“What is your question boy?

Chenle stared at the 10 council members before him. Each one of them staring back with the same blank face.

For a moment he hesitated. How am I going to be able to convince all these people? Chenle shook his head. No, if I think like that then I’ll definitely mess this up.

“Your question, what is it?” A female council member’s voice spoke up, bringing his attention back.

“It’s about the threats we’ve been receiving from the shadow realm,” Chenle gripped the mic harder, “I’m concerned that if we don’t start taking the necessary precautions now, the creatures from their realm are going to destroy ours!”

“And, what do you suggest we do then?”

“We could put in place a better defense system!”

An older council member scoffed at him. “We already have a proper defense system.”

“Yes, we do,” Another member answered. “There are golems dispatched to the southern border of the golden alps and the others are watching the northern border where our flower gardens lay.” The council members all nodded their heads simultaneously.

Chenle sighed. “Our only defense system relies on the golems?” You’ve got to be kidding me. “And what do we have stationed to the east and west?”

The members looked around at each other. “Our guardian deity Anastasia watches over the entirety of our realm. Since you feel insecure about the state of Artemia, we suggest you head over to one of the borders and make an offering."

Chenle shook his head. "What good are our offerings and prayers if we ourselves don't take action ourselves?" Chenle looked at each member in the eyes, hoping that his message will get through to at least one of them. He turned around to look at the crowd of fairies behind him. All looking at him with a certain look in their eyes.

Pity, a look usually given to one who his beyond saving.

"Why are you all looking at me like that?" He questioned. Anger slowly building up inside him.

"That poor child." He heard someone within the crowd whisper.

One of the council members, who Chenle recognized at the priestess of the high court. Flew over to him, her snow white wings glistening in the sunshine. Her wing color is one befitting of a priest since the color white has always been associated with purity.

And it was with the pureness in her heart that the priestess felt inclined to help.

"Oh child." The priestess began. Laying her cold palm on Chenle's right shoulder. The two of them were standing in the center of the platform, with all eyes on them. "Do not grieve over something that will never come to fruition. For we have our goddess Anastasia to watch over us and the realm of Artemia."

"Surely you know of the promise, right? Of Anastasia and Artemia?" Chenle shook his head. It's been so long since he's heard the story so he could only remember bits and pieces of it.

"No wonder why you're in such a state. Come with me." The priestess smiled. And lead Chenle over to the edge of the platform. She flapped her wings in flew into the air, beckoning Chenle to follow.

"If you don't mind I will be taking this young one with me." She shouted, loud enough so that everyone could hear. The rest of the council members nodded. After getting an approval the priestess turned to look at Chenle.

"I'm sure you'll be able to put your heart at ease." Chenle looked back at the platform. Disappointed in his failure to do anything was gnawing at his mind. In the end it was useless after all, mom was right. Chenle sighed and followed after the priestess.

 

The priestess lead him over to an old wooden library covered in vines. The compared to the outside, the inside had beautiful craftsmanship, especially along ceiling and ledges of the library. The priestess left him sitting in one of the seats while she went to go grab something, so he had plenty of time to take in his surroundings.

There was a few cracks in the ceilings that allowed natural light to shine through the library. There were many of bookcases filled to the brim with shelves and shelves of books. The ledges had carvings of words written along the side of it, but since the writing was in ancient text Chenle could only admire had well carved the words and symbols were.

"Sorry about that." The priestess came flying over to him with a book in her hand. "This library is pretty so finding this book wasn't easy. Here." The priestess handed him a brown leather book with words "To A.A" on the cover.

"What's this?" He asked, as he inspected the book in his hands.

"This book tells you the history of Anastasia and Artemia. I grabbed this for you to learn more about the history of our homeland." She patted him on the shoulder and stretched her wings out, ready to fly off.

Chenle watched as the priestess fly above him. "Your father Mr. Zhong is the historian in our realm, so I'm sure he'd be able to help you with your research. Also please find time today to give an offering to the two. Give a prayer and wish for good health for them and the realm. Take care!" The priestess waved and flew off. Her wings leaving a trail of white balls of light to fall upon the ground.

Chenle was thankful to her for her help but at the same time he knew that more action needed to be taken. If there was one thing was right about it was asking his father for some information. After all, he might find something that could prove to be quite useful in his endeavors. 

With that the young fairy picked up the book and headed to where his was sure that his father would be, the flower gardens.

With his destination not being too far away, he opted to walk instead of waste his energy on flying. Also using this as a chance to read through some of the text in the book. The first page had a small paragraph that was written in ancient text. He couldn't read and nor did he bother to try so he continued on.

The next few pages were filled with descriptions as to what the two fairies looked like. Their was a whole other page dedicated to their bloodline, another page speaking of their childhood. After that the following pages spoke of the history shared between the two. "The two were like blood sisters.Despite having been born to two separate mothers." One of the excerpts read.

"Chenle, how did the council meeting go?" Chenle looked up to see his father sitting on a wooden branch, quietly admiring the flower garden. He placed a leaf one of the pages as a bookmark and flew over to his father. He told him all about what happened at the meeting, including the rant about the human realm. His father quietly listened until Chenle brought up the book the priestess gave him. That's when he immediately sat up in his sit.

"She said you could tell me some more info about it." Mr. Zhong cocked his head to the side and had Chenle hand him the book. His father flipped through several pages and read through some of the texts. After what felt like forever, his father flipped back to the first page and looked at Chenle.

"This book is only tells half of the true story, the rest, however, is fictional." Mr. Zhong pointed at the ancient text written on the first page. "You see this right here?" Chenle leaned a bit closer. "That is a hand written letter from Artemia, she's thanking Anastasia."

"Thanking her?"

His father nodded. "This book does talk about how Anastasia helped saved our realm." He sighed, "But it doesn't go into depth about who she really was." Chenle watched as his father flipped through a few pages and stopped on a page that read: The battle of Artemia

"For years our society has been taught that both Anastasia and Artemia were fairies. However, that is false." His father pointed at a particular part in the text.

"It says here that Anastasia helped out in the battle to protect Artemia but that isn't true. The two of them were actually lover's who couldn't be together because of the forbidden relationship they shared. Artemia was a fairy born in our realm but Anastasia was different. She was a hybrid. Her father was a human, but her mother was a fairy. She resided in our realm for most of her life. Of course the general public had no idea of this information. Especially since her father passed long before she was born."

Chenle looked up at his father in shock. "Wow! So she was a fairy and a human. Did she have wings? Pointy ears? Oh my god, did she have to walk to places?" Mr. Zhong could only smile at his son's curiosity.

"Fortunately she did have wings." Chenle breathed a sigh of relief.

"But when the secret got out that she was half human, a lot of fairies weren't pleased with this. We have a law that even stated that humans weren't allowed upon our land, mainly due to the fact that back then humans were known to be very destructive to anything and everything that wasn't human." Mr. Zhong paused for a second, "And well... here comes a half human who's been living among us for so long. Not only that but Anastasia was the princess's lover. So when this news came out..."

"The fairies become even more outraged." Chenle added.

"More like fearful. This happened a long time ago so it was the first time a "Fairy-human hybrid" has ever existed." His father closed the book and placed it between him and his son on the bench.

"The story gets pretty sad from here." His father began. "The law never stated how half humans should be treated so they made a decision based on a whim."

Chenle leaned in, "A whim?" he questioned. His father nodded.

"Yes, you see although she was princess Artemia's lover, the princess herself had little to no power over what would happen to Anastasia. They were quite young too, both were 20 years old. There's an old journal I have at home filled with a lot of princess Artemia's letters. Some of them talk about how much she protested and tried to change the minds of her people. Which was how the fairy council was formed. She wanted to hear the thoughts of her people and bring solutions about the situation. And that's when she came up with an idea."

Chenle's ears perked up with curiosity.

"She proposed an idea at one of the council meetings, and that was to have Anastasia fight in the upcoming battle against the goblins, a battle for more land. If the fairies win the battle then Anastasia will be given a right to trial to defend herself. If not then Anastasia would be locked up in the palace's dungeon for the rest of her life since it is forbidden for humans to be in our realm."

Chenle cocked his head to the side in thought. "But she is still half fairy... so do they really need to go to such extremes. I mean if you ask me, I think that is pretty unfair. To wager her future on a war sounds ridiculous. Especially since she's spent most of her life in the fairy realm, then clearly she isn't a threat." Chenle's father hummed in agreement. "So what happened to her in the end?"

Chenle's father casts his gaze down to the book between and sighed. "Well if there's one thing the book got right it's how the war ended." He flipped back open the book to the last page. "Anastasia was put at the very front lines of  the war, however, Artemia disguised herself as one of the warriors and fought alongside her lover, Anastasia. The fairies won the battle and were able claim a great amount of land thanks to Anastasia's willpower. But no matter how hard she fought to protect everyone, princess Artemis was fatally wounded in the midst of battle, she died in Anastasia's arms."

"Oh no, t-that's horrible." Chenle's voiced but it came out in a whisper.

"After that not much was known about what happened to Anastasia. Some say after burying Artemia, Anastasia resided to the northern border and planted and nurtured what is known as the flower garden. Others said she was settled with a family of her own in the human realm. No one is really certain what happened to her, but when the news of the princess's death was announced, the king and queen were so distraught that they renamed our realm in honor of their late daughter. Legend has it that Anastasia promised Artemia that she would forever watch over the realm even in death. Which is why the council kept telling you to rely on Anastasia." Chenle clicked his tongue at the sound of the council members. Even after hearing this story he still stood by his stance, call him stubborn if you want.

"The king and queen were afraid that Anastasia's story would cast a bad image upon our realm so they twisted the story to where Anastasia's human side never existed. In the book they literally state that she joined the battle voluntarily, even erasing the fact that the two were lovers instead replacing it with best friends. However, they were still thankful that Anastasia tried her best to protect their daughter and the realm so they officially acknowledged her as the ''protector'' or "guardian deity" of Artemia."

Chenle picked up the book and skimmed through the last few pages and sure enough his dad was right. A lot of what actually happened was twisted. Even in the very last sentence of the book it states that Anastasia will continue to fight for her best friend Artemia's honor. But wait...

"Dad how do you know of all this?" Chenle flipped through page after page, 95% of what his dad said is never mentioned.

Mr. Zhong looked at his son with a pleased smile. "It's the duty of every historian to remember to stay truthful. No matter how strong the propaganda may be, us historians are given a task to stay true to history. And of course many of the historians before me made sure that the real information was never tampered with." His dad stood up and looked at the hundreds of flowers before him. The sun was still high up in the sky so its beautiful rays casts down onto the them. He placed his hands on his hips and leaned back, stretching out his back before re-positioning his posture.

"So Chenle, what are you going to do now? The council seem pretty contempt, and the fairies of our realm are the same way too. So what's your next move?" His father turned around to look at him with a grin on his face. "Surely my son wouldn't give up so easily, would he?"

Chenle stood up and flapped his lime green wings with such a force that he even accidentally caused a few balls of light to fall off, whoops.

"There's no way I'm going to give up!" He exclaimed enthusiastically.

"Don't you have any faith in our deity?" His father questioned jokingly.

Chenle stayed silent for a few seconds then flew over to his father. "By all means I believe her spirit is watching over us but after what I just heard we can't leave all the work to her! Even in death she has to carry a lot of burden, that isn't fair." Mr. Zhong smiled at his child, I raised a great kid, he thought.

"Even if what I do is small, I know that only relying on her to keep us safe from the orcs isn't going to help. We as a society need to learn that just because we've managed to avoid war all those years. There's no telling what tomorrow will bring." His father nodded in agreement. He definitely got his intellect from his mother.

"Well to start off, how about you head to the northren border? Bring Anastasia something nice. Her grave stone is there so I think it would be very kind of you to pay her a visit. I'm sure she'll be happy to hear from you." His father suggested.

Chenle looked at him with a shocked expression. "Wait... you're okay with me going that far?"

"Sure, as long as you're back before sunset I'm good. Please try not to miss dinner, I could cover for you but your mother always manages to see right through me." He sighed. "Virgos or way too keen."

"You can't hide anything from them." Chenle added, knowing full well what his father was talking about.

"I'll see you back at home later, I need to stop by the council meeting. Send Anastasia my regards!" Chenle nodded and flew off.

__________________________________________

Chenle flying away the town market trying to find a good gift to bring a deity. Sounds easier than it looks, trust me. He thought about bringing her some beautiful flowers but considering she was surrounded by them 24/7 he opted out of it. He thought that maybe some sweets would be nice but considering the fact that she is um... deceased, he quickly cancelled that thought.

Chenle was running out of ideas and needed something fast, he headed over to a tiny gift shop owned buy his friend's grandmother.

"Chenle! Good to see you again!" The pink haired fairy greeted him, flying over to give him a hug. "What brings you here today? Oh, are you looking for Jaemin? He went out with Haechan earlier."

Chenle shook his head with a smile on his face. "Thank you, but I was looking for a good gift idea." 

"Gift?" She asked, "Is it for someone special?" Her light pick wings fluttered with excitement.

"W-wait it's not like that! I was looking for something I could give Anastasia." Chenle's face was heating up.

"Our Deity?!" She drew back, shock evident on her face.

"Y-yeah I was hoping you could help me find something." 

"Hmm." The fairy took a glance around the shop before disappearing behind one of the shelves. A few minutes passed by as she seemed to be putting something together. Flying around the shop, and heading behind yet another set of shelves. "How about this?" She flew back to him and placed a small light blue box in his hands. "Go ahead, open it."

Chenle did as told and slowly lifted the lid. "It's a heart shaped locket." Chenle inspected it closer. Silver chains were holding the heart in place, with the heart itself encrusted in tiny blue emeralds. Definitely a gift worth giving to a god.

"This is beautiful." Chenle expressed, followed by a look of amazement. The old fairy just smiled at him, thankful for the compliment.

"How much is it?" 

"For you? Free of charge." Before Chenle could protest she continued, "Don't worry about it kiddo. You're like another grandson to me." She laughed.

Chenle gave her a hug and thanked her before heading out. "Tell Jaemin I said hi!" He shouted from the entrance of the shop. and went on his way.

__________________________________________

Now Chenle wasn't gonna lie, getting to the northern border was easier said then done. It took him an estimate of 10 minutes just to get out of the village square, six minutes making his way through the forest. And now here he is walking through a plain open field barely even halfway close to his destination. During his journey he spent most of his time switching between walking or flying since their was no main source of transportation in their realm for places such as this. So it was up to you to make the journey, thank goodness for the map.

When his legs would get tired he flew, when he felt like his wings were exerting too much energy he walked, and so this continued for another 15 minutes. The whole journey in total took him half an hour.

But it was worth it.

To say he was shocked would be an understatement, he was astounded.

Sure enough they were right to refer to the northern border as a flower garden. Not one inch of space was wasted, each and every spot was covered in flowers. And not just any flowers, they were rare flowers.

Flowers that could enhance emotions, others that would change color depending on their mood, and a few that would converse with each other and playfully mess around. Even as Chenle walked they made a path for him. He could hear the flowers talking among him but he couldn't quite make out what they were saying.

They flowers led him directly to Anastasia's grave stone that was shaped like a cross. It was massive and dyed in an elegant pink marble. There was also gold encrusted wording that read:

Here lies The Goddess of Artemis

A beautiful flower robbed of its sunlight,

A spirit laid to rest surrounded by moonlight,

Anastasia

Her grave stone is really beautiful, Chenle thought. At least they were decent enough to give her a proper grave stone.

Chenle sat down on his knees and closed his eyes for a few minutes. He wanted to mourn her and also thank her for protecting Artemia for all these centuries. He gave a little prayer, mainly wishing her to be at piece, and stood back up.

He grabbed the locket out of the box and placed it at the top of Anastasia's grave stone. "I hope you'll like this," He took a step back to admire the sight.

Thank you, it looks beautiful

Chenle blinked once, then twice, then three times before he finally registered the voice. He looked around at the flowers, none of them seemed to be looking back at him. What was that-

The voice let out a small giggle and Chenle jumped back. His felt the blood in his face diminish, and he was sure that his face went pale. "A-are you A-anast-tasia?" He fingers trembled a bit, scratch that his whole body.

The voice hummed in response.

"My dad told me about what happened, you know, the true story." Chenle felt a little awkward saying this out loud to the spirit, especially since all the flowers around him were all facing in his direction, probably thinking he was crazy.  For a second he wondered same but he pushed that thought aside. "He told me about how unfair they treated you. And it made me very upset." Chenle shook his head in disappointment.

"No matter how you look at it, you are still a fairy, just because you have human blood in you doesn't mean they should've treated you the way they did."

Don't mind them, they were just being cautious.

"Y-you lived here for so long! I don't understand why they needed you to prove yourself!" Chenle shouted.

All the humans they've met back then aren't as kind as the ones now.

"B-but-"

I've forgiven them, my only wish now is that they have faith in the humans. Give them a chance to see how far they've come.

Chenle shook his head. "I don't think that dream is going to come true anytime soon. Some members of the council sealed off the portals needing to get to the human realm years ago."

Their was silence for a few seconds and then the voice spoke up.

Then can you help me out with my wish?

Chenle drew back, shock evident his face. "ME?" He gasped, "But what can I do?"

Prove to everyone that humans have changed, if there's anyone who can do it, I know its you Chenle. I've heard from the flowers how much you love this land, how hard you're trying to prevent any danger from hurting us. You're a very sweet and kind boy Chenle, the fact that you came this far just to see me proves it.

Hardly anyone stops by now a days and if it weren't for my flower friends I would be so lonely. So thank you for coming. and bringing such a wonderful gift. In return I'll give you something.

The flowers surrounding him-when were they this close?-wrapped themselves around his limbs and carried him over to one of the dark oak wood trees further into the flower garden.

Before I died this tree was my own personal passage into the human realm. The voice laughed, she sounded reminiscent. Time passes faster in the human realm than in Artemia. Five hours here can easily be five days there. The flowers came to a sudden stop in front of the tree and let him go.

You see that right there below the tree? It's important that you hold onto that. Chenle bent down and picked up the necklace at the base of the tree. He opened it up and in the inside was a small clock.

Use this as a guide of when to come back. This clock will keep track of time in Artemia. If you ever need to come back just place your palm on the tree. Chenle walked closer to the tree, hesitantly. Don't be afraid.

Chenle gulped and placed his right palm tree and was quite surprised to see the tree light up.

Keep walking until you see the light.

Chenle did as told, taking one step inside the tree until his whole body was enveloped in darkness. The light on the other side was dim at first but slowly it became bigger. What looked as a small ball of light at first seemed to be the other end of the tree glowing. He could hear Anastasia's voice slowly dimming away.

I... spent... the rest... life... there.

Tell my.. family... I said hello.

"Your family?" He questioned aloud. So this is where she went after the battle? She really did come back here to start a family. Chenle was glad to hear she found some happiness after all that.

__________________________________________

"Mom."

Jisung croaked out. His stomach was hurting even more now and with the moon at its peak he's afraid he might not get found out here. Jisung's grip on his stomach loosened and his hands started to shake. Don't panic, don't panic, everything will be fine. He tried to encourage himself but it's been over two hours of him preaching this to himself and to be quite honest he's tired.

He was sitting right in the middle of a forest clearing so his view of the moon was raw and more beautiful than ever. The moon shined down on him and if this were a different situation he would've been more than happy right now to admire its beauty, but his eyelids were getting quite tired so he felt it was probably better to close his eyes and rest again.

Or so he thought.

Just as his eyes were about to come to a complete close he heard a faint shuffling in front of him. Could it be? His vision was a bit blurry and he'll admit the figure that was now standing before him looked a little weird but he was convinced nonetheless that it was his mother.

"M-mom is that you?" He tried to sit up. The blurry figure in front of him seemed to hesitate before walking over.

"No I'm not your mom." Jisung gasped and rubbed his eyes harder to see exactly who was kneeling in front of him. In fact, even with his vision clear as day, he had to rub his eyes over and over again because what he was seeing had doubting his eyesight.

Surely enough, what Jisung was seeing was indeed real. The orange haired boy in front of him had a set of lime green wings glowing and flapping against each other. With it being night his wings glowed so brightly that there was no way anyone wouldn't notice it.

The orange haired boy inched closer to Jisung. In return Jisung pushed himself further back against the rock.

"Who- who, who are you?" His voice trembled. His eyes were wide and if Jisung was in the boy's position he knows that his eyes would look very large.

The boy paused for a moment. "Are you a human?" Jisung bit his lips, am I dead?

Seeing that Jisung was in shock, he continued, "Ah never mind, forget I asked that," The boy blushed. "I'm Chenle!" He greeted and reached out a hand to Jisung. Jisung looked down at Chenle's hand and hesitantly took a hold of it. Immediately Chenle pulled him up.

"What's your name human?" Jisung internally screamed inside, I really am dead!

Chenle patted the boy on the back. No wings? Chenle thought, how terrifying!

Both seemed to be in their own train of thought until Jisung spoke up, "I'm Jisung."

"Jisung?" Chenle confirmed, "That's a cute name. Hey Jisung what are you doing out here in the middle of a forest by yourself? Isn't it going to take you forever to get back without any wings? And it's nighttime, man humans are weird."

"I-i'm lost." Jisung's voice came out in a hushed voice. "I can't find my way back home, and I'm too deep in the forest to yell for help, I'm tired, I'm hungry and I want to cry." Chenle watched as Jisung started crying right on the spot. He felt bad for the human and although this is hiss first ever interaction with one, he learned years back that they are really fragile creatures.

"I'll help you get back home." Jisung's crying quieted down a bit. He looked at Chenle with a 'You will?' look and Chenle nodded.

"I promise," Chenle leaned over and spread his wings wide enough for Jisung to get on, "Get on my back, I'll fly you home."