A Melting of a Heart Chapter 14
Return
By Key Mima
Magus shadowed his eyes for a moment to see the two other men before him, trudging through the blinding snow as he was. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a small group of enemies, but at this point, he no longer cared about how many little disgusting creatures he had to fight.
It had been a month since Sunev had died. And since then, all he could do was think about her. He would stay up late at night, unable to sleep, thinking of the things he could have done so that they wouldn't have parted hating each other. He would wake up early, and regret all that he had done while he was with her, and wonder how long he would have to wait to apologize to her.
And then, there were the times when he thought himself an idiot for even caring how the Sunev felt. It wasn't like him to take pity on a little girl who had only served to bother him while she was alive. He sometimes blamed her for not being able to fight Lavos. There were times when he wanted to bring her back just to hit her, when he thought of all the things he could have accomplished if he didn't have to take care of her.
And there were times when he wondered what exactly he would do when she was brought back. Would he be happy? Would she be angry at him, or relieved to see him? Would he embrace her, or slap her? He was nervous about what he would do. He hoped he wouldn't make a fool out of himself.
And Schala... Schala, his best friend, his beloved sister, had disappeared again. The thought of it made his eyes sore, and he knew that once Lavos was dead, nothing would keep him from finding her. Nothing.
And as his scythe cut through another little blob of a creature, he finally came bck down to earth, and started to whisper a spell.
"Do you think it'll actually work?" Crono asked quietly later in their journey, looking down at his feet in the blinding white snow. His blue eyes had lost their shine and were dull, as were everyone's, but his were especially sad, for he knew that he was supposed to be the one to die. Magus only wished it had been so.
"It had better work," Magus muttered, his breath a puff of white air, rising to meet the bright sky.
"It shall work. I've no doubt of that, lad," Glenn said, putting a comforting hand on the boy's shoulder.
Then, Crono's body tensed like a cat who just spotted a predator in the forest. He pointed forward, and Magus's eyes traveled the invisible line the youth's hand drew to see a cave. There was a sort of steam coming from it, which periodically stopped and then started again, like breathing. He nodded to no one, and then started off with more energy than he had used for anything in the past few weeks. Whatever was in there was going to get the full brunt of his anger, and God help him for it...
She had no idea how long it had been since she met Cyrus and started staying at The Fire. It was funny, but The Fire was the main thing in her life right now. It was always there to provide light for her,keep her warm, and to cook her food. It never went out, it was sort of... mystical, in a way.
The little pool of water was mystical too, even more so than the fire. She often found herself staring into it, seeing what it was that the party was up to. They were still working hard to bring her back, but she hadn't bothered to keep tabs on them in the past few days, since everything had been going at an incredibly slow pace. She had tried to see her home in Massachusetts the other day, but it wore her mind out, and nothing happened, although she had sat in front of it, concentrating only on her mother and the front door, her entrance into this world.
How did time pass when she was here? She had been in this world for nearly a year, including her time dead, and for all she knew, it could be even more in her world. It could be twenty years, ten, five, or the exact amount of time she had spent in this place. She hoped it was none of those options. She couldn't imagine the pain of losing a child, her mother spending her nights weeping herself to sleep.
Some tears stung at the corners of her eyes as she pictured this, and she nonchalantly wiped them away an focused on the weiner. How in God's name did Cyrus find weiners, anyway? she asked herself, looking across The Fire to the knight who had become her very good friend. He would go searching for food in the darkness, which she had come to learn was actually a giant plain. Then, he would come back with perfectly intact pieces of what looked like chicken, but she never wanted to ask. It was the same thing with this hot dog. She bit off the end.
"So, what did you do today?" she asked, her finger playing over the small stick in her hand, scraping off some of the thin bark.
"I went searching for food, and then I practiced some swordfighting," he replied, taking a bite of his food, which looked like a chicken leg.
"Do you think you've gotten rusty since you died?" Sunev asked, a small smile on her lips.
"No, I'm just as good as ever," Cyrus stated, no animosity or sarcasm in his expression whatsoever. She knew that if he believed he was still good, he was still good. "How is your power?"
"It's fine, even though I think I burnt something out in that one fight," she muttered, her mouth full of meat.
"I was watching, on the edge of my seat," he said, a smile on his young face.
"Thanks. Yeah, I just love watching people die, making fools out of themselves in front of the people they..." She paused a moment, swallowing her food, and then looked up at Cyrus again. "You didn't watch that whole thing with Magus and I.. right?"
"That was your private business. I heard none of it."
"Thank you." Sunev sighed to herself in relief, because if Cyrus had seen what an idiot she had been, she probably couldn't be the same around him again. But even his knowing that something had been going on behind the curtains made her feel a little queasy. "It's like a soap opera," she mused. An expression of confusion crossed Cyrus's face only momentarily, but she could tell he decided not to inquire. She was glad he wasn't nosy like most people on Earth were. She sighed.
Cyrus finished his "chicken", rose from his seat at a small log, and moved over to the pool, casually looking at it.
"I always check on my queen before I move to anything else," he told her, looking up at her with a sad smile. "I'll never give up my charge, no matter where I am."
"I'm sorry," Sunev said sincerely, and then she went to his side, to see the events of the day. Queen Leene was eating, and Cyrus watched with plain love in his eyes, so much love that sunev longed for someone to look at her like that. She sat down on her bottom, bringing her knees up to her chest so that she could rest her chin on them.
"Would you like me to check on Glenn and Crono?" he asked, not mentioning Magus's name, which he never did. She realized that it must be awful for him to spend time with a girl who was actually in love with him. She blushed.
"If you don't mind..." she mumbled.
"It's a pleasure."
The pool swirled like the mirror from Snow White, bringing a small smile to Sunev's lips, and then she saw a sight she hadn't expected to see for another few weeks.
The one lone tree stood out of the cliff, the light shining on it beautifully, and Crono, Frog, and Magus, stood around it, with a perfect clone of herself. They were sweating, bleeding, breathing hard, but they had made it. She out a laugh, and then they started the procedure to bring her back and suddenly, a force hit her with incredible force in the back of the head. The last thing she saw was the pool water as her face hit it, and she heard Cyrus's cry of surprise. Then, she was unconscious.
"Sunev, canst thou hear us?" Another male voice. Not the one.
She opened her eyes gradually, after making some groaning noises. The brightness of the sun blinded her so that she had to shade her eyes with her hand for a moment, then they adjusted, and she saw Crono and Frog hovering over her, and then let out whoops of joy. Over their shoulders she could see Magus, his back to them.
"You guys," she said, hugging Frog and then Crono. "Thank you so much."
"You didst a brave deed back there, lass," Frog said, smiling earnestly at her. "Words cannot expresseth the pride I feel swelling in mine heart at this moment," he said, brushing her hair out of her eyes.
Crono hugged her again. "You shoulda let me be the one," he whispered softly.
"I couldn't let you," she replied. "You're too popular."
Both of them nodded.
"And anyway," Crono added, "this all turned out great. Now we can take you back to see everyone. I'm sure they'll be glad to see you're okay."
"Yeah.." Sunev said blankly, her eyes focusing on Magus, who still hadn't turned to face them yet. "What do you think you're doing, Magus?" she asked sharply, although her voice was shaky at first. "You're just gonna pretend I don't exist?" He respond and didn't move to acknowledge her words.
Sunev stood up weakly, and then approached him.
"I saved you, and you won't even thank a girl for that?"
"I won't thank a reckless, thoughtless, stupid girl for that," he finally answered, and then turned to face her, his look not angry, like his words, but relieved and concerned.
After looking into those red eyes for a while, Suenv finally let out a small cry and threw herself at him, latching her arms around his neck and wrapping her legs around his waist.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered into his shoulder, wiping her eyes on his cape.
"Don't you ever do anything like that again," he whispered back, pressing a small, modest kiss to her cheek. Sunev let out a relieved giggle, and faced him to plant a plain peck on his lips.
"Whatever happened to hating me?" she asked with a grin.
"I don't know what came over me," he replied nonchalantly, stroking her hair softly.
"You jerk," she muttered with a genuinely happy smile, punching him playfully.
They smiled at each other for a moment longer, and then leaned in close for another kiss. Sunev sighed happily. Finally, everything was going to be alright. I'll never let anything happen to split us up again, she vowed silently. I don't care if the heavens themselves try and stop it. And she knew it was true, what she said, because she had come too far to stop now. Nothing would stop her from being this way forever. Not even home.
.