************Ron POV************

Ron laid the woman down on the bed in the spare room he had specifically for outsiders set up in his own cabin. He unstrapped the belt she had around her waist to make her more comfortable and instantly recognized the black bag tied to it.

“I’ve only seen one person carry this, but I have not seen him in many years,” he whispered to himself. His first thought was that the woman breathing softly on the bed had possibly killed Arturo, but she didn’t look like the type to do so.

When it didn’t seem like she would wake up any time soon, he turned and walked away from the room and locked it from the outside. From there he went and poured himself some tea before wandering the cabin deep in thought.

It had been years since anybody had tried to step onto the island. Since Ron had brought the villagers back from that kingdom long ago, he doubled his protective measures to be certain they would be safe. The fact that someone had managed to get onto it without noticing until they had actually got on it was above even him.

He had started dinner by the time there was any kind of movement coming from the other room. Ron turned at the sound of the bed creak, so he let the fire burn in the fireplace as the soup boiled and walked to the door. Before he could even press his hand to the wood, the girl’s sword was shoved straight throw and almost got him in the chest.

Ron fell backwards in alarm. The door was locked, but even with that the girl proceeded to chop her way through. He had never dealt with someone like this before, especially a woman, so when she had managed to cut her way through the door with a scared but determined look he felt slight sympathy for her.

The sympathy didn’t last too long. The woman ran at him with sword in hand and gave Ron only a few seconds to react himself. He raised his hand and grabbed the blade by the smooth side before twisting it out of her grasp. She seemed to be expecting this, though, since she kicked out at that moment and landed on top of him. She pinned Ron to the cabin floor and held his face there.

He didn’t want to hurt her, so they wrestled each other until Ron himself had her against the ground. Both were breathing heavily but the woman seemed to be the most out of shape. Blood slightly dripped from her shoulder and forehead as she glared up at him.

“What is your name?” Ron asked, kicked the sword farther out of reach. It was then that he noticed what it was that had cut her.

Glittering crystal made light dance all over the ceiling and wall. Something had shattered, and it belonged to the girl for she cried out in alarm and terror when she saw it.

“No! That was my only way back home! My niece will die!” She gasped and struggled out of Ron’s grasp. She stumbled to where the broken pieces were and started to scoop them up before hissing slightly and pulling her hand back while more blood dripped from a cut that was made there.

“You came here for one of the flowers, didn’t you?” Ron finally asked after a few seconds of silence. He understood at that point that the girl had come to steal a flower.

The woman glanced at him sideways with sadness in her eyes. Ron didn’t understand why, but the look in her eyes made his heart beat faster. He wanted to hold her and tell her everything would be fine when he had never felt something like it before. He shook the feeling off and stood up.

“My newborn niece...she has an illness that is incurable. None of our guild’s nurses or even light magic can help her. If I don’t get whatever damned flower it is I’m looking for, she will be dead!” The girl cried as tears started to stream down her face.

Ron didn’t like thieves, but his mind was slowly forgetting just how much he hated them as the tears hit the wooden floors. He finally gave in and growled in annoyance at the weakness he was showing, but did his best to give the appearance of a strong will.

“If I give you that flower and send you back home, you must come back within a year’s time. When you do, you will serve under my roof for a full two years. I don’t find stealing to be an action so easy to get away with,” he growled. The woman looked up at him with sudden hope in her eyes instead of the horror Ron had been expecting.

“I’ll do it! I’ll do whatever you ask me to do, just please let me have a flower!” The woman was back on her feet in excitement. Ron himself was taken aback and stared at her for a few seconds before picking up the black bag off the floor and went straight to the front door.

“Come, I will send you home when you receive the bag and the flower,” he said as the woman stood up and walked by his side.

“Emily,” she suddenly said. Ron stopped next to a large bush a bit further than she was before turning around to look at her.

“What was that?” The woman’s face went bright red before she glanced at the closest tree to her to escape his eyesight.

“My name. My name is Emily,” she stuttered. Ron stared at her for a few seconds before a slow smile spread across his face unwillingly.

“Emily. I like it,” he said. Emily’s face grew an even darker red as Ron turned and continued walking.

It didn’t take very long to get to the rose bush. Ron had deliberately placed his cottage fairly close to the area where it was planted so if something happened he would be able to reach it quickly. Emily wrinkled her nose at the scent while Ron walked right up and swiftly plucked a rose from the plant. He placed it in the small bag and pulled the drawstring tightly closed.

“Here, take it. Your niece will immediately be healed, but let her rest for about three days until she is allowed to see anybody else but you and your family. The stress could make her body reject the flower’s ability to fully heal her,” Ron said as the bag was handed to the girl.

She looked at the bag that was in her hand, then back up at Ron. Her eyes were shining with happiness and hope, then she did something that would make Ron stunned for as long as the woman was gone.

She leaned up and kissed him on the cheek before she even realized what she was doing.

Ron’s jaw dropped. The man over eleven hundred thousand years old had been stunned for the first time in his life, and it was by a woman who had come to steal something off his own island. Even Emily was in shock that she had done such a thing, for she stepped back a few paces before bowing and apologizing over and over again.

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“I’m truly completely and utterly sorry sir, I don’t know what came over me! I was just so happy that I…” she couldn’t find any more words to continue what she was saying, so all she did was continue to say sorry.

“I-it’s fine Emily, but don’t you need to be going home now?” Ron asked after he pulled himself together.

“Oh! Yes! Please, please send me home! I live in a guild, and my teacher Arturo told me to come here and I don’t know how to get-” Ron covered her mouth as swiftly as she had kissed him. His memory had kicked in at the man’s name and something else seemed to be calling him, something he couldn’t remember.

“Arturo? So the young man is still alive, is he? Well, if that is the case then I know exactly where to send you. When you get back, tell him Ron says hi,” he laughed heartily before placing his hand on her head.

He concentrated and allowed his own magic to take full coverage of the woman. As her body faded from view, the memory that Ron couldn’t think of suddenly came full blast into his mind. He recognized the woman, and sudden fear for her raced through his body as the memory of her screams broke through the veil of his mind and filled his ears.

************Emily POV************

Emily gasped as she suddenly materialized on the cold, white tile floor of the clinic. James fell out of the chair he was sitting in near her, while Nicolette was still fast asleep with the stains of tears dried on her face.

“What the hell, Emily? Where were you?!” He growled in his attempt to keep his voice down.

“I...I got the flower. Where’s Arturo?” Emily huffed as she stumbled to her feet. Her eyes were wide as she looked around at the room and spotted the small glass container where her niece was fast asleep. She was obviously dying, the blue color of her skin taking over her whole body and her veins an even darker blue than that.

“He’s in the waiting room. What flower are you talking about? What’s going on?” Emily ignored her brother’s questions as she bolted out of the room and got to Arturo as he was sitting uncomfortably in one of the blue chairs in the waiting room.

He stood up as soon as he saw Emily run in. She shoved the bag into his hands without a word and nodded, which was enough for him to understand. Arturo turned and walked away with the bag to where the kitchens were located in the back area of the guild’s halls.

“I can mix this with a bit of baby formula, it will be bitter so anything I can do to make the taste better will be helpful to get her to drink it,” Arturo explained as he quickly ran into the cooking hall and straight to one of the large refrigerators that was in the middle of the room.

Emily ran into the pantry and grabbed a container of powdered formula that seemed to be picking up dust on the top shelf. There had not been many babies born in the past few years, so all types of baby food and formula had been sitting there unused for a number of years.

Arturo took the formula from Emily and immediately went to work with steeping the flower with the milk. The moment the rose touched the baby milk, the white of the milk instantly became a deep pink. Emily’s eyes widened as the thought of the ground that had surrounded the rose bush itself where the man she had met had brought her to.

“Arturo, I demand an expl-” James fell silent as his eyes fell upon the bottle in his friend’s hand.

“You will not need an explanation, my friend. For now, let’s save your daughter.” Arturo pushed past James and strode down the hall. James glanced at Emily before following, the look that she had been given showing his suspicion towards her.

It didn’t take long for them to reach the nursery. The baby laid in the glass container, awake and in tears. She curled up her tiny fists and cried as loud as she could without holding back, her lungs strong enough to wreck havoc on the ears of anyone near her. Arturo lifted the glass off the crib and gently placed it onto the floor.

Nicolette stumbled into the nursery with fresh tears still in her eyes. James immediately ran to her and caught her in his arms before she fell over from having been so weak from the birth. She wrapped one arm around his neck to steady herself before taking a few steps forward to watch what it was Emily was doing.

The small baby was carefully lifted up into Emily’s arms as she placed the bottle into her niece’s mouth. The taste of it only made her cry more, but after having not eaten anything since birth she accepted her fate and drank as fast as she could just to get it down.

As the last drop disappeared down her throat, and the now white rose was all that was left in the bottle after having all it’s powers drained into the child, the blue color of the baby’s skin started to change. It turned into an apricot color, and she was finally breathing without pain rattling her breath.

Emily placed the bottle to the side table that was near the crib and started to rock her back to sleep. When small snores came from her mouth, Emily placed her back onto the soft blue blankets of her crib and lifted the glass case onto the top to help stop any outside noise.

“What’s her name?” Emily finally asked as she watched her niece sleep.

“We named her Mira,” Nicolette whispered in shock. Emily turned and smiled at her family in happiness.

Later that night, after everybody had fallen asleep, Emily laid on her bed and stared at the ceiling as she thought back to the man. She thought back to what that man had said to her, and a deep blush immediately came to her face. He had said one year, and she expected to use that to her advantage. In her mind, she hoped he would forget about the time and forget about her.

To her anguish, the year passed swiftly without warning while Emily watched Mira learn to crawl and laugh, and when she herself had forgotten about him, Ron had not forgotten about her.