A light touch along my arm rouses me from my slumber.Opening my eyelids a slit, I quickly notice that it’s dark.Apparently, Nibi still isn’t able to leave me be even for a single night.
Determined to continue my rest, I pull the bnket up to my neck and hide my arms underneath it.For now, I’ll overlook her actions and then speak with her in the morning when I’m not attempting to sleep.However, she begins rubbing along one of my wings where it’s exposed above my shoulders, and with how sensitive it is, I simply cannot ignore her any longer.I don’t know why she’s suddenly doing such a thing when commonly I don’t even truly notice her presence till morning, but there’s no way I can sleep like this.Even lying still with this feeling present is impossible!Turning to look towards her, now quite irritated with her unusual behavior, I open my eyes.
“Ni-”
Shock halts me mid-word.Instead of Nibi’s blue eyes, I’m greeted by two, rge, bck domes covered in bumps, which are situated on the upper sides of a hard, brown, wedge-shaped object.From the narrower bottom portion stretch four oddly shaped and weirdly jointed protrusions surrounding a ridged slit, and from the top come two poles longer than my arms.At its back, it seems to be mounted to a hard, smooth log, which has two bent poles on either side with spines and ridges hooking it to my bed.Then suddenly, it moves.
One of the upper poles bends and touches my hair, while the protrusions beneath it rub along my wing.At the same time, my odd eyes focus, allowing me to see the entire creature at once.It’s a roach!A cockroach a little over half as rge as I am!And it’s climbing onto my bed!!
“Aaaaaah!!!”
In a panic, I throw up my hands to put the bnket between us and attempt to shove it away.Sadly, it works as well as pushing a stone wall.That is to say, the roach doesn’t even budge.In fact, it takes a step forward, pushing me down against the bed and using those long limbs to steady itself in pce.
“Agh!”
With all of my strength, I attempt to lift one of its legs, but the ridges at the end hold it tight.The roach then takes another step, pcing it fully atop of me.In desperation, I pnt both hands against its smooth belly as well as I can and push.
“Get off of me!!”
Unfortunately, while the roach rises slightly, its grip on my bed doesn’t waver.However, an instant ter, wind energy surges through my arms and flows out through my hands.*whooom*Immediately, the roach is swept away by a gust of wind and sent soaring into the darkness, taking my bnket with it.
After waiting a few moments to see if it, or another, would return, I take a deep breath and let it out, trying to calm down.Not that I physically need to, as I’m not required to breathe and there’s no pounding in my chest, but in an attempt to collect myself.That thing was horrifying!Bugs should not be that big!Yeah, sure, I know it’s me who is now small, but that only makes the creature more terrifying.Thankfully, it would seem that these instant bursts of wind don’t only come from my wings.I certainly didn’t have time to gather magic, so I’m gd it helped me when I needed it, but it is a little worrying that it appears to act on its own.
Then my thoughts turn to Nibi, who should be sleeping nearby.Is she okay?When I look towards her bed, I see her brightly glowing and sitting on top of her bnket, watching me.Opposite of what I thought at first, it would seem that I have woken her, rather than she disturbing me.But at least I had good reason!
“Sorry, Nibi, but I had a beast try to climb into bed with me!”
“Miep.”
Huh…She’s still staying in her bed, though I was certain she would rush over to me upon hearing what I said.Even with me asking her to stay there, it has never stopped her from worrying about me before.Something is strange…Nibi never wakes quickly, but she’s already fully aware and clearly glowing, meaning she was using magic recently.
“Were you already awake?”
“Yes.”
“So you saw that creature?”
“Yes.”
Her answer is a quiet whisper.
“Then why didn’t you stop it before it came close to me!?”
“Miep!”
With that, she folds her arms and looks away.
Excuse me!I’m the one who was attacked by a giant insect!Apparently, while Nibi merely watched!So why is she in such a mood!?
She doesn’t seem to be sad.No, it’s more…Is she…angry with me?Honestly, I wouldn’t have thought water fairies could become angry with whatever their focus is on.Anger would be quite distracting from whatever they would want to do and thus would be heavily muted.The only thing I would expect to truly anger one…is to be interrupted from their focus.
Ah.I see.Well, I don’t intend to apologize.She already refuses to leave me alone, so she needs to learn to give me at least a little space.I don’t think sleeping on, what feels like, the other side of a room is too much to ask of her.Also, while angry, she doesn’t seem to be entirely furious with me.Judging by her glow, she likely was about to use magic herself if I didn’t blow away the roach.Speaking of which…
“Nibi.”
She doesn’t answer.*Sigh*I suppose part of a night is enough for a first attempt.I’m not actually trying to make her angry after all.Hence, I walk over to her bed and sit beside her.
“Ak’ri!”
Which, of course, instantly restores her mood, and she tches onto me.However, she still mispronounces my name in a manner that sounds simir to the nickname Mum gave me.Perhaps if she’s trying to learn, I could help her to at least say my name correctly?
“Nibi, my name isn’t Ak’ri. It’s Akari. Ah-kahr-ri.”
“Ak’ri?”
“Not quite. Akari.”
“Akiri?”
Several minutes pass as she tries again and again to say the correct sounds, till at st,
“Akari?”
“That’s it!”
“Akari! *ditiditi*”
Well, she looks happy and hopefully will use my slightly less unusual name from now on.With that accomplished, I can bring up the reason I sat here in the first pce.
“That creature, a roach, have you seen them nearby before tonight?”
“Yes!”
“Did they climb up to our beds?
“Yes!”
I was afraid of that.While I never saw many bugs in my house during the day, I couldn’t see very well in the dark before becoming a fairy.It would seem I have even more guests in my home at night than I knew.But I’ve been home several nights without noticing them.Did Nibi..?
“Have you been fending them off?”
“Yes!”
With that, she hops off the bed and walks to the edge of my drawers.Once there, she begins looking about, searching the floor below.I then walk over to her, curious as to what she’s doing, moments before her light begins to shine brighter.She raises her hand in front of her with a ft, open palm, and the feeling of her magic guides me to what she’s concentrating on.
In a corner of the room, it seems she found a small spider.Water appears from nothing in the way I still haven’t worked out, and moves to surround the bug.Once it does, it floats towards us, pulling the now struggling creature along within it.Then, after gncing at me to ensure I’m watching, she closes her hand into a fist.The ball of water becomes the slightest bit smaller, but the spider within is instantly crushed.With a slight motion of her hand, the liquid then floats to the nearby window and flows outside, carrying the remains with it.
“Miep!”
Well, that was quite the demonstration.It’s little wonder she didn’t wake me before, as the entire process was utterly silent, and with how her light appears to me, being quite easy on my eyes, I doubt it would affect my sleep in any way.All it took was a simple movement of her hand, and the bug was gone.At least I needn’t worry whether or not she can protect herself against them.
However, I’m going to need to speak with Mum about a new pce to sleep.Waking up to a creepy insect crawling on me was unpleasant enough when they were much smaller than me.Now, some of them may be rger…Just the thought makes my wings shudder.
As, a quick gnce outside tells me the night is still long.Mum won’t be awake for some time yet.While it seems I typically don’t require rest, I still enjoy it, but now I’m worried I’ll simply be unable to sleep, or worse, get assaulted again.Ugh!No, that can never happen again!
Perhaps I’ll stay awake with Nibi, though come to think of it, could she have been defending us while asleep?I would not trust my magic to protect me during the night, but perhaps with her skill she is capable of it?Most mornings that I’ve seen her, she’s certainly been asleep.
“Nibi, have you been sleeping?”
“No. Yes.”
Which means…
“A little bit of sleep?”
“Yes!”
If these insects have been wandering around at night, she probably sleeps near sunrise.But if I’m her focus, and I’m asleep all night, wouldn’t she become bored?
“Then what do you do all night?”
“Ss, ssp, spee, speik.”
“You practice speaking?”
“Yes!”
That would expin why she suddenly improved overnight at times.She must have been quietly working on her words.However, while I don’t mind teaching her my name, that doesn’t mean I wish to teach her how to form words for the remainder of the night.I want to go back to bed.Yet, not if those things might interrupt me…
Well, until I get a safer pce to sleep, I suppose having Nibi nearby is better than giant insects.I get up and walk back to my bed.When I arrive a few moments ter, Nibi’s mood has already started to sour again.Yet, her expression changes to that of surprise when I begin pushing my bed towards hers.
“Akari!?”
“I believe I’ve had enough time to myself tonight. Not that I won’t want to sleep by myself another night, Nibi. But for now, I think I’ll sleep better over here.”
“Akari!”
Yeah, sure, she cmps onto my arm as soon as I climb into bed, but I’d much rather her than something else.At least she won’t attempt to eat me.Although, it doesn’t feel right if I’m just using her.
“Would you like to sleep for a time? I could watch for a while.”
Without them surprising me, I’m quite certain I could keep a few insects at bay with my magic.Or at least wake Nibi before they reach us.
“No. Akari.”
“Okay. But let me know if you change your mind.”
“Miep.”
With her keeping watch, I needn’t worry about those nightmarish creatures crawling into my bed.However, the dreams they’ll certainly cause may be another issue entirely.But can I even have nightmares?Or even normal dreams?Well, I haven’t yet, not since I became a fairy, but that’s a thought for another time.I want to sleep, if I can manage to calm myself sufficiently.
Thankfully, I needn’t have worried.Despite my fears, as soon as I desire it, drowsiness cims me, and I quickly fall fast asleep once again.
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