If You Trust Me - An Onward Fan-Novel

◊ Chapter 29 ◊

Previously on Onward...

As Ian and Barley rethink their strategy for finding Gedeon in Dangarnon, they come across an abandoned hangar and meet a group of friendly gremlins with an unconventional interest in fixing planes. The gremlins are revealed to be reluctant partners of the rogue wizard after one of his clones shows up demanding a trade, and point the brothers to the Untold Caverns—where their foe lies hidden.

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◊ Into the Caverns ◊

"So Gedeon lives in the Untold Caverns! Who woulda thought?" Barley said excitedly as he and Ian walked away from the hangar.

"Yeah, I know."

From where they stood, the brothers could see that the caverns themselves were straight ahead, just behind a rounded hill that was sure to give them a better view if they climbed up to the top.

"But actually, if you think about it, it makes total sense!" the older elf then said.

"How come?" the younger Lightfoot asked.

"The caverns were where the three gremlin wizards created the S.S. Medallion," Barley reminded his brother as they strolled towards the hill. "Figures the one guy who wants all its power for himself would go back to its roots and use it in there."

"Yeah, I-I guess that does make sense," Ian nodded. "But I mean...I-I was also thinking maybe he'd be in there 'cause well...caves are dark, gremlins love the dark, and you heard what Rebel and her crew said, it might be really hard to navigate. They sure made it sound like it's the kind of place that has major twists and turns, which, y-you know...Gedeon himself really likes."

"Oh yeah, I wanted to ask you," the older Lightfoot interjected, having remembered something. He decided to stop himself and his brother for a moment before they kept going. "Why did you tell Rebel about your identity crisis? Now that, my dear brother, was a major twist on our grand quest if I ever saw one!"

"Oh," Ian recalled, his eyes widening and his heart dropping, "that...well..."

"I just thought, I don't know...maybe you didn't want anyone else to know about it?"

The younger elf peered down and bit his lip, then looking back up at his brother again, he finally said, "I...I-I guess, I think...I feel like I just realized...maybe not all gremlins are bad." Then chuckling, he added, "I know, I know, that sounds silly and-and maybe my trust levels are still out of control but...I-I guess...after she showed us around her hangar, and-and seeing just what she and her friends are trying to do to change the realm, not knowing whether they'll fail or succeed, and that she trusted us enough to be okay with it...well...I thought..."

"I get it," Barley said, nodding along. "You wanted another set of comfort. Other than me, of course. We are far away from home again, after all, and who knows how all this will end. But a-anyway I thought you really seemed to like us spending time there and I knew I couldn't just take that away from you, and..."

Ian stood there, taking in the older elf's words. His brother was listening to him. For a while, it seemed like a long time coming for the younger Lightfoot. After all the times he'd asked his brother to listen to him for once, he saw right then and there that Barley had finally done it—on his own accord.

"So, uh, anyway...," the older Lightfoot continued, now rubbing the back of his neck from all his rambling. "You...you're not mad, are you?"

Ian felt a shock go through his body, not expecting his brother to ask something like that. But soon that shock became pure happiness as he smiled. Then without any hesitation, he went over to the older elf, and put his arms around him—hugging him.