Adalyn took her sweet time leisurely strutting about and collecting an array of materials she claimed were for my new armour. It became a bit more fantastic when she enlisted some tiny aid…

  With a sharp whistle, she called to something that had been secretly stalking us from the brush. Two little looking beings, like shrunken down humans the size of toys with butterfly wings on their backs.

  “Fairy!” I pointed excitedly.

  “They sure are!” Adalyn cheered, snapping her finger. “Kiw’u,” she gestured to the girl fairy who was wearing a dress of leaves, “Ui'o…” she gestured to the boy who had a suit made out of a leathery material, “I need y’all to gather some dainty lil’ things for me out there.”

  “Wea ga ta stuffa!” an eager Kiw’u saluted, speaking her fae dialect, then tugged on a less than enthusiastic Ui’o. “Goa goa!”

  “Waeva…” responded a slouchy Ui’o.

  He didn’t look to be as high spirited as Kiw’u... Quite the polar opposite. But it wasn’t just his attitude that made me notice that.

  Dreariness exuded off of him like a smelly cloud. What should have been pretty sparkles of pink green and blue leaving his wings were now crimson, adding a hint of dark supernatural suspicion to his mood. I had a hunch that his foul state was more than just a personality trait.

  “Ui’o…” Kiw’u caringly placed her hand on his shoulder with a concerned look. “Wha ranna? Ya na happa?”

  He slapped her hand away and took point into the forest. Kiw’u held her own hand in surprise while she longingly gazed at his back until he disappeared into the shadows of the tree line.

  “Hey, don’t be so rude,” Miss Adalyn ordered him. “What’s gotten into him?”

  Kiw’u summoned up the mental strength to chase off after him, encouraged to go gather the material components we required in the wilderness. Adalyn had given her a small list… And I really mean small, because the page she gave them was about a fraction of the size of a piece of paper.

  “Believe it or not, we employ fairy around here,” Miss Adalyn said. “Such hard little workers, but very mischievous. Cynthia does a good job keeping them in line.”

  “Does Ui’o usually act so mean?” I asked. He was unusually aggressive for what I expected a fairy to be like.

  “Mmm…” her initial reaction sound definitely wasn’t a good sign. “I wouldn’t say he was as peppy as lil’ ole Kiw’u, but I’ve never seen him as such a rain cloud on her sunny day.”

  So, if he wasn’t usually like this, it hinted to me that something strange was suddenly bringing down his mood. And if my hunch was correct, the trip in here might have been worthwhile.

  The fae pair returned with a sack of different items. The bag looked empty from the outside, but Adalyn just kept pulling things out as if it was filled to the brim. It must have been magical, because I had no doubts that all the stuff wouldn’t have fit in there.

  “Perfect!” she cheered, finding everything she’d requested inside the mysteriously deep bag. “Y’all got everything I asked for.”

  Kiw’u was all joyful and proud, trying to goad Ui’o into sharing her delight, but once more he aggressively pushed her attempts aside with a slap, this time to her face.

  *SMACK!*

  The force of his hand connecting with her cheek caused her to dramatically wince and twist away from him.

  We all were baffled at his sudden aggression, and it didn’t take him long to realize the mistake he’d made as well. He looked on with shock at his own palms, very disturbed that he’d just hit his friend.

  “Ui’o!” Adalyn shouted, glaring at him with a very disappointed scowl. “How dare you hurt Kiw’u?!”

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  His head shook a few times like he was trying to fruitlessly disprove her accusations. Grunts left his mouth while his body hunched forward and backwards. Both the eyes that once were a sharp green colour now turned an illuminated red.

  Shadows from the forest began rising from their resting places, lifting like a toxic miasma to surround Ui’o in a dark aura.

  “I thought so!” I darted at him with my spear raised. “He must be the source of darkness!”

  I swung my stardust spear to try and smack him with the flat side of the crystal blade, but the dark aura surrounding Ui’o rejected my attack and sent me backwards.

  Ui’o screamed in terror, painfully twisting in almost unnatural ways. When his contorting fit concluded, he lifted his hand toward me.

  A small fraction of the darkness haze around him coalesced into his palm until forming an orb of black. He fluttered up into the air and lobbed the shadow ball my way like a baseball.

  I batted the shadow ball and redirected it to my left, sending it into a rock that exploded to bits.

  “Dang it…” I took a deep breath, trying to ignore my complete and utter exhaustion. “I gotta figure out a way to catch him…”

  There wasn’t much space here and dark Ui’o had a lot of tree cover. I needed to get him to that clearing where I first saw Adalyn here. That would be a much better spot to deal with him at, and safer for the others too.

  He tossed more shadow balls my way. I ran to escape their explosive impact, skipping around to start heading from whence we came.

  Thanks to my hasty movements, I was able to get back to the clearing away from the others. Fighting here was going to be easier, but not by a lot.

  My spear batted away several more of the shadow balls in my desperate escape, this time I did my best to get them aimed upwards toward the forest ceiling.

  “What if I redirect them back at him?”

  Using my very limited experience of deflecting orbs of shadow, I struck one and sent it hurtling his way. He couldn’t evade fast enough and was hit.

  The blast wasn’t enough to hurt him, but he was stunned for a moment.

  I saw my chance to fly in and make a snatch at him… But he recovered faster than I anticipated and I missed!

  A shadow orb struck my back and sent me hurdling down to the ground.

  Pain shot through me while I rolled around in pain. I rose back up, trying to collect myself.

  “Darn…” I grunted, trying to ignore the aches and pains. “Not sure how a fairy got corrupted by darkness, but that won’t be a problem for much longer,” I forced a grin, brightening my hand with stardust energy.

  Dark Ui’o shouted again and floated backwards to escape the light he feared so much. He charged up another shadow ball.

  But little did he know, a giant living rock was there to block his escape. The shadow ball now aimed at the golem and hit him.

  The golem rocky surface was blasted apart. But instead of sulking over lost limbs, the golem simply picked them up and put them back in place, good as new.

  While distracted, a whip came out from the forest edge of the arena and wrapped tightly around Ui’o.

  “Naughty naughty!” Adalyn taunted as she stepped out into the open. She had a pleased smile and soft eyes, like she was enjoying this.

  Dark Ui’o growled as he attempted to break free from Adalyn’s ever tightening whip. It was coiling around him so much that I almost worried he’d pop from being squeezed.

  “Lil’ Yaldy?” Adalyn called out playfully to me. “Why don’t you deal out the punishment to this boy, yeah?”

  If by punishment, she meant giving him an exorcism, then I was all too happy to oblige!

  My fingers wrapped around the body of the small, corrupted fairy, preventing him from moving anymore. I’d already thought he felt like somewhat of a toy, but I was holding a living being right now, so I had to be gentle or potentially hurt him a lot.

  Glowing energy lit up my hands, creating a twinkly white aura around them and the body of Ui’o. His screaming and attempts to bite me made it hard to focus, but I continued regardless of the distractions.

  “Let there be light!” I announced, pulsing waves of stardust into his little body.

  The shadow aura burned away thanks to the glimmering energy now filling him. He was free of his dark burden, no longer possessed by it. Although frozen, perhaps trying to comprehend his return to a right mindedness, he blinked twice and uttered a “Thana ya” before falling asleep. I assumed that was him saying “Thank you.”

  “Kiw’u had been hiding in a bush stuck to the top of the rock golem and floated down to us. She landed on my arm and sat down, coddling her friend with relief and worry.

  Not that I didn’t enjoy watching her care for him, but I had to put them down so I could lay in the grass like the bruised banana I was becoming.

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