*
“Thomas, I believe we need to talk.”
Thomas turned around, seeing Timothy stand behind him. He held his hands to his hips and wore a serious, frown-ish glare.
“Uh- sure,” Thomas said. “We can talk while walking, right?”
“Sure,” Timothy said. “Walking. We’ve been doing that for hours now. Without a break.”
Thomas shrugged. “What are you going to do about it?” he said. “If we don’t we’ll never make it to the Castle. We need to keep moving in order to stay out of the Master’s clutches.”
“That’s exactly the point I was getting to.”
“What’s it, then?”
Timothy’s voice got a stern tone. “Thomas, you and your friends are in great danger.”
Thomas turned his head toward Timothy. “Breaking news; we’re in danger. Come up with something new.”
Timothy shook his head; his sandy blond hair swayed along with the movements. “I didn’t mean it that way,” he said. “There’s a new threat.”
Thomas threw him the sceptical look. “Gosh, more people to join the party,” he said. “The new threat is...?”
“Yourselves,” Timothy said. “It might sound weird, but the dark energy in this world is messing with James in different ways than I’d expected. We need to be careful.”
Thomas plucked his lips. “As in? You mean how he keeps getting annoyed by the tiniest things?”
Timothy nodded. “Exactly. The Master is trying to drive a wedge between you two. And you need to make sure that that does not happen.”
Thomas raised his palms. “But how!?” he shouted, but quickly lowered his volume as he noticed Antonio and James turning their heads toward hem. “It’s happening anyway; this place is Asura’s domain! Nothing can stop his power here.”
Timothy looked at him. “Don’t worry. Nothing more than this should be able to happen unless Asura gets his hands on James.”
“Don’t worry,” Thomas said. “James is not stupid enough to get captured. I’ll make sure the Master stays a thousand miles away from him.”
“You will try,” Timothy said.
Thomas lowered an eyebrow. “You’re saying I’m incapable of protecting him?”
“I don’t think you’re incapable of just protecting him, but of protecting yourself,” Timothy shrugged. “Haven’t you thought of the fact that the Master just might think of using you or Samira to get to James?”
Thomas didn’t reply, but simply raised his eyebrows. Yeah. He had to be honest, he hadn’t thought of that yet. He was already aware that the Master wanted to get rid of all of them, but the fact that he’d use either one of them to get rid of the other... and probably their friends along with them, hadn’t crossed his mind yet.
But why hadn’t it? Thomas smacked his palm against his forehead.. “Right. That does sound bad. Sorry for being a sceptical jerk.”
“It’s okay,” Timothy said. He smiled at Thomas. “You have a very determined mindset, and I admire that. It’s your greatest strength, but might also be your downfall. You need to remember that you don’t need to just look out for your friends, but make sure you stay safe as well.”
Thomas scratched his neck and looked up. “Eh. Don’t worry, I do look after myself. But... just not as much as I look after them. They’re my friends, you know. I don’t know what I’d do without them.”
“You remind me of someone,” Timothy said. “Myself.”
“How?”
Thomas turned his head toward Timothy, clearly uncomprehending about how he could possibly have reminded Timothy of himself.
“Well... To be honest, Madeleine and Sabrina were the only ones who knew each other aside from Gabriel and Rikki,” Timothy said. “We... lied to you. The five of us were complete strangers to each other, didn’t even like each other for the first few weeks. Madeleine missed her crush home, but... things changed. I changed them... and then other things started happening.
That very moment was the moment when I realized I had to save her. And that’s why I gave up my own life to rescue her.”
He paused for a short moment. “I don’t want you to do that, because they need you.”
Thomas swallowed. “I wasn’t planning to do that.”
Timothy raised an eyebrow. “Don’t lie. This is the reason the Spirits had decided to, after us, choose non-related people who could still form a strong bond. Losing family is losing an eternal bond.”
“So is losing a friendship-wise bond.”
“Point taken.”
Timothy looked at Thomas. “But be careful. Remember that it’s required for you and James to perform the Ritual if you want it to succeed. Without you, your friends are lost.”
“Hey, Timothy, I’m just curious: why did you decide to sacrifice yourself for Madeleine? I mean – didn’t she need you to survive?”
Timothy looked away from Thomas, at the ground, as if he was ashamed of something. “She didn’t,” he said. “She could’ve gone back home to her crush, even without me. The Almighty Spirit could’ve helped her get home. But she chose not to. Because of me.”
“But doesn’t that mean that she wanted to be with you more than with him?” Thomas said. “Isn’t that a good thing?”
“Maybe. But I feel like it was my fault she died.” Timothy sighed.
“You died for her, Timothy. Then she died for you. There’s nothing about that where you could possibly be to blame for,” Thomas said. “It was her choice. And...” He paused, his eyes shifting from Timothy toward Samira, who was talking to Bella. “There’s a girl who’d I’d die for too... She came here with me.”
Timothy’s face lit up. “Then make sure you go back home. Together with her.”
Thomas nodded. “I will. And I’m taking my friends with me.”
“That’s exactly what I wanted to hear,” Timothy grinned and the two teens high-fived, before catching up with the gap between them and the group their conversation had caused again.
Guardian: Protectors of Light Page 50
