Around him, the shore itself seemed to breathe and beat its heart as he jumped to the ground beside her. Peony startled Keo by grabbing his hand and yanking him toward rows of tall, thick trees with fat branches and leaves as long as his entire body. To his left were various shades of flowers, some square, others oval, broad, thin, all kinds of assortments. His eyes widened as far as they could go when a pale-yellow flower withdrew itself from the ground, like a sword coming out of its sheath. It diligently walked toward him and bowed.
“Welcome back.” The petals moved to form the words.
“What?” Keo’s hands shook and he tried to remain calm. While the uniqueness of the situation frightened him, he also recalled it was probably what most humans would feel if they met him—a boy made from wood. Still, the talking plant would take some getting used to. But at that moment, it frightened him all the same.
With a resigned sigh, Peony reached for his wrist. “I was hoping you would remember, but I don’t think you ever will.” She placed her hands on his cheeks and made him look at her. “Gwendolyn took your memories, and she took you away from us—from me.”
Despite Keo’s tongue being made from wood, it felt drier than normal, and he feared that this was all a dream. Perhaps he wanted it to be, or perhaps he didn’t.
“I wish I could show you my memories but I can’t even do that...” Peony took a step back and closed her eyes. Bright blue wings sprouted from her back, ripping the cloth of her shirt. Her short red curls framing her oval face turned to a glossy black, and her eyes changed into the blue of the brightest sky. Even her skin tone gave off a slight pale shade of blue. Peony’s face appeared different yet not, still ugly, still beautiful, still imperfectly perfect. A face that could be anything he wished.
“How?” Keo asked, throat dry.
“Gwendolyn, my real mother, not yours, was the ruler here. She created all of us, but this place had had enough of her tyranny and made me its queen. I didn’t want it, but you, you were my friend—more than that … you would call me your flower. You worked for her but chose me instead. My real name is Lily, but I changed it to Peony when I disguised myself.”
Keo’s thoughts shuffled back and forth. He couldn’t remember that, none of it. Peony gently placed her hands against his while she smiled, and he pulled away. “The only thing I remember is being a murderer.”
Her smile slipped away. “But that isn’t you, Keo. You’re sweet, and you’re kind, and sometimes you do have a bad habit of lying, but only because you don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings.”
Laughter bubbled up his throat and came out in maddened waves. “Sweet? Nice? I’m nothing of the kind.”
“Do you want to go back to Gwendolyn?” she asked, folding her arms across her chest.
He stared up at the thick trees, then down at the flowers watching him. His eyes were drawn again to the girl he had grown to possibly love just by observing her in his home, the girl who wasn’t a girl at all but a blue fairy.
“I don’t want to go back home…” This wasn’t his home either, not if he couldn’t remember anything or anyone. He needed time to think, he needed—Keo’s body froze and his arms and legs refused to move.
“Keo?” Peony asked, her eyebrows furrowing. “Keo?” she shouted and shook his shoulders.
Unable to answer, he turned around and took off in a jog back to the sea. Keo screamed vehemently inside his head to stop, but he couldn’t control it. With his whole being, he wanted to lash out because he knew Gwendolyn had already caught up and found them. He didn’t know if Peony had tried to stop him by using her enchanted cluster of his hair, but even if she had, it wasn’t working.
Once he exited out from the trees’ gargantuan leaves, he could see out into the middle of the sea. Gwendolyn stood on a raft similar to the one that he and Peony had sailed on. Her gray hair blew in the wind as she shifted closer, drawing him nearer, until he met where the sea began.
“Time to go home, Keo!” Gwendolyn shouted.
“He can choose where he wants to go,” Peony snapped back, grabbing his wrist.
Keo could do nothing, his body wouldn’t go anywhere. It patiently waited for Gwendolyn—who was not his real mother—to come and get him.
“I should have known it was you, Lily,” Gwendolyn spat. “You took my land, you took my worker, you took everything!”
“I didn’t! The land chose me because you mistreated it—Keo chose me because I loved him!” He could hear the desperation and the sadness in Peony’s voice. She loved him?
Keo’s legs moved into the water toward Gwendolyn. “Don’t listen to her!” Peony called to him, and then toward Gwendolyn she shouted, “Stop, you’re going to kill him!”
“That’s the only choice now, isn’t it?” Gwendolyn seethed. “I always knew he’d be perfect firewood.”
There was nothing Keo could do to stop anything, and he felt helpless and useless.
Pulling the strength from somewhere, Peony yanked Keo back and knocked him down onto the sand. She let out a loud whistle that penetrated everything with its intensity, as if it had come from not only her but whatever other inhabitants lived on this land.
Keo’s body stood from the ground just in time to see the guardian from the ocean—the one Peony called Charlie—pushing itself upward, jaws unclamping. Trapped inside himself, Keo stared in horrified wonder as the large, deadly beast opened its wide mouth around Gwendolyn’s body. Gwendolyn let out a terrified scream as Charlie’s sharp teeth met her form with a deafening snap, turning the water red as it sank back into the sea, leaving nothing but blood in its wake.
It took a couple moments but then Keo could move his fingertips, his toes, his eyelids, everything. He turned to Peony and stared in awe.
Her large wings flapped behind her back as her hands flew to her mouth. “Do you remember?”
Keo shut the world out, closed his eyes, and thought for himself until he had his answer. He opened his eyelids and shook his head, knowing it would upset her, but he couldn’t lie about this. “No.”
Her shoulders slumped, wings sagged, and she nodded. “As I said, I can’t return your memories, but I now can give you your body back. If you want it?”
“My body? I’m not made of wood?”
She smiled. “No, you never were. You’ve been gone a year, and I’m sure Gwendolyn fed you lies about other things that we will have to discuss.”
He nodded, willing to rid himself of the shell that was truly Gwendolyn’s executioner.
Peony lifted a hand, causing emerald wings to burst from his back, and the feeling was electrifying. His wooden skin softened and chipped into pieces that collapsed to the sand as his shoulders and body broadened.
He was real.
Keo stared at Peony, wishing he could remember his past, but the love had somehow remained. He took her hand into his and kissed it softly. “How about reintroducing me to everyone, Flower?”
Because he couldn’t remember her, he knew Peony—Lily—was hurting inside, but she chuckled anyway before taking off on a sprint. “Well, come on, then!”
Even though the past year with Gwendolyn would linger, he’d remind himself every day that he could love himself regardless, until the ugly memories faded as much as they could.