Chapter 44 Epilogue
Its so hard to say goodbye to this story, for I enjoyed making it so much. But I am very pleased with how it turned out. I thank all of you for reading and I hope that the story has helped you all understand God a little better as I had hoped. Please all of you review this when you're done, that means everyone who reads it and tell me what you thought of the story as a whole and the ending too.
Finally, after so much work, the church was finished. Gotz hammered in the last nail before standing up, and wiping the sweat off his forehead. Kai handed him a towel, and a glass of water.
"My goodness," Gotz said with excitement. "Just think Kai. Once we paint this thing, it will be all ready for its first meeting!"
Kai smiled, and looked up at the church the two of them had been building on top of Mother's Hill.
"My it looks beautiful," Kai said.
"Well you picked the perfect spot I must say," Gotz said. "During the days of the Goddess this was the only Angelic stronghold in Mineral Town. Now the Angels have secured the entire island."
"Indeed Gotz," the two of them looked up to see the Angel Tarana walking towards them. "Julius has done well. When I fell he did the right thing. If he had made the wrong decision then the Goddess would still be ruling this island. That's a fine church you guys have built there."
Gotz shrugged his shoulders modestly.
"Well, its something."
"But you know what makes a church truly beautiful?" Tarana asked, examining the rough wood.
"What makes it beautiful?" Kai asked.
"The people who make up the church," Tarana said.
"Well, we should be getting plenty of members," Gotz said. "For all the people who went with Captain Bates on the ship converted to Christianity, and the majority of the people who survived the onslaught have as well."
"What about Cliff?" Tarana asked. "He was the one with the demon."
"He's coming in for an exorcism later on today," Kai said. "He promised me he would. But he hasn't announced what he will do with his faith yet."
"I have hope for him," Tarana said. "I have hope that one day he will see the light, and let Jesus into his heart. I have hope."
"So do I," Kai said. "Should we pray briefly for him?"
"By all means," Gotz said, and the three of them bowed their heads for a short prayer.
They finished, and began cleaning up there supplies.
"Oh," Gotz said. "So Tarana, what are you going to do now that the town has been secured?"
"I'm needed elsewhere," Tarana said. "I feel that there are other islands which Spirits like Thandrana will come upon and take for there own. I feel the will of God leading me on. Besides, I have left a good Angel in command of the legions which will now guard this island. His name is Julius. What about you Gotz, what will you do?"
Gotz smiled.
"I finally know my path," he said. "I finally know what I must do. I have fought for this island, and now I must settle down. I have decided to become the minister of this church. I feel that now that I have secured my faith it is time for me to secure the faiths of others."
Tarana nodded.
"Wise choice," Kai said. "I don't think any of us would make a better minister."
"Just come on over if you ever want to confess a sin, or if you ever want someone to pray with. What about you Kai?"
Kai smiled. "My traveling days are over. Its time for me to find my place, and settle down, get married, and..."
"Get married!" Gotz said, jumping up. "Your going to propose to Popuri?"
"Shh," Kai said, holding a finger in front of his lips. "Don't tell anyone."
Gotz smiled.
"I'm proud of you Kai. I'm very proud of you."
"Speaking of which," Kai said. "Where is Zach?"
"He's down by the lake with Ann," Gotz said.
Tarana's eyes twinkled, and he suppressed a smile.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Kai asked.
"Nothing," Tarana said, turning away. "Nothing at all."
"Oh come on!" Gotz said. "Tell us!"
"You'll know soon enough," Tarana said.
The spring sun seemed warmer than ever as I lead Ann out into the lake. I wore a blue swimsuit, and my cross necklace hung at my neck. It had seemed fitting to wear it at such a time. Ann was dressed in an orange bathing suit, and her skin seemed to glow in the spring sunlight. I then stopped, and smiled softly at Ann, who smiled back at me.
"Now," I directed. "Pray to God and tell Him that you know Jesus came to save you, and that you repent for your past sins."
Ann closed her eyes, and whispered a quiet prayer to herself. She then opened her eyes, and looked back at me.
"Now confess aloud that you accept Jesus as your Savior and Lord," I said.
"I accept Jesus as my Savior and Lord," Ann said, looking up at the beautiful blue sky.
I placed my hands on Ann's shoulders, and lowered her down into the water while saying: "I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." I then fully immersed Ann in the water, before raising her back up.
"Congratulations," I said. "You have now been baptized."
Ann smiled, and hugged me. We hugged for a while, before turning back to the shore.
"Zach," Ann said. "I feel so happy."
"So do I," I said, barely able to contain my excitement. "Come on, lets get back to shore."
The Kappa had been banished from the earth, and so had the Right Hand. The waters of the lake were now under the control of the Angels. I did not fear the water anymore. But at the time I wasn't thinking about that. I was too excited. We stepped to shore, and went to grab our towels. They were both were white, and looked exactly the same, so Ann went over to pick one up. My eyes widened in alarm.
"Ann," I said abruptly. "That one's mine!"
"How can you tell?" Ann asked, looking up at me. "They both look the same."
"I can tell," I said, picking up my towel, which was folded up.
Ann grabbed the other towel, and began drying herself off with it. I looked down at my towel, and up at Ann. We smiled at each other.
"Ann?" I said.
"Yes Zach?" Ann replied.
"I love you," I said.
Ann smiled at me.
"I love you too silly," she said. "I told you on the night when you fought the Right Hand."
I shrugged my shoulders.
"Well I love to hear you say that." I then took Ann's hand in mine, and looked deep into her eyes.
"We have spent so much time together," I continued. "Such wonderful days we spent together. And I don't want it to ever end."
That was it. I dropped to one knee, and pulled the case out from inside my towel. Ann's eyes widened when she saw what I was doing.
"Ann," I said. "What I'm trying to say is will you... will you... will you marry me?"
I opened the case, revealing the engagement ring which shone in the velvet cloth. Ann smiled at me, took my hand, and lifted me back up to my feet.
"So is it a yes or..." I began before Ann suddenly put her arms around my neck, and kissed me.
Then she pulled away, and we embraced each other.
"Yes," she said. "Yes! Yes!" I took the ring out from the case, and put it on her ring finger.
"Shall we celebrate?" I said with a grin.
Ann jumped into my arms, I lifted her up into the sky, and swung her around.
Tarana, Gotz, and Kai watched from the top of Mother's Hill as all this was taking place.
"Oh," Kai said. "Now I get it. Zach was always a smart guy."
Gotz just smiled. "One of these days I gotta tell him how proud of him I am. I just don't want to wreck his humility, that's all."
The three of them laughed together.
"You know," Kai said. "I never understood exactly what happened while we cast the Goddess from this island. What was Zach doing that whole time? Ann says she found him lying in the library, but Zach says that the Right Hand took him up into the clouds to fight him as a mighty Dragon."
"He's right," Tarana said. "Zach did journey up into the clouds to fight the Right Hand. But not the clouds over Mineral Town. He journeyed into the clouds of his mind. Zach remained in the library during the entire battle. His soul, however, was in spiritual combat with the Right Hand. But to Zach, in his mind, it felt like he was fighting a Dragon. The Right Hand is a Dragon, a symbol of the devil, so in Zach's mind thats what he appeared as. Zach fought him with the power of the Holy Spirit, and in Zach's mind it appeared like energy in his sword which he used to cut down the demon. The Right Hand wielded the power of the Harvest Godde... er, Thandrana, and that was represented to Zach by the glowing neon green that you always saw whenever the Goddess used her magic. The neon green fire, for example. It burned his spirit, but not as much as it would have, for Zach's spirit is protected by God. And the beast tried to swallow Zach, it tried to pull him into its stomach, as the Right Hand tried to pull Zach down into Hell. But in the end, Zach couldn't go to Hell, for the Jesus inside him protected him from its fires. And in the end the Holy Spirit cast down the Right Hand, and it fell into the Abyss. It fell into Hell."
"Right," Gotz said. "That makes sense. Hey, have any of you guys seen Captain Bates?"
"He's back at the beach," Kai said. "He had a sort of revelation in which God told him that he had been the fourth disciple, who lead the people of Mineral Town to safety during the Island's darkest hour. God just never told him because if Captain Bates knew this, he would have thought that he needed to stay on the island with the three of us when it was his duty to protect the people. He's still taking it all in."
"So is he going to go home after this?" Tarana asked.
"No," Kai said. "He says that he fell in love with Mineral Island, and is going to stay here. The water's in this region are also abundant in fish, so he's going to keep fishing."
"What of Popuri's mother and the others?" Tarana asked.
"I'm afraid she's dead," Gotz said. "Her sickness was really caused by demons that had been draining her of her strength throughout the many years when the Goddess controlled the island. When she chose to stay on the Island she let the demons have her, and the lightning which the Right Hand sent down sent demons into her who finished the job. Popuri's still getting over it. Rick has been very supportive though. He has taken responsibility for the Chicken farm, and Karen and him have been talking about getting married some time in the near future. Saibara is fine, but Grey is not in good condition. During the chaos a spirit latched onto him, and it sends him into convulsions almost every day. They have to strap him to a bed so he won't injure himself. But Saibara's now a Christian, and he is going to bring him in once we finish setting up the church for an exorcism. Ellen, bless her soul, has once again found the strength to walk again, and she has really helped Elli keep their house together. Since Barley died Ellen has adopted May, and Stu is rather happy about that. May and him are good friends. Doug is very happy that Zach and Ann are getting married. Zach told him this morning of his plans. Manna is okay, she accepted Jesus into her heart right before the Right Hand struck, so no demon got them. Mary is okay, but she's still a little bit spooked about what happened in her library. She is seeing a therapist now, and has decided to convert to Christianity. Her father, however, died at the hands of one of the Spirits. His soul was torn from his body. His wife, however, converted, and is trying her best to comfort Mary in the absence of her husband. Karen's parents had minor possessions, but they managed to accept Jesus into there hearts and then banish the demons from inside them. They got rid of them by themselves. The Doctor is just fine, obviously because he came with us, and he and Elli have begun dating steadily. He has had a lot of work lately, for he is letting the people who were rendered homeless stay in the hospital until they rebuild there homes. The supermarket and the church both burned down under the wrath of the Goddess, but Carter died long before then. Won killed him. But Won is now dead, and Zack the shipper says he burned all of Won's magic books and his wands and all the stuff which he used to practice witchcraft. Mayor Thomas and Harris both converted too. And, I guess that covers everyone."
"But your house was leveled when the Right Hand moved towards the city," Kai said. "Where are you going to live now?"
"Here," Gotz said. "In this church. It is now my home and everyone's sanctuary. Everyone is shaken, some have died, and Mineral Town will never be the same. But in one respect, that is a very good thing. The Goddess is gone, and now people know the true savior."
"Then everyone is accounted for," Tarana said. "Everyone is rebuilding there lives from the tattered remains of them. Everyone is settling down. But my time has just begun, and I must now leave this island, for I am called elsewhere."
"We'll miss you," Gotz said. "It won't be the same without our Angel friends."
"They'll still be here," Tarana said. "But they will not appear to you as they did before. Angels don't normally appear to humans. They protect their towns, and receive the little reward for that. But there is a difference between this town and others. You guys know that the Angels of God are here, protecting you from the demons. And they, just like God, will always be here. Until the ending days when demons will once again rein over this island. A day will come when Mineral Town will once again fall to darkness, but it won't be Thandrana. And since the evil here has been defeated, it won't happen for a very very long time. But it will happen when the rest of the world falls as well. But for now, you are safe."
Tarana then turned, raised his mighty wings, and flew off towards the setting sun.
"Goodbye!" Kai shouted after him. "We will never forget you!"
Gotz just waved as the mighty Angel disappeared into the blue sky. One island had been saved, but there were still many more left to fight for.
"Where to?" the ferry captain asked.
"Forget Me Not Island," Bold said softly.
The five remaining Harvest Sprites stood on a pier waiting to board the ship. Staid had died a while back and Chef had been struck by green lightning during the attack and killed. The Sprites had removed their colorful blue outfits and now were dressed in black robes with hoods that shrouded their identities. To the captain they were just a bunch of little people.
"Visiting? Moving in?" the captain asked, looking over the forlorn figures.
"We're looking for someone," Hoggy said. "Our mother... uh... well... the one who we thought was our mother."
"And you think she's in Forget Me Not Valley?" the captain asked.
"Oh yes," Aqua said with a vengeful look in his eye. "We are sure of this. She's... ambitious. She's not finished."
The captain looked at them strangely before selling them their tickets and leading them on board the ship. The sky began to cloud over as the ferry drew away from the shoreline and moved out into the calm but deadly seawaters.
I love the bittersweat little ending. Mineral Town is broken, but steadily recovering. Several have died, but many are just beginning to live. And then the looming ending. Thandrana isn't finished yet. Keep you're eyes peeled for the sequel, which I am currently working on and should be submitting the first chapter pretty soon. And I think I'll take the time to also make a prequel as one of my reviewers suggested. But the sequel will come first. In the meantime thank you my good friends, farewell, and may God bless you.
