Koa had been her everything, while to him, Yvainne is just merely a thought, a second best. She recalled the moments when they danced together, his laughter rings like a nightingale song, his sweet soft smile that always made her heart melt, yet his mind often wandered for someone else. As she remembered the moments they shared, Yvainne remembered and whispered to herself “All this time it was just one-sided”, each kiss felt like a promise but his heart always belonged to someone else.

As days turned into months, Yvainne tried to move on yet the ache still lingered. Friends tried to warn her about Koa but love always had a way to be blinding. She often wondered if she would ever be more than just a shadow in his life. The scars of heartbreak ran deep, Yvainne found it difficult to trust again, to open her heart.

Years passed, and Yvainne watched as Koa moved on, marrying the woman he had always loved, which was not her. She attended the wedding with a heavy heart. As Koa said “I do” Yvainne whispered to herself “Why did you make me believe that you loved me”, wished him well even as her heart broke a little more.

In the end, Yvianne never found the love she so desperately craved. She lived a life of solitude, surrounded by her art and the memories of what could have been. The ache of being second best never truly healed. A constant reminder of the price she paid for loving someone who could never love her back.

Three days after their sail had set, Steve Fox and his crew met a strange man. Though the strange man did not reveal himself, he did pass on a message, “estav always, douma esun tapa” said the strange man, Steve confused by the words entrusted his crewmate to translate to translate what the man had said. “what did it mean?” Steve asked, his crewmate “Board Romero” responds with “stay away, the path ahead may be weary”, the crew had felt a chill on their backs he uttered those words. After a month and a half of sailing, the crew finally set their eyes on the island that holds the vast Riches, but they would have never expected to encounter such a familiar face. “Balor Kingsley” a man whom Steve has fought in the ring with and lost, has been following their trail for quite some time and seems to have a crew of his own. In a race to see who clutches the vast Riches first, Balor shouts “ YOU THINK YOU CAN GET RID OF ME THAT EASILY? I WILL GET MY REVENGE FOX!” and as they get closer to the island, “Douglas Bullet” a fellow crewmate of Steve starts to hear voices, voices that keep muttering the same phrase over and over until Douglas starts to say it as well. “Some of the fallen rise to protect what gave them their demise”, Douglas couldn’t seem to stop until he passes out, and soon after all the crewmates seem to have met the same fate leaving only the two captains standing. As both ships speed up, Balor and Fox’s fight also increases with ferocity until Balor gets the upper hand on Steve but before he could land the final blow, the hull of both their ships crash on the island.

Upon waking up on the island, Steve found himself suffering from a wound on his abdomen, and with Balor nowhere to be found, he took the opportunity to search for the treasure. While on his search he heard a scream, a scream that sounded like Balor, he mustered up all the energy he had left and ran there despite the large gash on his abdomen, and when he finally got there he let out a huge gasp in horror as he finds his rival in a battle with what it seems to be the living remains of the legend Sir Francis Drake. After both being seriously injured, Steve then proposed a plan to Balor saying “There’s only one way we can beat this punk… but you’re not going to like it”, Balor knowing he can’t defeat the ghoul agrees begrudgingly.

Both of the boxers delivered strike after strike, blow after blow, landing hits that no human would survive, they bobbed and weaved so precisely that it enabled them to perform an attack so powerful that it finally gave Sir Francis Drake his heavenly departure. A breath of sigh and relief was shared by the both after they had realized what they had achieved, they then shared half of the vast riches with their crews and went their separate ways. Thus ending the tale of Steve Fox.

On her journey, she was guided by the faint shimmer she had seen from the village edge, a soft glow, like a beacon in the dark. After hours of wandering, Lena finally stepped into a clearing. There stood, the Wishbound Tree, it gleamed silver under the moonlight, and its leaves glowing faintly, seemed to hum with ancient magic. A pool of crystal clear water at its base reflected the stars. Lena approached the tree slowly as her heart pounds. She remembered her brother coughing and frail, of the elders lying in their beds, slipping away one by one. She had to make a wish, there was no other choice. She remembered what the villagers said “Be careful young Lena because some travelers never come back” and her response, “I don’t care, I need to save my village”, she said verbally. Kneeling by the pool she placed her hand on the tree’s bark. It is warm to touch, as if alive. “I wish…”Lena began, her voice shaking. “I wish for a cure, I wish to save my village from the sickness”. A moment after, the tree shuddered, its leaves rustling as a soft light flowed into Lena’s hand, feeling her with warmth. But the warmth turned to heat. Lena gasped as her skin hardened into bark, her legs rooted into the earth, and her arms stretched upward, transforming into branches. Then some voice whispered. “All wishes must be bound’. Lena realized that she had become the guardian of the Wishbound Tree, ensuring her village would be healed at the cost of her freedom.

As dawn broke, the village awoke, cured, and unaware of the sacrifice made for them. Lena, now part of the tree along with the other travelers that never came back, watched over them in silence.

          That night, he decided to become someone she could rely on. Habon invested himself in the complex and poignant process of making Garnett his legal daughter. And taking her to the doctor is always his top priority no matter how hectic his schedule is, not letting any appointments not be filled out. He even went to find the best school in town and enrolled her in school after gaining a scholarship, and slowly, she began to trust him. By the time she turned sixteen, she had grown into a bright, warm-hearted young woman, though her past had left its scars. Habon had made sure she lacked for nothing.

          Living together all these years, she noticed the weariness in his eyes, which made her deeply agitated. The way he coughed a lot more often, and the shadow of pain he tried to hide. Because he’s the kind of man he never talked about his health and it pains her to see him pretending, heartbroken of his lines of being fine when he isn’t at all. She knew he won’t tell her easily, so she decided to ask him at the right time.

          One evening, as they sat at the kitchen table, she asked the question she had been holding in for years. “Why did you take me in?” Habon looked at her, his eyes softened. “Because,” he began, “You reminded me of someone.” He never told her the whole truth, that he had been an orphan himself, abandoned on the streets. She reminded him of himself—a kid with no one to turn to.

          “Who?” After a moment, Habon took a deep breath. “Someone who was once like you. Alone. On the streets. Someone I couldn’t save back then.” He looked down, the memory weighing heavy in his chest. He didn’t want her to know that part of him—the broken, lonely boy who had turned to cigarettes and other bad decisions he did in order survive.

          “Why didn’t you ever marry?” Garnett asked, piquing her interest. “Isn’t it better to have someone that encourages you to take care of yourself?” Garnett’s voice was now hinted with worry, after all Habon is a stubborn man and it might be better to ask him about his health. In this way, it would lessen her worries … worries and doubt of not being able to take care of him properly. She is only a teenager, if only she knew he didn’t mind at all. She Is his responsibility, not the other way around.

          After hearing Garnett’s question, Habon chuckled, quite taken aback from his daughter’s question.  “Marriage… women are complicated. They have their needs, and for someone like me, well, I got caught up in things. Thought life was all about fun and games. But then I found you, kid. And, I guess, I didn’t need anything else after that.” He gave her a small smile, the kind that always made her feel safe. “Besides,” he added, “some women are… hard to handle when you’re trying to figure your own life out.” Garnett frowned, trying to understand, but she didn’t push him further. She knew Habon had his reasons for living the way he did. And she had always been grateful that, despite everything, he chose her.

          As Garnett entered college and later started working at a company, Habon’s protective nature grew stronger, taking precautions from the outside would that could potentially harm her, unfortunately his health also started to decline. The doctor confirmed Habon has chronic pneumonia. But like the old times, he was always there for her, even when his body began to show signs of wear from years of neglect. By the time she was 23, Habon was 46, and his smoking-related illnesses had caught up to him. Still, he didn’t let her see his pain. He joked around, trying to be the strong, playful father figure he had always been, but Garnett could see the truth.

She took care of him when he let her, though he often insisted he was fine. “You’ve got your whole life ahead of you,” he’d say. “Don’t waste it worrying about an old man.”

          Years passed, and Habon’s health continued to deteriorate. At 56, his time finally ran out. Garnett, now 26, sat by his bedside, holding his hand as he slipped away. She cried, not just for his passing but for the fact that she had been too late. Too late to give him the one thing she knew he wanted—a reunion with his , the only family he had left. Garnett had spent the last few years investigating his past, searching for any trace of the parents who had abandoned him. After countless dead ends and sleepless nights, she had finally found the truth—Habon had been swapped at birth by a careless nurse, separated from his biological family. His father had died years ago, but his mother, now 85, was still alive, living quietly in a small town not far from where they were.

          Garnett had planned to surprise him with the news, to finally give him the chance to meet the woman who had unknowingly lost him. But she was too late. As she sat beside his still form, her heart shattered, tears flowing freely. “Forgive me, Father” her lips quivering through her sobs. It’s the first time she said those words out loud. “I was going to bring her to you. I was about to make it right.” The weight of her failure felt unbearable, and the grief washed over her in waves.

          In the days that followed, Garnett couldn’t shake the feeling of regret. She went through the motions of arranging his funeral, knowing that Habon had touched more lives than just hers. His old colleagues from the company came to pay their respects, along with a few friends he had made over the years—people like Arlo, his closest friend, who had stuck by him through thick and thin. Arlo gave Garnett a reassuring hug, telling her that Habon was proud of her and that he would have understood. But it didn’t lessen the ache in her chest.

          After the funeral, Garnett gathered the strength to visit Habon’s mother, Florence. She was frail, her age showing in the deep lines of her face, but her eyes still held a warmth that reminded Garnett of Habon. Florence welcomed her in, and as Garnett sat across from her, she revealed the truth—how she had found out about the mix-up, how she had hoped to reunite her with the son she never knew. Florence listened in silence, her face a mixture of sadness and peace. “He was a good man, wasn’t he?” she asked quietly. Garnett nodded, her throat tight with emotion. “The greatest gift God bestowed upon me in my life. I never thought I’d get to experience having a father, of being someone’s daughter.” A wish she thought she won’t come true when her consciousness kept faltering that night. Yet it did become true, God heard her pleas.. of having just 1 member caring for her.

          In the end, Garnett realized that while she couldn’t give Habon the reunion he had deserved, she had given him something just as important—a family. In his final years, he hadn’t been alone. He had her. And as Garnett stood by his grave, flowers in hand, she made a silent promise to live the life he had worked so hard to give her. To carry forward the love and kindness he had shown her all those years ago on that cold night in the alley, when a stranger had become a father.

Swirling and soaring above the seven seas

The busy buzzy bee lost from its colony

Suffering from the endless agony

In the meadow, a bee goes buzzing by

Busy as can be never saying goodbye

From flower to flower it flits and it flies

Gathering nectar, never tires of the skies