Everyone looked at Kuzo like he'd brought in the devil when he walked in with Nefret.
"Why did you bring this woman in here, who allowed her in?" The queen began to say, her husband tried to stop her.
"Look whatever your differences are you can sort that out later, right now Raheema needs us"
" Nefertum if I don't save her now she will get to the point where I cant anymore, she will lose her ability to walk and to talk if you don't let me help now" Nefret said with so much earnest, she really did care about Raheema.
The queen was quiet.
Nefret walked up to Raheema's side. She had fallen asleep.
"The physician gave her something to sleep"
Nefret examined her. Her palms were turning bluish.
"It does look like poison from the Kawai"
"Tell us what you'll need"
"A berry, sage and garlic,"
"Ok, what berry"
"A berry from the Red Willow tree"
"That is just a myth, it doesn't exist" The queen said.
Nefret ignored her. The physicians looked confused.
"Well, where do we get one?"
Nefret looked up at Kuzo, suddenly, Raheema grabbed Kuzo's hand and pulled it weakly.
"She wants to say something" Nefret said. Kuzo leaned in and put his ear to her lips.
"Make one" She said.
"What did she say?"
"I doubt I can, I don't even know what it looks like"
"You mother is the guardian of all nature, trees, animals, she's definitely left a part of all that in you, maybe much more than you think, you could try, just think about it"
Kuzo didn't know why Nefret believed in him so much.
"I'm not about to waste my time on all this, my daughter is dying, send word to all men in the Kingdom, if anyone knows the whereabouts of the Red Willow let them come to me"
A man servant nodded and walked out.
"Trust the boy my Lord" Nefret said, looking up at Kuzo assuringly.
"Okay" He said and like he had done before, shut his eyes and thought about finding a Red Willow berry.
That was all he tried to focus on but somehow, all that kept showing up was his mothers face. She was smiling, and her lips were moving.
"Mom, are you dead?" He said.
"Kuzo, open your eyes, open your eyes" She said. He did, right in front of him were three spirit beings, one looked a lot like a moss garden, the other was almost transparent, she wore a blue gown that blended well with the element of wind and water as she floated in midair, the third was like a siren, with a gown like water. All three were feminine and pretty in the most scariest of ways.
He was in an enchanting garden.
"Where is this place?"
"It's where you want to be" The siren spoke, she had the most beautiful musical voice.
It was the most beautiful place he had ever seen, with trees that looked out of the ordinary.
"Am I dead?"
"You called to the Red Willow, it responded, since it can't come to you, it brought you to it" The garden moss said.
"But how, did I teleport?"
"You do have the soul stone Kuzo"
"You do know?"
She smiled.
"I need to save the life of my friend"
"I know Kuzo, but the Red Willow is a tree that opposes the nature of the soul stone, it repels it"
"Why?"
"The soul stone is all things evil and its powers can only be harnessed with a heart of purity and good intentions, you share that with your mother"
"I can't let my friend die, I must try"
"My sisters and I put an enchantment around the last Red Willow tree, it will sustain it and prevent it from going extinct.
Then something began to happen, the winds grew.
"Aurae" The water nymph said sternly.
"It isn't me" The wind nymph whose name was Aurae looked worried.
"What is happening?" A red thick like cloud began to blanket the sky.
"The Supreme" The tree nymph said and they looked up.
"Do you think?...."
"No, Terfani" Aurae interrupted.
"You need to get the staff to your mother now, there's too much disruptions in the course of time and Father is angry"
"Come, I'll take you to the willow tree" The wind nymph, Aurae, blew a cloud out of her mouth and it covered up Kuzo's feet and lifted him off the ground and followed Aurae who was flying ahead. Her siser followed.
"So Terfani, Aurae and you are.....?" Kuzo asked the water nymph.
"Neralae"
"So you are the guardians of the elements you possess?"
"No, Terfiti is, and your mother is her vessel so technically your mother is the guardian of the elements we possess"
"Is she that powerful?"
"Yes" All three said in unison.
"We're here" Aurae announced. The cloud took him back to the ground and there before him was the greatest tree he had ever seen.
"Now that is why it is called the red willow" Its leaves were as red as a cherry.
It did have berries, a lot of them. Kuzo walked up to it and touched it, immediately, it threw him away like a high voltage electric current.
Aurae flew up to him.
"Are you okay?"
"Oh no Oh no......" Terfani helped him up.
"That was so wrong" She said to the tree.
"Well I still need to get a berry, at all costs" Kuzo rubbed his arm.
"Maybe we can help" Neralae said.
"Terfani, you could be an insulator around him, water wont be a good idea and Aura, you need to eliminate all moisture around him, make the air dry
"Maybe that will work" Aurae said.
"Cant any of you just pluck one for me?"
"We cannot do that pluck fruits harvest fish or birds.....to us it is like harming our own, but to you it is feeding, we do not feed"
"Oh I see, so by laws of need, one that does not need must not harm, right?" Kuzo said.
"Yes"
"Okay let try again"
"You ready?" Terfani said, he nodded and then she stretched out her arms towards him, they grew like branches as he had seen his mother do once, they wrapped themselves around him but they weren't hard or uncomfortable, he felt cushioned instead.
"Aurae now. She blew at him as Terfani lifted him up stretching him up high towards a berry. He touched it and it did electrocute him but it couldn't throw him off since Terfani had rooted herself to the ground, he screamed though.
"Pluck it!"
"I'm trying" Kuzo screamed back as he pulled at the berry.
"Will you just let go!" He yelled in anger and his hands grew red from frustration, they burned but he wouldn't let go of the berry and the tree wouldn't give it up either.
"You need to let me have it......please!"
And suddenly he had a vision.
He was in what looked like a pitch blackness, but his feet were in something cold, something liquid.
He looked down, he couldn't see his feet but he could hear drops of water.
"Help me!" He heard a whimper.
"Who's there" He heard the voice again, frail and injured. It sounded like that of a child.
"Cut it down, this tree is cursed!" He heard the voices of men and then chopping sounds, suddenly it hit him, he was inside the tree. The child came to being only it wasn't a child but a tree nymph, just like Terfani.
"Make them stop"
She came to light and she looked withered, like a tree that was dying. He got closer and she coiled up.
"I just wanted to help, that is all, she was in tears,... that is why I planted those trees because more men fell sick, more men needed health, now more men want me dead, is this the heart of man, to destroy all that he touches?" She said, looking up at him with the saddest eyes, she wiped a tear and sniffed.
"Why are those men chopping the tree down?" Kuzo asked.
"Some very bad people used my tree for bad things"
"You're the spirit of the Red Willow" Her eyes were a mixture of green and red but innocent, very innocent. Kuzo touched her hand.
"If you don't like it, make them stop" He said and then her fuzzy brows, a fine line of moss curved in and the green in her eyes began to fade.
"I will take out my heart and plant a curse in it, I will seal my anger in it and curse man with the need to defend everything that lives, whoever has my heart will live forever to wield it, to feel my pain to feel my anger and it will consume him who cannot bare it" She said and stood, then she reached into her chest and pulled out her heart which was as red as the red willow berry. The last seeds of my tree I will bury in places no man can ever reach, they will die for it but never have it, not in life and not in death.
She stretched out her hand towards him, the hand that held her heart, it looked like a precious stone, only red.
"Please take it frome me, let me never have it, let me never know what it feels like to love to hate, to be angry, let it never find me"
She said. Kuzo took her heart, it was heavy.
"This is the soul stone isnt it?"
Then things began to spin and he was no longer there.
He opened his eyes and found three faces looking down at him.
But not the faces of the nymphs, but of Summer, Nefret and the Pharaoh"
"He's awake" Nefret said with a smile.
"Welcome back" Summer squeezed his hand gently.
"The berry..." He tried to say.
"It's okay, you got it, Raheema is fine...." Nefret said.
"I'm glad to hear that....why do I feel so weak"
"You've been out for days Kuzo, we were beginning to worry" Summer explained.
"Days" He repeated with a look of surprise.
The girls nodded.
"Damn, can I see her"
"You need to rest"
"There is no time, I need to get back or something terrible is going to happen"
Kuzo trued to stand, Summer helped him up.
Fiji barked,
"Good to see you too Fiji" He said to the dog who was resting on a cushion. He humped off once Kuzo was on his feet and followed them out of the room while Nefret and the Pharaoh stayed behind.
"There is a lot that came out while you were comatose" Summer began her gossip.
"Like what?"
"Did you know that Nefret is actually the queens sister, who was banished after it was discovered she had a relatiosnhip with the Pharaoh and guess what, Nefret's son is the Pharaoh's kid so he does have a son after all"
"Wow, did you gossip all that to me right now"
"Well I thought you should know" Summer said and he laughed.
"You talk too much Summer, just get me to Raheema, we need to say goodbye"
They got to Raheema's room, she was sitting at the edge of the bed and when Kuzo walked in, she stood and rushed into his arms.
"Thank goodness you're awake, they told me what you did, thanks"
"I'm glad you're okay, did they find who did this?" He said.
"No, but we will soon" She smiled.
"Raheema, I can't thank you enough for everything"
"No, this isn't goodbye is it?" Raheema said. Kuzo took both her hands.
"Come here" He pulled her in a hug.
"You would totally have been my best friend if you were in my time" He whispered to her, Summer hit him.
"Where would that put me?"
"My girlfriend?" He said matter of factly, she almost blushed.
"Oh shut up" Summer said.
"Thanks for giving me the best Adventure, I will never forget you Kuzo of Geeces and Summer of Baltimore"
They giggled.
Summer hugged her too.
"You can't tell anyone about everything, okay" Kuzo said to Raheema.
"Your secret is safe forever in Egypt" She said. Kuzo planted a gentle kiss on her cheek.
"Be safe" He said.
Summer smiled at her and then followed Kuzo.
Raheema wiped her tears as she watched them go.
"Kuzo!" Raheema called right before he walked out the door. They both turned.
"Go stop that jerk, you can do it"
"Thanks Raheema, be safe" And they were gone.