"...." the man was silent as he gritted his teeth and brushed the dirt off of his clothes, and combed the debris out of his red and black streaked hair.

He was Ash Fyrane, a top hunter for the guild Candentus Lux. And he had been sent out to deal with a situation somewhere in the southern United States.

It seemed that an illegal guild had set a special net trap, and had caught a giant striped Frost Lion, which were designated as endangered and illegal to hunt. Ash was sent to dispatch of the hunters, and free the feline... but the latter part had been a bit harder. The net had been electrified and sticky, which made it hard to get off of the creature. Plus, the creature had NOT been cooperative at first.

However, after a brief tussle and scrimmage, Ash had managed to free the creature, and it had run off while he was cleaning himself off.

He then sighed, and looked at the net.

"Need to dispose of thi-" he said, as he started to approach it, but then stopped mid-sentence.

"...hello?" he asked, looking around, swearing he'd heard something. He then noticed that there seemed to be a small part of the net still moving.

"...the hell?" he muttered, as he zeroed in on the specific area, and got closer to it.

"Eh?" he muttered, as he leaned in close.

He then picked up the net a bit, and squinted his eyes, before being able to make out the tiny form of a female with thin wings.

A fae. And it had been trapped in the sticky net.

"Huh." he muttered.

"Right, hold still." he told her.

"I'm gonna burn you outta there, and this is gonna take precision and steadiness." he continued.

"And the more you squirm, the greater the chance you'll burn as well." he warned her, making a mental note to ask her a question if she hung around after being freed.

"Uh?" Ash muttered confusedly.

"Huh...?" he mumbled further.

"Uh... right." he then said.

"Well... first you can answer me something." he told her.

"How do you know my name? Have we met before or something?" he asked, as he started to burn the net to cinders.

"I highly doubt it, you don't look like any fae I've met in the past." he commented.

"I see." Ash responded.

"That's... useful." he said, as he finished burning the net.

He then took out his phone and sent a text to Cass.

Mission accomplished, it was the ShadowBlades that were doing the poaching. he sent, before pocketing the device.

"Well, I'm glad I managed to find you before I decided to just burn the net." he told her.

"How'd you get mixed up in this anyway?" he asked.

"This just a 'wrong place, wrong time' kinda thing?"

Ash could tell that the fae was straining to try and communicate with him, and sighed.

"Hey." he said.

"If there's anything that can be done to make it so that we can communicate more smoothly, go ahead." he told her.

"I know -I- can't do anything." he went on.

"But if there's anything YOU can do..." he added, trailing off at the end and shrugging.

"......." Ash was silent as he witnessed the magic.

"Huh." he said.

"Right." he muttered.

"Fae magic has a 50/50 chance of screwing me over..." he mumbled further, before stepping forward.

"Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained." he finished, before grabbing the magic.

And then suddenly feeling VERY light...

"Woah!" Ash exclaimed.

"Woah, this is.... kinda freaky." he said.

"And... one thing?" he asked.

"Wait... one thing, and I can choose what?" he asked further.

"...what, like... a wish of something?" he then asked her.

Ash was silent, and then nodded after a moment.

"Yeah..." he said.

"Yeah, I... can't really think of any sort of wish right now." he admitted.

"But if you're okay with following me home until I DO decide, then... sure." he said further.

He then looked around, and appeared confused.

"...Sooooo.... do I still have my mana, or... do I need to fly home... or what?" he asked her.

Ash just sighed.

"All right." he said.

"Guess I better start..." he muttered.

"Miiiiiight take a while..." he mumbled further.

"Come on, then." he told her.

"This way." he said, as he started to head northbound.

"Hm." Ash muttered.

"Well... how about your name?" he asked.

"Just so I know a little something about you?" he reasoned.

"All I know is that you're a fae." he said. "And you're unlike any Fae I've ever encountered in my past." he went on.

"And I like to think I've encountered a decent variety." he then added.