Nighttime in Seranet felt like a dream. Fireflies flickered, and the pixies’ mushroom houses glowed softly. The village hospital was outside and under a tent in a small grove. It was a bit cut off from the rest of the village. The hospital lacked beds. Soft, feathery mats replaced them. The tent also sported a few tables, chairs, and dressers. At the very end of it, near the exit, was a concrete fountain that had a statue of a fae man–a warrior to be exact. He held a sword in one hand and a rope in the other.

Mateo was the only patient in the hospital. Everybody else in the village was healthy. He felt so out of place and lonely.

Mateo stared at the fountain’s heroic statue. He recalled the days when he was a hero himself–the days of Ranger Anthony. He pushed himself onto his elbow and pulled a notebook and pen out of his hiking pack. Mateo shuffled under his white blanket. He put his notebook on his pillow and opened it. The gentle drops of dripping water from the fountain cleared his head, making it easier to write. He wrote for a good ten minutes. His note took up the whole front and back of the college-ruled page. With each sentence, he grew more choked up. His handwriting was a lot messier than usual because he had injured his dominant shoulder, and it hurt to move it. At the end of the note, he wrote “Love, Mateo.”

He took a few minutes to look it over, and then he slipped it, his notebook, and pen back into his pack. Soon after he did, Evie, Ben, and Edger entered the hospital.

“Hey, Mateo,” Evie said.

He sat up. His head spun momentarily, but he shook it out. When he managed to collect his bearings, he fixed his attention on Evie, Ben, and Edger. He noticed Edger carried a rather suspicious, oxygen-like mask. One look at it, and his fear accelerated to a whole new level.

The others came within reach of him.

Edger inhaled and exhaled a few times before he said, “Mateo, we’ve been talking about it, and we think the best thing we can do is put you to sleep.”

Mateo’s eyes widened. “No!” His voice was hoarse. Sleep was no longer on his agenda. Before Edger could put the mask over his nose and mouth, he hastily crawled away from him, Ben, and Evie. He hid behind the statue of the fae warrior and clutched the fountain’s rim with both hands.

Ben rolled his eyes. “Mateo, please, you’re a grown man.”

“I don’t care!” he yelled. “Get that mask away from me!”

Evie, Ben, and Edger started to move in on him. They refused to give up. Mateo needed to sleep. It was the only way his body was going to heal.

“Stay back!” He conjured up a wall of sickly green vines. They concealed him in a cocoon. A group of them slapped the others.

Ben, Evie, and Edger fell onto their backsides. They batted the vines away.

It wasn’t long until John joined the party. He saw Evie, Ben, and Edger struggling against Mateo and couldn’t help but ask, “Should I get a baseball bat?”

Ben glared at him. “Don’t you dare, John! We can’t risk giving him a head injury.”

Evie pushed her way through Mateo’s rampaging vines.

He shoved a few into her and tightened his grip on the fountain’s rim. “I want my mom!”

“You’ll see her tomorrow,” Evie explained. “Mateo, we hate seeing you in so much pain. Why can’t you just let us help you?”

“I don’t want your help! Just let me die!”

“As if!” Evie snapped. “You’re too young to die.”

“John, get Evie out of here,” Ben said. “She doesn’t need to see this.”

While they were distracted, Mateo crawled out from behind the fountain. He squeezed his skinny body under one of the tables that was a bit lower to the ground. He curled into a ball, shivering from fear and fever.

Evie knew where he was. She tried to approach him, but John pulled her back with his good wing. In a gentle voice, he said, “You’re too young to see this, Evie.”

“I can’t leave him. I can’t,” Evie protested. “I may be young, John, but I know how to handle a serious situation.”

“I’m sorry,” John apologized. He led her away from Mateo. She peered over her shoulder at him.

Ben fell to his hands and knees. Slowly but carefully, he crept to the table Mateo hid under. He felt like a pet owner trying to pull a new cat or dog out of its favorite hiding place.

Mateo attacked him. In times like these, his magic was beyond handy. A new wall of vines lifted out of the hospital’s dirt floor. They slammed into Ben and threw him back, right into Edger. They landed on top of two more mats. The impact knocked them out.

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“Just let me die!” Mateo begged again. He uncurled his body and now rested on his front, with his hands gripping the dirt in front of him. Wheezing, he coughed. His breathing was slightly labored. He kept the wall of vines up, using them as a protective barrier. His eyes drooped, and his head hit the ground. He tried to stay awake, but it was beyond difficult.

***

Euphorbia returned late that night–midnight to be exact. Also severely weak, she fluttered through the waterfall portal into Seranet. She landed on top of an empty mushroom house. Euphorbia groaned, trying to maintain her strength. At least one good thing happened that day: she completed her mission. Now she just had to hold on long enough to give her successor his gift. It wasn’t time to die, not yet at least.

Euphorbia found Evie and her friends sleeping on some mats in Seranet’s visitor center. There was a small, lavender-scented inn under it that was a bit cramped. The fae weren’t accustomed to having visitors.

Euphorbia flitted to Sam. She poked his cheek with her small index finger, falling onto his shoulder.

He opened his blue eyes, and they landed on the fairy. Just at the sight of her, he gasped. Sam sat up. He caught Euphorbia in his palms. “Euphorbia! There you are. Where have you been?”

Euphorbia coughed slightly. She pointed at the dusty window Sam’s mat was under. The frame was black.

He glanced at it. “What is it?”

Even though she struggled, Euphorbia lifted into the sky. She tugged one of Sam’s strands of hair that hung in front of his ears.

“Do you want me to follow you?” he inquired.

Euphorbia vigorously nodded. She created a tingling sound that sounded like a pair of triangles. She settled onto Sam’s bag.

“Shouldn’t we wake the others?” he asked.

The fairy shook her head no. She needed Sam’s help and Sam’s help only. He met the basilisk before Evie and Mateo. As long as Evie held onto the pebble, she would be able to find him.

Sam was a bit perplexed, but he listened to the Green Guardian. He slung his pack onto his back. Euphorbia moved from it up to his head. Sam tiptoed over his sleeping friends. He headed toward the inn’s exit. He was so quiet that not even Evie stirred.

Euphorbia stayed optimistic. She knew there was some hope for Mateo. She knew what she had to do, but she couldn’t do it alone. She needed her second oldest friend.

Before leaving, Euphorbia made a quick stop at Seranet’s hospital. Sam waited for her outside. Her wings would not work on her, so she ended up stumbling across the dirt floor.

Mateo still had his barrier up. He did not see the tiny fairy crawling through the vines, partly because she ended up at his feet and legs.

Euphorbia lifted her tiny hands. She blew on her palms. Faded, green sparkles escaped them. They circled Mateo’s legs and torso. At the same time, the statue of the fae man flickered. A silver ring with an emerald stone appeared in between Euphorbia’s palms. The spell weakened her further, but she was happy she was able to pull it off. The ring landed next to the semi-conscious man’s arm.

Euphorbia nodded to herself. She kissed Mateo’s hand, stumbling away from him. Step one was complete. Step two was to wait, but hopefully not too long. The ring vanished from sight. It would not appear again until the time was right.

***

Sam and Euphorbia left the village. They made not a sound. Before Sam knew it, he was back on the foggy path that led to Seranet. His heart skipped a beat. Why was a forest always so creepy at night?

Owls hooted. They twisted their heads 360 degrees. Their ears stood straight up.

Euphorbia rested on Sam’s shoulder, with her head on her hands.

Whining emerged from within the fog. Three gray wolves stepped out of it. None growled. In fact, the animals were some of the most peaceful-looking wolves Sam had ever seen. They bowed their fluffy heads to the Green Guardian and turned on their heels.

Sam knew he could trust them. Nature told him so. The wolves also knew what he and Euphorbia had to do. It was the only way to regain lost trust and save the forest. Sam and Euphorbia had to make it easier on the Pebble Masters.

Sam scooped Euphorbia up in his palms. The wolves marched on either side of him. Each one walked with a regal stance. Sam was ready, ready to confront the basilisk.

***

The serpent did not sleep that night. It slithered back and forth in front of its den, an enormous cave that was well-hidden within a grove of trees and an overgrowth of Kudzu vines. The area was nostalgic for the monster. After all, it was where it first met Evie and Mateo’s great-grandfather.

The basilisk remembered it perfectly: a young man about Mateo’s age got lost in the forest on a rainy day. He came down with a cold, but the monster saved him. It stayed with him until he was well again. From that day forth, the two promised to be friends forever. It was such a magical memory. The basilisk could never forget it.

Upset, it rattled its two tails and slithered into its cave. Its body was camouflaged to blend in with the walls. Its cobra-like head touched the rocks on top. Growling, the serpent plopped down onto its front. It rested its chin on top of a few more rocks.

The snapping of tree branches outside caught its attention.

The basilisk growled. It prepared a ball of the forest sickness in its mouth. Its head left its cave, just in time to see a few figures step out from some ferns: three wolves and him… the boy it chased so many years ago.

Sam and the serpent stared at one another. Both were lost in thought.

Sam carefully put his bag down. He took Euphorbia off his shoulder and held her out to the monster. His heart beat rapidly in his chest, but he remained calm.

The basilisk’s eyes continued to mow him down. It banged its tails on each wall of the cave. The moment was tense but also mysterious. Sam was both nervous and excited. He nodded at Euphorbia.

She returned it. Like Mateo, she kissed Sam’s hand. It was her way of saying that everything was going to be okay. Euphorbia had waited 1,000 years for this special day, so she was not ashamed.

“She-she’s ready,” Sam explained to the basilisk.

The wolves rubbed their soft coats against him. They knew it would be difficult for the little boy to say goodbye.

Sam’s heels clicked together. His eyes did not leave the towering serpent. He stretched his arms out further.

Euphorbia patted his palm.

Sam felt like a hamster was running up and down it. He built up his confidence. “You can kill her now. She has a successor,” he said.