25 A Fairy Chea (1/2)

When they finished their game it was time for Ruby to go get ready for bed. But first she needed the gauge the progress of her healing wing. This place didn't have any mirrors so she couldn't exactly look for herself.

”Hey Ash, can you tell me if my wing looks better?”

The vampire stared at her blankly. ”How exactly am I supposed to do that?”

”It should be mostly healed by now so if everything is as it should be the tear will look like nothing more than a faint gray line,” Ruby told him before removing the glamour from her wings so they were visible.

Ash examined it very closely for a moment before responding hesitantly. ”…I think it's fine. Can you move it?”

She gave her wings a few experimental flaps. It didn't hurt anymore, which was a good sign. She had been using her feet to walk instead of hover all this time and they ached from overuse. Testing whether or not she could hover again would be a good idea.

Ruby fluttered her wings so lightly that she barely left the ground. That didn't hurt either. Finally! The pressure on her feet from actually having to walk had been terrible. Walking in midair involved moving her feet but not bearing her body weight up so it was much more natural.

Ash looked at her with a glimmer of curiosity in his dull red eyes. ”…are you doing anything?”

”I'm hovering,” she admitted sheepishly. ”It's a fairy cheat. We all do it. Our feet are close enough to the ground that humans don't notice. You have no idea how hard it's been for me to actually walk the past couple of weeks!”

”Walking is difficult for you?”

”Yes! Wings are a lot stronger than feet and can bear our body weight better. But I suppose you wouldn't understand that because feet are all you've got.”

Ash let out a short laugh. ”Feet are all I've got, huh? Fairies truly are fascinating creatures. I regret not learning more about them earlier.”

Ruby was pretty sure that was a compliment. Even if it wasn't, she would let it slide for now. ”I can hover again but I shouldn't push it. I need at least a few more days before I try flying any higher than that. Do you mind?”

He shook his head. ”Not at all. I wouldn't want to rush your healing process and hinder it in any way. You should go get some sleep. I'll see you in the morning.”

”Alright. Goodnight, Ash.”

”Sleep well.”

Ruby smiled to herself as she headed back to the bedroom, reminded of something. The first time she said goodnight to him he had been so shocked. That wasn't something that vampires said to each other.

Because they were nocturnal, ”good day” was the vampire equivalent of ”goodnight” and ”good evening” meant the same thing as ”good morning.” He had been so weirded out by this language difference that he had been responding to her parting words with ”sleep well” ever since.

Ash didn't know what a lot of human objects were but the way he spoke was fairly modern most of the time. He must have picked things up from the witch covens where he got his blood pills.