Thorn Fairy of The Moors

"Huh? You're leaving?" Ren looked to her in bewilderment.

She glanced back and Ren followed her gaze only to rest upon a sleeping Kalim. When he turned back, she was gone. He heaved a sigh as he shook his head in defeat, "I guess I'll be babysitting for now."

Lotus quickly left the camp without so much as a glance back. As she re-entered the forest once more, she noticed Malleus and Lilia waiting for her. She raised a brow curiously.

"Haha!" Lilia laughed, "Are you that surprised to see me here?"

She shook her head, "I was, but I shouldn't have been had I thought twice about it."

The person here was Kalim who was afflicted by a poisonous and dangerous plant. Of course, Lilia would want to come and see how his young friend was faring. Malleus opened his mouth with an indescribable expression across his face, "I've never knew the thorn fairy grew up on your birth place. I always thought she lived in the Moors."

"She did." Lotus nodded ignoring how they were eavesdropping as though it was normal at this point, "I just didn't share much information with the others because who knows what sensitive topics this information may contain to which part of the world. Now that I think of it, I don't believed I shared it with the Queen when I did commissions for her on the princess's behalf. I always have stories of the past, but, although I can vouch for its accuracy as much as I like, nobody must be willing to believe my words. Still, it seems you have something you wish to say?"

"The thorn fairy should be in the moors so why did she suddenly appear in the otherside of the world?" Malleus questioned in confusion.

Lotus shook her head, "By the time the Peony empress found her, she was dangling from a tree with her horns caught in some vines which had saved her from her fall onto some field of wild jasmine flowers. The empress lived each of her life as though she was someone else's puppet but could not fight against them. Otherwise, it would spell more pain and punishment upon herself and others. It is unknown what the other faes like herself saw her as, but, when I read her journal, I learnt that she did not mind any of that when she met the small thorn fairy. She was more attracted by how free the fae was to make her own decision and follow through with it. I didn't think the thorn fairy from back then was the same one here either. The personality was just too different."

"Different? What was she like as a child?" Malleus questioned curiously.

"Mischevious, curious and always could never sit still in one place. She was incredibly out going and would always bring back trouble far more than most children. But it was mentioned that she was always smiling happily no matter how bad the trouble she got into. It never stopped her from sneaking out of her room and going outside to explore the capital and towns." Lotus shook her head, "Apparently, whenever she was gone for more than a week at first, the empress would secretly send out her only disciple out to find her."

"The empress had a disciple?" Lilia questioned in surprise.

Lotus nodded, "They said that to maintain a good relationship with other races, they started taking in disciples from other kingdoms. For the faes, that year was the human kingdom's turn. So, she took in a small human child of her choosing as her next disciple. However, even her own disciple was unable to bring back the small fae. Instead, she would be dragged along with the child's whim and get into trouble with her. She was apparently very witty and always managed to make her sister's disciple help her get into deeper trouble just to satisfy her curiosity."

"Oh my." Lilia sighed in disappointment shaking her head, "Somehow I'm not surprised. After all, the former queen was also such a person."

Ignoring Malleus's surprised look, Lotus laughed, "Is that so?"

However, she sighed before continuing with a look of nostalgia, "Thinking back when I read the journal, the thorn fairy back then sounded no different from any child. She was just more chaotic because she has so much powers in her hands and was still learning to control them. If the empress learnt what happened to her after... Well, who knows how she may feel."

"That doesn't sound like a good tone." Lilia frowned, "Should you say she may be proud or so? Did something happened?"

"Well." Lotus shook her head, "Perhaps you did not know of this before, but during the thorn fairy's time, there was no distinction between diurnal/light faes or nocturnal/dark faes. Maleficent as well was neither of those. She was simply a powerful fae stranded from the dragon clan. In fact, there was something called a fairy core that all faes had during those time and Maleficent was no different. This core was what gives faes magic of fairies and hers was very special. Her core bore the magic of fairies connected to others of her clan during those times. Even more surprising was the descriptions of her was that she had wavy brown hair and flush skin. If you hide her green eyes, ears and horns, she would be hard to be distinguished from a regular human."

"Huh? That does not sound like the thorn fairy we know of today." Lilia pondered with a look of deep confusion and disbelief.

"No." Lotus shook her head, "Something happened according to the journal. Something terrible happened to her."

"Explain." Malleus demanded.

Lotus nodded, "It was after she became a teenager. Probably around Malleus's age. Under the guidance and care of her sisters, the thorn fairy grew to be a little more calmer and knowledgeable about the world around her. Her control over her own magic became a little more stable and she soon proved herself to have become a wise and kind-hearted person. The empress often associated the words warm and bright as the sun to her. But, perhaps the problem that started it all was her beauty, knowledge, and achievements. Due to these traits, she made just as many enemies as she had friends. One day, she was tricked by a human she believed to be a friend and was drugged by her. Because Maleficent was a dragon fae, she was able to struggle against the drug for a while, but it was during that struggle that that person and her clan tore that fairy core right out from her chest using a taboo art. By the time the empresses arrived, they were already too late. The peony empress was also very angry when she saw the thorn fairy struggling to regain balance of her mana without the fairy core inside her. For the first time, she tossed aside all consequences and fought back against her chains. During that struggle, the heavens rained down powerful strikes of lightning that the skies remained lit despite the dark clouds. However, that didn't stop her from laying a curse on the people who harmed their sister. She stated that seeing her sister collapsed was more than enough reason to make her take action. It wasn't long before she was finally restrained and retrieved her sister that she was able to return. Both were so terribly wounded that the empress needed days to recover with aid of potions and medicine. The thorn fairy had also changed appearance as well. Her hair became black and skin became pale. She still retained a new beauty but it came with a painful price. Their other two sisters spent days without sleep trying to save their lives. By the time the empress woke up, she learnt that their youngest sister was leaving to return home and recover. The thorn fairy mentioned how, after the removal of her core, it would put the others of her clan into a state of confusion being unable to utilize magic as naturally as they once had. Perhaps dark magic was their way of coping with this sudden change since then."

"I see. If that journal is real, then we can say for sure that the thorn fairy's life was a difficult one." Lilia sighed in disappointment, "But, how did you know that she would be our thorn fairy?"

"Because of her staff."

"Her staff?" They looked to her in bewilderment.

Lotus nodded, "When she learnt that her sister was returning home in her unbalanced state, she hurriedly worked with their friends and relatives to create a gift that would help her. She later utilized a very rare ore from Pangu's era and the representative also gifted a rare jade from the same era to craft that staff for her. That staff was then enchanted to help her sister stave off the blot accumulation for many more years to come as the lack of the core made accumulating blot easier than before."

"What?!" Lilia looked to her in disbelief, "She was the one who made that staff?!"

Lotus sighed, "Yes. But, not on her own, she had relatives and her sisters to help her. However, it was said that the staff was so powerful that it should be enough to keep her safe for a few more millions of years perhaps billions. It is unknown if the empress who finally decided to fight back still felt guilt from those times or pride knowing her sister probably lived life to possibly her fullest in the years after."