Stellar Tomorrow

Upon Ezzy rejoining the guild, Elwin gave them a mission. This mission was not what they were expecting, however.

“Some of your mentors are in the guild called Joyful Night. Those are Aurianna, Lectric, and Felice. They are going on a mission to protect a ceremony in the Blue Wave Isles. Since you all managed to defeat a Nether Monster, I figured that you could help them out. This will take a few days, so you’ll need to check in with your school and parents.” Elwin explained the situation. “Please let me know in two days if you are able to go.”

It had been four days, and they were all getting ready to board the ship with Joyful Night.

“Let me introduce everyone!” A green haired male piped in. He had pale orange eyes and a grin on his face. “You might know one as a mentor, but not everyone does. I’ll keep it brief though! My name is Kiriel Azhar, a light element, and son of Vivius! This guild was formed from some of the members of Pure-Hearted Retribution!”

Kiriel then motioned to the blond who was sleeping beside him. “This is Lectric Aelius, my best friend, an electricity element.” He paused and motioned to Aurianna and a pink-haired girl sitting next to her. “This is Aurianna Flaxview, an ice element, and Felice Rossi, a fire element, and….” He paused, looking around. Vale heard footsteps behind him, and he turned to see a purple haired young man carrying bags. “Chronus!”

“Quit it,” Chronus dodged out of the way, but a small smile remained on his face. ‘My name is Chronus Shula, and some call me the Grand Sage. I’m the eldest here, and I am a fire elemental, though I am able to use all different types of magic.”

“Mmhm!” Kirel said, smiling brightly. “Chronus is the best! I really wanted him to be leader, but he said that I should, so here I am!”

“And you are doing a great job as well,” Chronus continued onto the boat, Kirel following behind him like a duckling following its mother.

“We’re Stellar Tomorrow, but I guess you all already know that,” Vale muttered. “I’m Vale Cristalle, ice, and this is Ciaran Delmorse, darkness, Ezzy Abernathy, electricity, Alicia Scarlet Abernathy, fire, and Thyme Linden, earth. Looking forward to working with you.”

And so, they boarded the ship and set out onto the sea. It was all fine and dandy - for about five minutes.

It turned out that Vale, who was a strong fighter and rarely ever got sick, did not have the strongest stomach for sea travel. To be fair, Vale had never been on a boat before, but perhaps his horrible sickness in airplanes should have tipped it off.

Ciaran sat on the bed, rubbing his boyfriend’s back as he held his face above a bucket and groaned.

“Why couldn’t we have teleported,” Vale whined as he began to tie his hair back.

“The Amphones can only teleport to places within a certain range. Not only that, but using teleportation crystals requires you to envision the place you want to go to. None of us have ever been to the Blue Wave Isles, so therefore we must, unfortunately, take a boat.” Chronus sighed, running his fingers through his violet hair as his blue eyes looked over the cabin. “I hope you feel better soon.”

Vale did NOT feel better for the two days of the trip. In fact, the longer the journey went, the worse he felt.

Unfortunately, a monster attacked the boat, which made it so unbearably bad that Vale could not fight. Ciaran left to go help the others fight it.

“Keep your stuff close, in case we have to bail,” Chronus had called to him, and Vale hugged his and Ciaran’s belongings close to him, careful to not get vomit all over them.

The fight rocked the boat worse than the waves, and Vale literally wanted to cry and sob because how much more of this unbearable nausea could one teenager take?

Then, there was good news, and bad news. The good news was that he didn’t have to stay on this insufferable boat any longer. The bad news was that everyone rushed in to grab their things, still in their amphite forms.

When everyone, including Vale, had gotten onto the deck, Chronus created an air bubble around them, as gusts of wind picked them up. Clearly, the monster had damaged the ship, and it was slowly sinking.

The monster, which took the form of a giant squid, chased after them, as the bubble flew higher and higher.

Luckily, Vale and carried his trash can with him, since he wasn’t good with air travel either.

“Well, the good news is that we are almost there and we don’t need a ship to get back since we have teleportation crystals!” Kiriel announced as he spotted the island, and Chronus’s wind gusts started to blow them towards the dock they were supposed to arrive at.

When the bubbles popped and they landed on the ground, Vale let out a sigh of relief, but he looked somewhat upset. Ciaran looked towards him, but he didn’t have time to say anything before the islanders showed up to welcome them.

“I’m glad you arrived safely,” began one, an elderly man with dark skin, who bowed to them. “I am Chief Galanos. Usually, we don’t ask other Amphites to come, but our own have been having trouble recently. Many have been killed, and the only ones that remain are our youngest ones who we ask to help protect the village.”

“I see,” Chronus nodded, before he introduced the members of Joyful Night and Stellar Tomorrow. After that, the chief had members of his tribe lead them to huts where they would be staying. The sun had started to go down, and it was almost time to sleep.

“Vale, are you okay?” Ciaran asked, looking at Vale who had flopped into a bed. “I’ll listen if you want to talk about it.”

“No.” Vale hissed, covering his head with the blankets and folding his arms once he was fully hidden. “Go away. Just leave me alone.”

That wasn’t the response Ciaran had been expecting, but he understood that Vale might need some space, considering that they rarely had parted since they started dating.

“Okay, I’ll be back in the morning. Get some rest, even though the ceremony doesn’t happen for another two days” Ciaran said as he exited the hut.  “I love you.”

Vale let out a soft whine as Ciaran left, removing the blanket from his head and lying down, trying to sleep.

- - - - - -

When he awoke, it was still dark out. Ciaran usually would help him to sleep somewhere he wasn’t used to, so why would he….

Ciaran left. Vale told him to go away.

Vale had felt guilty about not being able to fight due to his seasickness. He was one of the more powerful members of his guild, but when Thyme first joined and when they were on the boat, he couldn’t do anything due to his fear or illness. He was supposed to be the leader, not the burden.

He took a deep breath, trying to straighten out his thoughts. Ciaran said that he loved Vale before he left, and Vale had just made a noise in response. What if Ciaran didn’t come back? What if Ciaran died? What if the last thing Ciaran ever said to him was ‘I love you’, and the last thing Vale ever said to Ciaran was to go away? Vale always had felt guilty about something, whether it be being a bad son in the past when he thought he was helping or just messing something up in a project. But, sometimes, if you keep adding on more and more guilt, even if you shouldn’t really feel guilty about some of them, it’ll become too much.

Vale never talked about his emotions most of the time, just letting them sit inside him until he was forced to or they were coaxed out, presumably a side effect of his bad childhood mindset. Things like this probably weren’t a surprise to people who knew him.

But, right now, Vale was alone in an unfamiliar place. He couldn’t just sit still. He got out of bed, put socks and shoes on, and left, heading towards the jungle. Even if there were Nether Monsters out there, he had his Amphone, and he’d be able to prove to himself that he was still leader material.