Joshua's Fairy Tale (Updates: Sundays, hopefully)

New chapter! Posted on a Sunday! My lord.

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Chapter Three – Shuria's Café

Joshua's night was pretty uneventful. If he dreamed at all, he couldn't remember it. He seemed to just blink, and suddenly several hours had passed... And, right there in front of him, grinning broadly, was a green-skinned fairy!

Joshua yelped and jumped back, falling out of bed and hitting his head on the floor. Midori fell over herself laughing, grinning down at him while Joshua slowly began to piece together what had happened yesterday. Oh, right... she'd promised not to eat him. He didn't want to think about what would happen if someone decided to eat him in his sleep...

Midori grinned over at him, recovering from her laughter. “Heh. 'Morning, squirt. Seeing as you're already up...” She stood up, stretching. “C'mon. Minuette's out doing some errands, so you're stuck with me today. Time to show you around, I guess.”

Joshua got up carefully, nodding slowly – before his stomach rumbled, and he winced. “Uh... should we have breakfast first?”

Midori grinned and hmmed. “Well, I am kinda hungry...” She licked her lips, giving Joshua a look that bordered on the sultry. “I can think of something to eat...” Joshua's eyes widened, and he took a small step back. Midori laughed again. “C'mon. There's a café pretty close. We can get food there.”

Joshua stared at her as she shrank down to her usual four-inch height. Her wings snapped open, and she took to the air, heading for the door. When Joshua didn't follow, she turned around and frowned at him. “What? Come on, I don't have all day...” Well, actually, she did, but she wasn't telling him that.

Joshua then nodded his head, and began to follow. Joshua stepped out onto the deck outside the hollowed-out tree apartment. In the light of day, the town was even more awe-inspiring. The sunlight filtered down through the leaves gave everything a warn, diffused glow. The cave-like openings in the trees were slowly emptied of their inhabitants. They were, by a vast majority, mostly fairies – after all, most of the tree-apartments were far too small for humans to live in.

Most of the humans, nekos and elves lived in actual huts made of wood, built directly into the boughs and trunks of the many giant trees. Walkways and platforms criss-crossed between the trees, making it so that it was possible to get anywhere in the village without ever needing to touch the ground. And if you did need to touch the ground for some reason, there were several ladders and even a few elevators leading down.

Joshua walked over to the edge of the platform, staring around. Many fairies were fluttering out of their homes in the trees, and other people of all ages were making their way across the walkways. Joshua could see several children hurrying along, a few of them still eating breakfast as they hurry off to their destinations. Probably school, Joshua decided. A few people spotted him now and then, giving him curious looks. Most people just continued on to their destinations, however.

“Oh, hey, that reminds me,” Midori said, right next to Joshua's ear. The boy gave a start, which simply make the tiny fairy chuckle. “Are you gonna be enrolling in school? You don't have to, I guess, but...” she trailed off. “...Anyway! C'mon, let's get you some breakfast.” The fairy patted his ear, grinned, and began to fly off, without even looking around to make sure Joshua was following. The boy quickly trotted off after her. Fairies are very fast, even when they're so very tiny – he had to jog to keep up with her.

Joshua was almost hesitant to jog out onto the walkway. It looked quite thin, and not terribly stable – at least it had guard rails. But when he stepped out onto it, he noticed it was in fact quite sturdy – maybe it was held together by magic? Or maybe whoever built it was just very good... Joshua didn't give it much thought, feet thudding against the wood as he continued to follow the fairy leading him.

They headed downwards slightly. The walkways weren't always level, so it was theoretically possible to get pretty close to the ground just by walking along them – although it would take a while. Around halfway down to the ground from where they had started, two trees over, Midori finally led Joshua towards quite a large, wooden building, seemingly fused with the tree it was in.

As he was led into the building, he noticed a sign above the door. 'Shuria's Café'. Well, this was the place... Inside the building, there were eight tables, lined up four against each wall. They had little walls between them to give them an air of privacy. The tables and chairs all seemed to be grown out from the walls and floor, just like the furniture in Minuette and Midori's house. At the far end there was a counter with a few stools next to it. The counter appeared to have been grown, but for some reason the stools were just regular wooden stools.

There weren't many customers currently. Three humans sitting at one booth – a man, a woman and a boy, so probably a family group. Over by the counter an old-looking neko man sat drinking coffee, and another much younger neko woman was chatting animatedly to an elf woman standing behind the counter.

“Shuria!” called the fairy leading Joshua along. “You back there?! Oy! Shuria!”

A voice came from a room behind the counter. “What? Damn it, Exellia, if you're ignoring customers again I'll throw you out of the town and call Mids, so help me...” The owner of the voice soon entered through an open doorway in the back wall. She was an elf, like the serving girl behind the counter, although she was quite a bit older as well as several times... larger. “Oh! Mids! Who's this?” she said, suddenly seeming to forget her annoyance at her employee.

Shuria was plump. That was the first thing most noticed about her. She was round, and jolly, always laughing or smiling – when she wasn't annoyed at Exellia, at any rate. She had long, pointed ears, making her elven heritage quite unmistakable, even if her angular features were mostly concealed by a healthy layer of fat. This was, of course, quite unusual – elves were generally thin and graceful. Still, she carried her weight well, moving with unmistakable elven grace, and seeming to be quite light on her feet. If she was human, she would have appeared to be in her late thirties or early forties, but as elves have differing lifespans, Joshua found it hard to really tell how old she was.

“Hey Shuria! Midori said happily, waving both arms as she hovered there in the air. “This is Joshua! Say hi to Shuria, Joshua!”

“Um... hi,” Joshua said, tentatively.

“We're here to get him some breakfast,” Midori continued, without even waiting for Joshua to finish. “You got anything for the pipsqueak? We don't keep human food back at the apartment. No real point most of the time.”

Shuria nodded her head to Joshua as he greeted her, but she waited for Midori to stop speaking – she'd just talk over her, otherwise. “Hmm. Well, of course.” She beamed at Joshua. “What would you like, sweetie? Porridge? Bacon and eggs? A sandwich?”

Joshua fidgeted a little bit. “Um. Porridge sounds good, sure.”

The elven woman nodded with a grin. “Right, then. Exellia!” she suddenly shouted, making the elf girl stand up straight. “Make this boy some porridge.” The girl nodded her head, quickly, and hurried back into the back room. Shuria then turned her smile back on, like a light bulb. “Take a seat dear. So, between you and me...” She learned forward over the counter. “You're not an elf. I can... see it. I've never seen an aura quite like yours, dear. Want to tell me what you are?”

Joshua sat down on one of the stools, then stared at Shuria like a deer caught in the headlights of a semi. “I... um... I-I don't really want...”

“Are you half human, dear? It's okay. Being half human is nothing to be ashamed of. Hell, my Exellia's father is human. Minuette's mother was half human, as well.”

“W-well...” Joshua said, still fidgeting. “I am half human... I guess... but the other half isn't elf...”

Shuria leaned forward a little more, looking intrigued. “Oh? What's the other half, then? Some sort of demon? Angel? Although angel wouldn't explain the ears...”

Joshua looked down, trying to avoid her gaze. “...Fairy,” he admitted after a while, in a small voice so only Shuria could hear. Shuria stood there for a while, digesting what he just told her.

Midori floated where she was for a while. Whether she heard Joshua or not wasn't quite apparent, but she did manage to get the idea that maybe hanging around here wasn't a great idea. “Hey, uh, I'm gonna go... do stuff... for a while. Take care of him, Shuria. He's cute!” She fluttered off without even giving them a chance to respond.

Shuria sighed. “That girl doesn't know how to keep still sometimes...” she said, frowning a bit to herself. “So. I can see that you don't have wings, meaning you're not... quite the same as Minuette's mother. So, tell me. What is it about you that makes you special?”

Joshua sat in silence for a few moments. “...Well, I guess I'd better start at the beginning...”

Nice chapter ^_^
It's interesting to see your take on Kortiki, there isn't a lot of stories using it.
I'm really curious to learn more about his backstory

Nice piece

Nice story Yuki. It's coming along great!