Chapter 12: The Forest Of Fairies

The first rays of sunlight gently caressed Lucy’s eyelids, signaling her to wake up and greet the new day. However, she was strangely lethargic in her response. As if having all worries taken away from her, the young girl happily snugged herself further into the warm blanket wrapped over her and continued her adventures deep within the land of dreams. Not even the gleefully singing birds outside could make her budge, and certainly not the knocking on the door nearby.

Once she finally came to, the sun had risen way past her head. And only at that moment did Lucy realize the strange place she had found herself in.

The shining sun through the stained glass made everything inside glitter a beautiful emerald green, as if it wasn’t a small room she was in, but outside in the woods where nature and creatures lived together as one. A stark contrast, however, lay in the bed she was in – a giant bed larger than anything else she had seen before, and she was raised in quite the wealthy household thanks to Dario’s hauls. The legs were a beautiful black from the sturdiest logs she had ever seen, while the mattress and blanket were fluffy like being on the clouds. A resting spot fit for a king.

Before Lucy could even process the situation, another knock on the door sounded.

“Um…” Lucy stuttered. She did not know how to respond, for this clearly wasn’t her home and she couldn’t just tell the one outside to come in as if treating a guest. On the other hand, she also couldn’t just leave the person waiting outside.

Fortunately, the guest seemed to have listened to her disrupt muttering and helped themselves to the door. A beautiful lady in a long robe, with hair as warm as a kitchen’s fire, entered the room, and asked in a voice as warm and gentle as her appearance:

“Did you have a good night’s sleep?”

Lucy quietly nodded. For once in her life, she felt like she could fully place her trust in the person before her, though they had only met this instance.

In truth, however, it was already their second encounter, Lucy just didn’t remember it. But the former bond created by the woman’s soothing flame had subconsciously entered her already.

“Thank goodness,” the woman, meanwhile, breathed a sigh of relief, placing her hands on her chest as if witnessing her own child recovering from an otherwise fatal illness. “I’m glad you’re all right.”

“Um…”

“Oh, right, where are my manners,” the woman, realizing the awkward expression on Lucy’s face, gave an understanding nod. “Though I cannot tell you my true name, you can call me Phoenix.”

“Miss… Phoenix?” Lucy tilted her head in confusion. “Um, may I be a bit…”

“Don’t worry, dear. Do tell.”

“That… doesn’t sound like a name too much.”

Contrary to Lucy’s worry, the woman accepted the somewhat rude remark with a smile. “That’s because it isn’t. It’s a codename of sorts that we used for our recon missions.”

“Missions?”

“That’s right, missions of the Mythic Ops.”

“… Mythic Ops?” It was one new and weird concept after another for Lucy. “What’s that?”

“… It seems like you’ve forgotten more than I expected,” the woman, now Phoenix, pondered. “Do you remember where this place is, at least?”

“This… place?” Lucy asked reflexively. “Where… is this place, actually?”

Phoenix was silent for a moment. Then, she stood up and made her way to the door before Lucy could ask again, not forgetting to signal to the young girl to follow suit:

“Come and see for yourself.”

Immediately after leaving the room, Lucy could find some unusual details around her. The walls were still of fine wood similar to what she was used to back in her old home, but the shape was mysteriously curved to the outside as if she was inside a tower instead of a regular house. The circular rings running along the walls created an interesting feel as she ran her hand through them, but at the same time, this kind of vibrant carving was something that she had never seen before.

Everything pointed to a certain conclusion, but Lucy couldn’t even imagine if it was somehow the truth. And yet, when the two of them went down the stairs and out the front door, Lucy couldn’t believe what she saw.

Her intuition was right all along. What she had thought to be a manor was in fact a giant tree, hollowed inside to make a living quarter. And yet, said tree was still standing strong, its giant foliage having that vibrant green full of life.

“What in the world is this?” Lucy exclaimed. Replying to her, however, was a chuckle from the woman standing next to her.

“That’s not the only thing, dear.”

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Following her gesture, Lucy took a glance at the scenery in front of her. Before the young girl’s eyes were countless of the same treehouse like the one she was in, all growing and tightly knitted together, yet still stretching as tall as her eyes could see. The occasional trickling light meant the woods itself wasn’t basking in the sun, but in turn, it created a luscious field of greenery to almost everything in Lucy’s sight. The trees, the objects, the people, everyone, everything was brimming with green, brimming with joy.

But that wasn’t where the surprises would end for Lucy. Aside from the genuine hospitality, she could feel the townsfolk emanating, albeit not towards her, each of them had such unique features that she had never seen before. Her green hair had always been a topic of rumors back in the village, but here, she was seeing people with all kinds of different parts – from vibrant hair to visible fangs, skin hues that she didn’t know even existed, to even scales and gills covering their bodies like armors.

It was as if she was in a dream. But what was happening in front of Lucy was, undoubtedly, real.

“Where… am I?” The girl subconsciously muttered. It was only meant to be an exclamation, but the words had also found their way to the one next to her.

Raising her hand forward, Phoenix conjured a small flame at her palm. The flame then warped the small space around it, revealing but a small hole in the air, with another scenery through it. The kind of scenery Lucy was very familiar with – a normal, quiet forest with nothing but trees and critters.

“You’re still in the same forest as before,” the woman answered. “But we’ve been hiding from privy eyes for generations.”

“We?”

“Yes, ‘we’. The ones that you share a kinship with… the ones that are not humans. We, the Mythics.”

If it was her of any day before, Lucy would have scoffed at the claim and dismissed the person as a lunatic, but no matter how much she tried to run from the reality that occurred to her before, she could never deny it. Even if her memories of what happened after Jack was gone were only a bumble of darkness, Lucy could now remember clearly her birth and the circumstances that brought her to her father… like it or not, the fact that she was indeed a Mythic hadn’t changed at all.

“Oh, right,” as her mind wandered, Lucy realized an important detail that she had missed. “You were the one that brought me here, right?”

“Indeed,” Phoenix nodded. “What’s wrong?”

To the surprise of the radiant woman, the young girl before her took a bow with everything she had, claiming loud and clear:

“Thank you for saving me!”

“It… was nothing,” facing that sincerity, Phoenix could only awkwardly wave her hand to signal Lucy to stand up. Even if she was the one called Queen, such gratitude was never something she could get used to.

“By the way,” continued Lucy, who, only at this point, was going to the main subject of matter that she wanted to ask. “If you saved me, would you have seen a wolf with the same green fur as my hair? What happened to him?”

“A wolf… with green fur?” Phoenix lightly flinched at the question. Naturally, she knew what Lucy was referring to; they were all there before his last moment. However, from the question, she also realized that Lucy had forgotten about the incident entirely. To wake her sleeping memories would be to put every innocent bystander here in this forest in jeopardy, but more importantly, she did not have the heart to crush the feelings of an innocent young girl, whether it was simply telling the truth or not.

However, before she could say anything, another voice sounded from behind the two of them.

“Do you wish to know?”

“… My King!” Recognizing the owner of that stoic, almost emotionless voice, Phoenix quickly turned around and took a bow. “What brings you here? I thought we were supposed to…”

“I could use the fresh air once in a while,” answered Dragon. “But, back to the main matter at hand. Well, lass?”

Lucy hesitated. Contrary to the warm and cozy feeling that Phoenix gave out in their first meeting, this person that was called King had the opposite impression. Something… dark, cold, and uncaring. And yet, it wasn’t like the dreadful gazes of the villagers, or the extreme disdain of her father that Lucy once suffered. It was a look that could freeze anyone in place for how heartless he was as if the only creature left in the world was him and only him.

“My King, we should really…” Phoenix was the one to respond, but Dragon quickly cut her off by signaling with his hand.

“She should learn to deal with the situation sooner or later. And if she were to go out of control, now the rest of the Ops could have the resources needed. Being outdoors works in our favor, too.”

“The rest of the Ops? But…”

“Already at your service, your Highness,” another group of voices called out to Phoenix. Before she knew it, all of them had already gathered around – Aqua, Tempest, Mictlan, and Tlalocan.  

As if waiting for that moment, Dragon let out a smirk and continued.

“Now that everyone’s here, let’s get started, shall we? The story about you… and about us.”

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