Prologue

IN A MYSTICAL LAND, far, far away at a time nonexistent from now, therein existed the Green Kingdom, a land of immortality and immortal beings. It was envied in all the land by creatures both mystical and mundane. It worried the lot of them that believed in black magic because the inhabitants of the Green Kingdom fought against such forces.

The Green family held and protected the good magic from being consumed by darkness that threatened to reign over the land. Their mortal enemy, the Gipus kingdom, fought by all means to keep darkness reigning but before passing, Pink-White's parents, Terese-White and Bingy-White, had fought to their last bone to keep darkness at bay.

That did not, however, hinder the witches of the Gipus kingdom from cursing the people of Green kingdom with a curse. It was the cry they made as a bunch of them dissipated into eternal flames. The curse was directed to the royal family. Pink-White's parents were to exist only for a while even though they were immortal initially, part of it was taken. Gipus' magic was not dark enough to steal all their immortality even though it is what they would have wanted. Before destroying the Gipus kingdom (source of all dark magic), the witches had withdrawn part of the Green family's immortality.

The Greens initiated the banquet of the Elixir of Life. They had discovered it from the Silver family, a family akin to theirs and superior in healing magic. They were healers by descent and greatly honored for their ability to heal the world from any kind of infirmity. When the witches of Gipus kingdom had cursed the Greens, the Silver family was highly recommended as the only kingdom that could reverse the curse. It was sad however that they could not undo all of it, instead an agreement was decided upon—a slight remedy is all they could offer.

The Silver kingdom would provide the Elixir of Life after fifty years at an eighteen days banquet organized by the Green family. This tonic was meant to give an addition of twenty years after their earthly lifespan was over. This agreement worked for the Greens and other kingdoms that had the gift of immortality and had been affected by the 'Gipus Curse'.

The Gipus Curse worked in a way that if the parent chose, they could sacrifice the twenty years—offered to them as an extension from taking the tonic—to their children so that they could live longer. Parents could not exist alongside their children for longer than they must. Terese-White and her husband, Bingy-White, had left their son, Pink-White to take care of their grandchildren; Shinka, Shimki, Shimpi, Shimi and Shinja. Bingy-White was the first to go, Terese-White came later on.

It was a huge sacrifice that resulted in sickness of his wife, Evalene Green. The Gipus Curse had affected her differently because she was not immortal. Pink-White had fallen in love with a mortal without knowing that their union would lead into her death. Only later did he find out that her life was fading away because of her association to their family through marriage. The tenets of how the curse worked had not been fully laid out to them. It was not like the witches had blessed them with a manual of how-tos and consequences.

As the descendant of the pure Green family, Pink-White, was left with the responsibility to organize the banquet that initiated the distribution of the Elixir of Life. People came from far and wide to partake of this drink every after fifty years as the Greens were in charge of it, everyone had to keep in their good graces. Survivors from the Gipus kingdom would come too, as obligation to pledging their allegiance to Green kingdom as assurance that they had stopped practicing black magic.

The Green castle stood magnificently on the floating clouds swaying with the quiet wind in the morning leading to the event. It was calm as the golden hue of rays bounced off the balcony railing at the front of the castle. Hanging loose from each pillar were tiny yellow flowers with small green leaves being kissed by bees buzzing ceremoniously as they sucked at their nectar. The flower garden in the quadrangle had larger flowers, the buzzing bees swooned with the ecstasy from lots of nectar at their display—they did not know what to do with all of it. Nature was being extra generous that morning.

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