Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Once upon a time, there was an old woman who had no children of her own. In a desperate and hopeful venture, she ventured into the forest where she came upon a witch and  begged her for a way to have a child. A simple request, the witch only cackled and smiled at her.

“My dear, that is quite easy for one such as I,” he explained gleefully. From her pocket, the witch pulled only a single barleycorn seed. She pinched it between her fingers, holding out for the woman to take. “Here is the answer to your troubles. Simply plant this in a flower pot and you shall have a child of your own.”

“And what do you wish in return?” Asked the old woman. “Surely you expect some form of payment, do you not?”

Again, the witch only laughed and cupped the old woman’s hands. “Think nothing of it, deary. Pay the kindness forward to someone else when the time is right. You’ll know it when it happens.” The witch dropped the seed in the old woman’s hands and closed it into a fist. “Now, be gone from these woods.” With a puff of smoke, she vanished.

That evening, the old woman did as the witch had instructed her, and planted the seed in a flower pot with fresh soil and water and when morning came there was a beautiful flower, tall and budding, bright red and yellow like a tulip. “How beautiful,” the woman said, although confused. She smiled and kissed the flower gently.

The petals opened and there, laying in the center of the flower was a little girl of exceptional beauty and grace, no bigger than the size of the old woman’s thumb. Although different from a normal girl, the old woman cried with joy in her eyes, happy to have a child of her own. The old woman loved the girl with all her heart, treating her like she would any daughter she could have had. And so this girl was given the name, Thumbelina. 

Thumbelina was a stubborn girl, curious and regretful of her size. Still, she listened to many of her mother’s stories, and in time came to accept her shortcomings. From far below, she saw the world different from others as she ventured into her mother’s garden as though it were a jungle. Insects became her friends, and the small stream was a vast river for her to sail across on her boat made of petals. She carried her mother’s words close in her heart, never wishing to be anything more than who she already was. And so Thumbelina was happy.

In the garden, Thumbelina met the Frog Prince, who fell madly in love with her. She cared greatly for him, as she did all the animals in her mother’s garden. In time, she came to love him, and so they were wed. Thumbelia became the queen of the garden and ruled with kindness and love. She played with every critter and welcomed every visitor to their humble domain with an open heart. Everything seemed perfect and at peace, everlasting.

Then came the fateful and tragic day when Thumbelina would watch her prince be whisked away. With but a single kiss on the frog’s head, his ugliness melted away and transformed into a handsome human. From atop a flower stem, far away, she watched and cried as the Frog Prince was wed to a human princess and disappeared inside the king’s castle, never to return to the garden.

And so ended Thumbelina’s first love. Devastated, she sailed away, down the stream from her mother’s home on a lilypad. Thou, was it truly her first love? Even she knew that it always took true love’s kiss to break any spell…

Chapter Text

They moved quietly, taking care of every step as they ventured through the forest. The moist summer air was still, gathering sweat and evening drew over their brows. Leon followed Raihan close, turning his head every so often to keep an eye on the rear as well as to quickly cut a marker into whichever tree they passed- a small arrow pointing in the direction they came from.

Cicadas screamed and owls called out, piercing the atmosphere of any tension.

A soft, throaty growl rumbled from Leon’s charmeleon. There was little need for the lantern they had with them thanks to the warm, pleasant glow the overgrown lizard cast from the stripes on his back.

One soldier's hand rubbed smoothly along the hilt of the sword on his hip, finger tracing its silver guard. The slightly tattered leather of his glove ran smoothly across it for him to grip at the hilt, tight. Leon was anxious, itching for something to happen other than hearing another bat screech at the shadows around them. “Are you sure you know where we’re going?” he whispered ahead of him to Raihan. “We’ve been traveling for some time now. Surely we would have found a lead by now!”

Raihan looked back and lifted the cover of his helm to reveal his face. He raised a brow, barely visible in the lantern light as Leon held up the flame. Raihan’s dark, sun-kissed skin glowed in the fire. Its flicker reflected off the polished steel of Raihan’s spear and teased Leon with the way it danced in the center of the man’s bright yellow eyes. 

Though he smirked, there was a confused look in his eye. “We left Hammarlocke’s gates only a few minutes ago, didn’t we? We’ve not even traveled beyond the kingdom’s hunting grounds. I’m sure everything will be much farther out even if we do manage to locate a witch’s cottage.” He paused for a moment to look back ahead and pressed on. “Besides, there is no proof of anything living in the kingdom’s domain. We’re being sent out here on suspicion and precaution alone. The entire guard is exploring these woods. Who’s to say they won’t discover a witch in any number of directions?”

Silence befell them for a moment.

“I just don’t like this. It’s like everyone is blind and still marching forward. I understand that we can’t sit around and wait, but something like this just seems like wasted time and energy, don’t you think?”

Raihan was hesitant to respond and marched forward, rubbing his shoulder as he did so. “Orders are orders. We can’t do much else but obey. We’re only going as far as just outside the hunting grounds for tonight so we’ll be in bed before daybreak if we’re lucky.”

A few minutes passed and unable to stand the uneventful search any further, Leon grumbled as he halted in his tracks. “Let’s split up,” he suggested. “We’ll cover more ground if we spread out, won’t we? It’ll get the job done faster!”

“That’s a terrible idea, Leon. What will you do if you find this ‘witch’ we’re looking for? Or worse...how do you plan on finding your way back to the gates?” Raihan spun on his heels to face Leon as the other already took a few paces in another direction. He crossed his arms over his chest, armor rattling slightly. “I won’t come looking for you if you get lost.”

“I’ll be fine! We’ve been marking the trees as we go. I’ll know the way back for sure!” He held out his arm towards Raihan. “You take the lantern. You’ll need it more than me.” His charmeleon crept up beside him, rubbing his body against his leg. Immediately his armor became hot, and he seethed, uncomfortable before giving the animal a small shove. “As you can see, I’ve all the light I need. Sal here can help me find the way back!” There was no stopping him. Leon was already marching off the trail through the forest thickets, marking trees as he went. His charmeleon followed close at his heel, lighting the way.

Raihan could only massage the back of his head before he turned to continue along the trail. The night carried on as Leon’s footsteps grew distant and faded away. Nearly a full hour of exploration ticked by and still, he couldn’t hear anything save for forest frogs croaking, birds cawing, owls hooting, and the gentle summer breeze brushing past him. Tired, and almost ready to collapse, Raihan was eager to admit Leon might have been right. There had been no trace of a witch within Hammarlocke’s borders. No doubt the phenomenon was due to sickness or something else that had already been ruled out….

He sighed, gripping his lance which he was half-using as a walking stick by now.

“Just…what are we to do? Live under a witch’s curse until death?”

It was time to return. In the back of his tired, weary mind, he briefly pondered where to even begin searching for Leon. Raihan had every expectation that the man was lost somewhere, possibly cowering in a hollowed trunk from a pack of wolves having mistaken them for something fearful. Weighed down with defeat, Raihan gripped his lance and turned to begin backtracking. “We’re being sent out on wild goose chases just to ease the minds of the villagers,” he muttered to himself. “It can’t continue like this. Eventually, the kingdom will start looking for scapegoats if the real cause isn’t discovered.”

The wind picked up just slightly, causing the trees around to shake. Leafs trickled, fluttered, and spun as they dropped from their branches. The lancer’s dreads swayed behind him as the breeze became a sudden guest. “I’ll have to advise the sick to be reexamined and perhaps the villagers can be convinced to-” A handful of leaves descended atop Raihan's head, even flying into his open mouth. He cursed as he spat, dropping his spear and the lantern as he did so to scrap the bitter taste off his tongue. Annoyed more than ever, he groaned, grinding his teeth together before letting out a swift exhale through his nose.

Where did my lance go, he thought as he knelt to feel his way through the grass. As he stood up with his weapon, a ringing chimed in his ears. It was faint, but Raihan was certain of what he heard. A slow yet luring tune was being played. The elongated heavy sounds, the power vibration that drummed in his ear as he followed it- a fiddle was being played nearby. Yet by who, and so deep in the woods? Although Raihan saw nothing particularly wrong, it was peculiar. 

He ran, following the path further ahead until he heard the sound of the riverbank, water rushing downstream, and cliffs rising around him. The sounds grew louder, more enchanting. It was a string instrument he heard. Raihan kept moving, not aware that his casual walk had turned into a sprint, racing for the edge of the woods until he finally reached the bank. A large waterfall came into view. Mist surrounded the area, sending a damp chill over the dragoon’s body and he panted from atop the riverbank.

A figure was perched on the rocks at the fall’s base, seemingly unaware of Raihan’s presence. As he continued playing the trees around began to shake, branches rattled, and leaves flurried about in the wind.

Raihan remained on the riverbank’s edge, watching the other with eyes wide and mouth agape slightly, mesmerized by the scene~ by the one-man symphony being played before him. Cyan eyes honed in, squinting to try and see through the fog to try and better marvel at the silhouette on the rocks. As the music faded away their eyes met. Slowly, hesitantly, the dragoon set down his spear so that he could clap firmly.

Neither of them could find the strength to speak, never mind the river between them. The figure’s green eyes pierced from the mist, staring daggers at Raihan, yet still, neither of them made any move to depart. The bow was raised back to the violin and with a swift, sharp strike across the strings, a high note cut through the atmosphere. The mist dispersed to reveal the musician.

Pale skin glowed under the light of the moon, reflected off the water’s surface revealing them to be nude. Moisture dripped from their skin, and long black and white hair fell across their body, covering them. There was an aura about him as he paced slowly to the edge of the rock he stood on, staring Raihan down. His lips hardly moved as he spoke. “You can hear it? You hear the music?”

The sight caught him by surprise, seeing someone playing the violin in such a way. Yet still, Raihan held any tension in his gut and exhaled smoothly before sticking his spear into the ground. “Don’t stop, now! Come on, just one more!”

Again, the musician stared daggers at Raihan before raising his fiddle to his chin and beginning anew. As soon as he started playing the entire forest came alive around them. Crickets began to chirp and the trees rattled in the wind. Yet Raihan took no notice, ears only able to hear the melody being played for him. He approached the edge of the river and sat down, allowing the music to rejuvenate his spirits until the very end.

The musician observed Raihan for a moment after he finished playing and stepped down from the rock. Yet, he did not sink into the water. Ripples spread from his feet wherever he stepped, walking across the river’s surface as he approached the dragoon. His grip tightened around his instrument as he remained on the water, keeping a distance between them. “Who are you, exactly? How is it you can hear me?”

Raihan just looked out at him with raised brows, leaning back with his arms spread out behind him. “Huh? What- you just...started playing and I heard you. Why wouldn’t I be able to? While I’m at it- what are you doing out here? It’s not safe and~ why are you naked?! Aren’t you cold?” It hadn’t been until the man was so close to him that Raihan saw the other wasn’t shaking despite being drenched. “Are you a hermit wizard or something?”

“Humans should not be able to hear any song I play. They should hear the wind, the water, or forest dwellers,” he said as he pointed his bow at the dragoon.

Again, Raihan raised a bow, hardly shifting his position. If his company was trying to come across as threatening then he wasn’t about to flinch for it. “You say that as if you aren’t human.”

His eyes narrowed, and his hand lowered for a second.

“So what are you if not human? Can I at least get a name? Come on!”

There was a brief silence that felt prolonged. The river flowed on, water crashing against the rocks around the bank. “...Piers.”

“Piers…” Raihan muttered the name in disbelief. He cupped the tip of his chin, pondering. “Such a strange name,” he thought, and then he shrugged. “I’m Raihan. A dragoon and dragon tamer of Hammarlocke. Nice to meet you, Piers! Now let’s see. Hmmm, if you won’t tell me, then I’ll just have to guess. You’re not human but...you control music and you're a water-being. Hmmm...” He brought a hand to cup around his chin, looking Piers up and down for a moment. “Wait- are you a siren?! Did your music bewitch me or something?!” Concerned for a moment, his hand reached for his spear.

“Certainly not!” Pier’s demeanor hardly changed as he raised his bow and began strumming softly, playing just a few notes while tuning his fiddle. “There is no such thing as a male siren. Even if there were, sirens live at sea and lure sailors to Death with their voices!”

“Well then what are you? Answer me already! No one is even supposed to be out here! The whole kingdom is on a witch hunt. So unless you’re what we’ve been looking for then it might be best for you to put your clothes on and go home!”

Piers only glanced up at Raihan and then continued playing. “This is my home. Now if you’re finished, leave me be and go back to your hunt if it’s so important.”

“The hell’d you’d just say?” Raihan jumped to his feet and grabbed his spear as well as a Pokeball on his belt, readying himself. “This isn’t the time for games. Get out of the water right now or else I’m coming in after you! Ya hear? I’m not messing wi- “

“Raihan?! Raihan IS THAT YOU?” 

A familiar voice thundered. Behind him, coming from the forest thicket, someone was heading right for them and fast, panting and tumbling face-first into the dirt. Twigs snapped as they rolled over, brushing themselves off. Raihan’s attention was taken away from Piers to see Leon lying down on the ground. Charmeleon slowly emerged right after, holding his tail out in front of him. 

“Oof, ugh. Raihan...hey. Glad I finally found you,” Leon panted as he picked himself back up. “Who were you talking to, anyway?”

“What do you mean? I’m trying to get this guy here to…” When he looked back at the river there wasn’t anyone in sight. Only the circles of gentle ripples and bubbles spouted from where Piers had been standing.

“Some imaginary friend of yours? A legendary pokemon, perhaps?” Leon chuckled as he rested an elbow on Raihan’s shoulder. “No one’s here but us.”

“What? No! I saw it. There was this guy and he was naked and-” he spoke in a sporadic, hysterical fashion, looking back and forth between Leon and the river as he pointed his lance about. “He was standing right on those rocks and playing music- a fiddle- and then he was walking on the water and he just...he…”

“...and what?”

“....” Raihan was at a loss for anything else to say.

“Well, I haven’t been hearing anything but the hoothoots this evening. Maybe you should have your eyes checked. Visit the healing tent when we get back to make sure you weren’t cursed or something, alright?”

“Stop messing around! I know what I saw!”

“A naked man playing the violin while walking on water?” It sounded even more absurd when it came out of Leon’s mouth, even more so with his arms crossed over his chest. “That’s still hardly threatening; more bizarre than anything else.”

“I’m telling you, he was real!” Raihan was becoming exasperated. “I heard his music and followed it here!”

Caught up in their argument, neither of them noticed Charmeleon trotting to the river bank’s edge, staring at the waterfall. He sniffed the air, scanning the area as if trying to hone in on something unseen. “Chaaaar,” he breathed.

“Well right now I wish you’d follow me back to the castle!” Leon shook his head and sighed for a moment. “Come on. It’s late and we’re both tired, aren’t we? Even if it was real, this guy just sounds like a weirdo and that’s not what we’re looking for.” He looked behind him towards the forest trail and then immediately spun back around, spotting his companion close to the water.

“H-HEY! Charmeleon! Get back here! Don’t go too close to the water like that! It’s dangerous!” No further thought was needed for him to dart over and pull the other away until they were safe from the bank. Yet, the minute he let go Charmeleon only scurried back, sniffing out the air. “Char! Chaaaarr!” he roared softly.

“What’s gotten into him?” Raihan asked, a little perplexed.

“Don’t know. Maybe he just senses danger.” Leon laughed for a second. “Maybe he can sense your fiddler close by!”

“Stop doubting me! I’m telling you, Leon, he’s real!”

“Look, let’s just get going. It’ll be daybreak soon and we’re going to be late. I want a drink more than anything else right now.” Leon was determined, taking the first step to lead everyone home. “Charmeleon! We’re leaving. Come!”

It was unsettling for Raihan as he took one last pan over the waterfall and rocks before he turned to follow Leon and their charmeleon back into the forest. He was gritting his teeth, one hand curled into a fist and the other gripping tight around his lance as they walked. “What was all that? Did I imagine it all?” he thought. 

The wind picked up, sending a refreshing breeze over them both.

Raihan’s ear twitched and his attention was immediately snatched, his head turning back toward the trail. He could hear it again- the sweet music from earlier only now being played on a different instrument. The dragon's breath became short, his heart skipping a beat as he was unsure how to respond.  “Leon!” he called forward. “Do you hear anything?”

Leon looked back with an annoyed, pouty expression on his face. “Hear what?” He paused to focus, humoring his friend with a moment to at least try to listen. “All I hear is the wind! Com’on, Raihan. You must have hit your head or something.” Another step and Leon tumbled to the forest floor, tripping. He had found the lantern Raihan had dropped.

Chapter Text

The library.

Raihan wasn't one to spend much time gazing over dusty tomes but the events of the previous evening were inescapable to him. It was a phenomenon that he couldn't explain with what limited knowledge he had at his disposal. Besides, Raihan was not an expert on non-human creatures or forest dwellers. The only thing he was an expert on was the way of the lance and how to care for a wyvern.

So there he was, wandering the castle library during breakfast hour like a lost lamb. He didn't even know where to begin searching for what he wanted, or even if any hypothesis he had would give fruit from any book he grabbed. All he knew was that Piers was something of a forest or a water creature that had an affinity for music that no one else could hear.

If that was the case then why even bother playing, he wondered.

Raihan dismissed the thought. If Piers played then there must have been a reason for it, if only for his enjoyment. Still, that didn't explain why no one else could hear or see him for that matter. Determined, he wouldn't leave the library until he had a handful of books to search through in his private quarters. He began collecting various volumes of every possible subject related to the other: nymphs, ghosts, sprites, violins, and then finally, sirens.

He recalled Sin's words the night before, dismissing his first prediction, but Raihan figured there might be something related to them. He couldn't snuff out a feeling in his gut that he wasn't exactly wrong about this. By the time he felt he had everything, he had collected a total of seven books, almost too heavy for him to carry.

Raihan heaved the stack of books and dropped them on the receptionist's desk. "I'll be borrowing these for a few days," he declared.

The old woman who had hardly paid him any attention glanced up from a parchment she had been writing on with a large feather quill and adjusted her glasses. A bit perplexed, she glanced at the tomes and then back at Raihan. "These are all for you?" she croaked. "Rare to see one of the King's knights do any reading."

"I'm not a knight. I'm a wyvern rider," Raihan corrected her, proudly.

"It's all the same to me." She put down her quill and began to examine each book, one by one. "I'll need your name for records."

"Raihan, Madame."

"Raihan. Wyvern Rider..." She began to make a note of each book title and their respective categories and even a description of the man before her. "...and you're checking out so many books on magical creatures? Sure you don't want to take a book of fairy tales with these? Why the sudden interest?"

"It's for the witch hunts." A lie, and one that made little sense. "Erh- that is," he caught himself and raised a hand in protest against his own words. "Some of us think it's not a witch at all. So we're looking into other possible causes for the plague spreading about. Some think it might have to do with poison in the water."

The librarian only stared at him coldly before taking another note. "Suit yourself," was all she said.

Raihan felt awkward as he slowly began to collect his books. "I might return later this evening. Will you still be here? I might need help finding something."

"So long as I'm awake, I'll be here, Sir Raihan. Everyone who needs me simply calls me Opal. Ring the bell if you can't find me." She pointed to a small golden bell beside her.

"Thank you, Lady Opal. I'm in your debt."

Chapter Text

The winds and waters carried Thumbelina far, across the pond where it bled into the streams, and down the smooth river until the elements became violent and unforgiving. The poor girl’s lilypad was destroyed, leaving her stranded along the river banks, and forced to take shelter wherever she could find it. Days passed, beating Thumbelina to exhaustion and desperation until a sweet mouse happened upon her, and offered her shelter from the bitter winter.

She had found a new home, and made not one, but two new friends. An injured baby bird had been left in its nest nearby, too young to fly south for the winter. Yuletide would come and go, and as the snow fell, and days passed, Thumbelina would visit the bird every evening, tend to its wounds, and share stories she remembered from her mother. Thumbelina came to care for this small hatchling as if it were her daughter. For that brief winter, everything felt like it was as it was meant to be; Thumbelina with her mouse companion and bird-child, at peace.

Spring came, and Thumbelina happened to see a man walking by, clad in flamboyant pied clothing, looking like a clown with a smile on his face and glee in his eyes. Raised to his lips was a pipe, tooting a melody that put a spring in his step. He stopped along the river bank and continued playing, and shortly after, Thumbelina witnessed a shocking, awful hoard of rats marching after him. There must have been hundreds, if not thousands of them squeaking as they followed the tune of the piper. Horror struck when she realized the music had hypnotized the mice, transfixing them to jump from the banks, and into the river, drowning themselves, every one of them.

Then came the greatest horror of all. The mouse who had shared her home with Thumbelina emerged from her hole and began following suit with the other rats. Thumbelina heard her cry out “Help me! Save me! I can’t stop!” Her body was moving on its own. She tried everything - tugging on her companion’s tail, tripping her, pushing her back but she was too small, too weak to control her, hands too tiny to block her love’s ears. There was no stopping the mouse from charging forth with Thumbelina on her back into the river. Gripped by fear, the small girl was staring Death in the face until the bird swooped down from the sky and picked Thumbelina up in her talons. She carried her away, crying as she watched her companion sink into the murky river waters.

And so Thumbelina’s second love came to an end. She wept for the mouse all night, and straight on until morning, sitting on the bird’s back as she continued flying far away. The bird followed the brightest stars in the sky, and when dawn broke the night, a warm glow cast over the horizon. At the edge of the sea, Thumbelina and her daughter saw the shadow of an island, lush and colorful. A rainbow stretched over its tall mountains and dipped into its deep, blue lagoons. They had found a new home, far from the pain and sadness of old.

Chapter Text

Five days.

That’s how much time had passed since Raihan’s encounter at the forest spring. Five days he had been on guard duty, searching the woods for the supposed “witch” causing sickness throughout the kingdom. Five nights he had detoured to the spring, calling out for the musician, only to hear the echoes of the water, crashing from the glass against the rocks. Ever since hearing Piers’s music Raihan had been unable to get the soothing melody out of his ears. He could still remember it so clearly as if fiddler was living inside his very ear. The melancholy sounds ripped through his nerves with a sharp, anxious sensation despite how smooth the image of Piers playing flashed in his head every second. 

Raihan was alone in this experience.

On the sixth day, he rested, and then Raihan was back on the witchhunts.

“A whole week of this, and still nothing. You’d think people would just learn to stay indoors and avoid each other until we figure out the cause of all this, at the very least,” Leon whined as he followed Charmeleon through the woods like the previous nights. It had been a tiring effort, discovering nothing beyond a few wild berry bushes and a nesting ground for a colony of impidimps and morgrems. Unless the entire kingdom would believe the scapegoat of trickery magic then it had been doubted worth reporting.

“There isn’t much we can do about it now.” Raihan was treading slowly behind Leon with a lantern in hand, keeping his eyes, or more so his ears perked up in case of anything. A whole week later, and he was still fixated on those sounds, on the man who had been playing it. Yet, now that time had passed he was beginning to doubt himself. Music hadn’t been heard in the forest ever since. The waterfall remained as deserted as ever. Maybe it had been his imagination or a dream. 

He sighed momentarily, jabbing his spear into the dirt as he walked. He was gritting his teeth. Just as he thought it was impossible, Raihan’s ears twitched, causing his head to turn. A noise plucked and chimed through the air. 

“Hey~ you hear that? Man, something must be up with the water! You can hear the Magikarp splashing around like crazy!” And one could.

Just as Leon had said, when Raihan dialed his ears to focus, he could hear the sound of karp, huffing and splashing from the river close by in a mad frenzy. The tune that played in his ear- was there a correlation between them? “You hear that?” he asked sternly.

“The Magikarp? I mean, how could I not? They’re pretty excited if you couldn’t tell.”

It was happening again. Someone was playing music, and only Raihan could hear it. He wouldn’t waste this opportunity to confirm his suspicion.

“Where are you headed? Raihan? Aren’t we supposed to stick together?” Leon called out as Raihan began heading in a different direction. “Or do you want us to search a different area?”

“You said so last time we were paired up, didn’t you? We can cover more ground this way! Go on ahead with me!” No time was spared. Raihan charged ahead without looking back.

He had almost memorized the way to the falls. However, having the music and the sound of the karps guiding him, Raihan made it faster than he had any previous night. His eyes were bright in the reflected light from the water’s surface. Lips trembled lightly as he stood on the river bank where he had been just a few days ago, gazing out over the river towards the rocks at the base of the falls.

Piers was there, sitting down this time, legs stretched out in front of him. Between them was none other than the source of the pleasant music he had heard. The musician’s fingers smoothly ran along and plucked at the strings of a harp that was almost taller than he was when sitting. With each charming note resounding from him, it was as if the river was alive, just as the woods had moved for his fiddle. Magikarp sprang and splashed around the rocks, one after the other as if risking life out of the water to better attend this musician’s performance.

Raihan sank from the banks to the sandy spot below, yet still dared not to venture into the waters. He planted his spear into the sand and watched, listened, and then applauded when Piers finally slowed to a pause and then reclined. Plated metal and mail clinked together as he clapped. “Bravo,” he called out to the other. 

When their eyes connected they shared a moment of stunned silence. Piers slowly stood, naked. His skin glowed against the moonlight reflecting off the surface of the water. Bright eyes pierced through the evening dew of the falls.

“I’ve been curious when I’d hear you play again. Please, come closer. I mean no harm!”

Piers didn’t say a word but slowly descended from the rocks. He walked across the water with his harp tucked under his arm. How? How was he able to just tread across the water like it was a solid surface. Raihan still had no idea, unless Piers was some kind of bizarre hermit bard. It would at least explain the man’s lack of clothing. When he was but a few paces away from the shore, he stopped. Their eyes connected once again, not a word being offered from Piers.

The dragoon just blinked, staring at him until it was clear Piers was waiting on him to speak first. “Erh- um, hello.”

“Why are you here?” Pier’s voice had been stern, almost demanding.

“I just followed the sound of your music and- “

“How is it you can hear me? Human ears are not capable of hearing the songs of a fossegrimen, even if one desired it.”

“W-what? Hold on a sec,” he reared back slightly, holding his hands up to try and calm his company. What did you say? A fo-foss...fossegrimen?” He struggled to get the word out, having not heard it before. “Is that- are you not human?”

Piers nodded his head. “The question is...are you?”

Raihan was silent for a moment. “Of course I am! Both my parents are. So why wouldn’t I be?”

Once again, no response. Piers’s eyes remained fixated on Raihan, scanning him as if he was growing horns on his head.

Raihan felt awkward, just standing there in the sand on the receiving end of such a threatening stare. His eyes traced over their surroundings, across the waters, and along the rocks, and then honed in on the pile of Magikarp, waggling about. “Um...you hungry?” he asked as he looked back at Piers. “I mean...you got all those fish there. I could build a fire.” Maybe it wasn’t the best way to break the tension, but- 

To Raihan’s surprise, Piers’s face slowly softened and then he nodded. “Very well. If dinner is being offered then I won’t refuse,” he said. The grim glided across the water to collect the small pile of gasping karp.

A fire was built in the sand from gathered sticks and dry leaves. With a little help from his lantern, it had been easy to get one going big enough to roast fish over. Four karps were impaled on a stick each, propped up against a stone over the open flames. Smoke hazed around them. The wood crackled and snapped as lake water dripped and sizzled from the fishes’ scales. Before long, a nice smoky, salty scent wafted through the air around where the two were sitting.

Piers eyed Raihan and the roasting karp impatiently as his fingers continuously tightened their hold around his harp, plucking a string every so often. Up close Raihan could finally see more to him than just his pale skin or bright eyes. The man’s nails were, in fact, claws, dirty with sand, chipped and cracked in some places, but with points nonetheless. Whenever he tugged his lip back sharp teeth could be made out, and the man’s hair was so heavy from the water that it was down, lapping over his thighs. The way he sat, slouching and clawing at his instrument showed how anxious and impatient he was becoming, yet he just kept staring at the fish as it roasted.

It was true. Whatever Piers was- it wasn’t human.

“Something wrong?” Raihan finally asked, unable to stand the silence any further.

No response. Instead, Piers reached over to one of the barely cooked Magikarp and pulled it from the smoky fire circle, pricking his claws into it as its tail fin twitched.

“H-Hey! It’s not ready! It’s only been a few seconds!”

Fangs snapped around it, breaking the hard exterior of scales like it was nothing. Bones cracked and blood splashed. It dripped from Pier’s jaw and down his chin. He tore into the fish’s flesh and devoured it as though he were still alone, disregarding Raihan staring at him. His tongue licked over his lips and around his cheeks. The point of his tongue helped to scoop loose meat and flesh as it dangled from the karp’s exposed bones.

Raihan was speechless, watching Piers devour the Magikarp. Despite the carnage, the man sitting across from him remained cool. Magikarp was known for their strong, dense scales that were difficult to remove. Yet Piers was crunching right through them using only his teeth, effortlessly; like it was completely normal for him. The dragoon just blinked, hesitant to reach out and take one of the fish for himself. “If you were that hungry...erh-”

Piers shot a look at him that made Raihan freeze.

“Erh, what exactly did you say you were again?”

“A fossegrimen,” he answered sternly after licking the last bit of blood that had spilled down his arm. Piers appeared to have calmed down after having an appetizer.

“A fossegrimen...a grim. What exactly is that? I’m not all that savvy with things outside of dragons or fairies.”

It should come as no surprise that Piers didn’t respond right away, but instead reached for his harp and began to strum along, using his nails as picks. “You asked if I was a siren last time. Remember? Think of me like a siren, only harmless.”

“Why should I trust you? How do I know you won’t try to drown me?”

“I’m sitting here on dry land with you, aren’t I?” he asked as he kept playing. “Tho we are relatives, fossegrimen are docile towards humans. I was born here in this river and I’ll die here, playing my music for those who can hear it.” Another fish was had, this time one that was fully cooked. Still, instead of peeling the skin from it, Piers sank every fang into it. Not a shard of bone or scale went to waste with him.

However, Raihan picked at it, trying to get as clean of a meaty bite as possible until Piers moved closer to him and extended his harp out for the other to take.

“Thank you. It was delicious. Now, the deal is struck, shall we begin?”

The dragoon blinked, confused as he looked down at the harp. “Is this a gift for me?”

A small laugh. “No. I would never part with any of my instruments.” Slowly, his gaze was brought up to meet Raihan in the eye. “You’re a dumb one, aren’t you? I’m offering to teach you how to play.”

Raihan leaned away slightly and raised a brow. “Wh-what? Why- why would you- sorry! I must have missed something. Why the hell are you trying to teach me to play the harp?”

“It comes with the territory. Usually, those who offer food to a grim is someone who wishes to learn their musical capabilities.” Once again, he extended his harp for Raihan to hold.

“Um...I was jus’ being nice. Not a ‘musicale’ kind of guy. Why don’t you just play me another song, huh? I like hearing you.”

Once again, Piers didn’t respond. He only scanned Raihan before slowly retrieving his instrument and gave a shallow nod. His nails began to pluck away at harp strings, ringing in a pleasant, soft tune. At the same time, the waterfall became quieter, water falling slower. Ripples in the river bubbled and the faint sound of splashing could be heard. The fish still in the water were responding to Piers’s music. No- the entire forest was, and yet Piers continued playing like nothing was out of the ordinary.

“You’re a strange one,” he muttered as he continued playing. “Who are you, exactly?”

Raihan’s attention was grabbed once again. “I’m Raihan. A dragoon and dragon rider for Hammarlocke. I thought I had told you last time,” he said with his mouth full as he tore away fresh meat for the Magikarp’s bone in his hand.

“No. That’s not what I meant. Tell me, Raihan. Where are you from.”

“Here! I don’t understand what you’re getting at. I was born in Hammarlocke and I’ve lived there my whole life. I was trained in the royal guard ever since boyhood!”

Piers continued playing, not once looking up at Raihan. “And?”

“Well...I don’t know what else to say. My parents were kind people- bakers. Though, they said I wasn’t a planned child. They never explained it. Something about magic beans and an old witch’s curse. They moved here shortly after I was born, but Father refused to talk about it much beyond that, and Mother...well, Father said she died giving birth to me.”

The mood shifted, as did the tune. Piers’s fingers slowed and went for thicker strings. The music drifted into a bleaker number, similar to the one he had played on his fiddle. “I see…”

“B-but I mean- everything was still good. I met my best mate, Leon when we were training together. He ended up getting promoted to beast tamer and I was selected to be a dragon rider! Well...more like the dragons selected me! Hehe, no one could explain it but a lot of times the wyverns and dragon Pokemon we take care of would flock to me and obey me, sometimes with more loyalty than even our teachers!”

Finally, the grim’s song came to an end, and the forest slowly returned to normal. The waterfall crashed against the rocks. Rapids collided in the river. The fish simmered down, and Piers just gazed upon Raihan with a small, modest smile across his lips. “Fascinating,” was all he said.

The fire was dying, and the last remaining fish was burned. Piers took it and devoured it just as he had the previous two. “It is time to go,” he declared before standing up.

“What? Wait a second! We’ve hardly spoken. You can’t just decide that! H-hey!”

Piers was already stepping back across the water, harp in hand, slowly, his back turned to Raihan. “I don’t like leaving the water for long. Please, return next week. I only ask that you come alone.”

“Aren’t you listening?! I said to hold on! I’m not finished speaking. Just-” but it didn’t matter. As Raihan charged into the water, fully armored, Piers strummed across his harp. Immediately a thick fog shrouded the area. The river became violent, hurling waters at the dragoon, and sent him back towards the sandy river bank. He landed on his back, crashing into the fire pit.

Raihan coughed and spat river water as he pulled himself up, tossing off his helmet and reaching around for his spear...that was now nowhere to be found. Nor was there anyone there. Piers had vanished into the mist. He was alone, and just like last time all there was to hear was the sound of the river, cutting from the forest.

Chapter Text

Fossegrimen.

At least this time, Raihan knew what he was looking for. Most of the old tomes had proven useless, and now he was back in the library digging through any book on magical creatures he could find, even if it was a book consisting of those thought to be extinct or even urban legends. Even in a world with fairies and dragons, the people still and their ideas of monsters and devils that people had come to believe were real, but truthfully had never existed at all.

It mattered not to Raihan what was labeled fact or fiction. If he found anything related to Piers then he’d take the lead no matter where it went. Creatures of the deep, another tome on water nymphs, a collection of strange forest sightings and sounds, ancient legends - anything at all. And so he’d start reading through them, flipping through their many pages, mostly skimming over their contents until he found anything even close. However, no book seemed to hold any concrete description or any information on a fossegrimen.

Well…it might have made a difference if Raihan knew how to spell the word properly, but that was beside the point. Surely, something would have turned up by now, he figured. He tossed one book into his return pile and reached for another to observe its table of contents when someone’s hand clasped on his shoulder.

“I had gotten word that you were visiting here more frequently but I had to see it to believe it.” Leon’s friendly voice chimed as he smiled down at him. “What are you reading?” He looked over Raihan’s shoulder, skimming the page, and then noted the other books beside him. The titles were enough of a giveaway, and he groaned in a light-hearted manner. “Come on, don’t tell me you’re still looking into your mystery musician.”

“Leon, please. This is really important to me,” Raihan said as he rolled his shoulder to shake him off.

Leon smirked, even though he faced Raihan’s backside. He sighed and walked around to the side of the table and knelt down to whisper in his ear. “Look, I’m not saying it’s not possible but…you should know that people are starting to talk. They’re worried about you, Raihan.”

That got his attention. He turned his head slightly in Leon’s direction and without a response he looked back to his back before flipping to a certain chapter he had decided would be most useful. “What’s it matter? I’m still maintaining my usual duties, aren’t I?”

Leon grit his teeth. “That’s not the point. Look- why do you care about this so much? It just seems strange that it’s been such a big concern of yours for over a week now. Look- just…alright, I’ll humor you for a moment.” Leon grabbed a nearby chair and sat down beside him and looked around before leaning over the table, wanting to ensure their conversation wasn’t going to draw any unnecessary attention. “Can you at least tell me why you’re invested in this? Please?”

Raihan’s attention snapped up again, and this time he stared at Leon as a star was shining directly in his eyes, dumbfounded and confused. In all the time he had spent gazing over books and in the two encounters, he had never stopped to think about what was attracting his focus to Piers at all. “I…”

Leon remained silent, locking their eyes together and waiting patiently for a response. Although a firm and stern look was in his eye, the way he nodded his head indicated a certain longing and desire to understand whatever answer Raihan would give. He opened his mouth as if to speak and then quickly closed it again, wanting to give Raihan every bit of air in the whole room if needed, yet the dragoon didn’t have an answer ready.

His gaze shifted back to the book and turned the page. There were illustrations of various fiends and legends however the image was…not quite what Raihan had expected. The watercolor illustration, striking as it was, depicted a lush forest environment with a satyr sitting on a rock, tooting away on a pan flute naked with an exaggerated and peculiarly large erection. Raihan immediately turned the page to cover the image and looked back up as if there was any chance Leon hadn’t seen it himself. The look on his face said it all, and Raihan leaned back in his chair, sighing.

“Well, erh- um…” Leon hid his face in embarrassment and chuckled. “I see now. Trying to get your lips around his instrument, are you?”

“What? Heavens, no! Leon!” Raihan closed the book entirely, too dumbfounded to say anything else as his friend started laughing. He slumped down, resting his forehead on the edge of the book and his nose tapping against the cold table’s surface, groaning until the other ceased.

“I’m sorry, but it’s a bit funny. Now please…surely you must have a reason for all this, don’t you?”

There was no escaping this scenario until he gave Leon an answer. Raihan groaned again and shook his head before pulling himself up and tugging his face back, stretching and massaging the muscles in his cheeks. 

He thought back to his previous encounter with Piers by the firelight at the edge of the river. Despite his current state of exhaustion, Raihan could still vividly imagine the way light reflected across the edge of sin’s claws and how the scales on his body glittered in the moon. The man’s fangs had a twinkle to their points as they ripped into the fish and snapped hard bones like they were small twigs. The man’s hair had been beautiful, covering his body like an endless blanket of the night. His hands had moved with the smoothness of a gentle current up and down his instrument, playing with such passion and sorrow that just the memory made him clutch lightly at his chest. Then the memory of Sin’s eyes- it came to him.

“It’s like…he wants to be heard.”

“Hmm?” Leon tilted his head. “Come again?”

“When he plays- I mean- no one can hear him. That is- no one but me. Yet when I’m there he never stops playing. He’s said I shouldn’t hear him but he keeps playing. It’s like he wants to be heard. I know you said you never heard anything but the past two nights I’ve seen him he’s played songs with such sadness it’s like a requiem for the dying. Every night it’s like it plays in remembrance of someone who’s died….”

The air around them both fell silent and heavy momentarily as if Raihan was second-guessing his own words. He continued after another moment of thought. “I…I feel sorry for him. When I saw him- the other night when I looked into his eyes they were so dark and void of light. I felt like I was staring into the very essence of suffering and almost…fear.” Yeah, that was it. He was sure of it.

Leon didn’t respond right away. He leaned forward again and rested an elbow on the table as he cupped his chin between his thumb and index finger. “Hmm…well…if that’s true then perhaps you should give him what he wants. Or rather, what he needs in this case?”

Raihan blinked. “What do you mean? Do you actually believe me now?”

“No.” Blunt as ever. “But I can tell that you’re committed to this and I can’t stand by and watch it eat you alive. So for now I’m willing to go along with it so long as you keep your wits about you and stick to your duties. For the sake of the Hammarlocke, the last thing we needed is the most prominent wyvern rider going insane.”

It was a harsh truth, but one Raihan couldn’t deny that if in Leon’s position, he’d be saying the same thing. He nodded his head slowly, gritting his teeth again. “Fine. I promise.”

Leon nodded. “It sounds to me like this water nymph of yours is rather lonely. So next time you visit him, maybe try and be more friendly and you’ll learn more about him. I don’t know what all of this is supposed to accomplish, but if it’ll make you happy then go for it. Our duty is to protect all the people of Hammarlocke and so long as he’s within our kingdom’s border then he’s a citizen like anyone else. Protect him.”

Raihan nodded and his lips curled into a slight grin. Finally! Even if he didn’t have Leon’s faith entirely, it was nice to have him on his side for the time being. “I will. Don’t you worry.”

“Good. Another thing to consider is the possibility that he might be afraid of humans. Make it clear that he isn’t in any danger when he’s around you.”

Raihan blinked, wide-eyed and surprised. He had never considered that a possibility. Surely, he knew that he wouldn’t do anything to harm an innocent creature, human or magical otherwise. But for one to still be afraid of him…well, the more he considered the possibility the more it made sense. Had Piers fled so quickly the other night because he had scared the other away with something he had said? “Hmm…” He didn’t say anything at first but then nodded his head. “Yeah, actually…maybe you’re right.”

Leon gave a final nod before standing up. “Mind the time. I’m sure your wyvern is expecting you to take him out to stretch his wings this morning, is he not? Don’t keep him waiting.” Leon took his leave, and as he walked away he could hear Raihan quickly gathering his things and hurrying to the front desk to borrow each book like he had the previous week. Opal glanced in his direction as he walked by.

Their eyes met and she pursed her lips as if disapproving of him being there. He shivered but walked on towards the exit as she gave her attention to Raihan.

Chapter Text

The snow crushed under Raihan’s boots as he stomped through the woods. He breathed slowly, but heavily. His breath huffed out in a thick fog as it seeped from behind his scarf. The summer had come and gone, and so had autumn, and now Hammarlocke was a frozen wonderland, blanketed in white as far as the eye could see. Sunlight reflected off white fields as if they glowed. The trees were naked, save for the rich pine, powdered from roots to tip in snow.

Raihan didn’t have guard duty that evening, which was why he was choosing to venture out during the daytime for once. A smile was on his lips behind his scarf despite his shaking body and hunched figure as he made his way to the usual spot at the base of the falls. Flurries made a gentle, decorative descent upon the river which was frozen over. The falls had become nothing but outstretched icicles - discolored gray thanks to the collected layers of dirty within the ice. He shook his head, thinking to himself how ugly it looked. “Winter can’t be beautiful all the time, can’t it?” he asked himself.

It was a struggle to keep straight with his satchel offsetting his balancing and the cold biting into his bones, making him hunch forward as he continued to the river’s edge like always. “Heeeey, come on out, now!” he called. “Don’t tell me you sleep for the whole day. I got a little surprise for yuh!”

The ice ruptured. Cracks outstretched to the riverbank as segments of the river rocked up and down to the force of the water flowing underneath. Raihan wasn’t fazed in the slightest. In fact, he smirked as he pulled his scarf from his face. “Wakey wakey!” he said to himself. His ears twitched, and his smile grew brighter, showing his teeth. There was a cheerful strum of violin strings around him. “Haven’t heard this one before…”

As water seeped from the cracks in the ice, so did a mist overtake the area. When the music ceased, the mist dispersed and suddenly Piers was there, standing on the ice, naked and lowering his fiddle from his shoulder. “Dramatic as ever,” Raihan commented as he clapped his hands. “Quite rare that you ever play any of the classics. Thought you only played your own music?”

When Piers opened his eyes they were striking. The bright winter scenery enhanced the green glow to them. He pursed his lips into a slight frown and stepped closer, slowly. “Who do you think wrote those old carols centuries ago? Do tell me, Sir Raihan.” His feet were beaten pink from the chill of the river ice, yet he stood as tall and moved with all the grace as he had in the summer. “It was the grim who wrote them, and then taught them to men whom we deemed worthy of learning,” continued.

“Did your kind invent all music?” Raihan teased as he shook his head again. “Com’ere. I got something special for you today.”

“Was it so special that you had to wake me up in the middle of the day? True, sleep is not needed for me, but rest is still enjoyed.” Piers halted a few paces from Raihan, as always not leaving the territory of the river, even when it was frozen.

“I just thought I’d come see you since I don’t have guard duty this evening. Come, why don’t you take a walk with me? Let me show you the woods, if only for a little while.”

“I cannot leave my domain, Raihan,” he responded immediately. Despite his protest, Piers stepped closer until he was at the edge of banks. Always so hesitant to go any further than the shore.

“Well, ice is only frozen water, isn’t it? What if we blew snow from the forest to the river banks? Then you’d be connected back to the river no matter where you stepped!”

“A clever thought, but no. I will not allow it.” He readied himself to begin playing again, but as he struck the first cord, Raihan came sliding across the ice with his legs wobbling. Piers shifted, and slid sideways, dodging Raihan as he collapsed onto his face. “The ice is cracked, you know. One false slip and you could wind up being frozen underneath.”

“And you wouldn’t use your music to melt the ice and save me?” He said as he struggled to regain his balance and climb to his feet.

“Can’t do that,” he said sarcastically.

“Don’t lie to me. You’ve used it before to wash me ashore in the past. Surely you can save a drowning man.”

Piers didn’t respond so quickly but continued playing the ancient yuletide carol Raihan had praised earlier. “I comply with nature’s course. If you are meant to drown, then you will, unfortunately, be left to your frigid watery grave.”

Finally standing, Raihan shifted his weight and slid across the ice to meet Piers. His arm was extended out, holding something between his fingers: a dark, creamy, chocolate-coated truffle. He smirked when he saw his friend stop playing, confused and a little frightened and he forced the small confection into the other’s mouth. “Well, I comply with shutting your mouth with a bit o’ sweetness.”

It was a mess, watching Piers struggle against the truffle being forced into his mouth, and then trying to break it apart to be easy to swallow, but after a moment, he could see the look of shock and enjoyment in his eyes as he dropped his instrument. The bow and violin bounced against the ice, and like magic, melted into water on the spot. Raihan pulled his hand away and licked his own palm, getting a taste of leftover chocolate and Piers’ spit. “Heh, tasty,” he taunted before pulling out another truffle from his bag and popping it into his own mouth.

Piers coughed momentarily after swallowing took a few deep breaths. “Are you trying to poison me?” he hissed.

“Com’on, Piers! You of all people know what time of year it is! Yuletide isn’t just for carols and music. It means chocolates and confections of all kinds! Unless you want me to just cook you the same meal of roasted pidove, like every other night.”

“You came all the way out here and woke me up early to give me candies?”

“I can take them back if you want.” Raihan held out another for Piers to take, to which he did without another word. “Hah! Thought so.” Truffles. Peppermint bark. Chocolate yule log. Raihan and brought plenty for them to share, and a bottle of wine to go with it all. Together, they made their way back to the river bank and took their usual perch in the sand- well, snow, for it was winter. 

After a struggle, Raihan had managed to build a small fire, more for himself than Piers. As frigid as it was, Piers showed no sign of discomfort, and yet his cheeks still burned pink, fingers, and ears red. Every part of Piers’s body said he was developing hypothermia and would die if he wasn’t dressed properly, and yet the grim still played his fiddle as if everything was normal to him.

“Aren’t you cold?” Raihan finally asked while shivering, both arms huddled around his chest.

“Not in the slightest. Nature does not have the same effect on my kind as it does yours.”

“Then why are you red all over? You look as if you’re about to freeze!”

“I still can still feel the cold, and my body still reacts to it, but it isn’t much of a concern. Grims are connected to nature differently than humans. We’re able to sustain harsher conditions, and intense heat and cold are one of them. The winds might tickle me but they do not cut. Snow may kiss my skin, but it does not sting me. It’s probably hard for you to imagine, but I guess we should leave it to me to be more tolerant of extreme nature conditions than you.”

“Fine. Whatever you say, Piers.” He groaned before taking a swing from his wine glass which helped him to perk up quickly. “Gahhhh! Hey, if you’re going to keep playing carols, do you think you can sing?”

Piers blinked, slightly stunted, and halted his playing. “What?”

“Singing. You know. The song you’re playing right now! You know the words, don’t you?”

“Haven’t the slightest idea of what you’re talking about.” he tossed Raihan’s comment aside and continued playing.

“Whaaat? You mean you don’t know the words? What did- did we make that up ourselves? Hehe- well I can’t sing very well but lemme tell yuh what I mean!”

Hark! how the bells

Sweet silver bells

All seem to say

"Throw cares away."

Yuletide is here

Bringing good cheer

To young and old

Meek and the bold

His voice was off pitch, out of tune, and overall...a travesty to any poor soul whose ears were in range. Raihan was a talented dragoon and a natural dragon rider, but a bard he certainly was not meant to be. Nevertheless, he continued on, joyfully singing to Piers’s music and unaware of fuming annoyance within the grim that would bubble into outburst.

Ding, dong, ding, dong

That is their song

With joyful ring

All caroling

One seems to hear

Words of good cheer

From ev'rywhere

Filling the air

Unable to take it any further, Piers stopped playing, seething through his teeth. “Just shut up, already! Your voice is horrid!” he lashed out as he set aside his bow and hurled a chunk of snow at Raihan’s face. “Nature had granted you with a dragon’s ears, but not a siren’s voice,” he continued. In a huff, Piers picked his bow back up and struck a few cords before finding the notes and rhythm to continue where he left off. 

As Raihan wiped the snow from himself, Piers shut his eyes and coughed to clear his throat. After hesitation, his voice slipped from his throat. Shy at first, but as the lines carried on, the grim collected his confidence, and his spirit lifted. He began to play louder and his voice rang out, powerful and clear.

Oh how they pound

Raising the sound

O'er hill and dale

Telling their tale

Joyf'ly they ring

While people sing

Songs of good cheer

Yuletide is here

Merry, merry, merry, merry Yuletide

Merry, merry, merry, merry Yuletide

Raihan could only sit and listen, hunched forward with his elbows on his knees. He smiled at Piers, watching as he continued with his eyes closed. There was a sparkle in his own stare, and softness in his gaze. Seconds ago he had complained about the cold, yet now his body felt warm, his head foggy with joy.

On, on they send

On without end

Their joyful tone

To ev'ry home

When Piers downplayed his tune, and slowed to a quiet stopping point, Raihan leaned back on the log he was sitting on and finished off the remainder of his wine glass. “Ahhhh! That was fantastic,” he said, seemingly talking about his drink. “And here I thought you said you couldn’t sing. Why are you hiding pipes like that, huh?”

“It’s not in my nature. My duty is to play music so that nature may continue on its course. It is the duty of the sirens to sing and tempt the hearts of man.”

“And yet, nature gave you the voice to do all the same,” Raihan shocked his head with a smile. “Just like how it gave me the ears to hear you, didn’t it?”

Piers was silent, pausing to take a sip from his glass. “I suppose that is a possibility, yes.” In thought, Piers had begun to weave his fingers through his long, tangled black and white hair which draped over his frontal, acting like a blanket. He was silent, thereafter.

Raihan stood from the log and dusted his hands off before holding them out for Piers to take. “Come on. The sun is still out, so let’s have a bit o’ fun.”

Piers raised a brow and frowned, looking back and forth between Raihan’s hands and his face. “Did you not hear me earlier? I can’t leave the river.”

“So we won’t. Com’on. The ice is still pretty thick, isn’t it? So let’s slide around! Go ice skating.”

“That sounds like a stupid idea. Ice is already cracked. You could fall in.”

“Then I’ll just have to make sure I don’t, won’t I?”

Not accepting anything else for an answer, Raihan pulled Piers to his feet, overpowering him. He forced the other back towards the frozen river, nearly tumbling over as he did so. The two joined hands, spinning in a circle together until Raihan pulled the other in close, creating a disturbance in their momentum. The dragoon smiled down at the grim, watching him wobble and flail about until he could find a collective balance with Raihan.

“That’s it. Now, just hold my hand and take my lead...1! 2!” They were off. The two were moving side by side, sliding around on the river ice, slowly. Piers had his eyes on the ice and his feet, trying to keep track of his own movements while Raihan had his eyes on Piers the whole time. To and fro - they went around in a small circle and across the river, dodging the cracks or sliding right over them. With the hours passing, they each grew more confident to a point of disregarding any possible hazard.

“Isn’t this great, mate?” Raihan said with cheer in his voice. “A real Yuletide. Time with friends, eating sweets, caroling, ice skating- Man, Piers, I’ll be sure to bring leftovers of Yuletide dinner if you want. It won’t be 100% fresh, but I’m sure it’ll taste great all the same for y- OHHHHH!”

Losing balance, Raihan toppled over and pulled Piers down with him. They crashed into the ice with a heavy thud,the dragoon landing on his back and feeling the weight the other collapse onto him shortly after. Not once had either of them let go of the other’s hand, not until they skidded to a stop. They lay there, on the ice, Raihan supporting Piers over him. The other was shaking- trembling like a frightened animal of sorts. His face was pressed against Raihan’s chest.

He was confused and concerned. “Piers? Buddy?”

No response.

“It’s alright, mate. Just a few scrapes on my end, but you seem to be fine. Just a little fall. We can get back up.”

Still nothing. Piers just kept shaking, and then… “Happy Yule, Raihan,” he muttered.

It was then that Raihan understood.

He sighed, smiling, and put his arms around Piers’s body, holding him close on top of him. The other’s hair was tangled all over both of their bodies and spilling across the ice as he continued to shake in the dragoon’s embrace. It was like Piers had said earlier. His body reacted normally. It trembled and shook, his skin turned red, and his hair could become a mess, yet his touch remained warm, his flesh still scarless, and beautiful.

While there was joy in his gifts and his existence as a fossegrimen, it also came with a curse. Piers still felt like any other creature, inside and out. He had to endure loneliness, sorrow, isolation, and sadness like anyone else. How long had he been here in this river without anyone to hear him play? How my rivers had he lived in before this where he had been driven out by the greed of mankind?

Raihan didn’t have those answers. But he had an idea of what Piers was thinking, now. He sighed once more as he stroked the back of the other’s head.

“Happy Yuletide, Piers.”

Chapter Text

He was starting to like the way the sand crunched under his iron boots as he sank into the riverbank. Raihan welcomed the crashing water that echoed as he removed his helmet and shook his hair out, feeling the humid, yet cool air kiss his face, moist with sweat. “Come on out, now. I know you’re here,” he called out to his lonely surroundings. 

No response.

No matter. Raihan wasn’t about to turn and leave with such a minimal effort this time. He grunted softly as he thrust his lance into the sand, leaving it standing upright, and began to remove the remainder of his armor. First, his gauntlets and then shoulder plates, arms, chest plate, boots, and all until he was stripped down to his trousers and chainmail. Each piece landed in the soggy river bank sands with a thud or a clank as they piled up. “See? No armor or weapon. I’m not about to harm you and I’m not going anywhere all night!”

Still nothing. Not a sound save for the waterfall and the mist hissing in the aftermath from its descent against the rocks.

Raihan scanned the area. He must have sounded like a madman, the way he was throwing his voice out when there wasn’t anyone present, but he wasn’t about to give up, just yet. He had every reason to believe that Piers was around here, listening and watching him. His friend was either waiting for the right reason to show himself or for Raihan to finally give up and leave. The dragoon stepped into the river, curling his toes at the slight sting from the icy waters. He winced but ventured forth until he was standing ankle-deep. “You know, if you summon up some Magikarp, I could cook us dinner again.”

The water stirred, ripples forming from nothing, and then a slight splash from something unseen.

Bingo. Raihan smiled in its direction. “And I’d be honored if I could hear you play again.” The water stirred. He shrugged, holding both hands up, open-palmed as he shook his head. “Seems like a fair trade, doesn’t it? A hot meal to hear another song? What do yuh say?”

With that, it seemed Raihan had Piers’s attention. The water bubbled and rippled until it almost seemed alive and violent. It streamed out from the surface, like a giant wave, circling the surrounding area and collided against the rocky shallows. The tide exploded, casting power, but a short torrent of rain over Raihan and there he was. The fossegrimen was standing only a few meters away from the dragoon on the water’s surface. A long, twinkling silver flute was in hand, held up to his lips. He blew softly, slowly, creating a smooth flow of music.

The falls slowed to a halt. Droplets were suspended in midair like stars. Raihan playfully tapped one with the tip of his finger and watched as the water seeped into his naked skin. He even playfully licked a few right out of the air. “Heh~ tasty work yuh do here, Piers. This your way of bringing the drinks for, both of us? You didn’t seem like the kind of guy to get so worked up over a meal.”

He didn’t say anything at first. Piers only stared at Raihan as he lowered a flute from his lips. His eyes narrowed to thin lines, yet there wasn’t the slightest disturbance on his face. He stepped forward, palms of his feet connecting with the surface of the river with a soft splash. “Have you ever wondered why that is? We grims often eat our food raw, and quickly to avoid being discovered by the few blessed by whichever means allow them to hear our music. God forbid anyone to hear us and come looking. It’s rare to enjoy something hot, especially something other than fish.”

“Well if I had known that then I would have brought some raw poultry or beef from the village market to roast for you.” Raihan stepped back, not once turning his gaze from Piers. He moved slowly as he felt his way from the river back to the bank. “I thought no one was supposed to ever be able to hear yuh, anyway? Why so much precaution? Hell, surely you could leave this river if you wanted, right?”

He reached the bank, noted when the back of his heel collided against a piece of his armor. A sharp pain exploded in his foot. He held his poker face, trying not to allude Piers’s attention away from his question.

Once again, Piers only went as far as but a few paces from where the water ended. “It is in our nature to take precaution. Should someone terrible find us, then it could prove to be fatal. Maybe even warrant abandoning our domain.”

“Well then I’ll count myself lucky that you’re still here after three weeks of me visiting yuh,” he said with a slight chuckle.

“Why is it that you return as often as you do? You’ve already said you do not play an instrument of your own. You’ve nothing to gain from me.”

“Not true,” Raihan said as he finally began gathering sticks for a fire. Thanks to Piers’s little show it was proving hard to find any that were soaked and covered in sand. For a moment he thought to venture into the woods to gather fresh dry ones. It’d probably be best. “I told you earlier, didn’t I? I don’t want anything from you other than to hear you play another song like last time.”

Piers remained silent, only watching Raihan’s backside as he continued collecting wood for a fire. Without any response, he brought his flute back up to his lips and began to play. The winds began to stir and trees shook. As the grim’s fingers picked and pressed quickly across his flute the warm summer breeze swiftly climbed to a howling torrent until Raihan was knocked onto his bottom. The wind sliced over his skin, stinging him, preventing him from opening his eyes unless he faced his back towards the wind.

What happened next Raihan thought was a mad hallucination. Pidoves. A small flock of them came flying out of the trees, low to the ground at them. They were following the wind’s pull and then suddenly~ His eyes widened in disbelief as the same birds dived straight into the river around Piers. The grim immediately dropped his flute into the water and all the magic surrounding them ceased. Water pelted down on the surrounding area. The falls collided once again into the river, and rapids screeched. Piers grabbed the birds in his claws, holding them tightly in the water as they violently shook about, wings beating and talons scraping and whatever they could find. Yet it was no use. Piers spared no mercy as he squeezed both birds around their necks, and snapped them both.

“Can you cook pheasant?” he asked as he stood, both Pidove dead in his grip.

Raihan could only stare at him in a moment of awe and silence before finally answering. “Yeah. Just let me get more wood.” What he had wouldn’t suffice for a fire.

Skinned and now roasting over an open fire, the two sat just as they had the previous week. This time, Piers was showing more patience instead of grabbing a half-cooked meal and devouring it, bones and all. They say in silence, each staring into the flames or watched as one of them rotated the stick that skewered both Pidoves.

“You…” Raihan had things in mind, but there was hesitation to ask what was really on his mind.

Piers looked up at him, waiting for him to finish. “Yes?”

“.....”

“Speak.”

“Sorry, erh~ It’s just...what you did earlier…”

“What about it?”

“Well um, you said earlier that humans can be dangerous to you but you just controlled half a flock of Pidove and drowned them. And last time you devoured a whole Magikarp, scales and all like it was as soft as bread. A normal human can’t bite into one unless they desire to lose all their teeth at once.”

“That is natural for someone like me. You see, our music controls and bends nature, depending on what instrument is played.”

“I guess that makes sense, but why can’t you fend off humans, then? Couldn’t you use music the same way? Hypnotize them and drown them? Or at the very least, fend them off, physically.”

Piers shook his head. “I cannot. Only sirens are capable of hypnotizing humans. Fossegrimen are different. We can control nature, but humans...they are different from birds or fish. They don’t flow like the water or blow wherever the winds take them like a cloud. They do not follow the laws of nature. They have a greater free will; ability to reason and defy logic.”

Raihan remained silent for a moment, rotating the birds once again. “What exactly does that make me, then?”

“It means there is something within you that is beyond human. A distant connection with the natural world that enables you to see and hear me when I play, yet you remain unaffected by it all the same. How curious.”

“So not even you know the full truth? Heh, guess I’m just special. Still, don’t you get tired of being invisible all the time? I mean, you play so many instruments, and good, too! Don’t you want others to hear it?”

The question caught Piers a little by surprise. He had never been asked anything like that, before. Then again, Piers had been alone almost his entire life after his birth. His eyes slowly turned away as his thoughts drifted. The crackle of the fire, river waters, and chirping crickets were the only noises keeping the tension from choking Piers in the moment.

“Certainly,” he said with his lips thinly parted as he looked back, meeting Raihan’s eyes. “This river has been my home and my stage for nearly a century and you’re the first to wander over here.”

“Then why don’t you? Can’t you just disguise yourself? Shave your claws down and cover your gills? Hell, maybe if you wore clothes you could go into town like any other human. Then you could play in the streets and- oh well...no one would hear you even if you played, though…”

“That’s right. Blessed with phenomenal talent and yet only a lucky few can hear us. That is why many grims will pass their knowledge onto humans for something as simple as hot food. It almost has nothing to do with the bribe. It’s about the chance of their talent being heard through someone else. The quality of the meal just measures how badly they wish to learn.”

Raihan lowered his head, staring into the small fire between them. “I see…” He thought back to their chat from the previous week when Piers had attempted to teach him the harp. A small bit of melancholy and even guilt arose in his gut when he recalled having rejected the other’s offer. “Is that why you- I mean last week when you tried to…” his voice trailed off. His ears twitched and his gaze shot up when he heard Piers had begun blowing into his flute again. When had he...hadn’t he dropped it into the water, earlier? Then again, he was magical.

A gentle breeze blew right past them. “It matters not. You declined in the end.”

“But what if I let you teach me? I mean...then everyone would hear your songs. I could learn even just one instrument and I could play whatever you teach me to everyone in town and then they’ll know and-”

“No.” His voice was stern. The music halted. Piers’s eyes leered at him as he shook his head, slightly. “Raihan...do you remember what I said about humans? They have their kind of free will. Truly a wretched thing you have, being able to turn against nature but it is also a gift. You chose to become a dragon rider, did you not?”

“Well, yeah but...I did that because I was the best at it. No one else could command dragon pokemon and wyverns as I could. So it just seemed nat- …” He froze, realizing what he was saying. It all clicked in his head.

“Seems that you’ve been following nature’s path for you just as needed,” Piers smirked at him as he began playing once more. “You have free will, Raihan. What you do with it...that is still always your choice. Following your heart, following natural law and instinct, neither is good nor evil. It is what you do with it that matters most. You’re just a lucky one where it would seem that both fate and choice aligned perfectly for you.”

“Piers…” Raihan couldn’t find any further words. Had his nostrils not flared by the sudden intrusion of smoke, Raihan would have let their dinner fall into the fire pit and burn black. Still, he couldn’t take his eyes off the man, not but a few meters away, sitting cross-legged on the shore of the bank, tooting away on his flute and making the wind tickle against his cheek. He was enchanted, watching him play. 

Piers began to slowly fade into a thin veil of mist. 

“W-wait! Hang on! Don’t leave. We haven’t eaten yet. I’m not done talking to you! Please, j-just-” He scurried to his feet. In a panic, Raihan accidentally knocked the Pidove into the fire pit for real this time, cursing as he immediately reached to salvage whatever meat wasn’t tainted by ashes and charred wood. Flames sparked, cinders quick to sting the palms of his hand. He dropped the birds back into the pit once more and fell back on his rear.

When he looked up Raihan saw the faint image of Piers vanish once again and then...nothing. The mist faded and he was alone, save for the forest breeze comforting him. “Dammit! HEY!” The dragoon pulled himself back to his feet and stepped over the fire pit into the shallow waters. “Get back here, dammit! You owe me a song!”

As if on-demand the air became filled with the playful, charming melody of Piers’s flute. Slough sweet, the tune carried a mocking tone to it. Yet the legato stretched on, smoothly as did the calming winds. Raihan gritted his teeth, yet slowly found himself soothed like a beast eased to rest with a lullaby.

A voice whispered to him. It was Piers. “You know...I’m quite happy playing for an audience of one. Return here once more, next week....”

Raihan didn’t respond. He only stood there, listening to the grim’s song until it ended. The wind died, and he felt empty, like a piece of him had been stolen. He looked down at his charred hand as he made his way back to his spear and armor. Once more, he looked at his wounds and blinked as he held them away from his body. His hands! Raihan’s eyes were wide. He could have sworn that he had burned himself. Raihan remembered the sting and the heat that had made him pull back away yet his skin looked as if it were completely healed. No soot or scar anywhere on his palms.

“What...what’s happening?” he whispered to himself. “Just...what am I?”

Chapter Text

Natural law.

It was time for another dive into endless tomes from the library. Only this time, Raihan hadn't waited until the following morning. He could still hear Piers' song from an hour ago blowing in his ear.

He wasn't quite sure what he was going to find but he knew that Piers was being held at his post, cut off from the rest of the world due to the natural law of his kind. So what was preventing him from breaking it? Why stay there? What would it matter if others saw him and heard him? Raihan couldn't understand it when he found Piers to be such a creature of beauty and with a talent that deserved to be shared with anyone that could hear him.

For a moment Raihan theorized that maybe Piers was just afraid. Perhaps he'd feel unsafe being away from his waterfall or maybe afraid of being attacked for his monstrous imperfections. But another thought dismissed those possibilities when he remembered how much Piers had mentioned nature's law. He might not have admitted it, but Raihan was certain that something was binding him to the water, keeping him there. If he understood the reason behind it then maybe he could break whatever it was that held him there.

"Let's see…" He turned the page, illuminated by the flickering dim lantern light on the desk. Raihan began reading aloud in a husky whisper.

" Water nymphs naturally take refuge in bodies of water such as ponds, swamps, and lakes. Depending on the species, such as a siren, they may dwell in seawater and beneath the ocean depths. Most are capable of survival on dry land but experience a severely weakened state. "

Could that be it? He had noticed Piers leave the water to sit with him on the sand and quickly return.

" Deep sea nymphs were thought to be a myth due to rare sightings, often by sailors spending many months at sea. Originally these sightings were dismissed as illusions caused by seasickness or dehydration. After their existence was acknowledged it was believed that deep-sea nymphs had a sensitivity to sunlight because of their ghostly pale skin, hence them living deeper than any man could possibly venture on their own. However, this was later disproved when sirens of olive and brown tones were discovered in the Western Romantic Sea. The true reason for their preferred habitat is still unknown ."

Interesting, but not exactly useful. Piers wasn’t a deep sea nymph. He was a freshwater creature of some kind. He turned the page and skimmed over the contents for anything that’d lead him in the right direction. And then eyes fell on a word that snapped his attention.

“ River nymphs are less common but are known to be more docile than their deep-sea counterparts. Most remain hidden and avoid human contact for fear of being hunted and expunged from their domain, but there have been encounters of those more sociable towards human children, mostly playing tricks on them if caught swimming in their home territory. ”

It was the same description he had read in countless other tomes, just written slightly differently. Useless. No matter how much he had searched, the library seemed to have nothing that would be able to tell me anything about what Piers was. Raihan groaned and he sank in his chair, hunched forward, and pressed his face against the book on the desk before him, nose pinching until he tilted to the side.

Footsteps echoed from the entrance, to which he paid no mind. It was not a crime for him to be in the library at any hour of the night so long as he didn’t take anything without recording it. At least that’s what he thought. Lantern light began to illuminate the entry hallway, glowing brightly as it made its way to the main hall. “I had a feeling it was you when the rats told me someone was rummaging through the archives at this hour,” a cranky but unmistakably old familiar voice called from afar.

“You can talk to rats, now?” Raihan said without straightening up, his face still pressed against the tome.

“I can do many things. I have eyes and ears everywhere, Sir Raihan.” Opal croaked as she made her way over to Raihan’s table. “What is so important that it couldn’t have waited until morning? I’ll not have you ruining the catalogs at this hour when I just finished organizing the shelves.”

He didn’t respond. It wasn’t like she’d believe him. No one had until now. Even Leon had admitted he was only humoring him if only to speed things along and force him to abandon his research. Raihan felt so utterly alone in all this like he was going insane with so many questions without answers and they piled up each time he met with Piers.

Opal’s set her lantern on the table with a soft thud and adjusted the shawl around her shoulders. With a grunt, she adjusted her glasses, realigning them on her nose, and looked at the books, more concerned with what she deemed as ‘her belongings’ than Raihan. “I’d imagine one of the king’s wyvern riders would follow the strict curfew laws given the state of the kingdom right now than be up late at night, reading about mythical creatures. Still, working on your “poison in the water” theory? Or have you evolved into thinking a nymph has cursed all of Hammarlocke?”

Again, Raihan didn’t answer. He half-hoped that if he remained motionless and speechless then she’d eventually leave him be. For a brief moment, he thought that he could even sleep there, using the book as a makeshift pillow. 

She rolled her eyes and looked back to the books. “You know that friend of yours, the other wyvern rider, was in here the other day looking for you. Called you something like a siren sucker or something,” she rambled as her eyes read the page on river nymphs. “Call me old and senile, but I get the feeling that all this research has nothing to do with the plague consuming the kingdom. Am I right?”

He sighed and slowly picked himself up, rubbing his face as he did. “Would it matter?”

“We’ll it’d help you locate what you’re actually looking for instead staying up this late, disturbing my rest. Now fess up. Why are you researching magical creatures so desperately?”

Raihan groaned and looked over at her. Their eyes met. Reflected in her glasses, Raihan could see the flame of the lantern illuminating a stubbornness in her that told him she had no plans to be the first to walk away. Given the hour, Raihan would pass out at the table, anyway. What good would it be, then? Opal knew almost every book in the building and if there were truly nothing then it’d at least save him a night’s rest.

“Have you ever heard of something called a fossegrimmen?” He finally asked.

She blinked and appeared confused. “Sorry? A fossegrimmen?”

He figured this would be her response. “A fossegrimmen. It’s like…a siren. Only it’s not a siren. They’re water nymphs. Usually male. And they play -”

“- the sweetest music to ever grace one’s ears. Yes, I’ve heard of them. That’s not what I’m asking.” Opal interrupted. She glanced over the books on the table again. “Why do you want to know about them? They’re an ancient legend predating Hammarlocke’s foundation.”

Raihan was stunted a bit, blinking in confusion. “What do you mean “an ancient legend”? That…that’s impossible. I…”

“You mean to tell me you actually saw one? Sir Raihan, please, don’t fool yourself. The only people who’ve claimed to see fossegrimen may be children on the Northern Continent. They’ve been discharged from records of living creatures for possible eons. They aren’t real.”

“No!” Raihan banged his fist on the desk and stood up. “I saw one! I heard him. I know I did! I saw him- at the Lady River’s Waterfall. He was there and when he plays the entire just…” he was getting angry, frustrated. He should have guessed even Lady Opal wouldn’t have believed him but to go as far as saying that no such thing was possible… “He’s…he’s out there and I can see him and hear him. I need to know more about him.”

The old crone wasn’t phased by Raihan’s emotional outburst. She stared at him, unamused, annoyed, and then scoffed at him. “Fine. If it’ll get you out of the library and allow me to go back to bed then wait here. I think I have something that might have more information.” She turned, grabbed her lantern, and walked off. The flame melted into the darkness as did her footsteps until they were just a faint, ghastly echo, leaving Raihan at his table in the most dumbfound condition.

Despite the crone’s disbelief, it would appear there was something right under his nose the whole time that might have held the answer all along, and she was going to retrieve it for him. Finally, Raihan was making progress after sifting through so many useless books. It didn’t matter what she brought back. So long as it held the answer anywhere within the contents of his pages he’d devour it in mass.

“Hang on, Piers. I’m going to save you. You’ll be among us soon enough.” That’s what he kept muttering to himself.

When Opal returned she had but one small book in hand, held to her chest. “Here. This should hold everything you need to know.” Raihan received it and brushed his hand over the cover, holding it near the lantern. It was an old time-worn leather-bound book, much small than anything he had looked at before, The gold embellishments were cracked and faded, the brown leather scratched and ripping at the corners, the spine wrinkled from possibly centuries of use. Raihan opened it to the title page, eyes widening in disbelief.

Collected Fables and Fairytales

1st Edition

Year 776

“You can’t be serious!” he said, slamming it shut. “You mean to tell me I should be my trust in old children’s bedtime stories?”

Opal nodded. “Indeed I am. There are many things we know to be fact that were once thought to be only fiction, same as there are old beliefs now proven to be lies and imagination.”

“And how would one know the difference? Why should I trust that an old fairytale has the answers I need?”

Opal scoffed. “You have eyes and ears, don’t you? Think for yourself and certainly even someone as dumb as you can figure it out.” She refused to entertain him any further. Opal picked up her lantern and began her retreat, retiring to her chambers. Her footsteps collided against the marble stone floors with a thunderous echo, leaving Raihan to his bewilderment.

He stared at the cover once again before opening it to the table of contents. A few stories he recognized. Others he had never heard of; ones not as popular, no doubt. Raihan sighed and closed it again, finding his eyes were hurting the longer he tried to stay awake. With a tired, defeated sigh, he closed the last book on his desk and stacked it onto the pile, grabbed his lantern, and began to make for the exit just as Lady Opal had. They’d still be there tomorrow morning, and if not then he knew where to find them again. Until then, maybe a bedtime story would be best.

Chapter Text

In the woods, Thumbelina was met by something she never thought her eyes would lay on. Tiny people; fairies, the same height as her. Among the fairies was a handsome man with gold wings; a prince by the name of Oberon. Captivated by Thumbelia’s beauty, he became enchanted and they fell in love. Upon the day they were married, true love’s kiss granted Thumbelina silver wings of her own. She had transformed into a fairy!

A new life. A new form. And so little Thumbelina came to be known as Princess Maia.

Years passed, and as she remained youthful as ever, Maia watched as her adoptive bird-daughter grew old, and eventually pass. The princess wept so much and cried so loud that she caught the attention of the tribal native’s princess, Tigerlily. In hearing the story of Maia’s daughter, she only nodded her head, before taking the bird’s body and placing it in a leather sack she carried, filled with stardust. From it, the bird flew, reborn as a young girl with a shimmering radiant glow and a glimmering trail of pixie dust wherever she flew. The sound bells filled the air whenever she spoke. Tinker Bell became the bird’s name, and she became the close companion of a feisty, fearless boy named Peter who defended the island from the band of pirates.

Years passed,  becoming decades and even centuries. In her new form, Princess Maia came to understand the harsh reality of what it meant to be a fairy, and what happened when a fairy died. Neverland was their blessing, keeping them alive forever. For whenever a new fairy bloomed from the island’s flowers it meant that there was a new child in the world, somewhere who believed in fairies. Peter Pan and Tinker Bell would search the ends of the Earth, bringing back the children connected to their island fairies so that they may never grow old and stop believing. In time, the children forgot about their lives before the island, and everything seemed perfect.

Princess Maia and King Oberon ruled an immortal kingdom where all fairies needed not fear of when Death may come. They were happy.

Until one day, Peter brought a girl named Wendy to the island, beautiful, kind, and motherly to all the boys Peter had kidnapped. She had tricked them, stolen the boy’s hearts, and then took them home. Princess Maia watched over the coming months as the people of her kingdom dropped from the skies, dead. Even as the years went on and Peter brought new children to take their place, Wendy’s spirit lived on, and so did her message that a mother will always leave the bedroom window open in case her children were to return home at night.

They always returned home. 

Neverland had been tainted by Wendy’s spirit. It was no longer a paradise of everlasting life for the fairies, but just another cruel part of the world that welcomed Death to its shores. The fae would be forced to accept their fate and fade from existence.

The day came in which Captain Hook finally beat Peter. The boy had been pierced by the pirate’s blade, and Tigerlily was fed to the monstrous crocodile. With them, Maia watched as the light and life dimmed from Tinker Bell and her beloved Oberon. The natives were massacred, and the pirates fled the island, leaving only Princess Maia. Once her paradise, Neverland had become her prison.

Maia left Neverland, making for her first home, only to be met with more pain. She had lost track of the years that had gone by, and only found her old mother’s grave. The last person who had ever loved her had departed the world long ago, and died of a broken heart when her sweet Thumbelina had been stolen in the night by a selfish frog prince.

She had nothing, now. No friends, no love, no family. Her first love had betrayed her, and her second had been stolen from her. Her kingdom had died thanks to that accursed girl, Wendy. Captain Hook had killed the children whose lives had been tied to the two most important people in the world to her. Her mother was long departed, now unable to recall her face or hear the sweet croak of her old voice. All she had was her mother’s stories, and her most precious words to always love who you were, and never wish to be anything else except yourself.

What good had that served her?

Her entire life, Maia had been the victim of humanity’s greed, selfishness, thoughtlessness, and now had nothing. Kindness had earned her nothing but sadness. Love had granted her nothing but fear. Patience had been rewarded with sorrow. Yet she was still there? Why? Why hadn’t she faded like the rest of the faries? Was it because she had been born human? Or was it something else entirely?

Humanity had proven itself to be rotten and vile. The ugliest of creatures had been granted the right of passage to a second life despite their greed. Meanwhile, Maia had watched as the most innocent of creatures were slaughtered against their will, fairies dropped from the sky over the denounced faith within people whom they couldn’t change.

She couldn’t answer how she was still alive, or even if she would ever die, but so long as she was still alive, Maia had decided to cast aside these useless teachings. Love was powerless. Kindness was fruitless. The princess was swallowed by her own hatred and grief. She vowed that she would take the one thing from humankind she deemed them unworthy of having: souls. Maia would pierce the veil of life, and take back what the world had stolen from her, on silver wings and with a will strong as titanium.

No more patience. No more forgiveness.

And that is the tale of how little Thumbelina became the feared Queen Titania.

Chapter Text

Raihan stared at the last paragraph along with the remaining page, left half empty in disbelief. That was how the story ended? “How…stupid,” he muttered as he turned the page. Reading the title out loud, he pinched his brows together in annoyance. “Prince of the Stars.” He had heard this story before. There was nothing related to Titania in it, at least he assumed as much from what he remembered about it. “Why would the story just end there?” He wondered. 

Raihan’s train of thought was derailed when his Slygon suddenly snorted a foul, heavy breath from above. It reached down and nipped at him, trying to playfully bite his head, catching his dreadlocks between its teeth.

“H-hey! Not now,” Raihan snapped, trying to push his mount away. Too late. Once caught in his jaws Flygon it was impossible to escape unless Raihan finally gave the attention he wanted. He sighed as he shut the book and carefully placed it in his satchel. “Fine. You want attention that bad?” He asked as clasped his hands on Flygon’s jaw once more, this time scratching at his chin.

It was strange to have a Flygon in Hammarfall. Most wondered how it survived so far from desert terrain. The only time a Flygon was ever seen was during winter migration to warm climate. Yet Raihan had one as his primary companion. They could be mischievous and playful they were also known to be bold, cunning, and protective. Behind their large, beady eyes, Flygon were intelligent creatures. Perhaps Raihan understanding this was why this particular Flygon was so fond of him.

Raihan scratched away at him. He listened to Flygon grumble and felt the vibration in his throat and he when he felt a rapid churning sensation he knew he had found the area that was irritating him. “There you go, buddy. Nice and easy now,” he muttered.

Flygon grumbled and nipped at Raihan’s dreadlocks again before lightly clamping his jaw over the top of his entire head as though he were about to decapitate him. Raihan made no motion to escape. In fact, he just started laughing.

“My, my. Seems you’re due to have your teeth brushed,” he teased, voice muffled inside Flygon’s jaws. A soft slap at his neck and he immediately released him. “Alright. Let’s get moving. Today we’re patrolling the skies in the eastern ward of the city.” Raihan hoisted a saddle onto his companion’s back and fastened it tight under his belly. 

“You going to start behaving?” He asked as grabbed his helmet. Raihan tugged at the reigns and guided him from the stable. Flygon snorted and shook his head about. He bucked his hind legs once outside.

“No? That’s too bad. I guess that means no Greedent tossed into your meal tonight. Hmm?”

Flygon snorted and sank to the ground as though he understood every word. He lowered his wings, leaving no obstacle for Raihan to climb onto his back. “That’s better.” He took the reigns. With just a light tap of his heels, Flygon stood, flapped his wings and soon enough they were airborne.

Today was sky patrol for Raihan. Given the state of the world, they weren’t looking for the potential threat of invaders, but instead to keep their eyes on the clouds, the warmth and strength of the winds, and the sights of Corviknights. Such Pokemon were known to be particularly excited during the summer. Soldiers were commonly trained in ways to identify them when the winds shifted violently, sporadically, and too frequently to be natural weather occurrences. So far their tactics had a thirty percent success rate. However, when the wind sliced across an exposed cheek and left a scar and blood, it became abundantly clear that a Corviknight was not far away.

On that day Raihan could rest easy on the winds, feeling nothing but a gentle breeze as he glided over the kingdom. Within seconds the entire world shrank below him. Vey so often he’d glance down to assure nothing suspicious was happening in the city streets and then he’d let his mind clear away to a polished state. Flygon climbed high on the wind and then soared.

Many dragon Pokemon were stubborn and slow but Raihan and Flygon flew like they were the same. He could steer Flygon through almost any obstacle, over the castle watchtowers, around the sharpest turret, and dash across the city and the sea. His nose was bombarded by the sharp sting of salt and ocean water as they dived closer to the waves. Raihan reached a hand below, attempting to touch the surface, and almost fell over when Flygon gave a playful jerk.

“Trying the drown me?” He shouted.

Flygon grumbled in response.

He wasn’t patrolling. Raihan admitted as much to himself. Right now, he was taking advantage of his assigned position to play, to feel the wind in his face, and let his worries be washed away in the tide. This was the only chance he’d have. Ever since their kingdom had closed its gates, no one was allowed outside their home, let alone on pleasantry flights or voyages. It’d felt like the entire world had come to a screeching halt even if it was still rotating.

Just a minute longer and then he tugged on Flygon’s reigns, steering him back towards land. 

Raihan saw the woods in the distance and his mind went to Piers. He could fly over there, quickly. Perhaps he’d be awake. Would it matter if Flygon was with him? It wasn’t like it could speak. And if he could see him, then what harm would it be? Raihan’s mind wandered, imagining Flygon being stubborn and neglectful towards him, but surely he’d warm up to Piers soon enough. They could go flying together. Just the thought of it made the dragoon’s heart flutter. He felt lighter.

What a sight it’d be - a naked man hitching a ride on a Flygon, holding himself around a dragoon in full armor, twisting and ducking through the trees until they spearheaded into the clouds. Maybe Piers would be able to play a song or two. He smiled at the thought: both of them sitting on the back, gliding peacefully over the clouds, facing each other as Piers played on his harp or violin.

He wanted to fly to the river right then to see him. Just as he hitched his heels up, ready to send Flygon speeding away until his concentration was broken by shouts from below. Raihan forced hesitation, tugged at the reigns, and nearly tumbled as he looked over the side. He was flying over the city streets, empty save for the guard in pursuit of two people in tattered clothes.

“Damnit. Well- duty calls.” He didn’t know the full situation, but he was a royal guard with an oath to upkeep. Raihan straightened himself up, pulled the shield of his helmet over his face, and steered Flygon.

They dived.

His lance was at the ready in his left hand and he gave a firm pat to Flygon’s head with his right. “Let’s go, Flygon.” As soon as they were close enough, he jumped. Raihan’s body rocketed into the sky, spinning and twirling in the wind. He spun his lance in a display of acrobatics and then plummeted down. He saw Flygon land first, cutting off the two’s path forward. Flygon's wings buzzed, omitting its signature desert song.

Right on cue, they turned to run back. That was when Raihan’s spear penetrated the stone street and created an explosion of dust and rubble.

He heard the screams of two people being pursued, and their attempt to flee back only to see they were caught between a dragoon, the knights, and a Flygon. There was nowhere for them to run. “Sorry to drop in,” he said as the dust began to clear. “What do we have here?” So long as these two children cooperated then nothing would get ugly.

Wait.

Raihan blinked, puzzled by it all now he saw clearly who was being detained. They were only children, now cowering in fear of being killed.

The knights caught up, swords were drawn and shields at the ready for combat. Whatever was going on here was surely being blown out of proportion. He stepped forward and stabbed the spear into the ground twice. “Flygon!” Two more stabs echoed. It was a signal that told Flygon to calm down. Raihan stepped forward. The steel of his boots clicked against the ruble of destroyed stone as he approached the two kids.

“Sir Raihan!” The leader of the guards called out from behind. “Thank you for your help in capturing these pesky criminals.

Criminals? Raihan raised a brow, looked at the two, then back to the guard, and then back to the kids again. “Really? And…” his eyes scanned them, noting the wooden pales they had. Their contents had since been dumped into the street. It was only water, by the looks of it. “What was their crime?”

“These two are out during restricted hours. Depending on the district, citizens were ordered to stay in their homes at certain hours. This area is off-limits. Our orders and punishment were made absolute. They are to be detained and imprisoned!”

Raihan turned it to face the captain of the guards. His grip tightened on his lance, furious. These two kids were only retrieving water. For themselves? Family? It didn’t matter the reason. Whatever it was, if they knew the risk of being caught out in the open then it must have been worse than being in jail. Even still, to detain a child as though they were adults for something so trivial as this… 

He turned back to the children and knelt beside them to offer his hand. “Tell me, where do you both live? Are you siblings?” Neither of them answered, too frightened of already-promised punishment. Raihan paused and then reached down to pick up the two buckets. “If you tell me I’ll swing by later with both of these full. That’s all. I promise.”

“What in the name- Sir Raihan!” The captain raised his weapon and stepped forward.

Flygon immediately stomped and snorted. He spread his wings and leaped forward, dividing the rode and shielding Raihan and the kids from knights if they dared to take another step.

Raihan glanced behind him and mentally sighed. He’d be getting in trouble for all this. Possibly more than the kids would have been if he had just detained them right away. Still, he turned back towards them and nodded his head. He tugged the shield of his helmet back to show his face and then slowly held his hand out. “Here. Take the buckets and get home, okay? I’ll let this slide just this once.”

Again, the children remained silent with fear until the shorter of the two timidly stretched a hand out. Then, he pulled back. “Um…” he gulped. “The…the Murky Fishtail.”

Raihan tilted his head, a bit confused. He knew the place. It was one of the most popular taverns in town. Is that where they lived? Were they the owner’s children? That would explain why they needed the water so badly. It was probably for the parent’s business. Raihan nodded his head and swung the two pales over his shoulder. “You got it. Now both of you, run along home, okay?”

They nodded and quickly scurried off.

“You insolent little-”

Flygon snapped. He swept his tail, tripping the knights. “Down, boy!” Raihan ordered with a quick jab with his spear at the ground. “Heel!” Flygon obeyed and slithered quickly to the dragoon’s side. As he tied the two buckets to his saddle, the knights got back on their feet.

“I should have your spear and helmet for this,” the Captain roared. “You are a dragoon of Hammarlocke and are to uphold his Majesty’s authority! Give me one reason I shouldn’t take your head for this right now.”

“I swore no loyalty to the king or the law,” Raihan spat without hesitation.

“You are to uphold the law of the land. Failure to do so will cost you your honor and dignity. Give me one reason I shouldn’t take that spear from you this instant.”

Raihan glared at the captain, but after a short, deep breath, he calmed his nerves and began. 

“With hearts as free as the sky and minds as solid as the earth, a dragoon’s duty is to preserve the dignity and peace of the nation. I will cast aside selfishness and wealth in place of generosity and kindness. I will defend those who cannot defend themselves and uphold justice by being fair to all. Hold faith in love and loyalty to friends. Cast aside pride and cherish humility. Let it be a teacher. Forgive those just as I’d hope to be forgiven for my own mistakes. Speak with honesty and keep my word, always. By this oath, I swear to all and take up this lance for the greater good of Hammarlocke.”

The very oath he had sworn just a few years ago. Raihan’s voice was firm. His face was stern. Inside he was free of guilt or shame. He knew he had done nothing wrong as this knight argued. “I swore an oath to protect the peace and to defend the innocent. There is nothing in the dragoon’s code about detaining children for wanting water, nor anything about upholding the law His Majesty decrees. But there was talk of forgiveness, generosity, honesty, and keeping promises. All of this I have done and will continue to do.”

The children were trespassing. He let them go so long as they agreed to go straight home. He saw their need for water and promised to deliver it to them, himself. Help those in need. Keep his word. Raihan didn’t want to spend another moment in the knights’ company.

“Hold it.” The captain barked as Raihan was about to hoist himself back onto his saddle.

Raihan ignored the man and tugged at Flygon’s reigns.

“Sir Raihan, I’m warning you. Leave now and risk being charged with treason!”

Raihan looked down at the captain. Flygon snarled. Smoke fumed from his nostrils. “Should such a judgment come to pass then let it be my highest honor.” He took to the sky and scouted for the closest city well.

Chapter Text

He sat on the rock as per usual. It was hot. The sun beating down on Piers' skin was a bizarre and foreign sensation. At first, he could have sworn it felt delightful. And then it generated a buzz over his body until finally, he began to sweat. He’d never known such an ungodly sensation. Mercy came from the cold water torrenting about. Throughout all this, his skin didn’t burn. It remained as it always had; smooth and fair. 

It felt odd to be out during the daytime. He had never stayed awake more than a few hours. The morning mist clouded a thin veil over the river bank only for the sun to break through and sparkle across the water. Rocks glittered brighter than the stars ever had. Morning dew drip flirtatiously from the tips of summer leaves. It was all so blinding that when his eyes hurt he’d use his long, matted hair to shield his face from the light.

It made it difficult to concentrate on the song for the day. A few moments after getting comfortable distraction seized his thoughts. Despite the pain he felt he could only describe the morning forest with a single word. “Beautiful.” His eyes drifted down the river until it bent around the trees. He could recall once or twice he had ventured downstream when he was but a child. Why had he been sitting there under the same waterfall for centuries?

He had never thought about it until, now. Piers lowered his bow from his violin and slide down the rock into the water. He felt the current tug at him, urging him forward. The thought plagued him. To venture away from home for any reason other than their safety was unheard of for a fossegrimen. 

Piers released a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding, and took another step forward. Although rapid and forceful, the tide felt welcoming, ready to embrace and engulf him. All he had to do was let it. Piers dived forth.

The water was cold as ice, sapping the summer sting from him. It was an invigorating sensation washing over him as he was carried through the rapids. Fish brushed and tickled against his skin as he swam. They were like the magikarp he and Raihan roasted a few weeks ago. He smiled and his thoughts began to wander.

The magikarp had been terrible. Their scales had been so slimy, their insides muddied by the stick they’d been impaled on, and taste flavorless. Yet it had been so long since he’d eaten physical matter that it felt like it had been a heavenly reward.

He had spent most of that evening stealing glances at Raihan from across the fire. Well, more like staring at him as though he’d devour the dragoon for dessert. So far he had visited three times and Piers had invited him back for a fourth. He’d come. He knew it.

As he drifted into the water, so did his thoughts. Piers thought of Raihan standing on the shore, tossing his armor about until he was in nothing but his underwear and chainmail. It had been to show that he was harmless, but Piers could only snicker now, thinking he looked silly. Just discarding his helmet and lance would have been enough of a peace sign, he thought.

He recalled how Raihan had looked with the glow of the fire highlighting his tan, sun-kissed bare chest. River water cascaded down his back when he sent a tidal wave to keep him out of the river. Sand got caught in his chainmail, stuck to his body, and tangled his hair. Piers had wanted to send another wave just to see if it’d make him give chase into the river.

His lips upturned in a small, shallow smile at the thought of him returning again. He knew he would. When, though? Tonight? In a few days? Piers could hear his voice already praising whatever song he’d play as they sat on the rocks. His nose twitched, swearing he could smell roasted pidove or magikarp. He’d steal a glance or two of the human and see the bewitched, admiring look in his eyes; a look so pure and innocent. The vague memory of it from the first few nights made him feel lighter than air and at the same time like he was drowning in a warm sensation that swallowed him. Piers' heart skipped a beat in his chest and then quickened.

It was then that he opened his eyes. He coughed and seized the left side of his rib cage with one hand and around his throat with the other. His gills fluttered and then suddenly closed up. 

“What’s happening? My body- I can’t breathe.”

Piers' body was seizing itself. All of a sudden he felt paralyzed. The water stung his body. The fish scattered and fled. He couldn’t swim and he choked on water. He thrashed his limbs about, trying desperately to regain control of himself.

The light blinded him when he reached the surface. His hair weighed heavy as he coughed. Half of the length was caught in the current, tugged downstream. On his feet, Piers still struggled to maintain balance. When he finally opened his eyes he was able to orient himself but each step felt like knives were stabbing into him.

“Why is my body failing me? Why do I feel so weak? Is it the sun?” 

His concentration was broken when a shadow cast overhead and then just as swiftly broke way for the sun. Then another. He looked up towards the sky and saw wyverns, one after another. Towards the riverbank, he heard the sounds of marching. Soldiers from the kingdom were close by.

Piers' heart began to race. He was in danger. He’d drifted too far from home. If he were to be discovered it’d mean death. He had to run. Flee. Hide anywhere! Quickly, he dove behind the largest rock jutting from the rapids he could find. He grabbed his hair to keep it from peaking around the bend and sank into the water, shivering.

How? The water had never bothered him like this before. It had never stung nor pain of any other kind. Yet now he could breathe. He could move without his legs exploding in pain. For the first time, he felt the icy sensation of the river, merciless towards only man until now. Was this punishment for venturing away from home? Had nature turned its back on him so readily?

Goosebumps flourished over his arms and shoulders. Piers had to escape. He concentrated his thoughts and feelings, ready to vanish into the water and slither away, unseen, and yet…nothing happened. His body remained solid. He couldn’t fade. His magic was failing him. Yet once glance at his nails and a trace around his neck said he was still as hideous and ugly as always.  Piers was the same beast he’d always been. Only now, he had no way to defend himself from the horrors of man.

“Ain’t this the river Raihan was going on about the other night?” A soldier asked his company.

Piers' ear twitched, thinking he had imagined it. Curious, he turned his head towards the rock.

“I think so. You actually think there’s anything here?”

“Certainly not. Personally, I think he’s gone mad. All the stress from the plague has gotten to his senses.”

“Seems to be the case.”

Knights from Hammerlocke? And they knew Raihan? Piers brought a hand to clasp over his mouth. That dragoon had told others his location! Now they were hunting him. And this talk of a plague? Was Piers thought to be the cause of it? Had Raihan betrayed him; seducing him the past few nights until he could send invaders to rip him from his home?

“I’m not hearing anything out here other than the river and your own damn complaining. Now get moving. We’re not wasting our time inspecting here. Look! See anyone else around?”

Piers released a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. He just had to hold out a moment longer and they’d leave. He’d be safe soon enough.

Out of Piers’ field of vision, a rapidash whinnied and tugged forward, marching towards the riverbank.

“H-hey! What’s gotten into that rapidash of yours?”

Its whining grew louder as he steered off the path toward the river.

Piers inched his body over enough to peek around his hiding spot to witness it all. The rapidash could sense his presence. He made eye contact with the animal and it kicked its front legs up. It shook off the soldier and charged forward. As it leaped into the water, Piers hid behind the rock again.

He had to act fast.

“What’s going on over there?”

“Has something been spotted?”

“Let’s go after her. Come on, men!”

The soldiers shouted and chased after their rapidash. Piers heard it approaching quickly, but struggling to fight against the current. He gulped. If he couldn’t melt away then he only had one option left. He swirled his claws in the water. Music began to swirl desperately in his mind. High-pitched notes tooted from within. The water pulsed around his fingers like a heartbeat. Then it bubbled. Small pockets of air tickled around his joints. They gathered and took shape. Then the bubbles crystallized and in his claws was none other than a pan flute.

There was a sigh of relief to see he could still command his muses. He didn’t wait. Piers brought the instrument to his lips and pipped away, loud and forceful. Almost immediately, the trees shook and the earth began to rumble. The soldiers still on dry land lost their balance and collapsed to their knees.

The rapidash screamed as did its rider that chased it into the river. Water rushed forth. Piers took a deep breath and sank below. He dug his heels into the rocky floor and spread his claws around the rock, anchoring himself with all his strength. The river torrented and unleashed waves, engulfing the rapidash before it could get any closer. Wave after wave pummeled over them, beating the rapidash and soldier down.

Unable to withstand the onslaught of the violent river, they were both swept away screaming in the chaos. 

“The river truly is cursed!” One soldier shouted.

“Quickly! After them. Or they’ll drown. Hurry, men!”

They charged over the riverbank to give chase. As another wave crashed over the rocks, Piers ascended for air. Between coughs and gasps he heard one of the soldiers shout towards his hiding place.

“You hear us, WITCH? We’ll be back for you!”

They marched off to save their comrade and Piers remained against the rock, shivering with fear. As the river calmed, it began to feel warm again. His gills opened and twitched. Piers' powers were returning. But why had they faltered so suddenly?

He hugged himself tight and sank down to his neck, feeling the current embrace him. Although it felt familiar, a bleakness and slimy sensation crawled over his body. The pain in his legs subsided. He took the plunge and sure enough, he could still breathe. Yet his skin still crawled with uncertainty. Even as magikarp and goldeen came to tickle his skin, he shook in fear. Any moment it could all be gone, again.

Quickly, he melted away and hurried home. The water remained restless. The fish dispersed from his surroundings once he took his perch on the rock at the base of the falls. Mist shrouded him and all at once he could hear the trees crying out. The wind tumbled in all directions and the rocks wept. 

Piers could hear nature whispering to him that he was no longer safe.

Chapter Text

He had figured Raihan would arrive again that very evening. After all, Piers requested it last time. Considering the kingdom was growing more restless and critical by the day if he had caught word of the knights and horse he had sent down the river, surely he’d come running to see that he was safe. Piers assumed right. Right on time, Raihan slid down the riverbank to the sandy shore of the falls. And Piers was sitting on his rock playing his violin slowly.

“This is a bit of a surprise. I didn’t expect you to be visible,” the dragoon said as he pulled off his helmet.

Although their eyes met, Piers said nothing in response and continued playing.

Raihan missed the threatening tension around the fossegrim and stepped to the water’s edge. His boots sank into the sand and he felt the cold river water seep through. He stabbed his spear into the ground like he usually did, placed his helmet on the spike, and reached into a satchel he brought this time. “No meat tonight, but I brought some fruit. Come try it! I’m sure you’ll like it.”

“I’m not your pet,” Piers snapped immediately. He stopped playing and now Raihan understood that he was angry. “You cannot bribe me with cheap sweets.” He stood and stepped down from the rock to the water. His violin faded into the surrounding mist. “Leave this place. You and your kind are not welcome in my domain anymore.” Piers' eyes glowed intensely, thinned to mere lines as he tugged his back, revealing his fangs.

Raihan was confused and even a bit hurt by the harsh rejection. Still, he didn’t back away so easily. He slipped the fruit back into his bag and crossed his arms. “Why’s that?” He took another step into the water. It was calm. So long as the water didn’t stir and turn violent then Raihan knew it did not reflect Piers' true feelings. He marched forward until the river came up to his knees.

“You brought them here. Soldiers! I was almost discovered. They’ve begun searching the river because of you. You told them about me, didn’t you?”

He froze. Raihan felt the water stir around him. Panic, fear, and anger bubbled around him. Fury burned in Piers' eyes with intimidation. He needed to calm the other down, he thought. Raihan raised his hands in front of his chest. “I’m sorry,” he began in a low tone. “I had mentioned you, but everyone thought I made it up. I didn’t expect they’d come searching for you.” Raihan paused in his speech and when he felt the water simmer down he took another step forward. “I’m sorry,” he said once again. “I endangered you.”

Piers didn’t respond and instead allowed himself to sink into the water down to his waist. He remained still in the deeper end.

“What else happened? Did they see you? Hurt you?”

“No. I sent a tidal wave to flood them out and carry them downstream before they got too close.”

“Too close? What do you mean?” Raihan raised his brows in alarm as he leaned forward, inching closer. “You couldn’t just disappear like you do with me?” He noticed the discomfort on Piers' face and when the other withheld any response, Raihan knew something much more had occurred than just a few knights searching along the river. Not wanting to scare the fossegrimen away, he decided not to pressure him.

”I’ll do what I can to keep them away,” he said. “I don’t want you to feel unsafe. All I can do right now is say I’m sorry. I won’t let anyone come near you. I promise.” Raihan bowed his and remained still, waiting for Piers to say or do anything.

The fossegrimen was hesitant but when Raihan remained still as stone, unwavering, his eyes began to burn. He couldn’t stare at him all night. “See to it that you keep your word. Otherwise, it holds no value.” Piers said nothing more, but did not move. He remained half submerged in the river. His hair reached out, dragged by the gentle current. As Raihan stood he finally stepped closer. the dragoon was close enough to reach out and grab him. Strange - this wasn’t the first time they’d been this close to one another, but it was the first time Piers assumed something dangerous about it.

A heavy burden still weighed on his conscious for when his body failed him earlier that day. He shook the thought from his mind, noting that it had nothing to do with the other man right before him, extending his hand. “Piers? Come with me, won’t you?” he asked gently.

“What?” Piers looked at Raihan’s armored hand, confused and stunned. “What do you mean? I-” His eyes shot up to Raihan’s face and he blinked rapidly. “Come with you?”

Raihan didn’t waver and stood calmly with his hand still out for Piers to take. He tilted his head and grinned.  “I want to show you something. Please. We won’t be gone for long; only a few minutes.”

“Impossible. I can’t!” Piers stepped back and the mist began to thicken around them. Immediately the sharp pain and sensation of almost drowning earlier in the morning surged through him. “We don’t leave our domain unless we are fleeing from danger. If I left then…” His eyes cast down at the water and followed his hair flowing in the current.

“You won’t have to leave the river. You won’t be hurt.”

He looked back up at Raihan. “No! What don’t you understand? I can’t leave the river or else I’ll-” Piers paused. The air felt heavy all of a sudden. He sensed a strange and unfamiliar presence. Through the fog, intense red eyes beamed from behind Raihan, creeping close from the shore. “What did you bring with you?” His tone shifted. The current tugged stronger and threatened to overpower Raihan.

Yet the dragoon just blinked, confused and unsure. “No one. I didn’t bring anyone here.”

Raihan turned, saw, and shouted at what caused the distress. He shouted, “Hey! I told you to stay hidden until I called you!” Raihan waved his arm and ushered the red eyes to come closer. Immediately, it pounced. Through the mist and into the river dived a monstrous, terrifying dragon. It growled as he snaked through the current, cutting through it like it was tissue paper. Long green antennas and the point of its tail remained above the water as it approached.

Piers tried to venture away until the beast’s jaws clamped at his hair and tugged back, knocking him off balance. The fossegrim tumbled into the water, completely submerged.

Raihan laughed, watching him struggle to escape the dragon’s hold. After a small laugh, he grabbed hold of the flygon’s horns and hitched himself over its body. “That’s enough! Heel!” he snapped as he heaved Flygon’s head above the surface. A mess of Piers' black and white hair was still caught in the pokemon’s mouth. He chewed on it sloppily as though it were a toy.

“What is this thing?” Piers shouted, still panicked as he tried to yank his hair away.

“It’s okay; he’s just excited! I won’t let him hurt you. He’s my friend!”

“Why did you-,” Piers began grunting between tugs. “Why’d you bring your mount here? Both of you - go home!” It was an uphill struggle. After the third pull Flygon seemed to think it was a challenge. He tugged back and pulled Piers face-first into the water.

Raihan laughed before patting his companion on the cheek. “Let him go, Flygon.” The pokemon obeyed and paddled through the water. It climbed onto the large rock and took perch. He grumbled softly as he curled up. Yet, it kept its eyes open. Their beady red glow remained fixed on Piers as he climbed to his feet.

“I said I wouldn’t bring any one, but I still wanted you to meet a friend. Just so there was someone who knew I wasn’t crazy.” Raihan extended a hand for Piers to take, but he refused and collected himself on his own. 

“Well, he’s seen me. Now take him away.”

“And you’re still here. Nothing bad happened to you, right?” They were both silent as Piers gathered his tangled hair and attempted to unknot it. Raihan rubbed the back of his head as he smiled timidly. “Well- you aren’t injured, at least.”

Flygon snorted.

Piers sat down on a lower part of the rock formation and let his hair loosen up in the water. Raihan knelt and began combing his fingers through the black and white locks until the knots were finally undone. “I wanted to do something different tonight and needed him here.”

Again, Flygon snorted and Raihan climbed onto the rocks.

“And all of your armor as well?” Piers settled down once his hair was in order again. “The only thing I want the both of you to do is leave!”

Flygon growled softly and snaked his tail around. With a strong, forceful swipe, he ushered Piers forward, dragging him close alongside Raihan. The dragoon caught the fossegrim from tripping this time.  “If you truly wish to be alone then what’s stopping you from disappearing? Vanish and run away, if you want so badly.”

Piers said nothing and when silence settled on the scene Flygon uncoiled his tail. He grunted and growled again before standing and stretched his wings. On his back was the same saddle as earlier in the day, still darkened by the river water. Raihan placed a hand on the saddle and felt around until he found the reigns. He extended his other hand once more for Piers to take. “Come on. Let’s fly!”

“I beg your pardon?” Piers snapped bitterly. He crossed his arms over his chest and stared at the other two, refusing to move. “I’ll do no such thing. I won’t leave the water.”

“Who said anything about that? You won’t be leaving the river. Look!” Raihan confidently pointed to something fastened to the saddle. The satchel which had contained Raihan’s library book was gone. In its place was a large wooden bucket with a lid securely bolted in place. Upon closer inspection, a hole was cut from the center. “We’ll take the river water with us. You won’t have to leave even if we’re in the sky!”

“You truly expect a cheap trick such as this is enough?”

“How can you know if you’ve never tried?”

Once again, Piers didn’t respond. He stared at Raihan and the dragon, both watching him intensely. He felt as though he was under interrogation. The river whispered to him. He could hear it saying not to leave. An invisible force was tugging him back, ordering him to vanish in the mist and dissolve away.

Run. Hide. Never speak to Raihan again.

But when the dragoon climbed onto the saddle and patted the space behind him, it looked so inviting. Heat surged in the fossegrim and his body felt heavy. His left hand twitched with curiosity and eagerness like his whole being had in the morning.

“I won’t force anything, but I promise to keep you safe. If you feel you’re in danger, just tug my hair and I’ll immediately bring you back here. On my honor as a dragoon, I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

Piers stared as Raihan extended his hand once more for him to take. He still hesitated. The mist began to enshroud him. He was ready to fade away until Flygon set his eyes on him. Their gazes met and then the dragon’s tail swept behind and pulled him in. He nodded his head and growled softly. Piers hesitated for a moment but when he saw the calm in the pokemon’s red eyes, it eased him enough to release the building tension in his body. He took Raihan’s hand after another moment. With a deep breath, he climbed over the saddle and carefully wedged his foot into the bucket. River water drenched his foot and he felt a little more at home.

Raihan eagerly hitched himself up and reached behind to grab Raihan’s hand. “Hold on to me,” he ordered as he brought the other’s arm around his waist. “Both hands, now. Hold on tight. And your hair- might want to gather it up so it doesn’t drag in the wind. Actually, I have an idea!” Seeing as his hair was already wet and a little sticky from river water, Raihan thought to tie it around his waist like a lifeline. 

“Are you sure this is safe,” Piers asked in a nervous, trembling voice.

“Positive. Now, let’s go!”

Chapter Text

Flygon flapped its wings, and a downward force caused Piers to slump. For a moment, he felt like the wind was flattening his body. Then, in a swift gust, they took off. The river and the forest shrank below them as they climbed. The wind cut and tore across his nakedness, making him shiver. Even tied around Raihan’s waist, Piers’ long hair dragged in the wind. The windbreak and the weight of it all threatened to pull them both from Flygon’s back.

He desperately clung around Raihan’s waist and felt the cold, polished sting of his armor. The iron burned his skin. Wind tore over his body. His gills flickered and twitched madly. He gasped for air, feeling his throat so dry from the thin atmosphere.

Although to most, it would have been tolerable, having lived a life isolated and peaceful in the river, Piers had never experienced pain at all before this. Piers felt as though his entire existence was being ripped to shreds; more divine punishment for leaving his river. He felt his body weakening, his body sizzling, and his lungs burning. 

Piers shut his eyes.

I’m going to die. I’m going to die…

His entire world was sucked away, fogged over as they hurled through the clouds. Moisture swept over his body, and for that moment, mercy graced his being. The burns on his body began to heal even as he still clung to Raihan. 

Then it all calmed. The wind no longer ripped his flesh or stung his eyes. He felt their monstrous climb shift and melt into a steady glide. Everything felt less scary all of a sudden. When Piers opened his eyes, he saw nothing save the dark sky illuminated with stars all around and the moon still high above.

“What do you think?” Raihan shouted back at him. “You don’t get to see something like this from the river, do you?”

The fossegrimen didn’t respond right away. He gazed around them, confused and nervous. He instinctively tried ot lift his legs, but halted when he felt the bucket around his feet. The lid kept water from spilling out as they flew. As their speed slowed to a natural glide, Piers almost felt like everything was fine. He was caught between a state of caution but wanting to relax and trust Raihan. Slowly, he tried to release his hold and separate his chest from Raihan’s backside enough so that he no longer touched his armor. In one hand, he gathered up his hair and set it in a pile on his lap, and then slowly leaned back even further. He breathed slowly, nervously, but tried to take in everything around him, mesmerized.

“It’s…beautiful,” he finally answered. And indeed it was. He had seen the moon and stars from the river many nights, but nothing compared to this. Up high, there were no trees nor clouds to block his view. Everything felt so vast and unlimited, like he was staring into an abyss or the ocean.

“Yeah… It really is,” Raihan remarked softly. “Sometimes when I have a bad day or when everything feels terrible, I just fly up here and all around the kingdom, and suddenly every little problem feels a lot smaller. Everything bad is way below us. And we’re… up here. In the sky with nothing to worry about.”

Piers cautiously looked below and saw nothing but white fluffy clouds. “You can’t even see the problems of the world like this. Everything is hidden.”

“Hmm? Oh- right!” Raihan laughed as he glanced over. “I guess that’s one way to look at it. But you know, I kind of always hated clouds. They always look so soft and fluffy. When I was a kid, I used to think you could walk on them or that angels lived on them. You can imagine my surprise when I flew through them for the first time and found out they were just water.

Water.

Piers blinked when a thought struck him. It didn’t seem logical for a human, but to him, it just might work. He summoned his flute, materializing it from the wind, and began to play a soft but swift melody.

Raihan glanced behind him, both confused but intrigued. A smile appeared on his face, just peaking from under the hood of his helmet. As far as the dragoon knew, Piers was only expressing content with all this. Then he spoke up.

“How can you know if you’ve never tried?”

A heavy lump pounded in his chest. Flashes of heat and chills pulsed through him. Piers was nervous and scared, yet he still followed his gut. The milky vapors and Raihan’s words tempted him. Finally, Piers took a deep breath and slowly lifted his leg from the water buckets. He flung his hair over the dragon’s side, and his body followed after it, plummeting through the sky!

“PIERS!” Raihan shouted, alarmed and frightened. Swiftly, he steered his Flygon to dive after him.

As he dropped through the sky, Piers closed his eyes and held his flute close to his chest. The wind tore around him. The sky screamed at him. His heart pounded heavier, harder, and louder. Still, the fossegrimen took another deep breath to try and calm himself.

Have faith. The clouds will catch you, he told himself.

He took one last look at the dark, twinkling sky before his vision was engulfed in foggy white. It was like his body was swallowed in a tide, but it was gentle and caressing. He never felt it leave his side. Sure enough, the cloud had caught him. The silk whisps rocked and cradled him.

As he stood, Piers caught sight of Raihan and Flygon diving through the clouds in a hurry. Yet, a moment later, they came rushing back up, breaking through the mist. “ARE YOU CRAZY?” Raihan shouted as they hovered over Piers. “WHAT IF YOU FELL AND DI-”

“I’m fine, aren’t I?” Piers interrupted. The dragoon silenced himself and slowly descended until Flygon’s legs were just about to touch the clouds. Piers brought his flute up to his lips and played a small tune.

Against Raihan’s control, and to his surprise, the dragon landed on the cloud as if it were solid matter. 

Piers approached and held his hand out for the dragoon to take for a moment, only to curl his fingers and signal him before pulling back. “Come. It’s perfectly safe.”

Raihan lifted the face guard of his helmet, revealing a doubtful expression. “Humans cannot just walk on clouds. It’s impossible! I’ll fall.”

Piers’ eyes glowed sharply. “You will not fall. I’ll make sure of it.”

Still, Raihan looked doubtful.

Flygon groaned and bucked his hind, urging Raihan forward.

He flinched and slipped, tumbling off until he caught himself on the saddle knob. “If I let go, you’ll arch me, right, Piers?”

The fossegrimen nodded his head. “I will. You have nothing to fear. Just have faith.”

There was a pause before Raihan took a deep breath and then let go. He plummeted. Not expecting land on solid ground, a shockwave rattled up his legs, knocking him off balance and sending him tumbling back onto his rear. As he groaned and the initial shock and fear settled, Piers cautiously knelt beside him.

“You said you’d catch me!” Raihan huffed.

“If you fell. Now stand.”

Raihan collected himself and stood. Just as promised, the clouds didn’t break. He took a step and didn’t fall. He jumped and landed safely. “Heh- heheh… I’m- We’re really walking on clouds! By Arceus, it’s real!”

Piers followed after him at a slower pace as Raihan dashed around, tumbling and flipping his body around wherever he walked. “Enjoying yourself?” He teased through a smirk.

“Are you kidding? I love this!” Raihan grabbed Piers’ wrist and tugged him along. Instantly, the iron around his finger burned the other’s skin.

Piers hissed and tugged back. “Don’t touch!” He barked, baring his fangs.

Confused, Raihan raised his hands as if to calm him. “What’s wrong?” But then he saw the steam misting from Piers’ wrist, he became concerned and worried. The burn marks over the naked man’s body were still recovering, but a pink tenderness gave away the harmed areas. “Piers! What happen. Your body looks so-”

“Iron harms me, like all it does all fairies!”

Raihan blinked, surprised. Had this been why Piers was so hesitant to approach him the first several times at the river? Was his armor that dangerous to him? Without another word, Raihan quickly unstrapped the buckle around his wrist and tricep and yanked off the guard. Cold air kissed his sweat-drenched arm.

“I’m sorry. Had I known, I would have left it all at the river,” he grunted as he undressed his other arm. With little choice, he carefully placed both sets of guards and his helmet on Flygon’s saddle. Next came off his boots and shoulder armor, until finally, everything was discarded except undergarments. Smaller pieces of armor were tucked inside saddlebags.

Piers watched in both bewilderment and confusion. The human should have been freezing up in the clouds, yet he undressed as though it were a normal spring afternoon.

“If you can be up here naked, then I suppose I can survive like this, can’t I?” he said cheerfully as he gave Flygon a pat on the head. “Now, where do we go from here?”

They walked aimlessly across the clouds, careful not to wander too far from where Flygon remained curled up, resting. Each step kicked up a puff of mist, dissipating in the air. A silence lingered around them as they kept their eyes forward or encircling around them, taking in the sight of the stars. Wind picked up and dragged Piers’ hair. It flapped in the wind as a tangled mess, dry and matted. He didn’t shiver.

Raihan finally broke the silence. “So… you’re a fairy?”

Piers glanced over at him, a bit surprised, but remained silent.

“You could have told me sooner. About my armor, I mean. Had I known, I would never have worn it around you. Still, I thought you said you were a fossegrimen.”

Piers shook his head. “We are all fairies—a type of fairy. Your kind has given us many names. Nymphs. Pixies. Fairies. It hardly matters. We’ve been called so many different things by humans that we hardly know what to call ourselves. All we know is that we have one thing in common.”

“Magical powers? Controlling nature?”

Piers downcast his gaze at the clouds and slowed his pace. “Yeah… Magic.”

“I admit, I’m a bit envious. You can do so much, yet you never leave the river.”

“I’ve told you before that I cannot.”

“Yet here you are, high above and far away. How do you explain that?”

Piers halted in his tracks, thinking. “Well… Clouds are water. They make rain. That rain becomes part of the river. So… I guess, in a sense, I’ve never left the river.” His tone of voice shifted as he spoke, as though he had realized something revelatory.

Raihan noticed the shift in tone and a softening look on his face, but chose not to push the matter any further. After so many encounters with Piers, he knew it’d be met with immediate resistance.

“As long as you’re in the river, you’ll be okay,” he said softly.

“Yes. I suppose that is correct…” Yet earlier that same day, his powers had failed me, and the water turned against him. Why? He still couldn’t figure it out. The mere recollection of it caused his hands to shake.

“Are you cold?” Raihan asked, noticing him start to shiver.

Piers perked up. “Certainly not. Nature cannot harm me the same way it does humans. The elements mean nothing to me.”

Raihan nodded. “If you say so.”

Silence loomed again as they started walking. Piers, unsure of what to do, began to ramble. “The river is the only home I’ve known. It’s our way of life. Fossegrimen…we don’t leave our homes for anything unless our survival depends on it.”

Raihan nodded, remembering Piers had told him this many nights before.

“If I leave… truly leave with selfish reason, then…it would go against the natural order I was born into. If that happens, then…” he swallowed. Piers struggled to keep his voice from trembling. “There’d be no more music.”

Raihan raised a brow, confused. However, he chose not to persist. He didn’t invite Piers up here to convince him to run away. “Then play,” he said calmly.

“What?”

“Play! Play and I’ll listen. Whatever it is you want me to hear. I’ll listen.”

“Is that truly why you brought me up here? To play you another song?”

Raihan shook his head. “No. I didn’t think we could on a dragon. Hell, I didn’t think we’d be walking on clouds. I brought you up here because I wanted to show you this- give a new experience you can’t get down there!” He gently placed one hand on Piers’ shoulder while the other panned out, palm facing up and fingers aiming at the stars. “Look at all this! Piers, isn’t it breathtaking?!”

As if he hadn’t seen it all as they pierced through the misty veil beneath them moments ago, Piers stared in wonder around them, mesmerized once again. They twinkled and charmed, each more dazzling than the last. There were thousands of them, all shimmering like ice. Others pulsed faintly, farther away. Some even teased a glow of red, yellow, green, and even blue.

Piers’ breath hitched as he turned and spun, almost overwhelmed by the sight. No matter where he looked, all he saw were the stars, so warm, so pure and… “They’re so close,” he muttered. Slowly, he reached a hand out, as if to try and grab them despite them being obviously out of reach.

“You understand, now?” Raihan said softly, grinning at Piers. His eyes slowly wandered down along Piers’ arm and stole a glance at his hand. The dragoon’s fingers twitched, thinking to reach out, when suddenly the grim lifted both his hands.

Mist from the clouds streamed around him, quickly forming his small harp, and he began plucking the strings. At first, it was just a few notes. Each time, one of the stars in the sky flickered brighter. Piers stared at the sky in awe. In all his life, he had never known his magic would affect something beyond the forest. He started strumming cords, and the entire sky began to shimmer like river water glistening in the morning sun.

He didn’t stop. His fingers found a melody, and it consumed him. He played faster. The tempo and rhythm changed multiple times. A muse exploded from within the musician, and the world flurried with his passion. The stars began to fly across the sky with dazzling tails falling behind them. The entire cosmos danced around them.

Raihan’s modest grin grew into a wide, open-mouthed smile in amazement. The stars rained on them with a beauty that outshone diamonds. And when he looked at Piers and saw him thriving, commanding the entire cosmos with such grace and beauty in his performance, he couldn’t hold himself back. He lunged at Piers, took one hand in his own, and placed the other at his waist. He tugged the fossegrimen forward.

Piers almost tripped. Confused and slightly dazed, he struggled to keep himself standing upright until Raihan hoisted him forward, pressing their bodies together. The harp immediately splashed back into the water as he collapsed into the cloud. Still, the stars didn’t halt. The entire universe kept singing Piers’ song.

They danced.

And for the first time in his entire existence, Piers felt he was living his life. His hair billowed in the wind. As they turned and spun, the two became entangled by it. It draped around their bodies, tying them together until they both fumbled and collapsed into the fluffy surface of the sky.

They laughed and swiftly, confidently, without fear, they kissed. Their lips danced and connected like a moth to a flame. Fire sparked through their bodies, filling them with joy and sweetness.

Piers only smiled and maneuvered his arms through his tangled hair and embraced Raihan.

Chapter Text

Time and time again, Raihan had come to visit Piers in the spring during their evening hunts. And time and time again, piers would abruptly end their conversation to flee into the waters. This time, Raihan knew what would be coming but he had no intention to let it happen so easily. He had remembered what the other had told him last week and even brought food from the village. Spices. Red meat. Wine. He would charm Piers into staying for more than a few words if his life depended on him.

The dragoon was panting when he arrived at the falls, pleased to drop the cargo he had been carrying. He stripped himself of his armor like last time until he was down his small clothes and dashed into the river. It was like he was going mad, turning himself around in his search. “Where are you? Come on. Please! Piers, don’t play this game with me, again. I know you’re still-”

“What do you want?” Right behind him, he was standing on the water’s surface.

Raihan didn’t move. He didn’t even speak right away. He understood the heavy tone in Piers’s voice and could feel his gaze stab into his back. His host’s patience was already wearing thin. A heavy feeling sank in his gut, telling him that it would be best to turn around, leave the river, and let Piers be alone, but…

“I want you to stop running from me,” he forced out, choking.

“Oh…?” His hands moved slowly. The grim had a bow in his hand, which he tapped on the large instrument he supported in his other hand. A low note dragged out, making the water beneath his feet ripple.

“Please…. Please, Piers. I want to see you, again. I want to hear you play- to know more about you!”

Piers continued playing his cello as he moved across the water, circling Raihan, seeming not even moving his legs as he did so. “About me? Or about yourself?” When he stopped playing Piers teased Raihan, guiding him to look into his eyes. He pressed the tip of his bow under the edge of the dragoon’s chin. 

Raihan gulped. “Do you know more about me? Do you know things that I don’t?”

“No.”

“Then why did you ask?”

Piers pressed his bow against Raihan’s throat. “You didn’t answer my question. What do you truly want to know from me?”

Now Raihan was angry. He was clenching his teeth, hands balled into fists, and eyes staring directly into Piers’s own with a fire in them, almost like he was about to explode. “I just...I want…” he choked. The wheel in his head was spinning, but nothing was coming to mind.  Yet he was convinced that if he gave the wrong answer then Piers would fade away into the mist like he had week after week.

His frustration bubbled, growing bigger and bigger until he couldn’t hold it in anymore. Raihan gripped around Piers’s bow and pulled from his hand. “I...don’t know what I want,” he said in a bitter huff. “All I know is that when I’m with you I begin to question and learn more about myself- about this world that goes against what I was taught when I was younger.”

The fossegrimen listened, and eased his bow from Raihan’s chin, but didn’t say anything, even as Raihan’s hand slid over the bow, reaching out to his own.

“I don’t know what to say.”

“You can be honest.” Piers pulled himself from Raihan and began playing again. Unlike the previous times, the woods didn’t come to a screeching halt, but instead a slow, somber flow. Everything felt as though it were happening in slow motion, from the river’s flow to the even breeze against their skin.

Raihan gulped, yet the more he spoke the easier his thoughts manifested into a reality. “Every time I see you, I learn more about myself. Every time I hear your music the whole bows to it and the same goes for me! I can’t help it, Piers!” He looked into the other’s eyes as his face sunk into desperation. “I just want to spend more time with you, tonight. Please- I remember what you told me so I bought red meat and spices to cook for you, even!”

After a long silence, Piers spoke. “You are truly a most fascinating creature, Raihan.” He stopped playing his cello, and the world resumed normality. The river sounded as he stepped past his guest, heading for the shore. “I ask you here every night, playing a song to assure you I am here, yet you grow ever anxious that one day you will arrive to nothing save the clash of the rapids downstream, thirsty for my songs like a fish for water.”

Raihan followed behind him like a zombie. “You said you weren’t a siren,” he graveled as he ground his teeth together. “Said you didn’t hold power over humans.” He dragged himself to the shore where his belongings were. “What are you, Piers?” he muttered.

“You have asked this before, and I’m afraid I will give you the same answer. The question isn’t ‘what am I?’ but actually ‘what are you, Raihan?’”

“You think I’m not human?”

“I think you are extraordinaire .”

The two sat in silence. Piers perched on a stone and continued playing his cello while Raihan set up a fire, same as always, and began cooking.

“Piers?” Raihan spoke up, unable to stand the silence. He set his food down, having lost his appetite. 

“Yes?” He didn’t look up from his cello. He kept his eyes on his fingers, jumping over the strings as he continued into another song.

“Why don’t you leave this place? Come live in the city with me?”

“We both know I can’t do that.”

“Why not? We can make it work. I mean, you’ve left the river before. What’s stopping you from going into the woods and past the iron gates? Hell, we can disguise you to get in without anyone noticing you. I’ll even make sure you have a large bathtub to rest in if you need it.”

“Really, Raihan? You expect me to live in captivity? Within the confines of a luxury bathroom for the rest of my days?”

“Well...I know it doesn’t sound glamorous but it beats being alone out here in the woods, doesn’t it?”

“Not in the slightest.”

“Why?! How could you even- what do you mean?”

“All this time spent together and you still understand nothing.” Though insulting, Piers’s voice remained calm and indifferent. His song slowed, and he began to play more quietly. “As I’ve always said, fossegrimen are one with nature. We can bend it to our will, but it comes with the price of having to follow it like every other animal or plant.”

Raihan was stunned. Silent.

“You hear my music just as I hear the songs of nature. I hear the wind sing as it blows. The leaves play their drums against the branches. Birds chirp, and even the rocks explode in a thunderous orchestra. I hear them argue in the hardest storm. I hear the world weep when the pidoves fly south every autumn, and then again when they return in the spring. You see, to leave my domain would mean to separate myself from the entire world - to give up myself.”

Piers’s song came to an end and he took the last bite of his food. “Tell me, do you think you could do it? Resign yourself from your free will and live a life according to the laws of nature?”

Raihan’s head slowly sank, eyes falling on the dying embers of the fire. “I don’t know. But didn’t you say that surely I must already be doing that if I can hear your music?”

“I did. But soon enough there will be choices to be made. Either follow nature if it leads you away from me or defy it and lose the ability to hear me play.”

“NO!” He jumped to his feet. “Don’t joke about that! Don’t say that, Piers! Please! I don’t want that. Neither of us do. Please don’t-” he choked out each word as he stepped over the fire-pit, closer to Piers. The other didn’t budge but set his bow down on the rock. 

Raihan was losing himself.

No.

He had lost himself when he first met Piers several weeks ago. Ever since he first heard him - saw him playing the violin naked atop the rocks in the falls something hard stirred in him, called for something deep within Raihan’s very soul that he couldn’t explain, and he wanted desperately to stay beside Piers until he knew what it was. His chest was aching, insides turning ablaze until it felt like flames would ignite and explode from every exit of his body.

The dragoon knelt before the fossegrimen. “Please...stay with me. As long as you can. When I’m with you, things don’t make any sense and yet it feels more right than anything else. When I hear your music I feel parts of me awaken that I never knew I had.” A trembling hand reached out to take hold of the musician’s own. Pier’s hand was so thin, felt so fragile, yet had a delicate, icy, and smooth sensation to it. His skin practically shined against Raihan’s dark, sun-kissed copper tone. “Piers, I’m begging you. Stay with me. Stay with me as long as you can tonight. Don’t run from me after the song ends!”

Piers’s eyes were cold, and bleak, glaring down at Raihan. The man was on his knees, groveling at him for his attention. This was the sight of someone at the end of his rope, yet he didn’t even know what he was so desperately hoping to gain out of his company. The dragoon only wished to be by the other’s side as though blindly searching would turn up some kind of treasure Piers was keeping hidden from him. Truly, he knew nothing except what he had already told Raihan, and it confused him.

Still, he enclosed his grip gently over Raihan’s own and raised the man’s hand. He leaned down to softly press a cold, tender kiss to the back of his knuckles.

Piers wasn’t one to admit his true feelings or desires. Having lived a life of solitude, and obeying the laws which nature had intended for him, he never had the right nor reason to act on any thought except to fill the air with sweet music. For the first time, Piers now questioned everything he knew as he watched the man before him undergo so much confusion and suffering. His heart pounded in his chest like a drum. “A most fascinating creature, indeed…” he muttered. 

His cello and bow melted into a mist, surrounding them both and Piers knelt from the rock, into the sand to be closer to Raihan. His free hand reached up to the man’s face to caress his cheek, fingers stroking down Raihan’s neck. The fossegrimen claimed the dragoon in a swift, nervous kiss. Piers’s lips were trembling as he tasted Raihan. Every moment stung his subconscious. His survival instincts blared in his head, ordering him to halt his actions, and yet he pressed forward. He would stay until each, and every voice was drowned out, smothered, eradicated, and for the first time in his life Piers would enjoy the silence - sweet, sweet silence that he only found in Raihan. 

Don’t let anyone see you. Don’t leave the water. Don’t connect with the human world. Don’t get attached. Don’t invite them in. DON’T… Don’t… don’t……  d o n ’ t……

Piers’s hold around Raihan was fragile and slipping with his balance. He was shaking even as the voices in his head faded to a distant whisper. Weak, he began to collapse until Raihan’s arm reached around and caught him. “I got you,” he whispered, parting from the kiss.

Raihan gazed into Piers’s green pools. Past his reflection, Raihan could sense the pain, the hurt, the confusion, and the torment the fossegrimen was entangled in. They were shrouded in mist, hidden from all eyes and ears, and yet Piers was still fighting to keep himself from crumbling in his arms. The way he looked back at him - it was like Raihan was no longer a confused human, but instead a desperate beast. 

Raihan leaned forward, and hoisted Piers into his lap, held him tight with both arms around him, and reached up to his back. His fingers laced into the messy volume of Piers’s long, black and white hair. “Please...don’t leave me,” Raihan desperately begged with a whisper. “Because I’m not going to leave you.”

They were both a mess, fighting to keep themselves together.

Every motion was being cleverly calculated. Every action came after hesitation. Piers embraced Raihan with both arms. He breathed slowly, deeply, as he rested his head on the other’s shoulders. The man’s body was warm, yet his skin was cool from the evening air. He could feel beads of sweat on his back. His heartbeat thumped against his chest. In a struggle, Piers choked. “I will stay,” he whispered back.

Concealed from all eyes and ears, Raihan leaned Piers back against the rock and gazed into his eyes one more. They kissed again, deeper, and longer than before. The only piece of clothing Raihan was still wearing was removed so that they were both naked. He trailed his lips down Piers’s chin, under his jaw, and down his neck, peppering every spot he could reach as his hands grazed over soft flesh and masses of hair.

Piers was moaning sweetly every time. Heat flushed through him until his face glowed pink, drunk with passion. Pleasure soaked into him. He arched his back against the stone, huffing, chest rising and falling. Raihan’s tongue licked and teased around his nipples, getting them to spike. Lightning shot through him and he clawed into the dragoon’s back, gasping. “Raihan!” he panted.

When Raihan pulled away, Piers opened his eyes to see his lover lapping his tongue over his fingers, and staring down at him with a fire in his eyes. He was like a wolf about to devour a hopeless rabbit. Though a vicious stare, Raihan still caressed and held him with an inescapable gentleness, and kissed his body, sweetly. Not a spot of his skin was spared. And then he stole the grim’s breath with another kiss, slipping his tongue into the other’s mouth and his wet, dripping fingers dug between Piers’s ass. 

His rear exploded in fiery pain. Raihan was pressing into him. His wet fingers slipped through his anus which clenched around them, trying to push him out. Piers held his breath momentarily before sucking in a gasp and then sinking his fangs on his love’s shoulder. The other jerked aside and continued to lightly poke and prod at Piers’s insides. “Fu-ckkk! Raihan,” he hissed. Surely, he began to relax and sink on Raihan’s fingers.

“Shhh,” he cooed into the grim’s ear. “I want you to feel good.”

He continued, and Piers softened to his touch. Heat pulsed through him each time he felt Raihan reach into him to spread his fingers around, touching him in spots he had never dared to, himself. Each time, Piers relaxed a bit more, whimpering and moaning as he was filled with lust. It was exciting, pleasing, but still a little frightening. Piers shut his eyes the entire time as Raihan kept holding him close in his lap. When he felt him remove himself, Piers swallowed and panted. He knew what was about to happen next.

Raihan shifted himself and pushed Piers’s legs apart. His cock was erect and rubbing against Piers’s own. He dragged the tip down the other’s body, leaving a thin, but sticky trail of pre-seed on Piers’s skin until he teased up and down his crack. He used a generous amount of spit in his hand to lube up his shaft, stroking himself with the tip pressing against Piers’s hole. “I’m going to- I mean, can I?”

He didn’t get the full question out before Piers put his arms around his shoulders. “Don’t stop,” he whispered into Raihan’s ear. “Please...I don’t want to think about anything but you, now.”

Piers felt Raihan’s cheek rub against his own. They kissed again, and Raihan entered him. Pained murmurs escaped him as the dragoon advanced. His insides became inflamed, pierced by passion and an eruption, and burned until he wanted to scream out. Raihan delivered that pain, but also stole it away in their kiss, slipping his tongue past Piers’s teeth to meet the other. His arms held him tightly as he rubbed the grim’s back and fingers running through his hair.

Just hold tight. It won’t be long, Raihan thought. He continued, slowly easing himself into Piers until he was buried up to his hilt. His love’s insides clung around him, walls holding his cock in suffocating grip. Slowly, Raihan began to move. He’d drag his cock out a few inches before returning to warmth within his love. Pokes. Jabs. Tickles. Raihan was treating Piers with as much patience as he could until it seemed safe to quicken his pace.

Piers pulled back from the kiss, gasping and coughing when Raihan began to drive deeper, faster into him. It was overwhelming. Heat swallowed him. His mind became cloudy until he could no longer think straight. Piers was letting himself be consumed by the pleasure washing over him - letting himself be devoured by Raihan. At that moment, Piers forgot about his calling, about the laws of nature, and all he could think about was the other man with him, concealed in a thick mist by the river, loving him.

“Look at me,” his voice called out to him. “Piers, please. Look at me.” Raihan caressed the side of his head, rubbing his cheek with his thumb.

He opened his eyes slowly, letting it all come into focus. His breathing slowed. Raihan was gazing into him, moving at a calmer pace again. Neither one of them said anything but continued to gaze at one another. The world had faded around them. There were no laws of nature to obey. There was no code of arms to uphold or kingdom to defend. All that existed was a lost dragoon and an abandoned musician.

They embraced one another in their tender love-making and reached climax.

When the mist faded, the two lay in sand and weeds, against a rock, beside a dead fire. They refused to separate and held each other even when they had hardly any strength left.

“Don’t leave,” Piers pleaded. “Please don’t leave….”

Raihan turned to kiss Piers’s forehead. “I’m not going anywhere. I promise.” It was bizarre, seeing him like this. The once distant, reserved, and docile fossegrimen was now clinging to him like a weakened kitten. Seeing him curled up against his body, huddled for warmth as his hair draped over them both almost felt... unnatural.

“Thank you, Raihan…” Piers sounded so desperate. The last sight Raihan saw was the melancholy, yet peaceful smile on his love’s face.

They stayed there, holding each other close until sleep separated them at long last while the river waters continued to flow. The world turned ever on as nature played its most sorrowful and cruelest nocturne.

Chapter Text

Raihan awoke early the following morning, shivering. He was naked on the riverbank beside a dead firepit. Piers was nowhere to be seen. As he came to, Raihan sluggishly brushed sand and dirt from his body. The dragoon’s head was pulsing from dehydration as his joints creaked, muscles sore, and body aching. A passionate night it had been, the shores had proven not to be a healthy place to sleep.

He was silent as he crawled to the river’s edge and cupped his hands to wash his face in the icy waters. Raihan scanned the area. His ears fluttered as he heard the morning birds chirping, unseen in the treetops. The river was calm, and the falls tranquil. Rapids that had roared with the voice of the lion had reduced themselves to only bubbles as the water tickled over the jagged stone edges which peeked from the river surface. 

“Hey…” he muttered, looking at nothing in particular. “Where are you?”

The morning was too quiet and still for Raihan’s comfort.

As the distant red glow of the sun began to bleed into the pale morning sky, the dragoon remained on the river banks observing Pier’s domain, listening. He couldn’t explain it, but something in the air felt heavy and bleak. He was gritting his teeth, and hands balling into fists.

“HEY!” he barked out to the water. “PIERS! GET OUT HERE!” Raihan’s nostrils flared as he stood, stark naked. “I know you can hear me, damnit! SAY SOMETHIN’!”

Nothing.

Just the same flapping birds, singing in the new morning. Nothing except the river, flowing on. 

Time passed and so Raihan found himself visiting Pier’s waterfall every evening he could. There was no risk of any consequence to him. The weekly visits had once been boundless curiosity but had now evolved into a frantic, near-hysterical obsession. Since their love-making, Raihan had so many things left unsaid, questions left without answers, and nowhere or no person to turn to for answers besides Piers. There were no phenomenal sounds from the winds nor sweet music welcoming the sun. For the first time, Raihan couldn’t hear Piers.

Weeks spanned into months, and the dragoon watched himself becoming further entangled in his dependency on what he had lost. Hammarlocke’s opera house felt like needles being stabbed into his ears. The King’s banquets tasted like ash, and wine scorched his throat whenever he drank. Nothing could satisfy him save the sweet muses from a fossegrimen’s violin and a burned peasant over an open fire.

Concern from the other knights had been had over Raihan’s worsening state of mind. At first, they had dismissed it as a simple distraction and bad days during training or hunting, but now it was undeniable. Leon would find him trying to sneak out of the castle late at night when on guard duty, demanding to be switched out for patrol. 

Then, it happened.

The day came when even the most loyal of the King’s wyverns would disobey Raihan’s commands. In a fury, Raihan would be snapped at and wrestled against by the very dragon that he tamed and rode every day across Hammarlocke’s skies. His closest companion acted as if it didn’t recognize him anymore, treated him like a stranger, a threat - a monster! 

Raihan was eventually stripped of his position among the dragon riders. He had been reduced to horseback knight and castle guard, never to go outside the village walls except for his off days.

There was nothing left. The kingdom was still rotting from the inside over sickness. The witch hunts were proving fruitless, and the royal chemist failing to create medicine. The clergy commanded no holy might to banish whatever it was that plagued Hammarlocke. Their greatest dragoon was a disgraceful embarrassment to the kingdom. Now that Piers had vanished into thin air, it felt as though the world was disintegrating to be blown away in the winds.

“Was it really all a dream?” he asked himself under his breath.

It was late, well into the hours of the night. Only a lantern in hand as he wandered through the castle library. Books stacked on a small desk. This had become his routine ever since he submitted to the harsh reality that Piers wasn’t going to reveal himself in the river. Yet, Raihan refused to believe that he was gone. He was pouring his focus into anything he could link to Piers. Water magic, music theory, history, mythical creatures, ancient legends, and fairy tales, yet it all seemed so fruitless.

For what felt like a thousand and one nights he had spent tearing through large tomes, reading old stories of leviathans, serpents, witches, dragons, mermaids, and sirens but nothing seemed to point him towards any answer. In fact, Raihan wasn’t even sure what he was looking for after so long. He was staring, droopy-eyed at illustrations on faded, discolored pages of mermaids. An old children’s tale of a mermaid who gave up her voice to be with the man she loved, but ultimately met with a broken heart, and her doom.

“But I never betrayed you,” he whispered to the book before him. “Why? Why did you leave me?” Raihan’s hands were shaking, unsure of what to do. Flip the page and continue reading? Scream? Cry? He knew that this image wouldn’t speak back to him, felt a feral instinct deep within him told him to howl at this mermaid - to condemn her insolence and silence. He wanted to hurl back into the shadows, to tear every page from it until it was no longer recognizable. No course of action would bring Piers back to him, and he knew this. In a slow, deep breath, Raihan hunched over the desk. 

A puff of smoke trailed, from the lantern, no doubt. It always seemed to occur - the fire mimicking the once-dragoon’s rage. Sometimes he would swear he could see it reacting in time with his own breath and dismissed it all as delusion from sleep deprivation. This was another one of those times, and his usual cue that he should go to bed. Rarely did he heed these warnings, but that night he had no strength to resist. He couldn’t even bring himself to stand from the library table and found himself falling face-first into the very book he had been talking to.

Darkness. Nothingness.

Just like that, everything Raihan knew was gone, save for the presence of old parchment and the scent of dust and old ink pressed against his face. For a moment, everything seemed calm. He was floating, swimming in a vast ocean of shadows, feeling his consciousness slipping. Even in such a state, Raihan’s eyes wandered through the darkness as he moved forward, looking for something he knew he wouldn’t find.

An echo rang, distant. Like someone was talking towards him. He looked through the darkness but saw no one - nothing as the footsteps came closer, and closer and then- Raihan woke up. A gentle hand was on his shoulder. They remained steady, even as he jerked himself up from the desk, swinging his arm about to try and strike whoever had disturbed him. He lost his balance, and nearly fell onto the floor as the elderly Opal stepped away from his attempted attack. “Such a tragic young man you’ve become, Sir Raihan,” the old crone said as she tapped her cane on the floor. “Yet who would think you would become quite the attempted scholar in your downfall.” Ever cheerful, even when the world was in a crumbling state, Opal’s voice was eerie yet bright and cheerful, teasing anyone she pleased.

Raihan didn’t say anything as he picked himself.

“Let me see. What are you so smitten with this late at night? Oh! Why just children’s stories? I would have thought it was something far more important. And such a sad one, at that. Surely you know how it ends, don’t you?”

Raihan groaned. “Yeah. She dies at the end because the prince betrayed her love.”

“Yes, but do you know what happens after she does?”

His interest spiked. As many times as he had flipped through these books, it never occurred to him to read this fairytale in its entirety. After all, everyone knew this story, and when anyone told it, it always ended with the mermaid’s death. “What do you mean?”

“Mythical creatures are so lucky. I think that’s why we are drawn to them. You see, almost all of them can cheat the very fate we humans all share, but cannot escape. The mermaid doesn’t truly die at the end of her story. No no no! Like fairies, mermaids do not have a soul. However, fairies with pure hearts are reincarnated from the flowers that bloom where they die. And mermaids? In fact, they are a rare exception. Because of her pure heart, the sun causes the sea to turn into air, and so she becomes a wind spirit. Then she is told by God that after 300 years of performing good deeds for mankind she will be granted a soul and allowed to ascend into Heaven. It truly is a beautiful ending, don’t you think? What are 300 years for an eternity redeemed?”

“You seem to know a lot about this stuff don’t yuh, Lady Opal? Guess it makes sense for a grandma to know her stories.”

Opal cackled. “Well, this Granny is all the years wiser than even the King. Didn’t your parents teach you to respect your elders?”

“My parents were destroyed by a witch's curse when I was only a baby.”

“That was their first mistake. Everyone knows to never mess around with witches.” Again, she cackled as he stabbed her cane against the floor. “I could tell you anything you want to know if it's fairy tales you’re learning. Fairies, centaurs, mermaids, sirens, goblins, and far away places. Tell me, sir Raihan, why are you up so late reading these?”

Raihan was hesitant to speak. Everyone knew about his little adventures to the waterfalls, to see his supposed magical musician, but by now he would sound like a madman. Even Leon was in disbelief over it all after months. He sighed, unsure of how to answer, and yet noise can from his lips, speaking without thought. “Do you know what happens when all these creatures die? What about when sirens die?”

“That is a very peculiar question, Sir Raihan, but I do have an answer. You see they envy humans for the one thing we have that they don’t. A soul. In life, sirens and mermaids enjoy the pleasure of being able to manipulate and control the laws of nature at their will, but when they die, they have no place to go. And so they become one with the very nature they once controlled. That is why mermaids turn to seafoam, and why fairies grow into flowers.”

Raihan’s eyes thinned as his blood chilled. The very thought - no! There was no way. If Piers had disappeared then it would mean that he was…

The knight stood in a heated rage, knocking over his chair in the process, and grabbed Opal by the collar of her nightgown. “Don’t say that, you old crone!” he barked as the lantern of the table sizzled and popped; the flame burning bright. “HE’S NOT GONE! HE CAN’T BE!”

The look on Opal’s face had said it all. She was confused, and a little frightened as he blinked at Raihan. Her cane dropped as her weak, wrinkled hands swiftly tried to unhinge Raihan’s hold on her. “My word, wh-whatever do you mean, Raihan! Unhand me this instant! Sir Raihan!”

Frustrated, he did as he was asked, and stepped away from Opal, grinding his teeth together. He felt like his answer was so close, that he wouldn’t dare let up, now. He had to ask the most difficult questions. “Is there a way? For humans to become one with nature? Like you said? A way for a human to communicate with the spirits around us? Tell me! I need to know!”

“Oh, Sir Raihan, that is a very difficult thing to do. Why, the only way you would be able to do that would be with the help of very powerful magics, from a powerful witch….”

“I’ll do it! Whatever it takes. Lady Opal, please! Tell me what I have to do!”

“Sir Raihan, please. It’s late. You don’t know what you’re saying. Have you gone mad?” She veered her hand up in protest.

“Tell me, right now! What do I have to do to become one with nature?!”

“Why, Sir Raihan...you must give up your very soul.”

Chapter Text

Opal had led Raihan to her apartment in the castle. They were in her study, a small library with a desk in the center of the chamber. The room was light but a messy array of candles and lanterns positioned all about the room. Indeed if even one was knocked over it would risk setting the entire archives ablaze.

She stared at Raihan in disbelief. She breathed slowly, not daring to make much of a sound as he finally explained it all to her. Discovering a fossegrimen, drawn to him by his music, everything he had learned from Piers, and then the sudden disappearance. In the pit of her guts, she was awestruck, but also envious. Even just hearing about it made her skin crawl, and turn green. A woman of many years, and master of fairy Pokemon, and even she had never been so blessed to experience such a phenomenon that Raihan happened upon by chance.

Was it fate? Luck? She didn’t know. The old crone’s hand gripped around the head of her cane, knuckles cracking, bones rubbing and chafing against the many rings on her fingers as she loosened herself. The growing scowl on her face vanished to a more composed appearance, and she nodded her head.

“I see…” she began. “So, you wish to remove your soul in the hopes that you may find where your little merman has disappeared to? Who’s to say he didn’t just swim away and leave the Kingdom?” Opal walked about her apartment and turned her head to pass a glance at Raihan as she spoke. With a tug of a large rope, the large silk curtains opened, revealing her balcony that overlooked the whole kingdom from high in her tower. “The world is indeed vast beyond Hammarlocke, my pet. He could have gone anywhere.”

Raihan banged his fists on the woman’s desk, gritting his teeth at her. “NO! I know he couldn’t have. There’s no way Piers would have just left without reason!”

“How can you be so sure? You said so yourself that you hadn’t seen him in months. Sure, it’s possible you could lose the ability to hear his music, but not seeing them only means they either left or have died! What proof do you have that he may have already departed this world?” Her voice was stern as she stabbed her cane into the marble floors. Opal continued moving about, pulling books from mess piles and shuffling through pages in a language Raihan couldn’t even begin to decipher.

“Because...that night, he just...he seemed so…” Raihan swallowed, remembering to still so vividly despite months having gone by.

“Yes?”

“The way he was acting had been so different. Piers had always been cold, and short-tempered. But that night he seemed almost weak, and timid. He was scared, almost like he knew something was going to happen to him and he just-” Even now, the memory was clear. Raihan could still smell the fresh water and sand tangled in Piers’ hair, feel his cool smooth skin at his fingertips, his taste lingered on his lips, making the dragoon’s tongue twitch savor it. His ears twitched, remembering the last song he had heard him playing, one of such sorrow and misery.

Having to relive it all was painful - painful in the fact that it wasn’t until now that Raihan realized Piers’ final words and actions hadn’t been a promise of, but a desperate cry for protection.

“He was gone, and I couldn’t save him!”

Silence.

Opal nodded her head once again and moved to pull another, but much small rope. “Very well then, Sir Raihan,” she said. Momentarily, a large cauldron was summoned between two bookshelves, almost as if it came right out of the wall. She continued flipping through her books, running her finger over text, and currying to collect various things lying around. “Well, what you’re asking for is a very tall order, Sir Rahan. The extraction of one’s soul can be a very dangerous act, and one that can become permanent.”

“I don’t care! Do it. Take my soul if you must. If it’ll allow me to fuse with nature and find him, then it’s worth it!”

She shook her head. “Let me make it very clear for you before you do this….” Opal began dropping whatever she had collected into the bubbling cauldron, checking her book every time to make sure there were no mistakes. “You won’t fuse with nature, for starters.” In went, a slimy-looking creature, creating a large puff of smoke. “Once the soul is removed you’ll lose your right to be human, and gain a new form.”

This time Opal sprinkled in flakes of herbs Raihan couldn’t identify. He had never been the scholar of anything save the blade, the spear, and wyverns. Probably witches hazel, he figured.

“What form you’ll take well...that depends on you and the deeds you’ve done throughout your human life. You could turn into a fossegrimen like this fellow of yours, but there’s an equal chance you might end up an ifrit or mindless imp. Are you prepared for that?”

“What do you mean I won’t fuse with nature?! You said in the library I would be able to if my soul was removed!”

The witch continued her work, moving slowly, but steady. “That is true, in layman's terms. See, creatures such as dragons and fairies live in our world thanks to the aether. Magic essence is potent in all forms of life and is this kind of energy that sirens, pixies, and all creatures of that nature draw from in order to live. Some do this naturally, absorbing the essence in everything around them. It’s in the air, in the water, in the trees- everything, seemingly limitless, and what allows them to life eternal. While others, like sirens, must feed off human flesh.”

“So then how is it that fairies die whenever a human no longer believes in them?”

“Fairies are a particularly special case, Sir Raihan. I’m sure you’re familiar with the tale of Foreverland? There was once a great and powerful fairy, who guided children to a land where they could stay young forever, but you see...as kind and beloved as she was, her very actions were selfish - kidnapping children for the very thing that kept her, and all her sisters alive: faith. For as long as a child never grew old, they always believed in fairies, and thus the fairies had eternal life.”

“You expect me to believe that an old story we were told when we were kids was actually real?” he sneered.

“All stories have to come from somewhere, Sir Raihan. Fact or fiction, well...that depends on who you ask.”

“How do you know all this, Lady Opal?”

In went a handful of eyeballs, making the brew sizzle. 

“The very same reason a fairy stays alive. Faith, trust, and, well...some might add a bit of pixie dust, but that part really is fiction,” Opal giggled as she continued, this time pouring in an entire bottle of something pale, and of a foul stench. “Have you ever wondered how witches and wizards use magic? There are many theories of this. Some say that they are only half-human - part dragon or fae, themselves. But in many cases, it is because of their faith in the unseen that they are granted the right of privilege to channel magic’s essence into their world.”

“What does all this have to do with me? What exactly will happen after my soul is removed? After I take on this new form?”

Opal turned to look over her shoulder and smiled. “Think of the essence like an invisible blanket. It covers everything in the world,  but we cannot see it. After your soul is removed, you’ll connect into the aether, and transform. You’ll be able to hone into another realm and see into the essence. If your fossegrimen is still in this world, even as a lowly wind spirit, you’ll be able to see him, among many other things. Are you prepared for that?”

“Whatever it takes, but is there a chance it can be undone should I never find him?”

She grabbed a large spoon by the fire and began to stir. “The soul cannot last long outside the human body before it withers and dies. If that happens, you will be trapped in your new form forever, and when you die...there will be nothing left of you.” 

As she kept stirring, Opal looked over her shoulder and Raihan with a stern, serious look in her eyes. “Three days. That’s all you have. Return here on the evening of the third day, or else you forfeit your soul.” With that, it seemed whatever she was brewing was finished, as with a wave of her hand, Opal conjured a goblet from thin air, ready to school it full.

“Wait! I forgot something very important…” Opal raced over to a small treasure box on her desk and grabbed a handful of tiny crystals, which she immediately tossed into the cauldron. As she continued stirring, the brew bubbled bright pink. The air of the study was clouded in a sweet, sugar scent. “To help it go down better,” she teased with a smirk as she handed a full cup to Raihan.

He eyed suspiciously, staring at his murky reflection on the surface of the pink liquid. His heart was pounding so heavy that he felt he was going to burst. He could feel his blood being hammered as he watched the sizzling bubbles atop the steam potion. Everything Raihan wanted was right in front of him in his trembling hands, looking back at him with eager, anxious eyes.

“Lady Opal, and what is that you want in return?”

“I beg your pardon?”

He looked up at her. “Surely you expect some form of payment for this, don’t you?”

Opal only smiled and shook her head with closed eyes. “My dear Raihan, I have lived longer than I care to recall. You simply drinking my potion will be more than the payment I need.”

Still, he hesitated, looking back and forth from the cup and Opal. “...is it you? Are you the witch the king has been hunting all this time?”

Again, she shook her head. “No, dear. Magic is different from science. It can conjure food, manipulate the soul, and warp nature’s laws, but it cannot create disease. It cannot heal the injured. Curses, hexes, and enchantments are one thing, but sickness- that is a different realm that magic cannot touch.”

Raihan was silent, processing her words over one final time. His eyes twitched, and he looked out to the balcony, and then back to Opal one final time. “Thank you, Lady Opal. I’ll be back in three days. Please, keep this a secret between the two of us, will you?”

Opal followed him out onto the balcony and twisted her ring. “Not a soul will know where you’ve gone. Once you’ve taken off, I won’t be able to help you. Make haste, Sir Raihan. When you’re ready…”

He nodded, eyeing. The woman’s ring as it sparkled in the moonlight. Then his eyes fell back on the cup in hand. This was not the time for second-guessing or hesitations. With a deep breath, Raihan raised the glass to his lips and began to drink it as fast as he could. The taste was ungodly and had him gagging. His throat reflexed, choking just from the taste. If those crystals were meant to help it go down easier, Raihan could only imagine how bad it would have been, raw.

Even just the first few gulps made him want to involuntarily drop the goblet to the floor, and throw up whatever he had swallowed. Raihan pushed forward, taking gulp after gulp, and licking whatever spilled down the side of his face. Not a drop would go to waste as he thought Piers at the moment. The knight’s vision blurred and his body began to shake violently as he threw his head back to better pour the cup’s contents down his burning throat.

When it felt like the worst had passed, Raihan immediately collapsed to his knees. He could barely see, anymore. His body was going numb, mind dizzy, and insides burning. His hand instinctively reached for his throat to try and soothe the fire, raging down to his guts as he gasped for air. Spitting, coughing, and gasping for breath as drool and leftover potion seeped down his chin, Raihan felt delirious.

What was happening to him? 

Raihan couldn’t control himself, anymore. His body was acting on reflex, like it was being tugged by invisible forces, limps reaching until he was on all fours, and spine hunched. He could see, keeping his eyes shut and he started screaming, but heard nothing save the world around it, as if his voice had been swallowed in a void of oblivion. Bones cracked, and organs twisted until he could no longer tell what shape his body was, anymore. Everything felt heavy. His jaw unhinged and his clothes ripped from his body as appendages sprouted from his shoulders, ripping his flesh apart, sending him into a whirlwind of agony. His head split into agony as pain stabbed through either side of his scalp, reaching into the sky. Blood dripped down his face, warm and thick. The strong, endless taste of iron flooded his mouth. Still, his silent screams howled through the night. Death was rearing its scythe over the knight’s head, ready to send him to the hereafter.

Was this what it meant to lose one’s soul; for Hell to grip its claws around and claim someone?

In a final eruption of pain, Raihan howled, this time loud and clear into the night as his eyes shot open with a blood-raged stare to the stars, vision still blurred by the pain. then...it was over. He was huffing frantically, trying to suck as much air as his lungs could hold. Every fiber of his being urged him to collapse. The knight wasn’t even sure how he could find the strength to stand back up. He was still coughing as his sight began to return him, looking down at his hands.

Claws? Scales?! He moved them, and then shook himself about, and gasped! These weren’t his hands. NO! They were, and that’s what frightened him. His rough, dark skin could still be seen but was now scared with scorch marks and scales sprout from his flesh, fingers long, and nails sharp and curved like talons. With heavy breaths, he ran his tongue under his teeth which threatened to tear and slice at it. Fangs. His shoulders felt heavy, and so he turned around, feeling his wings drag on the wind. Startled, he beat them and lost his balance. Raihan tumbled to the balcony floor, tripping over his large tail.

The transformation had worked. Raihan stood tall, and weak, with wings on his back, horns on his head, a tail dragging behind, scales over his skin, and eyes piercing through the shadows with a scarlet, fiery glow. Raihan had turned into a creature of ancient legend, one that was thought long extinct. Centuries had told of the ancient being that stood human-shaped but lived alongside the dragons, serving as the connection across the gap between humanity and the prophesized bringers of destruction: the draconians.

Hardly moments after getting back on his feet, light glowed around Raihan’s body and then streamed across the balcony towards Opal, and vanished into the gem of her ring. A pale light shined from it, and then...it dimmed to nothing, trapped in the ebony stone. A hollow, emptiness was left in the confines of Raihan’s being. He felt lighter but also darker like a bottomless pit had opened deep within. He could feel it - his soul was gone.

“Three days, Sir Raihan. Make haste,” Opal said in a grim tone.

The draconian didn’t answer. He gazed out into the night. The veil had been lifted. He could see the world’s essence in a sea of color, sprites, and particles of dust floating around everything.

Raihan stretched his enormous wings and beat them against the air until he lifted his body from the balcony. This was it. He was off, cascading across the winds, into the night. First to the falls, and then he’d search from there, follow any leads the essence could give him. He would find Piers if he still existed in their world.

His search had begun.

Chapter Text

// Hey, everyone. Long time no see. I know it's been a while, but for those who followed this fic a long time ago, I'm happy to say I've finally updated. If you're new here or not sure where to look: I've been writing a lot of stuff happening between the original version. The most recently updated chapter is in fact the current Chapter 14: Rhapsody of the Star.

Now, as some old readers might recall, I confessed at one point that this fanfic was a testing ground for an original novel idea. Well, I'm so happy to say that it has been in the works for a long time. As of earlier this year, I have finally published THE PREQUEL STORY as my first-ever ORIGINAL NOVEL! It's been a huge passion project dating back to March 2020 when the pandemic hit, but it's finally finished and OUT NOW!

If any of my readers have enjoyed my writing here for Operetta de Fantasía, I hope you'll consider giving it a chance. It's got everyone any of my fanfic readers have come to expect: fantastic characterization, enriching dialogue, steamy gay sex scenes, and a lot of emotion.

At the time of publishing this fanfic chapter, the book is available for free over the next five days. Otherwise, it is only $3 USD (or an equivalent amount, worldwide). Currently, only a digital version is published.

Here is the Amazon USA page. And Here is the Goodread's page. You may find the Amazon link to your respective country/region there.

Unfortunately, this DOES mean that I won't be continuing much more of this fanfic for long. I'll probably polish off what's already published to make it more cohesive, and add one more chapter to kick off the long-awaited 2nd act of this story, and then will unfortunately have to let the rest not be revealed until this novel is finished. If you've stuck with me this long and enjoyed this story, I cannot thank you enough. I'm so happy every time I've read a comment, seen people's reactions to it all, and even years later, it's kept me motivated to keep writing this. It's one of my favorite projects and most successful. And I will see it to completion.