Traveler - The Price (Book 3)

CHAPTER 11

During that travel, I had realized something. I wasn't the one who needed to be saved. I needed to be found and appreciated for what I was: total madness. It was my role to keep everyone safe because of what I was. I knew I was wrong in the past, considering myself weak, powerless, and that led to the loss of many people, who were stronger than me. All that mattered at that moment was that I could make a difference, change something, save the world through who I was, and that felt so good. In the end, I was a hero too, but not in the whole book, just in a few chapters. More than that, I was surrounded by real heroes, who had resisted the worst tests. I was proud to have strong people by my side.

I had found out that when there's no hero in your story, you have to pick up that sword and name yourself your hero. This because you are the only one who could save yourself. No one besides you can become the main character in your story. I opened my eyes. I was lying on the hot asphalt. The sun was shining bright, and I saw around me a lot of glass, blood, and ruins. A few griffins were on the ground, a sign that there had been a fight. I got up, and I realized nothing hurt me. Every time I was passing through that portal, all my wounds were healing, and I was like new. Only the mark under my ribs remained there.

"Aaron!" I shouted when I noticed he wasn't there.

I stood up, and I looked around. I was hoping he didn't let go of my hand because I had no idea where he could have landed. I heard a noise, and I went on alert. I saw him getting up behind some ruins, and I ran at him.

"Are you ok?" I asked him.

"Yeah," he says coming back to his senses.

He lifted his blouse, and he noticed he didn't have the wounds that had sent him to the Underworld.

"I still can't believe I'm not in Heaven," he says. "I still think this is a dream." 

"Aaron, everything is real. Come on. We have to find the others. I will explain everything on our way." 

We went looking for our friends because they couldn't have been too far. I explained to him what had happened since the moment I had fallen from that cliff until I went back for him in the Underworld. He was listening so fascinated that he forgot to walk sometimes and he stopped to listen carefully. I realized how sounded what I was telling him, but that was the truth and I couldn't do anything about it.

He told me everything that had happened from his point of view, at the time they thought me dead.

"I'm glad that you have moved on and you continued your mission," I said in the end.

"We couldn't move on, but we knew that you would have wanted us to continue, so we did that."

We were moving forward while we were talking but, at some point, we heard noises from a store. We thought there were our friends, so we stepped inside without thinking too much. There, we were welcomed by two nymphs who were breaking everything on their way. They seemed hungry. I looked at them, and I felt I was choking because we were unarmed. When they ran at us, Aaron pushed a shelf over them. We rushed out, but they followed us. It seemed like we had entered that world and we couldn't have one second of peace.

While we were running, we heard gunshots. We turned around to see what had happened because as far as we knew, the nymphs didn't carry guns. They were lying on the street, and I saw Deby behind them. Then Ivy and Andy appeared. Deby shouted out of happiness, and she ran into my arms. Ivy joined her and Andy approached shocked.

"Aaron? Is it really you?" he asks.

"It looks like Jo doesn't want to get rid of me too soon," he says.

Andy hugged Aaron, and then the girls were next. We were together again, but I owed them some explanations.

"How long has it been?" I asked.