Fly Until You See The Light

Eden (2) - Chapter 12

«I know this thing isn't the best when you let your feelings out» she says with an amused smile while indicating the mask with her dark eyes. «I've never liked the stone. Metal is better. This mask was really bothering, wasn't it?».

While crying, Ojtaro barely manages to giggle. He finds that sentence pretty funny, anyways.

«I must tell you a thing before you reach your life again: the Light will make you a little... Dizzy. You'll probably take some time to recover» Teth warns him with an insecure stare, but he doesn't really care about that. He just wipes his tears away while still sobbing like a Moth who just saw a Krill killing a Manta.

«Some innocent sickness won't hurt me, right?» he asks, while drying his tears, with the confident tone he thought that was now lost and unreachable. 

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The only things he remembers from the day he came back to his life are the wet rain of the Forest, the worried words of his father and a confused silhouette, and the warmth of the Passage Guide's arms.

Ojtaro was definitely too weak to stand up. Teth was right: that Light took away every energy he had.

Now he's finally opening his eyes after a lot of time, maybe a day or two...? He doesn't really know.

His eyesight isn't the greatest, but he can see that his sister Leilah has probably been staring at him for a while. She's sitting near his bed, waiting for some sign of her brother's life and, after so much time, Ojtaro is back!

«Dude!» she exclaims with an enthusiastic voice. «Thank the Sky you're alright!».

When he sits on the bed, she instantly hugs him tightly. Uhm. Too much tightly...

«Sis', you're crushing me! Could you...» he tries to tell her, but she interrupts him:«I missed you so, so much! We all were so much worried, really! Where were you?!».

She continues to hold him as he was a plushie - still a miracle that he's breathing thought - until Mihok and the Passage Guide reach them and make her stop.

The Passage Guide does the same thing Leilah did, but more carefully. «Where did you go for a week? Why did you disappear like that, Oj'? You made us worry a lot!» he exclaims while hugging his last son. «And where did your mask go...?» he adds.

«I had a... A "meeting" with the Elder of the Forest... She probably still has my mask...» the boy calmly answers; then, he assumes a displeased expression and says:«I'm sorry for everything, I was really afraid and...».

«Oj', it's completely fine!» Mihok reassures him with some soft headpats. He then looks at Leilah, winks at her and she chuckles, amused.

Ojtaro totally ignores them. Maybe something funny happened when he was gone and they're still laughing over it. They always do that when it happens. It's strange that they're just so happy after what happened to Horand thought... Really weird...

Suddenly, another voice from the door takes his and the others' attention.

«It's over, Ojtaro. You managed to stand after this storm, again».

Horand... He is there, he's alive, safe and sound, and he's walking towards him with a moved smile. That's why Leilah and Mihok were laughing together. They didn't want to wait for Horand to come, they wanted to see Ojtaro's reaction. Well, that's what they'll get.

Ojtaro lets his Child of Light's feelings come out of his now in repair soul, he gets off his bed and immediately runs to the Spirit with human life that he learned to call "brother". The siblings hug each other as many months passed, while only six days went away. Ojtaro thought that Horand was gone, now, but he's not.

He tries to understand how... But, somehow, he already knows. It's a magic of the Elders, probably... It is.

He stayed... His gift should stay with him too then.

The boy looks for the pendant, and he finds it near his bed. He takes it and puts it on the neck of his owner. That's its place.