Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A rewrite of a fanfic I wrote sometime in high school. It had some interesting concepts but was a bit embarrassing, So I am reimaging it! Basically, this fic will try and make some continuity in this series and fill in the gaps from Rayman 1 to Rayman 2. But this time I will be mashing some elements from Origins and Legends.

Betilla was great with magic. One of the best. After all, not every fairy got the title of Nymph, the highest rank of the magic council that a fairy could obtain, she was lucky that all of her sisters also managed to get the title as well.

She had many responsibilities, working with King Carnivora to keep the forest ecosystem in check, making sure major fights didn’t break out between the fairies and the limbless, ensuring the elections were safe, that no one misused the lums and more. 

Most important: was to protect the Great Protoon, the Electoons that gravitate around it, and the Creator (where ever he was, no one really knew where he is), It’s unclear how the Protoon, the Creator, the planet, and elections are connected but if the Protoon fell into the wrong hands or if something bad would happen to the Creator… Everything would go wrong; the loss would cause disasters such as floods and droughts the land would shift and change to become impassable to anyone, Magic creatures that rely on it to survive would either be severely weakened or go mad and their world would become uninhabbitble and unrecognizable. 

However, it would be fine! No one would ever steal the Protoon! It was constantly guarded by the most powerful people in all the lands, including herself! No one could hurt the Creator either, he could destroy an army with just a thought and the Electoons were sacred: they helped life flourish all across the land, no one could possibly dream of hurting them. The council was even vigilant in taking turns so no one was too tired to protect the world. She, her sisters, and the other members of the council will never let that happen! 

But she often had this one thought… 

This one thought caused her to lose countless hours of rest, relaxation, and sleep.

It plagued her mind every day.

When she confided in others they just brushed it off saying it was ridiculous. That what she worried about would never happen. She didn’t need to worry about it at all.

But this thought would never leave her alone, causing her to just stare at the ceiling from her bed.

“What on earth would we do if we fail? What would happen if we… if I’m not strong enough?”

“What if the Great Protoon is stolen? What would we do then?”

“If we fail even once it will all be over….”

Finally, Betilla decided, in order to put her worrying mind at ease she needed to do something the counsel never did or considered to do.

She needed to create a backup plan.

On her next day off, typically she would just read a book, experiment with her magic, and try to wind down. She went to her lab to figure out what to do. 

She began writing things down, things that this plan needed to accomplish, and what to avoid. 

She made a list:

                                                  What this plan needs to do:

1. This plan needs to not rely on the power of the Protoon or the maker. 

The whole point of this backup plan is for when they're compromised. I don’t need to write why it's a bad idea!

     2. It needs to be able to somehow be able to deal with whoever could steel the Protoon or hurt the Maker

If someone actually managed to doom the world, they must be really powerful and dangerous, they may either have terrifying magic, an entire army, or more. This plan needs to somehow take them out

     3. It needs to be difficult to sabotage

A lot of Guardian entities so far that have been created to protect like Mr.Stone can easily be corrupted and deceived due to their one-track nature. It already needs to be powerful but it would ultimately be more problematic if the enemy could easily disarm or weaponize it against us. 

     4. It needs to somehow restore the Maker and balance to the World

This is easier said than done… I don’t even know where to even start with this!

After jotting down these notes, Betilla began to realize why no one bothered to try and create a backup plan… It was pretty much impossible. Not without crossing some serious lines…. 

The only way for this plan to work was to create some kinda new guardian, that had his own free will, a separate new kind of Magic source that was both adaptable and strong so nothing could stop it.

This could easily end up a horrible disaster… A creature with that much power could be even more dangerous than any would-be threat. There would be nothing to control it, anything it wanted to do it could without anyone that could stop it.

Betilla kept thinking of other ways, from weapons and potions to even cursed artifacts but the one that had the least cons and had the best chance to succeed was the super-strong and intelligent Guardian by basically creating a new kind of creature. 

The last thing she wanted to do was play Maker and create something that was basically a demi-god at least. She wanted to protect her world not destroy it.

At least she now had a backup plan, she just needed to find out theoretically what kind of materials to use and potential power sources. She fully intended to keep this on the shelf unless things got absolutely catastrophic.

Well, things became absolutely catastrophic.

The four kings of the council have all somehow been transformed into giant monsters, only able to see any other creatures as food.

Strange new green-skinned beings not of this world known as Livingstones began invading the forest, hunting the wildlife, and building new strange structures out of rock and wood.  

A strange giant structure was occasionally seen in the sky floating around like a strange ominous cloud.

Terrible storms were starting to become the norm for the weather.

Strange unexplained occurrences such as things and people appearing from nowhere in a flash started happening more and more.

A lot of the peaceful communities started to become hostile and suspicious of their neighbors.

Worst of all; someone murdered one of her sisters. Family dinners are so weird now that they only have to set up six places.

All of this happened while the Great Protoon and the maker were safe and perfectly functional. But if either of them were compromised, things would go from bad to worse.

However, the council was unable to find solutions to all of these problems. In the ever-growing stress of the numerous problems, everyone was in a rush to fix as many tragedies as possible without talking to the others. This all had a lot of toes being stepped on, metaphorically speaking. 

She looked over her destroyed garden, once filled with magical plants and beautiful flowers; nearly plucked clean due to the other council members ‘borrowing’ the special vegetation, for their problems in their respective areas. At least she had the courtesy of either asking or leaving a note if she was absolutely sure it wasn’t vital to their work. 

This whole thing has stretched most of the council’s trust in each other to its limits. It didn’t help that a lot of them (including herself) had this overwhelming feeling of being…… Watched.

(Betilla swears that once she saw a strange cloaked dark figure with piercing yellow eyes in the corner of her eye, the encounter sent shivers down her spine whenever she thought about it.)

The rain started pouring down suddenly for the third time that day. Completely drenching her clothes, she really needed to get new clothes if this kept up, her skimpy outfit was great for the humid and hot weather of the forest, but not so much for spontaneous downpours.

If there was only something she could do…

Then she remembered….

 Her backup plan.

She went back inside quickly, hastily drying off as best as she could before she went to her laboratory upstairs. She turned on the lights, taking her books, beakers, telescope, notes, and tools out of the shadows. But the fey paid them no mind, for now, instead, she looked up to one particular part of the ceiling. 

It didn’t look terribly out of place but there was something there that not even her sisters knew about…

That she had an attic. 

Not that the she had an attic was that big of a terrible secret, it was more what was in the attic

She flew up, grabbing a lantern along the way. Gently she pushed the secret panel away revealing the entrance into the pitch black room above. 

She was stalling herself… just trying to think of any reason not to do something so stupid. But there was none that couldn’t be justified.

Moving though the darkness, passing by boxes and things covered in tarps, she just directly went to her goal; a simple trunk with a lock. 

She reached in her hat and pulled out the key hidden in it. 

She put the silver key in the lock and turned it.

“Here we go Betilla…”

She opened the lid.

Inside were stacks of paper, some were tide together neatly, others were in a binder or just loose. On the pages were calculations, lists of potential materials, spell glyphs, and theories. 

“Time to do something Drastic. We need a guardian to… No… not a guardian, 

We need a Hero to help protect and save the world.” 

Chapter Text

“Arrrrggg!”

Betilla fell to the ground in frustration. 

She lost track of how many times she failed trying to create this thing.

It was months, maybe even a year or two of her trying to bring something to life.

She was so naive. ‘I created and brought plants to life. How difficult would it be to create something that can breathe and think?’ 

It was extremely difficult.

At first, she was just worried about what this guardian would look like and what abilities it would have.

She settled on trying to have it have more magical powers than brawn. If they were more intune with the energies of the universe, making them have a symbiotic relationship they would have good reasons to want to protect the Maker and the world. As a bonus, it would also make them extremely adaptable to other sources of power if her calculations were correct. They would be capable of surviving in any environment. 

They would have to have a complete body.  Natural limbless creatures like the Rays had magic stronger than the Fey but most of their magic is typically only used to keep themselves alive, it was rare for a limbless to actually cast magic, instead a lot of them just had tricks and gimmicks instead of proper spells. Any kind of Limbless were also powerful in magic, but they also couldn’t form their magic in spells. So they were often weaker than magic-users.

Although it wasn’t like she was trying to create a natural living creature like them, she was trying to make a guardian that could think on its own.

 Most guardians are often limbless as well, either because it makes their job easier or because their creator wanted to conserve precious materials, something she would not skimp out on in her project.

She then proceeded to list abilities she wanted it to have: Flight, speed, strength, underwater capabilities, magic projectiles, and universal language comprehension(others can be added later due to magic capability). 

Betilla then began gathering all the potential materials she could possibly need to create the hero. Magic gems, sea serpent scales, enchanted rocks from the blue mountains, bewitched clay from Picture City, to the magic fire of Gourmand Land. She was unsure what would be compatible with this Guardian's heart to give it a proper body so she grabbed a little bit of everything.

Most importantly: she gathered as many lums as she could. They were the best way to create new life, every guardian had them in their system, and even the natural limbless creatures often used them to reproduce. She even got a ton of samples of every kind of magic known in the valley so that her creation would have many abilities and powers, as well as be capable of receiving more later down the line.

With all that gathered she began her work.

Her first few attempts taught her that future attempts should all happen outside.

A few more attempts later, Betilla learned to try and create a guardian in a protective circle so that she wouldn’t set the forest on fire or worse.

It took her a lot of power and resources to make a good strong protective monument.  Five stone pillars with blue magic runes stood around the center slab with similar magic. Spacious enough to do her work yet small enough to not waste so much magic and for it not to bother anyone else. 

She then resumed trying to create the guardian. Starting with the most important part: the Heart, which the entirety of the rest of it would revolve around. 

She mixed and matched the magic time and time again using any kind of material she could to make a heart. The tricky part is that the heart had to keep producing energy all on its own without any external influence. She was basically trying to create an everlasting fire that required no fuel to keep burning. 

Betilla kept working, attempting to create something that was in all aspects, an impossibility.

She knew this was hopeless, she knew that what she was doing was the definition of insanity, yet she kept trying. Even though this process was maddening, the thought of failure drove her to complete despair.

She pretty much had to keep restocking lums, magicks, and other resources due to her running out or the other members of the council borrowing her supplies. 

She tried to create the heart every day since she got all the potential ingredients.

Betilla was so tired, tired of trying, tired of wasting her magic every day. But she HAD to do this.

It wouldn’t happen today, that much was clear. 

She headed to bed, too tired to change into PJs.

The next thing she knew it was morning and someone was knocking on her front door. She did not feel rested at all.

Groaning, she dragged herself to the front door, too exhausted to even bother flying.

Opening the door she saw Holly and Annetta.

“Woah, Betilla did you get into a fight with one of the kings all night or something?” Annetta questioned.

“Morning, what are you girls doing here?” 

“Girl, don’t tell me you forgot?” Holly quipped.

“Forget what?”

“It’s the second summer solstice.”

Her eyes darted to her calendar. Confirming her sisters' words. How could she forget such an important day?

She pulled down on her face and moaned. 

“I have been such a mess as of late.” she groaned.

“How long do you need to not be a mess? I hope it’s sometime today because we need to meet up with the rest of the council.”

“Give me a moment,” she dragged herself to the bathroom, not closing the door behind her as a way to say to her sisters, ‘Come on in.”

Both of them walked in.

“Gez, this place is a mess,” Holly commented.

“What exactly does she think she’s gonna achieve with this madness?” Annetta said while moving a stack of papers off of the couch.

“Who knows? She’ll probably collapse before she finishes with all the magic she’s been burning.”

“We really need to get her to find something else to work on or take a break.”

“Yup.” 

Annetha sat down on the spot she cleared.

“She is probably gonna ask for more of our magic soon.”

“Wish she would just stop. Maybe we can help her come up with something new.”

“You know we’re barely able to help ourselves at this point,”

Holly just looked at Annetha.

“What? I’m right… especially with what we know about who could’ve done all this.” She just looked at the floor in shame.

The dark-skinned fairy just looked out the window, unable to deny her words.

They sat in silence for a good while.

“She is really trying to go through with this isn’t she?”

“Yup looks like it. Out of all the things she could do… She is trying THAT,”

“Hey isn’t Betilla taking too long?” 

“Betilla are you done yet?”

Quiet…

“Betilla?”

Both sisters went to the bathroom to find that the forest nymph had fallen asleep on the sink, the water still running, toothbrush in her mouth.

“BETILLA!” Annetha started shaking her.

“I’M UP!”

The trio of nymphs arrived at the temple at the top of Mystical Pique, the tallest of the blue mountains. Betilla needed some thicker clothes in her wardrobe, and it was clear by the way they were shivering, so did her sisters.

She looked up to see Mr. Stone looking down at them standing in the front on guard. He stood there for a moment gazing over the big brown bag full of bottles Betilla had before stepping aside and opening the door to the temple. All three of them rushed inside for warmth.

“There you guys are!” Helena flew up to the group, “You guys are late! They're about to begin!”

“Sorry about that.”

“Are the others here?” Holly asked.

“Yup! Everyone is here, let's start.”

All of them went into a big room, it was a lecture hall, and the chairs reached all around the room all facing towards what was in the center: The Dreamer’s Door. The other members of the council were seated around in their designated seats. 

The trio quickly sat with the rest of her sisters, a good distance away from the middle.

“Why, if it isn’t the darling of the council, Betilla! I haven’t seen you in ages,” Voodoo Mama quipped, “in fact, I haven't seen the lot of you for a long time. What's up?”

“Girls! It's about to start!” Edith hushed-yelled.

All eyes looked forward at a small blue creature, wearing all red, with a bushy beard that had his nose poking out of it, the Elder Teensy. 

He gripped his staff tighter.

“Members of the council, we are gathered here now for the second summer solstice ritual. I may not need to remind you that this tradition is to make sure the dreamer’s door is maintained, and protected. Today, we shall allow the energies of our world to flow freely so that every being, big, small, long, short, good and evil be rejuvenated with magic.” 

He stroked his beard.

“And because I know people are wondering, yes it is ok to gather sunbeams from this ritual. You don’t need to hide your intentions. We all have been in a sense of great panic for a good while.”

Audible sighs of relief were heard all around.

“Oh yeah! Maybe I can use sunbeams!”

Holly turned to Betilla, “Why do you have that many beakers if you weren't gonna collect sunbeams?”

The green-clad fairy just shrugged. “I was hoping to get a lot more magic samples from everyone.”

The elder cleared his throat, turning everyone’s attention back to him.

“However I should warn you that there is a reason why nobody uses the sunbeams for magic components; they’re extremely volatile. Many lives of the previous members of the council have been lost due to the use of the rays of light. The sun gives life but it also gives burns.”

His brow visibly deepened.

“I can not stress how dangerous this magic is if used incorrectly, and no one has yet figured out a way to use it correctly.”

This caused a lot of others to start whispering among themselves.

“Now with that out of the way… let us prepare for the ritual. I do not have to remind everyone of their roles, we have to get this done before the sun reaches the highest point of the sky.”

They were set. All the ingredients were in place. Sundaisys were placed in the back, the gemstone kelp hung above, the candles were set, and the special bottles meant for the more dangerous magic samples were lined up to catch the beams of light. Everything was in place and everyone was in their spots waiting for the ritual to begin.

The ceiling opened up as the sun reached its highest point. The light flooded in, Betilla crossed her legs and started meditating alongside her sisters, the monks started chanting, and the Teensies began to dance. The light began to twist and turn, starting to resemble smooth waves as they filtered through the crystals breaking the white light into rainbows. The colors separated from each other forming new wisps and lighting the candles before landing on the ground where they quickly flooded the lower part of the ground flowing into the base of the dreamer's door, causing it to light up runes that weren’t visible before, the colors flowed into all of the nicks and crevices. Parts of the doorway jutted out revealing carved faces.

 From the center of the floating ring, the energy pooled creating a bright light. Everyone had to shut their eyes tight but they continued despite the annoyance. The nymphs began to channel the power outwards through the statues with crystals they were above creating streams. The Sundasiys absorbed any dangerous rogue power as it exited the temple.

Outside Mr.Stone cracked a rare smirk as he saw the colorful light now filling the sky.

It was a spectacular aurora that brought wonder to anyone who saw it. The light traveled all over the skies, above the forests, deserts, and mountains of the valley, and traveled to the beyond. All over their world people looked up and saw the lights.

From a structure made of quartz on top of a very tall mountain that the constellations could be seen even during the day, the beings inside watched the lights, drinking wine and bread, cheese, and meat, they saw the illuminations in the sky.

On the tropic beaches, dawned with palm trees, hidden locals dressed in many different colors, with advanced technology looked up and saw the colors.

Across the land that was decked out with flowers and food, people dressed up as skeletons danced and played music under the patterns flowing above them.

In the place where beanstalks grow tall enough to touch the clouds and are strong enough to hold entire palaces. The locals of the area were near the top of the tall plant, running their fingers through the lights that flowed around them like water. Having their own little celebration.

Deep within a thick forest, a castle stood. A carnival was laid out with stands that had food and games within the stone walls that were still being built, cheers could be heard for miles around when they saw what was in the sky. Two little red-headed girls looked up at the aurora from the top of one of the castle’s towers in absolute wonder.

From all around the world day or night, creatures of all shapes and sizes saw the illuminations, unaware of the people who performed the magic that allowed it in the first place.

The light began to slowly float down to the ground. Touching every leaf, rock, pebble, and stream, flowing into every crevice and cave so that even those who lived underground were touched by the aurora. Every piece of the world glowed and shined. Then it faded. But after it did, plants began to bloom, birds began to sing, fish began jumping out of the water and rocks shed their outer shells revealing crystals beneath, and so much more. 

There was a lot of the light left over, having not been absorbed but they formed into spheres and sprouted wings, becoming lums, sleeping peacefully in the air.

Back at the temple, the members of the council were congratulating each other and were chatting now that their job was done. Some were discussing solutions to their problems, and planning the next meeting to discuss more due to everyone being tired of doing the ritual for hours.

But Betilla was focused on something else: the beaker that was now containing pure unfilled power from the sun. She knelt down to pick it up… and immediately pulled her hand away from the scorching heat.

“Ow! How is it hot? That’s my best fire beaker!”

A hand with a very strange bedazzled mitt on it ended up grabbing the bottle with the sunbeams inside. Betilla looked up to see Edith, looking down at her with worry.

“Looks like you need some help with this… I guess I can lend you my special oven mitt I use in the Infernal Kitchen,” She handed the other mitt to her sister.

“Thanks,” she put it on and took the vial with it.

“Well, that went extraordinarily well!” Helena said with joy.

“I hope everyone enjoyed the performance!” Holly exclaimed.

Anneta giggled.

Betilla looked over to find the missing sibling from the group.

Voodoo Mama was busy talking with some other members who looked angry at her for some reason. From the look on her face it was obvious that it was just some weird claims about her being ‘evil’ again.

It would probably be a while before she's free. 

“So should we have some family time later, and make dinner together again?” Betilla asked, “It's been a long time since we all hung out, I’m sure VeDe would say yes.” She pointed to the nymph with bones in her hair without looking at her. 

“Sorry, but I have to tend to the kitchen. But that does sound like a good idea, but I can’t do it today,” Edith said while reaching into her forest-dwelling sister's bag and taking out a bottle, opening it up, and putting her hand over the top, a light blue power of size-changing magic flowed into the bottle but it didn’t fill up to the top, it was just a little bit of it, closing the bottle and ended up putting it back in the bag giving Betilla a strange look while doing so before flying off suddenly.

“Huh? What was that about…” The redhead wondered out loud before turning to the remaining group of siblings.

Who were all giving her strange looks as well. Annetha was giving her a scary glare that was rarely seen, only when she was truly angry or hunting down something, Holly was darting her eyes back and forth between her and the exit, and Helena was just looking worried about her.

“Well I need to be heading out as well,” the dark-skinned and feathered nymph stated, picking up an empty beaker and putting a little bit of her flying magic in it, it was less than what Eidith gave. She then darted towards the exit.

“You really shouldn’t cross the line Betilla,” Annetna warned, grabbing a bottle, and like her sisters, putting a little bit of magic in it before flying away.

Turning to Helena, Betilla could only ask, “What’s wrong? Why is everyone acting strange?”

The blue-clad nymph just sighed and rubbed her head before answering.

“Word got out that you are trying to play creator.”

The forest fairy’s eyes widened upon hearing the news.

“What?”

“Yea… Someone saw your notes, and you attempting to create a new being. Not to mention It makes way too much sense given everything you have been doing. Pretty much everyone knows Betilla.”

“You don’t understand, I was just trying to...”

“What? Create a being capable of solving all our problems? Take down armies with little to no effort? Look I get that you’re desperate, but doing this will only bring more problems, please be realistic! You’ve got to remember the last time someone tried doing what you do, and what happened to those poor fishermen. Not to mention that it’s taking a huge toll on you.”

Helena grabbed a beaker and put a little bit of her magic inside, it was filled halfway up.

“Look me and the others aren’t gonna stop you… We just won't be giving you as much magic anymore. Honestly you out of all people should know of the taboos of creating life.”

And just like her other sisters, she turned and left the room.

Betilla then noticed that the members of the council who weren’t talking to someone else were looking at her…. 

She swallowed nervously.

Betilla was on the verge of tears… Every single member of the council chewed her out.

“I expected better from the head nymph,”

“I expected this from Voodoo Mama, not you!”

“If you go through with creating your monster you will doom us all!”

She dealt with those remarks for the rest of the evening trying to get more samples but in the end, all she had were the dregs her sisters gave her before.

One by one everyone left the temple, leaving only one other person besides herself.

“Heya Be! How's it going?”

Voodoo Mama flew up by her side.

“Rough,”

“Yeah, I bet, I’m sorry you had to go through all that but I’m kinda happy that I wasn’t the only one getting all the blowback,”

The bat-winged fairy put her arm around her sister.

“Other than that I am really surprised and happy for you,”

“Huh?”

“Most of the time you just do what others tell you to do when it comes to magic and protection, glad you're doing your own thing again.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Don’t worry, I just mean that it’s been a long time since I saw my sister Betilla the fairy, not the nymph. Honestly, when was the last time the family got together and were just ourselves, with  no work involved?”

“You know I asked the rest of our group earlier if they wanted to do that, but they kinda all ran off,”

“That’s becoming a nasty habit of theirs… and sometimes yours as well. But I just have one question for you, Be.”

“What is it?”

Voodoo Mama looked her dead in the eyes with a serious expression.

“Are you sure about this endeavor of yours? With all the lums, magic, and the possibility it might fail? All the heartbreak and backlash if it goes right? I am not saying you shouldn’t and that there are no positives but there will be a lot of hardships going forward if you succeed.”

Betilla just pondered for a good while. Once again going over every detail in her mind. The pros and cons of every single scenario. Yet in light of it all and despite the warnings and criticism her resolve state the same, and she looked back with determination in her eyes.

“You and I both know it’s not a matter of if but when. I went through all possible solutions long before this whole mess even happened. I know it’s a stupid idea, but I at least want to say that I tried my best if I am doomed to fail.”

The other girl smiled wide.

“Atta girl, I am glad you're sticking it to everyone, Creator knows we need more troublemakers in the world,” She then reached into a sack that was attached to her hip, and pulled out a huge jar that couldn’t possibly fit inside from it and handed it to her.

Betilla just stared in shock at what was in the jar, a kind of magic she hadn’t seen before that was both familiar, powerful, and strange. It looked like a tiny galaxy was swirling inside the glass, with beautiful shades of purple and small lights resembling stars. All swirling around forming a white ‘o’ in the middle. It was magical, wonderful, whimsical, and the most shocking thing of all: Betilla could tell that there was very little of Voodoo Mama’s power in the jar, it was her own.

“How? My magic never looked like this!”

The other just chuckled before answering, “What is transformation magic then the power to change? I had a lot of samples of your magic, some even from when we were kids. I just gave it a little push and it turned into that something that can become anything, I thought it suited you and your project, creating something that is entirely your own creation, so why not use your own magic? I know you’ve been getting tired so maybe this can help you rest for a while.”

The redhead put down the jar before hugging her little sister. Crying into her shoulder.

The other nymph hugged back, “Man, you really needed a friend didn’t you?”

The two of them stayed like that for a while before pulling away.

“I would talk some more but I’ll be in even more trouble if I leave the grannys and grandpas alone for too long, hope to see you soon!” and the nymph of the livid dead flew out of the temple.

Betilla signed and put the big jar in her bag. She had to leave some of her beakers at the temple to make room, reminding herself next time to get a magic bag like her sister.

She began to fly towards the exit as well. 

*thump*

She stopped, having heard a strange sound.

* thump thump thump*

She was alert, she was not alone.

“Who's there?” She called out, prepping an attack frantically looking around.

It was quiet for a few seconds . . . Before a voice echoed through the halls. 

“Hi, folks! Give a big round hand for the star of this evening, the one who researched the stars,”

A top hat with a star on it hopped out from behind a pillar in front of her.

“The prodigy that gained a position in the magic council, and now the protector of the forest, the one the only…..”

 Out from under it with a flurry of sparkles, popped out a creature with no arms and legs but had hands and feet, a big nose and locks of golden hair on its head. It wore a violet shirt with two blue buttons on it and waved its cane towards her with a big grin.

“Betilla the Fairy!!!” 

The mentioned girl just groaned, dissipating the spell but not lowering her guard.

“It’s nymph, not fairy. My title is nymph.” She crossed her arms, and glared at the newcomer “Why are you here Magician?”

“Well there is no one to represent my kind in the council, I know that we don’t do magic or spells but with the massive decisions y’all make every now and again that affect everyone in the valley we should have a say in it too you know?”

"Well, it is the MAGIC council and a lot of the limbless aren’t very willing to cooperate with us and are so secretive. Why should we try and help those who distrust us so much?”

He leaned forward on his cane, feet crossed behind the smile disappearing from his face. 

“That distrust is there because of a very good reason, a reason my people are afraid will repeat again. That’s why we HAVE to have someone to represent us.”

Betilla’s curiosity got the better of her, and let her guard down even more.

“What happened, exactly?”

“Well, I really can’t say, nobody wants to stir those ideas up again for the council. But I will say it happened before you joined them and it was something truly and utterly terrible,”

“Oh… so why are you sharing the fact you're spying on all of us with me?”

“I just thought I could give some useful advice you can use in your project.”

“Really? Even if it’s morally wrong? Everyone gave me an earful about it.”

“Betilla, It took me all my willpower to not jump out and call out all the hypocrisy and irony the lot of them said to you.”

“And what makes you so sure you can help me?”

The strange creature just chuckled. “Why do you think you know everything about me? I am a scholar after all, I enjoy learning and studying after all,”

“Really?”

“Yup and my advice for you: don’t try to force it. Life is at its core, uncontrollable. Sure you can guide it, nurture it, but if you force it to try and make it become something it’s not or try to control it absolutely, it can cause some really messed up stuff to happen.”

Betilla mused over his words.

“Wait a minute…. How did you even get in here? There is only one entrance, Helena makes sure the temple is in tip top shape, and Mr. Stone is watching the door, nothing gets past him!”

The limbless smiled wide putting his hands behind his back.

“Any man of my trade knows to keep secrets so the audience is left guessing and with that I bid you adieu,”

He slinked behind a pillar, still facing Betilla until he was completely out of sight form the forest nymph.

“Hey!”

She quickly darted after the man only to find empty space, looking all around (even above) she couldn’t find where the Magician went, there was no way he could’ve gotten past her! How did he did it?

“Limbless…. Always keeping secrets,”

A yawn escaping her mouth distracted her…. She was so tired, she needed to get some sleep. Today was pretty awful. She decided to take a break day, it wasn’t like she was gonna manage to create the guardian tomorrow anyways.

Betilla dragged herself back home, limbs heavy, she couldn’t fly she was so tired.

At least it was a beautiful night, everything practically shined and glowed, the rivers and plants were sparkling underneath the moonlight. The sounds of the creatures that come out at night, formed a strange yet sweet lullaby for her ears. Looking up, she swore the night sky looked different tonight, not a cloud in the sky, the stars seemed to be changing colors, and the two moons were perfectly visible and full (a pretty rare occurrence) yet something was different about them but she was too sleepy to care.

She finally made it to her front door. Before anything else she put the sunbeams in a secure place (the same place she kept magical fires) so it wouldn’t burn down her house if she left it unattended.

She then unpacked all the samples she collected putting them all on the table. Finally unpacking the big jar. She wandered where exactly she should store it for a moment before she heard rustling in the next room.

 Someone broke into her house.

Perking up she prepared herself and went to confront the intruder.

She turned the corner to find a bunch of zombie chickens, ransacking her home, stuffing all the materials she gathered over the months into big sacks they were carrying. 

Without thinking she shot out a spell of power and obliterated one of the undead poultry, causing the bag he was holding to drop to the ground. All the intruder's eyes were now on her.

She casted another spell this time below her, thick vines sprouted out of the ground (future Betilla can handle the broken floorboards) and stood by her side waiting for her orders.

The zombie chickens screeched, some charging at her, others trying to get away with their stolen goods, not that she was gonna let them get away so easily.

She commanded the vines to attack, knocking two of them into her shelfs and the others into their fleeing companions.

She prepared another magic bullet, and dashed forward towards her targets who were already back up on their (metaphorical) feet.

She launched the spell, they dodged just barely, vines came to her side again, constricting three, and she turned to finish the last one.

Only to be attacked from behind, from a zombie chicken that hid from her.

She was downed for a while, but woke up shortly after seeing the undead fiends scrambled, getting their bony fingers(?) on all her materials. 

“Hey!”

They quickly dropped what they were shoving into the bags and just fled, out the back door into her garden.

She flew after the poultry thieves. She saw that they also raided her garden, plants plucked and flowers missing their petals. But she didn’t manage to catch up with the criminals as her exhaustion finally caught up with her.

Betilla then learned what the soil of her garden tastes like.

No wait, her wings just gave up on her and face planted into the ground….

By the time she picked herself up, the zombie chickens were long gone, the hole in her fence (that’s probably how they got in) taunting her of their escape.

Recognizing her loss, Betilla quickly went back to her house to assess the damage.

She looked around to find that nearly every single material she collected since she started to create the guardian was gone.

Magic stones? Snatched.

Potions? Pilfered.

Scales and claws? Taken.

Even her notes were stolen.

She even lost a majority of the lums she gathered, now she only had a few sacks, not nearly enough for creating the guardian.

At least not everything was burglarized, she managed to find a magic paint brush, two kinda big white enchanted marbles, a tongue from Gourmet Land (she doesn’t remember what it was from), a small self-playing bagpipe but it was broken so it was more of a bag that blew wind, two brown gems form the caves, a potion she made from a book that she couldn’t remember what it did right now, some bewitched plants, feathers, some stuff from the sea of serendipity, A ball from playtopia and This thing here… what is it?

Betilla’s vision began to blur as the adrenaline started to wear off.

She needed to sleep, but before anything she had to fix that hole in the fence so no one could break in while she slept. She forced her aching body outside, casted a spell and made a thick spiky plant grow in the hole.

And then she collapsed into the ground landing in a soft patch of grass, and clover.

She only had enough energy to turn onto her side before she fell into a deep sleep. 

Tears shined and sparkled brightly under the moons above.

The moonlight cradled the dormant fairy, forming wisps, and patterns on her skin, seeping into her dreams.

Chapter Text

TW!: This chapter has a bit of self harm, blood and a bit of nudity!

Who was she?

Right now she couldn’t remember, but that didn’t matter.

She was just walking through a forest with trees with huge blue leaves and dancing flowers and other exotic flora.

Everything looked bigger for some reason or maybe she was just smaller, looking down at herself she was wearing a cute little dress and her features looked like a kids.

She looked up to see a sky full of stars, pointing up she drew pictures by connecting the dots. Look a flying pig, a clothesline with laundry on it, and there is a dude playing a harp or something! The lines formed at the tip of her finger as she touched the sky from the ground, finding more and more.

Then the ground began to shake.

Trees began to fall.

The land began to rupture all over.

Fire rose from the ground.

Smoke made it difficult to breathe.

There was no hope to save anything.

So she fled.

She went as fast as she could.

Screams filled her ears from people she couldn’t find or help.

She kept dodging falling trees, rocks and the fire.

It felt like she was going in circles, like she wasn’t going anywhere.

Then next thing she knew she was drowning.

Deep underwater.

She kept going down deeper and deeper.

It got darker and darker until there was no light.

Yet there was something familiar about all this.

Then there was complete and utter nothingness.

And then there was something.

She turned and looked at a figure that had her shape.

It looked vaguely like herself but completely dark, no major features could be seen, its ‘eyes’ were the only source of light, with some intense eye contact.

“Who are you?” She asked.

“I’m a piece.”

“A piece of what?”

“A lot of things, stars, minds that weren’t ours, an explosion and more, but I’m also a piece of you I guess. Sorry, existence is a complicated thing, I’m confused too.”

She tilted her head, the figure did the same mirroring every moment she made.

“Why are you talking to me?”

“To help you,”

“Help me do what?”

“Create.”

“How?”

Everything after that was strange and confusing, it was like they were speaking in a language that she would never understand and yet knew all too well.

The moons below them shined and the light flowed into her hands.

Ã̸̡͔͉̪̟̺̫̫̫̍̊̍̃̚Ś̶̹̻͙̹̝̊̐ ̴̻͎́͗̒̐̽̔͠͝͝ͅA̶̜̻̬͇͋̑͆̄͑͜͜͠B̵̝̯̹̤͊͋Ọ̵̢̣͍̺͇͚̊V̵̧̰̺̦̈́̽E̴͈͚͚̼̓̃͐͑̃̐͌̕̚ ̷̨̹̜͎̿̐S̴̗̽͂̍̉̆̾͝Ȯ̵͉̱̳͍͝͝ ̶͍̘̎̍̑̃͆̀̓̈̔B̴̧̡̭̠̮͕̪̻͒̏͛̄͑E̸̮̣̝̱̎̓̑͐̈́L̴̘͍̜̖̙̱̂͊̿ͅO̵̢̢̭̙̯̔̏̇͛͋̒͂̉̄́W̴̧̘̖͎͇͉͙̬̻̕:̵̢̡̟̟̪̤̯̜̟̅̊̄ ̷̥̫͍̹͈͙̫̊̎̔̚S̴̮̹̻̻͙̙̮̭̓̊̆͛̎̃̾́Ò̵̢̱̹̻̘͖̲̌͌̀̑̕͠͝ ̴̣̣̫̅̾͗̈́̎̊̓Ÿ̸̨̗̣̯̺̥̳̣̬́͑͂̈̆̍̄Ő̷͓̼͔̦̪͙̻̓͒̀̎͘Ü̴͔̟̒͋́̚͜ ̷̛̳͉̐̔̊ͅČ̴͇̲̰̝̗̫A̷̮̗̾̔͌͂͒͛͝Ṋ̷̺̩̎͝ͅ ̶̞̥̫̲̩̭̺̿̐̉͝C̷̯̼̾̀R̴̢͔͙̱̤̪̹̃̌̃̚͜͜͝ͅȨ̵͎̮͋̾̒̂̇̚͘A̸̢̟͓͇̯͌̔͊T̶̨̩̼͖̲̓̿Ȩ̸̫͇͉̞͇̯̖͉̈́̀̒͆̑͋̅̚͝ͅ ̴̡̲̥̖̜̗̦͔͕̺͐͗̍̓̓̀͑A̸̧̛͉̺͍̱̗N̸̤͂̈́̌D̶̡̡̝̼̻́̐̈́͆̿̿̓͝ ̷̛̛͓̳̩̜̗͖̣̽͒̆̎́̀̄Y̷̨͈̭̾̐̈́͑̔͋͑͘͘͠Ȏ̷̢͈̗̩̙͎͇̦̰͕̂U̴͉͍̽͛̄̆̋̈̓̐̾ ̸̳̞̜͚̳͍̅͛͂̉͛̑C̵̘͉̭͍̯̺͎̆̅̈́̏͜A̵̡̯͙̳͚̻̣̭͒̐̂̈́́̀͘͝͝N̸̻̞͍̠̭̖̈́̊̿̒̏̀ ̴͇̗̑̒D̴̢̜͉̉͊Ȇ̵̘̋̂̐̕S̷͍͙̉̓̄͝T̷̟͇̝̠̊̓͐̂͒͛̚͜Ŕ̷̞̅̐͂̌͑͘͜O̴̫̫̪̤̎̎́̇͆̈́̇͜Y̵͖̱̫̻̙̼͕̮̣͎͊͊͘.̷̧͉͇̝̬̲̤͓̀

Then she resurfaced, gasping for air.

She paddled back to shore with one hand, and dragged herself the rest of the way onto solid land.

She took a moment before walking forward to see a seared landscape.

The fires scared the land, now dark with ash, silent and full of crevices. 

The sky was full of smog, only gray painted the horizon.

Nothing remained but the charred remains…..

Then she realized she was holding something.

It was a creature, or at least that’s what her mind was telling her, it was just a round blob of sorts that glowed many different colors.

She just looked at it for a while, not sure what to make of it.

She wanted it to run fast across the land and be able to get past any rough terrain or over any obstacle, to be able to make it across the whole world without any help.

It began to change its shape into a vague quadruped form, it was still a blob of sorts now with strong horse-like legs, it grew bigger until she was riding on top of it and it began to run quickly across the burned domain.

She held on, taking in the landscape as passed by.

They reached a canyon with stone spikes doting it and a tall cliff on the other side . The creature jumped from formation to formation, climbing up, higher and higher, until they reached the top.

And then it kept running, and jumping from platform to platform across the ruins, the sky now showing colors of blue and pink among the clouds.

She noticed small specks of color that stook out so she got the creature to stop.

She got off and went to take a look for herself to see what it was.

Sprouts bloomed from the black ashy soil. Life was managing to grow back. 

She looked back at the creature, and wanted it to be kind so it can help heal the wounds inflicted by cruelty.

It got a lot smaller, and now had a bipedal form of sorts, it was just an orb with little stick appendages and floppy ears, it climbed up her arm and rested on her shoulder.

She began to walk, the creature made a noise every time she was about to step on a seedling.

Gently and carefully she walked past the growing plants without crushing any of them.

She just continued to walk across the now green lands.

Until they made it to a big crater.

She looked down, to see two big eyes looking back up at her .

The ground shook again as the entity emerged, towering over them, it was dark and encased in shadows, but it had a head and hands but no neck and arms, flames started back up again all around the hole and from it the monster unfazed like it didn’t even hurt, there weren’t any distinct features of the creature but she could see a row of long sharp teeth, and it’s shiny white claws.

It raised one of its clawed detached limbs up high over the duo.

She started to run away grabbing the little creature off of her shoulder, in another direction before the entity slammed into the ground.

The thundering steps grew louder and louder.

She found a small opening in a strange structure (she was unable to tell if it was made of wood or rock) and ran inside. It would only be a moment before the entity found them again.

She didn’t know how to defeat the monster, somehow she knew no matter where she went it would find her somehow.

She looked again at the creature now in her hands. She could tell it was looking right into her eyes at her despite it not having eyes of its own.

So she wanted it to have the power to defeat any foe and to be tougher than any metal.

The creature began to grow once more, jumping from her grasp and onto the ground, now it resembled a proper humanoid, with well toned muscles and towered over her. It struck a pose while flexing before running outside.

The sounds of the fighting stung in her ears, yet she could only see glimpses of movement outside, she stayed in the little hiding hole for a while. 

It took a while before she got close enough to the entrance she saw the battle.

The two beings clashed,  the creature ran up once again to deliver blows again and again. But the monster was unfazed by the assault. The big brute swinged its hand, swatting away the glowing fighter.

It took awhile but it got back up on its feet again charging head-first at the Entity again who had gotten even bigger. This time it managed to hit it right in the shadow menace's face causing it to stagger backwards a bit before rushing in once again. 

Blows kept being exchanged between the two but the glowing creature was in the most trouble, slowly but surely it was losing steam while the dark beast seemingly kept getting bigger and bigger. The bright creature was knocked away again.

Brute strength wasn’t working, what the creature needed was an alternate method to disarm and get the better of enemies. 

She wanted the creature to be clever and smart, so that he can make fools out of its opponents and to make the right decisions for any situation.

It began to change again, growing a tail, big pointed ears and an extra set of arms, becoming more animalistic in its movements and appearance less toned than before, and having a mussel or beak of sorts .

It ran towards the shadowy entity(who grew in size yet again) once more. The beast sent down its fist once more. But the creature managed to dodge and run straight underneath the shadows.

It ran to a tall stone structure, climbing up it quickly up to a good height in the middle. 

The dark monster quickly turned around and snarled before it attempted to attack the shining being. Who once again dodged the blow jumping off and away from its perch and good good distance away, the attack insead broke the mountain causing the rock to crumble and fall on top of the behemoth burying it completely.  

It was completely silent, no one dared to look away from the gigantic pile of rubble to see if it would arise again, but it was completely still, the only movement was dust floating down catching light beams hitting the ground.

The creature just stood there looking at the remains. Unmoving.

It was oddly serene.

She walked up to the creature, but then it began to spasm and screech. Its body transformed from thing to thing, one moment it had wings and floppy ears, then Long, skinny, furry, next multi armed, and legged and square.

"山卄ㄖ 卂爪 丨?" 

A giant black detached hand emerged from the pile of rocks and came down on the poor creature with a loud THUD. 

Then it was silent.

The giant hand rose once again and slipped underneath the rubble once more.

She quickly went down into the crater that was made, to see the creature smooshed into the ground, back to the first form she saw it as: a simple orb blob but now it wasn’t glowing, it was shadowy just like the monster. It took awhile but she managed to get it unstuck from the ground.

She just held it and looked at it for a while…

“I’m Sorry,”

She was taken aback, by the new voice, it was soft and had a strange but comforting sound to it, but she knew it belonged to the creature.

“I know you want me capable of running across the entire world and getting past any obstacle, but I’d ultimately be back where I first started, with nothing changed.

 I know you want me to be kind so I can heal wounds, but kindness is taken advantage of and is a tool to hurt as well.

I know you want me to have power to defeat any foe and to be tougher than metal, but power can’t solve a lot of serious problems and metal warps and breaks just like any worn and old things do.

I know you want me to be clever and smart, so that I can make fools out of others and to make the right choices, but it’s impossible to know everything. I will never have all the answers, I will be an idiot, one way or another..

I know you want me to be a perfect hero….. But I just can’t….

I can't be who you want me to be.

I have no choice but to slow down, and to be stopped.

I got to be selfish and do some cruel things, in order to heal myself.

I need to have weaknesses, I have to be able to bend to not break.

I have to make my own decisions, conclusions, mistakes and bad calls.

I need to be my own being.

So… who am I then?”

She didn’t know what to say…. She knew she asked too much from the creature, she racked her brain as much as she could, but it just wouldn’t work. She didn’t know what to do, so she asked a selfish question.

“I don’t know, but at the very least if you can’t be a hero… Could you be a friend?”

“I’m not sure if I can, I don’t know how to be a friend but I’ll do my best.”

She hugged the creature close to her chest as color and light returned to it, her feet not touching the ground anymore as a forest of stars and planets bloomed around them.

Betilla's eyes began to open waking from her deep sleep due to the bitter cold of morning air and the sunlight reaching her.

She had an extremely weird dream, but what it was about began to fade with her regaining awareness. 

She got up and rubbed her eyes, why did she fall asleep in her garden?

Oh yeah… she got robbed last night.

Her memories of the day before came back when she saw the plant she grew as a makeshift patch in her fence. 

She groaned to herself. Things just seemingly kept getting worse and worse. It would probably be a smart investment to beef up her home security so that no one could steal her stuff anymore. Unfortunately she probably had to put the guardian’s creation on hiatus to do so.

But first she really needed to eat, she only had light snacks, and a quick lunch to eat yesterday. She was absolutely starving.

She went back inside and flew to the kitchen to see what she had. Lets see she had some plums, limes and other spiky fruit, some turnips, an eggplant and carrots out on the counter. Looking in the fridge, she found milk, some juice, eggs, and more. She just decided on scrambled eggs, she grabbed the ingredients she needed and started cooking.

She managed to make the eggs and plate them, which was difficult using only one hand but she did it.

After she finished eating she went to the bathroom, she went ahead and brushed her teeth. She put the toothbrush on the counter then put the paste on it.

Afterwards she washed her face and brushed her hair, for some reason she had trouble.

Anxiety kept rearing its head every waking moment of her mind, thoughts of what happened yesterday kept swarming her.

Having her plans exposed.

Her sisters being cold to her (minus Voodoo Mama).

Being chewed out by the other Council members.

The Magician's words.

Being robbed of nearly every magical item in her home by zombie chickens.

It was all too much, all Betilla wanted to do was lay in bed, maybe read a book and ignore everything in bliss.

But she could’t, problems rarely got solved by doing nothing, running away would be pointless. Besides if she did nothing then she would probably make a terrible habit of doing so in the future.

But this didn’t help the bitterness building up in her one bit.

Taking a deep breath she set out to clean up everything, starting with the magic samples she got yesterday and sort them out.

She decided to start with the biggest one; the jar with her transformed magic with hints of voodoo mamas. But she had trouble picking it up.

Wait, why was she only using one hand to do everything?

She looked down, to find she was carrying something cradled in her other arm. How long was she carrying it?

She held it in both hands, it was a strange glowing orb of sorts.

She tried to make head and tales of what exactly she was holding, it pulsed with a strange energy she had never felt before, yet it was familiar. It wasn’t warm, but it was bright. She never has seen or read anything about whatever it was before, and that's saying something being the head nymph. It was completely disconnected from everything, and that's saying something as magic always pulled from a source (mainly the great protoon). It was a paradoxical existence of everything she knew.

But the most astonishing thing about it: is what she could tell about it.

It was a heart; a magical core.

A feeling of relief filled Betilla (alongside a lot of other unidentified feelings).

And just like that panic set in once again when she noticed it becoming see-thought and feeling it’s power getting weaker.

The realization hit her like the zombie chicken from last night.

A heart without a body is bound to stop pumping. It’s why she got so many materials, once she had the heart she could easily make the rest of it using the magic items….. That a majority was stolen yesterday.

She was completely unprepared but if she did nothing, this miracle or freak of wonder would just end up dying.

She quickly took a deep breath and tried to think… What was the next step of creating a guardian?

She looked around, most of her notes were gone but she put the instructions on what to do in one of her drawers. 

She opened up a few before finding a notebook with her scribbles on it.

Ah ha! There it was! It was mostly just a TL:DR version but it was better than nothing!

She quickly glanced over the notes and got started.

Opening the biggest jar she put her hand in. The magic flowed around her fingertips and followed her hand when she took it out. The sparkling mixed magic spiraled around in her palm, she then let it flow around the heart completely surrounding it.

She could still see the heart just barely though the enchanted mists. She quickly opened the other jars, one by one she took her sisters magic and raped it around the orb, there were significantly less magic so she could only rap the magic around at least once. Making a strange muli striped sphere with all sorts of colors, Betilla and Voodoo mama’s mixed magic could still be seen in the gaps. She then began to channel her raw magic (trying to give the guardian strength and knowledge) until it completely covered the orb now floating between her hands.

She sat on the ground panting holding the ball of weaved magic, somehow, despite it all, the guardian was stable…. For now, but it wouldn’t survive to see the next day in this state.

The red haired nymph looked over her notes once again, after she weaved the magic around the next thing she needed to do was to add components and mass to it that would be compatible with the heart, namely magical items.  

She quickly headed into the other room and scrounged up the remains of the magical items. She first took the magical paintbrush and tried to incorporate it, but only the hair was accepted, the rest were pushed away by a strange force.

She threw the handle and the ferrule away, and quickly grabbed the next item. The tongue was assimilated but half of the potion was not. Parts of the broken bagpipe (or at least she assumed as it broke into a lot of pieces when she tried) and the ball for some reason was taken. So were the gems and marbles, but none of the plants. 

Betilla kept trying with all the scraps, until everything was used. Some were accepted, others were not, she knew it wasn’t enough. She needed to find more things it was compatible with. 

The weaved magic began falling apart, signifying how little time she had left.

She quickly flew into the kitchen in a blind panic. She needed more materials, just a few more! 

She grabbed the things on the counter and tried to incorporate them into the core, just haphazardly throwing them in all at one. But the items as a result got thrown all around in all directions. Getting a plum smashed in her face in the process.

What exactly was her line of thought there, that normal vegetables could be used to create a magical guardian? 

She quickly grabbed a towel from within a drawer and wiped her face off.

She had to take a deep breath. Where would she get some physical matter that had magic imbued in it, with what little time she had?

Then she saw it inside where she got the towel from.

The knife that was gifted to her. It was made out of a claw, a fang, a metal handle with some leather wrapped around it. It was kinda impractical to cook with, but it gave her an idea. She knew one way to get some magical infused matter quickly, but it wouldn’t be pretty or pleasant.

Grabbing the knife, she took a deep breath and with some hesitation before stabbing her hand. Tears welled up in her eyes before she forced them open to see what she did. The blood dripping was falling onto the orb, being absorbed. She quickly took the knife (it had a bit of her skin on it) and gave it to the guardian heart. 

Betilla watched as the red-stained dagger disintegrated, the particles now a part of the creature she was making.

She kept allowing herself to bleed (and unknowingly crying) on the orb until it became one singular color with no loose ends, perfectly roundish, signifying it had (bearly) enough material for the next step of its creation.

She grabbed her first aid kit and treated her hand. Putting magic ointment (from research she knew would be a bad material) and bandaging her wound.

She finished tying the bandage around her injury. Then she went to the closet and made as many  lums into skull coins as many as she could. They were easier to carry around that way, gave her one less bag to carry and the weight stayed the same and the lums could be turned back into normal later.

She grabbed the sacks of lums strapping the bags across her shoulders. Carrying the last bag in her left hand and the not yet born guardian in her right and began to fly to the protective circle, because if this last part doesn’t go well (and it most likely will, considering how much of a mess this has been already) then she wanted only one casualty to this endeavor. She had very little to lose at this point (at least that's what she’s convinced).

Betilla flew right in the middle of the circle, setting the sacks of lums and skull coins right outside the edge for now.

She focused, closing her eyes, she began to meditate, she needed a clear mind and calm breathing for this next part.

Once she was ready she tapped into the energy that the protective circle stored up to hold the orb in mid air. She then opened one of the sacks of lums.

The lums began to orbit around the heart.

She opened up another bag, and another. Turning the skull coins back into lums and continue to add them to the growing rings of light flying around the heart. Causing a bright light to be seen across the forest, unknowingly attracting attention of some certain beings but Betilla was unaware of them as she was hyper focused on 

Very quickly she ran out. Betilla just continued to focus and make the guardian take form.

She tried again.

And again.

Tears started falling again….

It wasn't enough… it was never gonna be enough. 

She didn’t have enough magic, materials, or even lums.

All of that work ultimately for the final fate of her creation to fade away.

And there was nothing she could do about it but pray to the creator to help her complete something that could very well be the only thing that could kill him.

Leaving the orb suspended in the air she let herself fall to her knees. Unable to watch it isapear she just hid her face behind her hair.

“Your just an overgown silly little fairy Betilla,” she said to herself.

Then she heard a giggle.

She turned around to see the last thing she expected to see: an election, the strange little pink creatures were so elusive a lot of the members of the council thought they were just a myth.

She noticed another one and another one soon she found a bunch of the little critters. It was rare to see one that wasn’t orbiting around the great protoon but a whole group like this? Even stranger, they were just standing around, looking at her and the heart, the little pink creatures never stuck around when they were seen. 

She had to be dreaming the next part, for it was totally unimaginable unless in a deep sleep or on some substance (wouldn’t be the first time).

The electoons…. They entered the protective circle and began to orbit the guardian just like the lums. She just stared as the mystical little creatures became a part of her creation.

Betilla just kept looking on in wonder, but then she snapped her self to her senses and flew up again to the heart. 

Once again she tried to have the guardian take form…….

This time it worked.

It took a little while but it happened. Somehow against all odds it happened.

The little ball of energy and magic flew from her hand and up above.

Strange lights flowed around it, forming strange symbols and circles.

It surprisingly split into five different parts. The middle part seemed to have an o shape spot on it.

The being then dropped down to the ground, its features becoming more clear now that the light was fading away. 

Betilla looked at her creation that was now living and breathing, curled up in a little ball…. She didn’t know what to expect, creating a being of unknown power and strength but she definitely didn’t think it would be…… this strange.

The newly created creature had two hands both with three fingers and a thumb, two feet with toes, and a head but it didn’t have legs, arms or a neck, making it a limbless being.

It’s skin tone was similar to hers just a different shade. It’s torso was sorta lean but had a pudgy belly with surprisingly a bellybutton and a….. Well it was probably male thing so she guessed it was a male (there did exist females with them as well). 

He had a big nose, and big eyes(or at least big eyelids cuz they were shut tight at the moment) and a few tufts of golden hair on his head.  

She scooped up the creature with only one hand and it snuggled closer for warmth, it was really tiny. If she didn’t know better, she would’ve guessed that it was a new born Ray, mostly because she had never seen one before.

She sighed, and began flying back to her house, trying to ignore the weird ache in her arms, legs and neck that was probably due to sleeping outside and the feeling of disappointment.

(she didn’t want to acknowledge the strange feeling of happiness that welled up in her when the limbless snuggled closer to her in the crook of her arm)

There is no way this strange little being she made could ever be a hero.

In the branches of a ginormous tree that grew red-orange fruit, there were tunnels and holes. But most importantly: a tree house, or maybe it was some kind of tent? 

The structure housed a big strange bearded frog-like entity, who had black round sunglasses and orange hair. He held an umbrella in one hand and in the other, a mouthpiece of a hookah, the rest of the device was by his side. He lounged on a jumbo pillow.

He breathed in, taking the substance as well and breathed out, but instead of smoke bubbles came out.

In the bubbles were different images, of creatures and places and if you could get close enough you can actually hear what was going on.

Few of the smaller bubbles turned pink (and a few black) they sprouted eyes, hands, feet and a lock of golden hair and began sporting a grin before running up to the big frog but he paid them no mind, something caught his attention.

In the bubble he saw a certain red-haired, freckled, green clad fairy cleaning up the mess in her home. But he wasn’t interested in her picking up the scattered produce on the floor, his eyes were on her creation cradled in the nook of her arm.

“My, my….. What an interesting creature that has been born. I wonder what exactly you are capable of? Only time will tell….”

Betilla spoke to herself, voice emanated from the bubble:

“Where the hex did the eggplant go?”

Chapter Text

Betilla finished up eating her breakfast before the crying of the creature started up.

She walked over to the basket, which she cushioned with blankets where her strange creation slept.

She reached her hand out and the being instantly grabbed on started sucking on her fingers.

It’s been a few days since the whole…. Mess happened and now she had a strange little thing on her hands.

She had finally cleaned up the damage and reinforced her defenses, especially against zombie chickens.

Now she had to figure out what to do with this weird little guy.

She couldn’t keep it; she had duties as Head Nymph! But she couldn’t just abandon it to fend for itself either.

She had to find a good home for it.

Looking over the creature, it grew a bit bigger. Now barely fitting in one hand, its privates now covered in a napkin, its eyes were still closed though.

It was kinda weird it was growing despite not having anything to eat since it was born. Betilla tried all kinds of foods. Pig milk, liquidized meat and even non fermented plum juice! 

 But the only thing that the little guy put in his mouth so far was her hand. Other than that it hasn’t been eating at all (or needed any diapers Changed.)

At least it would probably be easy to raise for whoever takes the little creature.

Betilla looked over some of her notes. Before sighing longingly…. The whole guardian to protect us all would have to be shelved for the time being.

The entire thing was probably doomed from the start. She packed up her notes all with one hand, and all the materials she could. She also made sure the sunbeams would be secured and stored safely and had no chance of burning down her house.  

After the creature was done sucking on her thumb and went back to sleep she put all the notes and supplies that remained away into the attic.

That was one problem done. Now she had to focus on the other one before she fully immersed herself in her duties as the head nymph:

What was she gonna do with this little guy?

She thought long and hard about it while staring at the slumbering enigma.

Well at the very least she should give it a name of sorts.

Lets see here… 

Jimmy? No that doesn’t seem to fit quite right, maybe if he looked more fairylike and had limbs.

Michel? No…. that didn’t work either….

Ed?

Ubi?

Jade?

Desmond?

Jack?

Ancel?

Nope nothing seemed to work.

The red-headed fairy thought about it.

It looked like a Ray…. so maybe it could be raised among them no problem, so they probably should have a name that would fit in with them.

Well the Ray’s names often have the word ray in them like Tarayzan, Rayomz, Samuray, and Rayphael so maybe his name should be…..

“Raytracer!”

She smiled proudly before frowning…. 

“No, that doesn’t seem to fit…. Ugh, flip it! I’ll just call you Rayman until we find you a home that will give you a proper name.”

The little creature now dubbed Rayman just barely opened his eyes to look at her, he gave a little smile that caused a bit of his tongue to slip out.

She just sighed before she continued cleaning up.

Betilla was flying through the woods, holding Rayman in a bundle as he sucked on her thumb.

She knew that there was a colony of Rays somewhere in this jungle, but as always the limbless creatures liked to be difficult to find.

She really needed to find someone who could take care of her creation. She had a LOT to do and she didn’t have the time to raise something like this. 

She landed briefly, for some reason she's been getting tired a lot ever since the creature was born. The process probably just took a lot out of her.

The green-clad woman took off again looking through the forest. Seeing tall ancient trees, mushrooms, some broken rocks, vines, lush plants, trampled grass, flowers, sunbeams shining down, some odd holes in the ground, fruit and the breeze adding a bit of movement to everything.

She then lamented the fact that she probably should've thought of a plan to find the Ray’s in the first place, especially since she was a member of the magic council.

But then she heard it.

“It's got to be around here somewhere!”

“Keep looking, UGH I can’t believe the chief would lose it again, Why does it keep happening?”

“Let's find it before that thing comes back!”

“Where did that thing even come from anyways? It's like it came out of thin air?!?”

Voices…. And that accent… they were limbless.

She flew towards them and found two Rays.

One with darker skin and the other with bright pink hair, they didn’t have shoes and wore togas, and loose clothes.

They were looking for something in the bushes and branches.

“Excuse me!”

The two of them looked at her with wild concern. Once they saw her they turned to book it.

“Wait! I don’t mean any harm! I found this little guy and I think he is one of yours!”

That got them to stop, still flighty they approached cautiously. 

Betilla showed them the creature she was carrying.

They took a closer look, one of them pulling the blanket down to see Rayman more clearly.

One of them screamed in shock and the other quickly shouted “What is that thing?”

Then they took off quickly into the forest.

Betilla just stayed in place in shock and looked down at the little guy still having her thumb in his mouth. Why did they have such an extreme reaction to him? 

Looking over the creature it didn’t look like there was anything terrifying about him….

Cutting her losses with a sigh she decided to look elsewhere, knowing full well she wouldn’t be able to catch up to the two fleeing Rays.

Once again she took a break, honestly she had no idea why she was so tired, she was bright eyed this morning.

Maybe it was just some side effects of the creation process?

She looked down at the little guy who stopped sucking on her finger, eyes barely opening up looking at her. A strange thrill of excitement ran through her seeing the creature opening its eyes for the first time but she shook it off. 

She still needed to find a home for the little guy.

She continued along, this time walking. Passing by little brooks and trees.

*Ding!*

?

Betilla stopped when she heard a strange sound. What was that?

She turned around and saw a really weird…. Thing…… Some kind of lengthy yellow creature with gemstones addoned it a big pair of lips with a single eye below it. Betilla could tell it was some kind of golem but it was…. Fleshy and overflowing with too much power that spark out uncontrollably.  Something seemed familiar about it despite never seeing it before.

It made a horrible screeching sound as it lunged at the Nymph. 

She dogged and ran away, wishing that her wings didn’t feel so heavy…. 

The monster just chased after her. It wasn’t the fastest but neither was Betilla on the ground. 

But she managed to get a good distance away, before she tried to launch a magic bullet at it.  Only to find she couldn’t get her magic to flow. What was with that? But she couldn’t dwell on that as the monster approached, she took off again….

She finally managed to lose the monster…. She hid  in the trunk of a hollow tree. Panting she finally managed to catch her breath. What exactly was that thing? How did it suddenly appear out of thin air?

She shook herself out of it, she could deal with that later. Right now Rayman takes top priority, She needed to make sure he was safe before she could deal with that monster.

She looked down at the sleeping little creature, all that running didn’t even stir it from its sleep. Maybe one of her sisters could babysit—

Wait. No. 

She is not gonna be able to take care of him, That's the whole reason why she went out today.  She just needed to find the tribe of Rays living in the forest, and give them the little guy….. (no matter how much the thought made her heart ake) 

She finally managed to catch her breath, she felt a whole lot better.

Her wings finally started working again.

She looked around, she couldn’t hear the monster anymore but she could see the damage it had done. 

She had to deal with it later, as she took off in the opposite direction of the path of destruction and hopefully away from the monster.

She just flew through the forest once more….

It was eerily quiet… no birds were singing, no animals dashing and hiding away, not even the breeze rustling the plants….. Sunlight barely making it through the leaves.

It was like there was an air of just…. Wrongness in the air.

Subconsciously, she bundled up her little creature and held him closer.

She just quickly ended up flying back towards her home.

But then she was stopped by a spear being logged right at the ground in front of her. 

More spears rained down, landing down in several spaces around her.

A threat not to move.

The Nymph looked up to see several Rays, some of them still holding spears aimed right at her hiding in the leaves, the shadows. 

Betilla swallowed nervously.

One of them jumped down and started walking towards her with some swagger and anger.

“Well look at what we have here…..”

She got a good look at the Ray approaching her. He had surprisingly short hair  for a ray having a short mohawk and goatee, heavy leather boots, hands had some bandages and the tank with the bling…. He didn't look like he belonged to the Forest tribe but there seemed to be some wild energy…. One powered by spite that made him fit right in….

“Seems like one of the Magic Council finally decided to come and see what it's REALLY like down here.” His voice filled with spite.

“Hello, I don’t mean any trouble-”

“OHHHHhhhhh OHHH…… But you bring nothing but trouble, you people think you know the answers to all the problems of the world. Thinking that you can solve broken problems with broken solutions…….. You think you're safe up there on that mountain, that you had a chance, above us all but, down here….. 

You hit the ground.”

Betilla prepared to attack but something flew past her head and into a tree behind her. She briefly looked down to see some of her hair was now loose on the ground, and then she looked back at The Ray.

A blade made of energy was in his hand, despite looking straight at him, she didn’t see him attack. There was no way for her to act before him. Startled, she landed….

“Look, I don’t know what you're talking about, I was just hoping your tribe could take care of this little guy…” She softly gestured to Rayman in her arms.

The limbless just walked even closer. The fairy shrunk back in fear.

“You think I’m some sort of idiot!?!? There is no way that is the case! You folk wouldn’t just let go of the opportunity!”

The blade was now super close to her neck.  

“So either this is some kind of con, or you just don’t know despite being on the Council. WHICH MAKES ME EVEN ANGER ABOUT IT!”

He turns away for a bit.

“Ok, I'm gonna chill man…. It's ok man…. “ He takes a few deep breaths before turning back to the red head looking dead in her eyes.

“Do you know what the definition of insanity is? Insanity is doing the exact…. Same flippin thing… over and over again expecting….  Things to change. 

I know how you are looking at me like I'm some kind of freak but I ask you what the HEX is your people thinking about!?! 

It didn’t WORK back then, what makes you think it will work NOW!?! You're just repeating history!?! AGAIN AND AGAIN!!!!”

He punched a tree, Betilla heard one of the Rays up there go ‘whooaa’ before going quiet again.

“I'm Cool… I'm cool….” He turned back and approached again this time eyeing the little bundle in her arms.

He practically glared at Rayman who was looking at him right back with barely opened eyes, Betilla instinctively turned away, putting a bit more distance between the two.

“It’s just too convenient for you people to just…. Give us back one of our own so I have to ask….. What is this REALLY about? Don’t say it's about that abomination that appears out of thin air either, No one had even implied about it to you miss Guardian of the forest or any other of you little counsel. You lot like to stay high and dry.”

The tank wearing Ray just looked at her, raising a (metaphorical) eyebrow at her.

Rayman just reached out and grabbed the other’s limbless muzzle.

The tiny hand was swatted away, landing a good few feet away onto the ground…. Clearly the red wearing Ray little patience has run out. 

“I’m gonna give you 30 seconds…..” The knife is trained on her throat, “To give me a valid reason why you're here…..”

The eye contact Betilla had with this Ray felt like it went on for hours.

“WHAT THE HEX!?!”

“AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!”

“RAY VAAS, LOOK OUT!”

“OH LAND OF THE LIVID DEAD!”

Betilla and her attacker looked up at the Rays in the trees. They were all freaking out, all their eyes all locked on something, following their gaze they saw…. Really nothing there sides the dirt, a few plants, Rayman’s little hand wiggling on the ground, some fallen leaves and rocks.

“Huh?”

“WHAT IN THE DREAMS OF THE CREATOR!?!” The aggressive Ray fell backwards onto the ground in shock before scampering off into the woods. All the other Rays followed suit running deep into the forest. Leaving a very confused fairy behind.

She walked over and picked up the little squirming hand. It ended up grabbing her hand and guided it to his mouth and started sucking on it again.

She sighed, looking around for any more trouble before flying back home.

It was one disaster after another latey…

She was getting so tired….

She lost track of time…. 

At least she was no longer in the deep part of the woods.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Betilla perked up at the scream and quickly flew towards it to see what was going on.

She found the Magician, in all his long haired glory, holding his cane pointing it like it could shoot something and a large patched trunk in front of him like some sort of shield…. And the monster from before attacking him.

Knowing that this probably wasn’t the smartest idea, she set Rayman down on the ground. (not the most responsible either but she wasn’t about to throw hands with a baby in her hands)

She charged a bullet in her hand, flew up and struck the thing from behind. It barely flinched, it just slowly turned around and looked at her…. 

It swiped at her but she managed to doge, she kept flinging bullets at the beast but it seemed to just….. Absorb them. Out of its mouth it spit out a livingstone, but it was missing its arms and legs. It went after the Magician. 

The monster went after the fairy once more, she quickly got out of the way and landed next to the Magician who was struggling with the green thing with his trunk.

She flung a bullet at the Livingstone, causing it to fly upwords. Then she caused the plants around to grow and entrap the monster completely. 

It worked for a little bit but then it broke free with a mighty roar.

Betilla fell to her knees. Tired. 

The Magician stood in front of her protectively.

Both of them looked at the monstrosity, eyes glared, a smile and ran its toung across its disgusting lips in anticipation ready to pounce and finish them off……

Then it suddenly looked very woozy, its eyes started drifting, it staggered a bit before falling down, just short of crushing the Ray and the Fairy.

The two of them just looked on in bewilderment.

“What just happened?”

“I don’t know…..”

The color of the Monster started to be drained starting from its lips towards its legs.

Betilla just sat there before it hit her like the zombie chicken did.

“RAYMAN!”

She quickly flew behind the monster to look for her tiny creation.

She sighed in relief when she saw he was alright….. And sucking on one of the monster's feet.

“Ok, thats gross buddy,” She grabbed the little guy and tried to pull him away, but he held on.

She tried harder to pull away but he held on with such fierce determination.

“Probably let him finish…..”

“Huh?” She turned to look at her companion.

He scratched his head with his cane.

“Young limbless don’t drink milk or feed on normal food. They devour pure energies and magics, so that their cores, the first thing that develops is the strongest it can be. They are pretty good at holding back when it comes to natural living creatures, but when it comes to magical items and constructs, they leave them dry.”

She looked down at Rayman again with some wide eyes…. Noticing that the foot he was sucking on had the most color while the rest of it drained, the head of the Beast starting to crack and break.

“Oh…….. That actually explains a few things.”

“The good thing about it is that we don’t have to worry about diapers! By the time the young one weans off it he should be able to learn how to use the john properly!” he said in a cheerful tune.

She shook her head, and continued watching Rayman. He finally got the literal foot out of his mouth. She then properly scooped him up.

The Magician came closer… and then backed up a little bit in shock before clearing his nonexistent throat.

“I see that you were successful in creating your guardian.” He looked at the little guy with discomfort.

Betilla just looked at Ray for some answers.

“How could you tell I made him?”

“Huh? Oh, well no limbless have belly buttons or nipples,”

“Why is that so off putting?”

“Well those things just don’t belong to Limbless, it's like if a bird had fairy teeth instead of a beak.”

She shuddered at that thought.

“Exactly.”

“So I’m gonna go ahead and guess that your hands don’t keep moving after they are separated from you.”

“Yes, our cores contain everything vital about ourselves, including our minds,” he pointed to his chest, “if any of our five other parts get too far away from it they stop functioning as the core can’t tell it what to do anymore, and we just can’t swap parts after all. If the part is still able to move… then it must literally have a mind of its own.”

Betilla just looked sorrowfully at her creation.

“So there is no limbless that will take care of him…. I….. I have to take care of him.”

“I’m afraid so… But I am interested to see what this little thing can do in the future. The one and only RAYMAN! The first of his kind created and raised by the incredible fairy Betilla!”

“I am not sure if I can do it…. I’ll probably mess up.”

“We all mess up, that's what makes us living things, what will matter is that you recognize when you mess up and try to make amends.”

She shook her head and made one last plea to try and escape this responsibility.

“Can’t you look after him?”

“HaHaHa….. No, I’m constantly on the run from the Magic Council, I wouldn’t have any time to feed him, let alone getting him to sleep.”

It took her a few moments to register the words other than ‘No’.

 “What?” She turned her head to see that he was gone.

She turned her head back, and just stared ahead blankly. She didn’t snap out of it until two tiny hands touched her face.

She looked down at the little thing, struggling to keep its eyelids open, it gave a weak smile.

She smiled back.

“I guess this is something I have to do, at least until you can strike out on your own.”

She looked at the remains of the flesh golem, it completely shriveled up, its skin crumbled and flaked away showing the components within.

Betilla frowned…. Some of those items used to make the golem…. Looked like some of the items that were stolen.

She shook her head and quickly took off towards her home, Rayman cradled in her arms.

She had more pressing matters at hand.

Like how she was going to perform her council duties while her creation was eating as much magic it can get his disembodied hands on.

Chapter Text

It's been a crazy two whole weeks…. 

Rayman pretty much monopolized her time now.

For the first week the little guy was pretty easy to handle, mostly just sleeping and draining her magic.

But then his hands and feet started flying all over the place, getting into anything they could, (including her mouth and nose even when she was sleeping) her grabbing any magic item they could carry and bringing it back to the rest of him. 

This made it practically impossible for Betilla to try and gather any materials for her lab.

Maybe she needed to make some kind of harness for his hands to stay near his body or something.

She was very tired and needed a break.

*knock knock knock* 

!

Betilla quickly panicked. She aimlessly moved about unknowing what to do. She without thinking placed Rayman in an empty cabinet (that he emptied, her poor dishes). 

She quickly flew to the front door and opened it to see Helena, Voodoo Mama, and Edith.

“Hey, I didn’t know you would all be visiting.” She leaned on the doorframe, blocking the entrance.

“We came to check up on you Be.” 

“You’ve been skipping out on a lot of your responsibilities since the second summer solstice, I know everyone was hard on you but, you haven’t left your house for a good while, we’re all worried about you,” Helena said in a soft voice.

“Plus you really look and smell like shi-”

“EDITH!” Helena said while turning to the red clad nymph.

“What? I’m not wrong, she looks like she hasn’t slept at all since we last saw her….” She turned to look at the fairy dressed in green, “and smells like she hasn’t bathed either.”

Betilla deflated a little, she was right on the mark with that last statement. Ever since Rayman came into her life she hasn't had any time to herself.

“Yea, well I have been busy lately,”

“With what?”

“With…. Stuff. Complicated stuff, you wouldn’t understand.”

Helena peered behind her, seeing the mess of what her home had become. “Well we may not understand the ‘stuff’ but we do understand you need a day off of…. Whatever you're doing.”

Edith picked her sister up and set her aside to lean on the outside of the house.

It took a minute for Betilla to register what happened, before rushing inside to do some damage control.

Helena was picking stuff up and putting them into piles, and organizing some papers, Voodoo Mama was just lounging, and Edith was in the kitchen. 

“Honestly, just because you’ve been busy doesn’t mean you shouldn’t look after yourself.”

“There aren't any materials, did you give up playing creator?” the blue dressed fairy asked.

“Well, kinda… Haha ha.” She laughed nervously.

Voodoo Mama raised an eyebrow.

*thump*

Everyone stopped.

“What was that?”

“IT WAS NOTHING!”

Voodoo Mama got up, and Helena got closer to her.

“Betilla….. What are you hiding?”

She just shifted uncomfortably, unable to meet their eyes. 

“That was just the thing I made… to wash my cat.”

“You don’t have a cat,”

“I do now”

“Where is it?”

“In the wash.”

Both sisters just stared at her unconvinced.

“By the LOVE of the CREATOR, I SWEAR, This is NOT what it sounds LIKE!

Edith was watching everything from the kitchen. Then she noticed that there were sounds coming from the cupboard.

She opened it slowly, and peaked inside.

Something flew out and hit her, HARD in the face!

She ended up stumbling back.

“OW!”

“Huh?

“Edith!”

Everyone rushed to the kitchen.

“Edith, are you alright dear?” Helena asked as she kneeled down.

“Yea, I’m fine.” She said as she nursed the part that stung the most.

All three looked at Betilla, who scoped something up.

“Well I’m glad you're alright,” the red-haired girl said, looking over her shoulder, keeping her body turned away from them.

“That was crazy! I wonder what that was?” she was now scooching away from them. 

“Betilla….”

A little head peeked out from behind her shoulder.

“What?”

“Huh?”

“Awwww…. Who's the little guy?” Voodoo Mama gushed.

Betilla looked back and forth between the mentioned little guy and her sisters before slumping and turning her body back towards them.

“This is the reason I’ve been such a mess. His name is Rayman,”

Big unblinking eyes stared at the three other fairies and they stared back.

“Huh, for such a little guy he sure can throw a punch, I could just eat him up!” Edith commented.

“Hey there little cutie,” voodoo mama cooed.

“Is it a baby Ray?” Helena asked, “Why haven’t you given him to a colony yet?”

“I’ve tried! But you know how the limbless are…. For beings that can’t cast a single spell, I swear they are some of the most dangerous beings in the forest!” 

She shivered remembering the last unpleasant encounter with them.

“There isn’t really anyone else to take care of him. So I’m taking care of him, until he can take care of himself,” she looked sorrowfully at the little creature in her arms as she said that.

“Taking care of a being whose species is a complete mystery to everyone has been a challenge I’ll tell you that much,” she looked at her sisters who flinched back, due to the crazed look in her eyes. A tiny little hand touched her face.

“Can I hold him?” Voodoo Mama asked.

“Um….”

“Please?” 

Betilla couldn’t say no to her puppy dog eyes.

She begrudgingly handed him over.

Rayman looked up at voodoo mama, taking one of her hands into his mouth.

“So the little guy is the reason why you’ve been so disheveled? Huh, I thought you went into the deep end with your little ‘create something that can’t be controlled’ project. I guess I owe Tod 10 Tings,” Edith said.

“Ok so, you need a day off to take care of little Rayman here, help to clean up and help getting on top of your work again. Anything else?” Helena asked.

Edith opened both sides of the fridge. 

“Food apparently,” She said as she grabbed some ice and put it in a rag which she used to nurse her darkening eye. 

“I hadn’t had time to stock up on anything….. Especially my lab resources….”

“Geze how much does this little guy eat?”

“He practically forces me to walk with all the magic he's been eating.”

“HE EATS MAGIC?” The red and blue dressed nymphs turned to look at the little creature in voodoo mama’s arms.

“Well that explains why I’m feeling dizzy.”

So after some discussion the tree sisters came up with a plan. Helena helps Betilla rest, Edith cleans up the house, and Voodoo Mama has to take care of her sister's little surprise.

Thankfully she had way too many magic items clustering up her place. 

She sighed as she watched Rayman eat the powers from a magic crystal she had. Eversince the Kings transformed into horrible monsters, everyone has been avoiding her and her magic. She understood, transformations were her deal after all.

The most worrying thing is that she had no idea how such a transformation is possible.

She knew how to change individual parts and the color of skin.

She knew how to turn one thing into another, organic or not, metal or flesh.

Heck she knew how to change one's entire species.

But she didn’t know how to turn a barley one foot creature into a (Estimated) 50 ft behemoth or bigger! She couldn’t even fathom how much magic it would take to do that! It would probably be something with the same power as the creator himself, but that would be crazy.

Her worrying was interrupted by Rayman spitting out the not-so magical now rock. She picked it up with wonder. The little guy really could eat magic. She then wondered how the whole eating magic thing worked, could he eat any kind of magic without any problems? 

She put the stone down and the little guy up.

“Your one interesting creature, let's see if I can learn a little bit more about you.”

She then flew over to her shelves, looking through her collection of books, some were gifts, some of which were tattered and torn, hand me downs, and quite a few she never read. They were mostly about species and biology, if you were going to mess with the way people were structured best do it in a way that actually works and not end horribly.

She grabbed a book titled ‘The Limbless: guide to the creator's first creations,’ it was the only book she had on the elusive creatures. Some pages of it were missing and it seemed like someone scribbled in it but it should sate her curiosity for now. She flew over to her little area for Rayman and put him to sleep, before sitting down and opening the book. 

‘The Limbless were the first ever sentient kind made in this world by the creator. 

Due to this they seem to have a deeper connection to it then most magical talented species, despite them unable to cast any powerful spells, only one or two tricks.

  𝔄𝔣𝔱𝔢𝔯 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔢𝔳𝔢𝔫𝔱 𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔶 𝔴𝔢𝔯𝔢 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔬𝔫𝔩𝔶 𝔰𝔭𝔢𝔠𝔦𝔢𝔰 𝔱𝔥𝔞𝔱 𝔡𝔦𝔡𝔫'𝔱 𝔤𝔢𝔱 𝔢𝔣𝔣𝔢𝔠𝔱𝔢𝔡 𝔞𝔱 𝔞𝔩𝔩 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔯𝔢𝔪𝔞𝔦𝔫𝔢𝔡 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔰𝔞𝔪𝔢.

As by their name they lack arms, legs and necks, an oddity that no other kind has shared.

The first Limbless were said to have climbed straight out of the Heart of the world, also called the Great Protoon. It has been said that their hearts are actually tiny great Protoons, although no one has ever confirmed this.

██'██ █████ ██ ████ ███

There are several confirmed species of limbless, some are

The animals:

Mostly primitive, the most diverse with a ton of subspecies, and are the most easy to identify compared as they come in all sorts of forms such as cats, dogs, sheep, scorpions, moths, horses, insects, rabbits and more, the most visually distinctive. Typically identified by their lack of hands. Most of them are quadruped. Very rarely do they know how to speak, and tend to act on their instincts and wims. Be warned, their simple nature often masks their intelligence and are often the most aggressive of the Limbless. 

𝑀𝒪𝒪!

The Lux:

The most physically strongest of the limbess, quite a few of them are capable of shaking the entire ground with a hammer. They are quite visually similar to Rays, in body shape and stature but have quite a few differences. The most defining trait of the Lux are their heads, as it shares similarities to fairy’s face structure, their noses are small and bulbous located in the middle of their face as well as the location of their mouths are located right beneath it, a clear distinction between the two. They also tend to grow bigger than Rays, and have a wider variety of skin color.

The Ray:

The quickest of them all, some can run so fast they can run up walls, cliffs and trees. Great climbers too, they utilize their lack of limbs expertly to run though canopies and treacherous lands with ease. They have the biggest nose that takes up most of their faces (it actually may be a beak). Their mouths are typically beneath. It is rare to find one the same size as a lux.

𝘋𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦!

Guardians:

While technically not a part of the limbless race they deserve a mention here just so people don’t get confused. Yes, Gaudrains do not typically have limbs but they are not limbless. Guardians are artificial creatures made of stone, metal or other materials and often lack the powers to cast spells or even tricks. Most importantly THEY CAN HAVE LIMBS. 

(sorry, people keep getting them mixed up)

Now that you know the basics we will dive -nto how these creatures work.

Their hearts are the core of their being.

Their —---- F—----- —-----------

and even their memories are stored in —---------------------------------------------------

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Voodoo Mama frowned. The rest of the text was ruined. She turned to the next page, it was even less legible. She flipped through the rest of the book to find that the rest of it was in a similar state, pages ruined with paint all over them, some words were intentionally crossed out, there was a huge chunk that was just torn from the book, nothing else was readable.

Whoever gave her this book must have been a real comedian…..

She sighed as she carelessly tossed the book to the side not worrying if it got any more damaged.

She then turned to look at the cradle. 

Only to find its tiny applecent missing.

Panic rose fast in the lilac skinned nymph. 

“Rayman?” she flew up, looking around frantically, “Rayman?”

Where did he go? He was just here!

*Skitter skitter skitter!*

“Awha!”

Voodoo mama turned just in time to see a Tricky Treasure, running around desperately trying to shake off its unwanted rider: Rayman.

“What the HEX!?!”

The running chest quickly skittered away from the room and out the door (which was somehow wide open) taking the little guy with him.

Voodoo mama Grabbed a couple of bottles filled with some of her special concoctions and flew after them.

The land of the livid dead was a place where the old souls who had enough, come to spend the rest of time relaxing and enjoying themselves, indulging in their hobbies, but over the centuries it has started to crumble and change. Deep holes opened up, spiky thorns, and black vines with eyes grew in remarkably fast paces, the flowers now could bite your finger off, the crystal clear water became purple and poisonous,0+ things changed and changed until the land was unrecognizable from what it once was. The Grannies and the Grampas have been becoming more and more bitter due to them having a lot less freedom, and the sharp drop in quality in living here, but a lot of them would rather live here then deal with the foolish youth.

It was easy to spot the bright running chest in this place of black and Grey, and Rayman was still holding on.

She flew quickly after them.

As the nature of tricky treasures make it difficult for others to pursue them, they like to run into dangerous situations to shake anyone following them. Voodoo mama was tasked with dodging falling sawblades and vines as she gave chase.

It was tough but she got closer and closer….

But then she got caught in a fire.

The tricky treasure took advantage of the lack of pursuer to try and shake the creature off him.

But it suddenly froze up as a dark shadow fell over.

It turned around to see a big lilac dragon with bat wings, purple hair with bones tied in it with horns sticking out of it.

Before the chest ran away it grabbed the little scuttler with one hand, carefully getting the little creature with the other, then crushing that tricky treasure.

It flew back to Voodoo Mama’s place dropping the remains down and the little guy as gently as it could. 

Took a bottle out and opened it, the magic completely encased it, when it disappeared, voodoo mama was in the dragon's place.

She shook herself off before picking up the little guy.

“You may have made me get a head start on getting granny hair, little man,” she said before ruffling his hair playfully.

Then she stopped, a look of confusion spread across, she took a lock of hair and held it in her hand, she twisted it between her fingers for a bit before letting go.

“huh…. “

Voodoo Mama then turned to the remains of the Tricky Treasure to see what loot it got. Mister Death would lose it if another one of these things stole one of his teeth again. But she was confused to see her spell book and a few black potions bottles instead.

She picked up her grimoire.

Weird. Tricky Treasures always try to get their (metaphorical) hands on anything pretty, sparkly, gold or silver, from royal jewels to really shiny pebbles. Why would they go for her spell books? Not even the buckles on it were polished in a long time and were dull with age, and the potions weren't even made of glass, they were just dull black with some paper labels and corks on.

She turned back, holding Rayman close she headed back inside, and locked the door tight.

Unaware she was being watched through a pair of binoculars the whole time. 

“Figures it wouldn't be that easy… But at least it was very….. educational.”

The purple-haired fairy approached the forest shack, and knocked on the door, before giving Rayman her hand again to feast on magic.

Edith opened it up.

“Oh hey! You made it just in time!”

Betilla’s house looked loads better, as Voodoo Mama entered and looked around more she could see that the red-haired fairy that lived here and was currently sitting on the couch was looking much better, not great but better. 

“See? Voodoo Mama brought back the little Ray! Told you he’d be fine!” Helena said, pointing to Rayman in her gothic sister’s arms.

The lilac skinned nymph sat down with them.

Betilla wasted no time taking the little guy back. 

“I can see why you looked like you fought Carnivora for a week straight. Rayman here is more troublesome than any of the four kings!” the goth joked.

She then sniffed the air, smells like Edith made one of her home cooked meals. Her mouth watered in anticipation.

She glanced over to see a decently sized feast on the counter.

She then turned to Helena.

“So are we all gonna eat soon?”

“Sorry, but I have a lot I need to do. I could only spare time today because Betilla’s lack of work was a more pressing issue. We’re gonna have to figure out some kind of babysitting schedule so she can watch the great protoon, maybe after this whole mess is sorted out.”

Edith grabbed a leg of meat. 

“I made sure there was enough for leftovers so you don’t have to worry about food for a while, also we left some of our magic in a few of the bottles in the lab! See you next time!”

The red and blue dressed fairies left, shutting the door behind them. 

An awkward silence fell over the household.

Voodoo Mama just stated leaning casually on the sofa, looking at Rayman who has the Forest Nymph hand in his mouth again.

“Sooooooooooooooo……… Are you gonna tell me how you created him?”

Betilla basically jumped five feet in the air without any help with her wings, and looked at her with some kind of horror. (But thinking back to the council meeting, Voodo mama couldn't blame her for her reaction, even if it was kinda hurtful.)

“How could you tell? Limbless have little to no documentation on how they work! The Ray’s could tell, how could you.”

The bat-winged fairy just relaxed more into the sofa.

“I may not know alot about Limbless, and lack the resources to learn more. Hex, the only book I got on them was trashed so bad I could only read a few pages. But I know for a fact that there is no creature alive that has the same kind of hair texture on one of picture city's enchanted brushes. It's entirely different.”

Betilla just got tight lipped and looked back at her creation.

 “I did a bit of prodding on the little guy myself,”

A glare was sent her way.

“I didn’t hurt him! I just wanted to know a little bit about him. Interesting choice using an eggplant by the way,”

“Eggplant?”

“So are you gonna tell me how you did it?”

The red haired fairy just signed.

“It just kinda happened the day after the second summer solstice. After I got robbed by some zombie chickens who took most of my magical ingredients I woke up next morning with his heart…. I kind of had to scramble to make sure he could form before it could fade away….”

She looked at Rayman with sad eyes.

“I guess I didn’t think at all how it would affect him in the long run. I don’t even know if he is capable of ‘Growing up’.”

“Well, good news! Growing is his specialty!”

“Huh?”

“He is capable of adapting to any kind of magic power or energy, and I can’t tell if there is a limit to it at all. Downsides of this is that he seems to be extra susceptible to transformation magic and if he becomes too reliant on a power like the great Protoon and it somehow gets stolen or its power becomes disconnected or something like that, it can lead to withdrawal, severely weakening him.”

“Oh, so how could you tell all that,”

“Getting the wrong ingredients means accidentally turning myself into slime, and there really isn’t anyone else who can turn me back, it's also important for me to know how the inner workings of a creature works, can’t turn someone into a fish without gills after all. So I developed a few methods of identification.”

She then looked at Betilla with a serious look on her face.

“So…. you had something stolen from you too?”

Chapter Text

Betilla chased after her creation, since he learned to crawl it's been hard to keep track of him, despite him now being the approximate size of a kung foot ball. Rayman has proven to be a fast little creature.

Voodoo Mama has helped tremendously with babysitting and obtaining magic for the little guy to eat, but lately he's been fussy, chewing on stuff and refusing to eat.

She would have asked the magician what was going on, but the know-it-all limbless Ray was harder to find than a pink smiley butterfly with blue polka dots, if he didn’t want to be found no one could find him.

But ultimately she figured it out: he was weaning off of eating pure magic. The little thingamajig now had a few teeth coming in. 

Soon he should be eating normal food.

Now she had a new problem: finding food he could eat, he still needed to snack on magic, but no longer draining it from the source, now he was trying on chewing and eating the magical items.

Betilla sighed, magical food was not something easily come by. Sure she knew and could grow magic plants, but they were not the kind you can eat. (she tried feeding them to Rayman, he threw up) 

She might have to bite the magic bullet and ask Edith for help, but she wanted to keep Rayman’s true nature as much of a secret as possible. If Voodoo Mama could find out so easily, who knows what else can tip off the others to her partial success? 

Ugh she's been so stressed and so busy lately that her arms have been getting numb, she has nasty knots in her hair, and she can't remember the last time she had a proper meal herself.

Well time to bite the Magic bullet and go see her sister in Gourmand Land.

Now she just had to catch her willy creation. 

Bettila swears her heart, soul and all her magic to the creator themselves that she was going to make some way to contain this creature! Maybe some kind of leash that could also keep his feet, hands and head contained because it should not take several hours to round up one creature.

At least now he was asleep in the sling as she flew over everything. She knew the best root was to fly by the edge of bandland,  a bit above picture city and over some small mountains. At least it would be a calm relaxing flig-

She then saw two limbless Luxs with glass domes on their heads riding on pans flew right at her out of nowhere!

She dogged out of the way, then she Noticed there was something like a pirate ship down below… but it wasn't on any water.

It began firing at her.

Soon she was dogging more Limbless on flying pans and cannon balls. 

She quickly tried to find some place to hide.

It didn’t take long as she flew frantically she saw something on the cliffs on the costline, a little crevice that goes into the cliff.

She dogged in a way so one of the flying bombs hit a Lux and she quickly made her escape into the cave.

Betilla stayed there for a while. Keeping her breathing in mind., 

She managed to give her attackers the slip, now inside the cave entrance, she didn’t want to go further in; the caverns and caves of these mountains were probably even more dangerous then her attackers could ever be.

But they were still out there searching for her, she could not stay here forever.

Seemed like she was having some terrible luck with the limbless as of late, she hated to admit it but at this rate she was missing the Magician’s cryptic advice, it was better than whatever this was.

She held her breath as the Lux continued to search for her, why were they so violent? She had no trouble crossing over their territory.

She then felt some movement coming from her bundle.

The little guy began wimping, and a shiver of panic raced up Betilla’s spine.

If Rayman started crying their pursuers would find them for sure.

She attempted to rock the little guy but his face was sour….

Sure enough he started wipering and thrashing more and more.

It would only be a matter of time before he was full out brawling.

Betilla had to risk it and flew deeper into the cave.

Like she predicted the little guy started to cry, Betilla looked over her shoulder to see that the sound helped the Luxs find the entrance to her little hiding spot.

So deeper into the cave she went, flying as fast as she could.

She really didn’t want to go too deep in, a lot of dangerous stuff and pointy rocks, but she was in between the cold dark cave or her pursuers who wanted to do who knows what?

But she saw something very odd: some kinda structure, shaped like a shell, maybe it was a repurposed giant shell, and it   had some…. Strange design choices to say the least.

But without thinking she hid inside. The door was unlocked, the inside was bright, she hidd underneath a thing with space beneath it.

She tried husshing the little one but he wouldn’t be quieted. The little guy was hungry but she had nothing to feed him.

She wished for things to go her way just for once.

She froze as she locked eyes with this strange green multi-eyed creature, limbless but it wasn’t a Ray, Lux, or Animal. It gave her a strange look of confusion.

“Can I help you?”

“Sorry, I'm just having a bad day.”

“Your kid’s crying.”

“I KNOW…… But I don’t have anything to feed him…. Magic infused foods don’t exactly grow on trees you know.”

The thing put his hand on his chin…. Thinking about something. He then grabbed a cup went over to a strange machine filled it up with some kind of chunky liquid… put on a cap and straw in it. 

He then went over and put the straw in Rayman's mouth and to Betilla’s surprise the little guy started slurping it down.

“Huh, guess the little guy really was hungry.”

“How?”

“Oh, I specialize in magic infused food, for anyone to enjoy. Haven’t gotten any customers yet, still setting up shop.”

“Well, I’ll be sure to pay youuuuu….” she got quiet as she heard someone approaching.

The thing noticed, and walked towards the door, and opened it before anyone could walk inside.

“Hey man, how can I help you?”

“We are looking for a fairy. Have you seen one freak?”

“No… can’t say I have been in the back seating up my supply.”

“Spread out! She couldn’t have gotten far!”

“Well nice talking.”

They closed the door, locked it this time as well then looked at their unexpected guest. He knelt down and whispered.

“Look you should probably hide, there is a cave connected to this place that goes deep underground, you don’t have to go too far, my coworker will help you see. Just hang out near the entrance until I give the all clear.”

She followed him there was a small limbless firefly, who was his coworker, he opened a secret hatch and Betilla with not much to lose went down, Firefly lighting up the area around her.

The underground was dark…. But a few parts were lit up by Firefly's light.

 The cavern was quiet…..

Betilla didn’t like relying on the kindness of strangers….. 

But at this moment she needed the help… Rayman had completely drained her, physically, magically and even mentally.

Looking over at the little guy he was playing with Firefly…. A limbless animal type. Thanks to her she actually managed to get some rest. 

There were only a few scares where the little guy tried eating dirt and rocks, grabbing Firefly a few times and nearly falling off a ledge…. And pulling him away from some oddly formed metal with a weird red coating.

The little trouble maker…. She had yet found a suitable caretaker for him ... 

She can’t keep taking care of him. She had her duties as a Nymph!

She sighed, looking at her creation. “What exactly am I doing here?”

Rayman just looked up at her with wide eyes, filled with wonder and joy, unaware of the situation they were both in.

Firefly just sat on her shoulder.

What felt like hours passed (at least rayman kept her entertained).

“Hey! I think they're gone!” The limbless from before called down to them. 

She finally climbed back out, Rayman in his bundle. Finally asleep.

She hesitantly flew back up. 

She side eyed the strange limbless as she passed. Looking wildly around waiting for some kind of ambush.

“Hey so…..”

Betilla looked right at the muilti-eyed being, and he flinched back a bit.

“Uhhhhh…….. Do you want something….. on the house?”

“.... yes….” she said that with a lot of skepticism. 

“Ok, I’ll get a booster seat for the little one, so you can eat.”

She looked around waiting for the next attack…..

There was no way she could fly all the way back home, she was so tired, her magic was somehow in the negatives yet…. She was somehow still alive…. Yet something was pushing her forward…. To try and protect and make sure her little creature was safe, and healthy.

…..

…..

….

It was probably due to the centuries she spent as head Nymph… 

Yeah…. That was probably it.

A strange food item was placed in front of her…

It looked like a strange kind of sandwich. With some…. Place yellow sticks…. And a strange white liquid in the same kind of cup he used earlier.

“Here you go, madam. One milkshake, burger and fries.” he pointed to some containers on the counter. “Ketchup and mustard is over here salt and pepper, napkins….. Let me know if you want mayo instead.”

Betilla looked at the ‘food’, it was definitely alien. 

She put Rayman in the new booster seat that was attached to the chair next to her.

And here she was thinking she saw everything after creating a new species and fought another monstrosity.

“Uh…. you eat the burger by holding the top of it and the bottom of it like this,” he demonstrated, “for the fries,” he gestured to the sticks, “You just pick them up, maybe dip them in ketchup and eat them. You just drink the milkshake”

“O….kay….” She picked up a fry…. Looked at it careflully….. Should she really try eating this stuff? It could be poisioned…… but then again…. It would take a heck of a poison to kill her, after all both her and Edith’s experiments with food and potions.

She squeezed her eyes shut.

She put it in her mouth.

And then her peepers widened in surprise.

It was really good!

Next thing she knew all the food was gone, and there was a mess.

“Wow,” her host sounded shocked.

“Sorry, I wasn’t expecting it to be so good!”

“Thanks for the complement! It’s good to hear from my first customer!” He said as he grabbed some napkins and handed it to her.

She took them and began to clean herself up.

“Seems like the little guy likes it too,”

She turned to see Rayman eating some cut-up hamburger bits.

“So……. Are you alright?”

“Huh?”

“You got attacked earlier, do you know what that was all about?”

“Honestly…. No…. I was just taking Rayman to see my sister…. I thought she would help me learn to make food he would eat….. he’s switching from pure magic to solids but right now he’s in a weird grey area.”

“Huh, you must be pretty powerful then if you can feed a little guy with that big of an appetite everyday,”

“My sister’s were the Makers greatest gift to me…..” Betilla said with tiredness and serenity.

“Sorry I don’t think we ever introduced ourselves, Names Joe. Owner and head Chief of this establishment and this lovely lady is Firefly,” he jestered to his glowing companion.

“Betilla,” she introduced herself, short and sweet.

“Well nice to meet ya,” Joe said with a smile.

“Why did you help me?”

“Huh?”

“I could have deserved to be hunted down for all you knew….. so why did you help me?”

Joe sighed, firefly now resting on….. well near where a shoulder would be.

“Look, only a fool will pretend to know everything, and I will admit that I’m not the most…. Well verse on what’s going on in this world I decided to call my new home….. but,”

He looked Betilla right in the eyes.

“I know that kindness is a very precious thing to give, especially in times where things just seem so bleak…. It’s like an never ending battle every day, so…. If I can just improve it just a little bit.”

He looked down to the ground.

“It’s always a gamble, every day,”

“Gam-le!” Rayman piped up.

Betilla looked at her creation in bewilderment. So did Joe and Firefly.

“Gam-le! Gam-le!” Rayman clapped his little hands.

“Well, looks like I accidentally taught the little one a new word.”

“His first word,”

“Oh uh… Sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

Joe rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

“Anyways… feel free to come back and eat anytime you want. You and Rayman are welcome! Although next time you’ll have to pay.”

“Thanks….”

She grabbed Rayman.

“You sure you're ok to head home right now? You can stay longer if you want to.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Wait before you go!” Joe took one of the napkins and started writing something on it….. Then handed it over to her.

“Can’t say I know much about how Fairy magic works…. But you should get an idea on how to make magical infused foods for the little guy to eat.”

She cast him a weary look…. But, still accepted the napkin.

“Thanks.”

“Good luck!”

Betilla took off, the odd encounter weighing on her mind. She didn’t trust this ‘Joe’ at all, he was just different. What even was he? How did he know how to do all that? She gripped the napkin tighter.

Why was she attacked by a group of Lux?

Why….. a lot of things.

She felt like someone was watching her every move……..

But that was probably just her sleep-deprived brain.

She hoped for an actual good sleep tonight.

He was watching her….. Ever since she left her house that morning. He watched her get attacked…… He just observed as she went into hiding….. In the cave.

“Hello our great leader,” A big lux with blond hair, dressed as a pirate wielding a rolling pin approached him….. “I’m afraid to say we lost the Girl.”

“No matter…. This wasn’t a matter of destroying her after all.”

“It wasn’t?”

“No….. it wasn’t…”

“I assumed after you took out her sister…”

“Call back your troops Mama.”

“What?”

“Call them all back.”

“Fine, but you really need to tell me what we are doing sometimes….  What exactly are we doing if not taking out the council?“

Yellow eyes filled with hatred finally left the binoculars and glared at her…… Mama sheepishly backed away scared despite being bigger than him.

“We are going to rob them of EVERYTHING…..”

He watched Betilla leave the cave and fly all the way back to her house.

He would watch and wait….. And wait…..

Revenge is a dish served cold and rotten after all.