Foster had never felt this bad before.
Actually, he had, but that was when he had gotten a stomach virus last summer.
Even though he wasn't able to keep any food down, the dizzy feeling and pains from it all went away eventually. However, the excruciating pain from this mistake seemed to be never ending. The agony he felt went from his ears through his spine and neck, rib cage, and shoulder blades all the way down to his legs and toes. He was having difficulty breathing now, and began to drift in and out of consciousness. The beast girl that had done this to him had left ages ago, leaving him in a cave to wake up to nightmarish pain with no one around to help him. Foster gritted his teeth and dragged himself across the floor, holding on to whatever handhold he could easily grab.
The exit to the cavern he was in drew near.
Sunlight! Foster moved forward as fast as he could, but just before he got there, the pain in his back flared up wildly.
He yelled as his ears rang. His back felt like someone had stuck pins and needles in him, and were slowly peeling his punctured flesh away from his bones. His shoulder blades blazed and ruptured, and he felt blood-his blood-splatter onto his legs and neck.
He screamed, and would have succumbed to the pain, if it weren't for a hand taking hold of his arm and roughly pulling him out into the open. Foster opened his eyes blearily, and a girl came into focus, a girl with brilliant blue hair.
Wait...blue?
Before he could ponder this development any further, his muscles seized up, and more blood oozed out, staining his sweater. Foster bit his lip, holding back yet another yell. The girl didn't release him, pulling him by his wrist until he was beside a small creek with crystal clear waters in it.
Foster took in air rapidly as he looked up at his rescuer. She had no horns, thankfully, but her hair and the way she was looking at him were weird by themselves.
He tried to get up, but his legs gave out, and the girl glanced at him with an intrusive sort of curiosity. "Oh my. Why are you covered in blood? What happened to you?"
She crouched beside him, entwining her graceful fingers with his limp, blood stained ones. Foster thought he could see the ocean in her deep azure eyes. "Beasts," he forced himself to say. "They..happened..to me."
The girl went pale. "Oh, well, an encounter with a beast is nothing to treat lightly. Keep your hand in mine, and I will heal you."
Foster pulled himself up into a sitting position.
Despite the discomfort this caused, he wanted to look less pathetic. "Um, okay. How are you..going to heal me?"
The girl looked at him incredulously, then just smiled. "I'll use my element, of course."
One of her hands was raised, and then the water in the little creek rose up around them both, twisting and twirling. Foster shut his eyes, expecting to be soaked, but he wasn't.
His pain eased, and he opened his eyes to see the water gently wrapping around his wounds like translucent band-aids. The blood was cleaned from his injuries, and he found he now able to sit up a little straighter. The girl's hair flew up wildly around her face, dark blue against the brighter blue and white of the water. The water receded away from them both, and Foster shivered. He had been soaked by the water, chilled to the bone.
He was so wet that his jeans and sweater clung to him like a thicker second skin, but that didn't seem to matter now. He hadn't noticed he was wet because he was feeling better.
His pain was gone.
However, his sweater was torn up in the back.
He noticed it because of the way the torn fabric stuck to his body. Why was it torn? He supposed that wasn't important at the moment. The girl smirked and curtsied to him.
She was wearing a blue and white dress that ended at her knees. It had puffy short sleeves.
Her shoes were simple white flats.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," she said as she faced him. "I've forgotten to introduce myself." She pointed to herself as she continued speaking. "My name is Aquarius, and I am one of the Gifted fairies of water. Friends call me Aqua."
She winked and then sat down by the creek, letting her feet come into contact with the water's smooth surface. "What's your name?"
Foster swallowed hard. Aqua had wings, large blue ones with frilly spots and darker patterns on them. "It's Foster."
"Foster?" Aquarius laughed. "Really? That's an unusual name for a fairy."
"A..fairy?"
"Well, yes. That's what you are."
Foster felt nausea rise up in his throat. His torn sweater-what had caused that?
With one trembling hand, he felt the bare part of his back that his tarnished sweater no longer covered. At first, he didn't feel anything out of the ordinary, but then his fingers found his shoulder blades-or rather, where they would've been if two, paper thin appendages hadn't taken their place. They were filmy and fragile, and some purple stuff came away on his hand when he moved his fingers away from there.
He drew in a breath sharply, and then another one. The world around him had begun to spin.
He didn't want this. He had never wanted this.
He had just wanted to get Kara back.
An idea came to Foster. Maybe this fairy could make him human again and send him home.
Before he could get a word out, Aquarius broke into his thoughts. "When I first saw you, lying there in that cavern, I thought you were a Flightless, and an injured one at that. It's a good thing you turned out to be a fairy, or I might've just tossed you into the river without any thought." She scowled. "Ugh, humans.
I despise them."
The creek's waters whipped up suddenly, lapping at their banks with a certain ferocity.
Foster backed away from Aqua. Her hair had gone up again, turning white at the edges.
Her eyes lacked pupils, and had become engulfed by blueness.
"They destroy the oceans, you know, and mindlessly hurt the poor creatures that live there. I would kill them all if I could, but there are laws in place that keep me from doing so."
She calmed down, and her hair became a serene sky blue again. Her eyes too, returned to normal. She looked at him as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
"My apologies. Were you going to say something, Foster?"
Foster shook his head briskly. "Uh, no, no, nope. Not at all."

Kara, Lily, Axel, and Hillary left the castle at once, going out into the forest.
"You mentioned that a Gifted fairy could take us in," Kara said. "Which one did you mean?"
Axel was looking intently at a golden compass he had taken with him. In its center was a ruby that glistened in the light of the sun.
He seemed fairly distracted, but he answered her anyway. "Aquarius, the Gifted fairy of water, or Jett, her brother. It depends on whoever's home at the moment."
"Aquarius?" Lily repeated, puzzled. "Isn't that the name of a horoscope?"
"A horo what?" Hillary asked.
"Never mind." Lily sighed and looked away, seemingly fed up with the princess' lack of understanding. Axel led the group to a small stream. It had some small grasses lining its shore. It seemed normal enough.
"Aquarius," Axel called out, kneeling by the water's edge. "The prince of Lymeria wishes to speak with you."
The surface of the water trembled, and a girl emerged from it, looking bored. Her tanned skin, wide blue eyes, and matching blue hair were certainly a sight to see, but her dress and wings which resembled water itself were mesmerizing to behold. "Sorry, but I am currently spending my time with someone else," she told him. Her voice was like the mighty pound of waves against a barren shore.
"Come back later."
"But this is important!" Lily cried. "Don't turn us away!"
Aquarius narrowed her eyes, and her hair and the water behind her became a darker shade of blue. "A human?" she murmured. "Here, within my domain?"
A wave of massive proportions formed behind the fairy, rising up and up, farther and farther, until it towered above them and cast its own shadow. "I don't think so."
The wave descended downwards, and Lily screamed. Axel and Hillary grabbed her arms and Kara's and carried them above the wave, protecting them as the wall of water hit the ground where the group had been standing only moments before. Lily was blushing wildly, since Axel was now holding her tightly in his arms. "No, Aqua," Hillary shouted. "Lily's not an intruder, she's a friend.
She has done nothing to harm you!"
"Yes, she has," Aqua answered. "Her entire species sickens me."
"But why?" Kara cried.
"Is that not obvious? Her ancestors have poisoned the oceans and have committed unspeakable evils upon it."
The water behind her churned rapidly.
"She must pay for her actions!"
"Wait!" Kara knew it was dangerous to question a Gifted fairy such as her, but she had to save Lily. "Has my friend hurt you personally?"
The fairy thought about it, then looked frustrated as she replied. "No."
"Then why are you trying to hurt her?
What's done is done, and killing her won't stop your oceans from being polluted, or save your animals. Let her go. Please."
Aqua's expression of hatred seemed to soften, and the waters behind her calmed down as she did. "I see your point. However, I can't help you now. Like I said before, I am assisting someone else."
"You have to!" Hillary cried. "Please! The queen has gone missing."
"Missing? Queen Iona?"
Aqua came out of the water to stand before them. She crossed her arms. "Are you sure?"
"Well, she wasn't in the castle," Axel told her. "Where else would she be? She never goes anywhere else."
The Gifted fairy let out a long sigh, then frowned, looking irritated. "Fine. I will help you, young ones, but not until I finish with this fairy here. He's been hurt by a demise beast, and I need to remove the venom from him as soon as possible."
She turned, and her blue wings flared out behind her.
Kara was amazed. Though Sylvan represented nature and all existing life forms, she hadn't looked nearly as magnificent as her.
As the fairy turned, her dress shimmered, and her wings did too. She knelt down upon the grass beside an unmoving person laying there.
Kara hadn't noticed him before because he had been so quiet and still, but now dread made her step back.
Foster. Foster was here.
Her ex looked different than the last time she had seen him. He was soaking wet, and the dark blue sweater he was wearing was ripped up to shreds along the back. What was there now made her cover her mouth out of shock.
He had wings, large fairy wings that were streaked with red and purple-human and fairy blood, she knew. They had abruptly replaced his shoulder blades. As Aquarius touched his wings, he groaned dully. This didn't make sense. Why did he have wings, and why was he here at all? These questions couldn't be answered unless she asked them out loud, but she was too upset to do that, so she instead just stared back at him with wide eyes.
Lily did too, but was less distraught over it.
"What's your ex doing here?" she asked Kara in a low whisper. "I don't know," she said back.
"I was wondering about the same thing."
Kara walked over to where Aqua was beside the creek. When the fairy heard her approaching, she frowned. "Don't interfere. The extraction of the venom in him could take a while."
"I won't. I just want to talk to him."
Kara jostled his arm.
"Foster," she muttered. "Foster, get up."
The boy's eyes opened slowly. When they were open entirely, Kara noticed an alarming change in them. They were still blue, yes, but a ring of gold ran around his pupil. It had never been there before. "Kara?" Foster rasped.
"Is it really you?"
"Yes." She sighed. "Foster, what are you doing here? I thought you were going to stay out of Lymeria."
"I was, but then your dad talked me into coming back. He's here somewhere, looking for you."
"Really?" Kara imagined her nervous, grief stricken father wandering through the woods, calling her name over and over. She hated to think of it. He wouldn't last long out there.
"Where is he now?"
Foster thought about this, then answered.
"I'm not sure. The last time I saw him, he was by this huge castle."
Aqua seemed to have had enough of their chatting. "You're finished now, girl. The banter can wait until later, when your friend is feeling better."
"Alright." Kara looked back at Axel and Hillary questioningly. What was their plan?
Hillary spoke up first. "Aquarius, demise beasts have destroyed our home. May we stay with you for a while?"
"I guess so. The queen would want me to abide by your wishes."
Lily took this all in, suddenly interested. "Good! Where will we be staying?"
"In my house, of course. Take these and put them on."
The fairy flicked her wrist, and five pearl necklaces materialized in everyones' hands.
Kara looked at them more closely, and noticed they weren't pearls after all. They were glittering drops of water, held in place by a silvery chain. They glowed with so much internal light that from a distance, they resembled the round, pure white jewels.
Kara moved to wrap it around her neck.
Once she did, the droplets gleamed further.
They didn't wet her skin at their touch, which was good because she was still wearing her other one from Toby. Despite this, she didn't want to risk messing up Toby's gift to her, so she made it into a bracelet with a snap of her fingers. Kara faced her friends, expecting a reaction from them at seeing a magical gold necklace. She didn't receive one, as Axel, Hillary, Lily, and Foster were too preoccupied with their own jewelry to notice hers.
"These are gorgeous!" Lily gushed. "Where did you get them from?"
Aqua smiled at the compliment. "Nowhere. I make them myself. Now, are you all wearing your necklaces?"
Everyone nodded or said yes. Axel and Foster were wearing them too, despite there being nothing manly about sparkly necklaces.
"Very well. You will all be staying with me and my brother in my home underwater."
Lily's jaw dropped. Once she recovered from her initial shock, she looked at the fairy with dismay. "Did you say underwater?
I can't breathe underwater. None of us can!"
Aquarius laughed. "That's what the necklaces are for. Come on!"
Without another word or any hesitation, the fairy leapt into the creek. Axel exchanged looks with Hillary, and then went after her. Hillary followed him. Once she had vanished in the body of water, Kara walked up to the creek's banks. She couldn't see the bottom of the thing, but it had to be shallow.
Where was everyone going?
Lily smiled and took Kara's hand, squeezing it comfortingly.
"What are you waiting for, bestie? We're about to see an underwater house! How cool is that?"
Kara laughed at this. "Cooler than anything. You're not worried about Aqua's problem with humans?"
"No way. She won't hurt me with you guys around. Let's go already!"
Lily squeezed her hand again, and then backed up to get a running start. Kara did too, and then they both were hurtling towards the water. The two girls jumped at the same time, Lily holding her nose and Kara closing her eyes.