[ Next morning ]

  It's 9 am and I'm in our backyard talking to Emily and her mom.

  Alicia says "I can't believe that you two actually met the President yesterday."

  "Yeah, I know, right?" Emily said. "Ann was so cool and ultra polite while talking to him in front of a camera no less!"

  "True, she was very polite. Are you in the Army now or how does that work?" Alicia asked.

  "No, he gave me a title, but I'm only helping out the Air Force as a civilian. They made up that title for me, because it probably sounds better than calling me a talking weapon. At least people are polite so far, so no compints."

  "I see. But will you really be eating those monster crystals now?" She grimaced.

  "Yes, but it's more like absorbing them. I still need to eat normal food, but absorbing those things is quite a strange sensation."

  "I bet. So, what are you up to today?"

  "Not much, to be honest. Mom wants me to rex as much as possible before they send me to Florida. Seeing those big bugs on TV creeps me out. The spider couldn't move because it was chained to the floor, but the ones in the wild can fight back."

  "Don't think about that too much. They said that you could go step by step."

  "True, but something tells me that the President wants to retake Florida before long. He made that promise on TV, but I'm the one who has to somehow kill those ginormous bugs."

  Alicia nods. "In any case, while I don't mind you two hanging out all day, Emily needs to pick up her books from school this morning."

  "Oh! Can she join me, mom?"

  "Emily....she's too small for that. Besides, do you really want to take a national treasure with you?"

  I'm frowning...did she just say that? It's the second time someone said that. Thompson said it too, I think."A national treasure? Who said that I was?"

  "I heard it on the news, Ann. You might be the only thing, or rather person, standing between us and the bugs. Emily shouldn't take you with her. At least not yet. Maybe when you are more familiar with your body and such? Flying with her to school today might even hurt your wings. Just a thought."

  "Good point. I guess I'll have to be on my own then."

  "You don't have to. My husband isn't home today, but you are welcome to join me? I still have some things to do around the house, but you could watch TV?"

  "Thank you, but I think that I'll try a few of my new skills in the open. I don't want your home to burn to the ground." I grinned.

  Alicia smiles. "That's very considerate of you, hahaha. Just know that you're welcome. Emily, it's almost time for you to go."

  "Awwww........"

  "No no no, no compining. Sheesh, at least try to act like an adult once in a while."

  Emily pouted, which put a smile on my face. "Alright then, see you two ter!"

  They waved goodbye and left me alone in our backyard.

  "Time to practice!" I said, but felt sad when I realized that I was all alone and talking to myself.

  I take a few moments to check my skill list and decide to use my "concealment" skill. It might be helpful when the monsters can't see me, so I may have a better chance of using my stinger. But the word might also imply that I look like something else, or even blend in with nature like young animals often do with their baby furs.

  "Concealment!" I say out loud, and..............nothing happens. I can still see my arms and legs, so that didn't work.

  "Okay...that kinda sucks." I fly to our backdoor and still see my reflection.

  I flew over to Alicia when I heard her in the garden and talked to her, but she completely ignored me. Whatever I tried, she didn't see me either.

  So....I can see my own reflection...but others can't see me? "No way.....it actually worked? This is so cool!"Alicia didn't reply, but I think that she appreciated the skill nonetheless.

  I fly a few circles around the house and then spot a pigeon sitting in the tree near my bedroom. I hover in front of it and wave a few times. "Helloooo.....helloooohoooo?" But whatever I do, it totally ignores me.

  I sit next to it and let my feet dangle in the air. Not even a minute ter it starts staring at me, but in such a way that it gives me the creeps. "Can you see me?" It doesn't speak, of course, but still follows me with its eyes, no matter where I hover.

  At least birds don't seem to be startled by fairies. So.....animals can still see me?

  Suddenly I see another message in front of my eyes.========Animal nguage added to transtion skill========

  Well....that's unexpected...

  The pigeon keeps staring at me, blinking occasionally, but doesn't make any sound.

  "Em...can you understand me now?"

  It tilts its head and surprisingly says "I'm a pigeon."

  "Huh? Wow, so you can talk?"

  "I'm a pigeon....duh." Did it actually sound smug now? Nah, I must be imagining things.

  "Yeah, I kinda knew that already. Are you....waiting for someone perhaps?"

  "No, I was trying to figure out what a fairy is doing here."

  "Em....so there are more fairies then?"

  The pigeon looks away, then focuses on me again. Is it mocking me?!"Of course there are. But you're a forest fairy...so....why are you here?"

  "Um....good question. I'm trying to use my skills and I'm now invisible...I think."

  "I can still see you."

  "But humans can't."

  "Stay away from humans, they are dangerous."

  Okay, let's stay polite. "Thanks, I'll remember that."

  "Sorry, time to eat. See you around, fairy." It said and then flew away.

  I'm still sitting on the branch, trying to make sense of things. I'll ask Rachel to buy some bird food soon, maybe I can talk to the other birds and learn a few things?

  "Incredible. Talking to animals seems to work, so maybe the bugs can talk too? But if a pigeon can see me, that may also mean that bugs can. That's kinda a disappointment. Okay.... become vivsible!" I shouted, after which I felt my avaible mana decrease.

  Hoping to show off my skills to Alicia, I talk to her, but she simply continues to ignore me and enters her home. The next few minutes I tried every word in the dictionary to make the skill stop working. Long story short, it seems that I'm stuck like this! Alicia simply keeps ignoring me, and I know that she wouldn't do such a thing.

  I return to our backyard and nd on the garden table, trying to figure out what to do next.

  That's when I heard high pitched voices coming from the wn. "...I wanna......I wanna...I wanna...I wanna"

  "Okaaaaay." I said. "That's....unexpected." I fly to the source of the sound and see a few crickets, and quickly leave them be.

  I spent the next few minutes looking for a way to disable animal communications and thankfully found it. It was driving me nuts! A dog kept shouting to let him inside, and two cats were really pissed off at each other. And even the nice tranquil bird songs changed into conversations about topics I really wanted to ignore.

  But now.....total and utter peace again. The dog is barking, the birds are singing and even the crickets are chirping happily. At least I know why now.

  Back to my invisibility issue.

  I waited at least half an hour, expecting my mana to go to zero and end this skill the hard way. But when I checked the stats.....they hadn't changed a bit. My mana is still full, so the concealment skill doesn't use any power at all!

  Now that I have realized that this can go on forever, I'm starting to get worried.....very worried. What if nobody can see me anymore? What if I'm stuck like this forever?

  Calm down....let's think about this in a more logical way. "It's a skill, so it should have an on/off switch, right?" Then it dawned on me......always when I keep staring at a skill, I can see a description of it. I swear, next time I'll study it first!

  When I finally see the description, I take the time to read all of it."Concealment is a core survival skill avaible to all Fairies. It makes oneself invisible to all beings which are a potential threat. This skill won't affect fellow Fairies.

  Enabling the skill will keep it active for life and is usually initiated automatically when newly hatched Fairies meet their parents.

  An active concealment skill can temporarily be disabled. To temporarily deactivate the skill, have the desire to become visible.

  Warning: becoming visible to potential dangerous beings is not recommended and is intended as a means to protect the Cn in exceptional situations.

  When the avaible mana decreases below 10%, the temporary visibility will be canceled to prevent unconsciousness due to mana exhaustion."

  "No way.....I really should have read this first. My mana capacity isn't all that much anyway, so I think that I won't be able to become visible for more than a minute or so. This really sucks!!!!" Then again....now that I think about it....it really should work on monsters.

  The backdoor is still closed and I don't see mom or Rachel nearby. I'll experiment a bit more with this and then I'll simply bump into our doorbell. That should do the trick.

  I fly towards our neighbors and one of them has a dog lying on their wn. It doesn't seem able to see me at all, and only barked after I petted its head. The loud bark startled me and I fell backwards into a few pstic containers. That in turn scared the dog which rushed out of there.

  When I want to fly away, I smell something familiar....ketchup. "Oh man.....I nded on an empty bottle of ketchup!" Well...it still stained my dress from behind.

  I fly towards a nearby carport and see that the roof is full of rainwater. There are two sparrows bathing themselves, so I'm not the only one needing a good rinse. They don't seem to be bothered by me at all and are spshing their wings. Not sure why, but some deeply buried instinct must have surfaced inside of me right at that moment.

  I sit down in the rainwater which has been heated by the warm sun for hours now. I too let my wings buzz like the birds are moving theirs. They definitely noticed me, because both occasionally gnce at me. When one of them hops over to me, I feel really scared and it must have noticed that. After a few cheep-cheep-cheep sounds I feel calmer, and it pushes its head against my side. Petting a sparrow wasn't on my to-do list today, but it's really nice! After a minute of petting they both suddenly leave, just like that.

  My dress is soaked, but in a strange way I really enjoyed my bath. "Time to clean up... Purification!" I see my arms glowing for a second and my dress is as good as new. Sure, I could have done that earlier, but the bath looked so inviting! Thankfully I didn't fall asleep due to using too much mana this time, so the absorbed crystal must have helped me in that regard.

  Having decided that it's time to return home, I fly towards our front door and push the doorbell by flying against it. Rachel opens the door, but of course doesn't see anyone so I already made my way into our house without her knowing.

  "Who was it?" Mom asked. She's working on her ptop and continues staring at the screen while using her corded mouse.

  "No idea, probably kids. There wasn't anyone."

  "Kids will be kids. Can you please ask Ann to join us? Time for coffee."

  "Sure, one moment."

  "Hey! Rachel!" I shouted, but she didn't even hear me!

  Shortly after I see her returning and she says "she's not in the backyard. Do you think she's with Emily?"

  "That would be a definite possibility. Emily seems quite attached to her."

  "True. But I'm not convinced that Ann likes her in the same way."

  "We once more think alike. But I do think that Ann needs the attention and it's good like this. Emily needs some emotional support too, so I think it's a win-win. Her mother will surely have told her that humans and fairies aren't exactly compatible, if you know what I mean."

  "Well....let's see what happens. Maybe Emily just needs this for a while, and Ann is old enough to deal with this. I trust her. Anyway, should we call Alicia?"

  "Have a bad feeling again?" Mom asked.

  "I do have one, to be honest."

  "Rachel, I made it a point to never doubt those gut feelings of yours. So far you've always been spot on."

  Rachel already left when I decided to move the mouse, hoping mom would see it."Um.......what is happening?!" Mom said, and then shouted "Rachel!"

  Rachel returned quickly. "What happened?"

  "My mouse...it moved on its own!"

  "Is this one of your pranks again?"

  "Do I look like I'm ughing? No, this is serious. See? There it goes again!"

  Both of them are staring at the mouse, their eyes only inches away from my wings. When I see mom's hand reaching for the mouse, I quickly jump aside.

  "Okay...it still works. Is there anyone here?" She said and then noticed Rachel's amused expression. "What? I'm not senile yet, Rachel! I'm telling you, that thing is being moved!"

  "Then don't touch it. Let me see it." Rachel has an amused expression, and that makes me ugh.

  "Okay......move, we're waiting."

  That's my cue to start moving the mouse.

  "Oh my god, it's really haunted!" Rachel said, making me giggle.

  "I think I know what's going on. Ann? Is that you? Move the mouse to the left if you are."

  I move the thing to the left and see both of them nodding with a relieved expression."Okay," mom said, "not a ghost but a fairy. Nice parlor trick, Ann, now please become visible."

  I push the mouse far away, hoping that they get the message.

  "That looks like she's frustrated." Rachel said.

  "Mmmm.....maybe she can't become visible anymore? Is that so Ann? And you better not be pranking us." She quickly opened a new document on the ptop. "If you can't become visible, hop onto the ptop and write a few words. We have the time, just make it work."

  Okay...time to write a few words. I hover above the keyboard and slowly maneuver to let my feet type words.

  "I am Ann. New skill. Cannot stop." I typed and needed a few minutes for that.

  "That's.....unexpected. Are you at least unharmed?"

  "Yes. Skill..to..see......need....much.....power."

  "So you can become visible, but it costs lots of energy?"

  "Yes."

  "How much longer does it take? Because writing takes a long time for you."

  "still charge maybe 1 min talk"

  "Wow. So we have to be quick, I understand."

  "Monsters...no...see...too. Nice."

  "Hahaha, that's definitely our Ann. But it's good news, so they can't see you?"

  "Yup...but...must...test."

  "I agree."

  Finally I got the opportunity to become visible again. "Mom! Can you see me now?"

  "Yes! Can we help you?"

  I talked as fast as I could. "No, I simply need more practice. Crystals too! This skill is a survival skill for Fairies. I should be able to see fairies even if they are hidden from us. I will look for them soon. All beings who can hurt me can't see me, but a pigeon and two sparrows could still see me."

  "Honey, you disappeared already. You said pigeon...and then?"

  It's back to typing again."Pigeon + sparrow = see me."

  "Ah, okay. That makes sense I guess. So they are no threat and can still see you?"

  "Yes. + talk."

  "Talking? As in... you can talk to animals now?"

  "Yes. Annoy.... disabled."

  "I see." Mom nodded while shaking her head at the implications of understanding animals.

  "I have a better idea." Rachel said.

  I lean against the ptop screen and watch their conversation.

  "Like what?"

  "I remember a horror movie where people used an ouija board to let ghosts speak through it."

  "Mmm...very creative. That's much easier than letting her use a keyboard. What do you think, Ann? Ah...I feel her tapping my finger. I think that means a yes. Alright, can we buy that thing somewhere? A toy store maybe?"

  Rachel shakes her head. "Amelia.....it's not a toy! But....we have the internet. I'll order one right now. Maybe we'll have one in the morning?"

  "Good thinking, and that's another reason why I keep you around. Maybe we can prank Thompson and pretend to have an actual ghost too?"

  "Hahahaha, yes, that would be hirious! I'm in!"

  "You too, Ann?" Again I patted her hand.

  "Yup, she's in too!"

  After half an hour we finished our coffee break and Rachel gave me a slice of an apple. I think mom is enjoying seeing the thing vanish bit by bit.

  "Ding-dong" the doorbell rang again.

  "Maybe another fairy?" Rachel snickered, and already left.

  A few minutes ter she returned with a rge package in her hands and since she immediately put it on the table, it must have been quite heavy. "Special delivery for Ann the fairy, it says. It's from Thompson, and a guy in uniform brought it."

  "Rachel! You should have asked him to join us for coffee. Or wasn't he your type?"

  "Amelia! Please! And no, he was not my type."

  Mom grins. "I wonder if I'll ever see your type."

  "Don't be so mean! What did I do to deserve this treatment?"

  "Nothing...you're just too....nice."

  "Hahahahaha.....you're sounding just like your daughter. Ann? Can we open it for you? Jump on my hand if you agree. Okay...that's a yes. Please stay back or you'll get hurt."

  She waited for a moment and saw the mouse moving, seeing that I was safe. Moments ter she cuts the box open and takes out a green box with a transparent front."Wow...this is rather cute! Look, Ann...it's you!"

  She put the box on the table and it's apparently a newly released doll, but this one has fluffy ears and a tail....and worst of all....it's wearing a uniform!

  "You're awfully quiet, Ann." Mom said, barely containing a ugh.

  So I returned to the ptop and typed."Not...funny."

  "Hahahaha, but it is!"

  Rachel then opened a letter. "Dear Ann, this is a little present from our HQ. New dolls in your image will be distributed to toy stores all over the AS. We need the PR and so far girls seem quite smitten with this doll. I gave a prototype to my neighbors' kid, and she wouldn't stop dragging it around.

  You are our nation's hope and now our military's mascot as well. Also, there are more uniforms added, try them out please. They are intended for those dolls, but if I'm not mistaken, you have a skill to wear those as well.

  Finally, there are a dozen or so crystals in the box, use them and try to upgrade your skills. We will ship lots of them to your home now. Make us proud!

  Best regards, Thompson."

  "Well, well, well. It seems like the entire world loves our resident fairy now. Ann, I know you don't like it, but the doll really looks cute. Now please take some time and try to absorb those crystals. Perhaps it's enough to make us have a normal conversation again." Mom said while taking a closer look at the doll packaging's backside.

  I nodded, but of course they couldn't see that.

  The packaging shows a logo, and I think that the uniform has it as well. It's a dagger with wings, accompanied by the text 'Defender.' It resembles an official military logo, like that of a squadron, and I think that was done on purpose. But I'm not in the military....or am I?

  Rachel put one...two.....fifteen crystals on the table and then waited for something to happen. Right....they're waiting for me.

  All crystals are dark red, but one of them is slightly bigger than the others. I simply pick the nearest small one and move it away from the others so that they can track my movements.

  "So that one first, huh?" Mom said. "Go ahead, do your thing."

  I once more hug the crystal with the intention of absorbing it, and then the magic happens again. The gem slowly moves into my body while I'm glowing all over.

  "We can see you .....and now you're gone. Rachel, make a note of that."

  "Done."

  One by one I absorb the others and each stone increases my mana capacity further. I only saw the "level up" message two times, so I don't get it after each crystal.

  "Are you okay? You ate quite a few of those." Mom asked.

  Again I fly over to the ptop and type a message."OK. Not real food. Level up again. Feel good. But... tired. Nice gift."

  "Maybe you should lie down? Should Rachel take you upstairs? Hello? Are you still there?"

  But then they both ughed, really loudly. Because I rushed away to fetch a tissue and put it over my head.

  "Hahahaha, Rachel, we have a real ghost now! Good idea, Ann! At least we can now see you. Wanna have a nap? If you do, fly to Rachel."

  I fly over to Rachel and she already opens her hands, seeing the tissue nd there."I can feel her weight. Ann, it's good to see you....sort of." She giggled. "Time for your nap."