She's... So tiny. Sitting on the seat was a tiny fairy. She has green hair, bright, silver wings, lively golden eyes, and a green and white dress, though her face looks to be one of a young girl. "Where is Gabrielle? And who the hell are you?"

The fairy looks at her body. "I guess it'll be difficult to hold a decent conversation when I'm this tiny." She begins to grow until she reaches an adult human size, and it just wasn't just an upgrade in size. It seems as if her whole body matured, both her face and... the rest.

"So. What did you want to talk about again?" She giggles.

Zak grabs her by the neck, choking her, and in a fit of rage, pushes her into a nearby wall, creating a crack in it. "TELL ME WHERE GABRIELLE IS!" Zak looks at the fairy in rage, but something seems odd. Her face doesn't look in pain, rather, it's quite the opposite. Her wings are going crazy, not to fly, but it seems to be something else. Zak drops her to the ground, "You sicken me."

"Why did you stop?!" the fairy looks up at Zak with puppydog eyes, her face flushed red. Her deep breathes only give Zak conflicting feelings.

Zak coughs in an attempt to awkwardly redirect the conversation. "Where is Gabrielle?"

The fairy does a hmph face and looks away. Zak gives her a look of complete confusion.

The fairy looks back to him, "You just met a beautiful woman from your previous world and you're not even going to ask for her name?"

Zak glares at her, "You kidnapped Gabrielle. Why would I care?"

"Oh, so that's what it looked like. She's not actually kidnapped."

Zak gives her yet another confused look.

"What, you're telling me you didn't realize it already? You're in a dream, honey."

Zak contemplates for a moment, "Then what about the large crack in the ground that took the carriage? Also, don't call me honey. You already sicken me enough."

"Alright, darling. You were already asleep by then." the fairy smirks slightly as she says this.

As she says this, Zak looks to the ground as his mind realizes something: It makes sense then that I couldn't hurt the man and yet still feel him, but the thing I'm curious about is how come I learned a skill while asleep, and how come [ Sleep Resistance ] didn't show up when I initially fell asleep...?

Zak looks back to the fairy, "Oh, another thing. What's with your obsession with Edgar Allen Poe? And why is the Wizard of Oz the ending?"

The fairy does another hmph face while looking away, "You skipped the other eight floors by CHEATING! You missed out on the good ones, too..." She looks somewhat dejected. "But I entered the world when I was still in my English high school class..."

Zak realizes where the story is going as her eyes begin to tear up, and raises his claw to stop her. "You do not have to continue. I'm assuming that you resonated with the feeling of dread in Edgar Allen Poe's work. Anyways, why did you kidna- put Gabrielle and me to sleep?"

The fairy wipes her eyes and looks up at Zak, "Because I had a hunch that you were from the same world as I was. The Edgar Allen Poe puzzles were simple tests. You skipped the difficult ones..." Though it seems she wants to hmph or giggle here, Zak notices that she seems emotionally drained, probably from the memories of her past life. Also having a dark past life, he sympathizes. His angry demeaner had unconsciously been turning kind as they talked. So much for intimidation.

"What led you onto that idea?" Zak mentally sighs as he helps her get up and pull her seat out for her, then takes a seat next to the one she was in. He crosses his legs, which looks quite odd for a beast, but feels comfortable for him. Now that he's not blindly angry, he takes in the surroundings. They are seated at a plain, but beautiful wooden table. On the table is a pile of various books, most being collections of poems by none other than Edgar Allen Poe. Near the far side of the table is an odd looking book. The book is thick, the cover being dark green with a golden tree in the center, and runes below the tree.

"You're a beast that was obviously talking to the girl. Telepathically. That's not normal, especially for a shadow beast. I knew something was wrong, and my suspicions were proven when you solved those puzzles. No one from this world knows of Edgar Allen Poe." The fairy notices where Zak's eyes were, "Ah, that. It's a magic book that I'm learning. It's about nature magic."

After contemplating something for a moment, Zak looks at her curiously, "I thought this was some sort of dream-like realm. Why can you have something in here that you haven't completely memorized? And I have some more questions, are reincarnated humans really common here? And why did we both not reincarnate as a human?"

"That's a lot to answer... The reason the book is here is because I can bring real-world objects into my dreams. It's odd, but it essentially acts as an infinite storage. It's my Unique Ability. As for ressurection, we are actually extremely rare. There was only one more reincarnated person in this kingdom that I know of. I believe he was some Scottish fellow, never personally met him though he lives very close to me. And I didn't actually reincarnate as a fae. I was originally human, and went through a ritual to change my race."

Zak looks down thoughtfully, interesting... "Anyways, can you bring me to Gabrielle? We need to be on our way."

"So cold! You're not even going to offer to bring me along?" The fairy makes a pouting face.

Ehhhh? "No thank you. You've already caused enough trouble."

"But you just met another reincarnated human, and same here! I've been stuck in the forest for ages, all alone! I want to go explore with another reincarnated human!" Her golden eyes seem to be twinkling, but Zak is completely uninterested. It seems she's regained her mental energy after talking a bit.

Wait, since this is a dream... Zak activates [ Sleep Resistance ] and wakes up. He jolts slightly as an odd feeling rushes to him, almost as if his soul were reentering his body. Interesting. I thought that'd be a passive, not activated. And that feeling was quite odd.

Next to Zak, in the middle of the road, is the carriage. Stepping in through the back, Zak notices the sleeping Gabrielle. He leans down and picks her up, moving her to a more comfortable position, but as he does so, she wakes up.

"No Aurora! Don't come!" Gabrielle screams out as she wakes up. She notices Zak and covers her mouth with her hands.

"Who's Aurora?" Zak questions her.

"Aurora is... a fairy. That I met in my dreams..." Gabrielle blushes.

She must be embarrassed about sleep talking. Zak lets go of her and gets up to continue towards the nearest town, but as he sits up in the coachman's seat, a green blur hits Zak, knocking him off of the carriage.

"You almost left without me!" the adult fairy angrily says to Zak as she makes a pouting face.

As she says this, Gabrielle gets out from the back of the carriage and sees the fairy, rubbing her eyes and yawning, "Aurora?"

"Yes! It is me!" Aurora says as she takes a cringy superhero-esque pose, "Aurora!"

"This is Aurora? What are your relations, Gabrielle?"

"Sh-She's my friend..." Gabrielle looks down. "I met her in my dream, but I didn't think she was actually real... Please don't hurt her though! I just thought that maybe... I don't know."

Zak sighs, she can't completely trust me yet. Understandable. I guess I have to prove to her I can be trustworthy. "Fine Aurora. You win. Though, I won't recognize you. Just don't get in our way."

Aurora nearly jumps for joy as he says this, and Gabrielle smiles.

A pain in the rear just joined... Zak sighs.

Zak sits back on the coachman's seat and continues driving the carriage, Gabrielle and Aurora happily chatting in the back. Just what kind of dream did Aurora drag Gabrielle into...? Continuing peacefully along the road, Zak's mind drifts back to his past. After getting to the darker thoughts, he shakes his head and sighs.

As they make their way to the town, the carriage is forced to stop near the edge of the forest, hidden in a small opening near the road. The sky begins to change, the vibrant colors of the setting sun slowly seeping into the vast expanse above them.

"Why are we stopping?" Gabrielle asks curiously.

"I'm getting as close to the town as possible. As a beast, I cannot enter."

Gabrielle looks down sorrowful, but Aurora does a mischeveous smirk, "If you take me as your familiar, then you could use [ Transform ]..."

Zak raises an eyebrow, "Did you know this would happen?"

"Mayyyybe."

"No. Gabrielle, can you please buy us some food and water, and if you happen to find a cheap magical book or something, please get one. I need to work on magic. Be careful though, since we only have a very small amount of money from Alastair."

Gabrielle recoils slightly when Zak mentions Alastair. "Apologies." Zak puts his arm on her shoulder and gives her the sack of money.

"It's alright... He was just a good man."

Zak mentally recoils. That hurts, you know...

Gabrielle leaves the carriage towards the small town, and Aurora decides to strike up a conversation after summoning a small rabbit that follows Gabrielle.

"So big boy-"

"Please don't call me 'big boy'. It creeps me out. A lot."

Aurora makes a playful face, and Zak just does a monstrous sigh.

"I'm only having you here because of Gabrielle. She likes you and I don't want to upset her. Anyways, you're some sort of summoner? I'm assuming that rabbit is to keep an eye on Gabrielle."

"Whatever, you'll learn to love me sooner or later, big guy." she pauses for a moment, "Yes, I'm a summoner. And I have a question."

"Hm?"

"Why do you like Gabrielle so much?" Aurora scootches next to Zak and leans up against him, grabbing onto his huge arm.

It's like two goddamn pillows. "This is a fantasy world; running around with two sacks of fat will only slow you down." Zak unconsciously says his thoughts to Aurora through telepathy.

She's stunned for a moment, but her face grows red. "The hell? You enjoyed that insult? You are seriously weird."

Aurora awkwardly coughs as she lets go, "Anyways... If you take me as your familiar then all of my skills become yours! Though they're not as powerful, they still work well. For example, [ Transform ]! You could walk around as a human with Gabrielle all day long in the town! Even go on a..." she leans in to Zak's ear, "Date."

"Do you think I'm into young girls?" Zak pushes Aurora away from her shoulders. She makes a pouting face.

After an awkwardly long pause, Zak sighs, "So you can do rituals to change races?"

"Oh, yes!" Aurora's face brightens as she gets a moment to teach, "Naturally, you can change through similar species by reaching level 200 and ranking up, but to change your race tree completely requires you to complete a ritual, usually with a high-rank species of the species you want to change into."

"I see. Why did you choose fae?" Zak asks curiously.

Aurora looks down with a grim look, "I'd rather not talk about it..."

"I see. I'm sorry for askin-"

Aurora gasps, cutting off Zak. "What is it?" his voice grows worried.

"Gabrielle, she's being kidnapped by bandits!"