was the morning's worry

Keys jingled as they whipped through the air at an inconsiderable speed, drawing the attention of the passer-bys on Silver Crossing. Puck could have kept them silent as a mouse when he flew through the air, but he wanted the man he stole them from to adequately gage the ebbing rustle of metal grow farther and farther away from him.

Because a fairy could do as a fairy liked. What would a man do in response, trap him? That collector had certainly tried, and now he was missing the keys to his front door and money chest.

His minuscule form bolted through the breadth of an audience gathered for a play, weaving through hoops that had been hung high above the stage. Children cheered as they watched the tiny beast turn into the faintest of freckles against the blue sky, growing further away with each passing second. He was no larger than the smallest of apples, but was filled with more exuberance than most men of that era. Fairies were, after all, the most blatant reminder that humanity could feel joy too, if they didn't busy themselves so often with war.

Then again, in recent times, even fairies had been infected by that mad sense of senselessness.

A grubby hand suddenly shot out from beside him, fat fingers wrapping around the length of the key chain as he was forced down towards the ground at an intense speed.

The collector had suddenly appeared beside him!

Puck whipped back and forth in his hand, tremoring at an incomprehensible speed as he called out towards the man.

“Hey, hey now! Back! Back, you insipid mongrel! I don’t want to be part of your collection! It’s just silly rubbish anyway! Herbs and roots, you’re more a gardener than a collector!”

“Arcarius, Lemgrift. Salisborn!” The collector shouted in a mad fury, saliva and greenish-brown residue flying from his cracked white lips.

“And you’re verbally illiterate! It’s like a strange curse!”

“Halleflen!” The collector imposed on him like the great brutality of a storm. His fingers wrapped tightly around Puck’s waist and neck, threatening with each second to pop his eyes straight out of his skull.

Puck grimaced, red in the face as he shouted again as if he hadn’t been heard. “That’s not even a real language!”

“It’s sorcery, asshole.”

The spell had gathered in the palm of the collector’s other hand, resting over Puck’s head. Crimson flames coiled around his fingertips, spiraling off into wisps of fading embers, a hot core of magma bursting outwards from its center.

Puck hurriedly wedged his hand through the crack between the collector’s fingers, snapping his own before flattening himself completely. He slipped through the man’s hands, reforming completely as he grinned.

A fairy was prone to tricks, too.

As soon as the fireball shot towards his head, Puck swiped his hand to the left, a gust of wind bursting from his fingertips. It carried the breadth of the heart of fire away, exploding not far from where he had been floating.

"I’m aware, I was messing with you." Puck spoke in a bored manner, he was far more prone to lacking excitement in mundane things.

The collector whipped around, his other hand having already prepared the remaining spells.

When the sparks of existence finally coalesced, an amalgamation of fire and brilliant crimson light shot out like a weave of lightning towards his head.

“If I can’t manage to capture you, I’ll kill you and use your body for my experimentation!”

Puck opened his mouth suddenly, his jaw extended far above where it should have as he caught the spell against his tongue, quickly snapping his mouth shut like a trap and swallowing it whole.

"If you plan on doing that, you should really start trying now." He licked his lips.

Puck reached his hand upwards, shaking it back and forth. The sizeable ring of keys had been taken once more, now dangling from his grasp as a glaring taunt.

“Alright, I’m bored. Good luck opening… everything you own.”

He snapped his fingers, quickly dissipating into a flurry of bright-sapphire wisps. They coalesced around his being, fleeting in their visage, and soon there was nothing left in the long street but the aggravated collector, who quickly stormed off in a hurry, cursing all the while.

Droplets echoed far-off in the distance from where Puck had reappeared. It was dark and dreary, the air tinted with the scent of rust and mildew. He had arrived inside of the wall of a large municipal building, walking along the insulation that lined its interior.

And it was home to him, when he was not busying himself in the Dream, where his kin grew ever-bored in their endless lives. He preferred the mortal realm, anyways… most did.

Some days, those fairies of the Endless Dream would make their way to the mortal world as he did. It wasn't out of any duty other than that of pure whimsy.

But that sort of fun wasn't bound to human restriction, monstrous and cruel when it had to be. Because, after all, they were not human. They were the most beautiful of devils.

He let out a heavy sigh as he waltzed through the endless darkness, looking back and forth as if the lack of light bothered him not in the slightest. Fairies could see in the dark, after all.

“Hello, my dearest guard dog…” placing his hands in his pockets, he suddenly stopped and glanced downwards.

There was a sizeable grey rat standing in front of him, its glaring red eyes piercing through the abyss, its snout shivering as it sniffed adamantly at the fairy.

“I need you to take this for me. Put it in the useless thing pile.” Puck threw the key ring towards the rat, who caught it between its fetid, rotting teeth without hesitation. “Although, I also need someone to keep watch…”

This was a true predicament. What if he was discovered? Who would defend his precious, useless, spiteful keepsakes?

Puck snapped his fingers, watching as faint white threads shot out from around him and wrapped around the wailing mouse, sinking deep into its flesh. Then, its eyes popped out of its skull, threatening to explode completely. Its entire body seemed to bisect itself and burgeon outwards, tufts of grey fur growing over where flesh had been revealed, sprouting new limbs and facial features.

Eyes were filled with a sense of loss and grievance, they shuddered like they had just witnessed the most horrifying of things.

And now there were two of them.

"From this point forward, split your daily tasks between the two of you." Puck tipped his hat towards the two rats and smiled. “Man, why didn’t I think of this before? Maybe I’ll go clone that collector too, and then fight him again…”

He suddenly spat outwards, wisps of crimson flame exiting in a flurry.

“Human magic is truly disgusting…” he sighed. He took a moment to rearrange his thoughts. He had been out on an errand when he had first been captured by the collector, and now it was time to fulfill it. "Now, I had heard that there was living death at the cottage on Llewen Way, so I have to see for myself. It’s quite an exciting thing, isn’t it? True death, but alive…"

Puck pressed a finger to his lips, meeting the gazes of the rat and his freshly-cloned counterpart.

"You'll provide me with that as an alibi, right? After all, I have been up to some dastardly business recently."

He nodded his head before the two mice could even respond— well, they couldn’t quite do that either. So it really didn’t matter at all.

“Perfect! If anyone asks, just keep doing that.”

Puck snapped his fingers once more, bowing to the two mice before disappearing in a flurry of bright blue wisps.

He appeared inside of a dark, damp room obscured by a thick curtain, filled with the faint, suppressed groaning of the dying.

The room simultaneously reeked of death. It felt as if the living didn't belong in its presence, it was terrible in its maddening ways. It seemed sterile on the surface, it wasn’t the physical aspect of the space that had been affected. There was a… terrifying aura permeating throughout the room.

Puck settled on the windowsill, gazing down at the corpse on the bed. It was... still breathing.

Not only did its chest rise shallowly, dropping taut with the skin that had shrunken below its neck, but Puck could swear he saw its eyes roll forward just to glance up at him.

A faint smile spread up his lips as he bowed, tipping his hat towards the corpse.

"Hello, Kaede."