Sky woke up and immediately tensed. He didn't recognise this place. Where was he?
"So you're awake now, are you? Finally, I thought that I might have killed you double and how would I be able to explain that to Ty", Songbird's voice said from a couple of feet away.
Sky lifted his head and struggled to get up. He glanced around at the white, grey and gold of the new world he was in.
"Where are we?", he asked.
"The Aether, duh", Songbird replied.
"So, I'm dead now?"
"Correct."
"And I can see Ty now?"
"Absolutely."
"And I can see Notch now?"
"Undeniably."
"And I have wings now?"
"Look how many questions do you have?"
"I dunno, like seventy-something."
Songbird sighed.
"I'll talk to you about this later then."
"But- "
"Do you wanna see Ty or not?"
Sky shut up.
"Good. Now let's go."
"But- "
Songbird glared at Sky.
"Okay, shutting up now."
"…anyway, from any way you look at it, Alkiz here is probably the most likely to become the next Estrid leader", Jastir finished off.
Alkiz stopped walking.
"But, why can't you do it? You're the one who spoke up, you're the one who took the lead. You'd be the perfect leader", Alkiz said, turning to Jastir.
"But, you'd be so much better", Jastir said, smiling nervously.
"No, you would. You discovered the corpse, you reacted and made sure that Ty didn't know how bad the situation was until after it had been somewhat rectified. I couldn't do that. Anyway", Alkiz said, turning back to look at the road in front of them, "I'd make stupid decisions based on my emotions."
Jastir grumbled and looked down at the path.
"If you don't mind me saying, I think you'd be a good leader Jastir", Ty said quietly.
Jastir sighed, "Thank you."
The trio kept walking until they heard the sounds of wings and feet further up ahead.
"Who do you suppose that is?", Jastir asked.
"Probably some angels having fun", Alkiz remarked as the sounds drew closer.
The feet and wings beat faster and faster until a strong wind blew past the trio along with two blurred figures.
"I guess we'll never know", Ty said, trying to keep himself from falling back onto the path.
The footsteps stopped.
"Ty?", came a familiar voice.
"What?", Ty was barely able to make out as two large arms wrapped around his waist followed by hearty laughter in his ear.
"I missed you so much", Sky said, trying in vain not to cry.
"How…what are you doing here?", Ty asked, "Not that I'm angry or anything, I'm really happy to see you. But what on Terra are you doing here?"
"Uh…well…you see that's my fault", Songbird said, landing softly next to Alkiz.
"Huh?", Ty said.
"Well, remember the promise I made you, and how we went to Garenth to get it all sorted out?", Songbird asked.
"Yeah", Ty confirmed.
"Well, since I wasn't able to save you, I sort of saved Sky and in return killed him 'painlessly' with the promise to see you again", Songbird said slowly, backing up behind Alkiz.
Ty's eyebrow twitched, "You did WHAT?!"
Songbird let out a yelp and beat his wings trying to fly away.
"Oh no you don't you are not getting out of this one mister!", Ty yelled, unfurling his own large, white wings and flapping till he was flying neck and neck with Songbird, "Did you forget I have wings as well?"
Songbird 'eep'd and scrambled to remember how to fly, the shock rendering his wings flightless. He plummeted down and closed his eyes. He felt his body stop suddenly and looked up to see Ty holding the back of his shirt. Ty dropped him and he fell face first into the golden path.
"Hey now, SB here was only doing what he thought would get him back to Alkiz here", Sky said, trying to calm down a furious looking Ty, who was standing a few feet away from Songbird.
Songbird scrambled away, panicked and ended up knocking into Alkiz legs.
"So is that why you disappeared so suddenly?", Alkiz asked, his tone low and dangerous.
Songbird shivered and cautiously looked up. Alkiz face was hidden by shadows, but Songbird could see his neon green eyes that sparkled with anger.
"Uh…u-uhm", Songbird struggled to from words.
"I thought you might have died with how long you were gone! You didn't even tell me where you were going! How dare you after you just got back too!", Alkiz yelled.
Ty's eyes opened wide in surprise and he backed down, staring at Alkiz like Sky and Jastir.
"And don't get me started on you going all dark energy on me! You killed my boss and then just disappeared leaving me traumatised with a corpse!", Alkiz screamed, "Now we are going back to the Estrid village and you are going to tell them EVERYTHING!"
"Yes dear, sorry dear", Songbird whimpered.
Alkiz grabbed hold of Songbird's earlobe and pulled Songbird along with him as the angel trailed behind, keeping his mouth shut out of fear.
"Man, he is going to get it", Jastir said, his hands grabbing the back of his head, "I remember the last time Alkiz got angry. He could have killed a legion he was so furious."
Ty and Sky shuddered at the thought.
"Speaking of which, I better make sure Alkiz doesn't kill Songbird on the way back to the village. I'll see you later, okay?", Jastir asked, jogging off to catch up to Alkiz and Songbird.
"Okay", came two exhausted voices.
"Bye", Jastir said as he disappeared.
"Well, so that happened", Sky said.
Ty smiled and looked at Sky.
"What?", Sky asked, smiling as well.
"Just glad to see you again", Ty said.
"Anything else?", Sky asked.
"Maybe", Ty said, walking forward slowly.
"And what might that mean?", Sky asked when they were mere centimetres apart.
"This", Ty said, pushing his mouth up to meet Sky's…
"Finally", a young voice came.
"What?", an older voice asked.
"It's just they finally get peace, that's all", the young voice replied.
"Well, there's still over half of the book to go Adam", the older voice said.
"What? Come on. I thought that they'd finally get their happy ending", Adam whined.
"Maybe when you're older you'll understand that not everyone gets their happy ending just like that", the older voice said, as a clicking sound was heard.
"What do you mean dad?"
"Ha ha, you'll understand one day", Adam's dad said.
"It's time for light's out you two", an old male voice said.
"Okay then", the father said, "Good night Adam, sweet dreams", he said, kissing Adam's temple.
"I will. I'll dream about Ty and Sky's happy ending with Alkiz, and Jastir, and Songbird of course!", Adam said, snuggling down into the covers.
"Okay then, you do that. Good night Adam", the father said as he flicked the light switch to off and closed the door.
The father sighed.
"He'll understand eventually", a male voice said from behind the father.
"Notch, I hope so Seto, I really do", the father said.
"He will just give him time Brice", Seto said.
"Now that he's asleep do you maybe…want to…", Brice said.
"Want to what?", Seto asked.
"Do you want to go look at the stars outside with me?", Brice whispered.
"I do", Seto whispered back, smiling.
The two made their way downstairs and outside.
Meanwhile, two figures looked through a hole in the Aether, smiling as the couple sat down to watch the stars.
-0/0/0-
It's been a long journey, but now it's done. Completed. Finished. Unless I do an epilogue. Who knows...
Anyway, this may be the last time I say this in this story so to all of you reading. Thank you and have a good morning, afternoon, evening or other.
Chaos xoxo