Keeping Him Loved

Chapter 33

        To ensure that Add's patient would remain stable, Grandiel took them to Sael's home so that he could guide them to the gardens surrounding the base of the El Tree in his place. The path they needed to take led right towards Sael's residence. Once (y/n) and Add had arrived there, the tired elf took them straight to the botanical garden.

        The moment (y/n) had seen it from afar, she was stunned into silence. It wasn't contained by anything, yet the garden maintained a uniform circle around the tree's perimeter. Not a single leaf, stem, or root crossed over the invisible boundary line that indicated the start and stop of the garden. Compared to the enormous tree towering above it, the garden felt like a decorative shrub at the base of the it. Still, it felt like a jungle and towered over (y/n) like the forests she had grown up in. It felt safe and familiar despite her having never been there before.

        Even now that she explored the donut shaped area, (y/n) still couldn't believe her eyes. Vivid colors of almost every shade could be found across the expanse of the garden. Green was the most prominent, and its strong presence indicated that this was a place that had been cultivated with care.

        Sael led them through the lush plants according to Add's continuing requests to find specific herbs for his cure. The two of them were talking, but (y/n) didn't pay their words any attention. The two of them were a fair distance ahead of her with Add's dynamos quickly scanning around for whatever plant was required. If he couldn't find it, (y/n) knew that he would grow it himself in record time. She had seen him grow fully blooming delicate flowers directly from their seeds in just a couple of hours. Even though there was a crisis at hand, (y/n) couldn't fully stop herself from being distracted by the sights around her. Her father's stories hadn't really done them justice, but she assumed he had tried to provide the best description that he could.

        From behind a leaf, a small floating figure darted into view and stopped (y/n) in her tracks. "Oh, a fairy."

        It was her first time seeing one up close. It was true that their bodies glowed and their wings were almost completely transparent. The frantic sounds that the fairy made were practically a foreign language to her. All (y/n) could do was blink in confusion for a moment as the little creature rambled to her all while zipping from on place to another.

        "Whoa, hey! Calm down," she spoke to it, but the fairy shook her head and pointed off into the garden. The fairy gave her no time to react and flew over to pull at (y/n)'s sleeve. More words that went in one ear and out the other were thrown across the air. It's persistence had (y/n) slowly straying away and into the garden. She felt like she was in a trance, unable to make the decision to stop following the being tugging her sleeve. Finally the fairy stopped and began to talk to her in a calmer tone. The hand gestures she made only served to confuse (y/n) even more, but she could at least tell that the fairy wanted her to assist. "I'm sorry, I don't really get it. I can't understand you." The sound of something approaching had (y/n) quickly looking behind her and reaching for a stone.

        "(Y/n)?" Add's voice had her immediately placing the stone back into place. When she met his gaze, Add briefly held an expression of panic, but it vanished as soon as (y/n) caught sight of it. He was holding a few samples of plants that he had gathered so far in one of his arms. Sael wasn't far behind him with a puzzled expression on his face. When (y/n) looked around, her little guide was gone.

        "There was a fairy..." she tried to explain.

        "The garden is enchanted, remember? You have to stay close or you'll get lost," Add emphasized. (Y/n) didn't recall being told that before. Neither Add nor Sael seemed all too concerned about it before now either. Add sent three of his dynamos to her. "I should have been paying more attention. Let's keep going. There's just one more plant that I need to find. The rest I'll have to get on my own."

        (Y/n) quickly glanced around before going with them. The air felt a bit tense and uncomfortable from the brief moment of separation. Add was still very much stressed despite his facade doing well to hide it. His dynamos couldn't remain idle which was a dead give away to (y/n). Sael appeared to be uncomfortable being around them in general. Or perhaps it was just (y/n) that he had a problem with. He avoided her gaze whenever she looked in his general direction. Add found the last sample that he was looking for not too long after they had been walking in silence, but the situation remained unchanged. Whatever Sael had spoken with Add about had changed his mood, and Sael himself was all the more eager to leave or hide than usual.

        "Are there usually fairies in these gardens?" (y/n) decided to ask to shift the mood. Surely fairies couldn't be a bad topic to swap over to. She had never heard any bad tales about them afterall.

        Sael seemed to shrink in on himself. "They are here yes. They just never show themselves. Not the ones in here." He looked around as if to check for any spies. "They keep everyone away from the El Tree. Only the elders and a select few elves are trusted enough to cross the garden and reach the tree. If you befriend one, they might let you pass...but don't tell anyone I said that."

        "Hm...well I guess that makes sense. Wouldn't want just anyone to be able to reach the wind shard." It was still sort of strange to her though. "I couldn't understand that fairy."

        "You're not really supposed to..." Sael quietly commented. "They speak ancient elvish. They're as old as the tree is."

        (Y/n) thought to question him more, but he already acted like he wanted to vanish. Not even taking his own discomfort into account, (y/n) still found it somewhat strange to speak so casually with someone she had once fought with the intent to kill.

        Add's own lack of words hadn't changed all the while. It had (y/n) wondering what kinds of thoughts he had about the topic. She considered the chance that he was too focused on coming up with a cure, but she knew him well. He would probably tell her later.

        Once they left the garden, Sael took them straight back to where Kassias was waiting for them. Even the ride back had been oddly quiet, and Sael dropped them off with nothing more than a brief wave.

        "Did you notice it too?" Add finally spoke to her just before he opened the door to the building. The door burst open right before (y/n) could answer.

        "Did Sael already leave?!" Synn was there leaned over on his knees and panting. "Come on!! He didn't even wait for me!"

        "He didn't know you were here." Kassias sighed as he walked up from behind the boy. Add looked to question him, but Kassias beat him to it with a quick answer. "The boy is doing just fine. I'm not sure what you did, but he's just been sleeping since you left. You really are amazing, doctor."

        "Hmph." Add avoided the elf's smile. "I will check on him myself. (Y/n), wait here and please hold these." He handed the collected plants off to her and entered the building with Kassias following after him. Synn was about to go with them but stopped himself. The sly smile that he made no attempt to hide didn't sit well with (y/n).

        "So...did you see any fairies?" He asked in elvish keeping his voice in a low whisper. (Y/n) blinked at him.

        "How did you know?" she whispered back, keeping up the elven boy's choice of language.

        Synn's eyes lit up like stars. "When the blue lanterns shine their brightest. Wait until then." He nodded and smiled to himself clearly planning something that would probably land him into loads of trouble. He left (y/n) outside to wait on Add after he had finished his mini celebration.
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The fairies have a role now? What will they reveal? Until next time you epic readers!

P.S. I had a rough week and didn't get to edit the chapters for this week before Friday so an extra chapter will be updated later today in apology as promised. I need some sleep haha...