Fairy Part 4

Chugging along. Just needs like, 3 more chapters I think before the novella is done. I can hopefully wrap that up in a week.

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The only sound in Coye’s tent was that of the rain beating against it from the outside. His eyes were glued to the floor, and he couldn’t bring himself to say anything past his refusal. He felt terrible that he had turned her down.

Meanwhile, Shayla became annoyed- even more than Coye understood. Leaving the Gnarled Woods with an adventurer by her side was her dream. She wasn’t like the other pixies of the Gnarled Woods, who were nasty, malicious, and cruel. Although she did enjoy creating her own mischief from time to time, Shayla was a girl who wanted to see the world beyond more than anything else, and she wanted someone to share it with, like the fairy knights of old.

For years, this dream was all she had. No light shone in those dark woods she called home. It wasn’t days or months, but years she spent waiting for this very opportunity. Now that it was here, dangling in front of her nose, there wasn’t a chance Shayla would let it slip through her little fingers.

Coe was cute, strong, kind, and a hundred other things that the pixie knew she wouldn’t find anywhere else. He was perfect, as Shayla’s three months of stalking had proved to her time and time again. Coye would be her partner. Changing a fae’s mind would be like asking the wind to stop blowing whatever way it pleased. It couldn’t be done.

“Why the hell not?” Shayla grumbled, her voice trailing off with irritation. “All this time, I’ve never seen you party up with any other adventurers, so it’s not like you couldn’t use the help!”

“Y-Yeah, that’s true...” Coye would be the first to admit he was something of a loner.

The only times he’d partnered up with others during his two years as an adventurer were a handful of occasions where Miss Whittle had explicitly asked him to assist a party, which didn’t often happen.

He then sighed. “It’s not about whether I could use the help, though...”

“Yeah? Then what is this actually about, huh?” She became more demanding, flying off his shoulder and hovering in front of his face. Shayla leaned in, inadvertently showing her cleavage off to the boy.

His reaction was telling. It was all right there in his eyes. He wanted to look, Gods, did he want to look, but he wouldn’t let himself. Rather, it was almost like he couldn’t. Coye was too embarrassed.

Everything made sense to Shayla, and she laughed at how simple the answer was. Between desperate gasps for air, she thinks how this couldn’t be any more perfect.

Wiping a tear from the corner of her eye, Shayla giggled and said, “You should’ve just said it was because of these,” before she lowered the hem of her crop top just a tad. It was more enough to show off an extra bit of the delightful skin of her breasts.

Coye gulped, scooting a foot away from her. Upon witnessing tits, his eyes bulged. “T-t-those d-d-don’t have anything to do with my decision...!” He insisted, despite his actions saying otherwise.

“Uh-huh, sure they don’t, kid. If you aren’t good with the ladies, you should’ve just said so.”

Against an accusation like this, Coye was quick to defend himself. “I-It’s not like that!” He said, his voice cracking. It wasn’t a convincing defense, but he tried.

“Cool, if that’s the case, you wouldn’t mind if I got more comfortable then, would you?” Upping the ante, Shayla began to lift her top a couple of inches. Coye a shot of underboob.

“N-No!” He cried. The soft, round spheres and their rapidly-approaching nakedness were too much for the innocent virgin.

He tried not to stare, he really did, but he stared regardless. Coye’s heart stopped, followed by his world. Lust filled the air, and he was the first to breathe it in. Maybe the passion was always there, and he just hadn’t noticed. It didn’t matter.

Coye looked at the pixie and then at her barely-covered tits.

He lingered.

Shayla bent over, her top remaining in place as she held her gut as soon as she started laughing her little ass off. “Oh, Gods, this is too much fun! You know there’s no way I’m letting you escape me now that I know how damn cute you are, right?”

Being laughed at by something as small as she didn’t feel right. It irked him, and Coye did something he’d never attempted. He stood up for himself. “T-That’s not up to you! I... I won’t let you come home with me.”

Impressed with his moxie but calling his bluff, Shayla asked, “Is that so? Are you gonna chase me off with your sword or something, big guy?”

Of course he wouldn’t. Shayla might’ve been a pixie, but she had been kind to him thus far aside from a bit of ribbing. Coye couldn’t bring himself to do what she was suggesting, but the look on his face told her she wasn’t winning any points with him.

“Crap,” Shayla became flustered and reached behind her head to frazzle her hair. Kind as she tended to be, it was still hard for her to ignore the latent impulses a pixie had to mess with others. “I’m sorry, ok? You’re just really fun to play with, and I can’t help myself.”

“Whatever...” He threw out under his breath. “It’s not like I’m not used to it.”

There was silence as Shayla felt the impact of his words. When he turned to face her, he found the pixie staring at him with curious eyes. “Wanna talk about it, big guy?”

“Huh?”

“You said you’re used to being teased, so I thought I’d lend you an ear if you needed one.” Shayla wiggled her long fairy ears, which proportionately were much longer than the ears of a half-elf like himself. As she did, she smiled, and it was sincere.

Coye hesitated when he learned Shayla was genuinely interested in whatever he had to say. In his two years at Cransmere, he had never opened up to anyone. His life was a lonely cycle of going on solo adventurers, sleeping at the Guild, being teased by his female Guildmates, and occasionally writing letters to his father.

He didn’t know why Shayla’s offer made him realize there was no one he could really turn to, but it did.

“That... might not be so bad...”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, but... do you promise you won’t make fun of me?” He bit his lower lip, apprehension rising.

It took all of her self-control not to gawk at just how damn cute Coye was behaving, but Shayla confirmed, “I promise. Here, hold on a sec-”

The pixie flew behind him, settling down on the pillow and stretching her legs. “Boys like this kind of thing, don’t they?” Shayla asked, patting her thigh and signaling for him to lay his head on her. “C’mere! There’s a lap pillow with your name on it, big guy.”

Coye stared at what was being offered. Like any other man, he had long dreamed of the day where he would rest on a girl’s thighs in such a manner but never imagined that the girl would be one-eighth his size when the chance arrived.

She assured him that she could handle his weight, and although Coye remained reluctant, he did as he was told. He laid his head down on the mattress and on Shayla’s tiny legs. Coye couldn’t really feel these legs, but the gesture made him warm inside.

The entire time he worried that he’d crush the pixie, but she showed no signs of discomfort as his weight pushed down on him. On the contrary, Shayla sighed out of comfort.

“There you go. Was that so hard?” She teased, her little hands digging past his silky blond hair to massage his bare scalp.

“W-What are you-”

“Shhhh. Just helping you get comfortable. Doesn’t it feel good?” Her massage became deeper and deeper still, Coye whimpering at first before relaxing to the mercy of her fingers.

It took him a minute, but he admitted, “Mhmm...”

Shayla giggled, and for the first time, Coye realized how sweet the sound of her laugh was. It was musical yet innocent like a child. He sank into her touch, feeling a comfort he couldn’t remember ever feeling before.

For three entire hours, he talked.

Like a dam, Coye burst and flooded that little tent with his words, secrets, and feelings. He talked so much that he wore out his throat on multiple occasions. Given how little he used his voice daily, this wasn’t too surprising, but she healed him and scolded him regardless, telling him to use it or lose it.

Beyond that, she was silent. Thanks to this, Shayla learned many things about the boy who was already her partner in her mind.

Coye unloaded a lot, starting from his childhood living in the city of Roselake. It was a wealthy town in northwestern Arrark where the water was calm, and the surrounding forests were significantly less threatening. Life was uneventful, save for the fact that he didn’t fit in with the local youths. Boys bullied him, while girls jealous of his cute looks ridiculed him.

Coye’s father stepped in after a point and sought to solve the problem the only way he knew- rigorous training. Under the guidance of his parent, who was a retired adventurer, Coye shined. He learned how to survive in the wild and how to fight, soaking up the knowledge with the ease of a sponge.

His strength grew by the day, but only Coye’s body had hardened. His heart remained soft, meek, and timid. All the training in the world could do nothing to change his docile personality. In fact, it arguably made him into an even bigger loner than he was beforehand, considering most of Coye’s formative years were spent out in the wilds and away from other people.

He was eighteen years old by the time his training was complete. Coye picked up his father’s line of work and became a registered adventurer, a fitting choice for someone who had little in the way of social skills such as himself. Rather than working from Roselake’s Guild, Coye chose to be stationed across the province at the Cransmere Adventurer’s Guild.

It would be a new start.

Yet although Coye got what he wanted out of that depressing, somber village, he found more eyes pointed in his direction here than he would’ve liked. Coye told Shayla of the girls who teased him at the Guild, the townswomen who flirted with him, and the Guild Mistress whom he had confusing feelings for. All of these things added up. Every day it was something new, and it took a toll on the adventurer’s sanity.

Shayla took in every last one of his words, holding back her sarcastic wit and her desire to tease as best she could. When at last the quiet boy had exhausted himself of things to say, she collected her thoughts and spoke.

“So, stop me if I’m wrong, but you’re saying you don’t want me hanging around because you’re already smothered by more tits and ass than you know what to do with?” Shayla asked with the force of a blunt hammer to the skull.

“I- um- kind of...?”

The pixie sighed, shaking her head. She couldn’t believe someone could be this dense. “You know all these chicks giving you problems are totally into you, right?”

Coye laughed. “No way, they’re just making fun of me.”

“Dude,” Shayla was getting annoyed. “Do you have any idea how fucking cute you are?”

“Y-Yes...” he grumbled, feeling like she was missing the point. “That’s why they tease me.”

“You have so, soooo much to learn.”

He almost didn’t say it, but it made all the difference that he did. “Then teach me,” Coye muttered.

“Oh, showing some initiative? Nice! Now we’re getting somewhere. Listen up, then.”

Coye shifted himself around so they could see each other eye to eye, him on the mattress and her sitting on his pillow. He was all ears.

“As a girl, I can tell you right now that these chicks aren’t all up in your business because they wanna mess with you. It’s the opposite. They like you, you dummy.”

He blinked and tilted his head like he hadn’t heard Shayla’s words. When at last they registered, he laughed and ignored the possibility altogether. “You don’t have to lie to make me feel better...”

“I’m serious!” Shayla huffed at him in a way that made Coye question his decision to write her off just like that.

“You aren’t just cute. You’re like, DAMN, dude! I can only speak for myself, but it’s almost like you got this aura around you that makes girls want to shove you in their tits and tell you everything is going to be ok!” She made frustrating gestures with her hands, emoting as she tried to explain things to him.

Coye blushed, unable to resist the mental image. Older women did always tend to act motherly around him, he admitted. Yet, that explanation alone didn’t explain everything. “Ok, but... even if that’s true, then what about the bullies back at the Guild?”

Shayla dismissed him with a wave of her hand. “Oh, that? Some girls get a rise out of teasing the guy they like. Who knows, maybe they’re too shy to hit on you the normal way? Point is, I bet you anything in the realm they want a piece of you, too!”

Coye struggled to rationalize this new information.

It didn’t make sense that Britni and the rest of her ilk might have a thing for him- it warped everything he thought he knew. But even if Shayla was correct, what would he do with this knowledge? Confront his bullies, asking them if they had a crush on him? Unthinkable.

That wasn’t the only thing rolling around in his mind, either. A question dawned on him when he thought about how much Shayla had been teasing him since they met. “Then, uh, what about you...?”

“What about me?” The pixie smirked, playing hard to get.

“Are you teasing me because you... you...” She smiled, waiting for him to say it. “Like... me?”

Shayla threw out her arms and jumped off the pillow and into the air. She soared through in a figure-eight, looping around while shooting off harmless little fireworks of sparkling fairy magic out of her hands. “And the last horse finally crosses the finish line! Yay, hooray!”

Once her mock celebration died down, Shayla stopped to hover again in front of his face. She placed her little hands on both of his cheeks. “I’ve been stalking you for months now, so, duh. When I said I wanted to be your partner, did you think I didn’t mean the whole shebang, big guy?”

This was a confession, wasn’t it? An actual, legitimate, girl-telling-a-boy-she-likes-him confession, right? Coye was on the verge of losing it, as he couldn’t believe what was happening. Yet, a barrier remained that held back the joy he should have felt. This barrier was known as his own self-confidence.

“Why?” He asked, his voice trembling as his gaze slipped away from the pixie to stare at the mattress. “Why would you, or... or any other girl like a guy like me? I’m not cool, or manly, or-”

Shayla sighed and nuzzled her torso against Coye’s nose. “You don’t have to be manly for girls to like you, Coye.” She whispered to him in a voice like warm velvet.

These words sunk into his core, opening his mind. Coye knew she spoke true, forcing him to confront his own naivete.

“Really?”

“Yup, and if you let me stay by your side, I’ll prove it to you.”

“How?”

“Ever heard of a wingman?” She giggled, correctly predicting he would shake his head. “Don’t worry about it, then. You’ve already had a long day.”

He smiled as Shayla released his nose from her embrace. “Ok, thanks.”

“You’re welcome, but,” Shayla pouted, albeit in a teasing way. “Isn’t there something else you should be saying to me right about now?”

Coye thought about it for a moment before understanding what the pixie desired. “If you’ll have me,” he started, taking a deep breath. “Then I promise I’ll always be there for you, Shayla.” He blushed as he said it, but the important thing was that he did.

Shayla was filled with over a thousand thoughts and feelings surging within the make-up of her mystical body. She was of the fae, a spirit of emotional extremes. Everything Shayla had ever felt was amplified and incomparable to how humans might process the same sensations. Like

She was finally going to leave the fearful life of the Gnarled Woods behind her- she found the hero she always dreamed of. There was now almost nothing more she could want out of life. She practically had it all.

“Awesome.” She blurted out.

“Just... just awesome?”

“Yep.”

Shayla stared at Coye in such a way that forced him to remember he was dealing with an unpredictable spirit. Her eyes were full of wonder and want. The pixie was dwelling on the only thing left, which she still desired.

With a viper’s smile, she asked, “Now, then... since we got your therapy session out of the way and made things official, what do you say we celebrate?”

“Uh,” he sensed something was off, but he wanted his partner to be happy. “What did you have in mind?”

Shayla snapped her fingers. A swirling blue breeze wrapped around her body, stirring the powder falling from her wings. The magic dissolved her clothes into nothing more scraps in the wind, leaving her attractive body displayed for the viewing pleasure of Coye’s innocent eyes. “Sex.”

Once again, the only sound in Coye’s tent was that of the rain beating against it from the outside.