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A man and a woman were sitting next to each other on a beach by themselves. Their fingers were intertwined, and the sound of lapping waves were the only thing that could be heard. The man leaned close to the woman and whispered something into her ear, causing her to blush and giggle. She slapped his thigh, and he laughed before revealing a toothy grin. The couple stared each other in the eyes, and they both fell silent. They leaned closer, and right before their lips were about to touch, a fish flew out of the waves and flopped onto the ground in front of them. Its body spasmed, kicking sand everywhere. Despite the randomness of its flopping action, the majority of the sand landed on the couple, causing them to shield their faces with their arms.
The fish stopped moving, and after a bit, a fairy climbed out of the fish’s mouth. “I thought I was going to die!” the fairy said and exhaled as she fell over backwards, landing with her limbs splayed. Her head turned to the side, and she pointed at the fish. “Polymorph!”
The couple stared in shock as the fish transformed into an elf with brown hair. Lindyss gasped for breath and glared at the fairy queen lying on the sand in front of her. “The next time you try to hide in my mouth, I’ll chew you to bits and swallow.”
Erin nodded. “Noted,” she said. “I’ll be sure to polymorph you into a fish without teeth next time.” The fairy queen flapped her wings rapidly, causing droplets of water to sprinkle around her. She flew on top of Lindyss head and took a seat before glancing to the side at the stunned couple. “What? You’ve never seen a fairy and an elf before?”
The couple shook their heads, their mouths still hanging open. Lindyss exhaled and climbed to her feet before stretching her arms towards the sky, arching her back. Even though she didn’t have arms whilst she was a fish, paddling with her fins still made her sore. She turned to look at the couple before frowning. Usually, she could tell which region she was in just by looking at the people and the way they dressed. However, before she could open her mouth to ask them a question, a flood of voices filled her head, causing her frown to deepen.
“What’s wrong?” Erin asked, peering over the edge of Lindyss’ head to look the elf in the eyes.
“Nothing,” Lindyss said and placed her hand on her forehead. “I just got a backlog of messages from the undead.” She took in a deep breath, and after a bit, she straightened her back. “Well, we didn’t miss too much while we were gone. There’s a problem though; I’ve been invited to a wedding, but Grimmy and his family are going to be there.”
“Don’t go,” Erin said. “It’s that simple.”
“You’re right,” Lindyss said. “That is pretty simple. It’s not like I’m actually related to the groom; I just brought him back to life. Unfortunately, I’ve known him for over a few centuries. It wouldn’t sit right with me if I didn’t attend; after all, I’ve ordered him around a lot, but this is the first time he’s ever asked me for a favor.”
Erin furrowed her brow. “I could polymorph you into someone else,” she said. “Are you really sure you want to risk facing the dragons you fled from for the sake of someone who’s already dead?”
“As long as the polymorph doesn’t suddenly run out, it should be fine,” Lindyss said. “I’ll let the groom know ahead of time in case they’ll want to remove me for being a stranger. But first, we have more pressing issues to deal with.” She turned her head towards the two strangers on the beach. “Hey, where are we?”
***
Alice exhaled and placed her hands on her hips. Everything was finally in order. A pair of bony arms hugged her from behind, and she raised her head to look up at Mr. Skelly’s skull.
“Nervous?” Mr. Skelly asked. His eye socket contorted as he raised an eyebrow.
Alice snorted. “No,” she said. “Relieved. Why does wedding planning have to be so stressful?”
“It doesn’t have to be,” Mr. Skelly said. “We could have a small ceremony between ourselves and a priest.”
Alice rolled her eyes. “That would’ve been a great suggestion before I finished everything.”
“I did suggest it way before the planning started.”
“Yep,” Alice said. “And we decided to go through with the large wedding anyway.” She smiled at Mr. Skelly. “And how are you? Nervous?”
“Me? Nervous?” Mr. Skelly asked. “Never. I don’t have a stomach for butterflies to be in. It’s similar to how I can’t get cold because I don’t have any skin for goosebumps to grow on.”
Alice snorted. “Nervousness is in the mind. You can still be nervous without a stomach just like how you’re still in love with me despite the lack of a heart.”
“Who says I don’t have a heart?” Mr. Skelly asked. “I have many hearts. I keep them in the jars underneath your bed.”
Alice raised her hand and smacked Mr. Skelly’s skull off. “You better not be keeping the hearts of your enemies under the bed. In fact, you better not be keeping them at all.”
“Don’t worry,” Mr. Skelly said as he released Alice and groped around for his skull. Once he grabbed it, he put it back on his neck. “I stopped collecting trophies from my defeated foes. Since we bring them back to life and have them join us as undead, it makes things a little awkward if I keep reminders of how I killed them.”
“Right,” Alice said before shaking her head. “That makes sense.” She sighed and turned her head to stare out the window of her office. The streets outside hadn’t changed much in the years she spent working as the guild master. Alice smiled to herself and placed her hand on Mr. Skelly’s arm. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we could live like this forever?”
“We can,” Mr. Skelly said. “You’ll just have to die and become a skeleton first.”
“…That’s not what I meant.”