Reincarnated as a Fairy in the Beastworld

Chapter 12

Looking at the floating island, it dawned on her that only flying animals could get onto the island to begin with. If she wanted those that couldn't fly to get on too, she would need to lower the island to ground-level.

Sher island was enormous enough with a surface area of over five hundred square kilometres. Its underside looked like an upside down mountain surrounded by small hills. The lowest peak was about a thousand feet below the island's surface.

It would have been a challenge to find an empty space to land without turning back towards the icy plains or heading further South than she was ready for. Luckily, she knew a place that could fit the island and then some. It was close by too.

She urged Sher to raise the island higher to give her a better viewpoint and she soon spotted the partially frozen lake. It was a mere two miles in the West. She had indeed noticed the extensive clearing when they'd arrived in the area a few days back, but it had been fully covered in thick ice at the time.

Looking at it now, the center of the lake had started to melt and the rest of the area was covered in thin ice. Sher island levitated towards the lake and paused directly above it. The lake was at least thrice as wide as the island.

She had Sher rotate and move the island into a position where the ledge she was on would end up as close to the lakeside as possible. Once she gave the go-ahead, the island disabled the barrier on its bottom half and started losing altitude.

The lowest peak easily broke through the ice as it lowered into the water. It met the lake's floor just past the halfway mark and continued to dig in with the same momentum. It had fully settled itself into the dirt under the lake when she belatedly realized that she may have just ruined the sub-glacial ecosystem below.

The earth trembled slightly from the impact but she didn't so much as flinch while hovering in the air. All the ice in the vacant areas of the lake was shattered and water poured out into the coniferous forest in a huge wave. It was a flash flood. The trees around the lake were uprooted and swept several meters away.

She remembered the stone sculpture inside the cave within the mountain. If there was a subterranean river connecting the two, then water would have swept into that chamber as well. She hoped that it would be heavy enough to withstand the surging water.

Besides all that, wasn't it almost too convenient? Almost. She couldn't wait to see what would become of the exposed land once Sher was done with it. It was sure to be a little piece of heaven on earth. The perfect place to rest and ignore the whole world for a few years; decades if cute little critters showed up. Now that she had mana, she was sure to live a long time.

She thought about how the manozores would have destroyed her if she had attempted such a stunt on Gaia. On second thought, they did destroy her in the end. Did that mean that she had actually been the villain the whole time? She didn't think so.

She was lost in thought when she suddenly noticed that the atmosphere around the island had taken a big shift. The whole place was brimming with such thick energy, she could almost taste it.

"Is this mana?" she asked in disbelief. "I can sense mana?" She stared at her hands and waited to see if magical power would flow out. She didn't dare to celebrate prematurely but remembered that she had mana circuits, so it was only a matter of time before she could use mana. Keyword being time.

She closed her eyes and tried to focus on the sensation. She could clearly feel strong energy wrapped around her body but she couldn't feel any reaction from within. She concentrated for almost an hour but nothing changed. Was she not being patient enough?

[I guess she forgot the keyword. It's so exhausting being an AI in the mind of a simpleton.]

She sighed and looked at the submerged island. It looked so alive and vibrant. She sneered. It wasn't that she was jealous, she just wasn't feeling so chirpy. She started to fly-cum-teleport back to Sher when she realised that she'd teleported much further than her two-meter limit.

She paused then teleported again. She appeared four meters away; double the limit. She was excited but hurriedly calmed herself. She stretched out her mental energy and noticed that it spread out even further now.

Her mood did a total flip. She suddenly felt like she was on top of the galaxy and everything was finally looking up. She happily flew and teleported deeper into the island towards Sher, singing all the way.

Her wings also seemed to propel her faster and she arrived at the tall white tree quicker than before. Only taking an hour instead of the prior three or more. She was still vibrating in excitement when she went to sleep.

She stayed on the island for a short while, waiting for the weather to improve. Three days later, she was following around and observing the birds that entered fairy forest. No other animals came.

A week later, she decided to go out of the island for a stroll and to check whether or not the gargoyle sculpture had been swept away.

She was dressed in less bulky cotton garments this time; a pair of underwear, a dress and a hat. As she flew by she found that green grass, shrubs and seedlings had covered the area ravaged by flood.

She turned invisible and flew into the dense forest. She flew East where she could see the cavern's mountain peak in the distance. She got there in less than half an hour and was heading towards the cave when she saw a somewhat familiar tree.

She had seen this same tree when she had first entered the cave but it looked slightly different now. She flew in closer to examine it. The last time she had seen it, it had been leafless. But now there were small white buds and leaves growing from its brown branches.

She knew that it was the same species as Sher due to the hollow that she could now clearly see. She alighted at the hollow's entrance and saw that it was completely bare inside. It was cold, dark and empty. Nothing like Sher or the other seven white-leafed trees on Sher island.

She didn't dwell on it and immediately went into the cave to check for the gargoyle sculpture. She found that it was really still in one piece, just a shade darker. The water levels must have risen in the cave and washed it clean. It looked even much sturdier now.

~°*°~

~ She wants us to permit creatures more than twice her size through the barrier? She must be dreaming. Has she forgotten that she's a bu—ug? We should keep all beasts out for sure.

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