Guardians Of The Zodiac

Chapter 16

It was a beautiful day for sailing but there wasn't any time to even enjoy it because I couldn't shake off the tension building as we got closer to this island that had bad idea written all over it.

"I didn't know that you would be joining us, Elliot." Serena landed on his shoulder.

"I'm only tagging along to be able to give Anya a full report when we return. I don't want to get in the way," he smiled at her and then tickled Trinkette's stomach as she settled down on his other shoulder.

"Maybe you should have just stayed behind then," Ryder muttered.

Hazel was trying to give me an encouraging smile but I could tell that she was just as conflicted by Elliot's presence. Naudia was loving it, of course, turning on an extra amount of charm while Cooper was remaining neutral as usual, keeping up civilized conversation with Elliot. The sprites were happy to reconnect with a friend, someone who had grown to know each of them and who they had also grown attached too. However, I also saw how conflicted Iris felt when she chose to sit on top of my head instead of Ryder's. Usually Iris was the impulsive one, always saying what was on her mind, but her intentions were always pure. The last thing she wanted was to cause even more problems amongst the group by being forced to choose sides.

"Hey," I reached up to scoop Iris into my hands. "What's with the face? It doesn't suit you."

"What do you mean? This is my regular face!" she claimed.

She had an uneasy look in her eye that I didn't like since it was unlike her to be in such a bad mood. I usually depended on her to lighten the mood, not contribute to the terrible atmosphere.

"You know Ryder understands that you and Elliot have history. He wouldn't be mad if you wanted to join your sisters," I tried to assure her.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she crossed her arms and averted her eyes.

"Okay, okay. Just try to lighten up a little."

"Everything okay up here?" Cooper's voice made me look up to see him standing beside me. He gave Iris a smile as she flew back up to where she resided on top of my head.

"We should almost be there thanks to these water-jet crystals," I told him.

"Well I could have probably gotten us there faster by manipulating the currents but Serena insisted on joining her crystal with mine to test out the power," he laughed.

"Yeah, Serena can't get enough. She'll use her crystals every opportunity she gets."

"Trinkette seems to be enjoying collecting data on them just as much," he added as we both turned to see Trinkette leaning over the backside of the boat to get as close as possible to the boats power source in order to observe them.

Normally Trinkette's safety in this situation would have put me on edge, but seeing how Ryder always had one eye on her the entire time put me at ease as he carefully listened to her prattle off about random statistics. He even cracked a smile and I could slowly feel the tension slipping away.

"Has Ryder ever told you about how he found Nexus?" Cooper suddenly asked me.

"He's told me about how he can't remember anything before his life at Nexus. But nothing more than that."

"I've noticed that there's been kind of a wall between you two lately."

"That obvious?" I sighed.

"Kind of. You're still the newbie around here and I can see you're trying to fit in-"

"I'm trying so hard," I exasperated which made him laugh.

"Well my advice to you is to stop trying. You already fit in, Tara. You're one of us now. What you need to do now is work on deepening your bonds."