Chapter Text
‘Once upon a time in a faraway forest there lived a cheerful little fairy named Pomu Rainpuff. Despite her size and her young age she was one of the strongest fairies in the forest.
"I'm heading out!" shouted the fairy while flying rapidly out her treehouse.
"Pomu, wait!" Pomu stopped at her mother's call "Are you going outside of the forest again?"
"Yeah! I'm meeting with Finana to go see Ewiwa!"
"Just be careful, ok?"
"Um! I'll be back before sunset! See you mom!"
Mrs Rainpuff waved at the young fairy and sighed, she wasn't worried about Pomu getting hurt or lost outside because she knew how strong her daughter was, what she was worried about was the Pendora's.
Pomu knew her way to Ryugu's Castle and Pendora's Palace really well since she did that route at least twice a day.
"Fi! Na! Naaaaaa!" she shouted to the water.
Now that she thinks about it she wondered why she was the only one without a fancy huge place. The fairy let her mind wander.
"Pomu the queen of the fairies, wouldn't it sound so cool?" she thought to herself "But what would a fairy queen be like anyway?" her mind suddenly pictured the image of a bee colony surrounding their queen and she shook her head "Ew! No way!"
"Finana come oooouttt!!!" she shouted again, but there was no response.
"Um… Excuse me…"
"Woah! An ugly fish!" she pointed at the Ryuguard.
"That's rude! We were born naturally cute, there's no ugliness in us!"
"Yeah, yeah whatever you say. Where is Finana?"
"She just went out a few moments ago."
"What?! She promised to go with me to see Ewiwa! How could she ditch me like this!"
"It seems the young lady Tatsuki dragged her out earlier."
"Selen!!!!" Pomu let out a big angry sigh "Who cares about that Feesh anyway! I'm gonna go play with Ewiwa!"
And so she flew towards the sun.
**Young and inexperienced fairies shouldn't do this since they would probably burn to death
"Ewiiiiiwaaaaaa!! I came to plaayyy!!"
"Pomu!!" the dragon waved at the fairy from the balcony.
Pomu has been really close friends with Elira ever since they can recall.
"So Finana just ditched me today. Can you believe it?" she talked while she ate the cookies the Pendora's maids prepared for them.
Elira liked listening to Pomu talk about anything, she liked hearing her adventures in the forest and other lands and waters around. Elira wished the day she could also fly freely around the world, until then Pomu's visits were her only way to learn what was outside the fancy tall walls of the palace.
"So tomorrow is your birthday, right? How many petals were you becoming?"
"Not petals Pomu, I'm not a fairy" she laughed "I'm going to be 12 dragon years."
"Um… Is that a lot?"
"I… don't know? Maybe?"
"Then, will I be able to marry you once you are 12?" Pomu looked excitedly into Elira's eye.
"M-marry?!" the question caught her by surprise "I-I'm not sure about that…"
"You don't wanna?"
"N-no, it's not that! B-but are you really ok with marrying… me?"
"Of course! I wouldn't marry anyone else! I’ll marry Ewiwa and take you to many different places!"
"I… if it's Pomu I would be happy to marry you too…" Elira's voice became lower as she muttered the last words but was loud enough for Pomu to hear them.
"Let's get married!" Pomu held Elira's hands together.
"B-but I still think it’s too early!!" speaked the dragon flustered.
"Eehh? Fine, then I'll wait until Ewiwa is ready to marry me!"
Pomu always spent her afternoons at the Palace, sometimes other friends would join too, but she was happy just being with Elira. And before the sun sets and the Palace becomes difficult to enter and exit she had to go back.
"Aw, it's already this late? But I wanted to talk more!" the little fairy pouted.
"But you have to go back or your parents will be worried."
"I know I know. I'll be back tomorrow for the birthday party!"
"..." Elira seemed like she wanted to say something else.
"?" Pomu got closer to her "Are you ok?"
"Y-yeah… I'm just a bit nervous about tomorrow…" she smiled awkwardly.
"You'll be fine! I'm sure it will be a great birthday!"
"Um, thank you Pomu."
As Elira saw Pomu fly away she heard one of the maids' voice:
"Your Highness, Her Majesty wants to have a talk with you about tomorrow's party."
"Mother? I'll be there right away!" Elira loved her mother as much as every child does, but she was usually busy so she was really excited to hear that she wanted to talk to her.
"Mother, did you call me?" the little dragon entered her mother’s room.
"Elira, come here." Elira did as commanded "How have things been going?"
"Today Pomu came again to play!" she started to relate excitedly "She talked to me about the forest, the sea and the mountains, it was really fun!" she let out a little giggle "And you know what she said? She said she’d marry me and take me to many different places hehe" she said the last shyly.
"Marry?"
"Yeah, I told her it was still early tho!"
"Elira honey listen to me. There is something important you need to know. Tomorrow you’ll be 12, you won’t be a child anymore." Mrs Pendora stood and approached one of the large windows "Come here, tell me, what do you see?"
Elira moved to her mother’s side confused. Outside the window you could see the starry sky.
"The sky?"
"Look down."
When Elira looked down she saw a land full of colors, from up there she could see the lands Pomu talked about before, not only the green forest, the gray mountains or the blue waters, also the white snow, the colorful flower fields and sceneries she had never heard before. She wondered how fascinating it would be to travel around those places with Pomu.
"Isn’t it beautiful?" her mother asked gently.
"Yes…" she answered with her eyes fixed on the colorful landscape.
"We are here to protect all that." Elira finally looked away from the window to face her mother "You are a princess, and you are going to become the protector of all these lands. You’ll have to work hard, and you’ll be busy, but I’ll be by your side."
Mrs Pendora always gave an aura of frivolity, but Elira knew she was a kind mom and always cared for her a lot.
"So Elira darling, you won't be able to meet up with that fairy anymore."
"W… what?" Elira didn't believe what she just heard "What do you mean…?"
"I'm sorry. I don't want you to play with her again."
Elira's expression became more confused, one word was written all over her face "Why?" But she knew her mother was being serious.
"B-but mother, why so suddenly…? We have been friends since forever. I-I wanna be with her."
"I'm sorry Elira, you must not. And you won't marry her either."
"Is she angry? Did I say something wrong? Did I do something?" Elira's thoughts were all over the place "Is it because I talked about marriage?"
"I-it was a joke, I'm not going to marry Pomu. So please mother…"
There was a silence, it was brief but for the little dragon it felt like an eternity.
"You can't. It can't be her." her mother was looking into the night sky.
"But… why…?" Elira's eyes started tearing with the thought of not being able to meet Pomu ever again.
"I don't like her." as Elira tried to mutter more questions, Mrs Pendora put a hand on her daughter's head "It's late, the dinner will be served soon, you should go Elira."
Some maids led her to the dining room. Elira didn't say another word to anyone that night and when she got to her room she sank her face in her pillow and cried silently.
"I don't understand… Pomu…"