Dear Ms Lady Demigod: Twelve Days To Doom

5 1 The Loss We Can't Cope With

But they couldn't go any closer since the ice currents from the underworld rendered their bodies numb and threw them back. Ariel and Jevelene fell to the ground, it was fatally cold. Nataniel looked down at them and then back at the portal, "It's fine. I can do it," He walked into the portal.
"No, Mister Nataniel! Don't go alone, you'll get stuck there!" Adelaida yelled as she ran towards him but the ice currents stopped her from reaching him.

"Nataniel, no!" Ariel got up and fell on his knees, he couldn't walk anymore, "NATANIEL!"
Annelece joined his hands and prayed. Nataniel jumped into the portal and it sucked him in, as he reached in, all the wolves ran at him, his eyes glowed blue and his hands gave out a sky blue light and the portal began closing. 

Jevelene ran towards him, "NATANIEL, DON'T GO!"
"NATANIEL! YOU CAN'T ABANDON US! COME BACK HERE!" Ariel crawled towards the portal, 
He smiled as they saw the wolves slowly reach him, she couldn't hear but she read his lips. The portal shrunk into nothingness, bursting into a huge snowball, leaving behind snowflakes, that slowly drizzled on the snow beneath their legs. Jevelene fell on her knees, 

"NATANIEL!" 

Ariel pressed his wet face into the snow, "Nate..."
Memories fell like snowflakes in the sky, it seemed as if time had stopped. In that dark dying forest, the sound of falling snow over his golden body, as he lay in its soft embrace, but nothing felt colder than losing a soul born out of ice.

"I love you, Jevelene," He remembered that train ride,
"I love you too," 

"I love you three," He was there, but his face was already blurring out of his memory, 
"This is your younger brother, Nataniel,"
The world was already rearranging itself. Even when everything seemed the same, 

"I'm asexual,"

He couldn't hold his tears anymore, and teardrops melted the snow beneath him, it was an unexplained fear, fear of never seeing him again, never hearing his stupid Finnish accent again, not seeing him playing naked in Moscow's frozen ponds in January, not seeing him sitting alone in on the cold bench, reading by himself because the class was too hot for him, he was always by himself, white skin, black hair, and empty blue eyes, the world inside them felt feeble. 

Were they even friends? He only took him for his sila, but never once he heard Nate complain about it even though he knew it. Perhaps, because, he felt he finally had a family that loved him, even if it was just for his powers, it felt amazing to not be alone after two hundred years of solitude. 

Everything was losing its meaning, and everything else gained some meaning. The snow reminded them of him. The cold, the ice, the frozen lakes.

. . .

All the elves came out of the little ditch and spread around, "There are no demons here anymore, this forest is ours again! Thank you so much, demigods," 
Ariel faked a smile and looked around as they made food and little houses for themselves near trees and brooks. Happiness walked towards him, "Are you okay?" 
Ariel ran away and Jevelene followed him.

He sat before the lake where they met those sirens, their dead bodies floated over the water. 
Jevelene quietly sat beside him, "What did he say when he was in that portal?" Ariel asked.

"He said, "You are my best friend,"
Ariel looked down, "I'm sorry, Jevelene, I can't do this anymore. Nataniel was my family, even if we weren't blood-related, he was still my brother. And I lost him. You know, I once had a friend. He was quite different from Natanaiel but quite similar too. He fell in love with a demon, and he left. Leaving me alone in an unknown town, knowing what we had outrun and how much people had hurt me in the past, he didn't care because, in the end, he hurt me pretty badly too. 

Nataniel, however, never hurt me. Everything he ever did was solely for me, he gained nothing out of it. Think about it, you came here because you wanted to meet your mother, I followed you because I love you, but he, he had no reason to be here. He just came because I asked him to.

But in the end, because of my stupidity, he left too. I should have never asked Annelece to open a portal, we should've just run away," 
She patted his back, "What do you want to do now?"

"I want to go back home to Moscow. I have lost my will to fight. Can we please go back, Jevelene?"
She hugged him gently, "We'll return tomorrow itself,"
"Thank you. I love you, Jevelene,"

"I love you too," She smiled.

"...I love you three,"

-To be continued

Dear Ms Lady Demigod II

End of Arc I

The second arc starts after I'm done with some other projects :]
You've covered half of this book.
Hope you enjoyed it! ;]