As the trial continues Ren and Noir are seen running from a dark figure fear in both of their eyes as the ground explodes around them. Desperate to get away Ren ran as fast as he could until he ran right into a tree. Dizzy and disoriented Ren tries to get back to his feet but when he turns around, he sees the dark figure standing there with Noir in its clutches. A scream of agony rang out from Noir as the figure started to crush him until suddenly his screaming just stopped. Frozen by fear all Ren could do was watch in horror as this figure through Noir away then raised his hand towards Ren.

  Immediately Ren woke up breathing heavily with beads of sweat running down his face and his heart beating out of control. He moved his long hair out of the way and looked around he found himself in a bedroom in the castle waiting for the trial to start in a few days. He then looked to find Noir sleeping on a pillow next to him, he let out a sigh of relief calming down. As he saw that everything was alright Ren laid down and tried to go back to sleep he shut his eyes but no matter how hard he tried he just couldn’t sleep. Being quiet he grabbed a jacket and a pair of shoes and left the room hoping that a walk might help to calm his nerves and clear his head. Ren walked through the hallways of the seemingly deserted castle aside from a few guards here and there. Ren eventually ended up at a balcony and looked out at the night sky. With little clouds the night sky was in full view with hundreds of stars dancing all centered around the moon. As Ren stared off into the vast unknown, he can’t help but let his mind wander thinking about everything that happened in this past year. Finding a new fairy that can use multiple types of magic, having to fight just so he can have a future, all the training over the past year, and now in just a few days he’s going to have to fight again to become a knight.

  As Ren continued to think about this, the foot steps of a person in heels can be heard walking up behind him. “Well didn’t expect you to be awake at this hour.”, Claire said as she approached the railing of the balcony. “Oh, I couldn’t sleep, it’s kind of hard to with the knights trial is coming up in two days. What about you why are you still awake?”, Ren in a rather tired tone. Claire put her arms on the railing and replied, “I don't have time the knights trial is in two days and there's so much I have to prepare. Honestly it's a miracle we finish in time every year.” Ren was surprised by this he had no idea this trial would be such a big deal nor did he realise. Ren then asked, “What do you do when the knights trial isn't going on then?” Claire stretched her back for a second then answered, “I pretty much just run experiments it can get kinda boring. Other than that I help the king out the fool has his moments but without someone like me there he'd probably fall apart.”, she paused for a moment then stared up into the night getting lost in the beauty of the cosmos, “One thing I like to do when bored is coming out here to look at the stars, tonight’s especially pretty.” Claire’s expression became a tad more serious, “You’re scared aren’t you about what’s going to happen at the trial.” Ren wasn’t surprised by this Claire seemed to have a knack for telling what’s going on in people’s heads. Ren responded, “How could I not be, for an entire year now I spent every moment getting ready for this and now that it’s almost here I don’t know what to do.” Claire looked at Ren with a sympathetic look and spoke, “I understand it’s only natural to worry about this I still remember what a mess I was when I took the exam. Just don’t vomit an hour before the exam like I did.” Claire chuckled but stopped when she saw Ren's expression hadn't changed.

  Ren’s face went grimmer for a second and spoke, “If I fail, I’m going to lose Noir aren’t I?” Claire responded her expression more serious, “I was hoping you wouldn’t realize it, but yes. Even if the king says so there are nobles in this kingdom who have the power to rival his word. He and I tried everything but unless you pass this exam the nobles will take Noir.” Ren gritted his teeth and slammed his hand on the railing, “Dammit it’s always one thing after another I thought after the minotaur, I was free but even now I’m still being tested just because of Noir.” Claire responded, “Ren what are you…”. She was immediately cut off as Ren continued, “And who knows what I'm gonna have to do after this maybe they'll have me fight a dragon next. I’ve had to go through so much sometimes I wished he wasn’t…”. Ren was immediately cut off by a slap to the face by Claire, “Listen here you don’t ever finish that sentence.”, Claire said her tone turning angry, “I understand that this isn’t fair, but you never take your anger out on your partner. There are already way too many people in this world who do and I don’t want you to be one either.” Ren felt the stinging pain on his cheek as Claire continued, “Our world isn’t a fair one for many people it’s one of hardships and pain, you go through your entire life hoping that once you get your fairy that life will be easy but for most life is still hard. When the one thing you hoped for turned out to be a farce this disappointment for many turns into anger directed at the one who’s supposed to be their partner forever.” Ren looked down in dismay, “I get it Noir's my partner it's not his fault he's special either.” Claire put her hand on Ren’s head and started stroking his hair, “It’s fine. I can't imagine this is easy on him either, he probably feels guilty for putting you in this mess." Suddenly a cold gust of wind appeared causing both of them to shiver from the cold. "Let’s get inside it’s getting cold out and you can’t afford to get sick now.” Claire starts walking inside with Ren following.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  As Ren was about to go towards his room Claire stopped him, “Hey before you go let me cut your hair. You have a big day coming up and it might get in the way.” Ren responded a little taken a back, “Uh sure I guess you can.” Claire took Ren into an empty room and told him to wait there while she grabbed a set of scissors from her room. Minutes passed as Ren was left alone with only his thoughts but eventually Claire returned with an entire box of supplies. Ren sat down in a nearby chair as Claire pulled out a pair of scissors and started clipping Ren’s long hair. “I’m not an experienced barber but over the years I’ve gotten the hang of basic maintenance and care.”, Claire responded as hair fell strand after strand to the floor. “It’s weird have someone else cut my hair back home one of my neighbors would usually cut it for me.”, Ren said. “You didn’t have your mother cut it for you?”, Claire asked. Ren paused for a moment the spoke, “I don’t have a mother, she died shortly after I was born. I don’t know anything about her not even what her name was, whenever I asked my dad, he’d always say, ‘We’ll talk later’.” Claire continued, “And I’m guessing later, never came did it?” Ren simply responded with a nod no, “I’m sorry it must be hard not knowing who the woman who gave birth to you was. My mother has been dead for a long time now, but I still had so many precious memories with her birthdays, picnics, rolling around like animals just because, so many memories that at the time seemed so trivial are so important to me, to think you couldn’t experience any of that.” Ren spoke in a quieted voice, “It’s alright even without my mom I had my dad that was there for me.”

  The next few moments were silent as Claire continued working on Ren’s hair reaching into her box several times to grab an item. “Ok finished!”, Claire spoke in a chipper tone. “Here, take a look.”, she said handing Ren a mirror. Ren looked into the mirror in disbelief as he sees that Claire tied his hair into little buns and gave him patches of sky-blue hair dye. In fury Ren turned with fire in his eyes to Claire and spoke in mad voice, “Not funny!” Claire tried to hold in her laughter as a smile formed on her face calming down, “What I think you look adorable you look like a pretty princess.”, she said jokingly. A few minutes later after forcing Ren back into his sit Claire was able to seriously fix his hair. As Ren looked into the mirror this time, he saw that is hair was shortened to the average length of a mail and the sky-blue patches in his hair were replaced with dark blue patches. “Still decided to stick with the hair dye.”, Ren said looking in the mirror still. Claire replied, “Well yeah you have a black fairy, and your hair is completely black, that’s too much black if you ask me one of you really needs to add color to your look.” Claire chuckled and this time Ren laughed too finally losing some of the tension he was feeling.

  Ren’s night concluded as he said goodnight to Claire and walked towards his room. He got back into bed and fell fast asleep. As night continued a dark figure is appeared standing in the windowsill the figure moved quickly yet quietly makes their way towards Ren, as they reach him, they pull out a knife. As this intruder is about to plunge the knife into Ren, they suddenly froze in place unable to move. No matter what the intruder tried to do they couldn’t move an inch, suddenly the door to the hallway opened with an ominous creek as Claire walked in with Celti behind her glowing green as the fresh leaves of spring. Slowly she approached the intruder which each step causing them to tense up even more. As she approached their ear she whispered softly with words colder than the frozen wastelands, “You have five seconds leave or you die. Five…”, before Claire could get to four the would-be killer vanished leaving behind no trace that he was never there. Claire breathed a sigh of relief as she turned her head to Ren and Noir undisturbed by the entire event. She slowly hovered her hands over both of them and whispered in warmer more caring voice, “You two are gonna need all your energy. For the next day sleep. Forget about all your worries for now and just sleep.”, as she said that green energy floated from her hands towards both of them. Quietly and carefully Claire and Celti left leaving Ren and Noir to sleep not to wake until the knights trial.