KOU LOOKED AROUND, PUZZLED. They looked down at the small Elkhi and pointed at themselves with a tilted head.

The Elkhi nodded enthusiastically. “This one does mean the Glowy One!” His tiny wings fluttered as he floated off the ground to be at the same eye level. “Ah!” he called out, coming to a sudden realization. “This one’s name is Ehno! Glowy one looks familiar somehow.”

Kou pointed at their bunny hood.

Ehno shook his head. “This one doesn’t suspect the Glowy one to be the fluffy one.” He grabbed one of Kou’s sleeves and tried to pull them. “Come, come! Glowy one must help this one find Fia!”

The small Elkhi pulled and pulled, but Kou didn’t budge an inch. Ehno’s eyelids became heavy as their fluttering wings slowed down. About to fall out of the air, Kou quickly caught the tired Elkhi in their sleeved arms.

“This one can’t go on for much longer,” Ehno hiccupped. “So sleepy, but this one must find Fia. That one is this one’s little sister. Other Elkhi won’t help…”

Kou couldn’t help but feel bad for the small Elkhi. They held him tight as a ring of light pulsed out around them and disappeared beyond the horizon of the swampland while Ehno felt the sadness melt away with the warmth of Kou’s light radiating from their eyes.

Ehno looked up at the child and saw they were smiling down at him. “Glowy one?” he said puzzled with a soft voice.

Kou nodded as the little creature had a smile flash across his face.

“You’ll help this one find Fia?” he asked as Kou nodded again. “Really, you will?”

The White Rabbit nodded once more, causing Ehno to float up with joy and a yawn at the same time.

“This one searched all over but couldn’t find that one.” He turned around and pointed at a stone building with overgrown vines. “Except there. This one is too scared to go inside, and nature might be angry at these ones.” He turned back around to face Kou. “This one will head home. Fia isn’t out here.”

The sky flashed with a boom of thunder, causing both Kou and Ehno to jump.

“Ah, this one knew it!” Ehno shouted as he trembled in fear. “Nature is mad!” He flew away toward what could barely be viewed as several tents hidden away in the fog of the swampland.

The small child quickly ran toward the stone building to escape the heavy rainfall. Each step they took, lit up the area like a ripple in a puddle. Past the glowing mushrooms and many luminescent butterflies taking shelter beneath them. The wind was strong, acting as if it tried to push Kou back and away from the silver building but the White Rabbit persevered.

Brushing the vines to the side like a curtain, Kou walked into the building while drenched from the rain of Oasia. The inside was damp and dreary as the vines appeared to have grown larger than previously thought, Barely and light lit up the inside aside from the fireflies and bioluminescent fauna scattered throughout within.

Kou carefully stepped over the bines as if they tried not to disturb a sleeping beast. The light from Kou’s eyes shined down on the large vines, causing them to slightly twitch.

                                                            Warm…

An echo rang throughout the building where nature took its toll. Kou cautiously looked around, shaken by the distant voice. Upon closer inspection, some vines were pitch black and shriveled up while others were on the verge of turning yellow.

The small child went down the left corridor and came across a small room blocked off by thick vines. They tried to force the vines out of the way with all the strength a small child could muster but to no avail, it didn’t budge at all. Another echo rang out as the entire building shook with a powerful force.

                                             This warmth feels familiar…

Kou fell back, surprised and unsure what to do as everything fell into silence. However, a tiny snore quickly broke it. The small child crawled forward and tried to peek through the thick vines. They saw an even smaller Elkhi than Ehno, fast asleep on a pile of petals. The darkness in the barely lit room shrouded the tiny Elkhi’s appearance aside from pink scales that reflected the light from Kou’s eyes.

Kou stood up and took a step back, at a loss on what they could do to free the sleeping Elkhi. The small child looked down the corridor, back the way they came and saw a path open. The vines that once blocked the opposite direction moved as if they were pulled up like a curtain on a stage. Hoping there’s something that could help, Kou carefully made their way there. The corridor seemed endless as the further the child went, the more vines covered the walls until there was only nature. At the end was a massive room, vines and roots covered the walls to the point it was impossible to see.

Nature has fully taken over. The stone floor was replaced with grass and the room appeared as if it was formed entirely by Mother Nature herself. Patches of luminescent flowers were scattered throughout while groups of familiar butterflies and fireflies were all hidden away between of the vines.

A humanoid figure was in the center, surrounded by the glowing flowers. Kou’s eyes shined brightly on her as she slowly looked up, shifting her gaze from the ground up to the White Rabbit.

“Do my eyes deceive me?” she asked, seeing the silhouette of a small child near the corridor entrance. Her vision was blurry as her eyes needed to adjust to the light. “Has the White Rabbit finally come to this forsaken world?”

Kou slowly walked up to her, causing her eyes to widen in shock. Upon coming closer, Kou saw the details of this figure that was once shrouded in the shadow of the world. She was a humanoid but not entirely. A large leaf covered her right eye as if it were her bangs. Her eyes were black while her irises had an enchanting shade of yellow. To any stranger to Oasia, she was only a plant but to Kou, they felt a familiar presence.

“Kou,” she addressed the small child as they kneeled in front of her. “What are you doing on Oasia? You’re a long way from home.”

Kou looked down at the grassy floor with an unsure expression and their light slightly dimmed.

“You don’t know?” she asked as Kou nodded. “Then, if you’re the White Rabbit, do you even remember me?”

The small child shook their head, making the ears of their hood swing side-to-side.

“I see,” she said with a saddened gaze. “My name is Sentiana. We used to play together long ago but between use and those in the same generation, only you and one other hasn’t aged at all.” She spread her arms as if she welcomed them. “Our moment will be short, but I’d like to extend it to feel like over a millennium. Kou, please. Let me feel the warmth of the sun, of a friend I once thought to be lost.”

Kou hugged Sentiana as though something reminiscent came between them. The room overturned by nature collapsed around them like pieces of glass into a void of nothing. The small child glanced around, only to see seven picture frames circle around them They were all colored and each one held a picture of a small, strange child except the last one was too distorted to clearly see.

The first two pictures each had children with snow-white hair and crimson-red eyes. The first was a boy that seemed to have a rowdy nature while the other was a girl who seemed calm and collected.

“Take care of our memories, Kou, because no one lasts forever.” Sentiana tightened her hug on the small child. “You befriended many, no matter how strong or weak, how rich or poor, you were always there.”

The third and fourth pictures slightly glowed. The third frame showed a young boy with golden, glowing rings in his eyes and slightly messy black hair. A golden crown rested on his head and a serious expression to match, unlike the fourth frame that showed the picture of a young angel with monochromatic wings of black and white.

The pictures rapidly circled around them and came to a halt where the fifth and sixth portraits were in front of the small child. In one, there was a red-headed little girl with a smile that could brighten anyone’s day while the other held a smaller plant humanoid in a clay pot, who Kou assumed was a young Sentiana.

“You knew every one of us,” said Sentiana as tears swelled up in her eyes. “I never thought our reunion would be like this and yet, you don’t even fully remember your own memories.” Her hands clutched the back of Kou’s jacket. “For you to even be here as the White Rabbit, doomed to a fate that even the darkest hearts would call cruel.” She lightly pushed Kou back with her hands on the child’s shoulder as her eyes widened.

Tears flowed down the small child’s cheeks. What were once the eyes of a lost little rabbit, became the eyes of recognition she longed for.

“I was brought to Oasia to become its spirit of Nature,” she let out a deep sigh. “You are here to bring forth a new beginning for this world and I have one request.” She hugged Kou as her despair continued to slowly melt away. “I implore you to save us all. The denizens of this world, Oasia itself, and even, the Black Rabbit.”

The pitch-black distortion around the seventh frame formed a silhouette of a small rabbit in front of it.

Kou hugged Sentiana tightly as the light embraced them both.

“I really missed this, Kou,” she said quietly. “The warmth of a friend beneath the light. Thank you for everything, Child of Light.” Her voice became silent as the color of the portrait on her younger self faded into black and white.

A breeze circled around them as if it gave way to a powerful dance. Sentiana slowly closed her eyes and with a smile, every leaf became detached and flew with the wind. One by one until Sentiana was no longer in the arms of Kou and the white void faded back into the room of nature.

Snapping back to reality with wide eyes and tears flowing down their cheeks, the small child wanted to scream and cry their heart out. They wanted to yell more than ever before but no matter how much they tried and tried, a single peep never escaped their lips not before and not now.

The small child helped themselves up and onto their feet. Kou wiped away the tears and felt something in their hand. They slowly opened it and found a large seed. They held it close and kept it safe in the inside pocket of their jacket.

Kou walked back to the corridor but stopped at the start of it. They looked back where Sentiana once was and rubbed their eyes. Trying not to break down into more tears, Kou kept it together and tried to stay strong. They walked down the corridor, which felt emptier than before. The small child made their way through the empty building and back where the tiny Elkhi was once fast asleep.

The thick vines were out of the way and the small child was stared at by the tiny pink Elkhi.