Sam and Evie returned to their group’s cabin after visiting Evergreen. Both children appeared overwhelmed with excitement. Evergreen’s tale turned the dice on the whole Paperblank Forest mission.
Evie walked backward before the time traveler. She and he crossed the bridge to the cabin. “Sam, this is incredible! We now know what we need to do.”
“When should we tell the others?” he inquired.
“My parents, more specifically,” Evie explained. “Not now, Sam, but soon. First, Euphorbia needs to teach Mateo the basics of being a fairy. Once she does, he'll be ready to see our grandmother.”
Sam hesitated a bit. “Is Autumn well?”
Images of Grandma Gilbert flashed through Evie’s brain: her soft, wrinkled skin, gentle smile, and warm hug. “‘Find Mam,’ Sam,” she said. “Not only was she talking about you, she was also talking about Mateo. I think he’s very close to her.”
“Will she recognize me?” As if he were cold, Sam rapidly rubbed his hands together. What if sixty years was too long for Autumn? What if she had forgotten him completely?
Evie playfully flicked his nose. “Of course, she’ll recognize you, dude. After all, she gave you the pebble before me.” She and her friend reached the end of the bridge. Cicadas chirped. The sky was no longer Fanta but a mix of orange and purple. Evia and Sam climbed the cabin’s steps and opened the door.
“Evie! There you are!” Evie’s parents were in charge of her and her group at the moment. Everybody sat in a circle with board games scattered about. Tate and Emrys got tired of them, so they were building a pirate ship with the Legos.
“Where have you two been?” Charlotte snapped at Evie and Sam.
“We were just visiting Evergreen,” Sam explained. “She told us that—”
Evie pinched him before he could say anymore.
“Ouch!” Sam clutched his arm.
“Is Mr. Mateo back?” Evie asked her parents.
Charlotte gulped.
Keegan merely closed his eyes. He yawned boringly.
Charlotte got up from the floor. She approached Evie and took her shoulder. “Sweetheart, he is back but not in good shape. Ms. Brook, Maria, and Ben are trying to calm him in his room.” She brushed her hand across Evie’s cheek. “They asked us to wait out here until it’s safe.”
Evie’s tummy flipped. “What do you mean ‘safe’?”
Shivering, Charlotte replied, “He had a bit of a breakdown in the baby store. He and Maria went there after they left the hospital.”
“Wait, do you mean a mental breakdown?” Evie tugged at her hair.
From where he sat, Keegan scoffed. “I always knew that jerk was insane.” He rose to his feet, also coming within reach of his daughter. “He should have never been your counselor, Evie. The camp should have put you with Mr. Jenkins instead. When you start dating, I don’t want you to get caught up with men like Mateo.”
Evie furrowed her brows. She clenched her fists. “Dad, stop. Mateo is not that kind of man. Don’t you see? He’s sick. He’s been working nonstop for nine months.”
Before the two could argue further, the door to Mateo’s room opened. Out stepped King Benjamin. He flipped up the flaps of his shirt collar—Evie guessed to look cool.
At the sight of him, her group members stood. They, Evie, Evie’s parents, and Sam bowed to their king.
“Oh, there’s no need to bow. I’m only human, after all,” Ben said. He gestured for everyone to stand up.
They did.
“How-How is he?” Charlotte stammered.
Beside her, Keegan glared. How dare his own wife choose a freak over him! Since when was Charlotte interested in younger men anyway?
Ben inhaled slowly. He spoke loud and clear (very king-like). “Mom is keeping him calm.”
Evie and her group members sat at one of the cabin’s couches. They set their hands on their thighs.
“Is he letting you look at his belly?” Charlotte added.
Ben shook his head. “No, he’s still refusing.”
Charlotte shivered. “Is he at least asleep?”
“I think he’s too scared to sleep,” Ben replied.
Keegan smacked his right fist into his left palm. He had an urge. He wanted to punch that counselor in his paper jaw and knock out all his teeth. That would teach him never to get a twenty-one-year-old girl pregnant. “No worries, Your Highness. I’ll put him to sleep.”
Right when he said that, the cabin’s door flew open. John the Red-Crowned Crane fluttered in, carrying a few bamboo tubes in his claws. He waved his wing at the gathering. “Oh, good. I’m not late.” The bird dropped the different-sized tubes on the cabin’s table. He turned to face his friends. “So, I’ve spent the afternoon making tranquilizer guns. I have three different sizes: small, medium, and large. Each dart will knock Mateo out for a certain amount of time. This one is my personal favorite.”
John lifted into the air. He picked up a long, staff-like gun. While the bamboo was uneven in a few places, he did a good job tinkering away with it. “Let me show you how it works. I have a small trigger here.” John slid his claws toward the gun’s safety. Struggling, he pushed down the twig-like trigger.
Evie, her friends, and Charlotte gasped when a dart flew out of the barrel. It hit Keegan right in his neck, knocking him out. He fell onto his front.
“Keegan!” Charlotte clutched her head with both hands.
John chuckled nervously. “Oops. Sorry, Mrs. Madison. Hey, at least we know it works. He’ll only be out for three hours max.”
King Benjamin shot his friend an angry look. “John, we are not going to tranquilize Mateo.”
John groaned. “What? Then how about we go back to my original plan?” He tossed the gun on top of the others. John next lugged a wooden baseball bat out from behind the table. He smacked it against the palm of his left foot. “I’ve been wanting to do this to him all week.”
“John!” Ben snatched the bat from his friend’s claws.
While they argued, Sam and Evie carefully studied the cluster of tranquilizers.
Evie glanced at Sam. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
He nodded. “I think so, Evie.”
Amanda scooted toward them. “What are y’all talking about?”
Evie gathered her friends together. “Come close, children,” she chimed, her voice low enough so Charlotte, John, and Ben wouldn’t hear it. “We’ve got a lot of preparations to make this weekend.”
John floated back to the floor. His feet touched the slick wood. He and Ben met eyes. “But, Ben, I can’t just sit here and watch Mateo suffer. What can I do to help?”
Ben smacked his back, knocking the crane’s breaths out of him. “You can start by finding him a mental therapist. Besides”—his eyes rolled over to Evie and her friends’ meeting—“I’m sure Evie and Sam have a plan.”
“Oh, drat,” Evie and Sam said simultaneously. They were horrible when it came to secrets.
***
Euphorbia woke up in the middle of the night. She felt a bit better. She removed her leaf blanket and jumped slightly when she heard Evergreen snoring.
The witch doctor’s whole body was spread out across her table. The sleeping draft she took before bed was extra powerful that night.
Euphorbia’s legs shook under her, but she flapped her little wings. She had a meeting with the basilisk, and she did not want to miss it. She had to make the best use of her last few days of life. She needed the basilisk to start Mateo’s training. After all, it was the serpent itself who made her the Green Guardian.
The flight through the Paperblank Forest was peaceful. A warm breeze passed through Euphorbia’s wings and hair. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness. Her flying was starting to slow down, but she still enjoyed it.
Euphorbia soared across a massive meadow. The grass in it was much taller than the other meadows. Her fairy dust sparkled on each grass strand. Twirling, she flew in an arch. The fairy followed a stream in the meadow that took her to the forest. A few frogs leaped into the water when they saw her. They did not expect to see the Green Guardian flying again so soon.
She and the basilisk met up with one another under an enormous tree—the Guardian’s Tree. It was not far from Euphorbia’s shrine. The whole top of the plant looked like a canopy. Pink flowers with dandelion centers grew in it. The area was circle-shaped.
The basilisk had its two tails wrapped around the tree’s trunk. It was still a bit shaken up from the battle earlier. Its injured tail was sore, but at least the bleeding had stopped.
Euphorbia halted before its scared face. She held her index finger up to it.
Nervous, it jammed its body into the ground. The creature’s lump moved away from Euphorbia.
She followed it.
The basilisk poked its head out of its hole beside a cluster of daisies. It looked like a mole.
Euphorbia tapped her chin, trying to think. She pointed at the basilisk and acted out a Pinta Park Ranger throwing their magic rope. She then gestured at the Guardian’s Tree. “Don’t you remember?” she asked her friend. “This is where you turned me into the Green Guardian 1,000 years ago. The tree has grown, but it’s still the same.”
“My masssster would not want thissss,” the basilisk hissed.
“I thought you were happy he was gone.” Slightly confused, Euphorbia crossed her arms.
“Thatsss jussst the thing,” replied the serpent. “He'ssss here, and he wantssss me.” Whimpering, it ducked into its hole. “He wantssss the lasssst wizard to desssstroy that fae ranger.”
The basilisk recalled a day of its youth when it was still a wizard-in-training. He was fifteen years old. He looked like Mateo: short black hair, tan skin, and skinny but strong body structure. He spent his days exploring the Paperblank Forest and practicing his magic.
One day, while training, he met a beautiful but mysterious girl. What intrigued him most about her was her red hair and freckles. She led him to this very tree, where she and he underwent the ritual of the Green Guardian.
The memory was bittersweet because it started the basilisk’s journey to slavery and villainy.
It did not want to think anymore. The memory caused its heart to ache. It never wanted to fall under the control of Evie and Mateo’s great-grandfather ever again, but now it looked like it had no choice unless—! Of course! That was why Euphorbia came to it.
***
As usual, Mateo refused to sleep. He knew that if he did, his family and friends would try to take him to the hospital. He did not want that. He still did not forgive himself for hurting his family, especially Maria. He should have never fallen victim to that banquet. Now look where it got him. He was suddenly a dad.
Mateo Brook/Ranger Anthony did not deserve to live. At least, that was the thought going through his head.
Maria and Ms. Brook, who were watching over him, did manage to fall asleep.
Mateo waited until he was sure it was safe. Once he heard Maria and Ms. Brook’s silent breathing, he crawled out of bed as quietly as a mouse. He dragged himself to the cabin’s bathroom and closed the door behind him, locking it.
Before doing anything, he shaved the beard he was starting to grow on his chin. He sniffed the whole time he worked. His hand shook slightly, and that caused him to cut himself a little. Mateo kept the small goatee below his lower lip. He put his razor down and stared at the depressed youth in the mirror. God, he was so ugly.
His demons mumbled, “Die, die,” in his head.
Mateo wanted to join them.
His attention moved over the scale in the corner of the bathroom. He weighed himself. He lost seven pounds in merely four days. Mateo did not want to think about how many more he would lose. That forest sickness hit hard. He freed his blade from his razor and fell to his knees at the wall beside the bathtub. He was too scared to look at his tummy.
Blade in hand, Mateo vandalized the bathroom. He carved a message into its wall—Death. He could not care how much he would pay to replace it. Mateo just wanted to get his message across to his family and friends. He sighed sadly.
He returned the razor blade to the sink. He moved closer to the bathtub and reached out one of his diseased hands. He moved it toward the tub’s handle. The lump in his throat grew like a cancerous ulcer.
A small tingling sound came from the bathroom’s open window just before Mateo could turn the tub on. In flew Euphorbia. She stopped him before things could get really bad.
“Don’t do this, child,” she begged. “You’re special.”
Mateo shared Sam’s gift. He heard right through the fairy’s tingles. “No, I’m not,” he whimpered. “Mr. Madison is right about everything. I’m a creep. I got an innocent twenty-one-year-old pregnant.”
Euphorbia fluttered to the hand that almost touched the tub’s knob. She pushed it away and returned it to Mateo. She offered him hers. “Come with me. I want to show you something.”
Mateo studied her tiny hand. He thought long and hard about his decision, but eventually, he shook Euphorbia’s hand with his thumb and index finger. A light green light outlined his body.
Euphorbia helped him to his feet and tugged him toward the door.
Mateo unlocked and opened it. He and Euphorbia slipped through the cabin and went outside to the peaceful night.
Euphorbia would show the young ranger how special he was and why he deserved the “Green Guardian” title. It was what his father, Faelyn, wanted.
ns 15.158.61.12da2
