Chương 77: Chapter 76 – Group Hug Anyone?

"Good night, everyone," Thai said, yawning.

"Thank you for my presents. I love them all," she said, smiling rubbing her eyes, before taking Sheera's hand.

"Poor thing seems pretty tuckered out," Elena said to Rowan.

"She was up before dawn, so I'm not surprised. She really gave Sheera a run for her money this morning," he added, snickering.

"I thought Sheera was going to call the whole thing off a few times."

"I can't believe she's five already," Celestia said, shaking her head.

"So much has changed since then."

"Well not all of it has been bad." Regina said.

"If it wasn't for that little girl, I don't think we would have ever met."

"Up until you guys, it was just me and Regina," Roxie said.

"It's been a long time since we had anything close to family." She remarked, a hint of melancholy in her voice.

"I love you guys," Roxie said then looked surprised by her words.

"Must be the wine." She laughed.

"Well, I know I am grateful for each and every one of you being on our team, we wouldn't have made it this far without your unique talents," Alex said.

"Alex, Roxie is right, we are more than just a team, we are family, not just for Thai, but for each other too," Elena said, her voice cracking slightly.

"Okay, enough of the touchy feely stuff!" Regina said, rolling her eyes.

"We need to focus and come up with a plan, we don't know how safe Sheera, Rowan and Thai are here. I think we may need to get them into another realm."

"Then there is the whole possible epidemic wiping out this realm," Seraphina added.

"I can't let Mordak destroy this world any more than I can the fairy realm."

"How do we know he hasn't already planted the virus there too?" Celestia asked, her voice rife with worry.

"I haven't been able to see my family now for…" she broke off.

"It's bad enough they had to go into hiding due to the bounty on our heads, but having an epidemic wipe everyone we know and love out of existence is…" she paused, putting a hand over her mouth as her eyes welled up.

"I hope you don't mind needles Regina, because once we isolate it… we will need to determine if it is the same virus he released on Falotopia." Alex jumped in, his eyes on Celestia. Once we determine that, hopefully we can extract the antibodies we will need to replicate a vaccine and cure," Alex said, plainly to Regina.

"Needles aren't an issue, Alex, especially under the circumstances. I am sure Regina will submit to whatever testing you need to do if it means saving billions." Roxie said. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

"I just can't believe that son of a bitch is at it again." Regina said, her jaw clenched. She slammed her fist onto the sofa then stormed off to the kitchen. Elena got up to go after her, but Roxie stopped her.

"Let her go, she needs a minute. She lost a lot of friends during that fiasco. I was in college in another country when the epidemic hit, so I lost people too, but nothing on the scale of what Regina lost. Looking at the floor, tears welling up in her eyes.

"I'll be back. I'll talk to her," she said, standing up and heading to the kitchen.

"I had no idea." Alex said to no one in particular.

"I feel horrible," he sighed.

"I didn't mean to reopen old wounds like that.

"It never came up," Elena said.

"It's not something that gets worked into conversation, Alex."

"Either way, the whole thing is awful, but Regina is right, we cannot be sure that Sheera, Rowan and Thai are still safe here." Seraphina said, standing up and pacing.

"We are under the assumption that this is an attack against Celestia, but we don't know for certain."

"Seraphina, I don't know where we could possibly hide them. Right now, we don't know enough to even figure that out." Celestia said.

"The Goblin realm would be pushing it, the fairy realm is not safe, the human realm is also out of the question, they would definitely stick out there." She huffed.

"We don't even know at this point how many realms he knows about."

"Human Realm?" Elena asked.

"What is a human?"

"Thai is half human. We believe her mother was human, but Celestia is right, they are backward people and believe that anything that doesn't look like them is a product of evil. They will hunt them down." Seraphina answered almost mechanically as her mind raced.

"What about with the Giants?" Celestia asked, watching Seraphina pace more frantically.

"Woah now wait," Alex said.

"Giants? You mean to tell me there is a realm of Giants too? How do we not know about this?" he asked, turning toward Elena who looked just as surprised as Alex.

"I knew about our race, the fairy race and the Elven race, you mean to tell me there are more?"

"Yes, Alex." Seraphina replied.

"Lots more, it was our job as fairies to patrol all the known realms but to keep their existence secret from one another. There are obviously realms we have no clue about… look at your realm. We had no idea about Goblins and look where that got us," she sighed.

"Maybe if we had known and had been patrolling it regularly Mordak wouldn't be the threat he has become."

"How many are we talking about?" Elena asked, her scientific curiosity getting the better of her.

"I don't have the time for this right now. Too many to get into now. We will have a history lesson later, right now we need to get them out and stashed somewhere safe." Seraphina said with an increasing sense of urgency.

"I just feel it in my bones that danger is creeping up on us as we speak." Illianna came out of the bedroom carrying Thai.

"Guys, Thai says we need to leave. The bad man is coming with lots of friends." She looked around the room and noticed Regina and Roxie were missing, "where's…" Regina burst into the living room from the kitchen with Roxie on her heels.

"We need to go now." Regina said, the urgency in her voice was unmistakable.

"Will this thing work with a group this size?" she asked Elena as she pulled out the emergency teleport device. Elena looked at Alex who shrugged his shoulders.

"I guess we will find out. Group hug!" Elena said, as they huddled together. Regina held her breath and pressed the button.