I hear a frightened neigh in the distance. I hurried to the sound. My bare feet carried me as fast as they could until I found the source of the distressed noise. It’s a newborn foal spirit tangled up in vines. Two of its back legs and one of its front legs are tied at an odd angle, and the more that it trashes around, the more tied up it gets.
“Calm down.” I say it in the most calming voice that I can muster. There’s fear in the spirit’s eyes. It’s probably confused. “Don’t be afraid. I’ll get you out of there in a second.” Since it is a newborn spirit, I have taken the precaution to show it a bit of my magic. Since getting baptized as the new guardian, something has changed with my magic. Sure, it’s still the same ice magic of the fairies, but now it seems like there’s something in it that spirits find comforting.
The foul takes one look at the light display of snow magic that I created and immediately seems to feel at ease.  
Not being able to understand spirits never bothered me before, but in situations like these, it makes me wish that I could have understood them. However, there is an ability that I have gained since becoming a guardian. It’s to feel what the spirits are feeling, which tells me that the spirit is calm enough for me to get close to it.
I freed its legs and made sure to feed it with my magic long enough for it to heal and grow strong on its own. I move back, allowing the baby spirit some space to stretch and test its legs. It meets my gaze for a moment, as if it’s thanking me for being freed, before it begins its journey into the forest.
“Serena, are you here?” I call out to my Nymp friend. Ever since the enchanted forest restored its power two years after I became the guardian, Serena and her sisters have become more adapted to the happenings in the forest, which means that she can hear me even if I just speak her name normally. 
“Yes, guardian?” Serena responds. I follow her voice up into the trees and see her dangling from vines to make her way to the ground below. As soon as Serena sets foot on the ground, she surveys the surroundings and notices the trail that the spirit left earlier. “Oops…”
“Yes ‘oops’.” I cross my arms, knowing fully well how the spirit animal got stuck in the vines in the first place. “Aren’t you and your sisters supposed to be watching over the kids? You know, teach them the ropes.” I pause, looking at the vines before letting out a sigh. “Not the literal ropes I had in mind, though.”
Just about a month after taking my place as guardian and imbuing my magic into the forest, human sized buds emerged from all around the forest, nurturing new nymphs to help the new spirits find their tamers. A lot of them have been emerging, but they did not bud at the same time. Furthermore, they are scattered all around, making it difficult for Serena and her sisters to locate them. 
When they do blossom, they act like children, which leads us to call these new nymphs ‘kids’. They don’t understand anything and often feed on their curiosity. It always causes trouble for us, as they will often litter the area with vines, random deadly flowers, or just spook the other spirit animals.
“I’m really sorry!” Serena begins to apologize profusely. “The new nymphs are…a little hard to teach right now. In fact, we are still teaching them our language, but they always get easily distracted and start to play when we aren’t paying any attention! They’re illiterate imbeciles!”
To hear Serena insulting her kind must mean that she’s at the end of her limit when watching over the new nymphs while taking care of the spirit animals—I know I am, which is why I leave the ‘kids’ to them.
I should probably forgive her for now and try to turn a blind eye before she even thinks about asking me for help with the new nymphs.
“Everything is well. Get some rest, Serena. See ya!” I believe that it was pretty obvious that I was trying to run away. Either that, or Serena just clung to me because she was really stressed.
“Switch with me, Stella!”
“No.” I answer almost immediately. The thought of taking care of new nymphs is more stressful than babysitting regular kids. At least the children can understand me, while the new nymphs can’t. Serena wasn’t exaggerating when she said that they were imbeciles. I know that it is such a harsh word, but those nymphs would gnaw, jump, attack, and chase anything that sparked their curiosity. Sure, if they were the size of regular children, it would be bearable, but they are grown nymphs with magic powers that they can’t understand or control. Imagine having to deal with that too.
“Just for a day!” She begs.
I don’t think that she is going to stop unless I give her a viable reason.
“I’m sorry, Serena, but I feel really faint. I have exhausted a lot of magic feeding the forest. I think I’m even seeing stars as we speak.” I speak meekly to make my acting believable.
Serena gives me a blank stare. “You should be ashamed. Rose has better acting skills than you. Learn a thing or two from her, for goodness sake.”
Hearing my sister’s name puts me in a melancholic mood. I try to hide it, but Serena is rather quick to catch on when I feel lonely. I know that she did not mean to remind me how much I miss my family outside, but here we are. Although Serena and the other nymphs in the enchanted forest have become family to me, I still can’t help but miss others who aren’t here.
Rose and Ace can barely visit me anymore because they are busy with their kingdom and raising their children. Arciela, in addition to using her elf magic to see and communicate with spirits, can also use their magic or special ability if they grant her permission to do so. It’s a new talent that manifested in the history of royal elves, which is making Rose and Ace worry because they don’t know how to teach or help her when she’s having trouble with her powers.
Furthermore, their son Klaus has been manifesting signs as a tamer, and spoiler alert, I believe that I know what kind of spirit animal he’s going to have. In fact, I believe that it is going to be a special one because it is the only spirit animal that has recently awoken—a silver giant elf. Since Klaus is half elf, his partner resembles the legendary stag that once lived in the great tree of Tordis. It’s been taking a lot of magical energy from the forest, too. Which isn’t making my job easier in raising my nephew’s spirit animal before the nymphs can send it to him. 
Leave it to my sister and Ace to produce powerful offspring.
“Stella, I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize to me for missing them, Serena.” I try to console her with a smile, but I feel like it ends up distorted. “I chose to be in this situation, you know.”
“By the way, that brat, Chace, sends his regards to you. He wants to know that if you ever need company, just send a letter to him.” Serena tries to brighten the mood by bringing me news about Chace.
“He’s still sending his regards.” I shake my head. “He’s still single, isn’t he?”
“Very much so.” Serena confirms.
I heard a while ago that Chace is now king. He managed to stop and arrest his mother and the others involved for attempting to attack the enchanted forest. His visits weren’t as frequent, like once a month, but he does send letters every week about his work and accomplishments. I know that he’s doing it so I won’t feel lonely, but sometimes I feel like he is just a little kid asking to be praised.
“He’ll get over it.” I laugh. “I already expected that their frequent visits would stop since they are all so busy with creating a place for the rogues.” 
Whenever I mention the rogues, I can’t help but remember Kellar.
For the first six months, he has been visiting me nonstop. He would even go out of his way to sneak in in the middle of the night in order to pay me a visit, which would end up with him getting scolded by Ace since he has to take charge of restoring Tereau.
The kingdom of Tereau is being renovated, but it is more like a distant town under Gija, which is governed by Kellar. I heard from Ace that Kellar doesn’t want to fully make Tereau an independent country because he is not confident enough to lead. Actually, I heard that Tereau is going to have an academy where there is a course for the rogues to learn about the human realm and choose to live there if they wish. The only price they have to pay is to have their magic taken away, courtesy of my sister’s ability. King Nate approved of the plan, as most of the rogues no longer feel comfortable living in this realm after the old Tereau fell. I believe that it is for the better because everyone deserves a fresh start if they truly want to change.
My mood becomes sour the more I remember Kellar. Serena notices this.
“It’s almost eight months since he visited?” She asks.
I nod. “He sends letters once a month, though. But they just tell me that he’s fine and alive.” 
When Kellar made the promise that he was going to visit all the time, I already knew that I should not expect it to last. As a person who is bound to the forest, I already know that it will be a matter of time before he gets sick of coming here. At some point during his visit, he confessed to me, but I never properly gave him a response and changed the subject. I didn’t know if he was confessing because he felt sorry and responsible for me being stuck here or if he was being genuine. Either way, I guess that it’s a good thing that I did not respond so I wouldn’t get my hopes up, only to get heartbroken in the end.
Shrieks and laughter in the distance catch our attention. I stifle a laugh when Serena lets out a groan, knowing fully well that it’s one of the ‘kids’ again.
“Duty calls.” I smirk and point in the direction where the sound is coming from. 
“I hate kids.” Serena grumbles something like a curse before storming off. From the way that she’s walking, I feel like she might just murder the kids instead of stopping whatever it is that they are doing.
Perhaps I should really switch with her for a day. The poor nymph looks like she needs a vacation.
I notice a movement to my right and see that a familiar black panther is standing there. My eyes widen, and I have to stand there for a few more seconds before I finally realize that I wasn’t hallucinating. 
“Javi?” As I speak her name, I start to head over to her. Javi seems delighted to hear me recognize her, but then she starts to turn back and leave. “Wait, where are you going?!” I gather up my dress and run after her. 
Javi doesn’t seem to be running away from me; more like, she is trying to lead me somewhere. I realize this the moment I notice her pause from time to time to check and see if I am keeping up.
My heart pounds in my chest, but it isn’t from fatigue but from excitement.
If Javi is here, then there’s a possibility that he could be here too, right?
It did not take long until I realized where we were headed—the boundary between the enchanted realm and the kingdoms. I had to slow down because I did not want to risk accidentally crossing the border. Fear and anxiety envelope me, and I finally come to a complete stop. Javi has to stop as well when she notices that I'm not following her anymore.
She tilted her head to the side, letting out a soft purr and beckoning me to follow her. I just shake my head and remain in place. “I can’t, Javi.” I say with a defeated voice. “If Kellar is out there, send him my regards.” From the calm response from Javi, I don’t think that Kellar is in any danger. 
“Why don’t you send your regards to me yourself?”