"We're back."
"Ten minutes, seriously, just today?!"
Yoko looked at her watch as she raised her voice and complained in disbelief.
"Pay up."
Xavier cheerfully held out one hand to Yoko and the other to Ajax.
"Tsk..."
With no reason to refuse, they both took twenty dollars out of their pockets.
"Should I know what you're talking about?"
William narrowed his eyes suspiciously at his friends' reaction.
*Cough*
"Nonsense, Wil, sit down and watch the game, it's about to start."
Just as William took his seat, all the lights in the arena suddenly went out. The large screen at the top of the dome broadcast the action on the ice in real time.
Artificial fog added drama to the scene. From the sculpture representing the open mouth of a great white shark, the entire team skated out and circled the rink, waving their hockey sticks.
One after another, the professional hockey players skated out at full speed, the blades of their skates scraping the ice.
The projection of a school of sharks swimming on the ice rink gave this stadium its nickname, the Shark Tank.
- 30 minutes later -
"Sharks! Sharks! Sharks!"
William, Enid, Xavier, and Ajax shouted excitedly alongside hundreds of Sharks fans, the cheers for the team growing louder and more passionate.
The Sharks were crushing the Ducks with a score of four to one, the hockey puck flying back and forth across the ice rink at high speed.
*Bam!*
Forward Philip Kurashev's body was slammed hard into the acrylic barrier by Troy Terry, the Ducks' defender.
"That had to hurt, even with the protection of the helmet."
Yoko wasn't enjoying the game as much as the rest of the group, but she felt the excitement of what was happening.
During hockey games, it was common for there to be pushing, shoving, and sporadic clashes between players from rival teams.
"Holy Shit!!"
William and Enid exclaimed as the high-speed puck slammed into the face of Yaroslav, the Sharks' goalkeeper.
Blood stained the ice as it dripped from the man's mouth. Enid's exclamation was one of concern, and she avoided looking at the images on the giant LED screen.
William's exclamation, on the other hand, was one of enjoyment at seeing the violence, which was one of the reasons he developed a taste for this sport.
"Will he be okay?"
"Most of the impact was absorbed by the face protection on his helmet. At most, he'll have a sore mouth for a few days."
"The blood makes it look worse than it really is."
William answered Xavier's question about the goalkeeper's injury, and Enid added.
- End of the third period -
"That's Sharkie over there, come on Will, I want a photo with him!"
Enid took William's hand and walked up the steps towards the shark mascot dressed in the Sharks' uniform.
Sharkie was the official mascot who cheered on the games and joked around with the hockey team's fans.
"You guys are coming with me too!"
William patted Xavier on the shoulder to let him know to follow them for the souvenir photo. Xavier signalled to Yoko in the same way, and Yoko signalled to Ajax with a tap on the arm.
Like any National Hockey League game, the match ended after two hours, divided into two halves with a break in between.
"I love photos, they're like a hard drive of memories!"
Enid was all smiles as she hugged William's side and Xavier took several photos of them together. The San Jose Sharks celebrated with excitement on the ice rink as they carried a large silver trophy.
They won by being the best in seven games, defeating the Ducks with a final score of five to one. Even with several bruises on their arms and legs, the players continued to shout with excitement over the victory as they were showered with turquoise confetti falling from the dome ceiling.
- Two weeks later. - Stone Mansion, Oregon -
"All right, darling, I've cleared an area of the greenhouse for you to plant as you asked. What do you want to sow?"
Catherine, her hair tied back in a ponytail, crossed her arms and watched her son take a small glass bottle out of his pocket.
Inside was a spherical seed with a spiral symbol on its surface that glowed slightly in shades of gold and emerald.
"Wow, where did you get that?!"
Catherine, who was quite surprised to see the seed, extended her right hand, covered by a delicate, thin leather glove. She used to wear it all the time when gardening to prevent the soil from dirtying her delicate nails and to keep the skin on her hands soft even after handling large plants.
William did not hesitate to place the jar in his mother's hand. Who better than a Dryad to tell her what this strange seed, extracted from the stomach of Lihor, the eldest of the three fairy sisters, was all about?
"I found it among the intertwined and withered roots of an old oak tree growing alone in a small pond deep in the forest. A large centipede greedily guarded its fruit and sucked the resin from its underground branches with equal passion."
Catherine raised an eyebrow at her son's statement. This object was almost mythical, to the point of appearing in centuries-old legends.
"Perhaps you're reading too much."
Catherine removed her gloves before ruffling her son's hair. His way of expressing himself was quite curious.
"Do you know what kind of tree it is?"
"If I'm not mistaken, I'd say it's the seed of a Golden Branch Oak. Does the name ring a bell?"
"Not at all."
"The hero Aeneas entered the Underworld of Hades protected by one of the golden branches of this type of oak when he was searching for the spirit of his father. Charon, the ferryman of the River Styx, recognised the branch and guided the hero before Hades and his wife Persephone."
"In my family's records, only one of us was able to locate one of these trees before it was devoured by a Mantis Matriarch."
"These types of trees and their fruits, which are capable of revitalising cells, regenerating and restoring beauty to what once was, are desired by humans and creatures alike."
Removing her apron, Catherine took the seed in her hands and walked into the enormous greenhouse with glass walls and silver supports.
Thousands of different types of flowers filled every space in the planters and floating pots.
(That explains the effect it had on Lihor after eating one of the ripe fruits.)
William thought, remembering the scene of the fairy's rejuvenation, how the beautiful golden feathers filled her old and decaying body once again.
"Is this a porcelain rose?"
"It seems I didn't talk to you about plants in vain. It's also called a red ginger lily. A friend who collects flowers asked me if I could grow a couple for her."
A splendid rose with dozens of tiny red petals fading to purple caught William's attention as he walked along the stone path of the spacious greenhouse.
"I recently obtained that one from the United Kingdom, a red Middlemist camellia that is extinct in the wild and native to China."
Catherine pointed to a vibrant and fragrant rose bush with pink flowers instead of the typical red ones.
"Very well, this is a good place for a Golden Branches oak tree."
Catherine entered the main section of the greenhouse, a room with coloured glass walls. An elegant white table stood right in the centre; it was the central section that connected to the other four through doors in all four directions.
Her mother's plant control abilities allowed her to grow, manipulate, and modify thousands of different species of flowers, which she separated by climate, sunlight requirements, substrate, and other characteristics.
"Oak trees are large, and the open ceiling of this section will allow it to grow freely. It will take centuries to produce a single fruit, but in the meantime, we can take advantage of its flowers, branches, roots, and leaves in small quantities."
Catherine took the golden seed and placed it deep in the earth, but not before causing the white roses growing in the planter to wither rapidly and turn into compost.
*Crackling!*
Soon, a large oak tree with shiny, pure golden leaves grew rapidly, its thick roots intertwining like an ascending spiral, and golden metallic lines appearing on the tree's thick bark.
*Sigh!!*
William's mother sighed with emotion and exhaustion as beads of translucent sweat filled the delicate skin on her forehead.
"It smells like dry wood with an earthy, smoky undertone. I love this smell!!!"
Even without a breeze, the tree branches swayed along with their leaves, filling the room with an extremely comforting aroma.
"It smells subtly sweet, like leather... or vanilla."
William also inhaled the scent of oak.
"This little one is too young. I estimate that we can only take three vials of its resin so as not to affect its growth."
Catherine took three glass vials from a metal stand in the centre of the table. She gently touched the bark of the oak tree, and where she touched, a small circular opening appeared and a golden liquid dripped out of the tree.
The process continued until the three vials were half full.
"Now, if you accidentally lose a limb while doing something 'fun', you can get it back."
Catherine placed the one with the most liquid in William's hands.
"Oh! This liquid regenerates limbs?"
"This tree is still too young to do that with its resin, but it can easily reattach human limbs, as well as close wounds several centimetres wide in seconds."
"Huuuh!!! Does this substance have a name?"
"In books, they call it Ambrosia."
"The second one will be for Vic and the third for your father. With this, we can erase the scars on their bodies."
(Those scars!!)
William searched his memory until he remembered a few years ago, when he saw his father come out of the shower without a shirt on, with several large scars on his body.
His sister Victoria only had one on her neck.
"It seems difficult, they both adore those scars."
William smiled as he remembered how his sister made no effort to cover her scar; in fact, she seemed to show it off with pride.