When Seth and Gavin get there, they find a smiling Vanessa and Warren. "So, you guessed right after all," Seth said, smiling.
"It seemed the only logical place," Warren explained.
"Well, let's go see her, shall we?" Seth said.
When they reach the edge of the dock, Seth sits with his feet dangling in the water. "Kendra. It's me Seth. You have some visitors. And don't worry, most of them found you by themselves," he calls out.
For a while, they hear and see nothing. Soon though, they hear a light splash. "Seth?" They hear a quiet voice ask.
In front of them is Kendra. But not quite Kendra. Everyone but Seth is shocked by her appearance. "You've changed," Warren says.
"Hello Warren. It's good to see you!" Kendra says, beaming at him. "I imagine he's one of the ones who found it by himself?"
Seth nods and says, "Him and Vanessa were waiting here. One person didn't though. And that is because I promised him he could explain everything to you."
Her smile fades as Gavin scooches forward and looks down at her. "You're very beautiful," he says at last, after many moments of silence.
She just blushes. "What is he doing here?" She asks Seth in a voiced emotion he can't quite identify.
"Just, let him talk," Seth tells her.
And she does. Gavin tells her story, her face growing more horrified with each passing word. When he finishes his story, Kendra has her hands to her face, and tears flowing down it. "I am so, so sorry for the way that I acted. Seth, help me out of the water," she says.
And when he does, she has changed yet again. She is as tall and graceful as a dryad, with dark brown skin and flowing, shimmering, brown/blonde/black hair. On her back, she had large butterfly wings, shaped like a luna moth's and a light purple colour. They seemed to reach just to her ankles. She had a dress that looked like someone had draped seaweed, vines and bark. She also had tattoo's trailing up and down her body. And she was gorgeous.
When she was out of the water, she ran towards Gavin and hugged him, crying. "I'm so sorry that you had to go through that. I'm so sorry for how I reacted!" She cried, repeating "I'm sorry", many times. At first, he didn't seem to know what to do, but eventually, he put his arms around her and just pet her hair. Finally, after many minutes of this, Kendra pulled away, still crying. "Are you okay now?" Gavin asked quietly.
She just nods and wipes her eyes. "Your stutter is gone," she comments.
He just laughs and nods. Watching all of this, Seth smiles. Maybe this wasn't so bad after all. Standing up, Kendra turns to the others and says, "you guys wanna see what else I do?"
When they nod, she closes her eyes and starts to glow. It grows in quiet intensity and they end up having to look away. When they look back however, they gasp. In front of them is a fairy. A very beautiful, dark skinned fairy. Her hair was a vibrant, cobalt blue and was done up in a very intricate style. Even in this form, she had the tattoos. On her face, she had a smattering of freckles. Her lips were a deep, cherry red and her eyes, they stood out above any other facial feature. One was orange-gold and the other was blue-green and they seemed to glow. She had on a beautiful, multi coloured dress that looked like a fushia. Around her neck, there was a bow, the same colour as the outside of her dress. She wasn't wearing shoes, but did have ribbons going from just before her toes to just above her knees.
Her wings are gorgeous butterfly wings, shaped like a Monarch's. They're composed of the green, purple and blue of her dress.
"See," she said in a tiny voice, "I can do lots of things."
And, flitting to the water, she dives in. There is a small flash when her fingers touch the water and when it dies down, she is a naiad again. "Oh, before I forget. I give you permission to remember me," she says.
At the confused looks she explains what she had said when becoming a naiad. Everyone nods in understanding. "Well," Vanessa speaks for the first time almost all night, "we should head back before it gets too early."
Warren, Seth and Gavin nod ascent. Kendra bids them goodbye and vanishes under the water. When they are out of the hedges, Gavin says, "she's more beautiful that I could have imagined. Bracken told me how beautiful she was, but he never said she was that gorgeous."
"Well, she did fill out quite a bit with her transformation," Seth said, grinning.
"And even though she is so beautiful, there is something pure about her. Something innocent. How could anyone want to hurt her?" He asks.
"I don't know," Seth says.
"She really did fill out though. I know any supermodel would be jealous of her," Vanessa says.
"And any guy would be into her. A lot of girls too," Warren commented.
Seth raises an eyebrow at this. Warren blushes and says hurriedly, "not me. I mean, she's hot. Don't get me wrong, but my heart is elsewhere." He wraps an arm around Vanessa's waist and kisses her cheek
"I want to try again with her," Gavin says, "even though it wasn't really me last time, I want to get to know her, I want to make her happy for the rest of her existence."
Seth looks over at him, surprised. "Really? You would do that?" Something in his voice sounds hopeful.
Gavin nods resolutely. "Yes. Absolutely," he says.
Seth smiles and pats his shoulder. "Just know," he says happily, "if you hurt her, I will make what they did to you when you were captured seem like child's play."
Gavin nods fearfully. Point taken. Everyone laughs at the look on his face. Even Gavin laughs a little. They got an even bigger shock when they entered the yard. In the garden, where two of the fountains had been, there were now two trees that were very tall and very sturdy looking. There were flowing streams near the bottoms. They were of the type that they knew symbolized a strong, budding love between two people. They could see fairies flitting around, up and down the tree. Seth knew that they had had something to do with this. He momentarily froze when he saw who was up and standing on the porch. When Gavin, Warren and Vanessa saw them too, they froze.
Standing on the porch was Dale, Grandpa, Grandma and Bracken. Seth was in the process of turning around to get out of there when he heard Grandma shout his name. He swore mentally, turned around and started to walk forward again. When he passed underneath the trees, it was magical. He looked up and saw fireflies blinking on and off. He could see fairies flitting around the branches, he could see animal habitats that had already been made. And more importantly, he could see where the first couple of branches had tentatively wrapped around each other.
He smiled and started to walk forward again. When he gets close enough to the porch to hear and be heard, he stops. "Seth," Grandpa says sternly, "did you have something to do with this?"
Seth shakes his head. "Nope. It wasn't me," he tells them.
"These trees are magical. And very, very powerful. It's like they were created by a very strong force," Bracken comments, "usually it only happens when someone has found a soulmate."
"Funny enough, I think that's what happened," Seth says to him. "You wanna know what it is? It's love Bracken. Something you clearly know nothing about."
Bracken doesn't say anything. "Now, I'm going to bed. Because it's late and I want a little bit of sleep before the morning," he says, heading inside.
As he's leaving, he hears Grandma start to yell at Vanessa and Warren. But he's really too tired to care.
Once Seth was inside, Grandma started to yell at Vanessa and Warren. "You fools! Why did you go along with him? Tell us where she is at this moment. We need to see her!" She shouts at them.
"Actually," Gavin says, "I'm the only one Seth showed. Those two figured it out on their own because they clearly know Kendra enough to know where she would go."
Grandma looks furious. "How dare you? You have almost as much cheek as Seth!" She says.
"I'm just stating a fact ma'am," was all he said in response.
"What Gavin is saying is true Ruth. And Seth only took Gavin because he needed to explain what had happened. And you can't tell us what to do, as you are neither our guardian nor our boss. You are our friend and as a friend, I am telling you not to go looking for her. Especially you Bracken. We did explain what had happened with you and she only got more depressed," Vanessa said.
Bracken doesn't say anything, choosing instead to fume. He would find Kendra. He would explain what had happened and they would get that spark back. And, he suspected that Gavin had stolen her heart with some fake, sob story. He would get Kendra back, that was a promise. He didn't care what it took.
He walked inside, still deep in thought. Unlucky for Bracken, Gavin had been blessed/cursed with the ability to read minds. And when he heard this, he was suddenly fearful. Gavin quickly runs inside, hoping to avoid getting yelled at by the Sorenson elders, and up to the room that him and Seth were sharing and slammed the door behind him. Seth woke up with a shout and was holding a knife and a can of salt and iron shavings in front of him. Ever since the night, so many years ago, when he had made the mistake of opening the window. When he saw what it was, he put the can and the knife under his bed and started grumbling about people waking him up.
He stops when he sees the tears falling down Gavin's face. He got up quickly and rushed over to Gavin. He led him to his bed and sat him down, holding his shoulders. "Gavin, what's wrong?" Seth asked.
Gavin explained what he heard and Seth's face grew more horrified. How could Bracken do that? Didn't he know that she didn't love him anymore? "Gavin, I'm so sorry you had to hear all of that. I'll talk to him tomorrow," Seth tells him firmly.
"And I just found her too. I don't know how, or why, but when I saw her in the living room, I felt a spark. And then at the pond, I just, I love her so much. How is it possible?" Gavin asks, tears streaming down his face.
Gavin slides to the floor and puts his face in his knees. Then, surprising him, Seth pulls him into a brotherly hug. At first, Gavin doesn't seem to know what to do, but eventually hugs back, crying into his shoulder. Now, an outsider might see this a weird. Someone older seeking comfort from someone who is younger than him. But really, it wasn't that strange. Even though he was physically older, Gavin had gone through a really difficult time in the past couple of years. Seth, on the other hand, like Kendra had had to grow up fast.
Seth just rubs him on his back, like a parent to a child. This didn't bother Gavin. After a while, Gavin sat up again, wiping his eyes and looking away. "I'm sorry," he says to Seth, "I must seem so weak to you right now."
"What?" Seth cries, outraged, "why would you seem weak to me?"
"Because I just cried over something someone thought. I just cried over a love that I know may never work out," Gavin said weakly.
"Gavin. I don't care. You've had one hell of a bad hand in your life. It's okay to cry," Seth says.
Gavin doesn't say anything, just watches as he reaches over and picks up a shirt. He then blushes as he realises what Seth is wearing. Or isn't wearing. All he has on is a pair of boxers. When Seth looks over at Gavin and sees him blushing, he looks down at himself and grins at him. "Oh, are you embarrassed?" he asks Gavin teasingly.
Gavin mumbles something. "I'm sorry, what was that?" Seth asks, still smiling.
"Yes," Gavin says, still blushing.
"What, never seen someone shirtless before?" Seth asks, not thinking he hadn't.
"No," Gavin says again, still embarrassed.
"What? Not even a guy?" Seth asks, shocked.
"I didn't have a lot of socialization as a child. My dad homeschooled me because of what I can do," Gavin asks.
Seth nodded understanding. "And it's okay to cry over love. Especially if it's over my sister. At least I get some little comfort knowing that at least someone who was interested in her is a person with emotions," he said, grinning.
Grinning as well, Gavin told him "well, I guess I'm gonna go out by the trees. I didn't get to see what it looked like under the leaves."
Seth nods, getting into bed. "I'd go through the window if you want to avoid any trouble," he mumbles from under the covers.
Gavin nods and says a quick thank you. He crosses over to the window and climbs out onto the roof. Once on the roof, he quickly jumps over onto a stronger branch of the tree. Once there, he just starts walking on the branches of the tree, admiring them. As he walks, he sees tiny fireflies and fairies flitting around among the leaves and branches. He sees animals beginning to make homes and nests. He sees stars shining through the branches, causing the leaves to shimmer in a silver light.
And as he is walking, he notices that one of the trees has a strange glow. Deciding to investigate, he walks over and lightly places his hand on the bark. Suddenly, he is enveloped with a warmth that he has never felt before. It felt like he was being given a breath of life that he had never known he needed. When he opened his eyes again, he saw that he was in a crook of the tree he hadn't noticed before. Not really caring, he leans his head against the tree and falls asleep as the warmth seeps back into his body.
Hey guys! I hope I've done Kendra and Gavin justice in this story. I've never really written anything romance-y before, so here's for hoping! This is the last chapter of what I had already written, and I hope it's turned out good so far! I'll probably come back to it at some point, but at the moment, I have the intense urge to write a Harry Potter fanfic cause I've been reading a lot of them lately. I just need to figure out what kind! Maybe I'll work on two at once... Hmmmm...
Alrighty, well, we'll see! As always, rate and review and I'll see you guys next time!
~Marina Landbough
