As he ran through the forest Ezekiel, he was slowed by the trees and uneven ground that threatened to trip him, though it didn’t seem to slow the elusive figure he was chasing as much as it seemed to affect him, as they only seemed to be getting further away as his glimpses of movement became fewer and farther between.

  “Get. Back here!” he shouted, between breaths as he ran.

  As he ran around a large tree he saw what appeared to be a purple tear in the air, with its edges cracked and splintered, that looked as if someone had punched a hole in the reality. Not having enough space to stop he tried to throw himself to the side to avoid whatever it was hanging in the air. Just as he thought he was going to avoid making it, his lower leg passed through a glowing crack and he felt the world shift.

  The feeling only lasted for a second before he landed on his stomach. He felt disoriented almost like he had just been on a rollercoaster, with the sharp drops and quick turns he felt a bit lost and confused due to the unusual feeling as he slowly got to his hands and knees and started to stand up.

  As he stood up straight, he heard laughter again from behind him. Turning quickly it took a moment for his brain to register what he was seeing. The person had straight jet black hair, olive skin and was dressed in a black outfit. What really made him stop and consider what he was looking at was the fact she was only about one foot tall with iridescent blue eyes and wings fluttering keeping her several feet off the ground. Though he knew that fairies were only a myth, it was hard to deny what he was looking at with his own two eyes.

  “Are you done standing there with that idiotic look on your face?” she criticised, in a sarcastic tone. “I know that I am quite magnificent to look at but even for me this has dragged on longer than I imagine anyone would be comfortable with.”

  “Maybe it is something on my face,” she said, raising her hand up and brushing away imaginary dirt and then running a hand down one of her wings. “or maybe there is something on your face.” she said, as she finished talking she flung a handful of what looked like blue glitter into his face.

  It went everywhere as glitter tends to do including his eyes “AHHH, why did you do that for? my eyes!” frantically rubbing and blinking his eyes trying to remove the glitter that felt like it was burning his eyes.

  “Maybe that will teach you to keep your eyes to yourself then, human. You have probably never even had a lady friend with a reaction like that. I know you humans have womenfolk among your people, surely you have seen at least one person of the opposite sex in your life. Maybe you -”

  “Would you shut up! What the heck did you throw in my face? Seriously, what are you?” Ezekiel said, rubbing his eyes.

  “What do you mean what am I?” she responded, almost sounding insulted. “I thought it was plain to see what i am, do you ask everybody you meet what they are? How about you use your own eyes and your own brain to figure out what I am. You are clearly capable of speech so I would assume you are capable of thought. Are you dim of wit as well as sight” she continued sounding more and more mocking as she continued to talk.

  “I can barely see anything now because of you, let alone look at you again. Why did you have to throw glitter in my face?” he responded with even more anger.

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  “Well you only got what you deserved, looking at me like that. I could have taken one of your eyes to teach you a real lesson, I have done worse to others for lesser reasons than someone looking at me too long.” she said, sounding almost too reasonable with her ridiculous statement

  “All I have done since I first found you lying on the ground was try to help you, I saw that you were in need of a bit of extra essence, as you seemed like you had somehow been drained of every drop from within you. I found a spider I thought you would be capable of easily killing and dropped it on you as you were about to wake up. I thought it was something you would appreciate and give you just a bit of something extra to get you up and moving when you woke up. Being as drained as you were, it could only have helped you. Though maybe I should not have tried to help you and left you where I found you for whatever may have come along.” she finished

  “What do you mean you put that giant spider on my chest? What if it had bitten me? It could have easily killed me?” he yelled back at her in disbelief. His eyesight was finally starting to clear and the burning receded enough that he could start to focus on her figure again.

  “That was not a giant spider,” she said, laughing incredulously. “It was not even a baby giant spider. If I had found a giant spider, I would have burnt down most of that forest and I would still be searching for their nest, let alone trying to help a human in need.”

  “I would have stopped the spider from biting you if you hadn’t woken up. As a member of the Fae Court, you should know that hospitality is one of our most sacred laws. Hospitality is a sacred law for the fae court. But how we choose to help is not always as simple as you would think”

  “That spider was huge, it was as big as a cat” he said in disbelief as his eyes finally cleared fully and he could see her properly again. “Are you really a fairy?” he asked

  “My name is Ilmarillion, I am one of the fae and a member of the Faerie Kings Court” she said with added emphasis “do not call anyone who is part of the Court, a fairy,” she said with disgust “I am a faerie, there is a difference and you would do well to learn it quickly.” she said while pointing her finger at him, in what he assumed was a threatening manner but was hard to take that way considering the size difference, it was almost funny.

  “That spider was barely worth mentioning," she continued “it had barely any essence contained within it, the only reason I left it for you was that it would not have benefitted anyone else as most beings have more essence than that little spider.”

  “What’s the difference between fairy or faerie? It sounds the same to me. Also that spider was not little, it was as big as a cat!” Ezekiel exclaimed, his voice rising in volume towards the end.

  “What is your name by the way?” she asked, without answering his questions as she flew higher.

  “My name is Zeke or Ezekiel is my full name. Sorry i should have said so sooner.” he answered

  “Well Zeke or Ezekiel” she said “You really should have kept your voice down. Better prepare to deal with those” she responded pointing behind me.

  As he turned around he saw several large insects coming towards him that almost looked like giant mole crickets. Mole crickets had always seemed a little freaky to him whenever he had found them growing up. These were downright terrifying though. They were not quite knee high and their body was about a metre long. They were all a dark brown colour with black and light brown alternating stripes running down their back. Their front limbs were longer and more serrated than he thought they had any right to be. The top half of their heads was taken up by large compound eyes and the bottom half was taken up by their large mouths which seemed to have four separate mandibles he saw when one opened its mouth and gave a chittering screech.

  Taking a step back he looked up at Ilmarillion for help as she responded “I led you here to see if you deserved my help, everything here should be weak enough for you to handle on your own. Maybe try not being too loud though you would not want to draw everything within this rift to us at once as that probably would be too much for you to handle.”

  “I am sure there are more of these insects in the forest so I would not go too far away from this clearing or you might end up with even more of them chasing you” she said.