Other-worldly accident
'Am I dead now?'
The throbbing pain in his head couldn't be ignored just like that.
'It hurts way too much.'
His pulsating heart was also still racing.
'Guess I'm not dead yet.'
Daniel slowly opened his eyes. Everything was blurry. Not being able to use his vision properly, he listened to his surroundings. Some faint voices seemed to approach from afar.
“Florette! What have you done?!”
”Uh, oh... I'm sorry, Faylenn! I'm sorry!”
That's Florette's voice. And the other voice...?
Daniel tried to focus his eyes. Bit by bit, he started to recognize two silhouettes.
Florette seemed to argue with someone who was also dressed up like right out of a fantasy novel. And - just like her – he had a pair of wings attached to his back. Though his wings were thicker, wider and pointier than Florette's fragile, long, but round ones. His outfit looked very noble with a lot of intricate details. It must have costed quite a small fortune.
Daniel rubbed his eyes and tried to ignore the headache that made every noise sound dampened. On top of that his stomach felt like it's rotating around his belly. He tried to stand up but the dizziness made it impossible, so he just stayed in a half-sitting, half-lying position.
“What kind of weird costume party is going on here? And maybe you should make your special effects less... realistic... And where are we? What the heck happened?”
He looked up to find himself in a tall room, seemingly without any ceiling. The room, or rather, hall was completely round, without any corners and the wooden walls were carved into huge bookshelves.
The fairy boy aggressively fluttered into his line of sight and circled around him.
“Ah, this! What in the world did you bring along? You know, you're forbidden to bring any creatures from other worlds here! Especially, when they don't exist here! And even worse: It can talk! Ugh, creepy...”
He gave Florette an annoyed, questioning look but she just rolled her eyes.
“Of course he can talk. He must at least be a medium intelligent life form. He's wearing clothes after all, so he can't be an animal. And we were able to communicate and trade. Though I don't think he's an elf with these round ears. Actually, he looks a bit like us. Just without wings, don't you think, Faylenn?”
So, apparently the boy's name was 'Faylenn'. A strange name for a strange guy.
“What are you saying, Florette? This is 100% NOT an elf. If anything, he's might be an elven miscarriage or something. Just look at this ugly face...”
He stopped flying circles around Daniel and stared at him, squinting his eyes.
“This... could it be...”
He pulled out a wand from his expensive looking robe and swung it around in a complicated pattern. It began to glow a bit and summoned a book from the top rows of the library. It came flying down elegantly and hovered in front of him. He mumbled something incomprehensible and flipped it open with the tip of his wand.
“Yes, this book here... Rare and extinct species...”
Suddenly, the book snapped at him. Faylenn was just barely fast enough to not get punched by it.
“Excuse me! I'm an encyclopedia! Not just any random book.”
That voice – I kid you not - was coming from the book. Faylenn rolled his eyes and replied with a grumpy tone. “Yes, one encyclopedia of many. Don't you forget who your master is!”
“Hmpf. Rude, as always, I see.” Even though the book – Pardon, encyclopedia – wasn't able to show any expressions visually, it sounded very much like it was sulking.
“Well then, what do you need to know, master?”
It definitely spit that last word out in a defiantly manner.
“Oh, quiet, you. Show me the page about humanoids.”
Reluctantly, the tome opened up and revealed an entry titled as 'humans'. Faylenn quickly skimmed it, then nodded.
“Right. I'm sure of it:
No wings, no claws, no tails, round ears, maximum adult height of around two fairies. Plus, there's only one species in this world with sky blue eyes...
And that's... humans.”
Somewhat proud of figuring it out by himself, he slammed the encyclopedia shut and released it back to its place in the shelf. Daniel could have sworn to have heard a quiet complaint from within the pages.
Faylenn now pointed his wand at Daniel.
“Stay back, Florette. This might be dangerous. Who knows what he can do...”
Again he got this weird feeling that this wouldn't end well for him.
“Alright, calm down, ok? Yes, I'm human but that's not unusual. You can tune down your acting. Really, I'm just a passerby and I don't want to get involved in some kind of role-play.”
Deep down an inner voice already seemed to know that this wasn't any ordinary costume party. And it wasn't a theatre or movie either. Nobody could pull of these kind of special effects. Though Daniel was still hoping that he might have been mistaken. That maybe all of this was just a dream.
But then he looked a the fairies in front of him. The painful stinging in his head remained as well... It really wasn't a dream.
“Acting? 'Role-play'? Who do you think I am, huh?” The male fairy angrily waved around his wand.
Daniel bit his lip. He wanted to reply something harsh but if his hunch was right, he didn't want to start a fight with an other-worldly magician fairy that could possibly pulverize him in an instant. He tried to stand up but this time his stomach really felt like it was doing a backflip. He bend over and coughed.
“He's attacking! Careful, Florette!” Faylenn tried to push her back but she evaded him skillfully.
“Faylenn... Isn't he just sick from teleporting?” She tilted her head and gave him a criticizing look. “I remember the first time you teleported, you-”
“Stop, stop, stop! Nobody needs to knows about that!” He hastily interrupted her. Then he took a deep breath and sighed. “Alright. You win... I'm not going to kill him. For now...”
Florette nodded relieved. “Now, don't fight, you two. This is kind of my fault after all... I just wanted to teleported myself and this 'poteito'-thing back. I just accidentally brought this human along.”
“Then take responsibility for this 'accident'!” Faylenn hissed at her. Florette flinched back a bit. Before she could say anything, someone was knocking at a door that was located a few meters above the ground of the library. Faylenn sighed and rolled his eyes. “What is it now...? Yes, I'm coming!” He flew upwards, turning around midway. “I'm watching you human! Don't you dare touch anything!” He bumped into a bookshelf. Embarrassed he threw an angry stare downward and quickly opened the door.
