My eyes snapped open as soon as I felt the sun come to rest across my chest. It was early that morning, barely even 6AM. However, I didn’t care, I quickly sprung from bed, and to the bathroom. I nearly slipped going in and out of the shower that morning, my gums stung from how hard and fast I had brushed my teeth. I pulled on a pair of black shorts and a matching shirt, and tossed a ball cap over my messy dark red hair. As soon as I finished tying my shoes, my door slammed open causing me to jump up into a fighting stance. Standing in the doorway was a tall man with short brown hair, a large athletic frame, built like the ox spirit he loved. His eyes snapped onto me with a tired rage that quickly informed me that I was probably far to loud this morning. How a man as big as him slept so lightly I would never understand.
His name was Theodore Deyflayer.
Or as I knew him. Uncle Theo.
“Daniel,” he began in a low tone. “It is six in the morning, son. Why are you making so much noise so early? It sounds like you have fallen about eight times.”
“It was only once, the other eight were near falls.”
He let out a long winded sigh. “Where in the name of God are you going so early in the morning?” He stepped into the room before leaning up against my computer desk. I silently hoped his large body wouldn’t crack one of the table legs. I had nearly 7500 hours of gameplay on that computer and I was not gonna start over without a fight.
“I’m going to the library,” I answered, pulling on my backpack and moving towards the door. “So I won’t be back for breakfast, or lunch, maybe dinner depending on when I leave.”
I had gotten one step out of the door before I felt him grab my backpack and drag me back into the room. “Not yet.” He said firmly, as he dragged a chair from my desk and sat it down in front of him. “Sit there for a moment.”
“Uncle Theo can I please.”
“Sit down,” he responded with a hint of his dark yellow jepei flashing for a moment. A small reminder to do what he said when he said it. It had gotten a bit more strict with me the more my attitude and grades dropped. So while I hated admitting it, I did kind of deserve how he acted sometimes. He was still a friendly giant but I had abused that side of him for a year.
I slipped my backpack off my shoulders before sitting down on the chair in front of him. Silently cringing to myself as he scooted over a bit moving one of two monitors over to the side as he did it. “Daniel, I get that you are excited, and myself and your aunt couldn’t be more proud of you for getting this position offered to you. However, please remember to be mindful of others while they are sleeping, as well as go and clean that mess you left in the bathroom. You left the shower on, water footprints across the floor.”
“Can we maybe just forget about that and I will do it later?” My uncle raised an eyebrow at me and I quickly put my hands up to cut him off. “I am just excited, okay, more excited than I have been in years… I haven’t felt like this since they died.”
At that his stern face melted into the softer and kinder uncle that had been in my life since I was born. Now he wasn’t my blood uncle but he might as well have. He and my dad had been friends since birth. Born on the same day, played together endless, the best team during school, the dynamic duo, The Kobe and Shaq of Tarun Island. My parents died during the battle of the coast, the day when members of the dark order tried and failed to take our home. He was the first in line to adopt me, even before my blood aunts and uncles. I just wish I hadn’t gotten so dark when I lost them. I wanted a better relationship with the man, but I didn’t want to let anyone else into my life.
I never wanted to lose someone close to me again. So it was better to keep people at arm's length, do not bother letting people in. That way I won’t go back to that dark place again… I don’t know if I could escape again.
My uncle got up from my desk and kneeled down in front of me. His large hands came to rest on my shoulders. I could tell that he was thinking about something and finally he let out a small sigh and a smile began to spread across his square face. “Okay, I will clean your mess for you, but only this one time, and be back by 3:00pm. Your aunt and I have a surprise planned for you, so please be back on time. Or she will come looking for you, and I won’t be able to save you from that.” I had theories as to why even to this day Uncle Theo’s children and grandchildren feared his wife. Theories that I was never dumb enough to test.
“Thank you, and I will be back.” I promised before standing up and heading towards the door.
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I made my way outside of The Deyflayer’s large two story home that held not only them but currently their twin granddaughters, Misty and Megan. Like me, they had also lost their mother in the war of the port. However, where we differ, is they seem to have gotten over it for the most part and didn’t let it consume them into pure darkness. It is easy to tell when a jepei user is sad or broken, it affects our eyes and hair color. Mine were once bright and happy shades of red, but now have grown darker. Nature energy is our fuel, however we also rely on joy, trust, faith, and love. I had lost those four things, and I had no way of getting them back. I let out a sigh as I grabbed my gemstone and whispered. “Come on Flame, it’s go already.”
A moment passed before my gemstone began to pour out dark red jepei aura. It swirled around me for a moment then began to slowly take shape into my spirit animal. I had never known why my fox spirit had nine tails on him, but after the meeting with Lady Hearthstone and Lord Clearwater it all made sense. I had named him Flame when I was a little boy, he was so bright and had so much energy that he reminded me of fire. He was nearly six feet tall from paw to shoulder and nearly 12 feet wide, his tails added on another few feet making him about 16 feet in total. He had a slim and lean body and while most of my jepei was dark red, his coat still held hints of bright shades of red.
He was my better half and was the only reason why I didn’t lose most of my friends. Flame let out a long yawn and stretched a moment, four of his nine tails came and wrapped around me before lifting me up and onto his back. “Way too early,” he whined, his voice a lighter version of mine.
My lips curled up into a rare smile as I wrapped my arms around his neck in a tight embrace. “Don’t worry, buddy.” I whispered. “You can sleep for a very long time, while I go and do some reading… a lot of reading.”
“Where are we heading?” He asked softly.
“I guess to the library and then we are going underground.” Lady Hearthstone told me it would take a day to get that message passed to the librarians. Today was a new day, so it was time to go and see a place that many assumed was just some rumor.
I wanted to see what made this underground library so secret.
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When I arrived at the library that morning, the doors were just being unlocked by one of the head Librarians. Melessa Haliburton. An elderly woman with dark red hair like mine, she always stood straight and tall, the cane in her right hand seemed more for show than actually necessary. I had seen what this old woman could do as she often had to put some more overzealous students in check. Those that dared to challenge her authority. She may not be as fast or as strong as she once was in her prime, however she would make you look like a toddler learning to walk. Her extremely tall spirit animal was walking beside her, a fierce owl spirit that stood at nearly eight feet tall, she had large eyes that scared most children, and her wingspan was massive. That owl could be even taller if it chose to but it didn’t like scaring the little children. She had also been in the running for my adoption, after all she was my biological grandmother.
When her older eyes locked onto me and her wrinkled face greeted me with a smile and her soft voice spoke out to me. “I had a feeling that you would come this early, Daniel.” She wrapped her arms around me as soon as I was within hugging distance. She smelled like the tea she grew at her large home about an hour away by car, but with her wings and her spirit animal. She could make that trip in about 15 minutes. One of her old hands reached down to pet Flame as well. She knew just the sweet spot to make my animal spirit collapse onto his stomach and a gentle hum escaped his lips. “I am proud of you, Daniel.” She whispered to me.
“Thank you Grandma.” I replied, her words doing wonders in filling me with strength and joy.
“Come along, young man.” She broke our tight hug and began to lead me inside of the large library. “Let me show you what you have been given, and what you and your friends will add onto in all due time.”
“My team,” I corrected. “They are just teammates on this mission, nothing more and nothing less.”
“Grandson,” my grandmother began. “You will often find that teammates often become the best friends that you could ever have. Friends you can rely on and trust until the day you die. I know you don’t want to, but it would be better for you to let them in or you might put them at risk.”
Her words stuck to me like glue, she was often the only one that told me what I needed to hear rather than what I wanted to hear. It was very common for teachers and staff to send me to her rather than call Uncle Theo or his wife. She was the one that would give me the scoldings I needed to get over myself, or have me pick the rod that she would use to guide me back down the path. I loved her a lot but I didn’t really know how to show it anymore.
I hated myself for not being able to now.
Eventually she led me out of the first floor of the library and into the back where stacks of books were being sorted onto carts to be placed back on the shelfs. Two very annoyed and tired looking kids around 12 were the ones doing this work, while another man stood over them with his arms crossed. I could only hear a bit of the words he was saying, but it seemed like they had gotten in trouble in the academy dorms and this was their punishment. Personally I didn’t see how doing work in a library was a punishment. I loved books, I loved to write, those two things got me out of my head when I often had no idea how I would. Reading took you to new lands to follow the journeys of characters that overcome their problems, they become heroes both to their worlds and the people that read their stories. Writing helped me escape my own problems but making characters to overcome them for me. Feeling the pen scratching at the paper, or my fingers hitting the keys of a computer or laptop helped take me out of this world into ones that I could create. It was better than playing the video games I loved.
My grandmother led me into a backroom where the carper turned into solid brown wood. She unlocked a nearby door and I was greeted by a stairwell filled with darkness. She reached over and gripped the top of a torch, using our gift in jepei aura like a spark and created a dark red flame. She handed one to me and than lite one more for herself before taking me down into this stairwell. The air grew colder with every step we took, I lost count after step number 125. It wasn’t just getting colder but the air was growing more powerful. We finally reached a small chamber where a large round door was waiting for us, it was round like a vault and I watched as my grandmother placed her torch on the wall and using the key. She slipped into the keyhole right in the center and gave it a hard twist. A bit of dirt crept out the door and it slowly began to twist. It twisted until six orb objects around the size of pole balls came to rest into six slots. I held my torch up to fill the room with more light and now I could see the sharp lines that had been resting on this door now formed into a large six sided star, the star of one of the most famous kings of Israel, King David.
There was a sharp cracking noise as part of this vault door began to open, and I could see and feel the amount of jepei aura coming from this entrance. My grandmother than spoke. “You are one of the younger members of this team, so I will give you the same warning that I am to give Unique Full Moon and Sarah Springchaseer. Keep either your projection aura up or your protection aura up. The amount of latent jepei aura that resides down here can overwhelm even the grandmasters and few master rank researchers that we allow down here. If you are not prepared it can knock you out and I would rather not carry you back upstairs.”
“Yes ma’am,” I replied following after my grandmother as she stepped through the now open door. As soon as we were inside, the door snapped closed and I could hear the vault door starting to move again. As I turned around I was memorized for a moment as the marks of the door that once formed the star of David, slowly went back to looking like a mess of straight lines. “Do I get a key to this-”
I stopped talking and my eyes grew wide at the space in front of me. This chamber was shaped like a dome, the stone that made up this place had probably been carved by the first people to make this library. The floors were made of a dark golden wood, so clean that I could see my face in them. Surrounding the room were thousands of books, all protected by dark brown or golden brown cases, some of them letting off small hints of jepei aura. There was a spiraling staircases that wrapped around this dome, around us were three open archways probably leading into different parts of the library. “Jesus Christ…” I whispered to myself as I slowly took a few steps before being brought down to my knees!
“Relax,” my grandmother was beside me within a moment, her voice being the only thing that I could hear. My entire body felt like it was cramping up, I swear it felt like something was attacking me from all sides. “I told you to put your projection up. Some of these long residing jepei auras that these books let off tend to have an effect on new ife.”
I let out a dark growl as I focused and summoned my projection aura. There were three types of basic auras that my people could use. Projection, where we forced our power outward, this let us both type into some of the abilities of our animal spirits. It was also a show of force, a way for us to show how much aura we had and how powerful it was. The protection aura was used to harden our projection into armor that would surround us, it could stop some firearm bullets, it was great at blocking attacks whether punches or kicks, or axes and blades. The last was one I specialized in, the amplification technique. That was used as its name suggested in amplifying attacks or amplifying parts of the body to make them stronger. Some used it to make their lungs stronger so they could swim underwater longer, some used it to fight, others used it to jump long distances or run faster. I was good at using it to heal injuries as soon as I got them. It was dangerous if you rushed the healing process by amplifying the growth of your cells, but I would rather not let people see certain… marks on me.
I didn’t want to worry anyone else.
Once my projection aura surrounded me not only did my eyesight get better in this dimly lit chamber. My hearing and smell also increased ten fold. I took a deep breath and once I was certain I could stand without passing out, I rose to my feet with the help of my grandma. “I am fine, gran,” I said with a forced smile.
She didn’t seem that convinced as she noticed my teeth clattering a bit. I suppose wearing a light t-shirt and shorts was not a good idea for this chilly underground space. “Come with me little fool.” She wrapped one of her strong arms around my shoulders and helped me into one of the side chambers. Inside were a few comfy chairs and couches waiting inside. She laid me on top one of the couches and took off the long robe she often wore over her shoulders. “Shut up,” she said when I started to protest as she draped it across my shoulders. “Let your grandma take care of you for a moment.” She took off my hat revealing my terrible looking hair. “You could have at least run a brush through this hair. Why Mrs. Deyflayer lets you escape looking like this sometimes I will never understand.”
“I often leave when she is still asleep or she would force me to brush it.”
That got my grandma to crack a smile. “You are gonna be the death of me, Daniel.” She whispered before standing up. “I am gonna go get you some tea, something to warm you of that chill, for now just wait here, and if you want something to read. Have Inteləjəns bring you something to wet your hunger for knowledge before I take you deeper inside for a better feast.”
“Thank you, Grandma.”
“No problem,” she smiled at me once more before she stepped back through the archway but stopped before she was out of my hearing range. “Let this blessing you were given make you stronger and let you grow, rather than sink you deeper into darkness.”
Whether she was saying that for me to hear her or just forgot that I had good hearing I couldn’t tell, but the meaning meant the same whether she meant for me to hear it or not. “I’ll be okay, Gran.” I whispered to myself as I struggled to keep my eyes open.
“I’m not gonna kill myself.” I mumbled before letting sleep overtake me.
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Humming, a hum so soft yet had such power behind it that it filled my body with warmth and joy. Peace and solidity, hope and love. My eyes slowly began to flutter open and my vision began to return to me, each sleep filled blink becoming clearer. I was looking at someone’s chin, light brown skin, and calm light blue eyes stared down at me. The humming stopped as I came face to face with my best friend.
Unique.
I had met her when she first came to the island five years ago. We had become friends very quickly. She was quiet like me, she liked to read, we often spent time just sitting together under the shade of the trees, with our feet dug into the sand or in the water, just reading books together. Mostly different genres since she loved romance and I was more a fantasy boy. She had been there for me when I lost my parents, she was the only one beside my Uncle that could get through to me. Always reminding me not to be rude to those who care for me, to not be a jerk because of how I felt. She kept me sane and kept me from losing myself deep into my darkness. She was my light and as long as she kept shining then there was nothing I could not do.
“Hello,” she greeted kindly, helping me sit up.
“Hey,” I said with a long stretch and I looked back to find that I was no longer on the couch. I must have fallen off the narrow couch and onto the floor. I looked down and felt my face starting to heat up as I realized that the comfy pillow I had been resting on during that was not a pillow. Unique was letting me use her lap as a pillow.
“I tried to get you back on the couch but you are very heavy when you are sleeping,” I looked over at Unique who had my grandmother’s robe draped over her shoulders now, she was avoiding my eyes but I saw a light blush start to cross her cheeks. “Your grandma said you have been asleep since coming here this morning.”
“What time is it?” I asked, desperate to take our minds off of this moment.
“It is 12 o'clock.”
My eyes nearly shot out of my head at that. “Seriously?” I said standing up to my feet. “I have been asleep for five hours?!”
“I think so, you have been asleep since I got here at 11.” She explained softly. “And you have been in this back room since Olivia got here at 10.”
I let out a small groan as I slammed a hand against my face. “I was supposed to be here reading, not sleeping, and I have to leave in two hours.” It was gonna be an hour trip back to my house from her, maybe 25 if I called an air uber or got my aunt to send her animal spirit to come and get me. “My first day in this library and wasted five hours of it.”
“I can give you a ride back.” Unique said with a small smile. “Besides I have to go to your house anyway, my mom and your aunt are planning something special for us. That is kinda why I came here in the first place, I had nowhere else to go.”
I held my hand out to her and helped her off the floor. “You wanna come and explore this library with me?” I asked.
“That would be fun,” she answered with a cute little smile.
To avoid blushing more in front of her, I quickly took point and stepped out of this smaller chamber back into the larger one, heading towards the larger of the three acheway doors. “And thank you for letting me use your lap as a pillow.” I was really glad I had taken point as my face was practically burning at this point.
“No problem,” she answered, judging from the giggle that followed. I was sure my blush had spread down my neck.
We both let out a collective “whoa” as we stepped through this archway and into a massive room. If I dare guess, I would say it had to be at two football fields long, the stone had been carefully carved into beautiful designs. A few ladders were around as books were keep inside of the stone walls. There had to be at least 20 doorways, each had a different wooden sign connected with chains above them. Each had a different label above them. One read Egypt, one read, the first of us, one of the other signs had scrolls from 12bc to 1200 bc, the last one was the most interesting to me. Hall of the Fallen. It was so interesting to me since I could feel something, a familiar presence that I had not felt in a very long time. “D-Dad?”
“Daniel-” Unique started to say but I broke away from her and ran towards the hall of the fallen. I stepped inside and found hundreds of glass cases, each with shattered netrix gemstones, netrix weapons that were stuck in the physical world as their user probably died without placing it back inside of the netrix gemstone. Each letting off very faint jepei auras that swirled around in the glass case protecting them. Some names I knew from history books, such as the war hammer of Lord Damian Lionheart. The twin daggers of Grandmaster Ryona Honoka. Some of the most famous warriors that lost their lives in the first wars and crusades that our people had fought. Shattered netrix gemstones that belonged to Lady Sofia Kindheart, Master Phoebe “The Mantis” Martan. However I found what I had been looking for. In the far back under a label that read, 1965 to current day. I saw a weapon and netrix gemstone that I thought I would never see again.
The long blade that was attached to dark silver guard, a guard that was held in the shape of the christian cross. The blade was around six feet long and a foot wide at the foot of the blade, growing to a foot and a half once the blade reached the guard. The greatsword that belonged to my father Master Issac Campbell, the handle of this blade held a round head, a head that was shaped like the grizzly bear spirit he loved. In the case beside it, a much smaller one was a shattered gemstone, one that was in the shape of a butterfly and a deep gray color, my mother netrix gemstone, Millie Campbell.
I probably stared at those objects for what felt like hours before I felt a pair of arms wrap around my waist. I felt her breath tickle the back of my neck. “It’s okay,” she whispered, her head coming to rest on top of my head. She probably had to stand on her tiptoes to pull this off. “It’s okay,” she said once more.
I hadn’t even noticed until I stared at the reflection in the mirror. There were tears dripping down my face, stopping for a moment on my pointed chin before dripping down like fresh rain on leaves. I felt my knees give out as I collapsed onto them bringing Unique down with me. I leaned into her for a moment, my mouth unable to find any words to use. I didn’t want to cry in front of her, I choked them back and forced the wails back down. My stomach began to ache, my throat finding it hard to breath in the air I needed. Unique wrapped her arms around me pulling me into an awkward but warm hug. “It’s okay,” she whispered once more, each time she whispered that it felt like a sledgehammer being slammed against the walls I had put up to keep tears inside. I hadn’t cried since my parent’s funeral, yet her voice and the feeling of my father’s weapon, and my mother's once beautiful gemstone was enough to break those walls down.
And I cried.
I cried and cried, until I couldn’t cry anymore.
And all the while she held onto me. That was why I cared so much for Unique, she was the rock that held me up.
That is why I didn’t want to take another step with her. I couldn’t love her, cause if she died. Then I would die with her. She was the last thing that kept me from sinking into darkness that I could never escape from.
So I didn’t care if I died in the process. I would make sure that light never was put out, cause I don’t know if I could handle losing it.
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I was grateful for the fresh air that entered my lungs once we stepped outside of the library. I was also pissed at myself that instead of doing any reading or exploring, I spent five hours sleeping, and another two hours resting against Unique in front of the last belongings of my parents. I had asked my grandmother on the way out why my father’s sword and my mother's gemstone were down in the depths of a hidden library. “The greatest honor for our people is to be kept in that library, for their stories of greatness to be placed in the book of the fallen.” I didn’t agree with that, my parents deserved to be honored in public, not in the bowels of a library.
“Give me a minute,” Unique replied as we waited in the large open space that rested between the library and the cafeteria. The large towers of education stood about 200 feet back from us, each one being made of black and white stones, and stood at nearly 15 stories tall. One was for kids from kindergarten to eighth grade, the right tower was for high school and college level students. Me and Unique had our history class in the right tower, we were allowed to take upper level history and social studies classes. The lessons were fun, the harder tests and reports were horrible.
Unique had taken a hold of her gemstone and I watched as her light blue jepei aura began to flash and crackle like lightning. My spirit animal was apparently the reincarnation of the first nine tailed fox. Her on the other hand was classified not only as a mystical spirit animal but also as one of the uncrowned queens. In our culture, there were three special classifications, one could never be reached as it belonged to the three great beasts. The Behemoth, The Leviathan, and The Phoenix. The other belonged to a rare few that had a dragon animal spirit, such as one of the members of the council. Lady Hera as most called her. The dragons were a mix between mystical and ancient animal spirits, and their history was one so confusing that no one really took note to study it.
Unique’s was one of the six members of the uncrowned kings and queens of the animal realm. Her was a large bird that stood in native american cultures, the spirit of the thunderbird, or as Unique called her. Fortune.
It was a marvel whenever Unique summoned her animal spirit. The air grew thick like a storm was coming, I remembered when her spirit animal was barely bigger than a goose. Now it stood at nearly 20 feet tall and it’s wingspan stretched far beyond any bird of its size. She had long dark blue talons, her wings and body made of lighter blue feathers. Each gentle flap let out a small bit of lighting and sounded like soft beats of thunder. The first thunderbird was rumored to be a rival to the phoenix. Considered the 2nd most powerful bird spirit in the world, second only to the spirit of the phoenix, and since the phoenix will still dormant with no sign of ever coming back. Unique’s spirit animal was technically the strongest bird spirit alive. Where Unique was most quiet and humble, Fortune was more proud and loud. THe large bird lowered her head and began to nuzzle against Unique, making my friend giggle. However once it’s large blue eyes locked onto me, it looked as annoyed as a bird could. “You need to start making him pay for rides instead of giving them freely.”
“None of that,” Unique lightly scolded. “He is your momma’s best friend, so get along with him. You used to like him, my silly bird.” It was odd when Unique refered to her spirit animal as a daughter. However, she had only recently awakened her about five years ago, so they held the relationship of mother and daughter, while me and Flame were more like brothers. “Now behave yourself.”
“I will try not to drop him.”
“Fortune.”
The large bird recoiled a bit at Unique’s hard tone. “I am just joking, momma.” She said before lowering herself a tiny bit to allow me to climb on.
I rolled my eyes as I climbed onto Fortune’s back and turned my gaze onto Flame. “You sure you don’t want to just get back in your gemstone?”
My fox spirit shook his head. “I can keep up with you just fine running. Besides, without your heavy butt on my back, I can run much faster.”
I rolled my eyes at that comment before Fortune began to flap her wings and started to ascend into the air. At that I watched as my red fox spirit took off, reminding me just how fast he was when I was not on his back. A moment later we were flying over the large city that I called home and through clear blue skies towards my house. I turned my head to the side to see Unique flying beside us with a pair of bright blue wings like her spirit animal. It always amazed me how her jepei aura was such an odd shade of blue and crackled like lightning. It always made my friend look more powerful than she thought she was. Her braids swung freely in the wind and she sped forward to grab my gemstone and I did the same with hers. A moment later I felt her voice hit the back of my head. One of jepei users greatest gifts was the ability to connect our minds with each other by touching one another’s gemstone. “Sorry about Fortune, she is just being cheeky.”
“She hasn’t liked me since I left you alone that one day.” A bit of guilt pinged against my heart. Last year Fortune wanted me to come to the festival that was created to honor those we lost during the war for the port, and praise the hero that saved us that day. Alona Ameko. She invited me to come and celebrate with her. I gave her my word that I would come, but I couldn’t bring myself to do so. That was the day my mother and father died, so instead I chose to ignore her, I broke a promise to her. I will never forget when Fortune arrived at my house, practically clouded in a storm. “You hurt my momma!” My side began to hurt a bit from where Fortune had dug her beak into my side.
If Unique hadn’t arrived, then she might have actually tried to kill me.
Unique’s voice echoed in my mind. “I understood why you didn’t come last year, you were still hurting and you still are hurting from their deaths. I’m sorry she hurt you.”
I shook my head at that. “Don’t say sorry, I hurt you more that day, I broke a promise to you and I will never do that again. Besides, it didn't hurt that much.”
“Yes it did, you don’t have to play strong with me. Daniel.”
I rolled my eyes a bit and my lips cracked another smile. “I will try to, Unique… and can we never talk about what happened today?”
“You crying, or you using my lap as a pillow twice today?”
“The latter,” I felt another blush starting to spread across my lips. “I am pretty sure your adoptive dad would murder me if he found out what happened down there.”
I watched as Unique laughed at that and held her arms out to me. I didn’t even hesitate to stand up on Fortune’s large back and lept off into her open arms. I wrapped my arms around her waist and we spun downwards together in each other arms before she spread her wings once more and began to sail through the air. Arm an arm.
She was my best friend, now and forever more. And that was how things would stay, even if I wanted something even more.
Something I don’t think I was ever gonna be ready for.
Which made it hurt more when she leaned forward a bit, and I stopped myself from getting closer.
I loved her and she loved me.
And I could never act on that feeling.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
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