Loving You to the Stars and Back // Keith x OC //

The Return

84

~Keith~

My eyes fluttered opened as I felt something weigh down on me. At first, I woke up in a daze, confused wondering where I was until I looked to my left. That was when I saw the blue space wolf curled up beside me, soundly asleep. I was startled, not expecting him to be there, but I quickly felt relieved knowing it was my dear friend.

I reached out for his soft fur, stroking it gently as I looked upon his face. He was a beautiful creature. I would never have imagined having a pet, even though I've always wanted one, but now I have a space wolf that passed for one. Just as I was thinking about this, I wondered how he got here and where Athena went.

My eyes grew wide as I realized what had happened. I jolted up from the hammock to see Athena sleeping on the other side, curled up in a fetal position against the wolf. Relieved, I looked upon her face as she rested her head on her arm.

"Sorry I passed out earlier," I murmured under my breath as I continued to look at Athena. "But I'm glad to have had this conversation with you. Thank you for hearing me out." The last thing that I could remember was Athena's last few words before I passed out. My heart raced just thinking about it, knowing well that we are making process in getting Athena back. It may not be 100%, but I was hopeful that the Athena we all knew back then would remember most of her memories.

✵✵✵✵✵

We've reached our two-year mark being out here, traveling to get to the other side of the abyss. As the days went by, I was growing bored, restless thinking about when and if we were ever going to make it in this lifetime. The longer we stayed on the creature's back, the more I started to think about how we were going to finish this mission.

As Athena, the wolf, and I sat around the fire, my mother appeared before us at the entrance of the cave. "Athena, Keith," she calls out calmly. "I think we've made it." Hearing this, I got up onto my feet as fast as I could and exited the cave. My eyes grew wide at the sight, seeing the Quantum Abyss right in front of us.

"Oh my goodness," I hear as footsteps came running up beside me. "It's been two whole years since we got on this mission. We can finally finish what we came here for." I turn to see for a moment and saw the relief on Athena's face as we approached the wormhole. I could see it in her eyes that she had been waiting for this moment more than any of us. We were just a step closer to finding more information about the raw quintessence.

"Get ready," Krolia spoke up as she joined us. "We're going to depart from this creature's back very soon once we've gone through to the other side of the Abyss." Athena and I exchanged looks for a couple of seconds before preparations.

The creature let out a wail before entering into the Abyss, leading us through a long tunnel of light. It wasn't long until we reached the end, spotting a red planet appeared before us.

"Look, a planet," I pointed out as the creature was heading straight for it.

"I'm picking up some readings similar to those of the quintessence Ranveig found," Krolia replied as she looked through her scanners. "We will need a way to get down to that planet."

"Perhaps Kosmo can transport us down there if we get close enough," Athena replied.

I crouched down to make eye contact with the space wolf and patted his head. "What do you think, buddy? Do you think you can get us down there?" The wolf nuzzled against my hand, indicating that it was alright for him to get us down to the red planet.

"Then, what are we waiting for?" Krolia replied. "Let's get to the head of the creature and hope that we can get close enough to the planet for the wolf to transport us down there." With no hesitation, we rushed to the edge of the creature, standing just above his head as we were quickly passing the planet.