to realize that the annoyed look I had thought I'd seen from the window had been correct, and her glare was practically burning my skin. She stomped up to me, only stopping when we were nose-to-nose. Not wanting to go back outside, yet not wanting to push away a girl in the house of my benefactor, I watched her in nervous confusion.

"Who are you, and why are you here?" she questioned me. The words were so simple, yet coming from this child, they felt like an interrogation.

"Uh-ummm… I'm-"

"No one new comes to Akshur. No one. I don't care if Grandpa brought you here. You being here is weird and I don't like it." She crossed her arms and leaned back a little, eyeing the door behind me, where Harlow was sure to appear soon. "You'd better leave, before someone makes you." Just as I felt more than heard the door open, she spun on her heel and marched across the room towards the stairs, disappearing up them.

Harlow's visage appeared in the edge of my vision, and I shifted so that I could better see him. He was looking after the girl, shaking his head with a slightly sad expression. "I'd hoped Ella'd have taken a likin' to you, but it appears I was off. Poor girl; she's been like that since her parents passed. She was once so bright and cheerful…" He trailed off, and eventually forced himself to smile again, though I could see that it didn't reach his eyes. The man turned his attention to Elrick, who had been watching in uncertainty from beside the chair Ella had been sitting in this whole time. Harlow walked across the room and set his hand on the boy's shoulder, before announcing to the room, "Now who's ready for supper?"

Turning over uncomfortably, I sighed.

What is it, Zinnia? Zephyr's quiet voice sounded, seemingly echoing in the empty room.

"I just… I don't know. I can't get comfortable." I sat up. "I've felt weird ever since we got to Akshur." I looked around the dark room I was currently borrowing. The family hadn't had a guest room, saying that any rooms that might've worked for it were either too messy to deal with tonight, or were in disrepair. Instead, Ella had bunked with Elrick, and I was given her room. I had actually been quite surprised at her generosity, but by the look on her face, she seemed to still want me out of here as soon as possible.

"You'd better not mess with any of my stuff," she had said before slamming her brother's door.

So now I laid in the dark, looking around at the shadows of her mostly-tidy room. Zephyr was curled loosely at the foot of the bed, looking at me with concern. What do you mean, 'you've felt weird?' Are you sick? I don't think I remember you ever getting sick before.

I shook my head, knowing full well that the motion wouldn't be visible to anyone other than a fox shade. "No. Thankfully, I've inherited the fairy trait of never getting sick. What I mean is-" I froze. I had heard a noise coming from the window. What was it? Voices? "Zephyr," I lowered my voice so that the whisper was even quieter than before. "Do you hear that?"

I could scarcely make out the image of him getting to his paws and leaning toward the window. Yes… It sounds like… laughter? I'll go see what it is.

Before I could object, he had faded into the darkness. The voices outside moved away, disappearing into the distance. Zephyr did not come back when they were gone. I strained my ears, trying to catch the tiniest sound of them, but they were out of range.

"Z-Zephyr?" I whispered into the room. "They're gone… You can come back now." Silence followed my words. No noise. No voice. No shiver of him returning to my shadow.

Why wasn't he coming back? I tried to push the worry away - this was a perfectly safe town, after all - but Zephyr's missing presence only magnified my uneasiness. It was like there was a gaping hole where there shouldn't be.

A tapping noise sounded from the window. I held my breath. Were they back - the ones that the voices belonged to? But there weren't any voices, just an uneven tapping. And… this was on the second floor of the building. There weren't any branches hanging outside the window, nor was there a ledge for anyone to stand on. What was out there?

Gathering my courage, I slid off the bed and crept towards the window, hoping that whatever was out there couldn't see me in the darkness. I eventually reached the end of the room, holding my head just below the windowsill. Forcing myself to make the final move, I lifted myself so that I could see through the glass, and saw…

Nothing.

The tapping had stopped.

And there was nothing out there. Even though I could barely see the space outside in the dim light, it was clear that it was void of life.

I let out a breath that I hadn't been aware I was still holding and collapsed back onto the bed behind me. After taking a moment to get the air back in my lungs, I pulled myself back up and looked out the window again, this time looking all around. Still, no one occupied the area outside. As I scanned what little I could see, my eyes landed on the giant tree that covered the entire town. The weird feeling from earlier returned with a vengeance. My focus was being drawn unerringly to that place. It was like I needed to go there.

Someone's calling me, the thought popped into my head without me willing it to, causing me to shake my head with a frown and curl my hands into fists. No. No one's calling me; it's just my imagination. Seeing a tree so big just reminds me of the Fairy King's Forest. Of course I'd be drawn to it. Still, I couldn't pull my attention away from the barely-visible trunk. Although… It couldn't hurt to check it out, could it? And now would be one of the best times, seeing as how everyone's asleep. I'll just go and take a look, then return before Zephyr gets back. Then maybe the weird feeling will go away and I'll be able to sleep.

And so, I snagged my cloak and wrapped it around my shoulders - one could never be too cautious, especially in an unknown place - before cracking open the window. The rusty hinge on the side creaked in protest, causing me to cringe at the noise, but it opened relatively easily. Poking my head out the window, I looked around one more time just to make sure, and then floated through the opening.

It was colder outside, and I couldn't see a single star through the canopy. It was like being under a giant roof. Only a thin veil of moonlight pierced the leaves, making it possible to see the vaguest of shapes around me. I hoped that I'd be able to find my way back.

Steeling my nerves, I flew towards the great tree ahead. No voices called out from the houses, so I was pretty confident that no one saw me. It wasn't long before I reached the trunk, and I gently rested my hand against it. The bark was cool and rough to the touch.

"See?" I whispered to no one but myself. "Completely normal tree. Nothing weird going on." Of course, immediately after saying that, I felt a presence watching me. I looked around, but couldn't see anyone. They could have been hiding in the shadows, but I had a feeling they weren't. Was this the same person who had been tapping on the window earlier? Had they followed me?

The presence nagged at me, causing me to look around yet again. This time, though, I caught a flash of movement - from the branches above me. How did someone get up there? That's far too far for a human to climb. And why are they up there in the middle of the night?

Pushing down the worries and speculations that I held, I slowly flew higher and higher, until branches surrounded me. Glimpses of movement kept drawing me further upward through the mass of leaves, until I broke out into the open. Light blinded me, but when my eyes adjusted, I found that it was just the light of the stars and the waxing moon.

Light reflected off the leaves around me, making it appear as though I was surrounded by a sea of shimmering purple. It wasn't the sight that shocked me, rather it was the figure ahead of me. A fairy with wavy, shoulder-length, dark blue hair that shone in the moonlight smiled at me, his larger wings flickering behind him. I couldn't really make out the colors of his clothing in the darkness, but I could tell that his darker pants were mostly fitted, but slit down the sides about halfway down and buttoned at the ankles, and his short-sleeved shirt had a frilled collar and seemed to have a slightly wrapped design around the chest and stomach that caused it to be shorter in the front than the back, which in turn caused the shirt to reveal part of his stomach and side. The short boots he wore seemed pretty plain in comparison to the designs of the rest of his clothing.

He tilted his head, purple eyes glowing in the moonlight, and held a finger to his cheek in curiosity. "I'd heard that there was a fairy in the town, and I'd assumed you'd come to see me. You seem a little too surprised for that to be true, though…" His large eyes held an innocence that I hadn't seen in awhile, and felt odd to see in a fairy.

He'd assumed that I'd come to see him? Who is this fairy, and how did he know about me being here? I didn't tell anyone what I was… My mouth gaped slightly as I thought, and I forced myself to close it, then tucked some hair behind my ear. "I-I'm sorry. I hadn't even realized that any fairies lived here. I was just coming to visit the grave of an old friend, but it appears that… that a tree has grown over the grave." That was putting it mildly. "I have to ask, though: why did you think I came to see you?"

The fairy's smile brightened as he straightened. "Because I'm Delphinium - the King of this Fairy Forest."