The Green Guardian

Chapter 21: Fight for Mateo

Song: "Games" - Hans Zimmer

        "I can't breathe. I can't breathe." Mateo slapped his hand to his chest. He threw up again. He did not have a bag on hand that time. Therefore, it was extra messy.

"Uhh," Evie and her friends groaned.

Mateo stood on his hands and knees. Drool dripped from his lips. His skin paled. A few veins appeared around his white forehead.

"What did you humans do to him?" Thebes snapped. He slipped his swords into the cases on his back. He picked up Mateo in his powerful arms. They were much more muscular than his.

"We did nothing," Evie said, stepping in front of her friends. "He's been sick for the past couple of days."

"Rubbish! Do you really think I'm going to believe a tiny human?" asked Thebes. "You can't be trusted. You kill off our fae one by one. You humans are the reason why the basilisk is running amok."

John tickled himself with his claws. "Well, technically I'm a bird–"

"Silence!"

John leaped ten feet in the air. He hid behind Ben.

Ashlynn joined Evie. "You have it all wrong, sir. Euphorbia is the only fae in our party, and we don't know where she went."

Evie shook her head. "That's not true, Ashlynn." She remembered what her mother told her in the cabin:

"You see, Evie, my sister loves to tell jokes. She's always been that way. She pranked me all the time when we were children. So when she told me that she had fallen in love with a fae man... Well, I thought it was another one of her whoppers."

Ashlynn glanced at her friend. "What are you talking about, Evie?"

Evie took a deep breath. Her friends crowded around her. John, Ben, and Joey hung out on the outside of the circle. For comfort, Evie clutched Ashlynn and Amanda's hands. She focused her attention on the semi-conscious, sickly ranger in the centaur's arms. "Guys, Mateo is fae."

"Wait, what?" Ashlynn shrieked.

"Well, half-fae," Evie corrected.

Thebes narrowed his bushy eyebrows. "He sure is, and I'm not going to let you humans get near him. Don't you see? He's been poisoned!" He pulled Mateo close.

"Poisoned?" Ashlynn stumbled back a few feet. No, not the man of her dreams! "How?" she added.

Evie gulped. She stuck her hand in her pocket where she kept Euphorbia's pebble. The fairy didn't mean to poison her counselor, right?

Thebes answered Ashlynn's question: "I don't know. Now, will you get out of my way? I need to get this kid to Seranet."

Evie had to find a way to convince him to let her and her friends tag along. Ranger Krysta specifically told Mateo to get them to the fae village safely. Besides, Mateo was family. Evie couldn't just leave him. If it was indeed poison, then there was always an antidote.

"Please let us go with you," she begged Thebes. "Mateo is my cousin. We're the Pebble Masters."

Ben nodded. He put his foot down. "His fiancée and mom told me to look after him today. I also happen to be the king."

Thebes scoffed. "You're the king of the humans, not the magical beings. I'm sorry, but y'all can't be trusted. The boy is in my care."

Mateo was not very responsive. He stared into space and held his left hand up toward his face. That was not a good sign.