His Butterfly - √

18

The alpha landed softly onto the earth, his heart was still racing from the flight. When he was young, his mother would tell him stories about the fairies along with other supernatural beings. He remembered his mother describing the fairies as magical and extremely beautiful but as Cain stood in their world, he thought :

Mother was being modest in her description.

This world was a far cry from the world of wolves. This land was an explosion of colour that oozed magic, even the oxygen seemed to have a wondrous essence to it. Cain was speechless at his arrival into the fairy world.

The group currently stood at the entrance to an emerald forest, according to Zario they were going to use the forest as passage to the keeper vault.

"It's so good to be home." said Rhian ecstatically "I missed this place sooo much."

"It's great to have you back your highness." answered a familiar voice.

Her wings folded neatly into her body. She still looked strong, despite her ordeal with Lilith but nevertheless her presence still brought a smile to Rhian.

"GODMOTHER!!!" screamed Rhian as he engulfed her in a hug.

Keiyara chuckled as she embraced Rhian, "I missed you too your highness."

Rhian smiled and then asked "How are you? I can't believe Lilith..."

"I'm well and as for that snake we will get her."

Cain stood there bewildered. He was so used to being in control of everything and now here he stood, an absolute alien in this fairy realm.

"And you must be Alpha Cain." said Keiyara extending her hand to him in offering a handshake, "Rhian must have made a compelling argument to win over a high ranking wolf such as yourself."

Cain chuckled, "My mate will always win me over. Also I don't mean to be rude but you seem to know a bit about me."

Keiyara's jaw dropped, "Well mate you say. Oh whatever, who am I to challenge the Moon Goddess also yes I do know a bit about you after all I know your family quite well."

Cain's face etched into confusion, he then said "But how do you..."

Diana cut Cain off by saying  "I'd hate to break this up but we really need to get to the keepers vault. Time is a virtue we do not have."

"Of course. Let us go." delegated Keiyara as she led the group into the forest.

The dark evergreen trees stood tall and firm, establishing their claim to the earth. Droplets of sunlight glistened through the tiny gaps of the trees and the forest floor was immaculate only flora and fauna were in sight.

Cain mentally compared the fairy forests to the wolves forest, they were nothing a like. The wolves forests were established with the intention of stealth and war but the fairies designed their forests out of beauty. Cain could see the golden lacy carvings on the trees along with the sparkles that lingered through out the forest, this was a scene out of a fairy tale.

"Why can't we just magic ourselves to the Keepers vault?" asked Cain, who was truly puzzled as to why these grand fairies wasted their time walking.

"Because we need to conserve all our energy. The star alignment doesn't last very long plus Lilith will definitely know of Rhian's return so we need to have strength to combat anything she throws at us whilst also maintaining our power to tackle the grand high serpent herself." explained Diana.

Cain replied "Good plan. So how far is this Keepers vault?"

Zario answered "Not that far. This forest neighbours the vault so we should get there soon."

Rhian was busy thinking about Lilith to pay attention to the conversation. All he could think about was what she said in his "dream"

This battle is suicide.

"Would they really lose? Is this war against Lilith all going to be in vain?" thought Rhian as he walked through the forest.

Cain wrapped an arm around Rhian, he sensed something was troubling his mate, so he knew some comfort was needed.

"Butterfly, I can see something is bothering you. Please talk to me." whispered Cain.

Rhian replied "Its nothing. I'm just tired that's all."

Cain knew his fairy was lying but he played along, Rhian would tell him when he was ready.

"Ok then." said Cain effortlessly swept Rhian off his feet to carry him bridal style.

"Woahhh!" exclaimed a surprised Rhian.

Cain smirked then replying "Hey. You said that you're tired so I am helping."

"Really." said an amused Rhian.

Cain just grinned like a child.

Dark oaken gates appeared before the groups eyes. The scent of ink and fresh paper was evident as the group ventured closer to the gates.

A golden statue of a fairy clasping a book in her hand stood on each side of the gate. The fairy statues were glittering gold, their eyes made of precious ruby stones and their mighty wings spread out strong - the artist who designed this statue must have been a master of their craft.

Zario raised his arms, facing the statues, he stood firmly on the grassy ground as he powerfully said :

"Letterkunde, liter-rate."

Instantly a stream of ivory power flowed from his hands and entered the eyes of the fairy statues. The gems illuminated into scarlet red and twinkled igniting the opening of the gates.

The gates drew open to reveal the largest library Cain had ever seen. Meadows of books strolled as farcas the eye could see, the dark floor and modern layout contrasted with the natural forest that was literally outside it's gates.

Zario smirked as he said "Welcome to the vault of Keepers."

Cain's mind was blown away as they stepped inside. He could not believe that this fantastic black and white library which had modern windows and roofs and flooring was neighbours with a forest.

"Beautiful isn't it." stated Zario as he fluttered around his vault. The scent of literature always aroused his soul and ignited his mood.

"This vault will serve as our head quarters so whilst we can get comfortable, we also have to strategize so don't lose focus ok." said Diana.

"Agreed" replied Keiyara and Cain in unison.

"But for now we should relax. The walk here was long." urged Zario.

"Alright but only for a short while. We need to plan. Remember Time is precious." stated Diana.

"Keiyara come with me, there's some comrades we need to receive." said Zario.

"Oh yes!" replied Keiyara as she followed Zario.

"Who's here?" asked Rhian, who was back on his feet, to Diana.

"Coraline and some human named Austin."

"Ah ok." replied Rhian, who was now looking for Cain.

That's odd, where did Cain go.