My Long Lost Mate

"…Luna! Luna!"

I heard a distant voice calling me, slowly becoming clearer as I woke up from the darkness where my consciousness left me. The moment I felt it returning, my head immediately hurt, and my whole body felt as if it was going to break anytime soon.

"She's not waking up," another voice chimed in, and it was from the only woman among the other two men. "Is she even breathing? We should force the air into her if she's not. You do it," she said, pushing the person in question.

"What?! Are you crazy?! I can't kiss her! Luke will kill—no, Lisa will kill me!"

"I doubt they would rather she die than have you kiss her," Maggie replied to Andrew's unwillingness, her voice calm yet demanding. "And it's called mouth-to-mouth, not kissing." 

"Jack, you do it! You don't have a mate, so—" he stopped mid-sentence, only to realize that he had accidentally said a taboo word. "Shit, I mean—uh… I-I will do it!"

I could hear Andrew cursing to himself, not knowing whether or not he should really do it. For him, it must have felt like he was being forced to choose between two options that would both lead him to the same place—hell. If he didn't do it, I would die. If he did it, he would die. It was either of the two.

Not wanting him to do what he was going to do, I decided that it was the right time for me to wake up.

"Please… don't," I said, my voice coming out weaker than I expected it to be. A big sigh of relief immediately escaped Andrew's lips, who was just about to invade my personal space out of guilt and anxiety.

"Oh, thank the Moon Goddess!" Andrew rejoiced, throwing his hands up in the air. "Are you okay? Do you need anything?" He asked, and Jack, by his side, was more than ready to provide anything I might need.

"What happened?" I coughed as I shook my head, replying to his question. "How… how are we alive?"

"We fell into a river," Jack explained, pointing at his—and everyone else's—damp clothes, and also at the river not far from where we were. "We would be dead if not for the river."

The sound of water flowing filled the whole place, the sound was calm and peaceful. There was also the sound of the birds chirping happily, as if nothing bad would ever happen to the world—which was a complete lie, as we were just being chased by two giant fairies and barely escaped the door to our deaths.

The sun soared high in the sky, illuminating the world with its light and warming us with its heat. There was no sign of the cold winter, but there were a lot of signs of spring all around us. I looked up and saw the cliff where we fell off, then looked at the surrounding forest which was filled with trees and colorful flowers. It was brimming with life, the complete opposite of Mount Elard, where I was previously forced to venture by the rogues. 

I tried to sit up, but Maggie stopped me from doing so.

"Rest," she said—ordered—pushing me to lie back on the ground. "It would be a hassle if you collapse on us once we start our journey. There's still a long way to go to find the Wishing Tree, so I need you to rest your fragile body."

"I'm fine, so we should hurry and get going," I assured her, sitting up again. "We shouldn't waste any more—"

"Ah! I'm hungry," Andrew cut me off mid-sentence, standing up and stretching his body left and right. "Are there any squirrels around? I'm a bit allergic to hunger. We will go and look around for some food," he suggested, tapping Jack on the shoulder to get him to stand and tag along.

Without giving me time to stop them, they ran to the forest, leaving me and Maggie with the magic dolls. Seeing them leave, Maggie leaned against a tree trunk, closing her eyes to rest and find a little peace.

Though I was thankful for their considerate act, I still think that it was better for us to keep going. The thought of Luke lying on his bed in pain kept bugging my mind, clouding it with millions of thoughts and possibilities.

What would happen if I stayed here for a second longer, and something worse happened to him? What if he needed me but I wasn't there by his side? What if he could bear it no longer?

Even so, they were right. I needed to rest. If I kept going, I'm afraid my body would break into two. If I wanted to go back faster, I'd have to find the Wishing Tree faster, but I wouldn't be able to do so if I broke down along the way. We didn't know what was waiting ahead of us, so the most important thing right now was to rest and replenish our energy.

"Coco, is the Wishing Tree far from here?" I asked Coco, patting him to wake him up from his sleep. Now that we have Coco with us, it shouldn't be a problem for us to look for the Wishing Tree without the help of the fairies.

Coco rubbed his one eye, holding his candy cane close to him. It seemed that Andrew didn't take it away from him, or more like he couldn't. Coco then nodded his head, pointing his paws in the direction in front of us, where a mountain of many colors could be seen from afar.

How come a mountain looks like that? There was red, blue, yellow, pink, almost every color that existed in the world. The colors painted the mountain like a rainbow, only that there wasn't any rainbow. Perhaps the colors came from the trees and flowers, or perhaps from the magic itself.

"What will you do if what the fairies said about the Wishing Tree is true?" asked Maggie, still with her eyes closed as she wondered about the question.

"That the Wishing Tree is dead?" I asked, and she hummed in response. "I will look for ways to revive it, or look for ways to find another antidote."

"How optimistic," she chuckled, shaking her head. She then opened her eyes, staring into me as if she was staring straight into the depths of my soul. "If the Wishing Tree is dead, so is your mate. You won't find any other antidote to cure him of the poison."

How come she could always manage to find something worse than all the other words that she had ever said? This should top the list—the current list.

"I don't want to waste my energy thinking about what-ifs," I said, although I just did that a while ago. "It's already tiring enough to live in the present."

Maggie then laughed, nodding as if to show her agreement. Though she rarely says something nice, all of the things that came from her mouth were true. She was only stating facts, but unfortunately, the truth isn't as pleasant as we had hoped. It made me wonder which one was better, a sweet lie or a bitter truth.

Seeing that our conversation was over, I closed my eyes, pulling Coco into my embrace to act as my doll. Contrary to his fierce appearance, he was actually a sweet doll—if not provoked. He didn't even refuse when I pulled him into my arms.

If we're going to rest, I might as well get some shut-eye before we continue our journey… was what I was going to do until I heard the bush behind me rustling.

I promptly rose from my position, alarmed and ready to hit whatever came from behind the bush. Is it Andrew and Jack? But why wouldn't they just come out instead of hiding and rustling behind the bush?

I pushed Coco forward, asking him to check on the bush. It was cowardly of me, but Coco would be a better option, might there be something dangerous behind the bush. He could grow big and become strong, while I couldn't.

Not long after I heard the rustling, something came out of the bush. It was a tiger, a baby tiger, the color white with a hint of black stripes. Coco growled upon seeing the tiger, and so did the tiger. It was like seeing two babies growling at each other.

"Aww," the word simultaneously left my and Maggie's lips, weak at the unexpected cute attack. The tiger rolled on the ground with Coco, fighting as if their lives depended on it, while we were here watching their cuteness as if our lives depended on it.

When the baby tiger heard us, it glared and growled at us, still with the cutest growl I've ever heard in my life. But when his eyes met mine, his glare softened and his growl vanished. Instead, a voice came.

"Master?"