Elements of Emotion

Chapter 35: A Realm Reborn

Caelian woke up in the bed with a yawn. Looking over to the clock on the nightstand, he saw that it was early in the morning. Zephyr's habits had been rubbing off onto him. Looking over at the sleeping water spirit beside him, he couldn't help but give a smile. He looked so peaceful as he lay there. Not wanting to wake him up, but unable to resist himself, he leaned over and gave him a soft kiss. Zephyr stirred, but cozied back down into the blankets without waking up.

Caelian carefully got out of bed and got dressed. He contemplated taking a shower, but decided he'd do so later so that Zephyr had plenty of warm water for his bath when he woke up. He exited the disciple's cabin and gently shut the door behind him. It hadn't been long that he had started living there, but since Zephyr was so vehemently against living in the tree roots, Caelian decided to give the home a chance. So far he had been enjoying it, even if he did miss his mossy bed under the roots.

He extended his wings from his back and gave a big flap, rising into the air. He flew amongst the branches as he headed towards the forest denizen's town to check up on everyone. It took him no time at all to travel this way, and he found himself landing at the edge of the clearing in a matter of minutes. Of course, it helped that the cabin was located close to the town.

"Good morning, Caelian!"

The denizens greeted him in the same fashion every morning. At first it had made him uncomfortable, but he was slowly growing used to his new treatment. When he had returned, he was met with many apologies. While there were still some that were wary of him, many of the forest denizens seemed to finally accept him as their disciple.

"Caelian!"

Caelian looked up when he heard the squeaky voice call his name.

"Nath!" he said with a grin as the forest sprite stopped in front of him. "Hey, you're okay!"

"Sure am!" Nathaniel said as he put his hands on his hips. "Man, this place was such a mess, I thought it was done for. But after lots of hard work from me and my buddies, things are finally starting to shape up again!"

"Is that so?" Caelian asked with a laugh. "Well, glad to have you back, Nath. Want to come with me while I make my rounds?"

"Of course!" Nathaniel said as he landed on Caelian's shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll fight off anyone that's rude to you."

"Oh, I don't think that's a problem anymore," Caelian said. He didn't elaborate when Nathaniel gave him a curious look, and the two of them headed off through the town.

"Caelian! We don't have enough manpower to rebuild the town square. Nobody is offering to help us."

"Really? I'll ask them myself. I'll find people, don't worry."

"Caelian, we need you to bless the funeral plots for those that died in the corruption. It's custom for the disciple to do this for the dead."

"Ah... really? I'll stop by the memorial site after I finish my rounds, okay?"

"Caelian, I'm sorry to bother you with something so trivial, but a lot of my late mother's jewelry was in my home when it was lost to the acid. Is there any chance you could take a look and see if anything is there? I'd look myself but a lot of the acid is still there."

"Yeah, don't worry! I'll take a look when I can."

"Wow, look at you," Nathaniel said with a smug grin, "Mr. Popular all of a sudden."

"Yeah," Caelian said, a bit embarrassed, "A lot of people need help after what happened here. They've all been pretty nice to me so far, at least."