There were a LOT of conflicting thoughts going through Leanne's head. Firstly, why had a shape shifting dragon first abandoned its owner, then decided to permanently become a caterpillar, then allow itself to get crushed by Leanne?

She was barely listening as Lunari explained the shape shifting dragon's backstory. Apparently, it was called Peveri, and it had been magically bonded to Queen Mitzi, but it had lost its magical bond with the queen when the fairies had been separated from the Copperstones. It hadn't been intentional, but Queen Mitzi's bond with Peveri had been shattered, and the queen could no longer understand her bonded familiar.

"This... No, it couldn't be." Lunari's eyes widened like she'd just made a revolution which she was casually excluding Leanne from. Leanne didn't ask, though. She wasn't sure she wanted to know; this world was confusing enough without her being bathed in magical essence as a result of crushing a caterpillar.

"What?" Leanne asked for a moment after slight hesitation. She didn't want to know, but she was curious, so dangerously curious, and she wanted answers so badly. The truth, untainted, no lies woven inside.

Lunari bit her lip, which was odd coming from a fox since it was such a human gesture. Leanne was half convinced a fairy could find some way to break their jaw just by biting their lip. Clearly, foxes weren't as fragile. The fox fidgeted restlessly, as if hoping the heavens would grant her an answer to pacify Leanne.

If the heavens even existed, they didn't answer Lunari's unspoken call. The fox sighed. "I believe, Lea, that Peveri didn't allow herself to get crushed by you. She chose to convert herself to magic essence and join you, become a part of you." She was going to say it. The words that Leanne didn't want to hear, because she really hoped they weren't true. "Leanne... Peveri has chosen you as her next master."

No. No. The word raged through Leanne's thoughts, her mind, because she wasn't a child living in a fantasy. She never would, not even if the fantasy came to life. She clenched her fists, wanting nothing more than to go home and think of all this as a distant dream. What if she went home aged in insane? Or even worse... She shivered at the thought. She might die here, away from her friends and family, away from everything she'd ever known and loved.

Away from Miranda. That might hurt more than anything. She'd never understood why that bubbly girl had chosen her as her best friend, but she and Miranda had gotten attached somehow over years of friendship. Miranda was more than a friend. She was like the sister Leanne had never had.

And now, thanks to a stupid amulet lying on a mossy stone in a forest, she would have to throw it all away. Her life, her studies, her family. Miranda. Her heart ached. It didn't matter if a hundred years here passed as a second. Those seconds added up, and eventually, a few billion years later, they might have to accept that she'd gone for good. 

She was Leanne Jasper. And she was going to die in this stupid, good-for-nothing deathtrap.

What a waste was all she could think. Her life, her potential, wasted on a whole bunch of fairies meant for young girls. She didn't care about them, she really didn't. They would have been better off not existing at all.

And then when she was giving in to the pull of the dark, believing she would be better off dead now than later, a voice pulled her out of the darkness. Miranda, pleading for her to come back to her.

It was... Never going to happen. The Titans were unstoppable, she was sure. How was she supposed to defeat some elemental demons with just her own hands? It was pointless. Impossible. And she wasn't going to risk her life to do it.

How else was she supposed to get home, though?

I have magic, she realized with a jolt. I can go home.

And somewhere from a deep part of her, an unfamiliar voice whispered, 𝘕𝘰, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘰𝘯'𝘵. 𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶. 𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯.

Who are you? Leanne screamed into her mind, wishing she could blast the voice out of her head. Wasn't she safe in her own mind??

𝘔𝘺 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘗𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘪. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘤 𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦. 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘵, the voice whispered, strange and unwelcoming.

It was her. Peveri. The shape shifting dragon. She wasn't welcome in Leanne's mind! Leanne was going to use her magic and go home, and-

Wait.

She didn't know how. She imagined herself teleporting home, but she didn't even know how magic worked. Projecting images had surely been easy enough, but not transportation. From within her, she could feel the familiar smirking.

And then it came out of her, surging forth, spreading wide wings dark as midnight, its smile cold and chilly. Peveri manifested out in dragon form. She was, admittedly, a tiny, miniscule dragon, about the size of a cat. But she had fire in her claws, burning. Always burning, always fire, always hurting and always-

Stop.

The nightmare of reality almost cut through.

It didn't help when Lunari gasped, "Fascinating! Are you... Oh, Great One..." Lunari fell to her paws, bowing over and over to Peveri.

"Rise, Lunari of the Arctic Foxes," Peveri commanded, and Lunari rose.

Not before Leanne grabbed her familiar right out of the air.

The dragon gasped in surprise, but escaped from Leanne's grasp easily. Peveri looked shocked. "Mitzi never tried to do that to me."

"Well, turns out humans are more ruthless than fairies," Leanne snarled. "You have some questions to answer for me."

Peveri rolled her eyes. "I don't answer to you."

"You're my familiar, aren't you? I know there's a way to kill your bonded familiar. Absolute rejection, was it?" Leanne gave Peveri a calculative expression. She'd read enough fantasy books when she was a young, foolish girl. It always worked that way. You broke your bond intentionally and the familiar was forever killed.

And by the instant horror on Peveri's face, she'd chosen her words correctly.

Peveri hadn't been killed by her separation from Queen Mitzi because it hadn't been intentional. Mitzi hadn't had any ill intentions towards Peveri.

But Leanne did.

She wanted the dragon to pay for bringing her here. It must've been her magic that had activated the amulet. Had Mitzi left her behind to look out for someone to save her kind? Well, Leanne was that unfortunate one. And if she had to kill her familiar to get home, she would do that.

"You do realize," Peveri said calmly, although her eyes were displaying panic, "killing me won't do you any good. You'll instantly lose your magic."

"So what? I don't want a dragon in my head."

"Don't you?" Peveri murmured. "I can help you fight the Titans."

Leanne snorted. "Uh, I don't have any intentions of fighting the Titans."

Peveri laughed, amused. "You want to go home. You will fight them, I know you will. It's only a matter of time... Lareli."

"Leanne."

"Lareli is your fairy name. You should go by it. Now, for wings-"

"I don't want wings, you stupid dragon, I want to go home!" Leanne screamed.

Peveri remained annoyingly calm. "Of course you do. And you can go home - just kill the Titans."

"Yeah, because that's all sunshine and rainbows, isn't it? I kill a bunch of freaky titans, and you're telling me I won't be paraded around and asked to be queen for eternity?"

Peveri finally looked a little thoughtful. "Perhaps. You can refuse."

"Yeah, that's not considering how I'm even supposed to kill these Titans in the first place," Leanne grumbled. Why couldn't they just leave her alone? She could go home, and Peveri could restore the amulet and they could wait for the next human dumb enough to fiddle with the amulet.

She supposed she should pity this village a little more, but they were already doomed. There was no sense in dooming herself along with them. She'd just end up dying here.

Peveri eventually sighed. "Difficult. Mitzi treated me with reverence." She let out an even longer sigh as she turned back to Leanne. "Very well, what do you wish to ask me?"

"Many things, but above all, why did you choose me? Surely others have wandered into the forest before."

"They have," Peveri murmured, "and they weren't right, so I let them go. But... Lareli, you were different. Besides, every agonizing second I spent waiting was a century here."

"You must've only waited a few seconds, then, if it's only been three hundred years."

"Three hundred... Do you not understand? It has been three million years! We have been separated from our homeland for so long!" Peveri exploded.

"Your wings should have adapted in three million years. So, no, I don't believe you."

Peveri sighed again. "Fine. You were the very first. I knew you wouldn't survive without magic so I bonded myself to you. You almost killed me, by the way. If I hadn't converted myself to essence, you would have squashed me to death with the amulet!"

"In my defence, I thought you were a caterpillar."

Peveri didn't smile. And she didn't continue speaking either, instead looking over at the sunset as it shone on the rooftops.

This place was impoverished, unfertile, and... What was the word for it? Deathtrap.

It was a deathtrap to all who lived in it.

She wasn't going to do anything. How could she impact anything in the course of time? She was but a small factor. A very small factor.

But... She also really, really wanted to go home. To her mother. She was all her mother had left; Leanne's father had left them six years previously when Leanne was ten years old, taking Leanne's brother with him. She'd never seen Leroy again.

And Miranda. Miranda was what... Well, she wanted to go back for her friend. More than her mother. Was that bad?

"You can speak to him," Peveri whispered, "I can call him here."

"Who?"

"Leroy Jasper," Peveri hissed quietly. "You want him, don't you? You've always loved your brother."

"He was given a choice," Leanne said defiantly. "He chose father. I chose mother."

"You didn't want to," Peveri whispered.

It... It was true. When she'd been given a choice, her twin brother, Leroy, had instantly chosen their father, and then given her an unspoken plea to join him. But she'd told him that she couldn't leave their mother alone. He'd respected that.

But apparently he and their father had been thrown into poverty. Leanne and never found out what happened to Leroy.

"So... He's alive?" she croaked, barely wanting to believe it.

"Of course he's alive. You think a little poverty would kill him? Now, tell me, do you want him here?"

Yes. Yes. She really did. Just say yes, and he'd come. And they'd be together again, brother and sister.

But...

She couldn't risk him. He was alive - for now. Not forever.

"No," she whispered.

"You lie!" Peveri snarled.

"I can't risk him."

"That, Lareli, will be the death of you! And it's too late." Her mouth twisted into a crooked smile. "I've already summoned him."