Misu's+Quest

The sun shimmers, warming the island cozily. Misu lays on her back in the long grass–the gentle breeze causing it to sway like an ocean–fast asleep. A lady bug flutters towards her and lands on her nose, folding up its wings into its shell. Her eyes snap open wide, and she quickly relaxes.

//What a silly lady bug.//

She takes the lady bug onto her forefinger carefully and watches it adoringly. She smiles huge for a moment and then gently places it onto a blade of grass. Misu gets to her feet and dusts off her soft, minty dress and starts to walk calmly to the village.

The grass starts to rustle quickly, trailing away from the village.

//Is somebody out there?//

She clutches her dress fearfully, and immediately braces herself.

She darts after the rustling without thinking any further.

//I need to stay a bit back, I don’t want them to figure out that I’m following them.// She panted, struggling a bit to control her distance. //What if nothing is going on? I’d just end up looking like a stalker!// She giggled slightly.

The mysterious figure suddenly stopped. They’d reached the mountains edge.

Misu crouched down in the edge of the grass.

//Ahh! This isn’t good!// She peered behind her; the village wasn’t anywhere in sight. //We really ran all this way? Why would anyone even come out this far? Only I ever come out here and that’s just to gather the Mystical Aura Flowers, I wouldn’t otherwise. No one in their right mind would just do this on a whim!//

She poked her head out.

Her eyes grew enormous in terror, her heart pounding like a steam hammer in her chest. Her hands trembled as she rose them to her mouth thoughtfully.

//Did they find…//

The figure had been building a fire while she was in a daze. It added more leaves and some twigs to the fire. It roared up furiously.

Misu watched, she was completely puzzled over the actions. As she continued to observe, she saw that the figure sprinkled some of the magical soothing water on itself and step into the pile of twigs, the fire completely engulfing the figure.

Misu watched carefully, squinting slightly from the heat radiating from the fire.

The figure stepped out, completely unharmed.

She bolted away. The grass whipped at her body and wings. She reached the canyon. She jumped and launched into one of the caves. The dry dirt was kicking up into a huge dusty cloud. She coughed, it was practically suffocating her.

Her legs suddenly felt weak and she tripped on a thick patch of green mushrooms the size of soccer balls. She pulled herself onto her knees and snuck a peek behind her.

//“//Those are poisonous spores!”She choked, scuffling backwards.

The clouds in the cave weren’t those of dust, they were toxins! She heaved herself to her feet and stumbled forward. The cave starting to narrow. She only noticed this because the tips of her wings began brushing against the cave walls. It was pitch black ahead and spores were starting to sprout from her wings, poisoning her further.

//I need to get out of here or I’m going to die! I’ll just need to make a hole here to the surface.//

She reached in her fish scale pouch and drew out some of the soothing water and sprinkled herself. She rose her hand to the ceiling of the cave. An ice shard speared through the ground between her and the air with such force that it propelled into the barrier above the island. It shattered upon impact and caused beautiful snow to fall.

Misu dashed through the hole, scraping her wings on the soil to loosen the spores. She gulped air into her lungs, and fluttered her wings in agony, finally shaking the spores loose. -- She found herself just outside the village. She trotted to the pond and dove in. Her skin started to glow a soft blue color immediately upon contact with the water. Her body sliced through the water towards the tree’s roots. She swam down roughly a hundred feet and reached the base of the roots.

She nestled herself in them and nudged her pouch forward, onto her lap. She pressed her hand gently on the roots and whispered her ancestor’s name. Pakiko. The soothing water came rushing out of where her palm was resting. She carefully positioned her pouch, and waited for it to fill up. Once she had enough, she merely had to cover the spot she held with her hand before. Misu closed her pouch tightly and untangled herself from the roots, heading back up for two more necessities.

She swished her feet, gently coasting to her house made of thick, sage green vines. She gripped the vine door and pushed it open swiftly.

Misu’s house consisted of vines all over. They intermingled around each other, forming her counters in her kitchen area, bookcases, cabinets, and her small vine sofa in the den area. She swam to her cabinet and tugged back the door. Her tiny seaweed spun backpack floated gently on a large fish hook and her bow and arrows rested to the side. She grabbed them both–pulling on her backpack– and darted for the door.

As she stepped onto the land, a bunch of little fairies bumped into her. They apologized and ran past her, giggling all the while.

Misu leapt into the air and fluttered her wings. She floated just fifty feet from the ground, scouring the area for Eirwyn.

There were a lot of fairies out today, all bustling along. They were all having fun, completely carefree. She felt slightly angry, no one else was trying to stop this horrible black figured person–or whatever it was–from abusing the soothing water. This wasn’t a fair way to think, however, of course she knew this. How could they help? They didn’t even know about the soothing water. Still she couldn’t help how she was feeling about the matter.

She shook her head, and kept fluttering along.

//Come on, Eirwyn! Where did you go off to?//

She dropped to the ground, and walked briskly up to a group of fairies who were enthralled in their conversation.

“Excuse me.” Misu interjected politely.

They looked at her, and went right back to talking.

If there were any other circumstance, she would have asked what they were having so much fun talking about, and even tried to join them.

She tapped on one girl’s shoulder gently.

“Hello? I just need to ask you a question quickly.”

She turned to Misu. It was Taie, Misu used to be her magic partner during magic training. She would always complain when Misu would win. Taie was a kind of plain fairy; her hair and wings a dull orange color. Standing next to her were a female and male fairy. They were gorgeous–I could tell why she would want to continue their little chat at any cost, even if it meant being moderately rude to someone you used to be friends with.

The couple had their arms locked together. The girl was pale and had beautiful, long golden hair, and light pink wings. She looked more like an angel rather than a fairy. The guy had black hair, and deep plum colored wings.

“Hi! I was wondering, have you seen Eirwyn at all today?”

“Oh, yeah. She’s been running around and trying to jump up a tree. I thought maybe you’d sent her to train or something.”

“No, I never did that. I…” She couldn’t tell them where she had really been. No one was supposed to go to the mountains. “I got distracted and ended up falling asleep in a tree.”

“I see, I didn’t think that you’d send her to train alone. It looks like she has been though.”

She pointed just up ahead.

“Walk a mile that way and she should still be there if she hasn’t come looking for you.”

The couple didn’t seem very impressed. Misu decided to take her leave.

“Thanks so much Taie!” She smiled and did a little wave.

Misu walked until the group of fairies was no where to be seen.

//Where could she be? I’ve been walking for what seems to be a mile.//

She spotted a tree just off to the left. She jumped up and dashed to the tree with one big flick of her fishy wings.

She ran in circles around the tree a few times.

“Eirwyn?” No answer.

“Eirwyn, please come out! I need your help, its important!” She coaxed pleadingly and slapped her fists on her legs in despair.

Several acorns dumped onto Misu’s hair and wings. She flitted her wings and snuck a peek into the tree just as a massive animal landed on her, knocking her to the ground. She threw off the animal, scuffled to her feet, and hovered slightly off the ground.

“You’re a huge squirrel!” Misu squeaked.

The squirrel was about 5’3 tall with black and gray markings. It snatched up the small acorns into is arms and scampered back up the tree hurriedly.

Misu sighed and landed back onto the ground. She fell to her knees and hit her forehead against the tree trunk softly.

//I can’t believe this is really happening to me…//

She dragged herself up from her sea of depression.

“I can’t believe Taie lied to me as well. I mean, Eirwyn doesn’t even look like a squirrel.” She crossed her arms, quickly gliding back to the village to retrace her steps back to the figure.

//I guess I’ll just do this myself.// She put a hand thoughtfully to her mouth.

-

//I have three hours until the sun sets on the island. It will definitely be helpful to me to take cover, except the figure is black, so it’ll practically be invisible at night.//

Misu shook her head.

//There’s no way I’ll have the advantage, I don’t even know how to fix this in the first place.//

She was trudging through the sea of grass back to the area where the figure was last. The grass seemed to be chaining her legs, keeping her from walking quickly, as if to warn her of danger.

She shifted her weight to the balls of her feet, tucked her wings back and began slashing at the enormous blades of grass from in front of her with the bow she’d been carrying. The grass chimed upon contact. No matter what sound was being made on Raziela, whether it be the wind whistling through the air, the crickets chirping a song, bugs buzzing, water rushing through the lower caves, fairies conversing, it always sounded like a symphony.

The grass flowed back together behind her, cutting off her tracks. If something happened, no one would even know she came out this way, although this had always been the case on the island.

Misu continued this way for a long while and eventually found a large, smooth rock. She had decided to rest for a while, she’d been walking for a solid two and a half hours. She set down her bow, took off her seaweed backpack, sat down against the rock and criss-crossed her legs.

//I’m getting tired, this isn’t good.//

A huge, cool gust of wind sent a ripple through the grass. The sun was setting already. Misu pressed her elbows into her knees and cradled her head in her hands. A moment later, she heard a noise–how could she miss it–it sounded as if two trains caught each other’s sides and scrapped along the length of carts.

Her body snapped to attention.

“Time to go.” A hint of a smirk spread across her face.

She gathered her things and darted for the edge of the grass. Her head poked out once again; she saw a huge glass box. It was swirling colors like a bubble and was the size of a phone booth. A huge marking was on the ground in the middle of the box-like container. It was glowing a bright purple. Aside from that, no one seemed to be around, however, it wasn’t apparent where that noise had originated from.

Misu stepped from the grass gingerly, glancing around each step forward to be sure she hadn’t been detected. She inched closer to the box.

//What could this be? It looks to be some sort of arcane magic but, only extremely powerful people can harness this power.//

She reached out her right hand and gently poked the box with her fingertips. It countered with a large shock. She yelped and flung back her arm. Tingling and warmth remained on her skin; she assessed it. Her whole arm was covered with minor burns. In the split second she’d looked up, a fairy appeared in the box and quickly dissipated into the scenery.

“Oh my gosh…” Her breath hissed out of her.

She hopped back a few steps and brandished her bow. She drew back an arrow and released. It whirled through the air with great force and exploded into shards of wood and metal upon impact. Again, the fairy appeared, confirming her findings.

“Wait a minute, I’ll get you out!” The fairy nodded solemnly and faded away once again.

Misu paced back and forth quietly, and tapped her finger on her lips.

Out of no where she was launched into a tree trunk. The air was knocked from her lungs; she coughed, trying to regain her breath.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing here you insignificant fairy?” An insane, dark voice commanded.

It was the black figure. Misu’s heart leapt into her throat. The sound of its voice prickled up every hair on her body, nearly raising tears to her eyes.

“I could ask the same of you!” Her voice squeaked out.

//Great, what a great comeback. Isn’t that so cliche´.// She mentally kicked herself for sounding weak.

Misu got to her feet and clutched her bow tightly.

“You need to leave now. I don’t know what is going on here, but you don’t belong on this island.” She tried on a new tone.

“You’re kidding right?” A huge set of pointed white teeth were exposed in an exaggerated smile. It started to laugh cynically.

Misu’s eyes widened in fright; her shoulders and knees wobbled.

//Even if I try to control my mind, my body knows I’m terrified of this thing…//

“Are you scared or something? You just sounded so stern only seconds ago.” He appeared in front of her.

He grabbed her chin gently and stared right into her eyes with his blood red ones.

“You know, I’m not your little wolf.” He grinned manically.

Her eyes lit in realization.

His hand slid from her chin down to her neck. He grabbed it loosely.

She couldn’t move her arms or legs so she muttered,

“Eirwyn…What did you do to her?!”

“If I were you, I really wouldn’t be worried about that mutt right now.” He clenched his hand tightly around her neck, lifted her from the ground–carrying her over to the box-bubble. He threw her to the ground and began drawing on the dirt neighboring the box.

“Be a good girl and stay there, won’t you?” The figure hissed.

//That thing can’t be serious right? Like anyone would do that.//

Misu turned away from the hideous creature, concealing herself with her wings.

//That barrier repelled my arrow, so I’m guessing that it’s body will do the same so…//

“I know you don’t understand so let me explain. I needed the soothing water to access this power of mine, no one under normal circumstances could withstand this damage. This was the perfect island–the perfect place.”

She laid out two arrows on the ground in front of her. She poured some of the soothing water onto the entirety of the arrows.

“For what?” She tried to sound conversational.

“To complete my training. To kill a powerful fairy, surprisingly would pass the test apparently: the threshold of pain. Personally, I don’t agree with this–fairies are way to weak. I suppose it makes sense, however, if you have this gold mine of pain repellent.”

She turned suddenly; taking a stance on her knees, and drawing back one of the arrows, aimed at the container. She fired it. The figure walked in front of the container. allowing the arrow to pierce its stomach. It didn’t remove it.

“Not good enough. Fairies are so useless. You can’t even kill me.” It shook its head and walked enough so it was just a few feet away.

A soft blue light swam from the arrow, and it sliced through its belly.

“What the fu–” Its eyes flickered around, taking in the light.

The arrow hit the container; it was beginning to shatter.

“Sorry sweetheart.” It cooed hysterically. “I won’t be the one dying.”

It snapped its fingers and the container lit up with electricity. The fairy reappeared and seemed to be screaming. A moment later the same metal scraping noise returned.

“It was the fairy…You lured me.” Misu’s hands began shaking.

“Duh.” The figure strode closer.

She grabbed the second arrow and speared it completely through the figure’s neck. This didn’t stop him, he shoved his fist through her stomach and ripped off one of her wings back through her stomach.

The arrow in his neck began to shine that soft blue color again. Misu fell backwards, her eyes slitting open.

//Wow…It’s so beautiful, it’s like the soothing aura flowers…//

The fairy fell to the ground, now freed from the container. Its body was morphing into some kind of animal. It was too late to see what kind.

Everything went black.

Misu felt a tickling on her nose. She wiggled it, trying to curb the insatiable itching.

“Come on, stop it.” She whispered and opened her eyes.

A lady bug was scuffling around in circles on her nose.

“Hi, good morning little cutie.” She smiled gently.

She began drifting back to sleep.

//What’d I dream of? Goodness. My tummy is flipping all around.//

Her eyes flicked open.

“My belly!” She screamed.

She glanced down to where it should be.

“Oh, well. It seems to be in the right area.”

She poked all over it.

“Are my wings okay?” She sat up and stared behind her, confirming their attendance.

“They certainly are.” A warm voice enveloped the silent air.

Misu whipped her head back around.

“Calder…Hi.”

“Hi there.” He smiled.

His voice was like honey, sweet and comforting.

“How did you find me? You aren’t supposed to go–”

Eirwyn howled sharply, cutting off Misu’s sentence.

She sat comfortably a few yards away.

“I was walking through the grassy fields looking for some herbs when I saw Eirwyn carrying you. You had burns all over your arm, a huge hole in your stomach and she was carrying one of your wings in her mouth. Luckily I had superior healing herbs in my bag. Misu, what happened?” “Well…It’s kind of a long story. Eirwyn, come here please.” She reached out her hand.

Eirwyn pranced over and rubbed her face on Misu’s cheek.

“We got carried away with our training. Luckily Eirwyn was there to have my back.” She smiled weakly and hugged best friend.