The path through the tree was long and dark, but the world behind her was silent now, and only the voices from her distant past echoed around her, calling and calling. This tunnel within the tree branched ahead, or so it seemed, for there were two spots of light before the fairy. There was no longer a tug at her soul to enter this secret place, and fear and doubt gripped her chest now, turning her back. But what entrance there had been was not an exit – no trace of Shaman existed in the darkness whence she’d come. If she wanted to go back, she had to go forward.

And so she did, one foot falling just ahead of the other, and as Ciara approached the two lights at the end, they grew closer and closer until the merged. Strange that it should be so, and yet, even when the end was reached, she did not step out, for she was no longer in the tunnel at all, but sitting high above the ground, on the shoulders of a stone man, with children littering his feet. Two familiar, though not exactly as she’d recall them, faces looked up at her with mischievous grins before the elements shot from their hands at the statue, removing some parts and leaving others.

Although neither boy looked as they did in the garden any longer, Ciara could recognize her brothers anyway. Both had a wicked grin, but their eyes were filled with nothing but innocence, and Ciara was certain that she had lost that growing up. Looking at Keenan’s smile reminded her of that loss like a kick in the gut. Would he still grow into the same jealousy-driven predator who had hurt her so badly in her youth? Ciara couldn’t look at him any longer and turned toward the other fairies around the statue.

She knew this land like the back of her hand, and as she gazed from her perch, her heart performed acrobatics that would dazzle the greatest cirque du soleil performers. Rissa sat on a rock watching the triplets, smiling up at Ciara as a good older sister would. When was the last time Ci had given any thought to her older sister at all? Was she so absorbed in her own past at the lagoon that her family had stopped mattering to her? On the other side of the clearing, Lilith and Arthur whispered to one another.

Soon enough, her eyes fell on Adonis, who had been her father for so long that, upon learning her true parentage, she’d felt so betrayed and alone. Although he smiled when he looked at her, something in his face, perhaps the way it crinkles so slightly, told Ciara that he knew she was an imposter in the body of her toddler-self. Uncomfortable with the knowing gaze of her, as she’d learned to call him, Uncle Adonis, she turned away, only to set her eyes on another fairy who had meant so much to her.

There was Damon scowling and sitting all alone by the wall, angry at the world he was living in; her sweet, brooding Damon, scowling at everyone around him like he fit in as little as she did with this gaggle of fairies.

“Damon!” she shouted, her heart pulling open as though it were completely free of scars. If she were in the garden to grow up with him, she would never look to leave.

The confused glance he shot at her sent Ciara’s heart racing and she quickly maneuvered, to the fear of every fairy over the age of 4, to leap down from the shoulders of the statue and to her future-past fiancé.

The giggling of her brothers and friends never quieted, though the sound of Adonis screaming faded as Ciara dropped like a stone toward the ground. Feet hit the earth and the young girl soon lost her balance and rolled to her butt and then her back.

However, as she looked up at the sky, and back behind her, the world had changed again. Fingers splayed and were pulled softly into the malleable ground beneath them, burning as the sand touched her skin. But if she were no longer in the Shady Labyrinth, where were the peals of laughter coming from? A much deeper chuckle joined in as a shadow – it was difficult to see the details of the face above her with the sun shining down – neared and leaned over Ciara.

“Are you okay, Cia?” he asked, reaching his arm down.

The acrobat resumed his performance as Ciara grabbed Damon’s arm and was hoisted easily to her feet. So close to him, it was hard to breath, and impossible to keep the tears from sliding down her face. The smile on his face slid into a concerned frown as his rough thumb wiped the water from her cheeks. It didn’t take much for him to pull her close to his chest; she was more than willing to be as close to him as she could get.

“I’ve missed you,” she said, though her voice was muffled by his body. This was home: the pair of them locked in an embrace on the shores of the Dragon Lagoon. Them and their small family. The giggles turned to splashes, and the man pulled away from Ciara. Two young children played together on the sandbar of the lagoon, happy in one another’s company. She watched them for several minutes, shocked and awed at what her babies had become. Harmony had been an infant, and Ithuriel a toddler when she’d left them, following her own mother’s footsteps. If Damon was here and raising them…

Ciara shifted to kiss the man before running to meet the pair in the surf. The nine year old boy saw her first and waved, alerting his sister. Both ran as well as they could through the water, though the way they were lifting their legs looked more like a strange alien trying to move than a fairy running, and together they tackled Ciara into the salt water. The impact and the tidal pressures loosened her hair from its bindings, and Ciara realized for the first time since entering this garden that her hair had reverted to its natural red, despite the subconscious control over it she knew she had held to. Only with Arthur had she let the blonde hair and blue eyes slip to their natural state.

Perhaps it was Damon. Perhaps it was the children. If Ciara hadn’t noticed the lack of control, it was because she had relaxed the walls she had created in her solitude. She was a different person when she looked like this, freer and more relaxed about herself. Younger.

Both children let their mother up before Harmony grinned, a gap from a absent tooth on the left side of her mouth, and shouted, “You’re it, Mama. You gotta catch us!”

Forgotten instincts returned, and as the pair took off for shallower waters and the beach itself, Ciara gave them a headstart, before chasing them at half-speed. There was something to winning, sometimes, especially against an adult, that could empower young minds to become whatever their imaginations could dream up. Being the loser enough times could, as Ciara had learned from personal experience, create a divide between a child and everyone around her. Neither Ithuriel nor Harmony needed to feel as she had when she was their age. Besides, they were in no danger of running away and needing to be caught here.

In fact, Ciara could tell exactly where they were heading; to their home, their birthplace. The cave where so much of her life at this point had occurred, both traumatic and exceptionally blessed. The children could still easily win, but the goal quickened Ciara’s steps through the unforgiving sand as she raced homeward.