Birthday

Mihai keeps watching the oven as he casually remarks - "I'd worry about yourself. I'm not the one that tried to Scan it."


In response to Steve, he glances at Zelk - "See what i mean?"

Zelk closes her eyes and slowly nods.

"I'll go tend to the children," she says as she walks to the table to take a seat. "Konrad? Please keep an eye on Steve for me. He might try to do something while my back is turned."

"That does sound like him," Velstar adds.

Fedler faces Mihai and asks him, "Can you help me serve everyone?"

"Yeah."

"Of course, you can count on me." Konrad shares a conspiratorial glance with Steve when everyone's backs are turned.

Silently laughing, Steve gives Konrad the double thumbs up in acknowledgement.

With Mihai's help, Fedler serves the appetizers to everyone; tiny sausages wrapped in bacon, egg sandwiches, different types of cold meats and crackers dressed with cheese. For dinner; mashed potatoes, roasted chicken and macaroni sprinkled with barbecue spices. And for desert, cheese cake with a tad of whipped cream.

All the women in the room seem to enjoy the food quite a bit. Maybe a little too much in the case of the blue-haired girl, who after dinner is laying face down on the table, seemingly full.

"I... can't eat... anymore..." she moans.

"Well, that's a first," Zelk comments.

"Breeze?" Yen exclaims. "Your tummy hurts?"

"...A little," the fairy says.

She twitches a little, and then burps.

to Breeze - "You know all the food you ate can't possibly be in there, right?"

Another burp escapes her mouth.

To Velstar - "What do you think happens to it?"

Konrad spoils himself with the bacon-wrapped sausages before the main course, and takes modest servings of the chicken and macaroni, not normally one to eat himself large at social gatherings. The cake was delicious.

"Who knows that it goes anywhere but becoming part of her? We'll be learning more about her kind for decades to come."

"I think it gets shunted into an extradimensional space where it is converted into magic." Steve pats his very full tummy. "I have no way of proving it of course but you are totally right about it not being possible to be in her body. That's why I thnk faeries exist in more than one place."

Velstar faces Mihai and says, "Unfortunately, I'm not a researcher, so I don't know. Steve's theory however is quite compelling."

Yen lowers her head to be at the same level as Breeze. "Are you okay? Do you need to vomit?"

"No..." Breeze groans. "I think I'll be fine."

"It's not unprecedented. For instance Bags of Holding work that way. The real wonder of it all is that a Bag of Holding is an artifact level magical item. What does that say about fairies if I'm right?"

"Well we don't need a debate about whether fairies are special." He says, his eyes on the incapacitated Breeze, starting to look right past her.

"Hear that Breeze?" Fedler inquires.

"...Go on without me," Breeze mumbles.

Her answer provokes a few chuckles around the table.

"Didn't you have presents to give?" Velstar says.

"Oh right!" The fairy immediately jumps to her feet, extends her arms in the air and clamors with a bright tone, "This is a birthday party!"

Zelk blinks multiples times, almost in shock, and whispers, "...She's unkillable."

"Hey Facehugger, come give me a hand." - he nudges Breeze knowingly

"Uh? Okay!" Breeze deploys her wings and flies onto Mihai's shoulder. "Let's go get those presents!"

Mihai and Breeze go get those presents.

Steve laughs at Breeze's antics. "Yeah, go get your gift you goof."

"Faster Mihai!" Breeze urges him to accelerate. "Yen would already be there!"
________

A few minutes later, Mihai comes back with a few wrapped presents, but the fairy is nowhere to be seen?"

"Where's Breeze?" Yen asks. "She didn't vomit, right?"

"Breeze, where are you," Steve calls into the direction Mihai and Breeze went, "Are you going first?"

"Uh? No, she's fine. Just helping me out with delivery."

He looks at the boxes, as if trying to sort them out - "Ok, first up is... Konrad." - he hands her the box bag - "Here you go."

Yen looks at the first present, and then Konrad. "Thank you!" she tells him.

She opens the paper and finds a chocolate cupcake inside.