Fishy didn't know how long he stood watching the young druid siblings cry and hug each other. But it was long enough for him to feel awkward and lonely. And so, he did what any smart person would do. He left.
He felt no need to stay around and talk to the king and queen about their daughter's health as his job was already done. Unused to the attention and constantly being relied on was the opposite of his life before. Often pushing people away to focus on studying and working, but here, his life was the opposite.
He spent time with royalty and even helped build a village from the ground up, never in his life would he have dreamed of this possibility.
Before leaving, he decided to walk around the large castle the druids built centuries ago, and eventually found a door leading to a large square-shaped garden that spanned further than he could see. The grasses vibrant green was covered in pink petals that gently drifted down from the surrounding cherry trees. He walked down a cherry covered stone path in the middle as the petals, one by one, rested on his shoulders as if stopping on their journey before taking off on their big adventure. Like a scene from a wedding, a view that was completed by the sun at the end of the path and quiet whistling breeze.
Fishy stopped in what he could only assume was the middle and looked behind him at the identical path, spinning back around when he felt a strange aura behind him, unlike anything he had felt before from any creature or monster that he had fought.
But, turning around only showed nothing to be there. He did so again as the sound of leaves rustling alerted him. Noticing each time he spun around that the area he stood in was getting smaller and smaller. Watching as the trees stood up on humanoid legs, one by one and closed in on him.
He tried to make himself as small as possible but the humanoid trees kept walking closer and closer with all their wooden eyes focused on him. He held his hand out and tried to muster a spell but only looked at his hand in confusion when nothing happened.
"It's alright, they won't hurt you because you can't hurt them." A soft angelic voice called out from behind one the trees, walking around its pink trunk with her hand brushing on it with her eyes closed. "Welcome, Fintan. I've heard about you."
"Who are you?"
The girl with a short pink ponytail spoke with a bright expression, her hand never left the tree and her eyes never opened. But she kept moving closer to Fishy, walking between the circle of trees that surrounded him.
"I'm an apprentice of Beauty, the butterfly celestial. I tend to this forest every day and study under her. I hope to be the next celestial."
Despite her position in this world, there was no supercilious tone anywhere in her words. A small honest cute 16-year-old girl spoke with politeness that seemed unwelcome in the world.
"I don't think I understand how celestials work? I didn't think people were lining up to become one."
"Well of course. Everyone dies someday, it's just the celestials don't die by normal means. They were all once normal people who were born with extraordinary talent and wisdom. Of course, the story has been told many times so no one truly understands how they came to be. Some say they are gods, but really, they are normal people drowning in a burden they were born with. Selfish people who pass on their pain of living for a million years. They just want to escape, some even have."
The girl talked as she slowly approached Fishy, touching his chest with her pale hands, looking up at him as she slowly opened her blank white eyes.
"You're blind?" He said looking down at his own reflection in them.
"I am… A blind girl like me chosen to be a celestial is truly something amazing. You, Fintan, could become a celestial."
"No thanks." He gently took her hand off his chest, placing it gently down by her side. "I don't think I'm cut out to be a celestial. Beauty destroyed me when I tried to fight her."
"Heehee." The girl let out a little giggle she tried to hind behind her hands, "I heard of the fight. She was not happy that day."
"I've always felt like she's planning something, would it be rude of me to say I'm happy to hear that?"
"Not at all, we all have people we aren't fond of. Beauty included."
The conversation came to a pause as the wind got stronger, the trees slowly moved back to their position along the path and buried back into the ground, as if they never moved.
"Curious about the trees?" Said the girl, brightly jumping around Fishy as if she could see the whole world around her. "They are called anti-magic petals. They are rare trees only found in this part of the forest, protected by myself and Beauty, not that we need to. Their wood nullifies all magic around it, it's a mystery how these things are alive if they nullify magic. Magic is in everything. You'd be getting tired just by being around them if you didn't have such a large pool of mana inside you. The trees are also said to have such beautiful petals and faces that they make any view seem like heaven. If only I could see such a creature."
The girl's voice sank as she walked away, not saying anything else as she started to leave, only to be stopped by Fishy calling out to her.
"Hey, what's your name?"
"My name?" She stopped to turn around, hearing a question she hadn't heard often. "My name is Rose."
"Rose, huh? What a cute name. Well, see you later, Rosie!"
Fishy dashed away as he called out to her.
"Rosie… that's not my name…" She said to herself with a slight tear falling from her face and landing on her smile, "what a cute nickname…"
"Fintan!" She called out to him at the other end of the forest. "Perhaps there was a reason Beauty called you here!"
Fishy stood looking back at her as she waved at him. Slightly annoyed to hear that Beauty was still planning something, but regardless of his feelings at the moment, he waved back to her with a smile that rivalled her calm expression. Fishy had no idea if she could see his large wave, but deep down he felt as if she could. As if she was seeing something new for the first time.