Finley Cai Aies Hall April 15th, 20XX

My lungs burned as I sped through the air, too focused on escaping the hellion behind me to remember I wasn’t great at flying.

I felt the attack before I saw it and narrowly avoided capture by a magical noose.

“Great dodge, your highness! I’m going to increase the intensity by a notch!”

She sounded much too calm for someone that had been chasing me around for the past three hours. Her voice was steady, and I could tell that she could go on for the next five days if she needed to.

Suddenly, the previous exercise’s tedious drudgery looked so sweet to me, and I desperately wished to return to those times.

“Ahh!”

My voice ripped out of my throat as the noose wrapped around my leg and forcibly dragged me backward. My body moved faster than my mind did, and I grabbed at the magical rope with my bare hand.

My waist nearly snapped in half as I folded in half and yanked the rope out of existence. In the end, it was just magic in a pattern. As long as I could pull the magic out of the pattern, then the structure or the spell would break.

I wrapped my hand in a thin sheet of freshly purified magic and quickly tempted the remnants of magic out of the spell she’d used to make the rope.

“Excellent, your highness! But too slow!”

The first time I’d pulled that trick, Cambridge had frozen in place and had given me the time to reach the ‘safety’ point she had set up, but after that it had only bought me enough time to escape being captured.

I fired off three orbs of magic at her to slow her down, but she effortlessly dodged them and continued on her warpath. Her sword dented as she slammed it into the body of my staff with an unexpected force from her petite body. She shook out the dent from the blade and attacked again within the span of a few seconds.

Vines of magic writhed out from around her and tried to bind me down as well, but I’d gotten used to dealing with those.

I held firm to the staff and met her at every exaggerated move she made while using my own magic to fight hers off. I was showing off more of my knowledge than I’d initially wanted to, but it looked like she’d put it up to me being talented in using magic.

I could have pretended to be terrible and let her catch me, but she’d promised me something exciting if I could completely escape her and make it to the safe zone. While I didn’t know what it was, nothing she’d brought me yet had disappointed me.

When she made her next move, I got a vine of magic around her waist and flung her as far away as possible as it made it over to the safety zone.

The sudden sneak attack caught her off guard, but she recovered at the speed of light and hacked away at the magic with her sword. She made it out quickly and sped toward me, but it was too late.

I dived behind the figure of another fairy that had recently entered the training field.

“Corin help! Cambridge has lost her mind.”

My voice came out in gasps as I whined and came out even more pathetic than I’d meant it.

In response, the fairy pulled me behind her and unhesitantly drew her sword at her sister.

Corin showed up a few days ago, claiming to be Cambridge’s sister and another one of my caretakers. Going by Cambridge’s slightly annoyed expression and Esmeralda’s disappointed one, I’d happily brought her in.

“Elder sister.”

Cambridge slammed into an invisible wall as she stopped mid flap and rolled her shoulders to show the strain on her wings that the sudden movement had caused.

Corin put out an arm and stopped Cambridge from coming any closer to me.

“What exactly are you doing to a child that isn’t even two decades old?”

If I’d thought Cambridge was overprotective and indulgent, Corin put her to shame on both fronts. I’d worried that I would have grown up spoilt if Cambridge had raised me, but if Corin had raised me, I’m sure I would have turned out completely useless.

When she had first arrived, she’d tried to carry me around like one would a toddler, but I’d stopped her. Being carried around by someone who looked the same age as I didn’t sound fun to me at all.

“Calm down Corin, We’re about done with the lesson anyhow. And seventeen isn’t that young in human years or in ours. Didn’t you run away to the army when you were but fourteen?”

“Times were different. And how can you compare this precious face to me?”

She took a gentle but solid grab at my face and pulled it toward her sister.

Okay. That was embarrassing, but at least Cambridge had stopped hunting me down.

Cambridge’s status was strange. She could argue Esmeralda down on any little thing, and all the other servants in the palace deferred to her, yet she would follow Esmeralda’s orders as they came and would take part in chores just like the other workers in the place.

Corin rarely, if ever, listened to Esmeralda’s orders, but she would still go out on missions that Esmeralda found. As for the chores, she’d taken over the kitchen and would often bring snacks for me to eat while I did whatever I was doing.

I rarely got hungry, but the things she brought were tasty and didn’t leave me feeling heavy and gross like food usually did.

Corin finally let go of my face after forcing Cambridge to call me cute, not that I appreciated the ‘compliment’, and handed over a soft bag full of candied flower seeds.

I didn’t know how she made them or if candied was the right word, but they were downright addictive. I wished I could bring a large bag of them with me to the human world, but when I’d tried the experiment with a smaller sac, they had wilted and spoilt.

Ai.

I waved off the disappointing memory and tuned back into what the sisters were talking about.

“Did you get it?”

“Did I get- Of course I got it! How could I fail in getting a gift for his highness?”

“Then who from? You know those breeders.”

“It came from the same place that provided his mothers. Besides’ who would dare pull one over an aide of the royal family. You’re too cautious, sister. Cai.”

She suddenly called my name and drew my attention from the bag of seeds.

“Yeah?”

“I heard Cambridge promised you a present? Come with me and I’ll give it over to you. You’re mighty impressive for outrunning Cambridge!”

She spoke so casually that it somewhat threw me off. Esmeralda would speak formally to me, but she would also talk down at me in a way that made me angry. Cambridge spoke formally to everyone, so I’d gotten used to it.

Corin’s speech was warm, and it helped that she constantly complimented me.

She took me by the hand and led me around the building to another section of the large courtyard. I still hadn’t explored the whole place, so I looked forward to discovering a new section of my property.

“We’ll continue next time, Cai.”

I didn’t respond to Cambridge’s ominous farewell, but I moved closer to Corin and kept my eyes trained ahead of me.

At first, it was just to avoid making eye contact with Cambridge, but soon my attention was captured by an odd-looking building I’d never noticed before.

Corin opened the large, heavy-looking doors with more ease than her appearance would have led me to expect and revealed an entire stable of animals.

Reptilian, avian, aquatic, mammalian.

They were all there, looking as ridiculous as the next. All the stable workers paused what they were doing and respectfully bowed at the two of us, but I wasn’t in the state of mind to notice.

“Wh- What are those?”

Corin gently patted me on the back as she looked at me with a kind but pitiful expression. It was similar to how one would look at an incredibly dumb child that couldn’t recognize something they had learned a million times.

“It’s a fluttermoth. Didn’t I promise I would bring you one?”

Maybe she had when I was younger, but I had heard nothing about it recently.

“A fluttermoth? Is the ‘moth’ from mammoth?”

I was so freaked out that I let an incredibly lame joke slip.

There were two of them, and the first looked more imposing than the second. The beasts had the bodies of mammoths, long fuzzy trunks, tusks and all. The most ridiculous parts, though, were the giant butterfly wings that sprouted from their sides.

It was almost larger than I could take in without moving around, but the more I see, the more awed I was.

Corin laughed loudly and gently moved to stroke the head of the larger of the two. I didn’t know what I expected it to do in response to being petted like a dog, but it only let out a soft trumpet sound and nuzzled its giant head into her palm.

“This one’s mine Fie. She belonged to your mother, but she recognizes Cambridge and I pretty well. This child- is yours.”

She pointed to the smaller of the two with an affectionate smile and gently led it closer to me. She held it back as it curiously looked me over and tried to approach me.

“Oh! Looks like he likes you! Why don’t you give it’s head a pat? They really like it when you get the top of the trunk.”

That was about the last thing I wanted to do, but Corin and all the workers in the stable looked at me expectantly. I turned to the giant beast one more time and searched its face.

It did the same to me and looked at me with a curious but lazy expression. Its snow-white fur and wings seemed to glow against the brown colors of its surroundings and made it look more and more pleasant. I reached out a hand and gently placed it against the monster’s trunk, relishing the feeling of its soft and fuzzy fur.

I’d never had a pet and had never been a fan of animals overall, but this feeling was enough to make me somewhat regret it.

“Heya, big guy.”

My voice came out softer than I’d ever heard it, and I could see Corin chuckle as she heard it.

I continued to stroke at the fur between its eyes and at the top of its head, losing myself to the addictive feeling. I felt a warm feeling flow into me and fill my heart. It was kind of similar to when I’d first used magic but was more gentle.

Until then, I handled the massive culture shock pretty well. But then it broke out into a smile.

“Wah!”

I screamed and fell back onto my back. My wings had wholly frozen up and refused to propel me backward. Corin quickly flew over and helped me onto my feet. It was hard to appreciate it when her face was red from trying not to laugh.

“Can it understand me?”

“About as much as a dog can... although I’ve heard that the more thoroughbred ones can somewhat read emotions.”

It wobbled over to me as we spoke and put its head under my hand in a clear sign it wanted to be petted more. I obliged and continued absentmindedly while listening to Corin speak. She spoke about its origins and what it could do, but I noticed something and completely tuned her out.

Its previously white and translucent wings suddenly thickened and colour seeped into them like an invisible brush was colouring them in. I immediately turned to Corin for an explanation.

“Is it supposed to do that?”

She nodded, but she had an odd expression on her face.

“That’s proof that it’s acknowledged you as its owner… usually, we have to make an official contract, but it’s not unheard of for the beast to take the initiative.”

Ah, so that was the warm sensation that I’d felt earlier.

It had resembled a spell, but it hadn’t been as structured, and I could tell that it wouldn’t hurt me. I gently reached out with my magic and got into contact with it, intending to investigate a bit more, but as soon as it came into contact with my magic, it dissipated and left a warm, comfortable feeling in its place.

“Well, it’s good it likes you so much, but that means you have to learn how to take care of him! But first, you should give him a name before the contract expires.”

A name for a Giant mammoth with wings. I searched my mind for a good one, but only one name came to mind.

“Galen? Galen.”

I repeated the name to make sure the beast didn’t hate it, but it didn’t seem to have any sort of reaction. I repeated it one more time.

“Galen.”

The warm feeling resurfaced in my chest, but this time I felt it solidify and permanently attach itself to my body. The contract had been completed, just as Corin had said it would.

“Galen, it is then.”

Corin had one worker write the name onto the top of his stall before guiding me on how to take care of its fur. Although she would occasionally lecture me, the lesson was mainly just her taking care of the larger fluttermoth and watching me as I repeated the same thing on Galen.

I asked a few questions as well, but it was overall a pleasant time.

“Galen’s awesome and all, but what’s his purpose? I can already fly by myself.”

“And humans can walk in terms of travel doesn’t mean that they want to.”

Well, that was fair.

“Ah”

We stayed like that for a bit until the stable doors suddenly swung open, and Cambridge flew in.

“Corin! Esmeralda accepted! I’d sent word for them to hold off, but they’re expected by tomorrow!”

It was weird to see the usually stiff fairy speak in such a panic, but the vicious expression on her face showed how angry she was. Did this have anything to do with the gifts that kept coming into my building?

Corin paled, and her teeth gritted together as well.

“How did they even find out? Did she leak the news?”

Cambridge took a deep breath before she spoke again, but it did nothing to hide the furious rage in her eyes.

“If even you found out so quickly, why wouldn’t they?”

“Watch your tone Bridge, you can be angry, but don’t you dare take it out on me.”

Cambridge quickly apologized to her older sister and turned to me with an awkward and pitiful expression.

“Cai.”

She called me by my name for what felt like the first time. Corin looked upset as well, but she’d gone silent.

“What’s going on?”

The calm mood of a few seconds ago was completely gone, and the air was tense.

“I know the deal was that we would not interfere with your human life, but this is truly a necessity. Would it be possible for you to give us a week? If you do, then you can have the next week completely off. Whether you want to spend it in the human world or here, I’ll make sure Esmeralda is too… preoccupied to bother you with lessons.”

Ah.

So they needed me to stay here for a week. Going by all the other context clues I’d gathered, it probably involved someone that wanted to see me.

The urgency kind of bothered me. After all, if they’d waited almost sixteen full years to want to see me, then why couldn’t they wait a few more days?

Ordinarily, I would have said no immediately; after all, it was so last minute, and spending a week with a random stranger didn’t at all sound appealing, but seeing the panic on the two’s faces made me think about it a bit more.

“Your highness. Please cooperate with us., This was Esmeralda’s mistake and I’ll make sure she pays for it, but it would only hurt you if you couldn’t meet with this individual.”

Corin sounded hesitant as she tried to convince me, and I could tell that she wasn’t too happy about me meeting this mysterious individual.

This piqued my curiosity. Who exactly could throw a palace into such a tizzy.

I’d finished my last final yesterday, and work was going smoothly since Nik had come into the company. It wasn’t like taking a week off would compromise much, so it all depended on what I wanted.

“You just need me to be around?”

They looked awkward.

“We can’t promise that’s all you’ll have to do, but I can guarantee that you won’t have to do anything you don’t want to.”

I looked over at the two and weighed how much I cared about their opinions. On one hand, it sounded like I would have a terrible week, but on the other, it would inconvenience Corin and Cambridge a lot if I went MIA for that long.

“I’ll need a day to sort out things in my ‘human’ life, as you call it. If you let me go now, I can be back by the usual time tomorrow.”

Cambridge’s stiff face burst out into a bright smile, and she grabbed Corin by the hand.

“Thank you, Cai. We’ll go prepare your quarters so you can go. We’ll see you tomorrow!”

She tried to pull Corin away, but the taller girl ripped her arm away and grabbed me into a hug.

“Don’t worry Cai, we’ll make sure they don’t do anything you won’t like.”