As Moon and Leafo flew back to FernGully, Zak and Pepper searched through the brush, calling out Max's name. Zak feared the worst for his son and it didn't just account for him being found dead.

"Mr. Young, I have a question."

"What is it?" he said, looking in the depths of some dense underbrush.

"Are there really fairies in this forest?"

Zak looked back at her. "Why do you ask?"

"Well… I mean, if the story that you tell is true and you got shrunken down to their size, then maybe something like that happened to Max as well."

Zak made a face. "I highly doubt that. I don't think Crysta would be that stupid to blubber up her spell again."

"I don't know who that is…"

"She's- Why do you care? It's not exactly true."

Pepper smiled at him. "I can tell it's very true to you, Mr. Young. You wouldn't have funded this foundation if you didn't believe in what happened to you and you wouldn't proudly have someone dress up as a fairy if you didn't believe in them." Pepper looked around. "FernGully is a magical place. I can understand how fairies could exist…"

Zak tried not to talk actual fairy talk with people outside of his wife but this girl seemed to be not only genuinely interested in his son, but also to genuinely care and wanted to know. Zak felt he could trust her.

"Crysta was the name of the fairy that I met when I was younger. She was trying to get me to see her when she misstated her spell and I ended up the same size as her. We helped defeat Hexxus, the toxic monster that was locked up in a rotting, decaying tree that was far off in the depths of the forest. I had somehow released him… I think it was the chemicals in the spray paint that I had marked on the tree… He started to devour the forest but we saved it and killed Hexxus once more. After that, Crysta was able to do her spell correctly and I decided the best thanks that I could do for her and for the other fairies was the keep the folklore alive and protect FernGully as best as I could."

"So you really believe in fairies?"

"Yes, I do. Only the ones here though. I don't know anything about any things in other places and even though other cultures have fairies, their fairies are different. These are the only ones I care about. I know these are real and I will protect them."

Pepper smiled. "Do you think, if by chance something like what happened to you happened to Max, that he would try to find the fairies first or be led to their main house or something?"

Zak thought for a moment. "Now that you mention it, I met with Crysta's daughter, Moon or something. If she was nearby then something like what happened with me could have happened with him… The problem is that FernGully is not a place I can just find… A fairy has to kind of take you there."

"Finding a fairy would be a start, though, right?"

"I guess so…"

They started moving the underbrush around, trying to find blue or green lights.

Leafo dropped Max onto the ground and Max coughed, holding his chest. He moaned and opened his eyes. He saw Moon walking towards another woman and then someone who was dressed up like he usually was.

"Holy shit… You're real…" he mumbled, pulling himself up to stand.

"I see you're back again, Zak?"

"Zak's my dad, I'm Max. You must be Pip."

The man made a face. "How do you know what my name is?"

"My dad makes me dress up as you all the time at the foundation. It makes the kids happy or something."

"Odd choice to dress up as…"

"Well, since he didn't have a little girl, he had to find someone to represent the fairies to the humans." He coughed. "Do you have any water?"

"Sure…"

Pip went to get Max some water as Crysta and Moon were having a heated discussion about him.


"I can't believe you did exactly what I told you not to do. Now look what's happened? You've caused another human to find FernGully."

"It's Zak's son though, Mom. You know he would never do anything to hurt us. You've told us all the tale of Zak Young and how he helped you defeat Hexxus. I had to save him anyway. Besides, I wasn't trying to do anything to him. I just wanted him to see me because he was coughing blood."

"Blood? What do you mean?"

"There was a stampede in the forest and I think he must have gotten hit by something and was passed out. I wanted him to see me so that I could tell him about that book that we have that has all the treatments in it. But as I was about to say the words, he acted like he saw me and so I stopped. Then he started coughing harshly and I was so panicked that I flubbed up…"

Crysta looked over at Max, who was sitting on a branch drinking some water out of an acorn cap, his face slightly flushed but otherwise pale.

"He does look a bit out of sorts…"

"And now that he is our size, maybe our treatments will work on him better."

"I highly doubt that… and we can't just keep him, Moon. Zak would kill us and what use is he to us? He can't fly, I'm sure he can't hunt, and he doesn't have magic. There's nothing he can give us that would promote us to keep him."

Moon crossed her arms and turned away from her mother.

"Moon… do you like him?"

"Of course not, Mother. I just met him."

"I had only met Zak for a short while and I knew that I loved him." She said softly, smiling at the memory.

Moon looked at her. "What about Dad?"

"I love your father, always, but Zak Young will always be my first love… he was one bodacious babe…"

Moon made a face. "Stop it."

Crysta smiled. "Either way, he can't stay here. You'll have to turn him back soon."

"Can't we find a treatment first? It would be a waste to have him near us and yet not be able to do anything for him."

Crysta sighed. "I guess…"

Moon clapped and flew over to Max.


"So your father makes you dress up like me and take people on tours of the rainforest? That's messed up." Pip said, sitting next to Max.

"It was fun when I was younger but after a while it gets a little odd."

"Why me, though?"

"You're the only one he remembered, besides Crysta, and I couldn't very well dress up as her."

"I guess…"

"I think he also wanted the experience to seem as real as possible and without details from his own encounter, I guess it just didn't seem real."

"You humans are an odd bunch. Until Zak Young came, we thought that you lot were just a myth."

Max turned his head. "Us a myth?"

"Yeah. There hadn't been a human seen in FernGully for centuries until then. Then we learned about the way you people treat the forest and all of nature… you really don't care about the environment at all."

Max shrugged. "There's nothing we can do about it. Humans don't all have one person they can speak with and get good solutions to problems. There are many countries and many rulers… little people who care about the environment don't make an impact on those who control the money and the expenses. If they want to kill some trees, they'll kill some trees."

"But wouldn't that destroy the homes of many animals?" Moon asked, having heard some of the conversation.

"People don't care about the animals."

The whole room gasped as Crysta turned to them to calm them down.

"Do you not care about the animals, Max Young?" she asked.

"I'm not saying that I don't, I'm saying people in general." He stood up and walked over to Crysta, who was also quite short comparatively. "You're lucky that my dad believes in you all and strives to keep this rainforest under protection, but one day someone who has a lot of power and influence will come and they will be able to overthrow my dad or our family. When they do, even if you turned every person into the size of a fairy and showed them the wonders of the forest, they are greedy sons of bitches. They only want to make a profit and if at a fairy's expense, then so be it. They don't care about animals or folklore, just money."

"Then what do they do with the animals and the trees?" Moon asked.

"Sometimes they move the animals or they keep them in zoos for people to look at. The trees get turned into fuel or paper or something."

The room looked crestfallen and Max cleared his throat, trying not to cough again.

"Look, I didn't mean to bring you guys down. As long as my dad lives and has the money to keep the foundation up and going, he will fight tooth and nail to make sure this place is safe. You have my word on that."

"And you, Max Young?" Crysta asked. "What about you?"

Max smiled a little. "Well, now that I know my job isn't for nothing, I will make a better effort to help my dad."

Moon beamed and Pip put his hand on his shoulder.

"Well kid, welcome to FernGully."


as we humans suuuuuck!