Far Cry | JJK x OC

Chapter 80 // Crossfire

Leah was in a big, beautiful garden. The sun was shining in the clear blue sky with birds chirping and flying, crossing between tall canopies. The lush greenery was everywhere she looked! From the top of the trees billowing with the wind, to the bushes and the flowers flanking the multiple paths across the park. Ahead, like out of a dream, a domed glass building emerged atop a set of stairs, and Leah's smile widened a thousand-fold in excitement.

She looked up at her mother, the figure holding her hand and whose face was obscured by the blinding sun, but then she gasped. Just before the set of stairs, a big circular pond was covered in blooming flowers. She broke on a run, her hand slipping from her mother's.

"Leah! Careful! Hold on to your hat! Don't run!"

She could hear her warnings, but she didn't stop running and smiling. The whole pond was covered in green leaves floating and pads that looked like pillows, or pool floaters. The fishes in multiple colors made them move ever so slightly, but the true amazing beauty were all the flowers on the water, in varying shades of pink.

"Look, mummy!"

She glanced at her mother with so much excitement, leaning onto the stone pond border to try and look closer. It was amazing and beautiful, just like the stories in her books! She looked again, confirming that her mother and Finneas were coming close to see it too. He looked grumpy, with his lips slightly pursed as their mother almost dragged him along.

"They're so beautiful!"

Finneas scowled, "They're gross."

Their mother instantly tutted, setting Finneas beside her near the pond too, "They're beautiful and special."

"Why?" He asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow. Leah was busy following a shining orange fish underwater to notice her older brother's attitude.

"Because they're Leah's birth flower."

"They are?!" She squealed, trying to reach one, but she was too small, she could barely reach the water itself. This time, she noticed Finneas' eyes rolling and was suddenly sad, "What about Finneas?"

"Flowers are stupid," he answered dryly, but their mother didn't take him too seriously.

"Not everyone likes flowers, dear."

"Why not?" She glanced at her brother, who crossed his arms over his chest in boredom, then looked at the pond again. "Isn't it where the fairies live?" He scoffed, this time earning a tap to his forehead from Mum, making him wince, then sulk. Leah was too busy searching for fairies to notice, "Mummy, I don't see any— There! Right there!" She reached to pull on her mother's dress with one hand while the other pointed excitedly.

Her mother's hand settled on her shoulder as she leaned to look and Finneas glanced, then scoffed, "Not fairies, butterf—"

"Oh, right there! Did you see that one?" Her mother asked, and Leah turned to see it, almost jumping out of her sandals. "Can you see the lower part of the wings? More ragged than the top?"

Leah nodded with wide eyes and open mouth, in wonder, as the Swallowtail butterfly rested inside the light pink water lily flower. It was very still, with its brown and yellow tones forming circular patterns surrounded in white and black. Everything was calm, only the birds and the wind made a semblance of noise.

Then the fairy moved even further into the flower, whose petals covered her almost entirely, and Leah pouted, "Why is she hiding?"

"She's not hiding, sweetheart. She's home," her mother's tone was gentle as her hand came to pet Leah's head.

Yet she frowned, "But, what about when it's dark? Won't she be cold?"

Finneas' low laugh was a snicker Leah didn't understand, her big green eyes were full of worry. But her mother reassured her quickly, "The flowers close at night. So the fairies can dance and play while the sun is out, and at night, they go home and sleep."