Tinz, being the idiotic person he was, had made his way over to the small glowing creature. It was still hard to make out what it was, but it had wings, looked vaguely human like… if humans were 2 feet tall. And it was crying while searching the ground.

“...Hello?” Tinz asked, trying to sound casual and failing hard. The creature jumped and stood there wide-eyed. Tinz could barely get a better look now, seeing as they were making eye contact. “A fairy…” his voice wandered off; he himself could barely even hear his own words. A fairy? Weren’t those supposed to be rare? What’s one doing here? He supposed, being in the absolute who-knows-where country, fairies were a possibility, but–

His inner monologue was cut short by a shriek. The fairy fell to their knees and cried. Tinz could make out the words ‘glasses’ and ‘lost’ in between sobs and by putting the two together, he knelt by the fairy and awkwardly tried his best to get their attention.

“You… uh, lost your glasses. I’m assuming?” he asked with a forced smile. The fairy sniffled. They then quickly nodded, the orange drill curled pigtails bouncing languidly on their head. 

“I can barely see,” they hiccupped. “I need to get back up the mountain before morning.” With that, Tinz’ attention was grabbed. His own interests came second in this case however. 

“I’ll help you look, alright?” he said, glancing around the area. They were in a field near a bridge that lead to the mountains. “Hopefully they didn’t fall down the ravine…” he mumbled absentmindedly. The fairy must’ve overheard, because they started sobbing harder. “Oh– oh no I’m sorry, I’m sure they’re around here somewhere!” his fake smile grew larger. “What’s your name…?”

“Laura,” she said with another sniffle. Tinz nodded. He stood back up and scanned the area with his eyes. It was still much too dark to see properly, but he figured glasses could reflect what little light there was and show him the way. Slowly, he turned around to look some more, following the hedges around them, bending over every so often to get a better look. After some searching, a small ‘aha!’ could be heard.

He held up a small frame of bent glasses. “Are these yours?” he asked, worriedly looking at the pair. Laura gasped.

“Mine! My glasses!” she sobbed, waddling up to Tinz and reaching with much effort to try and grab them from his hands. He laughed lightly; for once, he was the tall one. 

“Here,” he gave them back to Laura. She put the glasses back on, gently bending them back into their proper placement. She then looked up to Tinz.

“Oh! You’re an elf. Thank you,” she bowed. Tinz shrugged.

“So, uh, I have a question, actually, before you go. How do you get up the mountain? I’ve… got some reasons to want to get to the people up there,” he asked, conveniently leaving out the healer part for fear he’d get laughed at again. Laura simply stared at him.

“You mean my village? Why would you want to go up there? It’s boring and there’s nothing to do,” she kicked at the grass beneath her feet. Tinz’ shoulders slumped. Guess he’d have to tell the truth.

“I, uh, need to see the healers there. See if they can teach me stuff,” with that, Laura’s eyes lit up.

“You’re here to learn how to heal?! Why didn’t you say so!” she said happily. “Let’s go! Let’s go right now!” she grabbed Tinz’ hand and ushered him towards the bridge.

“Hey– hang on a second, I’ve got to get the rest of my party, maybe wait until it’s daytime–”

“No! No daytime. We fairies don’t like being seen by tons of people, and they’re always out and about when the sun is up,” Laura huffed. Tinz sighed. 

“Okay… how about I grab my party and we leave in twenty minutes?” he crossed his arms and tapped his foot.

“Will do! Will do!” she beamed, and plopped herself into a grassy spot by the bridge. “I’ll wait here!”

Tinz nodded and began his walk back to the motel Magnolia and Ferry were staying at. He had no idea how he was to tell them the current development. The stairs up to their room felt long, like the staircases at school he hated going up. It felt like a wait he had to work for that only lead to doom. Why am I being so dramatic? Do I think they won’t believe me? He thought to himself. It’s just Magnolia. She’s done stranger things than claim to have met fairies.

The trek was soon over, and he was met with the door to their room. They could only afford one room this time around, and Magnolia happily slept on the floor with a blanket hoard. Tinz stepped in, expecting to find the two of them asleep…

“Yeah! Yeah! Wait, no, don’t go that way DON’T GO THAT WAY!” Magnolia whispered harshly while laying on her stomach, watching something on the communal phone. Tinz stood in the doorway like a lost child.

“...What are you doing,” he questioned. Magnolia effortlessly took one earbud out, blinked, and looked to Tinz.

“Oh, you’re back early. How’d the tavern go?” she grinned. Tinz rolled his eyes.

“They all sucked, but I found a lead. We have to leave and go follow… a new friend I made, into the mountains. She lives up there.”

Magnolia stared at Tinz. Tinz stared back. “Yeah, she’s. Uhm. A fairy,” his voice just kept on digging his grave as Magnolia’s jaw dropped.

“...” the two shared a silence as Tinz began to sweat.

“You… made a friend?!” Magnolia yelled. Ferry yawned from her spot on the bed. Tinz stepped backwards a bit.

“No– I mean, I just helped her, but– why are you so shocked at that?! Why not the fairy part?”

“Oh, I already knew there were fairies in the mountains,” it was Magnolia’s turn to yawn. “You being social is more of a shocker.”

Tinz nearly fell to his knees in defeat. “...Whatever. Let’s go,” he mumbled. Magnolia whined, but stood up and began packing her stuff away.

After a few minutes of packing, they made their way back to the bridge. 

“Hey, we’re back, Laura,” Tinz waved. Laura was beginning to nod off, head slumped over to the side. She quickly jumped in shock when Tinz spoke, and she hurriedly stood to her feet.

“Oh! Are these your party members! A human, and a dog! Cool cool!”

A human? Tinz thought as he looked to Magnolia quizzically. She looked back and smiled. “I’m using magic to disguise myself,” she whispered, seemingly understanding why Tinz was looking her way. Tinz sighed.

“Well, let’s go back to my village, yep!” Laura continued. “Watch your step across this bridge, okay? It’s rickety.”

Tinz was especially nervous at crossing, apparently previously unaware of his sheer fear of heights, but they made it across safely. After a moment of catching his breath, Tinz looked up. The mountains were tall and made it to the clouds above them. There were countless trails ahead of them, covered by bushes and trees, and there was a beginning of fog surrounding them.

“Make sure to follow meeee~!” Laura sang as she wobbled in the direction of a certain path. Magnolia followed after her quickly, and Tinz was grabbed by Ferry and thrown onto her back as she trudged after them into the fog.