Immortal (21 page)

When they arrived on land, Gabriel took her hand and they went into the forest. Gabriel stared at Staysia. She turned to him and smiled. He looked away and then looked at
her again. She raised her brows and smiled again.

“This is a lot to take in for you, huh?”

“Oh yes, quite a bit to take in! I am in disbelief to tell you the truth. I am in absolute disbelief.”

He pulled on her hand and took her in a different direction.

“Where are we going?” she asked him.

“See those trees over there?” he said as he pointed at a group of beautiful green trees with purple flowers on them.

“They’re beautiful!”

“That’s where we are going.”

“You’ve been here before?” she asked.

“Not hardly,” Gabriel said. “Your parents told me about the place.”

“And what are we going there for, Gabriel?”

“Ha! I’m not telling until we get there.”

Staysia had an idea of why he was taking her there, an she hoped she was right.

When they arrived
, the place was more beautiful than either of them had expected. Gabriel took her to a spot underneath a tree, beside a bridge that was used to cross over a large pool of water with a waterfall above it. Staysia smiled. She moved her smile to one side of her face.

“It’s gorgeous!”

“You are gorgeous, Staysia!”

“Thank you.
”

“Don’t thank me, Staysia. I hope to say those words to you every morning of every day from now until forever!”

“Every day until forever?” Staysia became fairly shy and moved her eyes to the water fall. “That’s a long time.”

Gabriel took both of her hands into his and knelt on one knee in front of her.

“Will you—name my horse?” he asked with a smile.

She laughed nervously and looked into his eyes. “No, I will not name your horse!”

“Will you marry me then?”

Staysia hesitated.

“I mean—if you want. If you don’t want to, I will understand.” He looked up at her hopefully.

“Yes Gabriel! Yes I will marry you!”

“You will?”

“Don’t sound so surprised. Yes, I would love to marry you! But, I will
not
name your horse. You have to do that yourself.”

“Oh Staysia! I am the happiest man alive!” He rose to his feet and squeezed her tight. He looked into her eyes and they had their very first kiss. They stood staring into one another’s eyes. There, underneath the tree, near the bridge, below the waterfall. “I thought for sure you had fallen for Tristen. I was so afraid when I saw him kiss you. I thought surely I had lost you. Thank you, thank you for choosing me.”

“Thank you for being the one I wanted.” Staysia replied.

He kissed her again and embraced her in his arms. He kissed the top of her head. “I’m so glad everything worked out for you. When I first met you I felt so bad for you. I wanted to take all of your pain away and knew that I couldn’t. That was a hard idea to get used to. I’m glad your pain is gone now. I am going to live my entire life to make you happy. That is all that matters to me. I just want to see you smile. I’ve seen you smile so many times, but there was always something missing. I don’t want anything to ever be missing from your gorgeous smile, Staysia. Ever.”

“Thank you for saying such a thing—” Staysia began.

“Shh.” Gabriel said. “Don’t thank me. No more thanking me.”

“I feel like this all happened for a reason. I feel like we were meant to meet each other. I feel like we were meant to be together.”

“Of course we were. I love you, Staysia.”

“And I love you, Gabriel the Great Beast Tamer.”

“Speaking of beast taming, are you ready to go visit our hairy friends?”

“Ha!” Staysia laughed. “I am! Are we going to actually be bringing them to the island to meet the Sea Child?”

“Absolutely!”

“If you say so!”

“You will understand once we get back!”

“Understand what?”

“You will see!” Gabriel kissed her on the cheek and took her hand in his
, and they were on their way to look for their oversized friends.

“We are getting closer. It won’t be long before we run into them. Do you think they will be happy to see us?”

“Let’s hope so!” Gabriel laughed.

“I’m sorry that we couldn’t help you when that witch too
k you for her own. I wanted to—”

“Now, you are
apologizing
? Staysia, you are going to have to get used to me. I won’t let you thank me for anything that I was born to do, nor do I expect you to apologize for anything that you couldn’t help.”

“Well, maybe you need to get used to me too then, Gabriel.” She smiled at him before finishing. “It is going to be a challenge to get me to stop thanking you or apologizing on certain occasions where necessary.”

“Necessary? Why is it necessary that you apologize when you have already done everything you could? That, my lady is the exact reason why it will not be necessary! You will always try your best at everything you do and I know that!”

“Look at us. We are having our first disagreement!” Staysia laughed when she said this.

“Not hardly.” Gabriel said as he scooped her up into his arms. “You
do
remember when you thought I was a bad guy, don’t you?”

“Yes. I’m glad I found out otherwise.”

“So am I, believe me, so am I!”

Just then, they heard a growl coming from deeper inside the forest. It was followed by a deep laugh and a monkey sound.

“Aha!” Staysia said. “I bet I know who that is!”

“Who else?” Gabriel replied. They followed the sounds and when they heard movement quite close to them, they moved some brush so they could have a peek at t
hem for curiosities sake. They both wanted to know what they did when no one was looking.

One of them was lying on its back.
It
must’ve been a female because she was sniffing a flower and batting her eyes at one of the others. The other one sat on a large silver stone and smiled down at her with his hands folded under his chin.

“Isn’t that sweet!” Staysia whispered.

The third one was shaking a tree. Coconuts fell on his head. Each time one would drop on his head he would rub his head briefly and shake the tree again. This went on, until finally he took a seat on the ground and began eating the coconuts.

The other male who sat on the stone spotted him eating away and got up from where he sat. He slowly walked towards him and when he got to him, he quickly nabbed a large coconut and stuck it behind his back. The other one got up and growled at him. He showed him all of his teeth and his eyes became fierce and full of anger. He swung his hand around and slapped the other one on the cheek.

“Stay here, I will be right back!”

“Gabr
iel, no! Not now. They will be angry.”

“It’ll be fine. I will be right back.”

Staysia shook her head, but waved her hand in the air and let him go on. She watched as Gabriel made his appearance by sitting on the ground Indian style. He took a half of a coconut that sat on the ground and began eating it. This made both of them growl at him. But the courageous beast tamer paid them no mind. He continued to eat as if they weren’t there at all.

Staysia closed her eyes. She did not want to see what happened next. When she heard a tree branch actually break, she slowly opened one eye. One of the sasquatches took the coconut from Gabriel.

Gabriel shrugged his shoulders and took another half from the ground. He began eating it instead. When they growled loudly at him this time, he held the coconut out to them. “Want some?” he asked the angry beasts.

“Some!” one of them said.

“Fine by me, take all you want!”

He took the coconut from Gabriel
and began to eat it. “Some?” the other one asked the one who was eating the coconut that Gabriel had given him. Amazingly, he gave the coconut to him. Gabriel got another coconut off of the ground and gave it to the one who had none.

“I came back! Did you forget me all so soon?” Gabriel asked them.

“Back?” one of them said.

“Back!” said the other. They bent down at the same time to get a coconut for Gabriel. When they did, they bumped heads. When they bumped heads, they each doubled up a fist and growled deeply at one another. Gabriel grabbed two coconuts from off the ground and gave one to each of them. They both pushed them away.

“For me?” Gabriel asked.

“Me!” the two beasts
said together.

“Why, thank you!” Gabriel said with a smile.

They looked at one another and swapped coconuts and said, “Thank you,” to one another.

“Bravo!” Staysia said as she came out from behind the brush.

Gabriel pointed to Staysia. “Staysia,” he said.

The female beast
got up from where she was, and they all three said, “Staysia!”

“Do you have names?” Gabriel asked them.

“Names,” is all they said.

“Looks like you have more than a horse to name!” Staysia told Gabriel.

“Ha! Very funny,” Gabriel replied. He then waved one of them to bend down so he could whisper something in his ear. When he stood up straight again, Gabriel put his finger over his lips and said, “Shh.” The giant beast mimicked him.

“A secret, huh?” Staysia said.

“That’s right and you are just going to have to wait!” He motioned the beasts to follow him and took Staysia’s hand, and the five of them walked together towards the sea. When they got there, Mirideous was awaiting them. Gabriel whistled for Zenya and she soon came to the shore.

“Are y’all ready
?” Gabriel asked them. They looked at one another. Gabriel and Staysia walked towards Mirideous, but the beasts did not follow. They stared at the water and stayed where they stood.

“Uh-oh,” Gabriel said. “I think they are afraid of the water.

“I think you are right,” Staysia replied. She got in the water and began splashing them. They turned and ran away from the water. They turned around and watched Staysia playing in the water. Gabriel joined her and they splashed one another.

“Join us?” Gabriel asked them, but they said nothing in reply.

“C’mon, it’s not so bad!” Staysia told them.

Gabriel went deeper into the water. He held his chin above the water and when he stood, he had a fish in his hands. When they saw this, their eyes lit up. They slowly walked towards the water and hovered over it.

“C’mon in, just a little bit further,” Gabriel said as he threw the fish back in, in hopes that they would go after it. They slowly entered the water. The female lost her nerve and walked back to the shore while the two males searched with their eyes for fish. The male who had apparently given her a flower before, began splashing her. This made her angry and she ran to the sea and began splashing him in return. Staysia and Gabriel laughed at the sight.

Gabriel looked over at Staysia and tackled her into the water. They stared into each other’s eyes and shared another kiss. The two
giant beasts watched them, while the other one worked at catching a fish. The male then tackled the female into the sea and they looked into one another’s eyes and began to kiss as well.

Staysia and Gabriel watched them. “Aw, how sweet!” Sta
ysia said. The female heard her and repeated her. “How sweet,” she said as she looked into her loves eyes. “How sweet,” the male said.

“Okay! We need to get over there!” Gabriel pointed to the island.

“There!” they said as they pointed to the island.

“See, this here is Zenya, she will take the three of you to the island.” He said with a hand on Zenya’s head
.

“Island!” the female
said.

“Island!” the other two said.

“C’mon,” Gabriel said. They slowly walked toward Zenya. Gabriel told Zenya to keep their heads out of the water as they traveled to the island. With some hesitation, they surprisingly got on her back. They held on to one another and were off to the island.

Gabriel and Staysia got on Mirideous and traveled beside Zenya. Both creatures stayed above the surface of the sea and rode slowly to the island
for the sake of the giant apes.

When they arrived at the island, the place was embellished with beautiful things. There was a beautiful rainbow that went from one end of the island to the other. There were vines that draped from one tree to the next. There were rose petals scattered upon the sand. Fairies flew around the island sprinkling fairy dust. The sun was going down just in time for a firework show that did not consist of the usual fireworks, but the Sun gods and Star gods had come together to create a most fabulous show. Dolphins shot water from their blowholes and greeted Staysia and Gabriel by clicking and whistling to them. The place had been decorated especially for Staysia.