Fifteen years later...

“Zefarin, you idiot!!! I'll get you for this, I swear I will!” Ven declared with conviction, his pride not quite up to par with the five- no, six cloud maidens clamoring on his... back.

“Well, aren't you popular, Ven? Good for you! You just enjoy your company, and I'll leave you be!” Zefarin called back, not bothering to look back at whatever expression might have been on his friend's face, but very sure that it was priceless.

As always, Ven was up to his neck with his life becoming miserable, courtesy of Zefarin who was up to HIS neck MAKING Ven's life miserable.

Zefarin didn't change. Not really... As always, he was vain, mischievous, and quite kind in a number of random, unexpected ways.

Fifteen years earlier, Mother Nature had saved Zefarin by forbidding Ocean to touch him for his so called 'crimes'. They sealed that matter and were made to let it go. Ocean could never let go of his hate for Zefarin, although he could not act upon it; likewise, Zefarin could never forgive Ocean for what he had done, although found some closure, in any case; he was still waiting.

He didn't forget his promise, and if he was going to wait for Azure, he had to give her the same Zefarin to come back to. The same vain little twit that made her smile and laugh as he made Ven's life a living hell.

Speaking of which...

“Hey, Ven! That was fast... I applaud you for getting out of that, in record time, I might add.” Zefarin said, somewhat nervously as Ven gave him the worst of his death glares.

“I swore it and now I do it. I WILL KILL YOU ZEFARIN!!!” Ven clawed at Zefarin, who flew away, screaming what might have been 'homicide'. Or maybe it was pesticide. Who knows.

The chase (if you could call it that; Ven was fast but Zefarin cheated by flitting by forests and making Ven run into one very pissed off Earth spirit in the groves) was impeded when both of them noticed something... off.

They were above the open water, near the shore from whence they came, and it was churning like it would have in a storm. But there was no storm.

Not where they were, anyway. But it seemed that the storm was not a literal one; more like, one in her mind.

“Hali!?” Ven and Zefarin looked at each other and flew down to the waters.

There she was, sitting on some grotto stones and looking wrathful. “Hmm... Ven, you should go ask her what's up.” Zefarin said after a moment, pushing Ven forward.

“No, you were her friend first, you should do it.” Ven said civilly, albeit sleazily as he exchanged places with Zef and pushed HIM forward.

“No, I insist-” Zefarin said, managing to push him forward, enough for Halimeda to see Ven reeling.

“Hey, Hali... Are you... okay?” Ven asked

“Does it look like I'm okay, Ven? As much as I'd love to be, I'm not in a good mood! That sleaze ball Artemis just swindled me of my spirit power! I can't change forms! The worst part is, he took off to the inlands and I CAN'T FOLLOW HIM because there's not enough water! Do you know how frustrating it is not to morph when you're a water spirit? Being solid all the time just bites! I hate that bastard! When I get my hands on him..... ARGH!!!!”

While Hali found the time to rant on, the water kept swelling and thrashing. Zefarin shook his head, wondering how Ven would handle it all, when something in the water caught his eye.
Or someone.

“Hali! Hali, please calm down!” Ven begged. “Hali, I don't think drowning will do good for that kid.” Zefarin said calmly. Hali gasped, looking at the waters.

Indeed, there was a 'kid' there, thrown about by the waves like a rag doll. The 'kid' was more of a teen of small stature, probably bordering the age of fourteen to sixteen.

Hali stopped immediately, ordering the waves as they softened into currents that pulled the teen to shore.

Zefarin sighed and shook his head, leaving Ven to comfort a now-wailing Hali (“I almost killed the poor kid!!!” She was moaning) and floating down to shore, where the young teen lay.

A boy was crumpled on the sand, dripping wet from the ordeal and wearing everyday clothes instead of a bathing suit.

What he was doing in the water, Zefarin didn't know, although, pressing his head against the boy's chest, he heard a heartbeat still going, as weak as it was.

What was he to do? Should he save the boy's life?

Should he let Mother Nature take her course of action and leave him?
He wasn't exactly the obedient type, so why let the boy die? He was breaking a lot of rules here, but no one would really care about one more human life, other than the human himself.

Zefarin pressed his mouth over the boy's and allowed life air to flow through his lungs, willing him to breath, soon normally thanks to Zefarin.

Zefarin pulled away, brushing away the stringy wet hair from the boy's face and looking at him clearly now.

That was when he opened his eyes. Zefarin disappeared in a second, dissolving in the wind and hoping to high heavens that the boy didn't see him.

The boy looked around, looking confused. Something triggered then. Zefarin saw his eyes. What was so special about them? They were a simple color of black, maybe accented with some blue, but that was it.

Or maybe it was the shine in his eyes. Not many humans had it. Maybe that was what struck Zef. But there was something else entirely... What was it?

Didn't he know it from somewhere?

The boy's hand stretched out, as if to grab something. Zefarin held still, his eyes wide as the boy's hand passed right through him.
What's he doing? He wondered.

To Zefarin's surprise, when the boy closed his fist, it was right where Zefarin's heart might have been, had he been solid. The boy stared out to the horizon just a bit more, then withdrew his closed hand. Then Zefarin remembered.

His heart started racing. It was speaking to him, he knew it. It beat at just that pace: Fast, but calm. Happy. His heart hadn't beat that way in...

fifteen years...

A spirit's heart never lies...

“Zefarin! Hey!” Ven pulled him up, and as the boy walked away, Ven and Zef landed right beside where Hali sat.

“What was that about? Did you just save a human's life, Zef? It's really unlike you to care.” Ven said, slightly amused and very much interested.

“Hali, I need your opinion on something.” Zef said suddenly, flying back toward where the boy was walking.

“Zef! In case you haven't noticed, I'm pretty much grounded in solid form.” Hali said irately.

“Okay, umm.... Did you ever learn how to track spirit essence?” Zefarin asked quickly, as one would in a hurry.

“No. Except, well, people I'm close to. My sisters and father and-”

“Even Azure?” Zefarin asked. Hali looked at him questioningly.

“Where are you going with this Zef?” She said suspiciously.

“Don't ask, please. Just... can you try to track her now?” Zef begged.
“Zef, she's been dead for fifteen-” “Please, Hali.” He pleaded, even on his knees on the air.

Hali looked slightly livid, but sighed. She closed her eyes and chanted silently, spirit energy becoming evident as it clamored around her.

“That's.... no way! She's near! Oh my goodness, I can feel her near!!! She's alive, she's ali-” Hali's mouth was shut by an alert Ven.

“What are you crazy?Hali, if you feel her around, I don't think it's smart to shout it out. Also.... where the hell?” He demanded.

Hali opened her eyes,   raising her hand and pointing.

All three of them looked down to the shore, where a lone boy walked away in the direction of the town.


“Crazy. This is.... crazy...” Ven said, not a bit of doubt in his mind if Hali really felt the spirit essence. But... it was just so hard to believe.
Azure was back.


“Well, apparently, his name is Brooke. Fifteen years old, goes to high school like any kid, although has a job in the afternoons on weekdays and all day on Saturdays, as far as I understand.” Ven said.

About a week following the initial discovery, Hali had asked Ven to let her know about the 'boy-that-was-once-Azure' and what he could dig up.

Amazingly, (in Ven's opinion) Zefarin didn't even bother HIM about what he'd dug up. Come to think of it he hadn't seen Zefarin all week.

Ven didn't know what was stranger: the fact that Zefarin was nowhere to be found or the fact that he hadn't asked about the topic at hand, namely, Azure.

Or more aptly, Brooke.

Ven was beginning to get worried. He knew that Zef could take care of himself but where had he gone anyway?

After another week's worth of spying for Hali, (who insisted she'd pay him back. SOMEHOW)  Ven was surprised to find Zefarin talking animatedly to the water spirit as though he'd always been there.

“Where have you been?” Ven demanded, regretting the obvious fact that he sounded like a mother, or a wife at that.

“I went to see someone. Don't sound so worried.” Zefarin said lightly.

“Who?” Ven questioned warily.

“He went to see Mother Nature.” Hali responded.

Ven's eyes widened slightly. “Why?”

Zefarin raised an eyebrow. “What, after fifteen years you think I'd just drop it?”


“Mother...”

“Zefarin? What are you doing here? I hope you're not in any trouble again.” Maia chided gently, indeed, motherly.

“It's relative. But, no, not at this moment. I need your help. Your... guidance. A matter I need to discuss of great importance.”

“It is she, is it not? She's come back.” Maia said quietly. Zefarin silenced. “I see. I actually expected this... Azure had the foresight to... Well, come here, Zefarin.”

“Huh?”

Zefarin came toward her. From seemingly nowhere emerged her hand, holding a bottle of whatever it was. It almost looked like the sun in a vial. Except it wasn't nearly as blinding. No, it was more like... the moon?

It glowed a bluish hue, a beautiful warm glow that Zefarin felt as he wrapped his fingers around the vial.

“What in the world...”

“What do you think it is, dear?” Maia asked quietly.

“I... I'm not sure.” Zefarin said. But his hand rubbed the tiny bottle in fascination.

“You know.” Maia said, closing his hand over the bottle and smiling knowingly. Smiling that motherly smile that Zefarin could never understand.

“It's her, isn't it?”


“What? Then she kept-”
“Azure's spirit. It's right in here.” Zefarin said, putting his hand over his heart. When he took it away, he held the bantam bottle between his forefinger and thumb.

“Oh Zef, that's so sweet.” Hali said dreamily. Ven snorted. “Alright then. What do you plan to do?” The latter questioned.

“Well, that's the tricky part.” Zefarin replied sheepishly.

“Tricky? Tricky how?”

“Well.... humanity is pretty tricky, I should say.” Zefarin said.

“Wait, what? Stop speaking in riddles Zef.” Ven demanded.
“I have a month. Thirty days from sunrise to sunset for this. Starting the time I do it.” Zefarin went on.

“Do what, Zefarin?”
He didn't answer. Even Hali looked confused. Ven followed Zef as he came down onto the shore and stepped on the sand.

“Zef?”

...

“I'm turning human.” He finally responded.

“What? Why? Is it-” Ven grabbed his arm. “Ven, stop being such a doomsayer. I just need to do something for Mother. It's not like it's rare for a spirit to turn human for a while. It's becoming a popular fad, in fact.” Zefarin said easily.

“Zef, there's something you're not telling me. Why do you have to turn human?” Ven demanded. “Well... I have to give her-him back Azure's spirit. Mother told me that Azure gave her a fragment of it a long time ago, just in case anything happened. And something happened. So Mother asked me to do the job.” Zefarin explained.

Ven seemed to accept this explanation, but stood silent, as if waiting. His stare unnerved Zef. “Whaat?” “What haven't you told me?” Ven demanded.

Zefarin took one, two deep breaths and looked grim. “I told you I have thirty days. Well... To be able to harness the power to return the spirit, I had to give something up. If I don't give it back in thirty days... I lose my own spirit. Unlike Azure, I have no chance of returning when I do.”

Ven was livid, and Hali seemed to be on the brink of screaming, holding it back with a whine. “But-but Zef! You. Will. Die. You can't possibly...” Hali stuttered. Zef waved her words away with a flick of his wrist.

“I might die. Whether I live or die has no meaning, unless I do it for Azure. If you want to stop me, don't. It wouldn't make any difference anyway; It's already begun. Thirty days from now, whether I do anything about it or not, I'll be gone. Might as well try to do something about it.”

Zefarin shook his head when Hali attempted to protest again. The girl huffed, then sighed. “Okay, well... You just have to give the spirit back right? No sweat.” She said.

Zefarin shrugged, shaking his head. “I can't force it on him. The kid has to remember being Azure. When he retrieves his memory, that's the only time I can return the spirit essence.”

Ven weighed the factors. The worst case scenario included the boy thinking they were all crazy and probably not wanting to have anything to do with it. Another thing was that even if he helped, there was only one in a million chance he'd even remember...

Things did not bode well. Despite that, Ven said nothing. Whatever he'd say would have no effect on Zefarin anyway. “The you should start now, shouldn't you?” He said.

Hali looked at him disbelievingly. “Ven!!! Don't encourage him.”

Zefarin smiled and wrapped his arms around his companion. Ven shook his head and returned the embrace. Hali huffed, but came forward when they spread their arms and had her join in.

“Man, you guys.... Do your best, Zef. You'd better do your best, or-or-” “I will, Hali. Don't worry.” Zef said. He saluted them both and walked, past the waves and on the sand, his feet beginning to gather up the small grains as he started turning solid.

Then his hue changed, and he was gaining skin. Soon he was human himself, a light material trailing behind him, similar to the air that used to cling to his body, now clothes.

It wasn't rare for a spirit to turn human; whether it was to spend some time with unknowing others or to do some business in the human world, spirits did it regularly.

Zef wasn't one of those spirits who liked to spend their days among mortals, but he knew enough. And he knew that what he was trying now was a long-shot.

But he would do anything, anything to get Azure back.


Brooke Dover was not having a good day. Nothing really happened. Really, nothing. No, he had gone through the entire day as he always had. But why did he consider this day, above all others, a bad day?
Someone was watching him.

It wasn't just a feeling. It wasn't even a hunch. He just... knew. Brooke had established long ago (five years old and he somehow knew what would happen when his father went out to town that day) that his gut feeling was almost always right. And his gut was aching him to run home, lock the doors and just get away.

Get away... from what? Brooke looked around. It was dark, the last bit of sunlight dipping into the waves. Stalker, mugger, killer.

Whatever threat was running through Brooke's mind became a worse fear to him as he quickened his steps.

He kept looking behind him, soon hearing steps apart from his. He stumbled into a full run, looking back every now and then, until his books fell from his hands as he hit something.

Someone.

“Oof! Ow...” Brooke rubbed his aching backside, but when he opened his eyes, he realized that a hand was extended, and the one he just bulldozed into helped him up onto his feet.

“I'm sorry... My fault, I wasn't-” He began. “Don't apologize. Here, let me help.” Said a gentle voice. Looking up, Brooke saw the face of a man older than he. He stopped.

The male had such long hair that Brooke wondered if it was even real; it looked so soft...  In all honesty, he was... beautiful. Ethereally so.

It took the younger male a moment before realizing that the guy was holding his books out to him. “Oh... thanks... Sorry for-” He began again, flustered. “Hey, no need to apologize. I think you'll need to get home soon though. Someone's been following you.” The older man said, the last of his sentence a little more than a whisper.

Brooke craned his neck to look back to the darkness behind him, realizing then that his gut feeling was right again. “Why don't I walk you home?” It didn't register to Brooke until the man repeated himself, a little gentler this time.

“Um... If it's not any trouble...” Brooke found it second nature to turn down help at times, but he definitely had no intention of walking on alone if some stranger was stalking him with some kind of immoral intent.

He walked on, the man following him closely, making Brooke feel the least bit more comforted as he neared his Aunt's apartment.

Stopping in front of the building, he turned to the man, who was looking up at the apartment with some intrigue. “Thanks. I mean, for helping me out and all. It's kinda embarrassing, but I don't think I'd have been able to able to defend myself. Dropped out of Aikido when I was ten...” Brooke stopped; he was babbling. Nope, not normal Brooke Dover behavior.

Maybe when he got back inside he'd hit himself on the table, that always worked...

“Hey, you alright?”

“Um, yeah. Thanks again.” Brooke said, grinning, albeit nervously.  

The man smiled back. “No problem. Although it might not be the best idea if you walk alone alone at this time of night again, don't you think?” He said.

Brooke frowned. “I have no choice in the matter; my job gets off late and so do I.” He said stonily. To his bewilderment, the man laughed; shaking his head, looking almost sheepish. “I can understand that, no worries. I guess it's just my way of offering to walk you home tomorrow night or whenever. Sorry, I was being vague, wasn't I?”

Brooke looked surprised. “Uh... yeah, I guess that would be.... great. Okay. Well... I haven't seen you around, are you sure-” “I'm new but I know my way around. It doesn't really matter; no one expects me home early anyway.” The older said, looking somewhat more pleased.

“Thanks. For tonight. And for the offer. It's really kind.” Brooke said after a moment.

The man nodded. “Goodnight then.”

Brooke nodded back, and closed the door as he went inside. He caught his breath on the other side of the door, realizing that he'd been holding it for a while.

Feeling his face growing hot, he slapped himself once and ascended the stairwell. He had it bad and he knew it. That man, that stranger, had done what the others at school, whom he'd known for at least two years, had failed at: he'd gotten Brooke to talk to him.

Brooke was not an outrageously social being at his high school, and therefore, people either ignored him (which was appreciated, thank you very much) or insulted him, whichever worked.

Nobody really knew about his personal life. No one knew that his only family was sick and probably dying, and nobody even thought that he, not his aunt, had to support them both.

He never let them find out. He didn't want their pity.

What surprised him though was that, for the first time, he was able to talk to someone above the age of ten, besides his aunt, freely. He had a soft spot for children.

And this guy... he didn't even know his name, and vice-versa.
Tomorrow then. He thought.


“He's cute.” Zefarin said, looking amused. “Oh, he's adorable!!!” Hali said, that close to squeaking. Zefarin shook his head as Hali and Ven, human and all, came out from where they had previously been watching the progress taking place.

“You two...” Zefarin shook his head. “Did you have to follow this way? He was scared to death that someone was stalking him, you know.”

“It was Hali's idea.” Ven said immediately.

"Hey!”

“She didn't want to get left behind when I said I'd check on the kid. And because she lacks her morphing powers, she couldn't come with me as a spirit. So she dragged me as a human.” Ven continued.

Hali puffed her cheeks like a stubborn kid.

“It's good though. It looked like things went well.” Ven said.

“Hopefully.” Zefarin added.


“Auntie?” Brooke opened the door carefully, willing it not to creak as he looked into his aunt's room tentatively.

“Welcome home, Brooke. How was today?” A weak voice inquired.

Brooke came over to the bed, turning on the lamp light.

Brooke's aunt lay on the bed, her eyes shining but her body stiff, and her skin was a sickly grayish color. A pasty hued hand emerged and touched Brooke's small one, and his aunt cracked a smile.

“Nothing much happened. Same at school.” Brooke responded, giving her a smile.

“I'm tired of hearing 'nothing much' Brooke. You don't live under a rock; something must have happened.” His aunt said, laughing. Brooke shrugged.

“Some guy gave me a twenty dollar tip at the restaurant today. He looked bent on impressing his girlfriend. I don't doubt he was rich. I'm not complaining.” He said.

“How about the kids?” His aunt asked.

“They were pretty normal today. They got into coloring. Amazingly they only got the crayon marks on one wall this time.” Brooke continued, laughing at the memory of the boys attempting to color the daycare center wall blue, as opposed to pink from the girls.  

“And... I met someone. He was really nice; he walked me home.” Brooke added, making it sound like an added thought, nothing of great importance.

“Let's hope he'll come around again, to make you smile like you did.” His aunt said knowingly.

“What?”

“I don't think I see you smile very often when you just arrive from work at the restaurant, but today was different.”

Brooke blushed slightly, but laughed it off.

It was pretty funny.

In truth, he was hoping the same thing.