Hello again.
I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Music: Guardian Angel by Abandon all ships.
All there is left to say now is : ENJOY!
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Recap:
Ch. 27 - Heroes Joel comes back to find that Eliza and Xander are a couple, and that all the vampires are living with the guild. He gets really mad and decides to go to Thailand. There he wanders, collecting all the information he can about vampires/supernatural things etc. He comes across an old script…
Eliza’s POV:
I watched as my ex boyfriend walked in the door of my current boyfriend’s room. Joel was back. At first we had wondered where he went and what he was doing, but as the weeks and months progressed, we forgot more and more about him. And now after a whole year without any contact, he was standing in front of us, holding an old roll of parchment.
I was unsure of how to react. I mean, I used to have feelings for this boy, strong feelings. But then he went away and I didn’t hear from him at all, and now he shows up out of nowhere?
“Joel. Please don’t kill me, but I’m dating Eliza…” Xander said slowly. Backing slowly away from Joel to stand behind me.
“Haha. That’s great! You two are the perfect couple. Me and Eliza… I’m glad we never managed to kiss! Hah… that would’ve been gross.” We both stared at him in disbelief. What the hell had happened to that guy?
“Ok. I know I’m pretty random and weird and strange and all that, but what is going on here?” Xander looked so cute when he was confused. It made me giggle, and then blush.
“After I left this place, I went to Thailand and became the student of the abbot of the Wat Pa Luang Ta Bua Temple. He showed me this prophecy.” Joel said as he unrolled the ancient piece of paper.
Duo magni milites separata per mortem, quando veritas de se et videbunt reconcilio ueteres fiebant erit corrige.
“It’s Latin. It means something along the lines of: ‘Two great warriors separated at death, when they reunite they will see the truth about themselves and the wrongs that were done will be set right.’ It’s about us, Eliza. I’m your twin brother.”
I stared at him, concentrating on not letting my jaw drop. Joel was my twin? But that was impossible! He was human, he was my age, he aged! How was that possible?
“Why are you human?” Xander asked slowly, still hiding behind me.
“I’m not. I was dead, but then a magician brought me back to life, sort of like with you. But this happened a long time ago. The abbot explained that I couldn’t remember, because the magician who brought me back to life also put a mental block on me so that I wouldn’t realize what I was until I saw the prophecy.” Joel explained.
“It means that we were never meant to be. Oh, and the abbot said something about sand and roses belonging together… But I have no idea what he meant.”
“Who is this abbot guy?” I asked, genuinely curious. I still couldn’t believe that my long lost twin brother was my ex, and I needed to hear it from someone I could trust.
“He’s in Thailand. He’s the leader of sorts of the ‘Tiger Temple’… He’s the one who took care of me, was my teacher and showed me the scroll. He was also in charge of the tigers.” Joel explained.
“Well, if he’s in Thailand, then let’s all go to Thailand!” Xander exclaimed.
Xander’s POV:
So they were twins. The girl I had fallen in love with had previously dated my best friend who turned out to be my love’s twin brother. I was glad that they never actually kissed. Something, mostly me, always got in the way. Turns out it had been for the best.
And now I was sitting on a plane with Eliza and Joel, on our way to Thailand.
“SCORE!” I yelled as I saw that they had and episode of Psych. Planes usually never had any good seat-back entertainment. Eliza gave me a questioning look. “They have Psych…” I explained. She nodded in understanding. My girlfriend was awesome!
The flight went well, Eliza joined in annoying Joel after we had watched the Psych episode four times each (once on our own screen, once with our own sound but the other person’s sound, once on the other person’s screen with our own sound, and once without sound where Eliza was the voice of all the females and I was all the males). God, I loved that girl. Other than that, it was pretty boring.
When we reached Thailand, Joel told us that there was going to be a long hike before we got to the temple. That was fine with us (me and Eliza) because it meant lots of time together without the distraction of modern technology, but Joel seemed a little miffed after the first few hours. Miffed is a strange word. I like it. Too bad Joel is it… He might be happier if Eliza and I stopped annoying him, but that wouldn’t be any fun, so we were set on continuing.
We reached the Tiger Temple the next day. I was excited because there were tigers all over the place, and they weren’t even trying to maul me. There were two small cubs who looked like they weren’t accepted. I pulled Eliza over to the two tiny little cubs and she sat down in front of them. They immediately ran over to her and started rubbing themselves against her legs, trying to cuddle as much as possible with her. I was getting jealous, of all of them, so I sat down next to Eliza and waited for someone to come and cuddle with me too. Eliza put her arm around me and leant in to lean her head on my shoulder. Sometimes I wondered if she could read my mind as well as I could read hers.
“Hello, you must be Eliza and Xander, am I correct?” An old-ish man said from behind us. We turned around to look at him. He looked like a monk.
“Yup. That would be us… I’m Eliza and this is Xander. Oops. Sorry it’s the other way around.” I said. The tigers were confusing me with their cuteness! And so was Eliza!
“Please come with me. I am the abbot. Joel tells me that you are a couple?” The rabbit asked. I imagined the old man with bunny-ears and a cute little pink nose. He looked funny so I laughed. He gave me a you’re-crazy-look.
“Excuse Xander, his mind works in strange ways. He’s probably imagining you as a cloud or something…” Eliza explained. The monk made a no-matter gesture and started leading us along a small gravely path.
“I take it you have seen the prophecy?” The monk asked our nodding heads. “Good. Did Joel explain it to you?” We nodded again. “And did you understand it?” We shook our heads. “The prophecy speaks of two twins, the two most skilled and powerful warriors ever, Joel and Eliza. But there is another lost part of the prophecy brought down orally from each generation to the next. It speaks of the love made in the heavens.
“If it is true, then you are the only one the other could ever truly love. You see one of you is an angel, sent from above to protect the other. Do you know which one of you it is?” We shook our heads simultaneously. “I trust you will manage to find it out by yourself. After all, challenges in life must be won by the ones trying to win them, or else they would not really be challenges.” He smiled at us and left us by the riverbank we had reached.
“Are you an angel?” I asked Eliza.
“Not that I know of… Are you?” She answered and asked.
“Ummm… I guess I might be. What’s typical for angels?” I asked back.
“Oh, who cares! We were meant to be. That’s all that matters. And we’re together, in Thailand, with baby tigers.” She smiled. I couldn’t resist the urge to hug her. So I grabbed hold of her and pressed her against my chest, taking in her smell. I smiled against her hair and felt an overwhelming joy of knowing that she was all mine. I laughed with pure joy filling every fiber of me. I felt like I was flying, nothing was better than having Eliza hugged against me.
“Xander…” Eliza started mumbling against my chest. “I think I found out who’s the angel.” I looked down at her in surprise. What did she mean? I checked her back to see if she had sprouted wings, but all I could see was the clear sparkling of the river beneath us. Wait… Something was wrong with that picture.
“Holy crap! We’re flying!” I shouted, suddenly in a panic. What if we couldn’t get back down? We were stuck up here for the rest of our lives, and that was a long time… And it would seem even longer without sweets.
SPLASH!
“Why am I all wet?” I asked a dripping wet Eliza. Then I realized that I was swimming. Huh. I guess we got down…
“Xander, you can fly. You’re my guardian angel.” Eliza laughed, and I couldn’t help but join in. I was happy. I had found the love of my life, and I knew that we were perfect for one another. And I would be able to spend the rest of my life with her. My life was perfect.