"You what?" Eden gaped, staring at the gigantic plants with wide eyes.
"Let's sit down." Poppy said with the most serious expression Eden had ever seen her make. "We need to talk."
Stunned speechless, Eden quietly floated to a fallen log and sat down.
Poppy followed suit. "Firstly, I want to apologize for keeping this a secret from you all these years but it wasn't by choice."
Eden frowned. "Wasn't by choice?" She repeated. "Whose choice was it then?"
"The Fairy Council."
Eden gasped, the Fairy Council were the ones who ruled over the entire City. It was made up of Fairies who headed each City, Eden even heard that they were powerful enough to take down Elves but never did so unless a Fairy was about to be killed or something as drastic as that.
As much as she admired them, they also made her blood boil because even though they had the power to change things, they refused to do anything.
"What does the Fairy Council have to do with any of this." She asked a little coldly.
"The Elves have stolen the Heart of Flora." Poppy said forlornly.
Eden's gasp was louder now, the Heart of Flora was the very life force of Fairies and without it their race would slowly die out.
"How do the Elves even know about that, we didn't even find out till the last year of Fairy School and even then we we're charged to keep it a secret." She asked in shock
"The Council thinks that a Fairy might have gone rogue and is leaking out information to the Elves." Poppy frowned, tapping her cheek. "It's couldn't possibly be the children that are being taken because at that age they have no idea about it."
Eden just stared at her friend, beyond shocked. Poppy that she always thought was an airheaded, happy-go-lucky person was talking about things that were so important and smart. "Are you some sort of secret agent?" She found herself asking drily.
Poppy let out a happy laugh. "No, not at all." She grabbed Eden's hands in both of hers. "You have no idea how happy I am to finally tell you all this, it wasn't very easy keeping it from you honestly."
"Trust me I'm shocked too." Eden muttered to herself. "But you aren't still telling me anything, why do we have powers?"
"Whenever the Heart of Flora is in danger, the Goddess Aine gives special abilities to some Fairies so that it can be recovered and returned back to Flora."
Eden nodded seriously, the Elves constantly raiding them was nothing compared to what would happen if the Heart was lost for good or worse destroyed.
"So what are we to do and how many Fairies were blessed by the Goddess Aine, it can't just be the both of us."
"Actually, it's supposed to be one from each village."
"Like the Heroes in history books?" Eden frowned.
"Exactly like that, you're a Hero Eden, although your ability manifested so late that we were starting to give up hope."
"What are you saying?" Eden stared suspiciously at her.
"Fairies destined to be Heroes usually manifest their abilities at the age of five." Poppy admitted in a tiny voice, retreating inside herself at the stormy look on her friend's face.
Eden nearly popped a blood vessel. "Five years!" She nearly yelled. "I'm sixteen years old!"
"I know, I know but you're going to be powerful." Poppy tried to console her.
Eden snorted, "I couldn't even open a door."
"Give yourself some time alright?"
"Fine." She agreed. "But if Fairies can be this powerful to go and retrieve something from the Elves why haven't we fought off the Elves long ago?"
"It's not that simple." Poppy sighed. "Gifts are only given when the Heart of Flora is lost."
"Are we going to lose them when it's over?" Eden asked with something close to terror.
"No but the Council won't allow it, if a couple of Fairies try to take on the Elves and they lose, the rest of the City of Flora would suffer for it. So it's just a precaution, nothing more." Poppy informed her.
Eden kept quiet after this, knowing the Fairy Council, trying to defeat the Elves with her new found power would only lead to trouble.
"Tell me about the other Heroes." Eden found herself asking.
"I only met them once but I know their names, Aster Maloy is a Water Fairy from the East Village, Orchid Oak, Fauna Fairy from the South, Daisy Dane, Light Fairy from the North and there's someone else like you, who had his abilities manifest late, his name is Lily Larue, he's also a light Fairy."
"How do they know who's going to be a Hero?"
"The Prophecy says so, did you even listen to the History of Flora in Fairy School?" She asked sassily.
"Not really." Eden shrugged.
"You might have known you were a Hero even if you hadn't had your abilities yet but the Head of West Village…"
"Of course it'd be her." Eden cut in a little huffily.
"Yes, it was Lady Sill who ruled that Heroes in the West Village would be treated normally like every other Fairy so they refused to tell you till you manifested, even though I complained that telling you would help, she was adamant."
Eden wasn't surprised, She knew that Snowdrop Sill was just trying to keep the Fairies of West Village safe but Eden felt her ideas were a little backward.
"Well there's nothing that can be done about it so what do I do now?"
Poppy laughed nervously. "Train as hard as we can, all day and night. We're leaving for our first mission in a week."
"What!!!"
"I'm sorry, the plan was that if you hadn't gotten your abilities yet, we would have to leave you behind." She got up and paced a bit, obviously unhappy with that decision. "That's why I'm so happy that you did get them."
Eden sighed heavily and got up as well. "I just have to train really hard, plus the missions are supposed to help us get stronger right?"
"Yes!" Poppy replied, already shrinking the oversized Sunflower till it turned back to a seed that she threw into a pouch on her hip. "We'll start off with a small plant." She continued to say, already reaching in for another seed.
Eden flew forward and landed beside her, at least now she knew she wasn't weak. Although she still had a long way to go, there was hope and she was so happy then she thought she might cry but instead she started to calculate how to get the other Heroes to support her plan of freeing the Fairies from the Elves.
She watched Poppy grow a plant with lots of vines on it with interest, she was ready to get stronger, she was ready to be stronger, strong enough to defeat the Elves.