Ten-year old Rosemary was sitting with her brother, Chicory, and her father, Finnel, on the top of a plain grassy hill. The family of three were waiting for their fourth member to join, Rosemary's mother, Lavender. Every time Lavender is away on a mission as a High Guardian, she meets back with her family on this very grassy hill the day she expected to return. Rosemary was especially excited, as today she baked desserts for the first time to go along with the food her father made for the picnic he prepares for each of these occasions. She was bouncing up and down while sitting criss-crossed on the picnic blanket, barely being able to contain herself. Finnel was standing in front of the picnic blanket, looking down the hill with his arms crossed, the smile on his face having long faded away into his worry. Chicory was lying down on the picnic blanket, merely holding himself up with his elbows. For the past ten minutes, he's been taking glances over at the picnic basket, but has finally now decided to sneak a hand inside for one of his sister's desserts. Chicory was quickly met with a slap on the wrist by Rosemary. "You know the rules! Not until mom gets her." She lectured him.
"Give it a rest will you?" Chicory asked, "It's been well over an hour since she was supposed to be here. At least let me eat while I'm feeling nervous."
Rosemary huffed at her brother, clearly upset. "Maybe you should learn to be more patient. How are we supposed to eat together if you start before mom comes back?"
"Her not being here is why I feel like stress eating!" Chicory raised his voice, sitting up from his back. "Mom has never been this late before. For all we know, something could have happened to her. She might not even-" Before he could finish his tirade, Rosemary angrily pushed him, forcing him to have to catch himself with his hands. "Hey, watch it!"
"Don't say stuff like that! Take it back!" Rosemary yelled with tears in her eyes. She ran up to push Chicory again, but was caught in the arms of her father. "Tell him to take it back!" She continued yelling, albeit now muffled since she was speaking into her father's chest after having been picked up.
"Hey, it's ok Rose. Now what's going on?" Finnel asked softly in an attempt to calm down both of his children.
This time, Chicory stood up before going on another tirade. "Rosemary is being unreasonable. She just wants to sit here and pretend like nothing bad could ever happen to mom. For as long as we've been waiting here, mom could've gotten hurt, or worse."
Her brother's words only made Rosemary more upset, "Stop saying things like that! Nothing bad is going to happen to mom. She always comes home!" Tears started pouring down from Rosemary's face, despite all of her effort in holding them back up to this point.
"Now, now. We know your mother will make it back, and it's understandable to be worried, but it's times like these when a family needs to stay strong the most." Finnel stated in an attempt to defuse the situation. "How about you two stand with me near the edge of the slope? We can continue waiting just a bit longer together." Rosemary wiped away her tears and hugged her father while she was still in his arms. Chicory sighed before walking towards the edge of the slope where his father was.
Half an hour passed by with the family patiently waiting for the return of Lavender. Chicory was starting to grow impatient again. But before another argument started, she finally arrived. Slowly walking out from the forest down below, a few cuts across parts of body, and a sling made from a torn piece of her clothing for her broken right arm, Lavender finally came home. Rosemary eagerly ran down the hill toward her mother and in her rush, tumbled halfway down the hill into the arm of her mother as she kneeled down to catch her. Lavender winced from the pain of Rosemary bumping into her broken arm, but was still more than happy to see her family. "I told them mom! I knew you'd be here!" Rosemary exclaimed, laughing as tears flowed down from her face.
Lavender gave her a soft smile, hugging her tightly as she stood back up to her feet. "Sounds like I've been worrying everyone. You haven't been crying too much while I was gone have you?"
Rosemary quickly wiped the tears away from her face, "Of course not! Saying things like that makes me wanna cry laughing!" She yelled as more tears ran down her cheeks.
Chicory and Finnel both walked down to Lavender. Chicory's eyes were tearing up as well, but he stayed back in order to give his mother some space. Finnel gave Lavender a gentle hug, "I cannot tell you how relieved I am to see you back." He said, "You look worse than you usually do coming back. We should head back to the house, we can celebrate once you're better."
"If you want me to feel better, we should just have the picnic. Nothing's better than time with family."
"Oh, mom! I made my cupcakes for the picnic too." Rosemary interjected.
Lavender's eyes lit up along with her surprise. "You started learning how to bake while I was away?" She asked. Rosemary nodded with a wide smile on her face, as she wrapped her arms around her mother's neck to continue holding onto her. "Well look at that. With desserts coming from you, I'll be good as new right away. I can already feel it." Lavender let go of Rosemary with her unbroken arm, letting Rosemary hang from her neck, as she patted her on the head. Rosemary curled up onto her mother's chest, also pressing against the sling. Lavender chuckled, ignoring the pain coming from her broken arm.
Chicory stepped in to pick up Rosemary from around his mother. "Rosemary, c'mon. How are we supposed to have this picnic you were so worried about having together, if you keep mom down here the whole time?" He questioned.
"Great point Chicory." Lavender answered, "You two should set everything up. I have some boring adult stuff I need to speak to your father about." She smiled, leaning onto Finnel, who only rolled his eyes in response.
Rosemary wrestled her way out of her brother's arms, stumbled upon landing, then began running up the hill. "Race you to the top!" She yelled to her brother.
"Rosemary! I tell you every time, that's cheating!" Chicory chased after his sister.
Finnel laughed as he stood there with Lavender, watching their kids run up the hill together. "It's always nice to see how much happier they are whenever you return compared to when you're here normally."
"That so? Maybe I should leave on missions more often, make everyone happier all around." Lavender responded sarcastically, before lowering into a more serious tone. "I came back because I promised to, but I can't stay long. The entire situation is so much worse than I thought."
"What happened? What did you find?"
"The source to it all. Only problem is fixing it at the moment is quite literally the only thing I find to be impossible. Well, nearly."
"So you do have a plan. Do you need me to do anything?"
"Keep this." Lavender pulled out a rolled up map, "If you don't see me again, this will be the only way for anyone to finish what I started."
"What? You're speaking as if you think you might actually fail. What on Earth could-" While Finnel was continuously getting worried, something else also caught his eye. From Lavender's sword, there was a black smoke flowing down from the hilt, onto the ground, and trailing up the hill. "Lavender, your sword. What is that?"
Lavender pulled her sword from off her back. All of the black smoke by this point had already flowed out from the hilt. Looking up the hill where the black smoke was heading, her eyes widened in terrifying realization of what's happening. "No, he followed me."
Rosemary and Chicory just finished setting up all of the food for the picnic. Chicory, now seeing the cupcakes his sister made, wanted them even more. He went to grab one of the cupcakes, but Rosemary smacked his hand once again. "Jeez Rosemary, mom is already here." He jokingly complained. Rosemary started complaining herself, but something caught Chicory's eye. Black smoke covering the ground on the hill. That same smoke slowly rose from the ground, manifesting into a hand the size of a person behind Rosemary. "Rose, look out!" Chicory grabbed his sister and spinned her behind him, away from the shadowy hand. He held her tightly, prepared for the worse, but then a brisk gust of wind could be felt going past him. Chicory turned around to see what happened. Rosemary tried pushing away from Chicory to do the same.
Lavender had rushed in just in time to slash the hand of smoke in half with her sword, dispersing the shadowy form. "Stay close to me! Everyone's gonna be ok." She said in an attempt of comfort, breathing heavily for air as if already exhausted. The black smoke began to circle all three of them, with more shadowy hands springing up to attack the kids. Though even with dozens of arms reaching from all angles, Lavender was able to cut down each and every one of them before they could reach her children, but was getting even more exhausted in the process. "Damn lungs. It's only a few puncture wounds, get over yourself." She whispered to herself, quietly enough to make sure Rosemary and Chicory couldn't hear her, especially since they looked terrified enough as it is. She wasn't getting anywhere fighting while trying to protect her kids in this circle, so she quickly thought of a new approach. "Chicory, hang on to Rosemary. We're all getting out of here." Chicory hugged Rosemary tightly as his mother said. Lavender clenched the hilt of her sword with her teeth, holding it with her mouth and freeing her unbroken arm to pick up both her son and daughter. She rushed toward the edge of the hill, preparing to leap through the ring of shadows. The shadows gathered up into a giant hand, ready to grab all three of its victims in one fell swoop. The hand eclipsed Lavender and her children, and yet she used her sword to dive right through it. She could feel her lower body burning from the magic of the shadows, her fractured rib cage digging deeper into her lungs, her jaw straining from the force of pushing against the shadows as if about to dislocate entirely. But none of it mattered, Lavender broke herself, Chicory, and Rosemary out of the shadows, albeit taking everything she had. The sword fell from Lavender's mouth as she dropped her kids, and fell herself, tumbling down the hill due to her exhaustion.
Finnel, who was still at the bottom of the hill, was able to catch Lavender as she fell down to him, though she was barely conscious. The black smoke continued its relentless pursuit. Cutting in between Chicory and Rosemary, it quickly goes down the hill, encircling Lavender and Finnel. It took everything out of Chicory to not panic, but he also wanted to do anything to possibly help his mother. He searched the ground for Lavender's sword, knowing it was dropped somewhere nearby and the only way to attack the smoke. Looking over at Rosemary from the other side of the smoke, on her knees, failing to hold back her tears, she was directly in front of the sword. "Rosemary! You need to bring that sword back to them!" He yelled. Rosemary looked up at Chicory, all she could do was cry, paralyzed in her own distress. "What are you doing? At least toss it to me! Are you trying to get our parents killed?"
"Stop it! Stop saying that!" Rosemary screamed. She was too scared to say anything else, too scared to move, too scared to even stop herself from crying. By this point, the smoke had fully created a dome around, but the smoke separating her and Chicory was also dying down. Chicory took this opportunity to grab Lavender's sword and rush down the hill to save his mother. Rosemary by this point managed to find the strength to get up and follow her brother. But by the time the two of them made it down the mountain, the smoke flew away into the sky, leaving only their father behind. Lavender was gone. Finnel yelled out for Lavender. Chicory was too much in disbelief and dropped the blade. Rosemary herself fell back on her knees, with so much to process, was only able to whimper, "But you always come home."