Thebes took Mateo to his house. His cabin was just outside the luminescent, mushroom-filled area. Streams cut through it.

        Thebes examined his flower-filled trees and large garden. His cottage was only one story, but it was large enough for a centaur. He opened his gate. His hooves tapped the cobblestone pathway behind it.

        There were only a few rooms in the cabin. What took up the most space was the den and kitchen. Thebes always made sure that his cabin was neat. His den’s furniture–two couches, his rocking chair, and a couple more chairs–created a circle. A single, large coffee table was in between them.

        Thebes set Mateo down on one of his couches. His body was still limp from the effects of the anesthesia. The centaur lugged a fluffy blanket off the back of the couch. He tossed it over Mateo. Afterward, he went into his kitchen. Thebes opened some cabinets made from cedar. He took out a bucket and rag and soaked the rag in his sink. He pranced over to Mateo and put it over his forehead. He set the bucket down next to one of the couch’s legs.

        Thebes narrowed his eyebrows. “I’m going to be the one to heal you. That basilisk is going to pay.” One at a time, he took Mateo’s hands and examined the rash. It now covered almost the whole of his arms. Only his shoulders were rash-free. “This is definitely the forest sickness,” Thebes said under his breath, dropping Mateo’s hand. He scurried over to a bookshelf in the corner of the den. Frantic, he searched for a book on antidotes. If he couldn’t find one, then he would make one himself. After all, Thebes had an interest in alchemy.

        Before the centaur knew it, Mateo regained consciousness. His eyes snapped open. They scanned the homely cabin like a computer scanning a card key. Where was he? He recognized Thebes. “Thebes?” he asked in a feeble voice.

        Thebes turned to him. “Kid, you’re awake.” He slapped the book he held shut. He returned it to the bookshelf and trotted to Mateo.

        He tried to get up, but his shoulder and belly cried in agony. The pain knocked his breath out of him, and he yelled.

        Thebes pushed him back down. “Stay down. Don’t strain yourself. Your condition is very serious.”

        “What happened?” Mateo choked out.

        Thebes grasped his uninjured shoulder. “The humans tried to take you to the hospital. However, I did not let them. Once you’re a little stronger, we’ll get you the antidote.”

        “What do you mean ‘humans’?” Mateo inquired. “I don’t understand, sir. Why are you helping me? I mean, I’m human.”

        “I’m helping you because your father was my best friend. And no sirree, kid, you are not completely human.” Thebes comforted Mateo by patting his shoulder. He took a deep breath. “Your father was a fairy.”

        “What?” Mateo’s jaw dropped.

        With each sentence, Thebes grew more choked up. “I lost him to that basilisk. I’m not going to let it take you, too.”

        “Why didn’t Mamá tell me?” Mateo had a hard time believing Thebes’s words. They only succeeded in stressing him further.

        “Because she wanted you to grow up as a normal human boy,” Thebes replied. “She did not want you to know until you were ready.”

        “Ready for what?”

        “Your wings,” Thebes mumbled under his breath, quiet enough so that Mateo would not hear. “Stop straining yourself. You need to rest, at least for today.” Thebes adjusted the rag on Mateo’s forehead. He slipped his shirt sleeve off his right shoulder. “Let me clean your wound.”

        “But I don’t want to get better.” Mateo clutched his shoulder with his other hand.

        “Don’t say that,” Thebes begged. “You’re going to.”

        “But I don’t want to.”

        Thebes narrowed his eyebrows. “What about your baby? She can’t grow up without a dad.”

        Mateo cringed. His baby. That was what Thebes said. He gulped. “Thebes, my baby does not deserve me.”

        “But you love her!”

        “She doesn’t deserve me! I’m already a horrible father.” Mateo removed Thebes’s hand from his shoulder. He pulled his blanket over his head. The next time he spoke, his voice was muffled. “I wanted to write her a song, but now I can’t.”

        Thebes grasped the young man’s knee under the blanket. “Who said you can’t? You just need to get better.”

        “Isabella will hate me.” Mateo buried his face in his pillow. He said nothing more. He was too distressed.

        Thebes let him be. He just had to be patient until he calmed down. He picked up his weapons and went outside to do a little hunting.

        Now all alone, Mateo tossed his blanket and pillow off him. He fell from the couch and landed next to the coffee table. Struggling to his feet, he stumbled into Thebes’s spotless kitchen. Even he couldn’t keep his own kitchen clean. To himself, Mateo whimpered, “She doesn’t deserve me.”

        He dug through Thebes’s kitchen drawers. He discovered old plants, cups, napkins, and some plates. It wasn’t until the last drawer he found what he was looking for–a knife.

        “What are you doing, kid?” Thebes had just returned. There were a few hares over his shoulder.

        Mateo jumped. He grabbed an apple from a fruit basket and set it down in front of him on Thebes’s counter. “I got hungry.” His tummy flipped. The knife wobbled in his hand.

        Thebes took it away from him. “I’ll make something for you. In the meantime, I want you to return to the couch.”

        Mateo did. While he rested, Thebes fumbled around in the kitchen. He hid every knife, sword, and dagger. Afterward, he fixed Mateo some soup.

        On the couch, the ranger lay on his side with his head on his hands. He stared at the vast room in front of him. He thought he saw something enter the den from the wall–a black angel.

        He flapped his feathery wings and gestured for the young man to join him. Of course, it was all in Mateo’s head. Shaking it, he turned his back to the angel.

        “I’m a terrible person,” he muttered to himself.

***

        Evie, her group members, friends, and family returned to Paperblank Village. Nobody smiled. Everybody looked defeated and worried, especially Maria. She was at the point that the volcano growing on top of her head was about to erupt.

        Ms. Julie met up with the party under the maple tree. She searched them and asked, “Where are Mateo and Sam?”

        Maria huffed. She tightened her grip on the straps of Mateo’s bag she wore on her back.

        Ms. Brook stopped next to her. She returned her engagement ring.

        Maria did not thank her. Instead, she closed her fingers over the ring and glared at Ms. Julie. “Why on Earth did you guys send Mateo here when he is clearly burnt out? Do y’all not even realize how long you’ve been working him? Nine months! Nine freaking months! The wedding is ruined!” She chucked her ring onto the ground.

        Ben, who led Joey, tried to talk to her. “Maria.”

        Maria glared at him next. “And you! You call yourself our king, but you ran from the dryads with your tail between your legs!”

        Offended, Ben snapped at her: “Hey! For your information, Maria, we would have all been killed if we stuck around. If we’re going to save Mateo, then we need a plan.”

        Maria fought back. “We could have easily defeated those dryads!”

        Ben raised his voice. “As if! Have you ever been in a battle before? I know what I’m doing.”

        Maria scoffed. “No, you don’t. You should have never come here in the first place. Thanks to you, my fiancé is dying!” She shoved by Ben and headed for Paperblank’s inn.

        Ms. Brook scooped up her engagement ring. She wrapped her own fingers over it.

        “What went wrong?” Ms. Julie wanted to know.

        Evie rolled her eyes. Everything. But she replied, “Well, first we lost Euphorbia. Now a centaur has kidnapped Mateo, and Sam is missing.”

        “Whoa! Whoa!” Ms. Julie held up her hands. “Did you say a centaur?”

        John sighed deeply. His feathers expanded. “It’s a long story; so long that if we wrote it all down, it would be at least 70,781 words.”

        “I want to hear it all,” said Ms. Julie.

***

        Sam felt a tiny hand pat his cheek. He ended up sleeping outside the basilisk’s den overnight. He took his head off his bag. His eyes widened when he saw Euphorbia hovering in front of him. It was strange. She looked so much better; almost fully recovered.

        Confused, Sam sat up. “Euphorbia? You-You’re still alive?”

        She nodded. She used telepathy to talk to him. “I sure am.”

        “But I don’t understand.” Sam scratched his head. “You were on your deathbed last night.” He jumped when a low growl overtook the morning atmosphere.

        The basilisk slithered out of its den. There was something in its jaw.

        Frightened, Sam crawled away from it. He rested his hand over his arm. He did not want it to get injured again. His back hit a tree trunk. He covered himself with ferns.

        Euphorbia fluttered to the snake. She landed on its nose and pecked it with her small lips.

        Sam inhaled and exhaled; inhaled and exhaled. Eventually, he cracked a small smile, and he pulled the ferns apart like curtains.

        Euphorbia fluttered off the basilisk’s nose. Her tiny hands gestured from it to Sam. “Go on.”

        The basilisk dropped what it had in its mouth in front of the little boy–a berry bush. Its forehead pushed it toward him. Nervous, it returned to its den. It put up its two tails like a wall.

        Sam was beyond bewildered. Since when did the basilisk that tried to kill him sixty years ago have a soft side? He did not get it. However, he knew it had something to do with Euphorbia. He eyeballed the bush carefully. He didn’t want to risk any of the berries being poisonous.

        Euphorbia gave him confidence. She picked a berry. Compared to her, it was about the size of a soccer ball. She pulled her red hair behind her ear and took a bite from it.

        “No!” Sam protested.

        Euphorbia did not drop dead as he predicted. How could something that tasted like peppermint kill her? She landed on one of the bush’s twigs.

        Even though he was still a bit nervous, Sam also plucked a berry from the bush. “Are-Are you and the basilisk friends? Di-Did it heal you?”

        Nodding, she fluttered to Sam and bumped his hand toward his mouth.

        Inhaling one more time, he ate the berry. Sam closed his eyes and waited. He felt no different. In fact, the berry had one of the most satisfying tastes in the whole world–peppermint ice cream with chocolate chunks. He rubbed his tongue across his teeth. “Tha-Tha-That’s good,” he told the Green Guardian.

        She grinned and performed a midair backflip. She was glad he liked the basilisk’s treat. It was hard for her to convince it to say sorry.

        The fairy turned on a nervous face. She rubbed her little hands together. “Sam… Um, I need your help.”

        “With what?” Sam popped another berry into the old trap. He let Euphorbia land on his finger.

        She gulped, suddenly looking guilty. A gust of wind blew her red locks. She was silent for a minute or two, and then she nodded to herself. “Well, I failed with my first successor. I should have never let him train the basilisk as his own. Therefore, I need your help with my new one. We need to try our best to help him gain his wings.”

        Sam had a feeling he knew who the fairy was talking about, but he still wanted confirmation. “Wait. Are you saying you want Mateo to be your successor–that he can earn a pair of wings?”

        “Yes.” The confidence in Euphorbia’s voice was strong. “I want Mateo to become the new Green Guardian.”

***

        Mateo’s health did not improve throughout the day. It got worse. He could not breathe properly, and his skin turned chalk white. He started to slip in and out of consciousness. When that happened, Thebes decided it was time to start the journey for the antidote early.

        He picked up Mateo in his blanket. Momentarily, he felt his pulse. It was getting weaker. “Please don’t die,” Thebes begged. “We’re heading out right now to find the basilisk.”

        Mateo wheezed in his arms. He slapped his palm over his nose and mouth.

        Thebes hugged him close. His horse half reared, and he waved his front hooves. He moved swiftly. He sprinted out of his house and dove into the Paperblank Forest. He could not wait to avenge Faelyn. Thebes was going to show that basilisk no mercy. He was going to kill it.