"She's absolutely beautiful. Probably the most beautiful girl I've ever seen. I just don't want to settle for you right now."

Michelle swung her hand at the man in front of her. There was a loud slap as the man's head jerked sideways. Michelle stared at guy standing in front of her for a few moments in obvious disbelief, then quickly stomped off in the opposite direction.

"Aaaaand cut!"

Michelle let out a deep sigh and turned around.

"Sorry about that, Brad. I didn't mean to really hit you."

Brad was rubbing his jaw and working it around, seemingly trying to get feeling back into it. "Remind me never to really get you mad, ok? Jees!"

Chris Langdim finally stopped wringing his hands long enough to laugh contentedly. "Don't start discouraging her. That was beautiful! We'll give everyone a bit of a break today. Let's take an hour for lunch! Meet back at two!"

Michelle walked quietly off of the set. Langdim was a rough director, and a nervous one as well. They had to do every scene numerous times before he ever accepted anything as being right. Most of the time, he still insisted it wasn't, and they would have to do the scene again the next day, when the sun was right again.

Michelle politely waved to the numerous "Good jobs" she got from the staff. She really didn't have a very large roll in this film. All she did mostly was make a dramatic exit at the beginning and at the end make up him. She didn't particularly like the film. In fact, she was fairly certain it wouldn't be shown across the country. But, it was work, and it put food on her plate.

Michelle's train of thought quickly came to stop when she she was able to see her trailer. She couldn't believe what she was seeing.

Her trailer was glowing.

At first, Michelle thought that she had left a lamp on in the trailer. Usually, though, that kind of light would simply show everything in the trailer; instead, the light was so bright, she couldn't even see in the trailer. It looked as if the windows themselves had decided that they wanted to start making their own light.

When Michelle finally regrouped her thoughts, she realized that her hand was on the doorknob. She released for a moment, then quickly grabbed it again. Now she realized why all the girls in the movies died. Something about this just wouldn't let her turn back now. She hoped to God it wasn't just curiousity.

Michelle's hand rested gently on the doorknob. She was nervous, and hesitated before openning the door. Forcing her nerves to steel, she gripped the knob and turned it.

Suddenly, the door burst open. Michelle was thrown back about 3 paces, but managed to keep her balance. Wide-eyed, she watched what had just come through her doorway.

There was nothing that could really describe what it looked like. The only word that came to her head was "wad." A floating wad of pure, white light. It came straight towards her, stopped, flickered between white and red for a moment, than solidified back to white and flew off to Michelle's left. It whipped around the corner of one of the sets without ever slowing down.

Once again, Michelle didn't even think about what she was doing. She ran after it.

She rounded the corner of the studio not too long after the ball of light. When she got there, though, she looked around. There was no sight of it.

Suddenly, there was a jerk on the back of her head. Something had latched itself to her hair and was tugging on it. As she lifted her hand to swat whatever it was, she noticed her hand looked red, from a light behind her.

She swatted at the thing, but it was out of the way before she even got her hand behind her head. The wad of light flew around in front of her, now glowing crimson red. Then, it did something she would never have expected.

It talked.

"Man, I knew I shoulda worked on my throws more."

Michelle barely had time to think Throws? before the thing flew straight at her. It connected square in her stomach. And once again, to her surpise, it hurt like crazy. She doubled over in pain as her air escaped her in a whoosh. She collapsed in a heap on the ground.

The red light remained floating over her. Michelle gulped for breath, glad it wasn't trying to hit her again. After a few quick breathes, she managed to get say something: "What was that for?"

The wad instantly flickered and turn back to white, and the light spoke again.

"You can speak faerie?"

Michelle laid there and stared at the thing floating above her, trying to comprehend. Faerie? It stayed in the same place, as well. Although Michelle couldn't tell if it had eyes, she did feel as if it were staring at her, for what felt like an eternity. She knew she should probably say something, but every time she opened her mouth, nothing came out.

Abrubtly, it jerked back towards the corner she came from, then flew off in the opposite direction. In a few moments, Michelle figured out why. She could here a man's voice yelling out her name, and it was coming closer.

Michelle quickly got back to her feet. She tried to catch her breath, but she knew she wouldn't be able to before he found her. She had to think of an excuse, and fast. Movie star or not, noone would believe she was chasing faeries.

Michelle quickly shut the trailer door. She stood looking at it for a moment. She really had no idea whether the stage hand who had found her really believed her story about running after a friend. To be honest, she didn't really care.

The man was looking for her because the director had ordered everyone back to the set.

So much for a nice, leisurely lunch.

Michelle had made some excuse about fixing her hair to go back to the trailer for a moment. She had to get a moment to think. What was that thing that she saw? It looked like just a light hovering around... but... it talked!

"Hey!"

Michelle spun around. It was the same voice as the light. She looked quickly left and right, but saw nothing.

"Down here, goofball."

Michelle looked down on her dressing table. Standing there, proud as anything, was person. A six-inch tall, completely naked person, but a person nonetheless.

Michelle suddenly felt a hard surface against her back. She didn't realize she was even backing up, no less that she was so close to the door. She had an urge to grab the doorhandle and bolt, but she fought to keep her hands in front of her.

The... person... wasn't exactly intimidating. For being under a foot tall, it looked very fit. Its body was ripped with muscles, but still fairly lean; she guessed if there was fat on it, it wasn't showing where she could see. Its face was very smooth, but it had a very sharp chin, a stout nose, and long, thin hair tied behind its back. Its shoulders, although far from broad, sat squarely and strongly above well developed chest muscles. Its pale, milky skin had no visible imperfections.

It was also sexless.

She really couldn't think of anything else to say about it. It just wasn't there. It was as smooth as any other part of its body.

"Don't be scared. I'm not going to hurt you or anything. I just wanted to talk."

Michelle just continued to stare. She knew her eyes must have been wide enough to serve food on, but she just couldn't help it.

"Maybe you don't recognize me. Let's try this."

Two thin, silver line appeared behind the little person. It had an iridescent glow, and was in movement the moment it came into sight. It was slowly beating up and down, keeping one end of each glowing wire stationary on the small of its back. The speed of the beats seemed to get faster and faster, and as they did, the lines became thicker and the glow intesified. Silver quickly turned into a bright white color as the light seemed to encompass the person's entire body, until Michelle was unable to see it at all, just a glowing ball of white.

Michelle swallowed hard. It definitely was the same thing that had hit her before.

"Ok," Michelle finally managed to get out. "I remember you."

"Good." The glow quickly turned back to silver and disappated. It seemed to take a whole lot more effort to get started then to stop. The person quickly winked back into view.

Michell took a small step forward as she tried once again to swallow the lump in her throat. She decided she had better start talking to it and making friends, before it started attacking again. What she would say, however, she hadn't a clue.

"What... are you?" Michelle finally stammered.

"I suppose I could ask you the same question," it responded with its hands on your hips.

"I asked you first." Michelle twitched when she said it. That wasn't exactly a mature response, and not something she would usually say. She felt very childish, and blushed a little. She turned away so it wouldn't see.

"Well, I figured it was fairly obvious," it squeaked. "I'm a faerie."

Michelle looked over her shoulder. "A what?"

It leaned over the edge of the table, with its hands on it's hips. "A fae-rie. Is it that difficult?"

Michelle turned around again, groping for the chair that she swore was right next to her. She could not take her eyes off of the thing that claimed it was a faerie. "Not difficult to understand. Just to believe."

Michelle leaned too far trying to find the chair and started to lose her balance. Instead of trying to gain it back, she plopped down on the ground. The two of them stared at each other for a good while, not knowing what to say. Michelle finally decided to say something.

"What's your name?"

"I asked you first," it responded with a smug smile.

Michelle's mind raced. It didn't ask her anything. They were just staring at each other. Then she remembered the question it had asked before. Michelle found it funny at the time; then again, so did the faerie.

"I'm human, of course," she said.

"No, you're not."

Michelle felt like she was struck by a hammer. "Excuse me?"

"You're not a human," the faerie said as it sat down on the edge of the desk. "You have a hearing problem? I don't think I've ever had to repeat myself so much."

Michelle almost stuck out her tongue, but stopped herself at the last minute. She hadn't done that in years. She really was being childish. Strange.

"What do you mean, I'm not human? I'm certainly not a faerie, and I live with a bunch of other humans."

"Well, you can understand me, right?" The faerie was leaning forward with its hands on its knees now. Its tiny feet were tightly crossed.

Michelle blinked. "Yeah, so?"

"So, humans can't understand us," it said surly. The faerie crossed its arms with confidence, leaning back and shifting its legs so they crossed at the knees. Michelle was surprised; with how muscular it seemed, and knowing how easily it had hurt her before, watching it cross its legs seemed very odd.

Michelle leaned forward now, with her hands on her knees. "And just how many humans have you talked to, anyway? Sounds to me like you're talking English."

The faerie turned up its nose. "I've tried talking to plenty of humans, thank you very much. This is Los Angeles. It's not like I could hide very easily."

Michelle shook her head. "That still doesn't prove anything. Maybe I'm just gifted."

The faerie laughed. It was a high pitched sound, but not at all piercing. It rang out like a chime in the wind. Michelle started to smile at the beautiful sound, but quickly forced it down. The faerie was laughing at her, after all.

"A human? Gifted?" it said between laughs. "Yeah, right!"

Michelle glowered. "Why is that so funny?"

The faerie made a visible effort to calm down. "A human can't be 'gifted'!"

Michelle crossed her arms defiantly. "And just why not? There's plenty of humans who are psychic! And a bunch of other things, too!"

The faerie shook its head the whole time, all the while biting its fist trying to keep from laughing. "You may have people who claim to be psychic, but they certainly aren't."

"And just why not?"

The faerie tapped its own head. "Cuz you use this too much."

Michelle blinked. Used our head? How could using our head be hindering us?

The faerie chuckled again, and quickly bit down on its fist. It still managed to interrupt Michelle's train of thought. She glared up at the thing, waiting for an explanation.

It chuckled once more, and stifled it quickly. It paused for a second and locked eyes with Michelle. After a short pause, it offered a question: "Have you noticed that I can still talk, even though my head, or I should say my brain, is much smaller than yours?"

Michelle blinked. She never even thought about it. Its head was no larger than a kitten's, yet she could communicate like anyone else. It defied every biological law she has ever heard.

"By the way," the faerie once again interrupted her thoughts, "in case you're wondering, I am not speaking English. You are speaking Faerie."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Come closer." Michelle fidgeted nervously. "C'mon, I'm not gonna hurt ya." Michelle still looked fearful, but crouched nearer to the faerie. At a gesture from the faerie to come closer, she shifted onto her knees and raised up off of the back of her legs. "Good. Can you see my face clearly?" Michelle nodded. "Good. Now, read my lips."

The faerie paused for a second, and then said "You are not speaking English."

Michelle's jaw dropped. It was like when she was young, and watching Godzilla. Her lips moved in one way, but her voice said something else. Michelle fell back on her haunches. She wanted to push back against the wall, but she knew that it wouldn't help. She couldn't run away from herself, and that was what she was really afraid of now.

"So what am I?"

The faerie shrugged. "Beats me. At first I thought that you might be something like a half-faerie, but I couldn't figure out how faerie blood and human blood could be mixed. Besides," she shrugged again, "you are just magically able to speak our language. Even faeries have to learn our language in the first place."

Michelle waited a few moments for it to go on. "So..."

The faerie just blinked. "So what?"

"Any ideas?"

"Not really." Michelle shook her head. "Hey, I'm only ten!" the faerie exclaimed with its hands on its hips. "I don't know that much about the world yet. Besides, I don't see you coming up with anything! Why do I have to be the one with all the answers!"

"Because you're the one who insists that I'm not human!" Michelle roared.

"Jees, you're touchy," the faerie responded with what could almost pass for sympathy. "Guess this is bothering you pretty bad."

Michelle sighed. "Well," she finally managed, "I grew up in a foster home." She chuckled. "Kinda like every other decent actor in the world, I guess."

"So you're worried that I might not be wrong," the faerie said with a grin. "You never knew your parents, so you can't really say that they were actually human either, huh?"

"I don't know why, but even though I never knew them, I still feel like I have to defend them," Michelle sighed.

The faerie's face contorted. "You make it sound like being human is a priviledge." Michelle shot the faerie another glare. "Sorry. I guess there must be a few good points to it."

Michelle let the icy look linger for a few more moments before she let it slide down. It came to a rest on her empty hands. They were constantly flexing and relaxing, the fingers curling into tight balls, and then forcibly releasing just enough so she could see her palms. She always seemed to do that when she was nervous. Not human? But what else could she be?

Michelle sighed. If faeries were real, who knows what else was. She could be just about anything.

"You just realized something. Care to share?"

Michelle blinked. Nobody was ever able to read her that easily. Well, nobody that was human, anyway. "How many other... um... species are there like you?"

"You mean like magical beings?" the faerie asked.

Michelle nodded at first, but then shook her head. "Not just magical." She thought for a moment. "Mythical would be a better word. You know, stuff that humans don't believe in any more."

The faerie pondered for a moment. "To be honest, I don't know. I could tell of the ones I know," it shifted slightly against the edge, "but I'm pretty sure there are things out there that even our president isn't aware of."

Michelle cocked an eyebrow. "Your president?"

"Yeah," the faerie said, nodding. "Our president. You know, the guy who leads our colony? Don't you have one of those?"

"Well, yeah," Michelle stammered, "but, well, I always heard faeries being led by a queen..."

"Well, that's kinda sexist now, isn't it?" the faerie laughed. "Besides, like we would stand to follow someone who we didn't chose to have up there? You think that humans came up with the republican system?"

Michelle smiled, in spite of herself. "What is your name, anyway?"

What followed was the most beautiful sound that she had ever heard. One voice seemed to make every orchestral tone she knew of at once, and played an interweaving melody. Pictures of mountains, raindrops and rainbows danced through her head to the tune. And not the rain that she sees so often here in California, either; no, this was the pure, crystal-clear drops of untouched forests. Within a moment, to her regret, the music stopped, and the pictures instantly vanished from her head.

"What's yours?" the faerie asked right afterwards.

"That's your name? That sounded more like music to me!"

Once again, the faerie chuckled. "And where did you think music came from?"

Michelle blinked. "Is... is all of your language like that? Is that what I'm talking like right now?" The faerie nodded. "Well, I'm not going to be able to say your name... I guess since it can't translate, I can't understand it... I need to find a actual word that can represent you."

"How about Sprite?" the faerie offered. Michelle chuckled. "What's so funny?"

"To humans, Sprite is a type of drink."

"Well, sprite is actually a small faerie, thank you!"

Michelle giggled a little while longer, but forced herself to stop. "Ok, ok. Sprite it is. Oh, and my name is Michelle."

The faerie's face contorted. "No wonder you found my name strange. That was the ugliest sound I've heard in a long time." The faerie thought for a moment. "I think I'll call you Angel."

"Angel?"

"Until we figure out what you are anyway."

"Do angels exist too?"

The faerie shrugged. "No idea. I hope so. I think they may be the only ones who may know what you are." The faerie stood up on the end of the table. "So, you ready to go?"

Michelle blinked. "Go? Go where?"

"To find out who you are, of course."

Michelle hesitated only a moment before she stood up and grabbed her coat. "Hide underneath my jacket. There's a pocket on the inside that you can stay in, so you won't have to fly around. I don't think I want everybody in the studio asking me who you are."

As she grabbed what little she thought she might need out of her dressing room, she wondered just what she was doing. She was in the middle of her first movie that could land her an academy award. She was a millionaire now, and was about to give it up to go chase fairy tales. What was she thinking?

She shook her head. A fairy tale was sitting in her pocket. This wasn't a story. This was life, and she had to figure it out, or else it would eat her from the inside. There's no way she could get that award if her mind was that distracted. She opened her trailer door to the bright sunlight. She took the last step that she would ever take from that trailer, and the first step on her new journey.

"Ok, it's clear. You can come out."

Sprite's head popped out of the jacket's inside pocket. The black leather jacket was being worn snuggly on Michelle for most of the short walk over to her SUV. Michelle was worried about the faerie being hugged that tightly to her, but it was cold out now, and since her purse was in the vehicle already, there was nowhere else she could hide Sprite.

Sprite looked around. "It didn't seem like we went very far. Where are we?"

"In my car," Michelle answered. Sprite started glowing and hovered out of her jacket. Michelle growled. "I told you before not to do that!"

The glow winked away instantly at Michelle's gruff voice. The faerie fell with a muffled thump on Michelle's lap. "Sorry," Sprite said humbly, although it was obviously forced. "You said it was clear."

Michelle sighed. "Ok, ok, sorry to have yelled at you. But people can see that light even if they can't see you, so you have to be careful about using that while we're still in the studio."

Sprite looked up inquisitively. "We're in the studio? But I thought you said we were in the car?"

Michelle blinked. It took a second before she realized that there was no way for the faerie to know what a car was. "Come over here," she said, gesturing to the handle on her door. Thin lines of light appeared behind Sprite as it stood up, and Michelle quickly corrected herself. "Walk over here."

The light disappeared, and Sprite jumped over to Michelle's left leg. Michelle put her hand out for Sprite to use as a step up to the handle. The faerie climbed up from one to the other nimbly. Michelle still couldn't get over little she (Michelle started thinking of it as a she, even though it definitely didn't look female) seemed to weigh.

As Sprite stood up straight, her head came even with the glass. She looked out, and quickly ducked back down. She came back up slowly to peer out the glass once more. Michelle grinned as she watched Sprite's reflection, her eyes darting from one direction to the next faster than a little child's.

"Can people out there see in here?" Sprite asked fearfully.

"Yes."

Sprite crouched down, turned back to face Michelle, and sat down on the door handle. "Then what are we doing here? We can't hide in here if everyone can see in."

Michelle chuckled. "We're not here to hide, silly." Michelle put her keys in the ignition. The engine let out a roar as it started, and quickly quieted back down to its steady hum. Feeling a tugging at her arm, Michelle looked down to see Sprite clinging to her jacket sleeve, eyes wide toward the front of the car.

"That's the engine, Sprite," Michelle said soothingly. "It's what makes the car move."

Michelle couldn't help but grin as Sprite's eyes grew even wider. "This thing can MOVE?"

"Do you mind going back into my lap? It'll be safer there."

Sprite inched down Michelle's arm and back into the seat. Michelle put the car in gear and started to drive towards the studio entrance. Remembering that Sean was still working at the gate, Michelle turned down one of the one-way streets that lead out the side of the studio. Sean was usually in touch with everyone, so Michelle's excuses probably wouldn't be taken seriously. In fact, Sean would probably send her back to talk to her director, something Michelle did not want to waste time with. Michelle was able to pass through this gate with simply a wave the boy in the booth. He grinned gape-toothed back at her, and raised the bar before she even came up to it. She flashed her pantented smile and turned off the road, heading back up the direction she was originally going.

"Wow," Sprite said as they took off down the road. "This thing moves fast!"

Michelle grinned. "See? There are upsides to thinking with your head."

Sprite chuckled. "A few, I guess. Does that mean you know what I was talking about then?"

Michelle shook her head. "I really have no idea. What else can you think with?"

Sprite shrugged. Michelle sat quietly, waiting for an answer. None came.

Michelle couldn't stand it. "So?"

Sprite glanced up at her. "So what?"

"So what do you think with?"

Sprite shrugged again. "I don't know. Really," she said to Michelle's incredulous stare. "We just do. No one has really looked into it, or if they have, they didn't find anything helpful."

Michelle put her eyes back on the road. The next few miles were very quiet ones, with Michelle thinking about all of the strange things she has learned about the world, and trying to think of what might possibly be next. As the miles stretched out, and Michelle guided the car out of the city, Sprite went to the window more often, watching the world speed by as the two of them travelled north.

"It's that way," Sprite had said much earlier, pointing while still in Michelle's little trailer.

Michelle had to think a moment to get her bearings. "That's north," she said finally. Sprite shrugged in answer. "How do you know it's that way?"

Sprite looked at her. Her face, for the first time that Michelle had seen, was barren of expession. "It's home. I can feel it. I always know where it is."

Michelle shook her head. Home? She never had any sort of attatchment to a place. Home was whereever the camera sent her. It was Los Angeles today; two days ago it was New York; before that, it was Las Vegas, and before that, Hollywood. Only logic and her adopted father's lessons on keeping her sense of direction allowed her to figure out where she was at the time. She couldn't imagine feeling so adamently about something that she would know where it was anywhere in the world. But Sprite could point to her home at any given time, anywhere on the trip. Even while going through the sharp turns that the road had, Sprite could point it out. Michelle asked her to once, and watched amazed as her hand moved at the exact pace of the car, never wavering once.

"Stop!" Sprite said suddenly. "Stop now!"

Michelle pulled off to the side of the practically deserted highway. She looked out of the glass that Sprite was pressed against so anxiously.

Michelle hesitated. "That's it?" Sprite nodded rapidly.

Michelle flinched visibly, to the point that it made Sprite look up. "What is it?"

Michelle shook her head. "I didn't expect that a faerie's home would be so... gloomy."

Sprite laughed, her voice once again sounding like music that no instrument could make. "It's not that part of it, silly. Trust me, you'll like it when we get in there."

Michelle checked for traffic, then drove across the road and into the forest. Sprite fell off of the handle and onto the floor when Michelle left the road. Looking down quickly and seeing that Sprite was starting to sit up, Michelle decided to drive just a little farther into the trees, enough so that the SUV wouldn't been seen. It was black, so she was fairly sure it couldn't be seen from the road.

"Are you ok?" she asked as she cut the engine off.

Sprite climbed up the seat towards her, holding her head. "Yeah, I'm ok. Bumped my head, that's all."

Michelle put out her hand. "C'mon," she said. "We are going to walk from here, so it's back in the pocket."

Sprite folded her arms and huffed. "We're in the woods. We don't have to be worried about being seen."

Michelle shook her head. "True, but you can still see that bright light of yours when your flying around, even from the road."

Sprite huffed again, but grinned soon afterwards. She stepped onto Michelle's hand, then quickly climbed up to Michelle's shoulder and sat down there. "I'm sitting right here. Noone will see me that way, right?"

Michelle sighed, grinning, as she openned the door. Sprite had to grab onto Michelle's hair as they exited the car. Surprisingly, Sprite's tug didn't hurt. She could definitely feel it, but the faerie didn't seem to weigh enough to cause any pain. Sprite laughed wildly, like a child on the dumbo ride at the fair.

Michelle glanced at her. "I'm glad to see you're having fun." Sprite quickly quieted down, but couldn't get the smile off of her face. "Are you ready to go?"

Sprite's smile vanished, and Michelle could see her swallow visibly. However, she still nodded. Michelle didn't know why the faerie seemed to be so nervous about going home, but she felt it wasn't her place to ask, either. When Sprite pointed deeper in the wood, Michelle started walking, wondering what she might see next.

She paused, holding on to her thick jacket. She was debating weather she should take off her shirt too. It was fairly heavy, although it didn�t do a thing to stop the wind that was waiting outside the forest. She had an undershirt on, so she wouldn�t be revealing too much. Not that anyone would be around to notice.

�What�s the hold up?�

Michelle hadn�t decided yet, so she posed a question instead. �Hey, Sprite, are you a guy or girl?�

Michelle wasn�t facing the faerie, so she couldn�t see the incredulous stare that she heard in the faerie�s voice. �Isn�t it obvious?�

Michelle chuckled and glanced over. She shook her head.

Sprite harrumphed and crossed her arms. �I�m a girl, thank you very much.�

Michelle nodded. �That�s what I had guessed.�

�Then why did you ask?�

�Because I really didn�t know.� Michelle had decided to take off the shirt. She quickly pulled it up over her head, and was beginning to tie it around her waist. �How do you tell, anyway?�

�What�s with all of the questions all of a sudden?�

�I don�t want to be embarrassed when I come to your� um��

Sprite chuckled. �Colony.�

�Right,� Michelle said, starting to laugh herself. �Colony.�

�You do need some work. Unfortunately, I don�t have time to teach you everything. We are almost there.�

�Well, what�s the president then? I don�t want to address her Madam President when she�s actually a he.�

Sprite laughed again. �Don�t call him madam, whatever you do! He�s the first guy president we�ve had in sixty years!�

Michelle looked are her quizzically. �Really? That�s strange. We�ve never even had a female president before.�

Sprite shrugged. �We try not to discriminate. To be honest, it really wasn�t as great a feat as it sounds. For fifty out of those sixty years, one lady was president the entire time.�

Michelle picked up her jacket and looked at it for short while. She dropped it back on the ground afterward. The jacket was too thick to tie around her waist as well, and she wasn�t about to carry it the whole way.

�How long is the president�s term? That�s quite a long time for one person to be in there.�

�There�s not really a definite time. We just vote about every year or two, and if they get voted back in, they stay.� Sprite was shuffling her feet anxiously at this point, obviously wanting to get on.

Michelle leaned over and extended her hand out. Sprite gingerly stepped onto it. �What happened that she suddenly got kicked out of the position?�

�She kicked me out of the colony.�

Michelle paused half erect. She stared at the little faerie for a long time, not knowing what to say. Hundreds of questions were flashing through her mind, but she felt she couldn�t ask any of them, that she had no right to ask the faerie such things.

Michelle forced herself to move again. She stood back up and placed Sprite back on her shoulder. She started walking again, much quieter now than she was before. She couldn�t find anything to say anymore. All she could think about was what the faerie had just said to her. She almost felt like she was dealing with a felon, and she kept on flashing back to when the little faerie had hit her and almost made her black out.

Michelle shivered. She felt that she had gotten to know Sprite very well. Now, she was afraid.

Sprite sighed. She could obviously feel Michelle�s body shake, and translated it accordingly.

With great hesitation in her voice, Sprite began her story.