North Sea Dungeon

[Az']

Az' lifted their hand in front of their eyes. There, nestled on the back of their fingers, was a fairy. Its skin supple and soft, its chest expending with every inhale. Az' bet that if they were to press the tiniest bit, they would feel the rapid heartbeat unique to small mammals.

The desk lady kept on talking.
"It will allow you to communicate with everyone else on the island near instantaneously! Quite cleverly crafted, aren't they?"

A tool. A man-made tool that imitates life perfectly. Az' didn't know much about magic, so their opinion didn't mean a lot. Vaguely, the word 'travesty' floated through their head. It disappeared before any thought could grab it.
Suddenly, the fairy straightened and started talking. The voice coming out of it was entirely wrong, anxiety laced words on a lax and smiling face. Some utter gibberish, something about a cheese trap and an idiot stuck in a pit.
Az' wondered whether the voice would still be spilling from an unthetered neck once they bit the head off. They wondered whether it would just spill blood instead. They wondered whether crushing its skull under their teeth would sound exactly like that one time they did it to a rat.

"Sir? Is everything alright?"
Snapping back to reality, Az' threw a bright smile to the desk lady.
"Quite alright, cutie pie! Thank you so much for your help today. I guess I'm just a bit overwhelmed with all this administrative stuff."
Kohei would have hated the doubtful glance she gave to the single, mostly blank, piece of paper sitting on her desk. Az' just widened their smile. They hadn't lied, the form –as simple as it was– really did give them a hard time. It was only thanks to Kohei's effort during the past years that they weren't completely illiterate.

With a wave over their shoulder, Az' walked out. They got what they needed here. They didn't bother holding back the door, letting it rattle the nearby window frames to its heart's content.
As Az' stepped out of the porch's shadow and into the morning sun, a beam caressed the fairy's face for the first time. A delighted glimmer shone in it's eyes. Az' saw a little boy listening to folk's tales with this very same glimmer in his eyes once.
Something burned in their chest.

"I'll call you Heihei."