5 A Water Fairy

"You know Asuren?" Sel was glaring at Gia. "You know about Thea's new obsession? You know something about her that I don't?!"

"Juliann is his cousin," Gia smiled in amazement while Sel frowned at her.

"You and Thea are hiding something from me?! How about Riz? Does she know about this?!"

"I'm not hiding anything from you," Gia glanced at Asuren and marveled. "I met Juliann only today and heard him talk about his cousin," she examined the poisoned fairy more closely. "Is this fate?"

"I think this is serious trouble," Sel was staring at Asuren with fear.

"Why?" Gia asked despite knowing the answer.

"Something is wrong with him," Sel trembled. "Can poison make a fairy violent?"

"Did he hurt you?" Gia checked up on her friend.

"He tried," Sel cried. "Fortunately for me, Aldrin is here. He knocked Asuren out before my neck had been grabbed. Why will Thea save someone like him? Why chose him over us? I hate her!"

Gia wrapped her arms around her friend and let her cry over her shoulders.

"It must be the poison," Gia remembered what Emil had said. Asuren had been punished. He must be talking about the poison. "I will ask Healer Vanni about Asuren's case."

"I'll come with you," Sel wrapped her arms around Gia's and followed her out of the room.

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Riz Azurespring was heading towards Rainforest Inn when a young male fairy walked alongside her. He had a lean body that was partly covered by a woven blue and brown striped vest, brown knee-length pants with a piece of woven blue blanket over it. And on his feet was a pair of black boots. His hazel brown eyes and the smile he was flashing was annoying for Riz. It was as if he was a close friend of hers, when in fact, it was the first time she had seen a crazy fairy like him.

And to make him even more deranged, he hastily grabbed Riz by her hand before randomly asking, "Starting today, I will be your bodyguard. And I promise to protect you with my life."

"What do you think you're doing?!" Riz was furious and struggled to break free from the strong grip of the crazy stranger but he refused to let go of her hand.

"Trust me," he winked before dragging Riz closer to the borders of Northern Peaks.

"Trust you?! Do you think I'm stupid enough to trust a lunatic like you?!" Riz surrounded both her hands with water but it was not as potent as it should be.

She failed to sense the crazy stranger approaching, slow to avoid his hand from grabbing hers, and too weak to break away from his grip.

Something must be totally wrong with her, or the crazy stranger, though he may not seem like it, was way more powerful than her.

As if he could read her thoughts, the crazy stranger told Riz, "Your power had been sealed."

He pushed her firmly against an enormous tree. Sturdy stems instantly sprouted from its broad trunk and tightly wrapped around her arms, torso, and legs.

"How dare you do this to me?" Riz tried to break away from the stems binding her, but even after covering her entire body with thin sheets of scalding water, the stems would not rupture.

The crazy stranger seemed to be telling the truth. Her power had truly been sealed.

"You…"

"I didn't put the seal on you!" the crazy fairy exclaimed before Riz could blame everything on him. "Don't worry. It will vanish once I defeated our enemy."

"OUR ENEMY?!" it was not only Riz who had furiously bellowed at the crazy stranger. There was another male fairy that appeared on a branch of a towering tree, adjacent to where Riz had been tied.

It was an older fairy wearing a black overcoat with indigo stripes on it. Wrapped around his head was a lavender bandana. He had his long grey hair messily braided at the back of his head. His eyes were jet-black and giving off an alarming vibe.

The newcomer stared at the crazy fairy with deep frustration.

"We are your enemies now, Ayhan? Those words will break your mother's heart."

"Her heart had been shattered a long time ago. It cannot be broken any further. I cannot mend it for her either. You know how much I tried, Bladeleaf. But she refused to be healed. None of you wants to leave the past and move forward. All you want is to stay angry and keep on killing!"

"How dare you say that?!" the newcomer roared angrily, and true to his name, a blade shaped like a thin leaf had manifested in his hand. He tossed it and pierced Ayhan's left leg.

"You should have dodged that blade!" Riz yelled in frustration.

"He wanted to," Bladeleaf smiled. "If only his legs can move."

"Release me from this tree!" Riz impatiently commanded. "I can help you! We can beat him together!"

"Stay there," the crazy fairy seriously commanded and looked as if he had not been wounded. "That is the safest place I can give you. Do not worry about anything. I can take care of him."

"Do not worry?! You cannot move! How can you win against him?!" Riz struggled harder against the stems binding her. It was following her movements but will not allow her to break away. Even the trunk where she was leaning had been shifting alongside her movements. It was like the trees Gia was controlling. It can restrict her actions without hurting her.

"Trust me," she heard Ayhan muttered, and, with his left hand, he pulled the blade from his leg without wincing or gasping in pain. As he tossed the blade on the ground, tiny stems sprouted from his right hand. It wrapped around his wound and somehow reduced its bleeding. The stems extended down to his boots and covered them well.

"Stop resisting who you are, Ayhan. Azurespring is our enemy!" Bladeleaf rushed towards Riz but Ayhan quickly released a dagger made of intertwined stems and deflected the blade of his opponent.

The wooden dagger appeared blunt, but it surprisingly grazed the overcoat of Bladeleaf when Ayhan slashed him on the chest.

Ayhan can finally move his legs and began exchanging blows with his opponent as if he were not gravely wounded. No matter how fast the enemy moves, Ayhan can always deflect and counter his attacks. For the first few minutes, he seemed so amazing. Then Riz noticed how his strength was slowly deteriorating. The longer he battled, the more uneven his breathing had become. He was sweating a lot and his wounded leg was starting to tremble and bleed profusely.

"Let me kill her and you can return to Southern Peaks!!!" Bladeleaf impatiently bellowed and attacked more viciously. He never stopped attacking until he successfully shattered the weapon of his opponent.

Losing his wooden dagger caused Ayhan to lose his balance and collapse on his bloody and trembling knee.

Riz thought that Ayhan would finally yield, but with all his remaining strength, he seized the weapon hand of his opponent and tried to stab him on the heart with his newly conjured wooden dagger.

Bladeleaf barely dodged the attack and angrily questioned Ayhan, "You will kill me but not this Azurespring fairy?! Have you gone mad?!"

He grabbed Ayhan by his throat and choked him to death, "I should kill you before you kill your mother!"

Struggling to breathe, Ayhan raised his wooden dagger and aimed at the chest of his opponent but Bladeleaf harshly stepped on his wounded leg, causing him to drop his weapon and squirm in agonizing pain.

Droplet, I know you can still use a bit of your energy. Please, protect Ayhan…

A pale blue light covered Ayhan and forced Bladeleaf to let go of his opponent's neck. The enemy glanced at his scalded hands then glared menacingly at Riz who was smiling vengefully back at him.

Riz was a bit anxious at first. Those thin layer of boiling water could not burn the stems binding her, but gratefully, it can still damage Bladeleaf.

"Thank you," a weak smile curved on Ayhan's lips.

"How can you betray us?! Was it Asuren?!" Bladeleaf violently waved his dagger but Ayhan, despite his limited movement, still managed to dodge the blade and make a quick counter.

His dagger cut deep into the right wrist of his enemy, almost severing it.

Bladeleaf backed away, holding his wounded wrist while glaring at Ayhan with deep loathing.

"Don't blame my cousin for everything," Ayhan weakly breathed and his hands trembled around his bloody blade. "This is my choice."

"THEN DIE!!!" Bladeleaf transferred his weapon on his unwounded hand and went for Ayhan's chest. The blade ripped Ayhan's vest and scraped his skin, but like the last time, he evaded a serious injury and managed to cut the wrist of his enemy. This time, the left hand of his opponent had been terribly severed.

"Leave or I will kill you," Ayhan may seem weary but he can still fight.

There were a few moments of chilling silence before Bladeleaf broke a purple seed of transport from his pocket and disappeared out of thin air.

The pale blue light surrounding Ayhan had dissipated. He collapsed on the ground, exhausted and frighteningly pale. The stems wrapped around his legs had disintegrated and revealed his blood-covered leg.

The stems binding Riz had faded and she was finally free. She knelt beside Ayhan and helped him stand. Though his knees were shaking, and his skin felt alarmingly cold, he still managed to get on his feet.

"I'll take you to Mountain Fairy Hospital," she pulled a pink seed out of her pocket and broke it on the ground.

Darkness covered them for a few seconds and when it receded, they had been transported in front of Mountain Fairy Hospital.

A pair of fairy healers quickly approached them and brought Ayhan to the fifth floor.

Riz followed and was welcomed by two fairies she was not expecting to see in that place and at that time.

"What are you doing here?" Riz asked Sel and Gia but got distracted when she noticed Henry lying unconscious in one of the beds on that floor. Aldrin and Sarya were also in that room. But the strange thing was Sel, Gia, and Aldrin had settled around the fairy Riz could not recognize. "Why are you all sitting in there? You should be gathering around Sarya or Henry, right?"

"This is Asuren," Sel informed her with a frown. "He is Thea's new obsession."

"Asuren?" Riz glanced at the bed where the fairy healers had laid Ayhan. He was already unconscious. She could no longer ask him if that fairy was the same Asuren Bladeleaf had mentioned. "Where is Thea? And Henry… what is he doing here?"

"You asked about Asuren," Sel glared at Riz, ignoring the rest of her questions. "Did you know him? Did Thea tell you anything about this fairy? Are you hiding things from me and Gia?"

"Is Thea the kind of fairy that will tell us everything beforehand?" Riz raised an eyebrow and settled between Sel and Gia. "I only heard his name from Ayhan."

"Don't tell me that he is also Asuren's cousin?" Sel laughed with a bit of sarcasm.

"How did you know that?" Riz gazed at Sel with amazement.

"What? Is he really Asuren's cousin?" Sel was dumbfounded when Riz nodded.

"That fairy over there is Juliann," Gia smiled as she pointed at the unconscious fairy right next to Ayhan. "He is Asuren's cousin."

Riz felt her heart skipped a beat, "No way."

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