Shrunken

Chapter 45

   Grass and fern rustled beneath his feet as Seto walked through the woods. Bright afternoon light melted onto his skin in a golden hue, sliding along his form while he trudged at a swift pace. His legs throbbed slightly, sore from his crazed dash the evening before, but he was too keen on returning home to care. If he could truly refer to the place as home.

  His teleportation spell had transported him well away from the meadow he'd almost perished in, closer to his destination but yet still a while of walking to go. 

  Did I really run this far?  he wondered.

  His thoughts were disorderly and whirling, too many events and occurences reimagined at once. But he couldn't stop thinking about it all.

  Angel... the mysterious healer... Starr... Kay...

  One thought seemed to prevail the others, however.

  I almost died last night...

  I came so close to being gone.

  What if I really had died?

  He still found this so hard to believe. Yet, he had been there. It had happened.

  Life is so fragile,

  Short,

  Frightening,

  Crazy.

  I've hardly been anywhere... done anything...

  Is it only now that I come to think of how incredibly vast the world is? How many things I haven't seen?

  And what would have happened then?  If Angel had gotten his way? If that strange Samaritan had never appeared and I became nothing but a soulless corpse? The life sucked from my mind and heart, leaving only an empty vessel for my murderer and the cruel earth to feed upon? 

  Where would I, that bodyless life, be right now? If anywhere at all?

  An Afterlife of some sort?

  Is life but a story that ends in demise? In which all that remains of that final chapter, that final breath of words in bloody ink, are but a few blank pages?

  Or is death simply a state of nonexistence? A sense of utter nothingness that is the opposite of life and meaning and the Universe itself?

  The experience made him ponder this. He never before so deeply contemplated death. He had been confronted with it many times before, but never upon himself. He thought he'd have plenty of time to work his life out, to find its true meaning, but those thoughts had begun to waver. It made him realize how uncertain his chances actually were, how much he needed to do while he still had chances.

  So enveloped in his mind, he paid no attention to where he was going until a thin, low-hanging branch he'd meant to push out of the way slapped him in the face with a satisfying snap. The sorcerer put a hand to his stinging eye and cursed under his breath.

  He scanned his surroundings, thick trees and growth surrounding his path of trampled and singed underbrush. Pushing his philosophical notions away, he tried to focus on the present. He needed to get back as soon as possible. Brice needed to know he was okay. And Tyra...

  Thoughts and scenarios struck him once more at the thought of her, his spirit sinking further.

  She would never be her normal height again if I'd died.

  I'd never see her again if I really died.

  I'd never get to hold her... or kiss her... or tell her I love her... or ask her to marry me...

  Nonetheless, even if they found that the potion was complete, and she somehow took the correct amount she needed...

  She'd end up with another man.

  Dread pooled in his heart. His step quickened all the more despite his deepening soreness.

  And worse yet...

  What if in all those moments... 

  In any of the times when she was small and in danger or dying... 

Or any of the moments in the past when her very life was fading in my arms...

  ...she had really died?

  Shaking his head to clear it of such a terrible thought, he found that he'd broken into a run. Pain in his limbs screamed at him to stop. He slowed his rapid pace and shook his head.

  Stop, he told himself. Just stop.

  All that matters right now is that you're alive.

  You've made it. You survived such a terrible encounter.

  Despite all the terrible things that have happened, everyone you care about is okay...

  Well, not exactly. Kay's gone. There's nothing I can do to track her down.

  But she's smart. 

  She's quick.

  She's escaped situations like these before.

  I can only hope she's okay. She must be. She has to be.

  Tyra's okay... at least that's how she was when I left.

  Brice wouldn't let anything happen, would he?

  They quarrel so much, I can't be sure.

  A sudden, deep yearning engulfed his heart.

  I need to be there.

  I need to see them.

  He thought back to his nightmare, his permanent memories of childhood that would haunt him for the rest of what life he had.

  They're the only sort of family I have left.

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