Author's Note: This is an old piece that I started a while ago. I think it has potential, but I'm not sure where it's supposed to be going. Anyway, I decided I might as well post what I have and see what you people think. (That, and I'll do just about anything to get more reviews! ^_^)

ARIEN AND THE RIFT

You could not blame Joe Miller, or anyone of his customers, for being a bit shocked. After all, they had never seen a fairy before in their lives. Not that they knew that he was a fairy. Since they had never seen one before. But that was exactly what walked in out of nowhere at Joe's Bar and sat down by the disk.

"Ale," it said. "No, wait! A big glass of whiskey."

Joe examined the stranger. "Stranger" was definitely the right word.

The creature looked kind of human, but was a bit shorter then the average Homo Sapiens. It was probably male, had two legs, two arms, one head with the right amount of eyes, ears and nostrils and so on. He had long, blond hair tied into two broad braids down his shoulders, equally blond sideburns and a neatly trimmed goatee. He was dressed in a green tunic of some sort with matching brown leather pants and brown leather boots. Some sort of leather armour was strapped over his chest and Joe noted the very long dagger that hung from the belt, just like he noticed the light cloak.

This was not what made him look, well, inhuman, though. Actually, it was the other way around; these were the only things that made him look at least a bit understandable. As for his more unusual features, perhaps we should start with his skin.

At first glance it did not look so out of the ordinary, but then one noticed that it had a strange colour of white gold. Then were his eyes; they were blue as a clear summer sky, but did not have any irises, just two large, blue spots on the white eye-globes. His ears were extremely pointy, and finally from his forehead he had two long, tentacle-like antennae, neatly tucked away behind his ears and resting at his shoulders next to the braids. All of this could be arranged by a good make-up artist, Joe knew this, but something with that guy gave him the impression that this guy was for real. Perhaps it was the way his antennas moved in a disturbingly realistic way.

"Hey, are you deaf? I said I wanted whiskey!" the being repeated impatiently. He let a couple of coins fall on the disk. Joe picked one up. It was green and had small symbols that looked oriental carved in it.

"Is this jade?" Joe asked.

"Of course it is!" The apparition rolled his eyes.

"I'm afraid I don't take jade coins."

"Damn," the non-human muttered and threw a heavy golden coin on the disk. "Take that then. It's gold."

Joe took a closer look. It seemed to be gold alright, with the same strange markings.

"You know, I don't really take foreign currency, especially when I have no idea…"

"Look," the creature said. "I have just given you a piece of solid gold. I don't know much about this place, but I know that gold is gold! I could probably buy the entire bottle for that. In fact, I think I'll take the entire bottle, thankyouverymuch. I'll probably need it."

Although Joe still had some doubts, he handed the bottle to the manifestation. "Just what are you? Some kind of freak or an alien or something?"

"Oh, great!" the stranger said, clearly offended. "Harass a guy just because he has antennae on his head! What are you, some kind of racist?"

"Um, sorry," Joe said. "But… what are you, then?"

"I'm a fairy," his customer said with a deadly grin. Joe noticed that his teeth had the same rainbow shimmer as pearl. "My name is Arien. By the way, do you have a newspaper? I need to find a… What did you call it? A place were you get to live if you pay the owners money?"

"A hotel?" Joe guessed.

"No, the other one."

"An apartment?"

"That's it! I need to find an apartment! And by the way, do you have a one of those phone-things? I'll need to call for a yellow car."

Michael Barrie should have been a happy man, since he had somehow managed to get a very nice and spacious apartment for a reasonable price. The only problem was the fact that the elevator was not operational and he had to walk all the way up. Then he discovered that a guy with antennas already occupied the apartment. So he walked down all the stairs again, talked to the landlord who insured him that no mistake had been done, and finally he walked up to the stairs again to try to pursuade his rival to leave.

"What? Are you crazy?" the bug-guy said. "Have you got any idea how hard it is to get an apartment in this town when you look like me? Do you have any idea on how much gold I had to pay?"

"Hey, I had a good deal too!" Michael said. "I just wanted a place to live, is that too much to ask?"

Arien frowned. "Hey, can't we, like, share the place?" he asked.

"Roomies?" Mike said. "Gee, I don't know."

"Come on!" Arien said and struck his arms out in a flamboyant gesture. "We'll be best buddies! And you can show me around. I am rather new in town, you see."

Mike was silent for a moment. This guy didn't seem dangerous, after all. And it was a very nice apartment. He'd never get a chance like this for a million years. Deal of a lifetime, actually.

He sighed. "Oh, why not? But I think we should at least introduce ourselves. I'm Mike. Michael Barrie."

"My name is Arien of Cair Sidhe," Arien said with a small but elaborate bow.

"Shee?"

"Sidhe!" Arian said. "I am a fairy from Everwhere Glades, a knight of Lord Lysior. I also practise magic, but I'm not terribly good at it. Actually, that's how I ended up in your world to begin with."

"Ah, I see," Mike said with an empty expression on his face. "Don't tell me, you came though a magic wardrobe, didn't you?"

"Don't be such a fool. It was a trunk."

"Oh," Mike said. "Silly me."

"I'll have to find a good mage or so to get back," Arien continued and absently stroked his goatee. "Nothing big, even two or three wannabe-warlocks will probably work."

"I'm afraid we don't have many mages nowadays," Mike said. "If they ever existed, they disappeared long ago."

"Nonsense," Arien said. "There is always some mage somewhere. Magic doesn't die, it's too damn stubborn."

"Er, sure," Mike said. He was getting more and more confident that this was all just a bad dream, which made him feel a little better. He tried to convince himself that he had control of the situation, but he found himself a poor liar. "So, now what?"

"Well," Arien said and had a look around in his new home. "It looks a bit naked in here. First of all we have to decorate a bit. By the way, do you know were I can change some gold coins into dollars?"

Later, when returning from looking for furniture, visiting his girlfriend to try to get her to understand his problems and phoning his parents, Mike noticed that his roommate had a rather peculiar taste. Not only had he invested in a large collection of baroque furnitures, he had also taken the liberty of decorating the flat with various trinkets of mostly oriental origin. Mike saw several small copper statues of Hindu gods and Chinese statues of jade here and there. A katana was hanging on the wall and there was a faint smell of incense in the air.

Arien had got himself a new, stylish haircut and new clothes; a white, sleeveless shirt and a pair of jeans. When Mike entered the apartment the fairy was playing an air-guitar to the tones of "Dead Ringer for Love". The voices of Cher and Meatloaf hit Mike like a truck.

"Oh my god!" Mike shouted.

"Mike!" Arien shouted and turned the music down a little. "Guess what? I'm richer then crap!"

"Oh, really," Mike said dryly. "I see you have been busy. Nice haircut."

"I love this world!" Arien shouted and slided over the floor, playing his non-existent guitar. "You can buy anything!"

"I don't think the neighbours are as happy," Mike said. "Starting to feel at home?"

"You have no idea!" Arien blazed a smile towards his human friend. "I think I'm going to like this world!"

"Great," Mike sighed and fell into one of the new, comfortable chairs. "Juuust great!"

Author's Note: Well, as I said, I'm not sure what to make of this for now. Any suggestions are welcome, but be forewarned, this story won't have a very big priority.