Sixteen Years Later
"Max, you'll be late for work if you don't get out of there! Max? Max, can you hear me? MAX!"
Max, in fact, could not hear his dad because he was too busy underwater, swimming in the pool. He was a good swimmer and on the swim team at the college but he liked to practice at home. He was the fastest on his team, winning the school many championships. But it was the summer and he was supposed to be helping Zak at work. Max got out of the pool and began to dry off.
"MAX!"
He yelled at the sudden noise and fell back into the pool. He sputtered and pulled up his goggles, getting out and going to the intercom.
"You scared me to death, Dad. What do you want?"
"You plan on coming to work today?"
"Uh… I guess… did you need me?"
"Max."
"Alright, alright… I'll go to the stupid center."
"It's not stupid and you know you like it."
"Dad, telling people in an enthralling voice to 'look closer and you may see the fairies of FernGully' is getting really old. I mean, I'm twenty-two years old and I'm telling tourists to look for fairy folk because they're morons."
"And you're getting paid for it so shut up, get dressed, and meet me downstairs."
"Fine."
Max pulled away from the wall and shook his hair out. Dizzy from shaking his head so much, he stumbled and then began to cough. He kept coughing as he leaned on the wall and tried to catch his breath. When he was done he put his hand to his chest, rubbing it.
"What's with this cough? I got over my pneumonia a while back…"
He shook his head and started to get ready for work.
"I'm worried about him, Zak."
Zak looked at his wife, Natalie, and sipped on his energy drink.
"What are you worried about? There's nothing wrong with him."
"He's not looking well."
"He's looking fine, Nat. You're worrying over him too much. Is it the FernGully thing?"
"Just a little bit…"
"Natalie, you know how I feel."
"And I know that but you're pushing it a little far with that FernGully tour and making Max do it. You know he's grown out of it and to me it seems like you're taking advantage of all the people who are coming to see the rainforest. It just seems… cruel."
"Nat, if I didn't feel that I was telling the truth, I wouldn't have people come out there. I know what I saw when I was young and I know what happened to me. I've always told you that I used to be a pretty cool guy until I went out there. I'm surprised you even married me."
"I like geeks." She said with a smirk as the toaster popped up and she grabbed the waffles.
"You guys should take that up in your room, not in the kitchen." Max said, coming down the stairs.
Zak smiled as Max coughed again, opening the fridge. Natalie moved her green eyes to Max as she looked at Zak, motioning. Zak shook his head in confusion and she rolled them and pointed to her chest.
"Hey, uh, Max?"
"Yeah?" he said, finally finding what he had wanted out of the fridge.
"I thought you got over your pneumonia some time ago?"
"I did. I think… I mean I've still been coughing and I had a fever the other night doesn't mean anything."
"Max, we're just worried about you. You sometimes don't prepare yourself for the rainforest and you know you can get heat stroke out there."
"Mom, I'm fine. I show people 'fairies' and tell little children that if they believe hard enough then they will see one. I'm not logging or something."
Zak made a face at that but looked at Natalie with a 'you see' look. Zak stood up and clapped his son on the back.
"Come on, bud, we're going to be late."
Max tsked as he looked at the itinerary and saw that he was supposed to dress up like one of the fairies and show the kids around today. He hated dressing up like Pips or Bips or whatever that thing's name was. He'd rather be the logger, at least he got to wear a shirt.
"Max?"
"I got the fairy again. Dad, I told you that I hated being the fairy."
"You used to love it. You said you liked the show of your muscles or something."
"That was when I was sixteen and hot girls used to come through here. Everyone around has seen the amazing FernGully and you know what? Since I've been working here I haven't one single fairy! So why are we telling these people that there is something out there that doesn't exist?!"
Zak sighed. "Max, like I told your mother, if I hadn't seen them for myself I wouldn't even be doing this. I would probably still be a logger or doing something else with my time. I see them, Max, and they're important to me. They helped me to see that the rainforest isn't just trees that make up a space, it's a home and they feel."
"Trees feel?"
"You probably will never understand. Just… put on the costume. You don't have to wear the wig."
Max looked at the costume and sighed, taking off his clothes to get into it. He hated walking around the jungle in just a little loin cloth because it chaffed but he also didn't want to show his torso... especially the large tattoo on his back.
FernGully
Moon sighed, looking up at the sun on a leaf. Another day of flying around not making stuff grow. Her mother had told her that she was the same way when she was younger but it didn't help Moon in the least. All of her other friends were at least keeping flowers in bloom and she was… killing them. Or aiding them in their deaths, something like that.
"Moon?"
"Hey, Mom…"
Crysta lit next to her daughter and folded her hands in her lap.
"Twiggers told me about what happened today."
"Twiggers tells you everything." Moon said with a roll of her green eyes.
"Well, when my daughter is killing the flowers instead of helping them, it raises concerns."
"I just can't get it… I don't understand. Even *Dad* can do some sort of stability. Maybe it's because I was born on a full moon or something."
"I highly doubt that. You're a fairy not a werewolf."
"But maybe I'm defective."
"It just takes a little bit. My first time wasn't the most proudest moment of my life…"
"Mom, you shrunk a human and made it so that now he protects us."
"Well, that wasn't initially the plan, sweetie. Your father likes to elaborate on that and make us seem more powerful than we are. The human that is protecting FernGully only knows about it because I botched up the spell. I just wanted him to be able to see me but I accidentally shrunk him. But, if I hadn't our home would have been destroyed."
"Yeah but those humans make a tour of the place and no one can even see us."
"That may be true but we all decided to keep our magic to a minimum since that incident. We don't want anything else to happen."
"I think we should at least show ourselves a little…"
"That is a bad idea. Don't dwell on it."
Moon frowned as Crysta left and flew off. Moon stood up and put her hands on her hips.
"Well, I'm not going to sit around anymore. I think more humans should know about us… I'll go see if that one can help us out…"
looks like moon has a bit of her father's tenacity. what will she do? and max semi-love/hates his job. he has a reason he wants to hide the tattoo and the costume is actually pips' outfit haha.
