Akari curses, but soon I find divots for my fingertips, and she is once again guiding me. Seemingly an eternity later, I throw an aching leg over a branch and pull myself up to straddle it.
I cuddle the trunk again, this time in gratitude. I fucking made it! My back and neck are uncomfortably dripping with sweat right now, but I’m too fucking exhausted to care. I just sit and hold the tree for who knows how long.
Eventually, Akari calls out.
“Delta? Are you ok? You made it, Delta. You made it!”
I throw out a half-hearted fist pump, then push myself up off the branch. Alright, hard part over. Now to pick some fruit. I shimmy away from the trunk to the first plump bunch of fruit. They smell so fucking delicious.
I groan, reaching out to pick one off to toss down to Akari, when a shrill voice makes me jump clean off the branch.
“Now that was most entertaining.”
I’m so fucking lucky I didn’t just bounce off the branch and into nothing.
One of the female pixies from earlier is lounging amongst the fruit, taking tiny nibbles from the fruity couch she lounges on.
“I thought you was a goner, I did,” another squeaky voice chimes in, and the male jumps from the fruit he’s been eating to the branch before me. “Look at your pretty face, all torn up.”
He pouts, then just as quickly winks and flits back to his bounty.
“Stop talking to it, you know it can’t understand us,” the final pixie female says, as she flies by my ear. Her teeny tiny wings send blissful, cool air across my sweat-soaked neck. I have to stop myself from grabbing her and holding her there as my personal little fan.
“Um, hi,” I say awkwardly, giving a little wave. Fuck, I was a dweeb.
Three identical squeaks fill the air, and one of the females has to catch herself as she falls right off her fruit. Her wings beat rapidly as she parks herself in front of my face.Mmm, lovely cool breeze.
“Can you… Do you understand us?” she asks.
“Uh, yes?” I don’t know why I answer it as a question. Maybe it’s her quizzical little face. Or maybe it’s because I’m talking to a fuckingpixie!
She squeaks and flits away quickly.Come back, little fan!
“Delta? What’s going on? Who…Whatare you talking to?” Akari calls nervously.
I send her a quick look before turning back to the pixies.
I clear my throat. Maybe I should introduce myself?
“My name is Delta,” I say. “What are your names?”
The female returns to flit at eye level, her minuscule features wide and shocked.
“I’m Pixel,” she says, hesitantly. Pixel indicates the other female and then the male. “This is Flotsy and Perriwinkle. We have never spoken with a human before. No pixie ever has.”
“Well, Pixel, Flotsy, and Perriwinkle, I am honored to be your first.” I give them a big, encouraging grin, then indicate the untouched fruit. “May I…? My friend, Akari, and I are very hungry.” My stomach rumbles as if to iterate the point, which has Pixel giggling like a drunken underage girl.
“Oh my! Never has my stomach ever growled so!” she exclaims. “Yes, please. Help yourselves to the beneni fruit.”
I reach for one and jerk my wrist sharply to break it off at the stem. I drop it down to Akari, who catches it with ease and promptly begins to unpeel it. I snap off another for myself and dig in quickly.
“Well,” I say, my mouth full of beneni, “my stomach is much larger than yours. And it’s an angry beast when it hasn’t been fed.” I swallow my mouthful, then add as an afterthought, “Why have you never spoken to a human before? It’s not illegal or anything, is it?”
Pixel settles herself onto the branch before shaking her head. “No, of course not. It’s just that, well, we’ve always been told how basic and limited humans are. I don’t think it ever occurred to any of us that you would know how to speak, let alone be smart enough to climb a tree for food.”
Pixel looks behind her, and both Perriwinkle and Flotsy nod in agreement.
“We may be able to speak, but we are certainly very basic compared to all the creatures here in Faezgard.”
