Sorry that the ending is so rushed, i wanted to finish this story before the forums closed down![Crying [:'(]](/emoticons/emotion-9.gif)
, any ways, i hope that it is good any way.
Chapter 23
Her powers were distributed among the five of them, and the Dark Night Fountain, or the Fountain of Death turned into another Fountain of Life and Healing. Wave-stripe concentrated, then, all of them looked up at the sky; soft white rain clouds formed and covered the sun, showering a welcoming, sweet rain onto the parched ground. Crystal remembered that she was the Tiger of the Lands and that she must also have some powers. She too, concentrated towards the dry trees and withered plants. They all gazed at the trees and watched as, from the ground up, the plants, shrubs and trees grew beautiful emerald leaves, even soft, fragrant flowers. An eagle took flight, calling out to the gorgeous world and something stirred behind the green underbrush. The rain was blissful and it cooled the warm ground, it softened the cracked, dry soil. Crystal turned around to see Karina, Phene and Anita “We have won” they enthusiastically said. Sure enough, victory was theirs; most of the damage that Dark Night had caused had also been healed. The sound of cracking twigs filled their ears and Crystal looked down, only to see her long lost friends, Amber, and Sprint happily ran over to Crystal. Then, from behind them, Barker followed. Crystal was overjoyed “I’m so happy to see all of you! She ran over to them and touched noses with her friends “Barker, I thought, I thought that you were dead.”
“I was, but then Amber and Sprint brought me here, it was the strangest thing, coming back to life, I didn’t know that it was possible.” Barker was grinning from ear to ear.
Sprint and Barker were now getting old, the years had passed and they were getting along in their age. Amber was now a full grown, sturdy cat, her golden coat was dry and matted, her ribs showed through “I thought I would never see you again.” She meowed softly, rubbing her head against Crystal’s fur. “Your mother misses you greatly, you know, she grieved for several days after your death, you must meet her.” Amber explained to Crystal, and Crystal remembered, she had hardly spent a minute thinking about her mother. Now, after making up for lost time with her friends she began running in the direction of home, or what used to be her home. While she was running, quite suddenly she heard Stripe-wing call after her “Wait” he panted as he caught up with her. He seemed to hesitate before continuing, and what he said surprised Crystal greatly “Crystal…. Will you marry me?” he asked her. Crystal liked him, but she didn’t know if she wanted to get married yet, but a strange, excited feeling overcame her “Yes!” she replied happily as she touched noses with Stripe-wing. “Come with me then, you must meet my mother, I have left her alone for a long time.”
Stripe-wing smiled at her “Of coarse” he replied sweetly; and they started running together.
Chapter 24
A man fought with Elizabeth to get her beans, but Elizabeth wanted to live just as much as him. She held on, with all of the strength that she had left, when suddenly, she looked up. Her grip loosened on the beans, as she looked at the sight before her. Clouds. There were clouds forming in the sky. Soon, they covered the sky completely, showering a comforting shower on the dry Earth. Elizabeth heard the can drop and she noticed that they other man had also dropped the can. Momentarily, she thought about lunging for the can, but she couldn’t look away. As it rained from the clouds, the trees, grass, shrubs, everything, began to turn green. It was magnificent; everything that had been dead for so long, and now, it began to turn green in less than a few minutes. Elizabeth was overcome by happiness, but even now, she remembered her sweet daughter that had left her so long ago. Even though Elizabeth was so happy at seeing everything turn green, her eyes flooded with tears, tears of sorrow. She turned towards home and began to run, the tears overflowing out of her eyes. Forgetting about her hunger, Elizabeth ran into her house, ran to a closet and opened a box on her bed. It was a box of photo’s, of memories, anything that reminded her of Crystal. She flipped through the pictures, even though she was nearly blinded by her tears and couldn’t see. Night came and the air smelled of fragrant flowers, but nothing seemed to heal Elizabeth’s empty feeling; when, suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Elizabeth wiped her tears and pushed herself off of her bed; she descended the stairs and opened the door.
After opening the door, Elizabeth was quite surprised to see a young woman standing beside a strong, handsome gentleman. “Who are you?” she asked them as she wiped the tears from her eyes.
The girl smiled at Elizabeth “can’t you recognize your daughter when you see her?” she asked mysteriously. All color drained from Elizabeth’s face “My daughter died a long time ago” she replied miserably as the tears flooded into her eyes again. Crystal looked at Stripe-wing, who smiled at her lovingly and then, Crystal hugged her mother. Elizabeth was shocked “I don’t even know who you are” she sniffled. Elizabeth backed away from the hug, her face flooded with a red color “Get out!” she angrily yelled “My daughter died a long time ago, and you…you… stranger, have no right to impersonate her.”
“But I’m not a stranger” Crystal countered “I’m your daughter; I left you when I was 13, now I’m 21, and I’m sorry that I left you for so long.”
Elizabeth was speechless “Then who is this man standing here?” she asked pointing to Stripe-wing.
“Mom, a lot of things happened while I was gone, he has asked me to marry him, and I accepted… so… he’s my husband.”
Elizabeth looked like she had just seen a monster, her face turned white, and she fainted, this was too much strange news for her to comprehend. First, the news that her daughter is still alive, then, her daughter accepted the marriage proposal of some person that she did not even know. For that matter, she did not even know if the woman standing in front of her was actually her daughter.
Elizabeth woke up a little while later to find herself on her bed. Crystal was sitting beside the bed, but her husband was no-where in sight. Now, as she looked at the woman, straight in the eyes and tried to remember, she looked more familiar.
“Could it really be you, Crystal?” Elizabeth asked expectantly.
“Yes Mom, it’s me” Crystal replied with tears forming in her eyes “I love you mom, I’m sorry that I left.”
Elizabeth smiled; as the hole that had ripped its way through her heart was slowly patched up. This time, she wept tears of joy and hugged her long lost daughter. “You’re home, you’re finally home, my sweet Crystal.” Quite suddenly however, she backed away from the hug “but, I don’t understand, why did you leave?” she asked, hoping to find an answer.
Crystal hesitated before answering “I’m sorry, I…I just can’t tell you, it’s a secret that I must hide from everyone. And so must my husband, we hide secrets that you will never understand, I’m sorry, I can’t tell you. But you must understand that I had to do it for the better of you, and everyone else on this planet.”
Elizabeth did not understand, but she decided to keep quiet, if her daughter did not wish to share something with her, then she wouldn’t force her to. After all, she did not want to lose her daughter again. At that point Stripe-wing walked into the room and Crystal started to introduce him.
“Ok, mom, this is my husband… umm…. Sam, yeah, his name is Sam.”
Stripe-wing gave her a questioning look, then caught on to what she was trying to do. Stripe stuck out his hand “it’s a pleasure to meet you madam.” He said as he shook her hand. At that point, all of them heard a knock on the door and they opened it to find the lionesses, the rest of the stripe family and Crystal’s pets. At least the tigers and lionesses had remembered to change into humans before knocking on the door.
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