The Start of all of Our Lives
Gus
We did it! I don't know what we did besides help out in the Archives, but I just have a gut feeling that it's something good. I also have a feeling that all of our worries were all over as we all smiled up on the balcony. And I feel that my friends and Camila felt the same way.
"I don't know why." Camila spoke up. "But I feel happy all of a sudden. I want to celebrate with my daughter."
"Luz is your daughter, right?" The Collector asked her. She nodded at them.
"Si, she is." She answered.
"Do you want to see her then?" Camila looked surprised.
"Luz is still alive?"
"Yes. Come, I can take you to her if you want." She smiled at him.
"That'll be great then! Thank you so much!" The Collector smiled and produced his star transportation. "Hop on then."
"Ok." Camilla got on. Amity got out her staff. So did Willow and I.
"We'll follow from behind." Amity stated.
"Sounds good." The Collector told her. "You better keep up then!"
"Don't worry; we will." When we saw The Collector take off with Camila, we took up after them with Hunter sitting behind Willow on her staff.
Once we were back onto the ground, we saw Luz. With her were King, Raine and Eda. Amity got off her staff and ran up to hug Luz. After that, she allowed Camila to do the same. We all smiled at the happy reunion.
"Well, I better turn everybody back into non-puppets I guess." The Collector spoke. "I just want to say that I'm so sorry for what I did. It was wrong and I just want to make things right again."
"We appreciate that very much." Willow told him.
"Does that mean you know where our parents are?" Amity wanted to know. The Collector looked at her.
"Depends. What do they look like?" So we all gave descriptions of our parents.
When I was done describing Dad to The Collector, I saw Hunter frowning and felt really bad for him. The Collector then turned to him.
"What about you?" He asked. He then remembered something and frowned. "Oh, right. Sorry."
"It's alright." Hunter informed him. "I knew that this was coming. I'm just so happy that my friends can reunite with their families." But under Hunter's happiness, I knew he was still sad.
"Well, okay, then. I'll come back with all of your parents." He got back onto his star vehicle. "Byeeeee!" With that, he flew off. I looked at Hunter.
"Are you going to be okay?" I asked him. He looked at me.
"Yeah." He just said. "I'll be fine. I'm a little sad that no one will be waiting for me, but I just want you guys to be happy. See? I told you that we'll return home again. You were so worried about your dad, and now you get to see him again. Don't worry about me, you should be happy." I smiled at that.
"Yeah. You were so right about that and I am glad that I get to see my dad again. I'm very happy." I then changed the subject. "You know, Hunter? We might not be blood-related, but we are still family. You are like the big brother that I never had." Hunter smiled.
"Thanks, Gus. Luz said that I was family too. It means so much to me that you guys think of me like that. You are like the little brother that I never had." I smiled again.
"Oh, and thanks for everything back on the airship. You guys shouldn't have, but I appreciate it."
"No problem. It was Luz's idea. You suffered with Belos enough. She didn't want you to suffer any more. I feel bad that she got the scar because of it, but she survived, so that's good."
"Yeah, but still. Belos wanted me, not Luz. She would not have gotten her scar then. I felt guilty because of it."
"Don't be. When you have people that care about you, Hunter, that kinda happens. Sacrifices are made."
"I guess."
When the Collector came back, they led us to where we were going to reunite with our families. This was it! Pretty soon, I was finally going to see Dad again! I could hardly wait!
However, as my friends were reuniting with their loved ones, I looked and looked and didn't see Dad anywhere. I grew worried then. Was Dad even here?
I then saw him! I wanted to call out to him, but then I thought of something even better. I did utter out a 'yeah-he-hah' while conjuring up four illusions with my arms spread. I ran over to him and conjured up multiple illusions of myself.
Finally, after hugging two of my illusions, Dad finally hugged the real thing. I made my other illusions vanish. He was happy crying as he picked me up.
"I was so worried, Augustus." He told me. "I never thought I would see you and hold you in my arms ever again." I was so overjoyed that I startled crying too.
"I was worried sick about you too, Dad." I said through my tears. "I'm really happy that we're reuniting."
"Me too." He looked at me and smiled. "But you are my brave, little boy. I'm so proud of you." This time I smiled.
"Thanks, Dad." I then had a thought. Hunter! I looked and my worries instantly vanished when I saw Hunter talking to Darius and Eberwolf as he pretended his hands were paws. I smiled. No doubt he was telling them about wolves.
"What's wrong, Augustus?" My father wanted to know with worry in his voice. I looked at him.
"Nothing." I replied. "Nothing at all. Everything's perfectly fine." He smiled.
"That's good." I then thought of something and looked at my father.
"Dad?" I began.
"What?" He wanted to know.
"I know this is asking a lot, but can we have Hunter be a part of our family?" He looked confused.
"Didn't you say he was The Golden Guard?"
"He's changed, Dad. He's not The Golden Guard anymore. He's a good person now. He has no family now, lost his palisman and I'm worried about him. He's like my big brother and he said that I was like his little brother. He helped me when I was feeling down. Please? I would really like it, and I know he'll really like it too." Dad smiled.
"That's really thoughtful of you, son, and frankly I don't know. Adopting someone in your family is a big commitment. I have to think about it."
"I know. Think away, Dad."
"By the way. I like your shirt, son. It looks cool." I looked down at myself.
"Oh this? Thanks!: I looked at him again. "It's actually a Halloween, a human holiday, costume. I'm Captain Avery from Cosmic Frontier. Hunter is Chief O' Bailey, or was. He's mainly wearing his wolf shirt now which he sewed all by himself by the way."
"Chief O' Bailey? Captain Avery? Cosmic Frontier? What's that?"
"Only the greatest sci-fi franchise that ever existed! Camila, Hunter and I are huge fans." Dad smiled.
"You can tell me all about it later."
"Oh, I will."
"Gus! Guess what?" Hunter asked me when I approached him. "Darius just said that he would adopt me as his son and I could live with him and Eberwolf. Isn't that great? I get to be part of a family again, but a nice and loving one this time." I faked a smile.
"That's great! I'm so proud of you. Are you going to let him adopt you?"
"Thanks and I honestly don't know. Camila said I could be part of hers too with her, Luz, and Vee. She says as long as I'm happy, she'll be happy. But no matter who I chose, I feel like I'm going to let the other person down. Know what I mean? I was so happy in The Human Realm compared to The Demon Realm. I felt more at home there even though I was away from home and confused about almost everything there if that makes sense. I want to see more, but I also want to attend Hexside, carve palismen, and play Flyer Derby, so I don't know where I'll go from here." He must have known that I was really disappointed because of what he asked me next. "You okay, Gus? What's wrong?" I was about to say that it was nothing, but knew that it was pointless, so I told him anyway. He was disappointed. "Aw, man, Willow asked me the same thing. I wouldn't be surprised if Eda asks me too."
"Well, everyone feels bad for you and wants to help."
"I guess it's a curse and blessing at same time if that makes sense."
"It does." He then groaned in frustration. "Ugh, this makes things even worse!" I felt bad for him.
"I'm sorry." I told him. "I didn't want to make it worse." He looked at me.
"Don't be sorry. It's not your fault. I'm just so grateful that you and everybody else want me as part of their family. It really means the world to me. I just have a lot of thinking to do." I smiled.
"Well, no matter who you choose to go with, I will always think of you as my older brother." He smiled at me.
"And I'll always think of you as a little brother."
Later, we were on TV as Dad reported the news of our return and the future of the Boiling Isles and its inhabitants. He then said that The Boiling Isles will have to be rebuilt.
We began rebuilding the Isles the next day. Days later, we took a break, and we all had a party of us returning to The Demon Realm and Luz saving it from Emperor Belos. Vee was in attendance too and the other good news is The Collector found a way for anyone to travel from The Human Realm and The Demon Realm so we can see Luz and her mom whenever we wanted to!
We ate our Demon Realm food while Camila ate her 'edible' food. Back in The Human Realm when we made our 'monster food', we felt so bad that Camila didn't eat it, but we couldn't blame her. She's a human, so she isn't used to our food. While I found some Human Realm food to be enjoyable, some turned out to be completely disgusting like black licorice and olives, yuck!
As we ate, Dad looked at me.
"Augustus." He began. I looked at him. "You never told me about The Human Realm. What was it like?"
"Good for the most part." I answered.
"Can you tell me about it?"
"Sure." I told him of our adventures on Earth. He smiled.
"Sounds like you guys had fun in this Connecticut place." I nodded and then frowned.
"It wasn't all good though." I told him.
"Well, everywhere you go has its ups and downs. No place is perfect."
"Dad, racism and discrimination exists there." He was shocked and confused about that.
"What? What do you mean?" So I told him about me being arrested at the mall. "Oh, Augustus, that's horrible! I'm sorry that you had to go though that. I can't imagine not being allowed in a store because of the color of my skin. I guess that is what makes us lucky that we live here. Racism doesn't exist here."
"Yeah, we're very lucky that everyone here doesn't bat an eye at anybody's differences or what they did in their past and accepts them for who they are. That whole Karen incident was the absolute worst experience I had to endure there."
"I bet." He changed the subject. "So, how were the giraffes there? You were pretty interested in seeing one."
"The most terrifying thing that I saw." He was, once again, confused.
"What?" So I told him. "That reminds me. I got a giraffe keychain at that mall."
"The same mall you got arrested in?" I frowned.
"Yes, and I got other souvenirs there and other places." I then realized something. "Titan; they are all back in Connecticut."
"That's okay, son. You brought back the best thing."
"What's that?"
"You." I smiled.
After we were done eating, Principal Bump stood up and cleared his throat. Everyone quieted down and listened.
"The day of Unity was a disaster." He began. "And it turned out Emperor Belos was pure evil and didn't appreciate our kind, so he had a hidden agenda that he kept from all of us. Ever since then, disaster hit The Boiling Isles, and many of us feared for our lives. Some of us might have given up hope altogether. Just recently though, our lives have been saved and our ruthless Emperor has been defeated thanks to these five children and one adult human." He grabbed some medals that he had with him. "Now, clap for them as I call them one by one please." And so, he called up Hunter, Luz, Camila, Amity, Willow and I to the front to congratulate us one by one. We clapped for whoever was called and went to him. Bump had a medal for each of us.
When my name was called, I did the same thing. Bump picked up my medel and looked at me and put the medal around my neck. I shook his hand.
Hunter was the last one called for he didn't have a last name..yet. We all clapped louder for him to show our appreciation. After all the stuff that he went though, he deserved it! Once up on stage, he allowed Bump to put his medal around his neck.
"Once again, the heroes of the Boiling Isles!" There were applause from all around.
Afterwards, we went back to our seats. Once again, Dad told me how proud he was of me and I thanked him once again.
Hunter told me he had made his decision. It wasn't with me and Dad unfortunately, but I was glad just the same. He frowned. I noticed this and grew concerned.
"You ok?" I wanted to know.
"Yeah." He said. "But I wished I had helped in defeating Belos. It was for Flapjack, and because of that, it feels like I failed him."
"You didn't. The Isles is saved. You found people that care about you and where you belong. I think that's good enough, Flapjack would be proud of you, Hunter." He smiled.
"Yeah, you're right. He would've. I know he would've." Camila came to us then.
"Oh, good, you're both here." She observed.
"What is it, Camila?" She smiled.
"How would you two like to attend Sci-Con with me next summer in Connecticut? There will be a Cosmic Frontier panel there with the author attending." Hunter and I both gasped with excitement and squealed like fangirls.
"That would be awesome!" I responded. "I would like that very much. Thank you! Now we can see fans just like us."
"And we can buy the merch!" Hunter added. "So many merch! It'll be amazing! Thanks, Camila!"
"You mean, it'll be out-of-this world!" Camila chuckled.
"I'd figured that since you two are fans now, you guys would want to go." She spoke. "Okay then, I'll get three tickets, and it's a date."
Principal Bump called me over moments later. I went over to him. He was with Dad.
"Son," Dad began. "…your Principal and I were talking and we have great news."
"What is it?" I wanted to know.
"Your father and I were talking about your academics and how exceptionally smart you are." Bump began. "You skipped two grades so that proves that you are smarter than most kids your age."
"While I am grateful that you are talking to me in this manner, I feel like this is going somewhere. Is it?" Bump nodded.
"And again you show your intelligence, Augustus. Since you are so smart, I think you will be able to graduate early." I was shocked.
"Really?!" Again, Bump nodded. I could hardly hold in my excitement.
"Congratulations, I think any place will love to have someone who just saved The Boiling Isles."
"My genius little son." Dad said. "I knew there was something special in you when you skipped two grades."
Later when I was with my friends, I told them the news that Principal Bump told me.
"That's great, Gus!" Willow congratulated me. "Congratulations!"
"Thank you." I said. "While I'll miss not being able to attend classes with my friends, I'll get by just fine."
"You sure will." Amity agreed.
"Imagine me, being a professor at a university and teaching when I'm Hunter's age. I'll be known as Professor Porter."
"Ooh, Professor Porter!" Luz stated. "I like the sound of that."
"Do we have to bow at you then?" Hunter asked. "I have never been friends with a professor before."
"You don't have to." I told him. "For it's completely unnecessary."
"I figure that was the case. But I thought I should ask just in case. I still have to get used to not living under royalty."
"You will." Vee piped up.
"But if you bow to me," I said. "I wouldn't mind. In fact, I'll love it if you do!"
"But seriously you don't have to." I felt a little disappointed that she said that, but she's right. It's completely unnecessary, and I won't be offended if he doesn't, but it will still be nice if he forgets from time to time. After all, habits do die hard, so it's possible!
We talked some more, but then it was time to go. The next day, we will continue on rebuilding the Isles and for the unforeseeable future. While rebuilding the Isles will be a pain, it'll be worth it in the end. The road will be long so we have a lot to do and a lot to look forward to!