Bosston looked around at all the commotion and smiled. It had been a long time since they had all been together. 

"Bosston!" Boun called him over as soon as they arrived in the Meadow, pulling him in to a hug. "It's good to see you, my friend. All of you." 

He pulled away and they surveyed the scene. Earth had already dragged Kao over to talk with Pineare and Mix, the latter of whom was hovering around Pineare making sure she was alright. 

"Is there something between Pine and Mix?" Boun asked, gesturing to the group. 

Bosston laughed. "You know just as much as I do. Mix does look a little smitten though, doesn't he? But he has been very protective since she was first affected by the Darkness. I think seeing her so broken made something click for him. She's doing much better now though."

"That's good," Boun nodded, ducking as a fireball whizzed past his head, making Bosston throw his head back to laugh. 

"Sorry!!" Both Plan and Ohm chorused from where they were standing by the edge of the lagoon. 

"I told you guys to keep it over the water!" Prem said, giving Ohm a little smack on the shoulder while Mean and Fluke were doubled over in laughter.

Bosston loved seeing this; all of his friends so happy, something that he saw rarely these days. 

He was one of the first Elementals to notice the energy drain on the Meadows, mostly due to Pineare's sensitivity to it. The first couple of days were rough after they realized the Spirit of Darkness had emerged. Pineare was tormented nightly by the shadow until it realized where it's target was and turned it's attention to Earth. 

As bad as he felt for Earth, Bosston was relieved Pineare had a break from the torture. As one of the few Elementals that had taken a female form, he and the rest of his Guardians were very protective of her. She was like their little sister.

Well, except for Mix, maybe. Bosston still wasn't sure what was going on there. The Water Spirit had never really shown an interest in her before or at least he hadn't noticed if he had. But one of the worst nights had left Pineare screaming in terror and Bosston had come to find Mix had already gotten to her first. He found Mix holding her tightly as she sobbed into his shoulder while he gently stroked her hair. The gentle words of comfort Mix had whispered to Pineare had helped her calm down, but something about them had changed that night.

Now, Bosston was constantly catching them stealing glances at each other, and Mix paying extra special attention to her, and sometimes he even saw Pineare catch his hand every now and then, just for reassurance. If there wasn't anything going on between them yet, there would be soon.

Like, now, as he watched Mix excitedly drag Pineare by the hand to admire the waterfall, which made him laugh.

"I think my Water Spirit is jealous of your Meadow," he said, gesturing toward them. "We just have a river so I bet the waterfall is exciting for him," he chuckled.

The High Elementals gathered all of the Guardians around a large fire, courtesy of the Fire Spirits, and everyone chatted with each other excitedly, especially getting to know the Spirit of Light. Which reminded Bosston that this wasn't merely a social visit. He cleared his throat and the group of Elementals settled down. 

"Welcome, everyone! First, I'd like to thank Boun and his Guardians for opening up their Meadow to us," Bosston smiled and nodded at Boun, who returned the nod, his hand resting nonchalantly on Prem's leg next to him. "It has been a rough number of weeks for each of us and it will only get harder from now on, but now that all of us are here, we can draw strength from each other. I'm so grateful that we have Kao on our side to help us." 

Kao smiled warmly at Bosston and then to everyone around the circle.

"Thank you, everyone. You all have welcomed me into your world with open arms and have helped me grow so much. I know I'm somewhat of a burden right now, since I'm not a full Elemental yet, but I will work hard to make all of your time worth it and make you proud of me."

Man, Bosston liked this boy. If he didn't know better, he would have thought Kao was already a full Elemental. He was very wise and seemed to be so open about everything.

"Bosston, you said you know who the Spirit of Darkness is. Will you tell us what you know?" 

Kao's question hit Bosston like a ton of bricks, just like every thought of Sammy did. He saw Kao cast a glance at Earth, who was wrapped around his arm and Bosston knew Kao was only worried about the Earth Elemental. He could imagine that seeing Earth's torture was just as painful for Kao as it was for him and his Guardians when Pineare was tormented. Bosston knew he had to tell the Elementals everything he knew about Sammy, no matter how painful it was. 

Bosston closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "My story starts off very similar to your story, Kao and Earth. Samantha visited our Meadow very often, like you did, Kao. Except instead of watching from a distance like Earth did, I interacted with Sammy from the beginning. Every time she would come, we would spend the whole day together and eventually, I started to fall in love with her. I never dreamed she would reciprocate my feelings, until she initiated our first kiss." 

Bosston smiled sadly, remembering the innocent kiss they shared, standing knee deep in the river after having a splashing match. He loved her so much back then. Still did. 

"I told Sammy about us. She was very open minded and very curious. She wanted to know everything about me and be a part of our world, even though she was merely human. We were so close and so much in love." Bosston had to choke back tears. "And that's why I had to end it with her. Our world is too dangerous. I knew that if anything happened to her because of me, I wouldn't be able to live with myself. Even if we did stay together, I didn't think I would be able to handle seeing her grow old and die without me. So I told her I didn't love her any more. I figured that would be the only way she would leave me." 

Out of his peripherals, Bosston could see each of his four Guardians bow their heads. He knew they remembered that day just as vividly as he did. 

"What did I do?" Bosston couldn't look into her eyes that threatened to spill over with tears. "Bosston, please tell me!" 

"You better leave, Sammy. You shouldn't be here anymore," Bosston said coldly, turning to walk away. He was startled when she grabbed his arm, but kept his poker face. 

"Ton," she whispered and Bosston almost lost all of his composure hearing her pet name for him. "I...I love you...and...and I thought you felt the same way..." 

Bosston closed his eyes, already regretting what he was about to do. Yanking his arm free of her grasp, he turned on her, his eyes cold. 

"You thought wrong, Samantha. I am a High Elemental, one of the most powerful beings in existence. Did you really think that I could love you? A human?"

"But...you told me--" 

Bosston interrupted her, raising his voice.

"That doesn't mean I meant any of it! I was playing with you. It's fun to mess around with little mortals. Everything was all for fun, but now I'm bored and it's time to move on. Both of us." 

Bosston's heart broke to pieces inside as he slowly watched Sammy's eyes turn dark and cold as she registered every word he said. She clenched her jaw. 

"Fine," she said, her voice sharp as a knife. "Then, you don't have to worry about seeing me again. I won't come back here anymore."

"Good," Bosston said, and he actually meant it, no matter how much he was hurting. 

You're doing this for Sammy, he kept telling himself.

"Goodbye, Bosston," Sammy said coldly and turned to leave the forest. 

"Goodbye! Have a nice life!" Bosston called after her, really meaning it. 

As soon as she was gone, Bosston couldn't hold it together anymore and he broke down, sinking to his knees. He hated himself. He truly hated himself. He shouldn't have let her get close in the first place. He shouldn't have fallen in love with her. Then, she would have been spared this heart break. 

You're doing this for her. To keep her safe. She will be safe now.

But Bosston couldn't have been more wrong.

"Something must have happened that day," he continued his story. "I watched as my words drained the life from her eyes and I think the dark energy latched on to that pain and never let go. It consumed her, like Dark energy does, and changed her into this being. I don't even know if my Sammy is still in there..." Bosston swallowed hard. It was true that he blamed himself. Her spark was gone and it was his fault. Now, there was a powerful, dark entity out there, feeding off of the anger and pain that he had caused and it was hurting his closest friends. 

Bosston still loved Sammy. He knew he would love her forever, and for an Elemental, forever was a long time. He hoped that he could find a way to get through to Sammy, his Sammy inside, and he could explain to her why he did what he did. Because he loved her.

Bosston just prayed that it wasn't too late.