The Firefly Tree: Planet Terra's Magic Crisis

Chapter 16: Flicker

    Tears roll down my eyes as I watch my best friend run away from me. I lied to
her and now she hates me. “Flicker, what’s going on?” I turn to face my sister, teary eyed as I explain, “I lied to her and to you. I said that I left Luminous at home, but I lied. Lynn hates liars.” A light headache attacks my forehead, and I rub it hoping it will go away, but it of course did not.

“I messed up, Glow!”

“Yeah. You did. Why would you lie?” I sigh and say, “I don’t know. I just
really care about her. More than I’ve cared about anyone before. Except for you, Mother and Father.” I’m so lost in thought that I forget to speak for a moment. “No
one makes me feel the way she makes me feel Glow. But now I need to go after
her. We need her.”
“I need her,” I whispered to myself.
I run down the path, as Glow calls, “Good luck, you’ll need it!” A few
minutes later I find five trees. Bradford for Ladybug Kingdom. River birch for
Butterfly Kingdom. Japanese maple for Dragonfly Kingdom. Sweetgum for my
kingdom, moth portals are crabapple trees but none stand before me because
we are already in Moth Kingdom. Finally English oak for Earth. “aperta,” I say as I placed my hand on the oak. I was still standing on the mountain. It didn't work.
Strange, I thought to myself. On the ground is a balled up paper. I open it and see that it is the scroll that King Imperio sent me. The reason why Lynn hates me
now.

Why does the thought of never seeing her again hurt so much? It's
because you love her, you idiot, my brain screams at me. I love her. That’s why I feel so strange around her. In town I ask if anyone has seen a human, but no one
has seen Lynn. I look around the town for a very long time. “Where are you
Lynn?” Luminous glows in my left hand, my dominant hand. I point it to the right,
and it stops glowing. Then I point it back to the left, and it glows again. I follow
Luminous’s light to the field between the town and the woods. I see a dirty-blonde
ponytailed girl walking towards the woods. “Lynn!” I call to her. She looks back, narrows her eyes, and starts to run. I run after her and call her name again. “Go away!” She yells. I catch up with her in the woods. I grab her wrist and we stop
running. “Let go of me!”

“If I let go will you run?”

“Yes!”

“Then I won't let go,” I say calmly. “Fine I won’t run.” Lynn jerks her hand
away from mine. “Go away, King Flicker. I don’t want to talk to you.” I see the
pain in her eyes, and I want to make her feel better. “King Flicker can’t talk right now, but Mr. Firefly would gladly take a message,” I say with a smile. “Well I don't want to talk to either of them. They both lied to me.” I sigh and say, “Look, you have every right to hate me. But I- we need you.” She scoffs and crosses her arms. “You don’t need me. I bet this was your plan all along. To make me like- I-I mean betray me. I thought we were friends.”

“We are-” She cuts me off.

“No. We’re not.” Then she starts to walk away. “Where do you think you're
going?”

“Home.”

“You're not going anywhere.” I say calmly.

“You can't stop me.”

“I’m the Firefly King. Remember?”

“I don't care if you're the Queen of England’s Dad. You can’t stop me.” My
king instincts kicked in. “As the king of the fireflies, I order you to stop.” She
stopped abruptly. It must have been the firmness in my voice. “Please, Lynn. If
not for me, do it for Glow. We can’t get our magic back without you. Glow was
right, you are the human from Lumen’s prophecy. He didn’t make it up. I was
wrong.” She says nothing for a long moment. “Fine, you leave me no choice. As
King of the fireflies, I order you to help fix the magic. And if you don’t, you will
never be allowed to return to Earth.” She looks at me and says, “Fine. I’ll help
you. But this doesn’t make us friends.”
“Understood,” I say with a nod.
✬✬✬
As we started walking up the mountain I tilt my head and look at Lynn, not
knowing what I’m looking for. Without even glancing in my direction she says,
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Just trying to figure you out.” I answer. “Figure me out?”
“Yeah. Why do you hate liars anyway?” She looks at me finally. “Long
story.”
“Okay, shorten it, just leave the important parts, Lynn.”
“My friends call me Lynn.”
“Okay then, Miss. Gelmer. Tell me the story.” She sighs and says, “It was
about a year before I was born. My Dad really wanted to marry my Mom but he
and my Grandparents didn't get along well. So he thought that they wouldn't give
him their blessing.” I hung onto every word because maybe if I hear this story, I
could find a way to get Miss. Gelmer to be my friend again.
“Dad borrowed a fancy suit and car from a friend. At my grandparent’s
house, dad told my grandparents that he is now rich. My grandparents were very
impressed, so they said he could marry mom.”
“So he lied to them.”
“Yes. Then mom walked out of the house. She asked dad where he got the
money for a suit and fancy car. My grandparents got so mad that they both had
heart attacks.” I gasp in shock and Miss. Gelmer nods. “They survived thankfully.
The week after, my grandparents asked dad why he lied. They weren't mad
because he wasn’t rich, they were mad at him because he lied.”
“So what did your dad say to your grandparents?”
“That he really loves my mom, and that he’d do anything to be with her.
Then he apologized for lying” Sounds like your dad and I have something in
common. Except I love you and I would do anything to be with you, I thought to
myself. But instead of pushing the thought away like I usually would do, I hold on
to it like it's a sacred thought. “Anyway, eventually my grandparents forgave my
dad. But if they didn't, I wouldn’t exist.”
“And we wouldn’t have met.”
“That doesn’t sound too bad.” Ms. Gelmer says coolly. “I would have fallen off your Firefly Tree… and died.” That makes her think
for a moment. “That… sounds worse than us never meeting. I don’t hate you that
much.”

“That puts my mind at ease. Now I know that we can be friends again. How
do I get you to forgive me?” We stop and she looks at me seriously. “You can’t.”
“Come on Ms. Gelmer. I’m really sorry. How do I get you to forgive me?
I’ll do anything!” Then I got an idea. I half way raise my right hand and put my left over my heart. “What are you doing?” She says with an eyebrow raised. “I, King Flicker Fidelis Firefly, hereby vow to never lie to you Miss Lynn Gelmer, or anyone ever again.” Then I put down my hands. “You really mean that? How do I
know that wasn't a lie?”
“You don’t. You just have to trust me.”

“I don’t think I can do that.” She starts walking and I follow her. “Thanks for
that though. My dad said the same thing to my grandparents.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Except he only lied to them once.” I know she was right, but her
comments hurt anyway. Nonetheless, I deserved it. “Hey you’ll need Luminous to
fulfill the prophecy. Once in her hands a blinding light swallowed Lumins. Once
the light faded we can see that Luminous has changed its form. It was now as
long as Lynn’s leg. The handle is amethyst purple with five gemstones in the
front, each one the color of the other kingdoms’ flag. The gem on the bottom was a lighter purple; perhaps representing Harmonia. On the glass orb is the same
four pointed star as before, except now it has a small curvy line at the bottom of it. As if tiny sparks of magic are coming from the bottom of the star
“Wow!” We both say at the same time. “That has never happened before.” I
say as we reach the top of the mountain. “Hey guys!” Glow says, waving at us.
“Glow, I told you to get inside the castle!”

“Yeah whatever.” She pulls me aside. “So how did it go?” “She still hates me. But maybe not as much as before.”
“I just hope that she isn’t one to hold grudges.” Glow says as I look over at Lynn
who was smiling as she watched birds fly by. “Yeah. Me too.” Finally we
approach the castle, which is like the medieval ones on Earth. It's made of stone, and arches are carved out of the stone for windows. On top of the four turrets, are flagpoles where the moth flag flies in the wind. It is a white flag with black
moth wings, and a silver crescent moon in the middle. Inside is dimly lit with old fashioned lanterns and candles. King Imperio sits on his throne. Sitting next to his left is his wife, Queen Eclipse. To the right, their eighteen year old son
Ventus, hovers just above the ground. Glow, Ms. Gelmer, and I bow to them.
“Welcome to the Moth Kingdom, royal Firefly siblings.” King Imperio stands and
bows back. “We hope the journey wasn’t too difficult,” The Queen says as she
bows. “We almost died a few times actually.” Ms. Gelmer says in a defiant tone.
She must not like King Imperio because of what he said in the letter.
“Ah. You brought the human as I instructed. Well done, King Flicker.
Guards arrest the human. My Zappy is hungry.”

“Um King Imperio-” Glow starts to say but is interrupted when guards
quickly come out of the shadows. One hand cuffs Miss Gelmer, another takes
Luminous, then the guard gives the wand to the King. “King Imperio, wait!” I say quickly. “What is it, son?”
“You can’t arrest her.”
“Don’t you want to avenge your parents?”

“She didn’t kill them.” I say calmly.

“Still, she’s a human.” The queen objects.

“A good human. Miss. Gelmer is
here to help us fix the magic, like the prophecy says.” I explain, and King Imperio
thinks for a moment. “Very well, you may untie her.” I quickly untie Ms. Gelmer’s hands. “You didn’t have to do that.” Ms. Gelmer says quietly. “After what I
said… why didn’t you let him feed me to his… Zappy?” “I’m trying to get you to forgive me. You're not going to want to be friends again if I let you become zapper chow.” Finally she gives me a small smile. It feels like years since the last time she did that. “Now that no one is dying, Lynn, this is King Imperio Cinnabar, his wife Queen Eclipse, and their son, Prince Ventus.” Glow says. “Everyone, this is Lynn Gelmer.” Ventus flies over to Miss.
Gelmer, and extends his hand. “Pleased to make your acquaintance, Lynn
Gelmer.” Lynn shakes his hand and says, “You as well, Prince Ventus.”

“It’s getting late. Eclipse, Ventus, would you show the girls their rooms? I
need to talk to King Flicker for a moment.” The four of them leave, and I watch Ms. Gelmer as she exits the room. “There is something on your mind,son.”

“You can tell?” I ask and he nods. “It’s the human girl. Isn’t it?” I nod and
say, “I guess I should start at the beginning.” I tell the King about how I met Ms. Glemer, and how she saved my life multiple times. Finally I tell him that I lied to Ms. Gelmer twice and now she hates me. “You are certainly in a pickle.” The King says, concerningly. “The worst part is that I think I’m in love with her.”

“Ah. I see.”

“I don’t know what to do, King Imperio. Once we fix the magic she will go
back to Earth, and will never want to see me again. And even if she could come
back, Miss. Gelmer would never forgive me, let alone want to be with me.”

“Have you thought about letting the girl return to our world?”
“I can’t do that. Our world would be exposed, and humans will try to take it
over.”

“Not if she’s careful. The human could come back if she doesn't tell anyone
about Planet Terra.” I thought about this for a moment. He could be right. Lynn
would want to be able to see the friends she’s made here. They might not be able to see eachother often if they just visit Ms. Gelmer in her world. If I let her come back she may even forgive me or at least not hate me anymore. And who knows? She may even start to return my feelings. I thought to myself. “You might be right, King Imperio.”

“Of course I am. Now go and get some rest. I’ll hold on to Luminous for
you.”

  Ventus returns and I follow him to my room. I put on night clothes and climb
into bed. I dream of Ms. Gelmer holding my hand and me kissing her.