With the last tenths of energy, Sascha managed to undress before collapsing on the straw mattress. The soft blue moonlight caressed the human's sleeping body covered only by her underwear.
Four tiny faces emerged through the thick ceiling beams. The air vibrated gently with the movement of her wings without attracting too much attention. Slender, graceful butterfly antennae crowned her little heads, large, slanted insect eyes gazing carefully at the human below. What did this human have to attract them as much as pollen from a spirit flower? It was the doubt shining in each one of the four little heads of her, to discover it was the mission entrusted by the Queen Pixie of her.
The young human woman sneezed and shuddered, her pale skin prickling from the night chill. A female pixie and a male pixie gazed at each other in silence, a few seconds later they flapped softly over the young woman. Hands the size of a grain of rice pulled the neatly folded blanket at the end of the pallet and covered the human with it. Lines of reflection appeared on the foreheads of the four pixies, the sound of chimes in the wind gently filled the shed, they seemed to confer on something between them, shortly after the silence fell again, apparently, they had reached a decision.
The two closest to Sascha made a nest in her long dark hair while staring at her companions on her roof. Instantly, a third pixie descended, flapping with delicate blue wings with silver brush strokes. The fourth pixie staggered from the high beam, as she argued again with her companions on the pallet.
For a moment, the atmosphere was once again filled with the silver chime of chimes in the wind. The fourth pixie kicked until she was able to stay where she was and then silence fell once more.
The other three pixies sighed before dozing off wrapped in the velvety softness of the human's hair. They sniffed, drawn by the young woman's fragrant scent, and fell into quiet silence. To them, Sascha smelled as delicious as the dust of the best spirit flower and so it was no surprise that they were automatically willing to roll over her like little kittens on catnip. Without being aware of them, her little bodies gave off a stream of warm and comforting energy.
Feeling a new kind of warmth wrapped around her, Sascha stopped shivering, instantly her features relaxed with the typical softness of sleep, falling into a deep and peaceful sleep.
An hour before dawn, the shed door was quietly opened and the witch entered the shed. Melida blinked for a second at the unreal scene of a human covered in a cloak of pixies. Who was this young woman in the end? This girl's identity shouldn't be that simple! She decided after careful thought. Schemes swam in the vastness of those purple eyes.
"Upstairs, we have work to do." The witch unceremoniously chased away the pixies as if they were annoying flies and not lesser monsters of the Forest.
Sascha opened her eyes and as she sat up, the remaining pixies took flight, drifting away to take a place on the thick beams of the ceiling. A dazed expression swam into Sascha's emerald eyes noticing the abnormal amount of pixies filling the ceiling above her. What the hell was going on?
Melida followed the direction of her gaze and said. "They must have sneaked into the shed while you were sleeping."
She remembered the feeling of warm comfort enveloping her. Was it the pixies? She discovered the pixie dust between her fingers and rubbed them gently.
"Are they normally like this?" new lines of tension appeared on her forehead, Sascha was well aware of her exhaustion biting the edges of her consciousness.
"Not at all," Melida replied happily. She tapped her lips with a finger and then narrowed her eyes, taking in the tired, slightly haggard appearance of the young woman. "Have you entered the Forest before?"
Sascha who at that precise moment was trying to get out of the nest of blankets almost fell to the ground in surprise. She cleared her throat lightly and said. "No, I am not a hunter, how could she enter the forest?"
Although her tone was calm, flat, and steady, inwardly Sascha was sweating profusely. Was the witch suspecting something?
"Hump." Melida blurted out noncommittally, before just leaving the shed, leaving a few words behind her. "Hurry or we'll miss the best moment."
The witch's words were enough to awaken the curious creature within Sascha. With clenched teeth, she finally left the nest of warm blankets and ran to the small bathroom in the shed.
She washed her face with the water from a magical water-making sigil at the bottom of the wooden basin. Sascha stared at her wet face in the polished brass mirror on the wall and was surprised. Was this how she currently looked? She looked as pale as a ghost, her eyes bright and red as if she had an excess of fever, she even had dark circles under her eyes.
Sascha touched one of these and for some vain reason, she was glad the wolf wasn't near her to see it now.
What the hell was she thinking of? She shook her head firmly. She took out the medicine pack stored in one of the bottom drawers of the basin cabinet and simply swallowed two Mana Restore Pills.
Instantly a burst of energy raced through her meridians and a sigh of relief exploded from between Sascha's red lips. She looked back at her reflection and nodded in agreement as the SIM tracks gradually began to disappear. More energetic now, she did not linger long, and soon after she was meeting the witch outside.
Melida had been debating during the time I waited in the courtyard, the young woman looked sick, should she let her rest until later? However, the moment Sascha reached for her, the witch instantly sensed her change in her. Seeing how energetic she was, more than a few moments ago, Melida had another change of mind and decided to take her with her to help her. The work ahead was delicate and they couldn't use any kind of magic for it.
"What are we going to do?" Sascha's eyes gleamed expectantly. How different would it be to work for a witch? Because she did not doubt that it would be different.
The witch started walking and Sascha followed her without protest. The witch's purple eyes glanced over her shoulder, and finally, Melida answered.
"We will collect moonlight water."