A Midsummer Dream in the Making (Ophelia vs Dixi)

Dixi had put herself inbetween the young woman and the spirit just in the nick of time, as she had tripped and scratched her knee on the fall, leaving her vulnerable to the oncoming creature. Dixi's quick thinking, however, had given her the time she needed to take a slice at the spirit, dissipating it instantly.

"T-T-Thank you!" The woman's voice trembled, clearly shaken up and slowly pulling herself to her feet. There were little tears in her eyes, probably from the previous fear, and as she got up to thank her personally, her gaze went pale. "B-Behind you!" She pointed back into the forest as more spirits started to come out of the woods, haunting and screeching. She looked like she was shivering from the sight, clearly in over her head as she slowly backed away out of what would look like pure instinct.

"No need to thank me." Dixi turned to look at the new coming creatures and moved the woman behind her. "Stay behind me." She would make sure to finish the spirits all at once. She charged forward with Ki blades in hand and sliced the spirit in half as she did with the first one, making sure to keep an eye on the woman in case some of them managed to slip around.

The woman nodded shakily, hiding behind Dixi with fear in her eyes. Tenebria had proposed this method both as a way to give Dixi some finality in her search, before sending her on her way, and also as a method of entertainment for the watching eyes of the two fairies, out of sight and out of mind. The elder had to admit that the performance was somewhat enjoyable, the entire stage dancing on Tenebria's fingertips...but she was still slightly grumpy that it had come to this at all.

Dixi dashed off to engage the spirits with ki blade in hand, slicing the skull-like creatures one by one, dissipating them as they vanished with a howl. As she cleaved through them left and right, more started to appear from behind them, putting the woman at risk. There had to be at least five more slowly coming out of the forest, leaving sticky residue on the trees that they passed by. She let out a cry as one lunged for her, and she cowered in fear, her hands over her head as she was paralyzed in both exhaustion and terror.

She had seen this coming. It was almost like a flashback but it was thanks to that dream that she saw that one coming. As soon as one of the creatures lunged for the woman, a blade of Ki sprouted from the ground in front of her, stabbing the creature before Dixi went back and finished it off. "You okay?"

The blade of ki stabbed directly through the ghastly spirit, dissipating it with ease. Dixi was making short work of them, but there was a great deal of numbers present. If there was this many evil spirits making residence in the forest, no wonder people had gone missing. That just meant that it was her job to clean them out to make the forest safe again!

"I-I-I-I'm...f-f-fine..." She was clearly shaken up as she placed her hands on Dixi's shoulders from behind, her gaze going back and forth between the horde that was upon them. "W-W-What do we do?" Sure enough, there was about 10 of them surrounding the two of them. The woman had gone pale at the sight of it. Indeed, most people would, being pushed against a horde of evil spirits on all sides. They cackled and screeched, and dripped nasty sticky goo. None of them looked happy, either. Perhaps lingering negative emotions pushed them to this, as they were now. Regardless, the woman's only hope was Dixi, now.

They had them surrounded. She had to do something before they could harm the poor woman behind her. "Don't worry. I'll keep you safe." She had a plan in mind, it was risky (for her) but if she did that, she would be able to keep the woman safe. "Whatever happens, don't move from the spot, okay?"

Kneeling down, Dixi reached for something on her leg. Soon, a little click was heard, something about Dixi looked different for moment before she lunged at the spirits with a much higher speed than before, slicing through them all as if they were made of butter, she moved as fast as she could which, with her limiter being forced, was pretty high to make sure she could deal with all the spirits surrounding them before they could approach the innocent woman.

As soon as Dixi took off, the burst back was enough to blow up the woman's skirt, a sudden explosion of ability that was far beyond what she had seen from her earlier. Now she knew for a fact that she had made the right decision, watching her dismantle each spirit one by one at lightning speed.

And burst through all of them she did, cutting through each with ki like butter. One by one they dissipated from her assault, a professional at work, before none were left standing. A beat passed as the woman seemed like she had trouble processing what she just witnessed, blinking a few times, before clapping in excitement. "T-That was amazing! Oh my goodness! Thank you so much!" She wasted no time as she hugged her gently. "I don't know what I would have done without you...a-are you okay? I've never seen anything like that, before!"

"I'll be fine. Don't worry." She was lying, she had forced the limiter and now was reeling from the side effects but this woman had no need to know that, she had been through enough already. "May I ask why are you alone and so deep into the forest, miss..."

"Oh!" The woman jumped as she remembered what she was doing out here. "I was being chased around by those awful creatures so much, I completely forgot, wait here!" She took a few steps to the edge of the clearing, looking for something, before pulling out a small little picnic basket. She examined it for a moment, before looking at the nearby trees and wincing. "Eugh..." She let out a shiver before she went back to Dixi.

"I come out here often to gather herbs and vegetables...and some fruits, for mama! I live in the village not too far from here, actually! First time I've ever seen those vile things out here, though..." She had a slight accent to her voice, a little bit of western Rodinian that had a country feel. "H-Here, you must be tired. A little something to help get you back on your feet!" She ruffled through her basket and pulled out a bright red apple, holding it out for her. "I-I heard the village elder say he had put out a message for someone to take care of the forest's problems, but t-that was amazing! Are you a professional adventurer?!? Oh! Where are my manners? My name is Ravi! I-It's nice to meet you!" She grasped Dixi's free hand with both of hers, giving it a vigorous shake. She really did look like she had been scared out of her wits from all of that.

"Nice to meet you, Ravi. I'm Dixi." She took the apple and smiled at the woman. "Thank you. I'm glad I managed to make it in time. And I was assigned to take care of the forest troubles..." Something was itching her in the back of her mind and maybe Ravi could answer her question. "Say Ravi, have you heard of any fairies around here? Oh, and please, let me escort you back to the village."

"Fairies?" She looked a little confused at that statement, tilting her head to the side. "Well, miss Dixi, I'll admit, I'm just a small town country girl...I've never seen a fairy in my life! Oh, but I've heard the stories, though! Little winged tricksters, right? When I was a little babe, my granpappy used to tell me stories about how he met a fairy when he was my age! Said it pulled him out of a big flood that happened around here some fifty-odd years ago! None of the home really believes him, thinks he's making up tall tales...b-but I'd like to believe he ain't a liar!" She had a habit of delving into a motor-mouth, it seemed, but the words seemed as genuine as could be, with a bright smile.

"And I'd love the company back! I've been through the forest countless times, but the terrain's gotten rougher lately...might be that storm we had last night! Makes it all slippery-like, y'know? Best to be careful! We can make sure neither of us get hurt on the way out! A-As long as I ain't bugging you any, at least..."

"I see." It had been just a dream but what was that nagging feeling in the back of her mind? Dixi couldn't really find the right words to describe it. She looked at the girl and smiled at her nervousness. "Oh, not at all. I was the one who offered to escort you after all, Ms.Ravi." She looked back at the clearing one last time before going back to the girl. "She should get going before it gets dark."

A big, genuine smile crossed the pink-haired woman's lips. "Great! In that case, let's get going. Pappy's probably out hunting right about now, and Ma' works out of town a bit, so I can take care of myself once we get out of the forest! Oh! But I'll definitely have something for you for saving my life, and all! Fair's fair, after all." Ravi reached out to grasp Dixi's hand. "I ain't never seen anything like that today, was real spooky-like. I know a few midara here and there, and I know some of 'em can cause trouble every now and then, but that wasn't anything like that! Hopefully you boppin' 'em on the head means the forest'll be a bit safer now! I know it's probably just another job for someone like you, but you're a real hero to me, so thanks a ton, Miss Dixi!"

She had things to talk about basically from the start of their trek back all the way to the end of it. Some might find her talk annoying, but it probably did wonders to help Dixi get her mind off of those strange dreams. And by now, she was definitely sure of it. Definitely just dreams; that house she had been in during them didn't even exist, after all. She helped Ravi navigate the rough terrain as they made their way out of the forest, carefully moving across the less solid areas. She was right in that the rain probably made it harder to go through, and she was prepared with some heavy boots, although the earlier scuffle had gotten some mud on her skirt. She didn't seem too upset about that though.

It was about half an hour before they saw sunlight in the sky, finally out of the forest. Ravi put a hand to her gaze as she peered out, noticing the small town. Perfect,, she thought to herself. "Oh! There it is! Cmon!" She had a bright and cheerful energy to her as she nearly pulled Dixi along the now stable and comfortable path, leading her to the edge of the town.

Once there, she turned and gave her a full bow forward. "Again, thanks so much for saving my life! Before you go, wait here, okay?!?" She giggled, as she ran off for a moment out of sight. Leaving a good impression on her was the perfect way to blot out everything she had just lived through, and snatching up a few of the produce around the village discreetly was child's play. It was about two minutes before she came back with a basket full of fresh fruits and vegetables, handpicked from the farms around the village, offering the basket to Dixi.

"Here! I want you to have this! I'm sure you get paid because of that whole adventurer thing, but this is special for bein' there when I needed it!" She presented it to her, and inside was all sorts of things like lettuce, tomato, cauliflower and probably even a few things Dixi wouldn't recognize, but would hopefully be willing to try. "Go on, take it! It's all I really got to offer, and I can guarantee they're super fresh!" She wasn't gonna take no for an answer.

Dixi felt a bit bad about accepting the basket of vegetables, she didn't need payment after all but it would seem as Ravi would accept a no for answer. "You are very kind, ms.Ravi but really, there's no need. I'm not doing this for money either so you don't need to give me anything."

Ravi's mouth went wide when she heard she wasn't even getting paid for all of this. "Well, all the more reason to take it, then! I'd feel even worse if you went home empty handed after a day like today! Please, go ahead! There's at least a few days worth of good food here, too! You can share it with friends and family if you wanna! They'll be healthier for it!" The smile on her face was so bright and cheery, it would have been hard to say no even if she wasn't all in on it all.

"Please?" She batted her eyelashes at Dixi a bit, a pleading look on her face. It was easy to remember that just a little while ago, she had come within an inch of her life. Her enthusiasm was easily understandable, from it all.

Dixi let out a sigh. This girl wasn't going to relent and now even less. She took the basket while returning a smile at the woman. "Fine, fine. But you really didn't need to."

"You're so modest! It's quite alright, really! Why, I don't even wanna think about what'd happen if you hadn't been there...you're my hero!" She really had a hard time just accepting praise, didn't she? She didn't have nearly this amount of trouble taking it when she was a pet. No doubt, Dixi had some hangups she would have to sort out. But, that wasn't her problem.

The people in the town were barely aware of the two's presence at the edge, but that gave her a great idea, flashing Dixi a little grin, before turning around. "Hey, everyone! This woman just got rid of the evil spirits in the forest!" That shout got everyone's attention, as a crowd started gathering around the bashful woman. Before it got too bad, she gave Dixi a little wiggly finger wave, as she slipped through them out of sight. People both young and old crowded around her to shake her hand, pat her on the back, and were just excited to meet the one who made their lives easier.

"R-Really. I'm no hero, I was just doing my job." Dixi felt a bit embarrassed being called a hero but she felt even more embarrassed when Ravi called everyone's attention about Dixi success at getting rid of the spirit.

It took her a while but the brawler managed to sneak away from the group of people congratulating and thanking her, she really had a hard time accepting praise, feeling undeserved. She looked back at the town and smiled at the thought of the people there being safer now that the forest was clear of spirits. "I guess I should head back."

The figure that she knew as Ravi vanished into the crowd, out of sight. By the time Dixi had slipped away from the crowd of ecstatic villagers, she was long gone from Dixi's mind, as she melted into the darkness and slinked back into the forest, no one the wiser for it. She materialized into that same clearing, bringing their house back into view with a wave of her hand and slowly made her way in, exhausted from all of that.

Before she could sit down, she was wrapped into a tight hug. "Welcome back, dear."

"O-Oh! Ophy..." She had been so sleepy that even the Elder Fairy was enough to catch her off guard. "Are you still upset?"

"Hmmm...I was, at first. However, the show you put on was more than enough to improve my mood." She giggled, not letting Tenebria go. Katarina took a seat on top of her head next.

"Yeah! 'I'm just an innocent little country girl, spendin' my life on the prairie, I don't know nothin' 'bout no fairies...'" Katarina burst out laughing at the thought, imitating Tenebria's slight drawl.

"Alright, alright, that's enough outta you..." She shooed Katarina off of her head as she snuggled closer to Ophelia. The smile on her face was happy enough despite that. "I got a little jealous seeing you snuggle with her, anyway. What if I want to have some attention like that, too~?"

"Oh my, I have neglected my darling! How am I ever going to make it up to her?" The language was over the top and dramatic, a game that they had played hundreds of times, as she looked down at her with a grin. "Maybe I should scratch your itch, next...would that be satisfactory?"

"Hmmmm~ Only if I get some time to really savor it~" She reached up and kissed Ophelia herself, not even waiting for the answer. While they had lost their quarry, life returned to normal for the fairy family. They would do well to lay low for a while, to keep the humans from growing suspicious, but that gave them all the time in the world to find something to do in the meanwhile...and it didn't seem they would ever be bored, anyway.