Well, it seems that the fairies’ game is about to start.Nibi has finished filling one of the pools with water and backed away, so I nd on the va directly in front of it, as I see other fairies doing.
Oh shit!Wow!!It’s hot!!Yeah, sure, I felt the heat when I walked near it previously, but now that I’m on top of it, it’s incredibly intense!While a little slippery and shifting beneath my feet, I’m able to stand on this va without much risk of falling or sinking, but my thoughts continuously return to the fact that I ought to be burning.I know the magic fire didn’t harm me, but the temperature here is beyond anything I have ever encountered before!Honestly, I doubt anything could survive such extreme heat!Yet, here I am, standing without a single mark on my bare, white feet.Moreover, while I struggle to consciously accept this fact, I don’t feel in any danger.Even the immense pressure from the fire essence surrounding me honestly feels quite…enticing.The tiny bit trickling into my wings is rather pleasant, after all.
Ack!No!No, no, no, no!I don’t want that!No matter that it reminds me of Sinora’s dinner parties and the utterly magnificent smells that would waft over her wall.I need to keep it out!
Swiftly applying the technique swirling throughout my body to my wings as well, I quickly stop the fire essence from flowing into me.Ugh, this feels highly uncomfortable.My body certainly doesn’t appreciate me doing this.Perhaps it won’t matter if I just take in a tiny bit more.Just one taste of that wonderfully spicy energy…
No, Akari!I don’t know what it will do to me, and I don’t wish to find out!My nails are already speckled with red, I shouldn’t absorb any more of it.
To distract myself from the utterly lovely energy floating all about me, I gnce around the pond.Roughly twenty fire fairies are also standing on this glowing surface, including the boy from earlier.Even if, for some reason, I can’t win, I want to at least best that annoying bastard, which is the entire purpose of me being here.
Most of them aren’t wearing anything at all, likely to not be distracted by keeping their attire intact, reminding me once more how little reason they, and I, have to wear clothing.However, a few are wearing those odd garments I noticed earlier, so I examine them in more detail.Even if the outfits are tiny, I’m always interested in clothing I’ve never seen before.It would seem that they are all made of the same materials, as all of them are bck, white, and red, though with varying amounts of each color.The bck and white make up the bulk of the outfits, while the red appears to be the weave holding the garments together.Yet, strangely enough, flickering red glows somehow randomly appear on their surface before then vanishing and reappearing in a different pattern.
Other than the colors, each of those fairy’s clothes are unique to themselves.One has a slim pair of pants with nothing above her waist but two straps leading from the pants and looping over her shoulders.Another is wearing what appears to be a frilly skirt and a matching backless and sleeveless shirt.The third is the boy I followed to this pce, wearing only trousers but with a band of the odd material around each of his upper arms.
But just what are these clothes made of?Looking closer, it doesn’t appear to be petals, leaves, or even cloth.Hold on.Could that be..?
A quick survey outside the pool and a few rapid gnces to compare leave me fairly certain of my suspicions.That’s charcoal!Hot, burning charcoal and ash formed into garments and somehow being held together with tiny streams of fme!But how!?
Suddenly, the energy near the center of the pond grows even more intense, and a ball of fire forms there.A moment ter, it bursts harmlessly, but a loud noise echoes forth.*Boom*Following the signal, the fairies unch upwards as rocks suddenly begin raining down on the pond from all directions.Hastily setting aside my previous thoughts, I scramble after them, and soon discover that this game isn’t quite as simple as I first supposed it to be.
What are certainly tiny pebbles to humans, are to me small stones the size of both my fists csped together.They’re soaring through the sky above the va in such numbers that I have difficulty merely avoiding them.While they don’t cause much harm when they strike me, and what little they do instantly vanishes, being pelted by stones from so many different directions is incredibly disorienting.This makes the task of catching them extremely troublesome!
To make matters worse, small bursts of fire jet from the fairies as they dart about, diverting rocks in all different directions and adding to the confusion.Simply them constantly using magic near me is somewhat disorienting, as it’s my first time being this close to so many using magic at once, and I find that with my magic senses, I can feel all of them stirring the essence around me as they unleash more of their own.Moreover, earth essence surrounds the stones, and they leap out of my reach of their own accord even as I attempt to grasp them.Sparing a swift gnce outside of the pond, I see the earth fairies all cheerfully pointing at the stones flying above the va, clearly directing them in their dance above the pool and keeping them from ever touching the ground.Well, I suppose that is one mystery solved.Of course earth fairies would enjoy a game where they don’t have to move in order to py.However, that knowledge doesn’t help me win!Or does it?
Focusing as best I can with the stones flying about, I attempt to gather my wind essence between my hands.However, the circling energy within me that holds the fire at bay obstructs my efforts entirely.Thus, I carefully halt the effect around my hands, and focus on repcing it with only my wind energy.After several failed attempts and pses in concentration, I succeed, and soon hold a small bit of essence in my hands.Then I turn and push it through the fire energy surrounding me until it contacts one of the nearby rocks.Instantly, the pure, opposing energies collide and dissipate, causing the stone to cease its erratic movements, which allows me to catch it.I got one!
Hurriedly, I fly towards my pool and throw the stone into it, causing water to spsh into the moat.From there, it starts slowly draining through a small hole leading into the ground.Not willing to waste precious moments watching it disappear, I return and attempt to capture another stone.Again and again I repeat this process, filling my pool the best I can.
Time passes, and I succeed in catching and returning numerous rocks, yet I notice that many of the others have a simir amount as I in their pools.Contrary to my efforts, some of the fire fairies seem to be simply chasing their targets rather than using magic.However, I’m uncertain how they manage to collect the stones while the earth fairies are moving them about.Their flight seems to be as erratic as the rocks, yet they’re able to snag the stones from the sky and act as if they have eyes in the back of their heads, dodging around all of the flying obstacles.I truly cannot ascertain how they are able to pay attention to all the different stones seemingly at once.Hopefully, with my magic use, I can still gather them quicker.
Suddenly, above the center of the pond, a rge wave of fire surges forth, knocking away the nearby stones.When I turn my attention to the middle of the magical fmes, I see that two fairies have begun to fight.From the shouting, it seems they collided when going for the same target, and then they promptly decided to begin pulling at each other’s wings.Several fairies immediately join the fight, though I’m not certain if they’ve chosen a side, but most of the fairies only spare them a gnce and then continue collecting stones, even though the fire swelling from the fight tosses the rocks about.I’m beginning to think more and more that angry fighting is simply commonpce for these particur fairies.
Shortly afterwards, as the number of remaining stones begins to dwindle, I notice something curious about them.Many of the rocks are now glowing a bright red, simir to the inside of a forge.One such stone becomes my target, but when I grab it, the red stone slides between my fingers like mud and drips to the pool beneath.
What?I’m certain that was a stone.But… I think it just melted.Stone…melted.Yeah, sure, Garen said he could soften stone in his forge while applying the bellows, not that such a thing would have any particur purpose, but I never thought I would ever be in such a pce that could cause it to drip through my bare hands, and that while flying through the sky.Much less, that I would be unharmed while doing so.
No, never mind that Akari!It’s something for future me.For now, focus on winning!
To that end, I redouble my efforts to gather the darker stones, the ones still rgely unaffected by the heat.However, with the avaible rocks diminishing rapidly, some of the fairies turn to other methods to win.In particur, the one boy I most want to best.
As the water spshes from my, now boiling, pool from receiving one of the st remaining stones, he sends a wave of fire washing over the moat, instantly destroying the water before it could flow downwards.
“Hey! That’s cheating!”
“Says who? There’s no rule against it. I didn’t stop you from collecting any stones, and the water wasn’t in the cavern yet.”
Argh!Stupid fairies!I knew I shouldn’t have expected him to py fair!If it would help me win, I’d sp that smug look off his face.However, the stones are nearly gone, and our piles are quite simir in size.He may now be ahead of me because of this!But what am I to do?
Well, if he’s going to cheat, perhaps I can also “not cheat”?I can’t leave the pond to collect items from outside in order to drop them in the water, nor are there many stones remaining to do so with.But what if I simply drop water itself into the pool?They never said that I couldn’t.Likely because fire fairies would never carry it.Hmm, I think it’s worth attempting.
Quickly, I collect my water energy between my hands and will it to enter the pool.However, with all of the intense fire essence surrounding me, only the smallest portion of it arrives where I wish.Yet it may be sufficient.A small wave spshes over the edge and begins flowing down the drain, while I stand guard between it and the boy, keeping a close watch for any more magic.Within moments, the water is gone, and a short time afterwards, all of the remaining stones have disappeared.But, how is the winner determined?Do they open the cisterns?
It would seem not, as while I hover in pce, wondering, the nearby earth fairies stop up the drains, sealing the water within.Then all the fairies who pyed begin returning to whence they started, except for the squabbling ones who seem to have entirely lost interest in the game they were pying, so I follow their example and do the same, gncing about as I attempt to work out what will happen next.However, once everyone is in pce, golden walls of magic begin rising around me, sealing me inside, albeit with the passage to the sky left open.Looking up above the pond, sunlight fairies hover with their hands raised, apparently putting these barriers around everyone who returned to their pces.As all the others are standing calmly and unafraid, or rather, excited in some cases, I do the same and wait.What’s going to happen now?
After a moment, I sense the slightest feeling of earth magic working beneath me.Armingly, this is swiftly followed by a hissing and gurgling under the va.Then, all of sudden, a roar fills my ears, and before I can move, the substance beneath my feet surges upward, surrounding me and carrying me forcefully into the sky!