Sprig sat on his bed, franticly, writing lines of bunched-up words over the surface of scarp paper. He's been at it for some time now. The sun had long since set over the land and was replaced by wandering streaks of moonlight.
It's been a week since he's last talked to Toadie or Ivy and even longer since he's spoken to anyone who wasn't his immediate family. Ever since that day, the feeling that had been overtaking his every being had only gotten worse.
He barely left his room, let alone the house. Colors were less vibrant than they used to appear. The sun didn't shine as bright. Whenever someone spoke to him it felt somewhat alien, like the people around him were a concept he couldn't comprehend. The words of encouragement they spoke were shallow. The presence of his family alone upset him, made him unhappy, angry, and scared all at once. He was drowning in misery, and he couldn't handle it anymore.
He had made his decision the other night. He knew he would have too eventually. If he couldn't live with her, he didn't want to live at all. The young teen had thought of doing it before but had never given it much consideration and never formulated a proper plan. Not until now.
It used to be a passing thought. Something he'd think about when she came to mind. Now here he was, sitting cross-legged on his bed, putting his final words together for his family on a piece of paper. Only the letter was taking longer than he first thought it would.
He could never seem to find the right words or come up with the proper reason for his oncoming actions. He didn't want to leave them nothing and they deserved better than a subpar excuse on his part. He thinks it's funny, these kinds of letters always came off as the easiest thing.
His issue had more to do with finding the best thing to say rather than struggling to craft a sentence. He needed to convey his message clearly. Justify his actions. The boy wanted to make sure that his family in no way blamed themselves for what he was about to do.
Truthfully, he'd been feeling that overwhelming weight creeping its way into him for the past four years. Only recently had it all run him over, twisting his mind, body, and soul up like roadkill. He should have known the pain would have caught up to him. Try as he might to run from it.
He continued to write down the words, suddenly coming to an instantaneous stop. He was stuck on what to say next. He still had to address Polly in the note, but his eyes were becoming too heavy. He brings a hand up to try and rub the sleep from his tired eyelids, but it was about as useful as he expected.
The pen drops as Sprig's eyes begin to flutter down and slowly close. He does everything in his power to fight the exhaustion, but it imposes itself against his will. His eyes fully close and his mind drifts off into darkness.
He lets an excessive groan fill the air. His eyes slowly open. He was in his room, lying in his bed with drool dripping from his mouth and his rear in the air. Last night had been a dreamless sleep for the boy. He doesn't know if he should count that as a blessing or not.
He takes a minute before rolling over in his bed. "Ahh!" Though suddenly falling to the floor below. "What the?" He mutters to himself. He must have been closer to the edge than he first thought. The impact doesn't really hurt but the shock of hitting the floor still remains fresh in his mind.
Sprig staggers up from the ground and looks at the crumbled letter on his bed. He could finish it up later that night. The young teen figured it wasn't going anywhere and besides, it would have been best if he got it all done at once.
He stretches out his body and neck before reaching underneath his pillow. Her phone was where it always had been. Kept as close to him at all times.
He places the phone into the waistband of his pajama shorts. His lack of pockets wouldn't stop him from carrying a piece of her wherever he went. Sprig would have placed it in his jacket pocket like he usually did but he wasn't planning on going anywhere today so why bother to get dressed.
He opens the door to his room swiftly as it carelessly hits his back wall. He was sure he would hear a few words from Hop Pop about making so much noise that early in the morning. He'll take the old man's criticisms. It wasn't like he'd have to take any more after tonight.
Sprig makes his way downstairs, hesitantly setting foot on the bottom step of the ground floor. He could hear sounds coming from the kitchen. It sounded like laughter and overall joy. Was everybody up already?
Sprig begins his long trek to the kitchen and peers in. Hop Pop and Polly had been at the table while Sylvia was cooking up their breakfast over the stove. He steps in, taking his place among the giggling pair.
"What's with all the noise?" He said.
"Well, look who decided to wake up," Polly said, her tone almost mocking him as she flashes a cocky smirk his way. "Sleeping beauty finally gracing us with that wonderful face of his."
"What?" Sprig looks at her a bit dazed.
"Don't say that, Polly." He looks at Hop Pop, his saving grace. "I like to see him more as a snow-white-like figure."
Sprig's smile drops once his grandfather begins to speak. "Snow- what?" They both erupted into a hail of laughter, the endless chattering all guided at his already fragile spirit.
The young teen was bewildered, his eyes darting around from Polly to Hop pop and back. His face flutters up in a wave of heat as his lips bend down into a frown. Why were they making fun of him all of a sudden?
"Oh, come now Sprig, don't be like that." His grandfather heaves out through his laughing fit.
"Look at his face." Polly follows suit, pointing a finger and mocking the boy outright.
"What is wrong with you two!?" Sprig snaps. Their constant jittering and heaving at something that could hardly be classified as a joke was wearing at his nerves. He'd had enough of their nonsense.
"What's wrong with us?" Hop Pop's chuckling comes to a brusque stop. "What's wrong with sharing a laugh with your family?"
"Yeah, Sprig." Polly chimes in. "You're the one being moody." His frown deepens and he outstretches his arms, surprised.
"What?" He huffs out another confused whine. "Moody?"
"You know she's right. You are being kinda moody today." Hop Pop agrees with the boy's younger sister.
"Oh, leave him be," Sylvia said, walking over to the table with three plates of food balanced along her arms. "It's not his fault he's being moody. He's just a bit tired and sad is all." Sprig arches a brow. He supposed her argument wasn't bad or far off, but it was still odd to hear from the normally sweet old woman all the same.
"Doesn't mean much. We're all sad." Hop Pop said. "But do you think we let it define Polly and I? You think we let the feeling get to us day in and day out?"
"Yeah, we all miss her Sprig. We just try not to dwell on it too long because we know that doing so would leave us in a ruth. Stuck in the past, wanting nothing more than to return to better days. But that's why we grieved for that first year. We got it all out and we keep her tucked away in a good spot in our memories." Polly's chuckling and teasing off him stopped but her smile still persisted. "Hey, remember when you guys ran off to the lake and were attacked by the giant herons, but you managed to fight them off using crazy tag team skills."
Hop pop laughs. "Oh, remember when her phone was dying because I spent all night watching Suspicion Island by myself and we had to go get recharged at a Zapapeded nest?"
"Hey, remember when Bessie broke down in front of that inn, so we decided to stay for the night, and it turned out the owners were a bunch of cannibals. Then she blew the place up." Polly slaps a palm flat on the table as she fails to hold back her unregulated giggling.
"Remember when she was voted frog of the year and threw that big party." Hop Pop spoke up next.
"And how we blew up Toad Tower afterward!" Polly yells in her excitement. "What about the wax museum and how she sold herself for that CD player?"
Hop pop hums. "That was a good one. What about our trip to Newtopia?"
"Remember Domino II?" They break out into laughter again and much louder this time. The sound was so intense, that Sprig had to cover his own ears, bringing his hands up and over his head to muffle the sound. He seemed to be the only one affected.
"Wait hold up!" He held his hands out to silence the pair. "What's going on with you two?" They were acting strange, almost pretending that he wasn't even sitting with them then. And the way they provoke his memories back-to-back like it was some sort of game gets far beneath his skin. "Just yesterday you-" He's cut off by the sound of the doorbell ringing.
Sprig looks to his family, but they were clearly disinterested in answering the door, instead going back to the strange conversation they were having before. If he could call it that.
He sighs and leaves his seat behind. Of course, he'd have to answer though he doesn't mind being away from the rest of his family.
They were acting weird, but he doesn't understand why that is. He couldn't listen to them speak, though one thing Polly says does leach itself to his mind. He could remember that first year well. Everyone had been in emotional despair. All say for him.
While everyone was crying their hearts out and using each other to get past the tears, Sprig was the only one trying to keep it together. He didn't lament like everyone else, didn't think about her much at all. He only started to feel strange when her statue had rolled around about a few months back.
He comes up to the door, reaches a hasty hand out to the knob, and swings it open. On the other side, he finds a sight he wasn't sure he'd see for a while.
"Ivy?" The girl stood before him happy as can be and alongside her was yet another person who was far off the list of people whom he was anticipating a visit from. "And Olivia?" The queen of Newtopia was standing with a fair smile over her blue skin.
"Sprig," Ivy speaks first, hardly able to contain herself. "We found something. You're not even gonna believe it."
Sprig raises a brow to her. He was certainly intrigued by her enthusiasm. "What is it?" He asked finally.
"Sprig." Olivia stepped forward. "We've found a second box." Sprig's heart nearly stops when he hears the words.
"What?" He mutters, eyes rolling over in his head as he loses his balance and nearly faints. "Wait you said there was no way. In your letter you told me that the box was one of a kind and the gems couldn't be reproduced."
"Yes, I had thought so at first. But I've done a little more digging." She lowers her voice and reaches into a satchel she'd been carrying. "I was in the core's old archives and found some information. Writings and maps that may lead to a second box inside of a fourth temple, a fail-safe hidden on the other side of the world. I asked Yunan to investigate and she can confirm the location of the temple is real."
Sprig was taken aback and left breathless in his surprise, though he does find it strange all the same. If it was a fail-safe safe, he wonders why Andrias never sought it out. "Really..." He said, his eyes passing over into a river of hope. He didn't care about the finer details the more he thought about it. "W-when do we leave?"
"I'll ask." She turns to the personal carriage she had rode in on. "Yunan!? How quick can we leave!?" She shouts over to the snail-drawn chariot and another woman pops out from the inside.
"As quick as the wind flows!" The other woman said, waving a hand across the air.
Sprig looks between Olivia and Ivy's smiling faces. He doesn't know what to say or what to think at that moment. Was this really happening? Were his dreams about to come to fruition? He wouldn't waste time trying to take a guess.
The young teen races back upstairs and to his room. He begins to pack a bag. He didn't think he'd be leaving so soon. His original departure date was still a week off. When he looks at his bed and sees the crumbled-up note, his reminded that he wouldn't have been leaving at all.
But he didn't have to worry about what he was going to do before. His original plan was put to rest now that he had a way to see her again. The heavy weight that had been looming above him would finally disappear. She would wave it all away and pull him into the tightest hug because he knew she missed him just as much as he missed her.
His journey was long. Having to sail across the ocean for a week was rough on his psyche. Never mind the sea sickness, awful food, and catching a cold during a massive storm that hit the sea almost out of nowhere.
Despite their hardships, they would touch land on the new continent with relative ease. He should be glad they were even still alive to see it. He and his crew still had some ways to go but their long journey would be worth all of its trouble. He just knew it would be.
"Okay." Yunan stops the group, pulling out a map as she begins to trace the horizon with her eyes. They had been deep in a hazardous jungle and were overlooking a temple from a hilltop they had stopped to rest on. "That's the one. The locales talk about it all the time." She pointed to the temple and brought the map over to the others.
"How dangerous do you think it is Yu-Yu?" Ivy said as she stepped out to eye the large temple in the distance.
"Besides a few traps? I say not much. Maybe more than a few frobots but it's a slim chance." Yunan grits her teeth in excitement. Their original objective was to retrieve the box, but she wouldn't mind ripping the process out of a few old war bots as well. "Come quickly then." She and Ivy rush ahead.
Sprig attempts to follow until a hand is roped around his arm. The elegant thing lightly tugs at him, urging him to stay in place for a few minutes longer.
"Sprig." He turns to Olivia. Her gaze was warm under the already scorching heat of the jungle. Unlike the jungle around them, she was more welcoming. "When we get in there, I want you to stay close to me and Yunan, and..." She stops, forcing her eyes not to veer away from the boy. "If the box is not there, or if it's in dire shape, I want you to promise that you will be okay."
"What-"
"Just, please..." Her grip tightens around his arm. "Promise me you won't freak out or something. She wouldn't want that. Not for you." Olivia's words get him to focus. "I know you want to see her again and she, you, but if things don't pan out, I'm sure she wouldn't want you to go on living in sorrow because of her." The newt said. "Remember that time, when you first came to Newtopia? You and her had brought me the head of that ant queen." She grins at the thought of bygone memories.
"Uhh... right." He spoke hesitantly. "I promise not to freak out." She sighs, bows her head, and walks ahead of him. That was odd of the newt he thinks. He held a hand to the arm she'd squeezed onto. Olivia wasn't the strongest person; Sprig wasn't expecting her to be. Though to feel no pain or the slightest hint of pressure at all was a bit odd.
They come up to the temple after a long, hot hike through thick foliage and unforgiven mud trails. The door to the temple had already been opened. There was no other sign of life past them and a few animals, though that didn't mean they could drop their guard.
"Alright, stay sharp everyone," Yunan said, taking the lead into the old temple. This temple was unlike the ones he had seen back in Amphibia. It was a lot more subtle; it didn't stick out yet also rose out of the jungle like a monolith. The inside was less technologically advanced and more traditional in its design. The temple was definitely stranger to him. Like it had always been there.
Much like the others over in their home country, however, the structure had a lot of depth to it. This temple ran deep into the ground. Far beyond what he was used to. the walls shift around them and the deeper they go the more the stone-carved temple is replaced with more natural rock formations and clusters of flora.
They reach a wide-open space with a set of spiral steps stretching even further down into deep darkness. The walls were laced with a strange kind of flower he'd never seen back home. The buds have a strange pinkish color to them and as they pass the flowers bloom, imitating a purplish light that illuminates the dark surrounding them.
The light was so bright and shown so suddenly that Sprig was taken by surprise. He stumbles backward, nearly falling over the edge of the spiral stares and into the dark depths.
"Woah there." Yunan catches the young teen by the collar of his green jacket and pulls him back to his feet. "Be careful not to lose your step, kid."
"Thanks, Yunan." Sprig was glad she had been there to help. Falling to his death in a pit of darkness wasn't his idle fate. He would have preferred something quicker, less painful, and for sure not so scary.
She chuckles. "Now worries. You still have a box to find after all." She continues on her way down the spiral. "But even if you don't, it wouldn't be the end of the world. Not being able to see her again, doesn't mean she's lost forever, and it definitely doesn't mean she'll be forgotten." Yunan stops to look at him. "Remember when you were on earth and the time you spent with her at the temple back in Los Angeles?"
"W-what?" He looks at the woman with his face wrinkled up in a confused smile that drops from his lips immediately.
"Oh- never mind." The tall newt lifts the torch she was carrying above her. "Come on, let's catch up to the others." She persists down, leaving him in a loop of questions.
Had she been reading a report about him? How else could she have known about Anne's temple? Sprig knew she and Hop Pop had been talking a lot lately. It was possible that at some point in time, the old man might have mentioned their time on earth. It was just like his grandfather to blab about the things their family did in their personal time.
Sprig steps onto the ground floor, long after the rest of his group arrives. The others had been looking around, bringing their torches up to the chamber walls to observe old murals and engravings of the past. The old camber also seemed to run off into a corridor that led to a large door near the end of the old stone path.
If this temple had been anything close to the other three, it meant that three trials awaited the group. The stone door they stop in front of puts them in the midst of the first.
The first challenge was a simple one. All they needed to do was open the room's door using a stream of interconnected lights. The catch was that the light had to be directed to the door using a multitude of mirrors. Not the hardest thing in the world but it could have also been a less tedious task.
Ivy would take care of the first challenge; she insisted on doing so. The girl had a knack for elaborate puzzles and solving them so she would make for the perfect candidate anyway.
The sunflower-toned frog jumps up to the first mirror and carefully scans the room below. After spotting all of the mirrors that would be involved in the puzzle. She turns the first to the mirror she believed to be second in line afterward heading over to that one and spinning it around to the third.
She continued to do so until each mirror was connected and bouncing a steady stream of light around the room and to the door on the other end. Their first challenge was complete.
"Nice one Ivy." Sprig complements her as they make their way out of the room and toward the second challenge.
This time around was different. The room was dark all say for a low green light that came from a giant stone frog with what appeared to be mushrooms spurting from its head sat at the other side. The second chamber was smaller than the first room to better suit the challenge. Instead of another puzzle, it was a riddle. A test of historical insight.
Suddenly the frog's eyes, or what was left of them, light up as the statue begins to speak. "We find residence inside the body, spreading and sprouting with stubborn moxy. We coat the brain to take root as your existence becomes our truth. We make you walk, run, talk, and socialize until the day we are finalized. Friends and family were surprised to see you well when they heard you were sick, though little did they know that their demise would also come quick. We spread our glory across the land until the world is in the palm of our hands. We are legion, yet we are many. What are we?" The stone frog stops to await an answer from the wondering group.
"Oh, that's easy." Olivia steps up with a small snicker. "Cordyceps." She said rolling her eyes, finding the question to be much too obvious for her liking. The eyes on the stone frog go dark as it begins to split apart along with the wall behind it, revealing the path to the last challenge.
"Nice going, Olivia." Sprig says and he gives him a courteous bow as he passes her by. The second challenge was done, and they were off to the last.
The final room was a wide-open hall with stone knights frozen between missive pillars on either end. On the other side of the missive chamber was a door. If all they had to do was walk to it seemed easy enough. That is until the stone newts' soldiers start moving.
The not so inanimate statues step out in front of the group blocking the path to the chamber's exit. He should have guessed it would be a combat trial.
"Alright, everyone. I got this." Yunan steps up to answer the trial's call, stretching out one arm above her head. "But you can join if you want." She doesn't even wait for a response before rushing at the stone soldiers.
The only weapon she had been carrying was one of her blade gauntlets that used to be a part of her old armor. She had long since abandoned the armor four years back once she became the queen's consort. As for the other gauntlet, she had accidentally left it back at their camp on the beach. Not like she needed the extra help to win this fight.
The woman jumps right into the fight, plunging her blade deep into hard stone. The stone knights rushed her all at once, but she was too fast and too strong for the slow-moving statues. She uses a mixture of a gauntlet and her fist to destroy the temple guardians and send the remains flying across the room in heaps of debris.
She was amazing but he should have expected nothing less from the scourge of the sand wars, defeater of Ragnar the wretched, and the youngest newt to achieve the rank of general. Fighting was her craft; she was more than just good at it. She was a professional.
One knight comes at her with a spear, but she grabs onto the weapon, shines an insidious grin, and slams her head against the stone, shattering it to pieces. Had it been anyone else, the stone smacking against their head would have surely hurt, but Yunan wasn't just anybody.
She takes up the stone spear in her hands and proceeds to the rest of the stone guardians. The newt ducks, dodges, laughs, and carves her way through the hoard of stone worriers until there is no more challenge to speak of.
"Oh, come on... is that it?" She whines as the door on the other end of the chamber opens. "Fine." She groans. "I guess that will have to do."
"I thought you were great Yunan." Sprig said, walking past her and over to the door. The last challenge was complete.
This was it. Their final stretch. All there was left was one final door between them and the second box he was eager to get his hands on.
He was a bit scared. anxiety, and excitement all coil around him his body at once. He was going to see her again. After all these years of thinking about her, crying over her, being alone without her to comfort him. They were getting the chance to be together again.
Sprig brings a hand up as he comes to the final door. He reached out as Ivy ran a hand over his, startling him and stopping his approach.
"Sprig." The young teen peers over to the girl. The joy on her face had long since gone away. "This is it, past this door is everything you ever wanted... but is it?" He narrows his eyes at her. He didn't understand what she meant by that. Of course, this is what he wanted. "You miss her, I understand that. We all understand that but is this what you really want? To live in the past, to feel like you need her. To feel like if she wasn't around life has no meaning at all. Would she want you to live like that?" Sprig looks away from Ivy and back to the door with some uncertainty in his shaky hand. "Remember that time when she first saw us together and decided she needed to play matchmaker."
Sprig's hand lowers, dropping hers away as well. "What?" He turns to her fully and gazes back at Olivia and Yunan too. "What is this? Is this some kind of elaborate attempt just to get me to talk about her? Did my family put you up to this?" He chuckles out of sheer disbelief. "Is the box even real?"
"No Sprig the box is real," Olivia spoke up. "At first I didn't want to tell you about it, it took me everything I had not to mention it but when your grandfather wrote to me about how bad things were getting with you, I couldn't keep the secret any longer. I had to come if only to ease your weary mind." She steps closer to him and takes his hands. "But we don't have to go in there. We can go back home. You won't see her again, but you don't have to forget her, not as long as you keep her close to your heart."
Sprig looks at Olivia, his vision beginning to obscure, and then he looks toward to ground. He grits his teeth. He didn't just want to remember her. "I'm doing this." He snatches his hands away from hers and turns back to the door.
He pushes the last stone door open and enters the last room, though he was afraid to at first. He held onto the fear that his hopes might have been shattered once he saw there was no box to speak of. However, once he is in those fears are laid to rest and tucked away.
On a pedestal, at the top of a long set of stairs sat a box that was identical to the first in every way, bathed in a golden glow of light with its multi-colored gems still interlaced.
He runs up the staircase, toward the box, all his hopes and dreams and most importantly, to her. He makes it to the top with the others not far behind. There it was, as real as the sun was bright and scorching.
"Hmm..." Yunan hummed as she looked at the pedestal the box sat on. "Looks like it's hooked up to this old machine. This thing might be a one-way trip."
"What!?" Ivy coughs out, nearly choking on her own surprise. "Sprig, we don't have to go through with this, we-" She begins to argue but comes to a stop once she sees the certainty in the boy's eyes. "But we can't make that decision for you." She whispered, taking a step back along with the others.
Sprig touches his hands to the lead. For a second his nerves spark up as a second thought crosses his mind. There was a part of him that didn't want to go through with this. Could he really bring himself to leave his family behind just to see her again?
As quickly as the thought appears, however, it vanishes. He had to follow through. Sprig wanted to see her even if it meant not seeing his family and friends ever again. He could live with the consequences later. Just so long as she was there to help see him through.
He tilted the lid open and in a colorful flash, the young teen was no longer in the temple. He wasn't even on Amphibia anymore. The room he stood in now was a bit dark and a lot cozy. On either end of the long corridor were exhibits. All filled with all kinds of amphibians.
From Frogs to toads to newts. All smaller than what he was used to seeing back home and the more he walked the more he saw. Not just amphibians but fish and other sea-faring creatures.
It had worked. He was back on earth with their bit-sized frogs and need for caging cute animals. He smiled to himself; he couldn't help but feel happy about it. His home was lost to him forever, but he had gained the chance to be with her and as he thinks to himself, he finally sees a sight he'd been sorely missing for the better part of four years.
She was knelt down by an open terrarium at the far end of the room. She held a small pink frog on one finger as she observed his enclosed habitat. She had been wearing a uniform, a green shirt with ten shorts. Her hair wasn't so wild now with most of it being pulled up into a ponytail, held together by a scrunchie designed with a leaf pattern on it.
She looked amazing and still as stunning as she's always been in his eyes. She slowly turns a halfway glance at him and smiles as her eyes begin to tear up and his do the same.
"Anne." He whispered her name and in a flash of red, green, and blue. She was gone.
Sprig's eyes open slowly as he lets out a strained groan. His eyes glance across his ceiling, doing their best to identify his surroundings. He was in his room, in his bed lying down without a blanket covering him.
He leans up, holding a hand to his throbbing head. What just happened? Was it all just a dream? He brings his legs over the edge of the bed and guides his eyes toward his window. The skies were cloudy, and rain had been drizzling and lightly tapping at his window.
The young teen reaches under his pillow and takes out the phone that lies under it each day. The time read ten A.M. It had been early, but not too early in the morning. He begins to get up when a knock comes at his door.
"Sprig?" Hop Pop speaks from the other side, calling out to the young teen in a tone he was very much accustomed to. "I'm coimin in." He said, gently popping his head into the boy's room. "Good, you're up." A soft smile is aimed at the teen.
"Yeah..." He hums to himself, still thinking back to the dream. "What's up Hop Pop?"
"Well- uhh, Lady Olivia is here within for ya downstairs." Sprig looks at his grandfather, away and back again. He thinks he misheard the man.
"What? Wait why?" He asked a bit nervously.
"Well, I invited her." Hop Pop confessed, rubbing the back of his neck. "I thought It might do ya some good to have someone ta talk to." Sprig snickers to himself. He thinks he's dreaming once again.
He carefully steps toward his grandpa with squinted eyes. "Hey, Hop Pop, you wouldn't happen to be in the mood for joking or kidding around right now are you." The boy asked and Hop Pop stared back at him with an odd look.
"Joking, this early Sprig?" He says. "Are ya tryin' to give me high cholesterol?" His grandfather spoke with genuine concern. Sprig was definitely awake now.
"Nah Hop Pop." He chuckles at the old man. "Just wondering that's all."
He cautiously hums at his grandson and shrugs. "Well, when you're done wonderin' Oivia'll be waitin' for ya in the livin' room." Sprig nods and Hop Pop closes the door behind him.
He steps back, holding his wrist in one hand. The dream replays in his head as clear as a vivid image. The construct of his subconscious had made him feel strange, like the days when she was still around. He had never seen her like that before.
He looks over to his bed and at the note that sat crinkled up on it. He knew he would make a big mistake if he continued how he was.
He takes the paper and rips it up, soon opening his window to send the shards scattering into the wind of the morning storm. Sprig didn't have to die because he was without her, and he didn't have to forget her. Not as long as he kept her close to his heart.
He would eventually make his way to the living room after wrapping up in his bedroom and getting dressed out of respect for Olivia. He sees the queen sitting on one of their sofas and staring out of the to the light rainstorm that was occurring and counting the droplets rolling down the window.
"Sprig." She looks at him with a pleasant smile, waving the boy over.
"Hey, Olivia." He greeted, taking a seat beside her on the couch. "Is Yunan here too?" He spoke, anxious of what her answer might be.
"Oh, no. She's still at our base camp overseas." Her warm, refined smile fades. "I hope you would still join us. Getting away could do you some good." She shifts uncomfortably on the sofa. "I know you never asked me to come, but after your grandfather had written to me about your worsening condition, I had to come by. I wanted to make sure you were okay."
Sprig's eyes peel away from the queen and down to his own hands. "You know..." He began. "I was actually starting to reconsider it. I figured what would be the point. If I couldn't make new memories with her why bother with anything at all? Why bother living?" A concerned look spreads across Olivia's face as the boy goes on. "But then something happened. Something in my mind clicked. I could keep lying in bed, wishing and dreaming for her for her, the rest of my life..." His words stutter as his voice becomes shaky. "But I know she wouldn't want me to do that..." He stares at his hands a bit longer before bringing his tear-soaked eyes up to the newt. "For the longest, I was afraid to move on because I thought I would forget her... but I don't have to forget her." The tears began to roll down his cheeks as he lost all sense of control over his emotions.
He tries to bring a hand up to wipe the tears away, but Olivia stops him, holding his shaky hand in hers. "It's okay." She softly whispers to him, and he breaks down, falling into her lap. She held him close to her chest as she caressed the back of his head and began to comfort him.
During that first year Sprig was the only one trying to keep it together. The only one who reserved his tears and held on to them for as long as he could. He didn't have anyone to share his pain with. He didn't want to, but now he was, and he wasn't holding any of it back anymore. There were four long years' worth of grief built up in him and he was getting all out that morning.