The sun has begun to sink into the horizon by the time we prepare to leave. Normally, the island was still full of life at this hour, but thanks to the red rocks, everyone was locked up in their homes. The once bustling kingdom is like a ghost town.
As Rapunzel recruits Lance and Eugene to try and keep everyone in good spirits, I assist Varian in packing up his bag. I grunt as I set down a small crate full of flasks, each one filled up with an illuminated bright yellow liquid. As I pass the flasks to the boy, I hear him sigh. "What's wrong, Var?" I gently inquire. "Are the rocks showing you illusions again?"
The glow of the liquid illuminates Varian's face as he turns to look at me, his gaze sullen. "No...it's-it's just...the only thing strong enough to cut off the rock's power is...the amber."
My face falls. "Oh..." I kneel beside him and take a breath. "Are you going to be okay?"
"Yeah...I-I just...I don't like who I was the last time I used this stuff."
"That doesn't make this compound inherently bad." I gently say. "Maybe it turned out bad last time, but that doesn't mean it's only capable of evil. This time you're using it for good." I give Varian a side hug. "Nothing is ever inherently bad. There's good in everything, you just have to search to find it."
Varian smiles a bit and hugs me back. "Thanks, Angel."
That nickname...it never fails to make my heart flutter.
:-:-:-:-:
The damp smell of the tunnels fills my nose as we walk through the winding caverns. A gentle tapping noise echoes against the stone walls as carefully step around various booby traps. The only light comes from the crimson glow of the red rocks. The more we walk, the more prevalent the rocks get.
Slowly but surely, we travel closer to the base of the red rocks, Rapunzel leading our little team into the battle zone. I walk behind her, and Varian lingers much farther away from the both of us. His eyes nervously dart around the cavern, as though at any moment a monster would jump out at us through the stones in the walls. "No problem...we got this. No problem, we got this" He chuckles dryly, tightly gripping the straps of his backpack.
As we climb over a fallen wooden beam, I look at Varian with concern. "Are you alright, Var?"
"-Because you've said, 'no problem, we've got this,' twenty-three times now," Rapunzel adds, holding up her journal, which has a drawing of a very terrified Varian next to a couple dozen tally marks. "Look, I'm actually keeping track."
Varian forces a chuckle. "I'm fine, really." He continues walking, still gripping his backpack straps. "Uh, y'know, just trying not to set off one of the three thousand traps down here!"
I gently take Varian's hand in my own, stopping him in his tracks. "Are you sure? You know you can tell me anything."
Varian gently smiles. "I know...I'm fine though. Really." His blue eyes drift down to our hands.
A blush creeps across my cheeks and I quickly pull my hand away. "S-Sorry."
"Uh, N-no worries." Varian quickly says, continuing to walk forward.
Suddenly Pascal hits a stone in the wall with his tongue while trying to catch a fly, triggering a trap door to begin opening below us. We start sliding down into a deep pit lined with red rocks, and my heart practically stops. I try to grip the sides of the trap door but to no avail.
Varian's backpack flies open and a couple of his books along with all the flasks of amber-creating solution tumble down into the pit. "My supplies!!" Varian cries.
As they roll down, I manage to grasp onto one of the flasks, but in doing so, I lose my grip completely and plummet downward. I scream in horror as I fall.
"(YN)!!!" Varian screams, jumping down the hole, and trying to grab me. As his arms wrap around my waist protectively, a familiar flickering sensation sparks within me. Suddenly, we stop falling. Our bodies come to an abrupt halt.
We float.
I slowly open my eyes to see Varian's blue hair streak glowing once again. We stare at each other. Varian's blue eyes are brightly illuminated by magic, and I can see my own eyes, turned a glowing gold, in their reflection. Our longing gazes, full of wonder and love, never part, as though we're enchanted by the power before us.
Our trance is broken when suddenly Rapunzel's golden hair drops down beside us. "Quick! Grab on!"
As we grasp onto my sister's unbreakable hair, Varian and my illuminated features fade back to normal. Rapunzel pulls us up, and I breathe a huge sigh of relief once we're safely at the top again. "Thanks, Raps." I give her a grateful smile.
"You're welcome." She returns the gesture. "I can't believe your powers showed up again..."
"Me neither..." My fingers slowly pick up my golden hairstreak. "I'm still not used to them."
"I think you two are more used to them than you think." Rapunzel points out. "Whenever you guys have used those powers in the past, they always exhausted you. You don't look exhausted to me."
My eyes widen in realization. "You're right...I feel fine."
"No no no no no no...." I glance over to see Varian frantically checking his now-empty backpack. "T-They're all gone...it's over..." He runs his fingers through his black hair as he looks up at us.
"Not yet it isn't." I proudly say, holding up the flask I managed to grab.
Relief washes over Varian's features. "Oh, thank Demanitus..." He looks up at me with grateful eyes as I hand him the flask. "Thank you so much, Angel."
"No problem, Var." I gently nudge him with my elbow. "It's you and me, remember?"
Varian chuckles a bit. "Heh..yeah."
"Is it going to be enough?" I check.
He stares at the flask for a moment. "I hope so..."
Rapunzel approaches us with a reassuring smile. "We'll just have to make it count."
Varian simply nods and continues walking. I quickly try to catch up to him. "Varian, wait!" I call.
The boy slows his pace ever-so-slightly.
"Thank you for saving me," I say as I catch up to him.
Varian's anxious face relaxes a bit. "Y-You're welcome. I'd do anything to keep you safe. You'd do the same for me."
I smile a little at his comment, and can't help but feel my heart well up with love for the alchemist. I gravitate a bit closer to him as we walk.
Suddenly, Rapunzel skips ahead of us, a huge grin on her face. "Not much further. We're almost there! Have that solution of yours ready, Varian."
Varian suddenly stops walking as though his boots were stuck to the floor by the same solution Cass, Raps, and I got stuck in on the first day we visited the alchemist. He stares at his reflection in the flask, his eyebrows furrowing together as he does so. I back up so that we're once again side by side, and place my hand on his shoulder. "Varian? Are you okay?"
His frown only grows as he ignores me. It's as though he's trapped in his own little world. Rapunzel walks back over to us. "Varian, whatever the red rocks are showing you, they're just visions. They're not real." She reassures.
Varian's grip on the flask tightens. "But they are." He holds up the flask. "Do you know what this is?"
"It's what's gonna help us sever the red rock's power." My sister replies.
"Yes," Varian quickly says. "But it's also the same compound that encased my father." He looks into his reflection. "You know, the red rocks make everybody else see hallucinations, but what I see is something that really happened..." His eyes steal a glance at me before he looks back at the flask. "This stuff ruined my life. Because of this, I did...I did terrible things that I'll never be able to take back-" As Varian's grip on the flask tightens, the flask suddenly pops out of his hands and shoots towards the ground.
Thankfully, Pascal manages to grab the flask with his tongue, right before it smashes onto the floor. "Nice save, buddy!" Rapunzel compliments, scratching the chameleon's scaly head.
Varian's eyes fill with horror as Rapunzel hands the flask back to him. "If that would've smashed, Corona would've been done for...and everyone would hate me even more than they do now; not that I blame them..." The boy sighs and I feel my heart break from seeing him in so much pain.
Rapunzel places a hand on Varian's shoulder. "Varian, you can't be so hard on yourself."
"What's done is done," I say. "What's important now is that you've more than proved yourself a good guy."
"Th-That's easy for you guys to say!" Varian exclaims. "You two have the power of the sun drop, y'know? The wondrous, magical, sun drop!"
Rapunzel gently elbows me, a huge smirk on her face. "Ah, you hear that, sis? He called you 'wondrous' and 'magical.'"
A red blush floods my cheeks as I try to ignore my sister.
Varian's freckled cheeks mimic the blush. "N-No, what I'm saying is, for ordinary people, like me, fear is just a little bit more...debilitating."
I step over to the boy whom I so deeply love, and take his free hand in my own. "There is nothing ordinary about you, Varian."
Varian's cheeks grow redder than I had ever seen them grow. "R-Really?"
I nod, a smile decorating my lips. Not a smile of reassurance, but a smile that displays genuine belief and truth.
"She's right," Rapunzel adds. "You're the best alchemist in the seven kingdoms, you're determined and dedicated, and now you have these moonstone powers."
"What if I don't want those powers, though?" He suddenly asks. "The moonstone represents darkness...I-I don't want to be associated with that ever again! Just look at what it did to Cassandra; what if these powers corrupt me, too?"
Rapunzel stares into Varian's eyes with a kind look. "Varian, the moonstone wasn't what caused Cassandra to turn evil. The only thing that turned Cass evil was herself."
"Besides, ever since we got these powers you've only used them to protect me." I gently say. "If the powers of the moonstone were going to corrupt you, do you really think that you would've saved me with them twice now?"
Varian smiles at me. "I guess you're right..."
I embrace him, squeezing him tight enough to somehow display my love for him. "Do you remember what I told earlier? Nothing is inherently bad. That goes for you, too. You aren't bad, Varian," I mumble into the crook of his neck. "I promise."