Below the sink is where I keep our berries. I pull out the basket of strawberries and begin washing them. The humans will be here soon.

Shurik crosses his arms with his mouth formed into a hard line.

"Tomorrow is your day of pairing, right?"

"The day after," I remind him lightly.

With that, he steps out of our tent to go off to work.

Eventually, I finish baking all the pies and set them out on the counter for the fair visitors. Just like every other day all of them are bought by around four pm.

I watch my last customer trail off after the other humans with their pie in hand. Would anyone really care if I followed them? Would it be so bad just to perhaps visit another fair even?

After I finish cleaning up, I drop my glamour and fly over to my room. Sometimes the humans throw such interesting things in the trash. I particularly enjoy collecting the used wrappers of what they call gum. I asked a human about it once and they even gave me my own piece to try.

I like to twist the gum wrappers into different shapes and make art pieces out of them. Sometimes though the ink coating the bright wrappers comes off on my hands. I tie two blue wrappers into a triangle and twine them around another triangle I made. They link together and once I make enough triangles I want to string them across the tent.

They'll shine nicely with the soft lights in here.

After I tie a few more wraps together, I get up off the ground and tap the small red button on the side of my alarm clock. It really is a strange device, it plays music too. It's an old prize we used to give away at some of the game booths. Most of our prizes are made of wooden and more natural materials though.

Sometimes when I'm bored I'll listen to music, but unfortunately, my alarm clock only plays one song.

I hum along to the light-hearted tune and twirl around in circles while dusting my room to make good use of my time. I dust the lights and then start dusting our furniture. When I turn around after dusting off my rocking chair my heart races seeing a figure in the corner of my sight.

Quickly, I fly over to my alarm clock and turn off the music. "Shurik! You scared me."

How long was he standing there watching me? Silently, he strides forward dropping his glamour while hanging up his apron for the night.

"We have nothing for dinner," I tell him.

I had hoped he would bring home food, but I guess he forgot his friends emptied our fridge last night. A violent cough escapes him and some of his purplish-pink faery dust gets on his bed. He coughs again and more of it gets onto the floor.

"Shurik!" I gasp while stepping near him.

He raises his arm indicating for me to stay put.

"No, don't come any closer. You know the risk."

He's right. If I accidentally inhale his dust, I could turn Rasblood, or even worse, a sprout could grow within me. That's only if a decent amount entered my body though. Still, I climb into my bed and pull my covers over myself and cover most of my face just in case.

My stomach twists as I watch him storm into the kitchen. He comes back with a broom and starts sweeping it up. Then he takes his dust outside probably dumping it out back so it'll scatter away eventually in the wind.

When he returns, I get up from my bed watching him cough into a bucket.

"I'm just sick," he says. He pauses when he coughs, "I will...return to the market square tomorrow and bring home food."

"Alright."

He sits down on his bed and I walk by him into the kitchen. I grab the handful of berries left from my pie-making today. Then I put them into a pot and fill it with water. I add a couple of herbs and then stow the pot in the oven because it's still hot.

After twenty minutes, I take the pot out of the oven and pour the tea into a mug. I carry the tea with me into our room.

My brother scoots up in his bed eyeing the mug warily.

"I made you tea," I tell him.

He leans over the mug sniffing it when I place it on his nightstand.

Shurik's voice hardens, he looks up at me as if I'm trying to poison him, "It's strawberry. I can't drink it."

Well, he can drink it. It's just we aren't really supposed to eat fruits not of our berryblood. Seriously though, he won't turn Strawblood from this small amount. Not to mention, all his friends ate some of my strawberry pies last night anyway – including him.

I'd be lying though if I said he wasn't eating more strawberries than he should be. I have noticed his skin turning a lighter red almost into a milky light pink hue like mine is. None of the older fae have noticed anything though so he doesn't need to freak out.

"There's a little ginger in it too and herbs," I add while scooting it closer to him, but his face contorts into disgust.

"My blood is changing already. I knicked my hand this morning and my blood was almost pink!" he bellows.

I cower away from him, almost dropping the mug, but manage to keep my grip on it as I hurry back into the kitchen. I set it in the sink with shaky hands not wanting to be around him or this tent.

I just want to leave.

Maybe not out of the fair, but away from him. Who am I kidding? He's sick and even if he is rude sometimes, he's my brother. He's probably scared of turning Strawblood and getting in trouble for it. That has to be why he's been so angry lately.

At any rate, I'm obligated to stay here and make sure he gets better. I hear Shurik cough again and walk back into the room over to my bed without looking at him. The last of the glowing lights above me fade to dark as I lay down on my bed for the night.

Eventually, the soft chirping of crickets and songs of the tree frogs outside lure me to sleep.

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