The long days of Ignius seemed to be fading into the longer, cooler nights of Venti. The crispness in the air told the world to change its attire, the leaves on the sparse trees obeying as their green leaves began to fade into different hues. This time in Venti would be a good time to travel, the nights and mornings could be cold but when the sun was in the sky was usually made for a pleasant day. Arayna had found the temperature to be good for her exercises. The fairy had started of habit of flying down the river as far as she could, before resting and flying back ‘home.’ By all her calculations, the river would lead her to the Freeorin Forest when she was able to follow its length better. The fairy enjoyed her trips out of Iria’s walls and being the countryside, she often thought of trying to “camp” out here in preparation for her coming journey.

Exhausted the fairy landed on the bank of the river, finding a suitable rock to perch on. Arayna looked down the river, trying to gauge the distance she had gone. ‘I think I can still make out the walls’ she thought glumly. This was the farthest she had made it in her flying endurance exercises but would be nowhere what she needed to make it to the forest. Feeling defeated she collapsed over the rock, forgetting her “new” height, causing herself to ungracefully descend to the ground. Unhappy and cursing things, in general, she laid in the mud allowing herself to give into a moment of despair.

Arayna laid there until she became uncomfortable as the moist earth leeched away her heat. Rising up Arayna attempted to wipe off the mud. “If I cannot leave soon it will get too cold to travel,” she told herself, disliking the idea of traveling in the cold. Arayna had not worked out how she could cover her back, let alone wear a cloak, and still be able to fly. As slow as she felt she was at flying she knew traveling by foot would be even worse.

“If it is not already,” she added, finding her appendages going numb. Silently she cursed herself for laying in the mud. Not quite feeling ready to fly she turned back towards the distant town and began walking with her clumsy gait, trying very hard not to fall into the mud again. Rubbing her arms, she tried to will heat to return to them, hoping the movement would help her regain her lost heat. If nothing else, she would walk until the morning passed and the sun made a better appearance in the sky and warmed things up more.
The fairy’s thoughts turned to trying to figure out how she could manage this trip, as she often did on her return trip. Her thoughts turned to using magic. Sighing Arayna shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts of travel spells. Given where and what had happened last time, those were “emergency only.” At least at her current level of magical competence. Arayna tried to remind herself of this fact and ignore the swirling doubt that she would survive her quest to find another fairy.

Hefeydd cackled to himself, being careful to keep the sound low so as not to alert his prey. He had been all over the little mortal village, being sure to check at each of the buildings to make sure they were paying the correct tribute to the fairies who lived nearby. He, of course, was obliged to partake in a little of the bread, honey and milk that had been left out for the little folk. To make sure that it was suitable, of course. His belly was full and he had been more than satisfied. That was, until he had come across this building. The hateful mortal who lived here had left nothing out. Nothing! That could not be tolerated! The fairy folk in this area upheld their end of the bargain, Hefeydd wasn't sure what the particulars were of this particular bargain but he was sure the mortals got their fair end of it. Was it to much to ask for a little tribute to be left out now and then to repay the kindness of the fey? Of course not! An example would, of course, have to be made, and Hefeydd was in just such a position to take care of that. He had thought long and hard as to how he was going to take care of this pesky problem, spending at least a handful of seconds pondering before coming up with the solution.

He landed in the shadow of the building, a cottage that stank of the mortals who lived within, and used his magic to pull the shadows and wrap them around himself. Thus hidden from mortal sight, they rarely paid enough attention to their surroundings to see things right in front of their ugly faces let alone clever little fairies hiding in the shadows, he walked silently over to the front door. The mortal woman, neither young nor particularly old if Hefeydd was any judge of these things (which he wasn't), had a belly that wobbled as she walked. He pat his own belly, which until a moment ago had felt like it was fit to bursting but was at this moment flat, and shook his head. Mortals didn't know how to control their urges. Greedy things, they were. Greedy things, which would make his plan easy to finish quickly, and then he would be on his way. 

It was a simple enough thing, gathering the magic to summon up food. The problem was deciding exactly what he was going to bring into being. He thought about a nice bowl of milk, laced with honey. He sure found it delicious, but he couldn't decide whether or not a human would be tempted to just pick it up and drink it. The he started thinking about fresh fruit, vegetables maybe. Fresh bread? Maybe if it was something warm, then. The day was a little chilly, it was a sign of the changing of the seasons. He knew for a fact that humans felt differently about the colder weather. The mortal woman would be likely, or so he was convincing himself, to go for a hot treat. He had a sudden craving for apples, and then the idea struck him. A pie! He would create a nice little apple pie and that would be the delivery method! His stomach gurgled. He might have to create two, one for himself. He licked his lips at the thought, and almost went off track right then and there. If it hadn't been for the mortal, humming as she brought out a basket of wet clothing and almost stepping on Hefeydd, then he might have left then to find something delicious to eat that he didn't have to create himself. But the sheer clumsiness of the mortal made renewed his anger. He waited for her to pass and then gathered his magic, focusing it on the step leading to the door and creating out of thin air a warm apple pie. It set his stomach to growling again.

Deciding on exactly what to do to the pie was almost as difficult as deciding on what to create in the first place. At first he had been thinking about something simple, a curse perhaps that would cause her to stumble and fall for the rest of the day. Remembering the way the mortal had almost trodden on him, though, made him second guess that. If she was already close to stepping on innocent little folk then who knew what would happen if he did that to her? No, the thought of that was too much to bear. He might end up responsibility for hurting another fairy. He had thought then of poisoning her. It was a good idea, though maybe a little harsh. If she died then who would be here to feed fairies after the lesson was learned? Maybe there were other, smaller mortals that she cared for who might, he supposed, learn from the lesson. But then it might cause far too much fear among the rest of the village. The mortals might decide that their deal wasn't worth it any more. They might take action to hurt fairies. Another bad idea. Then what about paralyzing her? He could do all kinds of fun things to her, torment her, teach her the lesson quite nicely. He liked the direction that thought was going. If she couldn't move, that was good. No risk of her hurting other fairies. She would be alive to spread the warning to other mortals. But would they listen? Maybe. But what if she was asleep? Kept so magically for some time. It would be a good show of what would happen to those who didn't hold their ends of bargains. No deaths. He thought about this, but was already gathering the magic to layer over the pie.

A huffing sound came from within the building and Hefeydd looked up to see a dog standing there. It was eyeing him warily, obviously caught between wanting to protect the mortal and confusion about the tiny figure standing next to the food that hadn't been there a moment before. Hefeydd, for his part, stood silently in his cloak of shadows. Dogs had very sharp senses, he knew that. They wouldn't be fooled by the shadows. He took glanced at the mortal, stood far enough away and still humming to herself. That was good, she wouldn't be able to hear. Not unless the dog made a ruckus. "Shoo, dog. Go away! Shoo!" Hefeydd waved his hands, trying to get the dog to go back into the house. It advanced on him, instead, a hungry look in it's eyes. Hefeydd really didn't want to do anything to harm it, but it looked like the silly dog was going to try and force something. Hefeydd tapped his foot impatiently, mind whizzing around different thoughts as he tried to decide on the best way to take care of the dog, not alert the mortal and still have the pie plan in place. He shot another glance at the mortal and with a huff he dropped his shadows so the dog would be able to see him for what he truly was. The dog froze in place, and Hefeydd nodded. Good. "Now go, dog. Find somewhere else to be." The dog, thankfully, decided this was the time to avoid risking the anger of a fairy and took off with it's tail hung low between it's legs.

Hefeydd was grinning, gathering the shadows once more when he heard the sound of flapping wings. He groaned, perhaps a little loudly but the mortal woman didn't seem to notice, and turned in place to look up at the roof of the building. Up there, upon the thatched roof, perched three large crows. The biggest, standing at point, looked down upon Hefeydd with one good eye. Crows were frustrating creatures. They didn't know their place. Hefeydd glared up at them. "Shoo, crow. You have no business here." The crow's head tilted one way, then the next, watching Hefeydd carefully. "Funny place to leave a pie. Perhaps you would share?" Hefeydd wanted to shout at the crows, shoo them away, but he didn't want to alert the mortal. Which left doing something quiet. He would give them a chance, first, to leave by themselves. "I said you have no business, silly crows. Now leave." The crow on the left hopped forwards, and Hefeydd grit his teeth. He gathered a little spark in his hand and quick as a blink he shot it at the hopping crow. It exploded upwards with a screech and took off, the other two crows hopping backwards. The mortal looked over, then, and Hefeydd had to jump to the side, diving back into the shadows. Where there stood a large tabby cat. Hefeydd took one look at the cat hung his head. This was becoming far too much of a hassle. Maybe tomorrow he would come back. The cat opened it's mouth to say something, but Hefeydd knew better than to get caught up in a conversation with a cat. He lifted his hands and shook his head. "No." was all he said before gathering the shadows around himself once more and taking to the air. He could hear the sound of confusion from the cat, the agitation of the crows and faintly the sound of the mortal woman saying, "Oh, who left this here?"

The mortal village had been near a river, which Hefeydd knew for a fact led to a much larger area filled to bursting with more mortals. He hated those places. They smelled awful and nobody there had any respect for the little folk, but that was the direction he had begun flying in and he didn't want to turn around right now. If the cat, or those pesky crows, were following him then he would lose face if he turned around right now. Which meant he was going to have to follow the river, at least for a little, before he could circle back around. He would take care of all those other troublesome things tomorrow, though. They weren't chasing him away, he was just far too irritated to be dealing with them tonight. He nodded to himself and continued on his way.

It wasn't long after that that something down by the river caught his eye. He circled it once, twice and three times for luck before finally coming down to land in behind it. He straightened his robes, today they were a rich purple and free of mud, though how he had managed to go a full day without dirtying them was beyond him, and he cocked his head to the side to inspect the creature before him. It looked like some kind of cross between a fairy and a mud spirit. He cocked his head to the other side, to see if that would help him identify it, but no luck. He didn't even think of how much the action made him look like the crow from before. Well, standing here wasn't going to accomplish anything, was it? He cleared his throat and took a step forwards. "Hello there! It's a pleasure to meet you, whatever you may be! Do you perhaps know where there is food around here?" he had meant to introduce himself but had been sidetracked by a growling in his stomach.

Arayna’s thoughts were in turmoil as she debated the meaning of the village’s existence. It was good, as it meant she had gone further than she thought and could start out further down the river. It was bad because she somehow had flown past a whole village without noticing. Chastising herself and vowing to pay more attention, she heard a greeting from behind her. The timing seemed too coincidental like some power had decided to punctuate the point that thinking about needing to pay attention, was not actually paying attention.

Losing her footing she fell back onto the bank and got a fresh coating of mud. As she fell she cursed herself for not having thought of walking slightly away from the bank and the mud. A foot or so would not have caused her to lose the river. The fairy decided her best bet was just to keep falling back, positioning her wings out she let the momentum of the fall to continue carrying her down until she ended up lying in the mud. Arayna hoped this way she could see whatever was behind her, and if it was a bird looking for brunch possibly lose sight of her.

"Oh" Arayna was dumbstruck by the being behind her. It was a figure in her own height range, that was not something she had expected. Scrutinizing the figure, she admired his robes, she hoped to one-day own clothing like that. Instead of her poorly self-made and muddy attire. Why did she always seem to be a mess or become a mess when meeting people. Did the powers that be have some sort of rule that she could not look at all dignified.

Wait, was that another fairy and him!? Previously Arayna had not been sure that there was such a thing as male fairies. Arayna could not remember meeting one, but that could be said about a lot of things before her escape. Why had her memory been so hazy when she was bottled, it seemed better now… or would one be able to know if they were forgetting stuff. Had she known before her escape? Shuddering she realized back then she had not cared.

Here thoughts wandered out of her control. If there where male fairies did those mean little fairies were made in a similar way too little humans? Would she have had a mother and a father? Arayna had read many different stories and was not sure what to believe. She had seen everything from spawning from magic, as elementals or from a baby’s first laugh, to going through a breeding process like many other beings. Shaking her head, she tried to shut down that train of thought, unsure of where it led. It dawned on her that he was likely studying her while she laid defeated in the mud, just as she was studying him.

"You’re a guy… I mean. Uh… I did not know there where fairy men. Are you a male fairy? I have only met a few fairy women before, or they might have been sprites or pixies or sylphs, I have not been able to figure all of that out," she babbled finding her cheeks burning. Surely it was just because she had met another fairy and had nothing to do with his gender, or if it was just surprising. Arayna stood up and briefly faced the river to see the damage.

'I look like I am trying to become a mudball, and well on my way to accomplishing that goal' she thought dismayed, here wings were even covered. She turned to face the man while trying to find an excuse for her state of dress. "Erm sorry, I have been falling down a lot," she stated realizing that unless she found a roundabout way to say the truth she would not be able to say an excuse anyway, her throat always got tight and her tongue burned when she tried to lie.

“I… um.. have food I could share…and some sweetened tea with milk… there should be enough. Just give me a minute to try to figure out how to deal with this mud. I don't think you would like mud-covered food, at least I don't, it is not very sweet." She babbled helplessly, wondering why she felt she had to keep talking. "Oh, I hope you like sweet things, I um have a major sweet tooth, I seem to be trying to live off of sweets." Why could she not stop talking, she should wait to see if he wanted to answer.

Not wanting to brave the river the fairy uncorked her flask and dumped some of its contents onto her hands, at least clean them off. It would have to do. Removing her belt so she could access the bags attached, she looked at her muddied belongings, she really needed to stay away from the river bank she thought annoyedly. At least the contents should be fine, if not a little crushed.

Moving away from the bank and setting her belongings on the ground she dug through the bags and pulled out her rations, setting them on a rock that would be a makeshift table. She had bread she made, dried strips of meat she had nicked, some various fruits (or rather parts of fruit) she had collected and honey to slather everything in. Silently she thanked Morticia and her friends, wherever they were, as she dug out some wood pieces she had vaguely gotten into the shape of cups and plates from the second bag. Arayna had made them, imagining having a meal with that group. Maybe that was why she was carrying some extra food too, just in case. She dug a second canteen out of the bag as well. "Help yourself" she stated gesturing towards the meal. Deciding to just accept the muddy mess that was her current look.

Hefeydd's wings vibrated with barely contained energy as he waited, as patiently as he possibly could, for some kind of reaction from the mud creature. He hadn't meant to startle it, he had thought his tone of voice and the volume at which he had spoken had been perfect! Apparently not, though, as the creature had been startled into taking a mud bath. Or maybe it was a spirit and it was just trying to return to the mud. He certainly hoped that that wasn't the case, he had just met the creature and was really hoping it would know where to get some food. He didn't want to scare it away, though, and decided to treat it like a scared animal. No sudden moves! He could do this. He began to lift his hands, in an attempt to hold them out, but the creature let out a little gasp of surprise. He froze in place, only his wings twitching, those traitorous things. Whatever this thing was, it was extremely skittish. As it lay in the mud, seeming to be deciding on how to next muddy itself further, his eyes wandered away from it and to the river, following it back as he wondered if there would be other travelers nearby. Ones who weren't so scared of nice little fairy folk.

Then it started speaking normally and he realized that it sounded female, or wanted to him to think it sounded female at least. But then why would it want him to think it was female? He glanced around, wary of any traps that might be about to be sprung upon him. He didn't want to end up in a bottle, or a cage, or a bag… He didn't want to end up in anything, really. Then he would have to get out and… It would be a hassle, really. Why was this muddy creature trying to hurt him? He hadn't done anything to her, it, whatever! He turned from his investigation of the surrounding area in time to see her back, as she was turned to the river and had her back to him. Upon her back were disheveled and mud covered wings, but unmistakably they were wings. Well, mud spirits didn't have wings like that now, did they? He was forced to take a step back to study the creature better. It would have been better to move closer, to see it better, but that would have meant going into the mud and he didn't want to end up like whatever this thing was, did he? He squinted his eyes and then they widened as he realized it was a fairy under all that mud! What was a fairy doing rolling around in the mud like that, anyway? Was she a little… Simple? He had heard of fairies who weren't all there in the head. Maybe they were sent out to live in the mud so they wouldn't be in the- She mentioned food and his thoughts struck a wall.

She had been talking before that, of course, but he wasn't about to admit that he hadn't been paying attention. Instead he wondered exactly what this muddy fairy was up to. Was she trying to trick him? Oh, he wasn't going to fall for it, not like this. She had begun fishing around in her belongings, pulling things out and cleaning her hands and setting things up. It all looked delicious. It might even be delicious. But Hefeydd hadn't become the First Night by being tricked into owing other fairies debts, oh no, not him. So, they question now became: Was she trying to trick him into eating food because there was a spell on it, or was she trying to trick him into owing her? Either way was bad. His foot began to tap as his mind worked furiously to sort through this dilemma. He was hungry, and here was food. She was offering to share it, which was where the problem lay. It wasn't a payment or an offering that he was owed. Tap tap tap went his foot as the other fairy set out the meal, and then it struck him. An evil little grin spread across his face as he glanced over at the simple fair she was preparing.

Using magic he began to summon his own additions to the meal. With a little focus, and a burst of magic that left him feeling a little light headed, he swept his arm and next to the rock the other fairy has set out appeared a fairy sized picnic blanket, covered in various items of food. Beautifully carved wooden bowls held steaming soups and tiny chunks of fresh vegetables, plates covered in fairy sized cakes, perfectly sized glass goblets held different juices and teas. He had outdone himself! If she thought she could trick him into owing her for her meal, well she was in for a surprise! He looked over at her, attempting to make his smile less obviously evil. "Oh, I couldn't ask for you to provide everything. Here is a little something from me to you." He was quite proud of himself, not just because of the meal he had created but also because he hidden his intent behind it's creation! He was feeling a little faint, though. Maybe something simpler would have been better. His wings drooped a little and he shuffled over to the rock to look more closely at the meal the strange mud fairy had set out. It all looked nice, except from the meat. He stuck his tongue out at that, but his stomach gave a loud gurgle as he looked at the bread and honey. He had to watch the other fairy, though. Wait for her to start eating first.

Arayna shifted uncomfortably under the other fairy’s gaze. She found herself more confused than usual when he conjured a picnic Arayna shifted uncomfortably under the other fairy’s gaze. She found herself more confused than usual when he conjured a picnic basket filled with food. ‘If he planned to do that why did he ask if I had food?’ she thought confused. Had he just wanted company to eat with? Arayna had read that fairy’s where merry folk and participated in something called trooping, had he stopped because she was another fairy. The female fey never had quite figure out what trooping was, seemed like some party or precession.

Maybe he was just dubious of food from a mud monster; he had made a face at her food. Did she have weird eating habits for a fairy? Maybe he did not like sweats though she thought she saw cakes among the conjured food. “If we put the two together I think we have a right little feast,” Arayna declared, excited at the prospect of trying “normal” foods of her people. “I will share my food for some of yours, even if not it would be nice to have company” she stated, unsure of what the situation was. Grabbing a piece of the dried meat she dipped it liberally in the honey; she liked the sweetened meat though did not much care for other ways it was prepared. It was what humans seemed to travel with so Arayna had decided to use it that way, too. Arayna wracked her brain desperately, how was she supposed to act in the company of another fairy.

‘Well not being covered in mud would have been a good start’ her inner thoughts snarked at her. Sighing, she cursed her inner thoughts, ‘shoo if you cannot be helpful’ she scolded herself. After chewing a bite and washing it down with tea, she decided it was probably just better to admit defeat. “You are the first fairy I have met out here, well I mean, out of a pet shop and like I said before I am no longer sure everyone or anyone I met was another fairy,” she stated uncomfortably with the situation, his grin seemed off, and for some reason felt as if she had done something wrong.
“I am not sure about anything, so if I greeted or said something wrong I humbly ask for forgiveness.” She started shifting uncomfortably, cheeks burning. After all, the first thing she had said to him was that he appeared to be male and she had not known such a thing to exist; she supposed that was rude. “I am out here because I came from the city because I heard that there was a forest filled with other fairies, I thought it would be nice to meet them, so I have been trying to figure out how I could accomplish that,” she added feeling the need to explain herself to the man.
“As you can see it has not been going well today,” she added dryly, as she reached for more of her food, hoping she had amended whatever she had done and could figure out what was going on. She had read that fairies could be unpredictable, asking for food then summoning food fit that. Had his summoned food been a way to show off and belittle her? Was she supposed to summon something in reply? Had she entered some game or contest? She could summon food but found it not worth the effort, if the plan was to restore strength. Arayna realized she had never summoned an item with it before; maybe it was to show off. Was she supposed to do something? Deciding that meeting him, unless he chose to set her on fire or harm her in some way, had made up for the prior lousiness of the day Arayna decided against responding in any way besides eating her food until clarification was given. She did not want to offend him further.

“Do you live in the village, I was thinking of staying there instead of going all the way back to the city” she added, trying to show why she might be interested in such a thing. She found herself unsure as to what she had done or was to do. Maybe a question would show her new acquaintance she really would like to have someone to converse with, especially a being of her kind.

"Oh yes, yes, yes, yes, eat the food." Hefeydd nodded as he spoke, wings twitching a little with a mixture of excitement and agitation. His first thoughts, that she had been a very simple fairy, were beginning to be replaced as she began to pick at her own food and ignore his own, far better, conjured food. Was this all a part of a trick she played? Lure people into a false sense of security so that she could trap them? That would make her a very clever fairy and that would mean that Hefeydd had to watch out for that. 

She mentioned seeing fairies in pet shops and Hefeydd's blood ran cold. He narrowed his eyes, silently cursing the mortals who would dare treat his people like animals. Soon, when he had enthralled this fairy, beating her at her own game, he would make her take him back to these pet shops so that he could mete out punishment. She claimed to be a fairy from the city, and wanted to return back to the home of the fey. How did she end up in the city though, he wondered. His wings gave another twitch. He couldn't just outright ask her for the information, though. Then she would have something she knew he wanted. But she was also talking about that mortal village he had just left. He thought about the nuisances that had greeted him there and suppressed a shudder. That was a place he certainly didn't want to go back to, at least not right now. But…

"If you wanted to go there, I could certainly take you and introduce you to all kinds of other fairies, oh yes." His eyes glittered as he grinned at her, wandering away from her rock and muddy food to pick up a plate of sweet cakes and a glass of juice, which he then brought back to her. "And before that, if you really must, I could take you to that village too. You really should eat first, though. And do you have a name?" 

Arayna smiled shyly as she watched the man; when his wings twitched, which they seemed to do of their own accord; they shined a beautiful silver in the light. ‘He is not eating,’ Arayna noticed at the man’s insistence she eat, had he not been the one to ask for food? The fairy’s heart sank when her fellow fairy seemed to be walking away. Had he conjured food for her because she looked so pitiful? She had gained some weight since escaping but still seemed rather gaunt. But, could one even tell that with all the mud on her. This line of questioning had not shed any light on what was going on, and it seemed now it seemed she would be on her own again.

The woman watched the man retreat from her rock back towards his picnic, maybe he was going to eat his food. Arayna’s smile was temporality chased by shock at the man’s statement he could help her find the forest. It quickly returned, brighter than before, as elation filled the fairy. Arayna had never dreamed of meeting someone who would guide her there. Perhaps she could ask him some questions about fairy society before getting there.

She happily accepted the offered food and drink, again admiring the craftsmanship. It was much better than her clumsy models. Arayna praised the details, realizing this was one of the first objects she had seen that had been made by her own kind. ‘I wonder if he made it with the spell or conjured it.’ the woman wondered, becoming positively restless from the excitement of being able to get objects made by and for fairies. A skilled artisan she was not. Arayna tore her focus from the glass and tried to focus on her new companion. ‘His hair is silvery, too, focus’ the woman thought to herself, still grinning but cheeks burning.

‘He does not seem to like the idea of going to the village’ her mind offered more helpful than her last errant thought. Well if he did not want to go there, did she really need to, would it not be better just to go to the forest? The offer of accompanying her to the village made the fairy feel as if her face was going to crap. Her smile broke when she felt as if something on her face had cracked and fallen. Startled she looked down, both relieved and dismayed upon identifying it was some dried mud. Embarrassed the fairy went to take a drink, only to spill it as she suddenly found herself coughing, feeling as if she was choking with the man’s next question.

Arayna’s eyes widened and her expression betraying her utter bewilderment. She did not know much about her kind, but she was pretty sure asking a fairy their name was rude. That had not been in the books, but the strange, fragmented, hazy memories of a woman warning her of the power of names and then proclaiming her name as Arayna. The fairy was sure there was a second name and something about a promise, too, but had not been able to puzzle out the whole memory. Unless her last name was promise. No that did not sound right.

Arayna knew her memories where unreliable, but was it really this bad? Had that memory just been something her brain had made up. It was true the fairy had told her name to Morty,, and nothing had happened. Was it ok to give out your first name? Is that why her memory seemed to be protecting her last name, had she promised not to give it out? Arayna squirmed uncomfortably, as an itch developed at the base of her wings. This happened a lot when she thought about having made a promise she could not remember and therefore not keep. No, the itching worsened when she thought of giving the man her name.

Raking her brain, the female fey tried to figure out what to do. ‘He asked IF you had a name’ her inner thoughts chimed in, seemingly having decided to be helpful. It was true, he had asked if she had a name, not to give her name. Perhaps he had realized she had been in the pet shop and thought that if she had not known her own kind might not have one. That was innocent enough, and a valid concern, the biggest verifier to the woman that her name was Arayna, was the fact she had been able to say so out loud.

Still, why did it seem like such a large part of her wished she could answer no to the question. Knowing that would not work as an answer, she tried to craft a response. “I think I remember my… uh.. rather part of my name,” she stated, having to amend her statement as her throat burned when trying to say name. “As much as I would love to head straight to all the other fairies, I think I would rather not meet them covered in mud. So wish to stop there to clean up,’ she stated, pointing towards the village. ‘Besides the mud has made me too heavy to fly, especially with how tired I am,’ she added in her thoughts, not wanting to say this out loud.

“If you do not want to go to the village, I could meet you back here at some time to travel to the forest together. Why don’t you eat too and we can make plans” she added, debating if she would be able just to drop the whole name thing. But if fairies did not give names, how did they address each other. Maybe this was an opportunity to find out more about her people, she should know how she was expected to introduce herself if she was going to meet ‘all kinds’ of other fairy folks.

“I am under the impression it is rude to ask fairies their names" she stated having decided to leave out the part about it being dangerous to give names because of some sort of power, she did not want to come across as accusing him of anything. Could she say untrue things if she thought it was true, how did these pains and itches work if she had a delusional belief? “Is this true? If so what do fairies call each other,” she asked. Realizing this could be answered with it depends and would still leave her scrambled if the question did become what is your name, she took a deep breath before continuing “For example how should I address you?” Arayna finished feeling proud of herself, she felt that had been a good reply. In case it was rude to ask for a name, she had not asked for his name, just how to address him. Maybe that is what fairies did. She could follow his lead. Shaking herself out of her own thoughts, she sighed at her further ruined dress.

Returning the cup to her lips watching the man as she waited for the man’s reply. Hoping he would start eating; something about him not eating, but watching her made her uncomfortable. Maybe she did not like being watched while she was eating, doubly so if covered in mud. That seemed reasonable, it is not like eating was a graceful activity.

His grin froze in place as the other fairy accepted his offerings. It was all he could do to not cry out in victory. Silly fairy, that's what she was. All his previous suspicions seemed to be borne away along with the food and drink he had been holding. It was short lived, however, as his strange companion seemed to begin inspecting the objects in her hands as if she had never seen simple plates and glasses before. Or as if she didn't trust him and was trying to find something wrong with the food. He wished he had thought of that beforehand, but she hadn't seemed to be a direct threat at the time. Now, though, he was regretting his decision. Was it not better to be safe than sorry? On the other hand, since she had offered him food, and he had offered her food in return they were now bound by certain laws of hospitality. He couldn't do anything to outright harm her, not while they were sharing a meal. He supposed he was getting a little ahead of himself, though. There was still the chance that she was just a dullard who had been sent out into the wild, or simply wandered off. Even now there might be some worried fairies out there looking for her! Her talk of pet shops, though, made him think that that was unlikely. Did fairies become stunted in their minds if they spent prolonged time in captivity? He would need to ask others at some point, find out for sure.

Then her face began to fall off. Or more accurately, the mud that she had been bathing in began to flake away. What was revealed was a rather pink patch of skin. Maybe there was something in the mud that was irritating her skin, making her itchy. That must be positively terrible, considering she was covered in the stuff. He briefly wondered why, instead of just cleaning her hands earlier, why she hadn't just cleaned her clothes and body in that nearby stream. Because she was a silly fairy, right. Or pretending to be. The question seemed to answer itself as she tried to take a drink from the glass but instead began to choke on it, spilling it all over herself as she did. He thought he was prone to getting messy but this was just ridiculous. Did she have no pride in her appearance?

The silly fairy seemed to drift off into her thoughts for a moment, before she began to squirm as if uncomfortable. Finally, she began to answer his question in such a way that caused his eyes to narrow. Now why, if she really was just a simple fairy, was she trying so hard to swerve around his question? So she must be devious, though not particularly clever at the same time. Her answer was stumbling, faltering. It made it obvious that she was trying not to answer him, while at the same time giving an honest answer that made him continue with the idea that she might have taken a serious blow to the head once or twice before. Especially when she began to change the subject, which in itself would have been an acceptable diversion, only to circle right back around to the original topic of her name! This one. She was either a mastermind masquerading as a fool or simply a fool. It had troubled him that she was talking about leaving to go to the village before that, but there was little he could do to keep her here. He wasn't even sure if he wanted to keep her here!

Her question was another troubling thing. He didn't want to appear to be spending time thinking about it so he answered immediately. "Rude? How can it be rude to ask how to address one another? Why, am I meant to go around addressing you as 'Silly Fairy'?" he chuckled, as if to show he was joking about this while in his head sticking her with the name. "You asked me, and so I shall tell you! I am the First Night, and everyone calls me Hed." He sketched a deep bow to her as he said this, partly to hide the evil grin on his lips and allow himself a moment to compose his features. "A… Lady, such as yourself, must surely have a name."

Arayna found herself overcome with a fit of laughter at the man, no Hed’s question. Being addressed as ‘lady’ was just too much. “How where you even able to say that… that must mean… something different to fairies… that or other fairies CAN lie.. But to do so with a…. straight… face? ” she gasped out between chuckles. Arayna had never seen a lady covered in mud, slop juice on themselves and seemingly be able to choke on air, at least not in the way human’s used the word lady. The vibrations of her laughter causing her to spill yet more juice on herself and causing more mud to free itself, just furthered the feys laughter. Setting down the provisions, she grabbed her stomach, enjoying the laughter. “Can you imagine a human noble lady… covered in mud,” she gasped, finding herself positively gitty at the idea of covering a noblewoman in mud.

“Not that I would…” her laughter lessoning though did not subside as the end of her sentence died, tongue burning. Apparently, she would dump mud on a noble lady, and be rather gleeful about it. Well, that was fun to learn about yourself. “That would be mean,” she added instead addressing herself more than her companion, still finding herself chuckling at the idea. Who knew she had a mean streak in her, though it would not really hurt the woman, well maybe her pride. Arayna tried to shake herself out of her thoughts on this subject, it was not productive. It would probably better she never devised a way to do such a thing. Less she devotes herself to dumping mud on human ladies everywhere.

Failing at her attempt to refocus herself she found herself wondering if she could somehow move enough mud to give someone a good coating. She had moved earth before… could she move mud? Again trying to focus herself on her companion she was struck with an idea that would let her run an experiment that would help her further her new goal of flinging mud at fancy people, after all why limit it to ladies, and help out her current situation. Still chuckling she found herself focusing on the mud on her clothing, willing it to gather into a ball.

Gleefully she watched as the mud responded and she found herself in possession of a floating mudball. Arayna really had been half mudball! Though the idea crossed Arayna’s mind, she decided her newfound mean streak did not go so far as to launch the thing at her fancily dressed new companion, First knight Hed she reminded herself. Arayna instead launched the mudball at the river; imaging it hitting the fish who had tried to eat her, thwarting her earlier attempts to remove the mud. Her dress was still ruined and she still felt as if she had spent the morning covered in mud but she was glad to clean, or at least relatively so.

Realizing she had been ignoring her companion she tried to figure out what they had been talking about. Had he said anything else while she was busy thinking of ways to cover people in mud and throwing things at the river? Coming up blank she strung together what she could remember.

I am lucky to have met you, First Knight Hed, I do not remember laughing like that before she stated smiling brightly. Oh right, hadn’t he asked for her name? No that could not be right they had established that was rude right? Why where memories so tricky. Oh was her moniker now Silly Fairy? Pouting she hated the idea of that being her moniker though could understand why it would be. Or was that her title like his was First Knight; did that mean he was important, why was he bothering with a silly fairy like herself.

Hey if fairies had knights and ladies, a snicker broke out of Arayna at the word lady; how long would that last, did that mean there where… what where little humans called again? Arayna liked those, at least she thought she did, they where fun to play with. Would little fairies be as fun to play with? Maybe more so as Arayna could pick them up, instead of them picking her up. Though fun to run around with and talk to, being caught by the little big people was sometimes not fun… unless they had fancy dresses for her or real tea/cakes, though she supposed the pretend ones had been fun too. At least by what hazy memories she could piece together.

Remembering they where eating Arayna reclaimed her discarded cake, taking a bite. Thank you, this is really good First Knight Hed,” she stated, smiling at the sweet treat. All the while her mind ruminating on her new subject of little people and the possibility of little fairies “Are their little fairies” she found herself blurting out to her companion, still feeling gitty. What was wrong with her, wait had she said that out loud?

Finding herself choking on her next bight of cake she was glad to have at least not spilled some this time. Her face burned. Why, just why had she said that out loud. There would have been way more tactful ways to ask that, she could have asked about his family if he had a mother and father that would have answered the question, maybe he even had.. Children… that is what the little humans were called.. Or rather the fairy equivalent. He looked a little older than her and if he was important it might make sense he had a wife and kids. Why did that idea make her sad, what was wrong with her!? Arayna found herself debating if she could and should just move into and become one with the mud, she could attack fancily dressed people for a while. Perhaps returning to her original goal of meeting her own kind when she had a better working memory… or at least knew how to eat and drink properly.

Hefeydd's features froze as the silly fairy began cracking up, cackling away to herself as if mad. He could feel his wings twitching, ever so slightly, and his foot about to begin tapping with frustration. He was able to control himself, though, as she continue her laughter. Calling her a lady had been meant as a joke to himself, a snide comment to soothe himself and poke fun at her while at the same time attempting to charm her into lowering her defenses. It hadn't been meant to start her off into this… Whatever this was. She spilled more of the juice over herself and there was that feeling again, the feeling that he was dealing with someone who needed to be kept in a safe place far away from sharp and dangerous things.

She seemed to stop and sober for all of a second, as if realizing something about herself. Her thoughts dragged her off, but she continued to chuckle at his comment, calling her a lady. For someone who seemed upset about a perceived rudeness in asking a name, she was certainly being rude right now, wasn't she? The chuckling trailed off and her eyes seemed to glaze over. He stepped over towards her, lifting a hand with the intention to wave it in front of her eyes in an attempt to recapture her attention but all of a sudden she was using magic. He recognized the spell, it was something that was simple enough. She took the mud that coated her and focused into a ball which could be flung at others like a weapon. He found himself summoning a spark of magic himself in response, assuming she was finally springing her trap. Given the fact that she had managed to trick him into trusting her somewhat she now had the advantage over him, his own response would only be a weak strike with electricity, enough to elicit a gasp of pain and distract her at most. Instead of hitting him, however, the ball went flying off into the river. 

He released the hold he had over the magic, stepping back and holding his hands behind his back just in time before she returned her focus towards him. He didn't want to show any signs of weakness, not after she had just had the chance to harm him. What had she been trying to do though? Was that just her way of cleaning herself? Not very efficient, was it? While most of the mud was gone she was still very dirty. He was finally able to see more of her, though. Her clothes looked like they might have been ruined, and he couldn't tell whether her skin was a darker shade than his own or just smeared with dirt. Her hair could have been a pretty blonde, or dark. With all the dirt in it, it was still hard to tell. Well, he guessed he really couldn't tell much more about her now, could he? She was definitely a fairy, though. That was something, wasn't it? Yes.

She smiled and complimented him, in a way, telling him she was glad to have met him. If she hadn't been irritating him since the moment they met then that might have made him feel a little warm. As it was all it made him do was question what insanity was coming next. She drifted off into her thoughts once more but when her attention returned she finally took a bite of one of the cakes. His wings twitched again as he watched, this time from the sense of victory. It wasn't much, really, but she had taken a bite. As long as he didn't eat more of her food than she ate of his… He would wait a moment, though, before inspecting what she had laid out more closely. He picked up a glass of his own and took a sip of the juice that he had summoned. It just wasn't all that satisfying, though, as he had been forced to conjure it himself. It was something, though. Her question was just another nail in the coffin.

"We are all little fairies," he replied to her, his head tilting to the side and his brow furrowing in confusion, "though some of us are silly as well as little…" this last part was muttered under his breath. He thought she might have heard him because it was at that point that she began choking, again. Her face began to turn bright red, even under the streaks of dirt it was obvious. He took a step towards her, hands held out, unsure whether she was dying or angry with him. She got herself under control just as he reached out to her and he found himself standing uncomfortable close.