Chapter < 19 >

Glowmyth whizzed through the thick, dark forest. She felt nervous because it was strange how dark it was. Usually there were lots of small creatures and glowing lights, but, ever since they came from the underground cave she hadn't seen any light. Only the dim glow of the crescent moon in the sky was present which barely made the place visible.

She wasn't familiar with the internal forbidden territory of the elves, only the outskirts. She was curious to figure out what made this place so different.

Soon she saw a few lights through the trees ahead of her. Flying out into the open, she came into a wide open area that resembled a valley or a crater. Why a crater? Because when she looked up, she saw that the entire area, including the forest she had just come from was surrounded by a very tall circular cliff. 'I thought we had gotten to the surface rather quickly but now I understand. This isn't the surface at all.'

She was right of course; this wasn't the surface of the forbidden territory. It was a large, deep valley at the center of the elves forbidden territory called the Valley of Desolation. It was a large valley that was an entire mile in radius. It was hundreds of feet beneath the actual surface. What a terrifying drop.

"Could this be the Valley Of Desolation?" She muttered in amazement. Though she had never been here, she had heard of it. Now it was time to explore the area and verify her guess as well as collecting data for Craig.

Ahead of her there was an area of collapsed pillars and walls. It was the remnants of an old ruin. This was where the lights were coming from. She flew over to the ruin to get a good look at what was going on.

As she drew near she could hear the voices of people having a conversation and the sound of laughter. She quietly landed on top of a pillar and looked down below. 

There were four elven men idling around having a discussion. 

"It's not funny. Do you know how embarrassing it was to miss all five shots in front of the girl you like." One of them complained. 

The other three laughed for a while longer before coming to a stop. 

Glowmyth looked around and concluded that they were standing guard at this location. She flew a short distance across and stumbled onto another group of four. As she went on there was another group of four, then a group of three, then another group and another... 

This place was heavily guarded. She then flew in deeper into the ruins, brushing past pillar after pillar, and seeing collapsed walls and columns everywhere as well as countless other groups of elves. 

She decided to head for the heart of the ruin when she didn't see anything worth protecting for so long. It took her a while to get to where she thought was the center. The ruin turned out to be a lot bigger than she thought. 

"This is..." As she was flying through the ruin, a small body of water appeared in her line of sight. She was both confused and surprised. "A spirit lake?" She muttered rhetorically as she came to a stop in the air above the body of water. 

It was more accurate to call it a pond instead of a lake, as it was just about a half acre in size, but to Glowmyth it was still very large. The reason she called it a 'Sprit Lake' was because of how similar it was in resemblance to the one in her homeland. It was filled with lotuses and the water inside was crystal clear. During the day the bottom would definitely be clearly visible, however underneath the illumination of the torches it was difficult to see through. 

Why would a 'Spirit Lake be in a place like this? That was the question on Glowmhth's mind as she circled the pond attentively. If she had known that what Craig was seeking were actually all lotus flowers then she would have been captivated by the six different colours of lotuses that were on the surface of the pond. Still, the single blue lotus near the center did catch her attention for a moment. 

After studying the pond for a certain amount of time time she flew around till she made an entire circle through the ruins. Piecing it all together, it resembled an old city that was destroyed a long time ago. Judging from the architecture it didn't seem to be built by the elves either. 

Once Glowmyth felt that she had seen enough she returned to Craig's location to report. 

Craig was sitting on top of the stem of a fallen tree with his elbows to his knees and chin atop his clasped hands. Glowmyth's tiny blue glow caught his attention as she appeared a short distance ahead of him, disabling her invisibility. 

"I thought something happened to you, I was a bit worried just now." He said and heaved a sigh of relief.

"Hmph. Who could possibly harm one as great as me." She remarked Cheekily. 

"Ghosts?" Craig exclaimed rhetorically with a mocking smile. 

Glowmyth laughed awkwardly at Craig's response and changed the topic. "There's a large ruin just on the other side of those trees filled with groups of elves standing guard. They seem to be protecting a small Spirit Lake at the center of the ruins as I didn't see anything else of value besides it. Still, there are lots of elves stationed there and I didn't see any way out. 

In fact, this entire place is inside of a deep valley, far below the surface. It was a bit difficult to make out the walls of the cliff in the dark of night but we're definitely in a valley." She explained. 

Although Craig heard everything she said, what caught his attention the most was the so called 'Spirit Lake.' "A lake? Was it filled with lotus flowers?" He hurriedly asked, standing up.

"Yeah." Glowmyth Said with a nod. "I even saw a blue lotu-" She paused before finishing and started another sentence. "A hunter and a thief... Is that why you're here? Are you planning to steal the lotuses from that lake?" 

Realization had struck her as she pieced everything together. She remembered the words the High Priestess said to her in relation to Craig being a friend or foe. If he truly were after the 'Spirit Lake' here then wouldn't he also be after the one in their territory as well? Not knowing the crust of the truth she felt a knot in her chest. 

Craig sighed, "I guess I should explain the entire situation to you before you misunderstood my intentions." He then, in detail, explained the entire situation and how he ended up here. "So yes, that elf and I are actually here to get those lotuses in order to make the medicine to save the princesses life." He said in the end. 

After listening to his entire story Glowmyth was perplexed. She didn't know whether she should believe him or not. She thought for a long while before asking. "This rainbow medicine can truly only be created like you said?" Although it had practically become common knowledge, not everyone knew everything. Glowmyth had never heard of the rainbow medicine before. 

Craig nodded. 

"In truth, I don't really oppose stealing all the flowers in that Spirit Lake. After witnessing those infants in that underground place I've lost a lot of respect for the elves. Especially hearing that elf mention the elf King's involvement. I say we should clean out the entire lake. What if they use those lotus flowers in their experiments. It's better that they don't have them." Glowmyth compellingly made her stance clear.

Craig was speechless and didn't know how to respond. Of course he knew that certain aspects of this mission was going against a fairy's nature. Plants, especially flowers were special and important to fairies. He suddenly felt that either his knowledge was wrong or Glowmyth was really an open minded fairy.

If only he knew that she was as mischievous as she was cute, which was why she had no problem getting her hands dirty.

"Then, you were saying that you saw lots of lotuses there? Even blue ones?" He asked.

Glowmyth nodded. "There's a single blue one near the center." She replied as a puzzled look appeared on her face. "However, I've never seen a black lotus before. If it is as rare as you say, we probably won't find one. It probably doesn't even exist." 

"I hope for her sake it isn't a myth, and for my sake as well since I'd have risked my life for nothing." The fact that he was still poisoned crossed his mind causing him to shake his head. "Alright, did you memorise an easy way through to that lake?" 

"I did, but the easiest way through for you is still a close call. I can make you invisible but if you get too close to someone with exceptional detection skill they may pick up on your aura as I can't fully mask it and turn you invisible at the same time." She did have her limitations as a wisp. It was already miraculous that she could push herself so far. 

Craig nodded. "Alright. I've already come this far so there's no point in turning back. There's no way back for now anyway, only forward. Let's get going."

And so, the journey continued. Glowmyth used her special ability to turn Craig invisible along with her. In order to do so she had to be in contact with him so she sat on his shoulder like before. 

After walking for some time, Craig exited the forest and walked into the open area with lights ahead of him. Flowing Glowmyth's guidance, he made his way into and through the ruin at a steady pace. The path Glowmyth had mapped out snaked its way through the thinnest gaps in security but would take a much longer time than going straight through. 

The ruin was actually magnificent to look at. Craig admired the ancient craftsmanship as he made his wag through. Group after group of elves ended up in his line of sight, only to be left behind the next moment. He tried to pass as far away from them as possible in order to keep his aura from being detected. As he went on, he got more and more relaxed, noticing that no one noticed him. 

That said he didn't notice that there was a certain lone elf that seemed to have looked in his direction when he passed by with an alarmed expression and a cautious gaze. 

Eventually, Craig had made it all the way to the small lake and was standing at the edge of the water looking around. There were wooden poles erected around the lake with torches on them lighting up the area. He squinted as he tried to make out the flowers from the shore but they were too far away, all being at the center of the lake. 'So this is the mysterious Lotus pond huh?' He thought.

It didn't match the one he had seen in his vision which made him slightly disappointed. He was looking forward to discovering the place that he had seen before getting there. A bit more confusion was added onto his already question ridden mind.

He had thought that he would have to swim but fortunately, there were several small boats anchored near a dock to his right. It was also fortunate that there was no one guarding near the lake which was strange but nonetheless a good thing. He made his way onto one of the boats and picked up an oar and rowed till he was close enough to the flowers before coming to a stop amongst them. 

A smile broke out on his face as he looked around. 

Six... There were six different colours of lotuses. Innumerable white, pink, yellow and red, over twenty purple, and a single blue. He didn't see any black lotuses though, which made sense. If there was only a single blue lotus then how would there be any black ones when it was so much rarer. 

At this point Glowmyth suddenly deactivated the invisibility. "It took a lot more than I expected to get you here." She said in a weak voice. "I don't think anyone would see us all the way out here. I need to rest and recover in order to get us back safely." She flew down onto the boat after saying this and started recovering quietly.

Craig looked at her and silently acknowledged her decision. It was already great that she was putting in so much effort for him, he couldn't ask her to force herself any more than she needed to. After looking to verify that no one was present, he stood up and moved to the boat's edge. He had stopped closest to the blue lotus since his intention was to pick it first, before any other.

Pwack!

However, as he extended his hand, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest and saw a flash of light disappear into the distance. He looked down and saw a bloody hole in his chest and placed his hand over it as he whizzed forcefully. Then he looked in the direction it came from and saw a figure on the lake's shore with a glowing bow in hand.

Splash!

He fell off the boat and into the lake like a stone tossed into the water.