As I was alone, I got a somewhat surprised look from the queen as she was trying to guess the meaning of what I had just said. She raised a brow when I took off my jacket. Luckily now, with the fake blouse - trademark Terri- I can keep it on without getting it destroyed in the fairy summoning process. The fairy covers now only my torso, but entirely instead of only a part as before; however, she is no longer spread over my legs which spares me the 'trousers getting shredded' type of problem. We were slowly getting a better way of living together.

I watched the two old bodyguards standing behind the queen. Now, that would be maybe a bit too much to ask for them to be removed. I ignored Terri's protest and asked her directly:

“Terri, would you be so kind and show yourself?”

“You can call me White Flower; the queen can easily see through the disguise!” - She was a bit miffed when she said this, whilst the goo started to separate itself from me and transform itself into the fairy. It was not Terri that appeared in front of me but White Flower, the fairy, donned a wonderful white dress.

The bodyguards stepped forward on both sides of the throne but did not take any hostile activities.

“Oh!” - the queen straightened herself looking more attentively at me than at White Flower - “I did have the feeling that your tattoo was looking at me. Now I know why! Hello Terri!”

“Queen, may I introduce White Flower, the fairy, which hides with us under the name of Terri, White Flower, this is queen In’Hetta of the amazons.”

White Flower flapped her wings, raising a couple of centimetres from the ground, and grinned:

“Queen In'Hetta! I am glad to meet you! I heard many things about you!”

“I hope good things too!” - In’Hetta said with a bit of laughter and added - “we always lived in peace with the fairies. I did not know whose magic was Cala using, but now I do. You are Cala's friend and thus welcome with us. Unfortunately, we do not have the means and the chance to make a welcome reception as we would like to do.”

White Flower answered, bowing a little her head, landing slowly back on the ground:

“I thank you for your welcome, queen! The amazons live in harmony with the forest and her beings, which are my friends..."

I kept quiet whilst they exchanged pleasantries. Soon White Flower expressed her wish to remain incognito as she added, visibly worried, glancing at me:

“...but I fear the wrath of very dangerous beings if word is spread about Cala and me, and especially who or what exactly Terri is.”

The queen reassured her:

“Your secret is safe with us!”

OK. I feared it could have been worse; thinking at the feline fur, I was happy White Flower was not offended by it. Let's see what can be done. Without further introductions, I jumped directly to the point:

“White Flower, can you remove the curse the harpies have cast over the queen?”

She looked hesitatingly at the queen and explained:

“Most fairies cannot remove curses. Almost none of us can do that” - then she added a bit reluctant - “however, I learned how to do it.”

The queen raised a brow looking askew at her:

“To remove a curse, you need to be able to see it. Can you see it?”

White Flower grinned:

“You are right, queen; one needs at least to understand dark magic to be able to see curses. Yes, I can see, I would say, any curse; however, you are not under one. There is no curse to remove here!”

She turned and gave me a look as if she would have more to say and was unsure if to tell. I did not think about it as I was too disappointed:

There goes my last chance of support. She cannot see it… She only bragged.

The queen came to the same conclusion as I did:

“So you cannot see it...”

She said that with a sigh; however, White Flower shook her head stubbornly:

“There is no curse!”

I sighed at her stubbornness:

“The queen is about my age White Flower, not my grandmother's. There is a curse that makes her older!”

The fairy shook again her head, flapping her wings, getting again higher in the air:

“Why do you think the cause of what you see is a curse? I can assure you again that there is no active or passive curse over the queen. I may know the explanation, but that raises even more questions.”

I was a bit aghast. Everything must be complicated... Why can't she just remove the curse?

“And that explanation would be?”

“This is old age.”

Before I could protest, she continued:

“There are two springs on the two sides of the Sky Mountain. If you drink water from one of those, it makes you older, the other, younger. The first is guarded by harpies, the second one by unicorns.”

The queen made a step back, looking surprised at her:

"These are old legends! Do you mean there is some truth in those?"

White Flower flapped her wings again:

"Some? I know that those fountains exist!"

The queen raised a brow. Her intelligent, now old face has kept all the mimic I remember. Only now, there were much more wrinkles to underline it.

“So, what you say is that the harpies just took water from their fountain and spilt it over us?”

“Yes, but it is not as simple as it sounds” - White Flower pondered for a moment, then continued - “The harpies do possess the ageing-water fountain; however, that water decays rapidly after being removed from the fountain. I know the unicorns can transport some water in their horn and keep it active for a longer time, but everything comes at a cost. Probably the same is true for the harpies. As the unicorns, they may be particularly resistant to the ageing water, but even so, all those harpies would be long dead. This does not make sense.”

The queen exclaimed:

“Now I better understand the legends about the harpies' touch, the touch that would steal people's youth!”

White Flower nodded:

“Yes, this is one of the bad tricks the harpies used to do, when they did moist a couple of feathers in that water and then touched somebody they hated with it, but that does work only near their fountain, and it also has an effect on the harpy, even if limited. This is why all those stories also tell how the harpies tricked those persons on some pretext or another to go to a certain location before, in fact, close to their fountain.”

“Hm” - the queen looked hesitatingly at White Flower - “at least this means that when we got further away from the mountain, they may be less able to attack us in the same way. You said that there are two fountains. I wonder if, after their attack, the harpies can go to the youth fountain and rejuvenate themselves?”

White Flower shook her head:

“That is the only thing that would make sense; however, they do not know where that fountain is. It is magically hidden. Even worse, if you did find the way once, it changes, and it is exactly as difficult to find it a second time. But even if they would discover it, that fountain is guarded. The unicorns would never allow them to do this; they would kill any harpy that approaches their fountain.”

“Is the access not the same for the ageing fountain? How do the harpies find their way back there?”

The fairy acknowledged:

“Yes, it is. There are always some harpies guarding their fountain, and they help with signalling the returning path to the others.“

"Wait!" - I interrupted their chat as I was wondering about something - "how does this ageing water work on children?"

White Flower grinned:

"The water does not make them directly old, but it accelerates their growth. It does not break the natural process; it just speeds it up; however, you need to compensate with a fast intake of nutrients to allow for normal development."

Now I better understood the turbo-grown-up toddlers that constituted most of the amazons forces.

“What if they have an arrangement with the unicorns? Or somebody did that on their behalf?”

“Hm. I do not think something like this could happen, but we can try to get the answer straight from the horses' mouth, so to say” - White Flower said that with a grin, then added - “I know a spell that lets me contact the unicorns. It works like a summon, but in reality, it summons the image of the glade from the youth fountain, and I hope that one unicorn will deign to talk to us. They don't like to do this, but normally they are friendly.”

She looked happy at us to be able to provide a solution, then turned towards the queen:

“Maybe the unicorns would be willing to help the amazons find their spring, or they may send a unicorn to rejuvenate you and the camp. As I said, they can intake water in their horn, which they use mostly to rejuvenate nature, especially in cases when this is sorely needed. This is where the stories about rejuvenating unicorn horns come from... As long as you are allowed to touch them. A dead unicorn's horn does not help. I know a true story about an elf princess who had been tricked by the harpies and was subsequently saved by a unicorn. But I must warn you not to hope too much. They might refuse to help, and I have no power to force them. Once you step into the summoning circle, they will be able to see and hear you, as much as we will be able to see and hear them. It is up to you to convince them you are worth their help. The best is to be sincere and answer straight the questions they may ask.”

“I understand. What do you need for your summon?”

“I have all I need except burning charcoal.”

Nice. This must be another quest in the game. After my sauna meditation, I was reassured and could enjoy the game. It is a nice pseudo-dream, and it is exciting to see how all these quests evolved and linked to each other. It's cool to see how they solved it; it flew in so naturally. I do wonder if, with this new concept of no repetitive quests, of realism, are there enough quests for all players? I already got the amazons, the fairy, how do they do it? Will each and every player get a fairy and an amazon to heal? I got the whole tribe!? Probably because I am high-level in a low-level play area? How can that be? The game must be incredibly complex, with quests scaled on every player! No wonder they have some problems stabilizing the world. What the heck of a game!