I stared down at the beautiful phoenix on a large pillow, about the size of a pheasant. Fiery edged feathers lit up the area around it with a dim glow as it lay. Then I looked back at my hand, once again translucent.

  I’d fallen asleep on the pillow, only to “wake up” in the middle of the night no longer in my bird form. At first I thought I’d changed back, but then I looked down and realized that the feathery version of me was still there.

  I will admit I freaked out for a little while when I realized it also wasn’t breathing, before I noticed the deathly, complete silence everywhere. A moth, mid-flight, was suspended in a shaft of moonlight that landed directly on not-me me. I could feel a strong power coming from the light, evidently what kicked me back out and apparently stopped time.

  Wandering around the room, I tried to interact with a few things, but the temporal stasis meant that none of it was movable, which did make about as much sense as being the only thing in motion in an otherwise static world could.

  I went back over to the moonlit pillow and noticed the puddle of light on the floor was pulsing. Bending over to look at it, a corner seemed to wrinkle, before a piece tore off and moved towards me. I stepped back, having a little trepidation as one would expect, but then it circled around my feet and slowly moved away in a fairly obvious “follow me” manner.

  Seeing as it was the only other thing moving, I followed it. I forgot about the moth when I walked through the beam of moonlight and banged my head on it, where it was as solid as the corner of a shelf or any one of the other numerous things I’d rocked my brains with in my life. Adding ‘insect’ to the list of things giving me injuries on my noggin seemed par for the course for my life recently, so I laughed it off.

  The spot of light kept going, which made me wonder how it still existed without anything to shine on it. I wanted to go back and see if I would cast a shadow in the moonlight before I realized that even if it wasn’t magical moonlight, in my see-through state there wasn’t enough of me to block any of it anyway, thus failing my experiment in the setup phase. Drat.

  The little blob of luminance went out through a window that had shutters ajar, which made sense. If everything was frozen, I couldn’t very well use the door, could I? I followed it, clambering over the sill and keeping my eye out for any stray bugs that might inflict further injuries on me. Luckily aside from the moth, there didn’t seem to be much of anything else. Perhaps it was retained since it was in the beam of moonlight?

  The spot of light was leading me on away from the side of the building and down a path into what was clearly some form of zen garden, complete with raked sand, which I could walk over without leaving any footprints. I felt a bit like a cat chasing a shiny object.

  Past the garden, my photonic companion and I came to a pond that I could only describe as ‘serene’. It was full of lilies, reeds, and flowers, and rounded rocks. Someone had put great care and effort into ensuring that it it didn’t look like any care or effort had been put into it, that it was just that beautiful by happenstance. All, ‘Oopsie, random gorgeous pond!’

  A veritable bolder, larger than any of the others, sat off on one side of this space. It was wider than it was tall, and flat-topped. Perfect for a bench. My erstwhile guide-light wandered over to it, before flashing brightly. In its place was left a glowing fairy.

  Her features seemed no more substantive than the moonlight she was made of, but I could see the otherworldly eyes, and the flowing robes made of starlight. You know, standard garb for magical lunar people.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Welcome, lost one.” Of course she wants to talk to me.

  “Uh, hi,” I replied, before pausing. I was not really sure how one talks to beings made of solidified moon shine. After pondering for a few moments about this, my brain decided to be briefly obsessed with the species of moth I’d whacked my head on, before it moved on to concerns about how much my new friend weighed. My guest, in turn, had decided that I was at a loss for words out of fright.

  “Do not worry yourself, I’m here to help you.”

  “I could definitely use some help,” I stammered out, her words making me remember that there was in fact a fantastical apparition in front of me. “I don’t have a clue what is going on here.”

  “I understand.” She held out a delicate hand. “I’m betting you are wondering where all this is?” She asked, gesturing to everything around us with her arms.

  I nodded. “I think that’s covered as part of the ‘no clue what is going on’ thing,” I replied sarcastically, before cringing at my words. Open mouth, insert foot. Guess my tummy had the rumblings that only toes could satisfy.

  To my relief, lady laughed. The sound reminded me of the wind chimes Gran used to have at her old house, which in turn made me sad. The hug repository was running low after today’s events.

  “Yes, I suppose that would be covered by that.” She put her hands together in her lap. “You actually have not gone far in one sense, while in another one might say you are very far indeed.” I was briefly worried she was going to be one of those obnoxious apparitions talking only in riddles, but then she continued: “You are in the same world, but long before you were ever born.”

  Except of course it didn’t.

  “How? What?” I stammered, “Why me?” Surely there’s someone more competent to stuff a bird with, I not even tasty!

  Well, I assume I'm not, never had anyone check.

  It was good to know I was more of a ‘when’ than a ‘where’. Seemed as though it’d be easier to go back. Worst case scenario, I’d just have to live for several lifetimes. That’s a thing, right?

  “I’m not sure,” she replied, looking thoughtful with her index finger tapping on her chin. “You were sent to me, not the other way around. I do not know what twist of fate made it possible, but here we are.”

  “I’m assuming you have something for me to do, then?” I asked, stating what seemed to be the obvious.

  “Yes. You need to fix the story of this world.”

  “Fix the story? How is it broken? Did someone rip a page out or something?” I asked, more confused than ever.

  “That’s not an entirely inaccurate metaphor.” She held up a small bud, green and vibrant, before plucking off a seed-leaf midway up that tore a strip down the side of the stem. Her hand became luminescent, and I watched in fascination as the plant withered and died from the point of the damage as she appeared to bend and speed the flow of time for that one small area. “Something has gone wrong in the diegesis of this world,” she continued, as the plant crumbled into dust, “and it will die if it’s not restored. That’s where you come in.”

  “So that’s why I’m here? To fix things in this part of the past?”

  “No. Not now, at any rate.” She looked up at me, locking the colored orbs she had onto my eyes. Or at least that’s how it felt. “You are here to gain power.” She paused for a bit, appearing to go into a trance. A few moments passed before she continued. “It may well be that there is damage beyond my senses during this time. Fixing this, however, would be for later. As you are currently, there is nothing you can do here.”

  .

  “First you have to figure out what is causing the long tail of history to break down. Judging by your present, the Will of the World is silent, yes?” She held up a hand and I became very acutely aware of the force of the life present all around me once more, as I had in the forest.

  “Yes,” I replied, the feeling quaking back and forth through me, “nothing like that.”

  Her face took on a brief look of sorrow that was quickly covered over as if it had never existed. “I can not even imagine.” She stood up from her rock, and I could see where she had been sitting that tiny sparkles of light were left in the stone. “You have what you need to take the first steps now.” She lifted her hand and set it over my heart. “We’ll meet again soon. My apologies for the mishap with the Evernight Phoenix.”

  Before I could ask anything more, her hand lit up, there was a massive tug behind my navel, and I felt myself getting drawn away as everything went white.