Lumen

A large crystal jutted out of the ground, nearly as tall as the trees around it. The crystal was slightly askew and gave off an unearthly pale glow, while within it countless colors twisted and shifted. Spreading out from the base, a white carpet of strange porcelain-like material covered the ground, smoothing out the forest floor and giving it a dull sheen. And on top of the crystal, lying on her belly, was a fairy.

“Jeez! I’m finally out of there! That took way too long.”

The fairy couldn’t have been more than a foot tall, with pale skin and long white hair that reached down to her waist. Emerging from her back and flapping lazily in the air were two black wings, somewhat resembling those of a swallowtail butterfly. She was wearing a black leotard, black gloves that reached up to her elbows, and black heeled boots that reached up to her thighs. She sighed and rolled onto her back, looking up at the sky.

“At least this place looks nice. But where even am I?”

The fairy sat up and looked around, before sighing again.

“Guess I’m gonna have to check things out from the air...”

Flapping her wings, the fairy darted into the sky, only to be met with a sea of green stretching out in every direction. Quickly returning to the crystal, she sighed again.

“Well, That didn’t help. I guess I’m in some kind of forest or something? It’s way bigger than anything I’ve seen at home...

“And there’s so little lumen here, I can barely fly. At least that’ll get better eventually.”

She patted the crystal beneath her.

“Until then, I guess I just get to... wait.”

And so the fairy waited. And waited. And waited. For what felt like days, but was really maybe half an hour, the fairy tossed and turned on top of the crystal.

“Argh! No! No more waiting! I need to do *something*!

“I know, I’ll go look for something to snack on. I bet there’s some tasty bug or other not too far from here.”

Taking off from the crystal, the fairy flew down to the edge of the strange white material and started poking around in the dirt. After a few failed attempts, she managed to pull out a worm, which squirmed about in her hands, trying to get back to the safe earth.

“Huh, it’s all squishy. I guess this ground is really soft, so it doesn’t need a shell or anything. I bet Arg’d have fun with it. I can’t wait to call her over once I build up enough lumen. But for now, let’s eat!”

The fairy took a big bite of the worm, easily tearing through it with her sharp teeth. She chewed it for a bit, passing it back and forth between her cheeks, before ultimately swallowing it down.

“Not bad, I guess? Not much flavor, but it’s easy to eat, so I guess that balances out. And the mouthfeel’s pretty good, just chewy enough.”

The worm was squirming quite intensely by that point, so the fairy hurriedly finished it off.

“Now what do I do? That was actually pretty filling; I don't really feel like hunting for anything else.

“Um, what was it after food? Shelter? I think Arg said something like that. Or maybe it was shelter first, then food. Whatever, it’s been a while since I built a nest, that should take up some time.

“I guess I’ll use one of those trees? I don’t really want to sleep so far from the crystal, though...”

The fairy turned back and looked at the crystal.

“I don’t really think I can build a nest on it... It’d just slide off. Hmm, maybe I can get a lumenwood seed or something. They’re kind of lumen-hungry, but this crystal should be able to support *one* tree.”

The fairy flew up to the crystal and rested her hands against one of its faces. Pale light spilled out from where she touched and wrapped around her arms like vines. She brought her face close to the crystal and shouted.

“Hey Arg! Can you send a lumenwood seed over!”

The crystal face rippled as a strangely distorted yet clearly annoyed voice came through.

“You don’t have to *shout*, Aur, I can hear you just fine. And what do you want a lumenwood seed for? Some lumenwood should grow on its own once the connection gets stronger.”

“Yeah, but I want a lumenwood *now*! I’m making a nest and I’m not going now to use one of these alien trees.”

The voice, Arg, sighed.

“Fine, yeah, I guess it would be nice to have a proper nest when I get over there. I’ll scrounge up a seed and send it through. See if you can’t build up some extra lumen somehow for the transfer.”

“Will do!”

The fairy, Aur, pulled her hands away from the crystal as the ripples and voice faded. The tendrils of light loosened and sunk back into the depths of the crystal as she did.

“Where am I going to get extra lumen? I don’t exactly have some just lying around. Ugh, if only this world had lumen instead of all that gross mana! Things would be so much easier...”