Broken

Chapter 7

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"Toby, we're going the wrong way. You know that, right?" He laughs, and leads me further into the thick underbrush. The crystallized trees glisten beautifully in the sunlight, and I gaze in awe at the beautiful scene around me. "How do you even know where you're going?" This time it's my turn to laugh. "Back when I worked on Starship 5," He says, the grin heard sharply in his voice. "We delivered here quite often. I used to sneak off when we were delivering the cargo on the planet. Eventually, I found this." He pushes apart the glistening leaves to the most beautiful sight I have ever seen. The light green sparkle of vegetation is replaced by the dark crystal of rocky mountains. A soft stream of water falls gracefully from the cliff face, and it's all I can do to old in the tears following this beautiful scene in front of me. "Its... beautiful," I whisper, and Toby seems lost in its glory as well. "Yeah," he says in awe, but then snaps out of his daze. "But it's about to get better." He takes my hand again, and leads me to the foot of the stream. We hop over the rocks with impossible agility, and finally arrive at what seems to be our destination. Here, under the waterfall, the crystallized forest is a blurry but beautiful scene through the cascading waters. Toby turns to face me. "I've never showed this to anyone before," he begins. "Why not?" I ask. "Lily and the others would love it." "Because," he blushes. "I wanted to share it with the most special person in my life. And," he grins. "That's you. And I figured that this...well, that it would be... I've been thinking about it for a while and.... well..." He bends down onto the black crystal, and I gasp as he pulls out a ring. The ring is spiked with sapphires (my favorite color and gemstone) and laced with silver. It's the most beautiful ring I've ever seen. "Will you...um.." He begins awkwardly, but by now I know exactly what he intends. "Yes! Of course Toby!" I cut him off and wrap my arms around him. His eyes widen, but then grins and stands up. EXTREME EMOTION. PLEASE CALM DOWN. EXTREME EMOTION. PLEASE CALM DOWN. The warnings flash in my mind, but it doesn't matter. All that matters is him.

And now, he's gone.