The moss that Brian had lined Edivette's cardboard carrying case with did little to soften the jostling of being jogged up three flights of stairs. There were holes at the top of the box, but not big enough to get a decent look outside. From what she could tell, at one point they had been riding in a fast machine, but now she was certain she was being carried again. She braced herself against the cardboard walls around her, hoping against hope that they would reach their destination soon.
She counted twenty-three steps of walking on flat ground before the human stopped, made some sounds that reminded Edivette of bells, and finally opened a door. From there, she was set down gently, and from the holes she could see her human setting down several large bags on the floor away from her.
It promptly got to work removing things from the bags with purpose. She could not see what it was doing with those things, but she took the opportunity to get a better look at it.
She had no frame of reference for how big humans tend to be, but this one seemed tall to her. It was at least taller than Brian, which was the only other human she had ever really been this close to. She surmised that it was fully grown, assuming that humans also do not grow beards until they are adults. This human's beard was not long, in fact it looked as though it had been groomed to be short. Everything about it seemed groomed, in fact. Its hair was so clean and shiny, no mud or twigs in sight. Not to mention its clothes.
Edivette had always loved humans and their silly little outfits. She found it absolutely adorable that they put so much thought into their clothing. For faeries, clothing is purely practical. If fabric is needed for warmth it would be scraped from whatever materials her forest could find (or, occasionally, steal) from human homes.
Thankfully, her forest was in a warm climate so clothing was rarely needed. She actually was very surprised to see that the human was wearing any clothes at all then. It had become extremely warm and humid when they left Brian's store, and it had only gotten warmer since they came up the stairs. Edivette was naked and shades from the sun by the cardboard and even she was dripping with sweat. Yet the human had at least four clothings on.
'They aren't clothed all the time, are they?'
Her mind wandered, trying to recall of she had ever seen Brian or one of its customers without clothing. She cycled through faces in her mind until she was pulled from her thoughts by binding light rushing into her box as the human opened it up to look inside.
Edivette instinctually covered her eyes and in doing so fell back into the moss that was quickly becoming dry.
"Oh no!" the human said, its voice softer than she had been expecting. "Sorry about that little buddy! Didn't mean to scare ya!"
Edi's eyes adjust just in time to see it reaching its hand toward her. Accepting what she assumed had been an act of good will, she used the first two fingers of the hand to pull herself up before fluttering lightly onto its palm. She looked up at the huge face in front of her as she landed.
"That's a good girl," it said, gently stroking her hair.
The words hit Edi hard in more ways than one. There was something about this human that made her feel so safe and cared for. Already she was beginning to become attached to it. The more she looked into its wide, brown eyes the more she grew to like the idea of belonging to this human. But the words also caught her attention in another way. If she was being good, did that mean she would get a reward? The thought made Edi grow wet and shudder in excitement.
Not seeming to notice, the human continued, "I guess I should give you a name, huh? Oh! I'm Exiquio by the way."
Exiquio. Humans had such beautiful names, and Edi found herself wishing her voice could mimic those human sounds to say it. She subconsciously whispered it under her breath.
Exiquio's eyes widened as it saw her lips move. "Are you trying to talk? Can you tell me your name?"
Edivette sighed. Hadn't Brian just told it that it works l wouldn't be able to hear her voice? Something about pitch? She smiled up at it nonetheless.
"EDIVETTE!" she said, as loud and low as she could muster. She could tell immediately from its face that it hadn't worked as it cocked its head curiously.
"Can you understand me?" Exiquio asked excitedly.
Edivette tried to keep herself from rolling her eyes and sucked as much air as she could into her lungs.
"YES!"