"What are you?" Leanne asked in wonder. Muyurni had long, sleek butterfly wings that spread out across her body, and her hair was a deep blue, very unlike any other hair she'd seen. It didn't look dyed, it looked natural, which was strange.

"I am a fairy," Muyurni said. But her wings sagged slightly and she looked exhausted. "If you'll excuse me, I need to lie down." She lay down right before Leanne's eyes.

"Um... What?" Leanne asked, confused.

"These wings, my dear. They are too heavy," Muyurni explained sadly.

"Why would your body have huge wings if it can't support them?" Leanne asked, frowning. That didn't make sense at all. The body structure should have adapted so as not to put so much pressure on the legs and hips.

"We... It used to be alright, when we still had our magic," Muyurni said sadly. "But we were separated from the Copperstones when the Titans came."

"Ummmmmmm," Leanne muttered. What was this? Magic? Copperstones? Titans? What was going on in this strange land? Fairies existed? What else did? "I think you're going to need to explain. A lot."

"You do not understand, child," Muyurni said. Leanne tried not to be insulted by the fact that she'd just been called a child. To Muyurni, she probably was; the woman was forty, maybe fifty or sixty years old. 

"I know I don't. That's why I want you to explain to me. Please?" Leanne asked.

"It is not that, child. I do not know; I am one of the youngest of our fairies, at only a few hundred years old. I was born in these Wilds, away from our home and the Copperstones."

"Sorry, a few hundred years?" Leanne asked, flabbergasted. How old did these fairy creatures live? A thousand years??

"Yes; like I said, quite young. How old are you, child? A few decades? You can't possibly understand." Muyurni fingered her deep blue hair, her expression calculative.

"A few decades?" Leanne nearly choked on her own saliva. "Forgiveness, um, Miss Muyurni, I am... Sixteen."

"Sixteen!" Muyurni said, shocked. "Did you take an aging potion? Where did you find such magic?"

"I'm not sure you understand," Leanne mumbled.

"You haven't even grown wings yet, my dear! Are you one of those stunted ones? Oh. Your mother was injured by the Titans, wasn't she? She just have suffered injury to her ovaries; no wonder you are stunted as you are."

"No... You don't get it. I'm human," Leanne said. Whatever this fairy thought... Hadn't her asking what Muyurni was and where they were been enough of a clue?

"Human?" Muyurni asked, terrified. She stood up, trembling as her wings weighed down her body. "You couldn't be... Did you find the amulet of Queen Mitzi?"

"Um, I don't know who Queen Mitzi is, but yeah, I found an amulet," Leanne said, starting to edge away from Muyurni. She was weird. A few centuries old... She was older than Leanne's great-great-great-great-infinite-greats-grandparents! That couldn't be right...

"Then... You know how to save us!" Muyurni brightened.

"Save you from what?" Leanne asked, starting to get annoyed.

"The Titans of course!" Muyurni answered happily like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Um, no, I don't. Actually, I think I'll just go home, because this stuff is weird." Leanne clicked the same button on the amulet, but this time it was stiff as a board and didn't move an inch. "Huh." She jammed her pinky finger into the amulet, frowning.

Muyurni laughed. "Dear girl, it's one-way. Queen Mitzi sacrificed all her remaining magic to create that amulet; she wasn't going to leave you with a way out."

"You're kidding!" Leanne said. She hurled the amulet to the ground, wanting it to shatter upon the impact, but the amulet merely bounced off the cobblestones and skidded to a halt at Muyurni's feet.

The old fairy laughed gently and gingerly picked up the amulet. She whispered something to herself and slung it around her neck. Leanne couldn't resist wincing - who knew how long that thing had sat on mossy stone, getting pooped on by animals and damaged by rain? And now Muyurni was wearing it around her neck?

"Do you have a problem?" Muyurni asked, fingering the amulet like it was some great treasure. Then again, to Muyurni, it probably was.

"I do, actually! How can I get home if this thing isn't going to take me?" She pointed a finger at the sparkling amulet hanging from Muyurni's neck. "Can I even get home?"

Muyurni blinked, then smiled pleasantly. "Of course you can."

"I can?" Leanne brightened considerably. They could probably send her back with whatever weirdo whatnot their magic did.

Then Muyurni's mouth tilted into a sly smile instead of a pleasant one. "You just need to get rid of the Titans."

"Uh, these Titans sound dangerous," Leanne pointed out.

"But you do need to get rid of them. If not, we can't get to the Copperstones, and without their magic, we - the fairies - can't send you back."

"Well, I see an option," Leanne growled. "We sneak into whatever town these Copperstones are in, and you'll magic me out."

Muyurni laughed incredulously, staring wordlessly at Leanne, before she probably realized that whatever logic she'd come up with, Leanne probably wouldn't understand. She was Miss 180 IQ, but that was no use now that the world suddenly didn't make sense. Magic wasn't even supposed to be real, and now it was.

"Firstly, you'll never be able to get past the Titans' golems," Muyurni said with another delicate laugh that sounded like she was mocking Leanne. "Secondly - why would I do that for you?"

"Because your queen did this to me!" Leanne growled.

"On the contrary," Muyurni said, "Queen Mitzi isn't queen anymore; she perished years and years ago in an attempt to regain Mystic."

"Mystic? Thought your land was called Mystique or something like that."

Muyurni squinted at her. "You're saying it wrong. It's an I, not a Y."

"How do you even tell? And mystique is spelled with a Y."

"But the Land of Mistique is spelled with an I! And that is the end of this conversation!" Muyurni huffed.

Leanne rolled her eyes. Now was probably the time where Muyurni brought her back to her village; it happened in every fairytale. 

But instead of a beautiful city lined with spotless cobblestones and row after row of magnificent houses, this... Could hardly be called a city. Roofs were made of straw and houses built of wood. The people were dressed in simple clothing, some patched.

All of them staggering under the weight of their much-too-large wings.

"Seriously," Leanne said, "just remove the wings at birth."

"You don't understand," Muyurni said with another of her annoyingly delicate laughs. "We can't do that. What would we remove it with?"

"Um, a scissors? Or a knife? They're butterfly wings; I'm sure you could tear them off if you wanted to," Leanne pointed out. Seriously, how dim were these fairies? But judging by the confusion on Muyurni's face, maybe scissors and knives didn't exist in Fairyland.

"We can't do that! It would hurt!" Muyurni gasped.

"Ever heard of painkillers?"

And - to Leanne's shock - Muyurni shook her head.

"We used to use magic for everything," she said ruefully. "Moving around, healing, cooking... Our lives have been completely upended thanks to the Titans."

"Why didn't you just use your magic to ward them off?" Leanne asked.

"We did!" Muyurni said, horrified. "The Titans waded through our enchantments and spells like water! And then... They chased us out."

"Okay, what exactly are these Titans?" Leanne demanded.

"Titans," Muyurni whispered hoarsely.

"Well, that's helpful," Leanne said. Didn't anyone here know how to help somebody out? Were they so tight-lipped that they couldn't even describe the beasts ravaging their country?

"They have elements: there's fire, earth, water, plants, and..." She choked and couldn't continue.

It was only when Leanne gave her a particularly painful jab which sent the fairy reeling that she thought to continue.

"And magic. And that wasn't very nice of you!" Muyurni cradled her arm, which, Leanne saw, she had... Wait, had she broken Muyurni's arm?

"That's impossible. Your arm broke?" Leanne asked.

"Yes! It did! And it's all your fault. I'm breaking one of your limbs, too!" Muyurni's eyes were filled with tears as she kicked Leanne.

Except, instead of breaking Leanne's leg, Muyurni's leg broke. The fairy howled and dropped to the ground, somehow cradling her arm and leg at the same time.

"How are you the hero?" Muyurni demanded, furiously swiping at her eyes, which brimmed with tears from the pain.

"How are you fairies so weak?" Leanne retorted. Had Muyurni's leg really broken because the fairy had kicked her?

"We - we have always been strong! But the absence of magic for so long... It... It eats away at our lifelines and average healthiness." Muyurni's eyes took on a pleasing note. "Please. For us, and if you ever want to go back to your own world - you must defeat the Titans."

"I'm not magical, am I? How am I supposed to stop some elemental Titans from wrecking your cities?"

"They're already wrecked! We just want them gone." Muyurni gave her a sideways look. "And that's the only way you can go home."

"First and foremost," Leanne said, pulling out her phone, "I'm getting some pictures to make sure no one thinks I'm mad when I get back."