It is about a week before Larrikan’s second rade when the pixies find him. He has discovered most dryads don’t sleep the way humans do, and has been using time very late at night to study with Birkegeistzeder. His reading is improving, and she is having him read children’s fiction. It both helps him read and gives him cultural referents.
Larrikan is walking home from the library, enjoying the cool quiet of the middle of the night, when he sees a collection of moving lights. When he gets closer, he sees it is several pixies, flying along the outside edge of one of the paths. They follow that edge, pacing him, until he gets close enough to hear them calling, “Fox! Fox! Can you hear us, fox?”
Larrikan smiles and walks over to them. They back off into the woods a little, and Larrikan follows confidently; he knows these woods.
Once away from the path, Larrikan has the pixies flying circles around him. One says, “Fox! You came!” Another says, “Nasty enchantment keeps us out of the University; how do you stand it?” A third says, “You said you would sing for us!”
“Yes, here I am,” replies Larrikan, “and I will sing for you. When and where would you like me to sing?”
The pixies cheer, and Larrikan is told, “We’ll take you to the Queen!” and “Sing at dawn!” and, “Come with us!” and, “Hold still!”
Larrikan tries not to be startled as the pixies swoop in on him from all sides. He does not swat any of them this time, but flinches a bit as a pixie lands on his muzzle, in front of his eyes, dazzling him. He can feel the others landing on him, and tugging at his fur.
One of the pixies says, “Ready?” and the others chorus, “Yes!” and a bright blue flash blinds Larrikan and surrounds him in an excruciating blue flash. He faints.
When he comes to a moment later, he is lying on a huge rock. He looks up, and sees one of the pixies hovering in front of him. When she sees he is waking up, she calls, “Yay! We didn’t kill this one!”
Larrikan, shaken, stands up, and tries to work out where he is. The huge rock in the expanse of leafy stalks is unknown to him, until the pixie swoops down and hugs him.
The pixie is his size, if not a few inches taller. Her superficial resemblance to a human woman is clearly just that – superficial. Her proportions are all wrong, and she has no hair at all. The large, pointed ears, sharp teeth, fangs, claws, and glowing, slitted eyes are all quite visible.
The other three pixies all want hugs too, and giggle at his fur and tail. They never land.
Larrikan wonders how they fly so large, but figures it out. He is small. He is shocked by this, until one says, “Come sing for the queen, Fox!”