10 Rainforest Farm

Asuren jerked awake from another bloody nightmare.

"Your mother never lets you sleep peacefully."

It was Ayhan. He was comfortably sitting at the open window while reading a book.

"And it looks like she will not stop giving you nightmares until you kill the entire Gailbreeze family," Juliann glanced away from the seed he was sorting.

"How can you be that comfortable in the enemy territory?" Asuren rubbed his painful head. "Are you not bothered by the curse they put on us?"

"Thea did not curse anyone," Ayhan put down the book he was reading and stared seriously at Asuren. "It is your mother who had put you under a powerful spell."

"That's a lie," Asuren scowled at his cousins. "Mother…"

"You are the one lying to yourself," Ayhan interrupted annoyingly. "If she didn't put a powerful spell on you then how can she control your body and brutally slaughter those fairies that you refused to kill?

"It is not mother," Asuren stubbornly denied. "It is all on me. I killed all those fairies."

Ayhan glared at him, "You are still defending her? She obviously hates you. She can only see you as a weapon and not a son."

"If she hates me that much, she would have killed me already," Asuren felt like he was suffocating. He wanted to leave that room, but he was too weak to stand on his feet.

"That's because she sees you as a powerful weapon," Ayhan shook his head in frustration. "When can you accept that?"

"And you would have been dead by now if not for Thea," Juliann added with an apologetic smile. "Asuren, we don't want to keep on repeating these painful words, but you are too stubborn to understand us. You should start accepting the truth."

"If mother ordered my death, Tanya would have killed me in an instant," Asuren wanted to forget what he had heard in his return to Ominous Mountain. His mother must have said those words out of anger. She never meant a single word she said back then.

"Why are you so faithful to your mother?" Ayhan asked in frustration. "She wants to kill you, Asuren. The only thing stopping her from doing so is because you are so obedient to her. She can easily use you to keep her hands clean. You are willing to take all the blame for her. You should stop doing that for her."

"Mother must have had her reason," Asuren stubbornly replied. "I want to understand her. I want to save her!"

"You are as hopeless as your mother," Ayhan let out a disappointed sigh and grabbed Asuren by his arm. "Get up. Thea wants to tell us something."

"Why are we..."

"Stop asking questions!" Ayhan snapped at him. "I saw you last night. You let your guard down and ate everything that they served. You even allowed yourself to get drunk and fall asleep around 'our enemies'."

"Right," Juliann nodded agreement. "Ayhan and I are not the only ones who are getting comfortable in this way of living. You also want this."

Asuren did not say anything. He was too weak to argue against his annoying cousins.

Rainforest Inn had two floors. The first one was for the restaurant. The second floor was for the balcony and the five rooms reserved for their homeless employees and for their fairy friends.

Another thing that surprised Asuren was the possibility of fairies becoming friends with the mortals. Everyone in Southern Peaks hated mortals. But then, nearly everyone in Southern Peaks hates everything that was not from their own realm. For them, all strangers are enemies.

Henry, Klara, and the rest of the employees on Rainforest Inn seemed to be nice mortals. There was no pretension in their welcoming smiles. They were homeless, but they can still smile. Asuren could not remember the last time he smiled.

"Are you going to the Rainforest Farm?" Klara asked from the counter. She was sorting some papers in there.

It was only seven in the morning and they were preparing for the opening of the place.

"Yes, Klara," Ayhan beamed and waved a hand at the mortal. "We'll see you later."

"We'll prepare a delicious meal when you get back," Klara also waved a hand at them. "Take care."

"Thank you, Klara," Juliann gently closed the door of the Rainforest Inn and gazed at the clear blue sky with an excited smile.

"Rainforest Farm?"

"Yes, you heard it right," Ayhan dragged him across a nicely paved ground. "Henry owned a wonderful farm."

"You've been there?"

"It's not far from the inn," Juliann answered.

"We visited the place while you were sleeping. Riz and Gia came with us while Thea stayed at the inn to watch over you," Ayhan seemed to giggle when he said those last few words.

"Stop fantasizing, Ayhan. It is annoying."

But his hopeless romantic cousin ignored him and pointed at another two-story house with a yard that was abundant with towering trees and thick bushes. The porch was surrounded by beautiful and fragrant potted plants. The bamboo fence was nearly covered by flowering vines and the gate was exquisitely ornamented by colorful wildflowers.

Ayhan pulled a key from his pocket. Dangling from the handle was a five-clover leaf keychain. He used it to unlock the gate.

"Let's go," he grabbed Asuren past the gate and towards the backyard.

A marvelous farmland had welcomed them. They were growing different kinds of crops. They even had an area for farm animals.

But the most shocking part for Asuren was the familiar faces that stared back at him. Those were not mortals but fairies from Southern Peaks. They were the assassins that had been deployed to kill the Gailbreeze family. They failed to return and had been assumed dead. But they were all here in Rainforest Farm, not as assassins but as farmers.

"Why did you bring him here?" one of the ex-assassins asked. If Asuren remembered correctly, his name was Albert. "He is Lady Cloudia's ruthless weapon!"

"Not anymore," Thea walked out of the animal shed and she was holding a few bottles of milk. "Like you, Asuren wants to have a fresh start. Let's give him a chance. You should welcome him as you did to Ayhan and Juliann.

There were a few moments of silence until Albert nodded and said, "Okay. You can give us a hand in this farm."

"Later," Thea gave the bottles of milk to Asuren. "I just need to tell them a few things."

Thea entered the house through a back door. Asuren, Ayhan, and Juliann followed her.

"Why are you doing this?" Asuren asked in confusion? "Why are you helping your enemies?"

"Because they need it," Thea simply answered. She took one of the seats around the dining table.

Henry and Sel were also in there, preparing those mouth-watering dishes.

"You should eat first," Sel filled the table with different kinds of pastries.

Asuren let out a defeated sigh before putting pancakes on his plate. He could not resist the smell of the food before him and the way his cousins devour each dish made him even more helpless.

After finishing three pancakes, Asuren finally managed to ask Thea, "What do you want to tell us?"

"Stay here in Rainforest Farm," Thea suggested as if she had forgotten who Asuren, Ayhan, and Juliann were.

"That's a tempting offer, but this place looks so peaceful. We cannot bring danger to everyone in here," Ayhan kindly declined.

"I want to lure Cloudia out of Southern Peaks," Thea had seriously spoken, silencing everyone in the kitchen.

"You want to bring chaos to this place?" Juliann stared at Henry. "How about the mortals living in this place?"

"And I thought you want to give those ex-assassins a chance to start a new life?" Ayhan put down his knife and fork.

"I cannot hide them for a long time. You cannot run away from your parents for good. There will never be a safe place for the three of you and for the rest of us," Thea explained. "I am anxious about this plan as well but running and hiding away is much more tiring. I think we should be a little braver. Let's lure her out of Southern Peaks."

"Are you planning to ambush my mother?" Asuren cautiously asked.

"I want her to stop using other fairies for her own gain. I want her to stop seeing you as a weapon and start treating you as her son."

"Why?" Asuren was getting more confused.

"Don't you want to stop your mother from using you and the other fairies to kill whoever it is that she wants to kill?" Thea asked him back. "Don't you want to stop her from using your body as if you are her puppet?"

Asuren looked down on his plate as he said, "It won't work."

"I will make it work," Thea seriously countered. "I will make her personally come after me and I will need your help, Asuren."

"If you hurt my mother, I will not hesitate to kill you," he seriously warned.

"Understood," Thea nodded. "All we have to do now is wait for your mother to make her move. For now, you should help out on the farm."

"Okay," Ayhan stretched his arms and grabbed Asuren by his wrist. "Let's go."

He and Juliann pulled Asuren out of the house.

"Henry, I'm sorry for doing this to your farm," Thea sighed in shame.

"You look so confident while talking to those three fairies. Don't lose it," Henry gave her a chocolate shake. "I have powerful fairies in this place. Why should I worry?"

"I also want to stop fighting assassins and enjoy more time being a princess than a warrior," Sel smiled at Thea. "We will help you end this tiring cycle."

Thea let out another sigh then smiled, "I'm gaining a bit of my confidence now. My friends are always the best."

"We have to tell everyone about your plan," Henry reminded as he joined Thea on the table.

"Yes. We will tell them at dinner," Thea agreed after swallowing some chocolate shake. "Gia is definitely helping out on the farm. But where is Riz?"

"She must be practicing somewhere out there," Sel sat beside Henry.

Thea smiled because she was usually sitting as far away from Henry as possible. She had changed after Henry saved her.

"I'll take this chocolate shake and look for Riz," Thea winked at Henry. "I'll see you at dinner."

"I'll prepare your favorite!" Henry grinned and watched Thea walked out of the house.

"You are too obvious," Sel smiled and put three waffles on Henry's plate.

"Is it only me?" Henry smiled back at Sel and pointed at the three waffles on his plate.

"I love you," Sel kissed him lightly on his cheek. "Thank you for supporting Thea's craziness."

Henry put a slice of cheesecake on Sel's plate and divided it into four.

"I love you more," he shyly told Sel then gently kissed her on the lips.

Henry was still amazed at how quickly things had changed for him. He waited nearly four years for Sel to like him as a lover and not as a friend. But it was worth the wait.

^########################################^

"What are you doing here?" Asuren asked the wind fairy beaming annoyingly at him.

"I'm keeping you accompanied," Thea simply answered while acting like a guard watching over a criminal.

"I don't need any company," Asuren gently put down the heavy wooden box inside the storage.

Albert asked him to clean all the storage areas on that farm. There were five and he was already on the third.

"But I do," Thea sighed as she sat on one of the boxes Asuren had just finished organizing.

"You have your friends," Asuren was sorting another column of boxes not far from where Thea was sitting.

"I do," the wind fairy princess agreed. "I can stay with Sel and Henry, but they are acting so sweetly to one another that I decided to just leave and give them privacy. Then I looked for Riz and found that she is busy sparring with Ayhan. Hmmm… I think this is the first time she stayed in this farm for more than an hour and mingled with a fairy from Southern Peaks."

"Ayhan had his way with almost anyone," Asuren was carefully stacking the boxes. "Don't worry. He will not hurt your friend."

"I'm not worried," Thea grabbed a broom and helped Asuren in cleaning the storage. "I know that Ayhan will be a good companion to Riz. The same goes for Gia and Juliann. I had also seen them together and they look comfortable with each other."

"Juliann also changed when he entered Northern Peaks," Asuren was organizing the last pile of boxes. "His anger dissipated. Your friend must have something to do with it. Or… all of this is only a product of my imagination."

Thea grabbed his hand and gripped it tight.

"This is real," she was beaming brightly at him.

"I can't tell," Asuren pulled his hand away from her grip.

"Not now," Thea went back to sweeping the ground. "But later you will come to believe that all of this is real."

^####################################^

It took Asuren and Thea nearly three hours to clean the last storage.

"Just in time," Thea put the broom on a cabinet and grabbed Asuren by his hand. "Let's go to the meeting."

"Meeting?"

"Yes. We need to tell everyone about our plan and prepare for your mother's arrival."

"I cannot participate in this," Asuren pulled his hand away from her grip. "I… don't feel good about this."

"It's okay if your mother hears everything," Thea seriously told him. "I want her to know that this place is not that bad and the fairies and even the mortals only want to have a peaceful life. Maybe she will have a change of heart."

Asuren sighed. Thea was as hopeless as his cousins. But he could not say anything to stop them. There was even a part of him that wanted to root for their success.

They held the meeting not far from the backdoor of the house. A long table filled with mouth-watering dishes had been placed in there. The long benches had been occupied by the ex-assassins. Asuren, Ayhan, and Juliann had joined them.

Asuren could still feel the wary glances of the ex-assassins but, maybe for Thea's sake, they were not saying anything.

The meeting went as smoothly as Thea had hoped. The ex-assassins accepted her proposal and promised to guard that place and everyone in there with all their life. They even vowed to protect Asuren, Ayhan, and Juliann.

"Henry, wait for Aldrin. I'll send him here to give you extra protection," Thea told her friend while everyone was busy having a delicious dinner.

"No need," Henry glanced confidently at Asuren, Ayhan, and Juliann. "I think this place is already well protected. Lazano needs Aldrin to help him watch over Miyara."

"I'll see you tomorrow," Thea smiled and gave Henry a light pat on the shoulder before leaving the Rainforest Farm together with Riz, Gia, and Sel.

"She will return tomorrow," Ayhan wrapped his arms over Asuren's shoulder. "You will not miss her that much."

"Are you talking to me or to yourself?" Asuren glared at Ayhan then went to the table and filled his plate with plenty of food. He immediately finished everything before returning to the storage room.

"I thought you are already done cleaning?" Henry asked when he noticed Asuren heading towards one of the storage rooms.

"I want to sleep there."

"But…"

"We also want to sleep there," Ayhan gave Henry a light tap on the head. "Good night, Henry. Thanks for welcoming us to your farm."

"If you feel uncomfortable…"

"We will tell you," Ayhan waved a hand at him then grabbed Asuren and Juliann towards the nearest storage room.

^################################^