The Enderlox Trilogy III: Seto's Triumph

S I X T E E N: Just One Moment

***SIERRA'S POV***

I watch Ashley fly off into the sky with Ty. I'm happy for both of them, sure, but I'm not really feeling anything strong to them. I'm too absorbed in my own thoughts, too happy for myself. I'm here, in Seto's tent.

I feel like I've known Seto since the beginning of time, even though we've only known each other a short while. We've only known about our feelings for each other since the beginning of the day, much less the beginning of time. Either way, Seto is with me, and I am with him. It's unbelievable, really. It's difficult to think that Seto and I both have feelings for each other that didn't need to take time to surface. We just sort of connected when we met, and it makes me so happy to think that we feel so close to each other. Everything between us is perfect.

After he finishes his Stitchings, Seto returns to his tent to find me sitting in it. I don't know why, I just feel the need to be there. When I met Seto, I had fallen in love with his calm but casual attitude and his gentleness towards the team. He really wants us to succeed, to save the world. I mean, of course he would, we all do. He seems determined to do all of these things, no matter what the consequences may be. That dedication is what made me fall in love with him. I'm drawn into his tent, wanting to find the cause of that dedication, as if it's written down on the walls of the tent waiting for me to come and look at it. When Seto arrives, he's startled to find me inside the tent he's called home for the past few weeks.

"S-Sierra, hi." He says, stuttering a bit.

"Hi," I say. "I'm sorry, am I disturbing you? I can go if you want me to."

"No, its fine. You can stay."

Seto sits down across from me and takes both of my hands, letting both of our long robes fall back a bit so our wrists and hands are visible. He gently caresses the back of my hand with his thumb and I feel myself blush. We've been holding hands all day, but that doesn't stop me from getting a little adrenaline rush when I see him, or when he makes contact with me.

"What's up?" I ask him, smiling sheepishly.

"Nothing, really. Just saved a bunch of lives and helped fix my friends love life, the usual."

I smile. He's so cute, so.. so.. cute. And I'm so, so, boring. I'm so boring. Just me, just Sierra, the normal girl. Aside from the fact that I can do magic, I'm actually pretty normal. I'm insecure about myself, I hate my hair, I constantly put myself down about messing up spells and not being smart, and the only things that make me happy are my newfound friends, and Seto, of course.

And for some reason, right then I slip into an endless void of insecurity and emptiness, and as if from a third-person view, watch myself slink into it. I can feel my self-hatred sucking me down into a dark abyss, and Seto is the light at the top, the thing I need to get to.

My perspective switches back to normal and I fall into Seto's arms, my eyes brimming with tears as I feel my body begin to shake. This is why people don't like me. This is why I don't like people. I tend to isolate myself, and I think that's what makes me feel so poorly about myself. Whenever I have real feelings for something or someone, and they circle back to me, I turn into this attention-seeking freak that just wants to be noticed. Thank Notch nobody else is here to see this.

"Shh.. Its okay," Seto says calmly. "I'm sorry. I won't do it again."

I shake my head, knowing its all I can do. My pent-up sadness is changing the tears in my eyes. I've seen the way this works with sorcerers. When one holds in their feelings, they change the color of their tears to represent that emotion. Basically, until we can control it, we tend to cry tears that are bright blue. It might sound pretty to you, but its really not.

"Its not you," I manage. "Its just everything-- its me, really. I want to be with you. You aren't doing anything wrong. I have feelings for you that are so different from anything else I've ever felt, and without you I, well.."

"You don't have to explain it to me," Seto says calmly. "I've been there before, trust me. One time, before all this Enderlox business, cause that's how it really started, all these guys, they sort of kicked me out."

I look up at him, confused. "How do you mean?"

Seto gently pulls me closer to him, and I rest my head on his shoulder as he beings to speak. "Well, it was about four months ago. Everything was going well, people were happy, and the squids were at a severe disadvantage in the war. One day I was sent on a mission. It was to rescue a little girl that had been kidnapped by the Wither Worshipers. I hadn't thought much of it at the time because they weren't much of a threat, so I took a small but talented team and we went to go and get her. Little did I know, they were much, much stronger than I had thought. So my team went to go and get her, and almost immediately after we opened the door to the base, five of the six men I had taken with me were killed by dark magic. The other one was severely wounded, and he told me to go on without him. I should have teleported him out of there, gotten him to safety. But I didn't. I just left him there to die or be captured, being too cowardly to actually pause and help him. And so continued with the mission, trying to find the girl on my own. But it was too little, too late. They had found her and they had made what they wanted out of her. And It was my own fault. When I got back, Sky blamed the killing of the team on me. Not blamed, really. It was just the way it worked. I'd failed a mission, terribly at that. I'd gotten six men killed. So Sky and I grew apart, and I met new people, did new things. But after leaving Sky, I left almost all of his friends, his expedition team. Team Crafted, they call it. I grew closer to Ssundee, but he joined Team Crafted after a while. Either way, we're still very close friends, but still. Moral of the story: I know what you're going through."

"Who?" I say. "Who died?"

"You wouldn't know about any of them, Sierra."

"I still want to know, if it doesn't bother you."

"Tyler, Brandon, Steven, Zach, Brayden, Noah, and.. and.. Kyle. Kyle was my best friend."

"Was he the one you left behind?"

I look into his eyes to see he's not the only one who's crying blue now. He nods solemnly, and I immediately feel terrible for asking him. I open one hand from the fist it was balled in and slip it into Seto's. Then I take my other hand and create the Blue Heart. The mark of faithfulness. It floats in the air, made of a blue flame the same colors of our tears.

In a strange but beautiful moment, Seto smiles, and creates a Blue Heart of his own. They hover between us, like hoops to jump through. We don't do any jumping, though. We just meet in the middle and kiss.

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Yo, wassup? So. I want some feedback from you guys. In the comments, could you answer this question?

If I did a Q&A story, would you:
(A) like it?
And (B) submit questions?

I'm really interested in doing one, so PLEASE let me know!

-more info on my message board-

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