Micro walked alone through the forest of impossibly tall trees, only occasionally catching a glimpse of the sun through their leaves. The floor of the forest was not as difficult to walk on as the cave floor had been, as very little plant life grew where the sun couldn’t reach, but he still found himself frequently tripping over rocks and branches.

  “How can a world have so few roads?” He complained with a sigh. “How do they get anything done?”

  As he walked, he began to notice the sounds of the quiet forest. He heard the creaking of trees as they swayed slightly in the wind that blew far above. He heard the distant cries of birds, the sound of which he didn’t recognize as any birds he’d heard before. He heard the tiny wings of insects flying here and there, buzzing along through the air.

  “The old man would love it here,” He though to himself, letting his senses absorb the world around him. “He always liked driving out to the woods when he was younger…”

  Micro became lost in thought again, trying to understand how he was supposed to get home.

  “Core Cards… I’ll find all the Core Cards, strengthen my core…” He racked his brain. “Then I’ll be able to find a road home.”

  He grew a little frustrated while trying to remember all the difficult things Feng had taught him, but reassured himself that whatever ‘master’ was waiting for him at the end of his current route would be able to help him before his core was permanently damaged.

  GAOOO

  Micro’s vision was suddenly filled with a bird-like creature flying straight into his face, its wings fully extended and its talons aimed for his throat. He almost managed to lean out of the way in time, but with one talon the monstrous bird grabbed a hold of his shoulder, yanking him off his feet and tossing him to the ground with a loud clang. He felt its sharp claws piercing his shoulder through the fabric of his shirt, and held his hands instinctively in front of his face as the black-feathered beast assaulted him with its massive beak.

  “Stop it, please!” Micro shouted politely at the bird through his pain, but it did nothing to stop the violent encounter. His arms were growing redder with scratches and deep cuts, and the bird’s grip on his shoulder was tightening. “I said, stop it, please!”

  As his request went ignored, he felt another emotion welling up inside of him for the first time. It wasn’t like the anxiety or confusion he was summoned into the world with. It wasn’t the sadness or nostalgia that thoughts of his driver brought him either.

  “Stop it!”

  Without fully considering his actions, his hand balled up into a fist and flew toward the bird. However, the bird easily evaded his slow, clumsy attack and continued its assault.

  “Stop!” he ordered it again, this time winding his fist back as far as he could while still pinned to the ground.

  CRACK

  This time, he didn’t miss.

  His fist found its target in the centre of the bird’s broad chest, and the monster was flung backwards in an explosion of coarse, black feathers. Even while struggling to get back on its feet, the creature looked strangely tall for a bird, closer in size to a large dog than any bird Micro had ever seen. Micro thought he may have ended the encounter with that attack, but he was soon disappointed.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  With an angry, deep growl, the bird regained its footing, flapped its wings, and flew straight back to its target just as he managed to stand up straight. In all his life, Micro had never meant to hit anything, regardless of what type of creature it was. It made him sick to imagine intentionally hurting something after a lifetime of safe travels. As he watched the creature fly toward him with murderous intent, it reminded him of one sad reality. The purpose of his windshield had always been to protect his passenger from whatever flew their way, be it a wandering mosquito or an unfortunate bird. And when collisions with such things were unavoidable, all he could do was meet it head on.

  THUMP

  Before the bird could grab hold of him, he had thrust his head forward toward its centre of mass, headbutting it squarely in the gut. Its claws scratched his face at the moment of impact, but only a hoarse wheeze escaped the creature’s beak as it was flung away.

  Micro’s head immediately ached, but before he even had time to bring his hand up to hold it, he was distracted by a blue flash of light. As the limp bird crashed into a tree with a crunching sound, out of its mouth, along with a bloody mist, appeared the familiar shape of a small, blue pixie. The pixie tumbled to the ground near the twitching corpse of the monstrous bird, coughing and heaving.

  “Ugh…” Blue coughed up a bit of blood. “That was absolutely disgusting… Huh?”

  She looked up and noticed the bloody image of Micro, who smiled when he realized who he’d found.

  “Blue!” He greeted her warmly. “How have you been?”

  “What are you doing here?” She rolled around on the ground, struggling to wipe a thick coat of slime off her wings. She smirked for a moment, but her mood deflated as she struggled to remove a slimy feather from her hair. “Oh, never mind. This is so embarrassing…”

  Micro approached her as she cleaned herself off and knelt down to rest. Some blood had dripped into his eyes, so he wiped his own face and grimaced as the pain began to set in.

  “Sorry, Blue. I thought that was a bird…” He spoke between short breaths. “But was that some kind of vehicle? I’ve never seen somebody drive one like that. Is it because most people can’t fit inside one?”

  “Just shut up…” Blue groaned while retching. “Curse that thing… I may have used up most of my power leaving that stinky old cultivator’s hut…”

  “That was a cool trick, by the way!” Micro laughed. “I didn’t know pixies could do that. If I could teleport, the old man would never be late for anything ever again…”

  “Well it’s tough to aim, so I wouldn’t recommend it.” Blue cleared her throat, wiping the last of the disgusting fluids from her face. “That dirty thing got me the second I made it outside.”

  She coughed up the last bit of slime and drew a long sharp breath, then finally relaxed and fell backwards in exhaustion.

  “Ah… I really thought I was done for that time…” She looked at Micro out of the corner of her eye, but he was busy awkwardly rubbing his wounded shoulder. “How did you beat it anyway?”

  “Head on collision…” Micro winced. “I miss being mostly metal…”

  “Metal…?” Blue rolled her eyes and then sat up to look at his shoulder. “That’s pretty bad, eh?”

  “I seem to be leaking quite a bit.”

  “Bleeding, Micro,” She corrected him. “Not leaking. Well, same thing I suppose.”

  She jumped up and walked over to him to get a closer look and sighed.

  “I guess there’s no helping it,” she said as she hopped weakly up to his shoulder. She nudged his hand out of the way and placed her own hands on the largest gash visible through his torn shirt. Micro watched patiently as a familiar glow coated her hands. Moments later, the steady flow of blood had ceased, and a scar had formed in its place.

  “Wow,” Micro said with his eyes wide open. “You didn’t say you were a mechanic!”

  “A what?” Blue lay atop his shoulder, exhausted from the process.

  “You can fix things!”

  “It’s normally called healing…” she mumbled. “You’re so…”

  Micro waited for her to finish her statement, but she’d fallen asleep right there on his shoulder.