Hustino: Hi.
Blu: -snore-
Hustino: Don't let that snoring fool you into thinking she's spent late nights working on the story with me and depriving herself of sleep. No, she's just lazy.
Blu: -kick snore-
Hustino: Ow. I suppose I'll have to do the entire author's note myself, right?
Skip the Hobo: you always have me!
Hustino: I...wait...what? You're not supposed to exist.
Blu: -snore- just get to the story already -snore-
Hustino: Hey, hey, I don't want any of your imput now! Lazy! To tell you the truth, folks, I do all the work. She's just here to look pretty.
Blu: -snore kick-

.-.-.-.-.-.

Are You Running, Child?

Restore Me

.-.-.-.-.-.

The ever-watchful moon looked on, as always, to the late afternoon escapades of the peoples living below its watch. In its place high above the world of Termina, it could see every corner of the land; in every compass direction, it could see every happening in each part of the world, from the mountain of Snowhead, where a blizzard ravaged its peak, to the swamps to the South, where poison flowed freely in the streams, to the cloudy waters of Great Bay, where fish disappeared to be replaced with monsters, and to the East, a land as dead and dry as a corpse.

It's main focus, though, was the single spectacle that appeared to fascinate it the most was the city of Clocktown, where another act in the play that held its attention so was about to begin, one that would show that the players were merely pieces of a larger plot. Having spent almost his entire day cooped up inside of the room behind of the Curiosity Shop-aside from the few short, quick strolls outside he took to get some fresh air—the main character was growing impatient and weary, waiting for Alan to return with something.

It must be getting closer to dusk, he thought to himself, still intent to visit the Great Fairy in North Clocktown, adamant that she was really there and that she could help him. A simple problem of changing sizes should be easy for a Great Fairy to fix, right?

Staring into the Keaton's mask as he dangled it over his face while laying on the cot, he hoped it would give him some sort of answer to the mess--part of him actually hoped that it would suddenly turn into the phantom fox he had talked to the night before.

Of course, all the mask did was stare back at him, its lifeless eyes saying nothing, as it had the other two dozen times he stared at it that day. A muffled sound from outside caught his attention and he shot up in bed. Carefully placing the mask on his face, he slowly stepped down the short stairs and towards the door, setting his ear on it to hear the sounds more clearly.

"There ain't nobody living here, I kid you not."

"But I have eye witness proof--including myself!--that there is someone staying here and here does not have an address."

"It...it, it's me dog. Yes, me dog that I recently got!" He threatened to bang his head against the wall, not believing Alan would use the same stupid excuse twice, especially since it seemed that quite a few people had, in fact, seen him. None of them recognized him, though, and that was a relief.

But who was interrogating Alan? One of Viscen's guards? Someone his mother or father had hired to find him? Maybe it was that stupid carpenter with the crush on Anju. If I ever get my hands on him... he thought, randomly mimicked chocking movements with his tiny hands.

"But I had seen a...person, not a dog. And it was a boy! As postman, I must make note of every place within these city walls being used as a residency, whether it be a backroom of a store or a park bench and whether the resident is a human, canine, feline, or bovine matters not!"

Well, that answered that. The overly dedicated mail man had seen him entering or leaving the back room and decided to find out who he was, coming to the conclusion that he was someone new to town and decided that an address needed to be assigned.

Wait, he thought. If the post man didn't know who he was, and he knew everyone in town by name, address, so oh and so forth, that meant no one knew who he really was. That thought was at the same time comforting and heart wrenching. Would even Anju be unable to recognize him in this body? Did this mean that only Alan knew he even existed anymore?

He shook his head, trying to dissipate his horrible thoughts. He wouldn't allow himself to disappear. He had to let those closest to him to know he was still out there.

No.

He had to let Anju know he was still out there.

And to do that...he'd need the mail man.

Taking up what little courage he still had left in him, he ripped off his mask. "Alan!" he yelled through the door. The argument that had just been going on outside came to a standstill. "Shut up and let the mail man in," he barked, trying to sound forceful. After a moment of nervous laughter no doubt from his balding friend, the door slowly opened revealing that Alan had indeed been speaking with the mail man.

He took no time in grabbing the now taller postal worker by the wrist and dragging him upstairs. The man gave a short yelp as he was pulled into the backroom, the sound of the door being slammed following behind him. He continued to drag the man back into top room before using the momentum he had built up to push the quite skinny runner onto his bed.

"Oh my!" the mail man cried as he fell back onto the bed, his large hat going askew. "I'm being kidnapped!"

"You are not," he said, still trying to sound at least three feet taller. "I just need to ask you a favor in private."

"What th' 'ell er' yah doin'?" came Alan's voice from behind him having just come up the stairs behind him.

"Shut up, Alan," he repeated, putting up a hand to stop him from saying anything else. "I'll be needing him to mail me a letter later."

"Well," the mail man righted his hat before going on, "I really don't think all of this was necessary if you just wanted me to-"

"Look at me," he said, interrupting. "Look at me and tell me who I am."

The Postman sat there stunned by his sudden, surprisingly forceful request. The man then took a minute to regain his composure before leaning forward slightly and giving him a long, hard look. As the postal worker looked him over, he did his best to stand the way he always had, back straight, head tilted slightly towards the sky which usually gave him a honorable sense, but he was sure now it only made him look snooty. Still, he stood, his head held high, trying to look as much like himself as he could. Still, the postman stared at him, looking him up and down ever so often.

And then it clicked.

The postman's mouth fell open, his eyes wide, and began to shake his head back and forth slowly.

"No...no it can't be!" the mail man stuttered in disbelief. "You couldn't possibly be...Kafei?"

For the second time since his shrinking, he broke an actual smile before nodding happily.

"It's me, alright," he replied, letting his stance become a little more relaxed.

"But...but how?"

He shook his head, putting his hand up again, motioning to the mail man not to speak. "The details aren't important, what is that I'm stuck this way and probably will be for a long time," He pointed at the postal worker, "and I need your help."

"Me?" asked the man, still quite in shock. "Wh-Why me?"

He sighed before continuing. "Tomorrow, I'm going to be sending a letter to...someone, and I don't want them to know just yet what's really happened to me, so I need your help. You can't tell them who the letter is from or where, got it?" The man nodded 'yes', then shook it 'no'. He let out another sigh. "Why not?"

"It's against my policy to keep information from the receiver," the mailman stated matter-of-factly. "It's against the postal worker's code, it's-"

"I don't care!" he nearly yelled. His fists trembled as silence fell back over the room. Slowly, his fists loosened and his scrunched his eyes shut against the migraine that was slowly coming back to him from the night before. "Just...please? Just one letter?" He looked back up at the man on the bed, his crimson eyes pleading. After a moment the mail man heaved a defeated sigh.

"Fine," the postman said, putting his skinny arms up in mock surrender, "fine. I won't tell them anything. But just this once."

He smiled again.

"That's all I need."

.-.-.-.-.-.

An hour or so later, Alan finished his day as the clean and polite Clocktown shop owner and changed into his more shady job as 'secret' owner of the Curiosity Shop. As secret, of course, as one can be when the only thing hiding one's identity as a normal shop owner apart from a black market scoundrel is a disguise made up entirely of a pair of sunglasses. He had always chastised Alan on his business choices, but having not been run out of his shops by the authorities by now and having yet to do anything too stupid, he decided his friend was not doing too badly.

But, really--sunglasses? He rolled his eyes and shook his head every time he thought of Alan's mastery of disguise. The man should get a better disguise or not use one at all, since the eyewear just wasn't cutting it.

The first night to put his plan into action--to sit and watch, visually interrogating each and every costumer or...'business associate' to entire the shady outlet--and he was already frustratingly bored out of his mind in under two hours. Only two people had entered the Curiosity Shop since it opened, one being the crazy, old, apocalypse-ranting astronomer from out of town searching for seeming random and useless items for whatever it was the quack did in that observatory of his and the other one--whom was even more unusual than the old man--was some huge bird, like a freakishly overgrown guay, but apparently possessing more intelligence than the annoying crows.

It came in, dropped off items it had gotten from who-knows-where and then left as quickly as it had entered. Dumbfounded between the exchange between Alan and the bird, he had asked, but received the shopkeeper's reply to everything concerning the Curiosity Shop's visitors--everything was strictly confidential, no matter the customer. Instead of pushing it further, he just sighed in defeat, commented on the view he had of Alan's shiny bald spot, then sat back down and continued waiting.

After what seemed to have been an entire night, but the clock swore only an hour had passed, he laid on his bed, his newly acquired miniature body threatening to explode from the boredom and frustration. That's it! hethought, I'm going! Standing defiantly, he dusted off his clothing--which was much cleaner than the night before; he was hiding in the 'laundry pool', after all--and grabbed his Kenton mask, placing it over his face.

"Aye! Kafei! What're yah up t'?"

"I'm asleep, Alan," he said dismissively.

"Eh, so early? I s'pose yah have 'ad a bit o' a tirin' day."

"Oh, yes, you've just been oh, so riveting that I'm just exhausted."

"O', shut yer yap an' get t' sleep."

He rolled his eyes, but gave no vocal reply, instead leaving his friend to assume that he was, in fact, asleep. Quietly opening the door, he stepped out into the cold, night air. The stars brightened the sky and the enormous moon glared down upon him. Sneering, he thought to himself, yeah, that's something you'd want to kiss someone beneath. Reeeal romantic. Reaching up to his face, he double-checked to ensure that his mask was in fact there, as if to make sure that the moon could not recognize him.

As he made his way to North Clocktown, he looked at his setting. The combined effect of being so much smaller and out when there was no one else gave him a strange sense, almost as if being lost. The clock tower, the town's namesake, loomed over head, the foundation of the Festival Tower, just having been started, sat in front of it. The ancient structure, despite being far older than the town itself, not to mention one of the oldest and most mysterious structures in all of Termina, had become normal for most of the townspeople, something that was just there. But now, with the sudden change of perspective, he finally felt a certain amount of awe for the great tower.

As he gazed at the clock tower, up and down, he did a double-take, his mind reeling in surprise, but he could not find what he had thought was there just a fraction of a second ago; swearing it had, in fact, been there, he stared at the top of the clock tower, but still could not find anything.

He swore he saw it...

The silhouette of the Skull Kid atop the clock tower, gazing towards the moon...

No, the Imp could never reach the peak of the tower. The path to the top was locked to all except on the day of the Festival.

But...he still swore he saw...

Shaking his head, he went back to what was important in the here and now; reaching the Great Fairy was his best hopes of recovering, since convincing the Skull Kid to undo what had been done was probably a hopeless plan.

Shaking the thoughts of towers and moons from his mind, he ventured down the steps leading into South Clocktown and began his search for the Great Fairy. Rumors and myths he had heard when he was growing-up was all he had to go on, but it would have to do. He vaguely remembered Anju's grandmother saying that the Great Fairy resided somewhere in North Clocktown, so that was where he would begin his search.

As he started up the steps towards the North Clocktown entrance, he felt an odd twinge of fear as he passed the now large owl statue standing across from the West Clocktown walkway. He remembered the stone bird giving him the creeps when he was a child, and now he knew why. It towered over him, its sharp beak pointed down towards him menacingly. Quickly turning away from the carved creature, he sprinted up the remainder of steps and into North Clocktown.

The over cast that had shadowed their land the night before was now gone, his surroundings much brighter than the last time he had visited this part of town. With the absence of both the falling rain and his own fright, he was able to get a better look at the area. North Clocktown was absolutely nothing like the rest of the city; in fact, it more resembled a section of Termina Field that had somehow gotten surrounded by some of the town wall. For whatever reasons, no one ever considered building a home or store there and--adults, anyways--avoided the place like a plague. Many found it unsettling for certain, unexplainable reasons, but children adored the area as a playground. The old slide, having stood since his own childhood, was a testament to that.

He did know, now, that the area did have unsettling qualities to it and he experienced one first-hand, with his encounter with the phantom fox, Keaton. With that discovery, he had thought of visiting the Great Fairy; if one childhood myth was real, who was to say that another wasn't?

He even thought back to his childhood that he had spent playing in North Clocktown, along with Alan and Anju and a few others from town. Now that he thought about it, there had been some unusual going-ons back then. Bushes would shake, but nothing visible moving them. Toys and objects would be moved to strange places, as if teasing the owners, sometimes they would be lost entirely.

One memory he had that was quite strange was when he and Anju had been no more than eight; the girl had lost a favorite toy of hers--a tiny stuffed Keaton which she had gotten for her birthday. After hours of searching, he had found it, sitting atop the slide, a grin on the little toy's face. They had searched the area up and down, definitely covering the entire slide, but couldn't find it, but yet, there it was.

Shaking his head, he continued searching for something--anything--that would be a clue to the Great Fairy's whereabouts. The clue was a fairly large and blunt one, but he had trouble finding it, what with the darkness and all. Dark cave entrances were hard to find in the middle of the night. It was on the western wall of North Clocktown, which Kafei swore he remembered as being...well, a wall. Taking a deep breath, he stepped into the darkness of the new cave.

Taking a few strides into the darkness, he suddenly felt very ill at ease. Something was terribly wrong...something he couldn't quite place. The feeling was similar to that of when he had first awoken in this smaller body, but he couldn't understand why he felt that way. If this really was the Great Fairy's cave, then he would be back to normal in no time...Why would something be wrong?

Forcing himself to continue on into the black cave, he slowly removed his mask before calling out into the darkness.

"Hello?" he managed around the sudden lump in his throat. "Hello? G-Great Fairy?" Straining his ears for a response, he thought he heard something further on down the tunnel. Hope rising, his broke into a jog, clearing the rest of the tunnel in a few bounds.

The black surrounding him suddenly erupted with color and light. He let out a cry of surprise, shielding his eyes with his hands.

"...help me..."

He looked up slowly. "Who said that?"

"Help me..."

"...Help me."

Cautiously he looked over his shoulder.

Behind him was the tunnel he had just come out of, just as dark and dank as it had seemed when he was passing through it. He turned back around and took in his new surroundings. He was standing alone in what appeared to be a large fountain. He remembered hearing someone saying the Great Fairy lived in a fountain, but...there was nothing here...

"Help me...!"

Something flew up at him from out of seemingly nowhere, causing him to stumble back a step. Another zoomed by his ear a moment later, making a soft twinkling sound as it passed. One by one, more and more of the strange pink, flying creatures began to fly at him from all directions, ushering him into the middle of the shimmering pool.

"Help me!"

"Broken!"

"Help me!"

"Fix!"

It took him a moment, but he soon realized that these strange...things were what had been calling to him. "F-fix what?" he asked.

"Imp!"

"Wretched Imp!"

The pink glowing creature began to encircle him, slowly becoming faster and faster, as if he had enraged them by asking what was wrong.

"Horrid imp!"

"Broken!"

"Fix!"

"HELP ME!"

Letting out a cry of fright, he broke out of the ring of light and rushed back into the darkness of the tunnel. Still the lights called, begging for help. "Stop it!" he hissed, clenching his eyes shut, his hands covering his ears. He continued to run, suddenly relieved when he finally broke free of the darkness of the cave and ran out into the moonlight. He ran down the slope blindly and towards the tree. In his hast, he did not notice the protruding root which his foot then caught under, sending crashing down to earth, a now quite familiar feeling.

"Mmmhmm, hehe. You must pay better attention to your surroundings, Child, or else you will not survive to the Day of the Fall." Jumping to his feet, he shot around, finding himself standing a few feet from the Keaton. "Oho! You brought my symbol tonight! Hehe, I suppose this visit will not be as special an occasion as the last."

Panting, he could not speak, but instead pointed in the direction of what he had coined as 'the cave of the monstrous pink fluff balls of evil' and spattered a few non-sensical words, attempting to explain the threat to the fox. The creature simply turned its head in the direction and giggled out another one of its laughs. "Oho...you have gone into the Great Fairy's cave, Child?"
Finally regaining his breath, he gave the fox a bewildered look and replied, "That could not have been the Great Fairy's cave."

"Oh, but it is, Child! That is the Great Fairy of Clocktown and all of Termina Field, having lived in that humble cave since the time the giants still roamed the land, watching over the peoples that were put under her watch, keeping evil at bay and healing those in dire need. She was quite funny, hehe." For the first time, he saw what appeared to be regret in the Keaton's face. "That was, before. Oho! Yes, she's gotten herself into quite a mess," the phantom's normal, grinning face returned, "but nothing that cannot be restored! Hehe, by the right person, of course." It leaned in closer to him, causing him to stumble back, "Oho, but you are not the right person. Not at all. Not he who can change destiny, destiny appointed by even the gods themselves."

"Uh, sorry?" he gave the creature a look of discomfort and it sat back to where it was, rather than continue looming over him. Ignoring the creature's babblings about destiny and whatnot, he went back to the topic that concerned him. "If that was the cave of the Great Fairy, where is she?"

"Oho! She's there, most definitely."

"I was just in there and there was nothing closely resembling what anyone would consider a Great Fairy. Just these tiny, creepy pink things with weird faces asking for help and complaining about...an Imp..." the shock hit him as he came to his own answer. Knowing this, the Keaton took up the chance to talk again.

"Oho, I can see that you have figured out the riddle yourself, child. Yes, those accursed creatures you saw within the fairy fountain was, indeed, the Great Fairy herself. Much like you, that vile masked Imp has placed a curse upon her. Unlike you, however, where the Imp's sole motivation had been...hehe, entertainment, it was fear that drove him to undo the Great Fairy."

He thought for a moment, taking everything in. Nothing made sense now, but considering that nothing had made sense before, he wasn't as distressed about it as he probably should have been; in fact, he felt more curiosity than anything. "The Skull Kid has always been a troublemaker, sure, but he's never actually done anything to hurt anyone before." He stared the phantom in the eyes, asking "Why was the Skull Kid afraid of the Great Fairy?"

Matching his gaze, the fox replied, "Who mentioned anything about the Imp fearing the Great Fairy?" seeing the puzzled look on his face, the Keaton laughed and continued. "I will warn you, child--take this to heart. There is more to this than you or the Imp. This surpasses even the Great Fairy and I. Heed this warning over the next three days, while you search for your beloved--your plight is insignificant. If, in the face of such insurmountable odds, you were to lose hope, if you were to run away, do not...hehe, how you say, 'take it personally'?"

"No." The lone word he spoke carried such force that the Keaton silenced, humor replaced by grim seriousness, "I will not do that. I don't care what else is happening, I don't care how insignificant I am compared to whatever is going to happen. The only thing I care about is being at Anju's side at the alter as we wed."

"Then..." the Keaton spoke quietly, seriously, "You may survive yet."

They both stood there, in silence, each thinking--whatever it was the Keaton could possibly be contemplating, he had no idea. "What if I were to...fix the Great Fairy? Wouldn't--" a quick shake of the phantom fox stopped him in mid-thought.

"You cannot. You are not he who controls the power of a god so strong that fate itself can be changed. That destiny lies upon another's shoulders. And," the Keaton added, "If you were somehow able to, it would be for naught; the Great Fairy's powers are not up to the task of breaking a curse bestowed by that vile mask."

"But..."

"Hehe, you are a hopeful one. I genuinely wish to see that stay with you over the course of the next three days. But, the fact of the matter is, that Imp wields powers beyond even the Great Fairies. The fact that they have been shattered alone is proof of that; luckily, they were strong enough that they could not be destroyed by that darkness."

"Then...but, I thought you said the Skull Kid did this to the Great Fairy out of fear of her powers?"

"Oh, oh, child," the Keaton snickered and shook its head, "The Imp's own fears of the Great Fairies have little to do with this. This...what happened to them, was due to three things. A precautionary tactic in case their powers had been underestimated, a hindrance for 'He who can change Fate', and...as amusement."

At the sound of his disappointment, the fox added, "At least you know now that you are somewhat special; it takes someone in genuinely dire need or incredible magic power to see the Great Fairy's entrance."

"Oh, and what good it did me, "Letting out a growl, he kicked the nearby tree with all his might. "What a waste of time! Not only am I more freaked out, but now not even a Great Fairy can heal me!" sighing, he turned back to the Keaton, who watched him with a glint of amusement, "What am I to do?"

With what appeared to be a fox imitation of a human shrug, the phantom offered, "No clue, as you would say. Hehehe. There is much more to all this than you, as I said. It is greater than Clocktown, of any of the countries here--it is greater than Termina."

"Yeah, that's just great. Right about now, I couldn't care less. What's going to happen that's so bad that it's more important than the Skull Kid cursing people and destroying Great Fairies?"

"Oho, that...that Child, is not in my place to say. You will find out soon," gazing up into the sky, the phantom stared. Following the direction, he saw the face of the moon, staring directly at him, as if the thing had been watching him the entire time.

Unsettled and disturbed, he turned back to ask the Keaton a few more questions, but...the phantom fox had disappeared when he had turned away. "Yeah, bye to you, too. Oh, and thanks a lot." Grumbling to himself, he shoved his hands into his pockets and grimly began the walk back to the laundry pool--making sure to not allow his gaze to go anywhere near the vicinity of the horrid moon.