“It’s called, Herba Sanitatum.” Answered the lead fairy. Taemin had learned that she was the head of the elders and that she had been only recently named leader of the fae. He learned that she was the youngest of the elders but the most respected of them and that her name was Zelkova.

Taemin understood the vague latin terminology that that was derived from, but he didn’t understand how it worked, “What did I do?”

“We’ve only seen this power present itself in the older races of our fairies. How you were able to acquire this ancient power, we don’t know. Only seven fae throughout our history have had that ability, and none of them had any descendants after the manifestation of that ability.”

“Are there any with this power who are still alive?”   

The lead fairy thought for a moment, “There are none, but there is one who could tell you how to manage and use it. He is an old friend and one of the few humans who has found a way to speak with us. He was friends with the the last fae that had your ability and he may be able to shed some light on the fact.”

“Well, who is this guy?”

“He’s the chief of the Natives. And I believe he is close with your little friend.”

As though he had been called, Kai appeared from the trees, but stopped short of Taemin and the Fairy Council.

Noting that that was all of the information that they were going to give him, Taemin moved toward Kai with Dewey trailing behind. “Hey Kai. I haven’t seen you since yesterday morning. What were you doing?”

“Croc Hunt,” he answered bluntly. He looked toward the Council, “What was that about? Have you finally learned how to land?”

Taemin nodded, “Yeah, but that’s not the reason that I was with the council.” He began his story as Kai’s face turned to confusion. “I learned how to land, but when I did, the ground gave way beneath me and I broke my ankle.”

Kai looked down to Taemin’s feet, “It doesn’t look broken.”

“It’s not now. When I flew out of the hole that I was in, I laid on the ground and when I did, I somehow the life out of the grass around me and healed it.”

“Herba Sanitatum,” Kai said knowingly.

“You’ve heard of it?”

“I’ve heard talk of it, but the chief was very secretive at the time.”

Kai led him and Dewey to the village where he formally introduced Taemin to the Chief who was sitting, reading a book.

“Jaejoong, sir, this is Taemin. He has some questions about The Herba Sanitatum.”

Jaejoong raised his eyebrows, “The Herba Sanitatum? Why would you want to know about that. The last fae that had that power died over four centuries ago.”

Taemin walked up to the chief, “Sir I want to know about this because you are the only person who can teach me how to use it properly.”

“Teach you how to use it? Why would I do that? As far as I know, the power is random. I can’t teach you how to use something that you don’t even have.” He began to turn back to his book.

    Kai stepped forward, “But sir, that’s just it. He has the power.”

    Jaejoong tore his gaze from the novel, “He what?!”

    “I have The Herba Sanitatum.”

    Jaejoong slammed his book closed and sat up straight. “Now this is an interesting turn of events. When did it present itself? In what circumstances? Did you pull the life from the grass or a tree?”

    Taemin held his hands up in an attempt to calm the erratic chief.

    The man took a breath and calmed himself. “I’m sorry. I asked too many questions at once.” He gestured to a chair across from him,” Please sit.”

Taemin sat down facing the chief.

Dewey stood on Taemin’s shoulder.

“I’m sure that you are very overwhelmed. Having been transported from your world to this one, and then to have swam in the pool, learned to fly and then gotten the ability to take the life from the plants. Let’s start with the events leading up to your discovery of this new ability.”

    Taemin told him the same things that he told Kai. “So I’ve come to you to learn how to manage and develop this ability. I  was told that aside from me and Peter, you are the only one who has successfully been able to converse with the fairies.”

    “It is true that I have been able to speak with them, but it was only with a great sacrifice.”

    Taemin saw a look of mourning cross the man’s face.

    “It was a couple of months after we first came here. I met a couple of fairies. We came to know each other through signing and we learned to become great friends. One day, in his attempt to find the Dust Pool, Key went on a rampage and my friends had been mortally wounded. Green Leaf was able to heal himself, but Tiger Lilly wasn’t so lucky. She was a great friend of Peter before he passed, but anyway, Green Leaf brought her to me. I wasn’t sure why, but they told me to take some of her blood and ingest it. At first, I was really confused, but they insisted, and I couldn’t deny my friend her dying wish.”

Taemin had been in by the story and was startled when Kai’s father made his presence known.

“Jaejoong, I see that I have come at a bad time, but the tribe sent me to tell you that the meat that we pulled from the Croc Hunt was plentiful.”

“Thank you Sooman. You may leave.”

Before exiting the tent, Sooman looked to Taemin and Kai, “Pay attention to this story. It has not been told in many centuries.”

Watching the man leave, Jaejoong continued his story, “As she died, I was able to hear her dying thoughts. She confessed her love for me and told me that the only way for a person to be able to speak with the fae is if they were to kill them and ingest their blood.”

“But, then how is it possible for me to be able to speak with them?”

“That I do not know, but that is not the purpose of this meeting.” Jaejoong took a moment to pour them some water and resumed his tale. “Once we had buried her, Green Leaf and I became ever closer, he taught me about his ability that he had learned to control from another with it. I expect that he taught me those things for fifty years because he didn’t know how long it would be before another presented with the ability. The fae have a tradition, when you’ve aged and done the things that you felt that you’ve been tasked with doing in this world, you sacrifice yourself to the Dust Pool and become one with it. Green Leaf felt that his life mission was to teach me and after he completed it, he merged with the Pool.” Jaejoong took a shaky breath, “It has been nearly four hundred years since he merged, but it still feels fresh in my heart.”

They sat for a moment in silence. Taemin sat up, “Your story is a sad one and I hope that you teach me all that you can.”

“Yes I shall honor my friend’s life goal and teach you how to harness the Herba Sanitatum.”