"So... What are we doing out here exactly? You're not pulling another prank on me, are you?" I questioned Eli with narrowed eyes.

After dinner, He immediately pulled me out of the hideout and told everyone that we were going out for a walk, so here we are, on our mechabeasts, wondering through one of the more tranquil forest in Slugterra.

"I'm dead serious, Ales. I just want to spend some time with you, alone, out here in the woods," Eli explained patiently.

"More like you're gonna kidnap me and I will never see my friends again," I pouted, and he let out a throaty chuckle.

"Yeah, I'll kidnap you and chain you to my bed, making you mine forever," he said, and that for sure shut my mouth tight.

"I'm just kidding, Ales. It's because... I realise that in the past I was always looking forward to the future, constantly asking myself when I will be able to see you again, to have you in my arms and finally be happy. It hit me quite recently that I never lived in the moment of life."

Lucky sped forward and turned sideways to bring Dalinda to a halt. He looked at me from his side; his gorgeous ocean blue eyes were the only thing I could see.

"I want to change that. I want to live in the moment, to appreciate the little things life offers to me every single second, regardless of it being good or bad. Now would be the perfect time to make that change, 'cause I finally found you," he said, a soft smile pasted on his face. "Let me have you, please. I beg you."

"What do you mean?" I asked, pasting a soft smirk. "I am already yours to begin with."

He finally wore his signature smirk that I have been missing more than I should.

"Good girl."

He turned Lucky around and continued on. It took me awhile to reboot my utterly shocked brain before I caught up with him. My cheeks were heated I can feel the temperature within me rose. 

"You liked that, didn't you?" he asked in a husky voice, his eyes fixed on the road ahead.

"Yes daddy," I said, pressing my lips into a straight line, trying so hard not to laugh when Lucky came to an immediate halt beside me while Dalinda continue to walk.

"Hey! Hold on now," he called out for me and seconds later a hand grabbed me by my arm. Dalinda stopped in tracks by herself, her head faced forward but I knew so well that she was smirking.

"What did you call me?" he asked when he caught up, staring at me intensely.

"You like that too, don't you?" I teased.

A corner of his lips raised, before he nodded, pulling away from me with confidence beaming off of his face.

I think I might've boosted his ego a bit too much.

"We're here," he said, and I raised my brows.

"We were heading to somewhere?" I asked, looking up at him to see him staring forward, and I followed his gaze.

"Wanted to make things romantic for us and you just have to make everything sexual."

My eyes widened as I glared at him.

"Excuse me? You started it!"

He laughed at me while I was trying so hard to figure out where we were.

Deep in the woods there stood a two-storey high ancient-looking stone wall, with twinning climbers covering almost the entire greyish surface, blending the wall with the trees that camouflaged it.

"Where are we?" I whispered, still in disbelief that there was this weird wall that seemed like it was a ruin of a manmade infrastructure in the middle of nowhere.

"Wind-Farm," Eli said. "I was riding Lucky around a few years ago and almost ran into it. Thank the Guardian Slugs Burpy noticed it, or else I might've died because of how fast I was."

"Do the rest of the gang know about this place?" I asked him, resting a palm on the vertical wall, feeling the rough surface of the rock being balanced out by the soft texture of the gleaming vegetation.

"No," Eli smiled. "I tend to keep secret places to myself, like the rooftop."

"Really? Well you're not doing a very good job at it. You led me straight to one of your secret locations," I said, retrieved my hand from the wall and smirked at him. His expression softened as our gaze locked. He reached out for my head and ruffled my hair.

"These locations are meant for us, Ales. I've been waiting for three years for you, to bring you to these places, to explore them together," he said, a charming smile pasted on his lips. "And now, I can finally do that."

How is he so good at spawning butterflies in my stomach.

"This better be good, Eli. This is my first date," I said.

I enjoyed messing with him so much. I don't know why.

"No pressure," he laughed. "It's my first date too."

Lucky started to backup from me.

"Go ahead, over the wall," he said. "Lucky needs some distance."

I nodded at him. I hold onto Dalinda's handles as she retracted her legs, before she sprung into the air. Dalinda expanded her wings just enough to hop over the wall, and landed safely on the other side. Seconds later, we could hear Eli reared up his engine and Lucky jumped over the wall, landing perfectly on the ground beside me.

"What in the Slugterra is this place?" I mumbled the second my gaze laid on the view in front of me, wholly amazed by this extraordinary spot.

At the base of a mountain, a two-storey high, semicircle wall secluded this small piece of grassland. Dalinda roamed around the small garden with him following closely behind as I admired the various types of bioluminescence plants beaming different shades of pink.

Even with the prepossessing flowers, I could still make out the outline of ruins that was completely covered by the bioluminescent plants. A watch tower, made out of the same material that was used to built the walls, erected near to the right corner of the garden. The roof at the top was destroyed but the rest of the infrastructure was still intact.

Towards the left of the garden there were ruins of what seemed like old columns. Three of them still remain standing, some with more than half of them broken.

All around the garden there were piles of rubbles that littered the ground, with groups of slugs lingering around them. They seemed to like this place a lot.

In the middle of the garden, there was a gigantic tree. Its branches stretched out like it was the key to holding the garden together. The lower leaves gleamed in a gentle green, bringing a little shine to the night atmosphere.

The tree... It reminds me so much of the oak tree.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Eli asked as he got down from Lucky to walk to me, and lend me a hand. I smiled at him, placing a hand on his before he helped me get down from Dalinda. I looked down as his fingers came in between mine, interlocking them.

"Yes," I said. "The oak tree."

He nodded at me, planting a small kiss on my forehead. He walked forward, softly pulling me with him with our hands. Dalinda then walked past us, exploring the place herself.

"Don't destroy anything buddy. This place is beautiful," I said, and she responded with a lazy groan.

"Do you like this place?" Eli asked, glancing down at me as I walked beside him, our shoulders touching.

"I do, a lot," I said, leaning my head on his shoulder. "The tree sparks so any memories."

"That's what I thought too. I love this place so much because of that tree," he said as we wandered deeper into the garden. "The slugs like it here a lot, I realise. The first time I was here there were as many slugs as now, or even more."

He was right. As we walked deeper into the garden, I could see more groups of slugs just hanging around here; socialising, fooling around, staring at blank spaces.

"Why do they like it here?" I asked him.

"No idea," he said, before looking at Burpy that was perching on his other shoulder this entire time. "Do you?"

Burpy responded with a cute shrug, his head tilted slightly with his hands forming a 'w'.

"I don't know why but it feels so nice in here," I confessed. "It feels like a part of me is fully satisfied by just being in here. This feeling is like nothing I have felt before. What do you think, Phoenix?"

No response.

"Phoenix?"

My head shot up from his shoulder and I glanced down at Phoenix, that was perching on my shoulder.

She was just gazing at a distance.

"Phoenix?"

She finally snapped out of it and looked at me with big curious eyes.

"You okay?" Eli asked as he tilted his head to look at Phoenix. Her gaze shifted between Eli and I, before she shook her head gently and put on a smile.

"She's alright," I confirmed, nodding at Eli.

"You understand your slugs very well," he commented with a nod.

"Yeah, and you are my inspiration to achieve that," I smiled, and he let out a soft giggle with a soft blush on his cheeks.

"There is something else here that I want to show you," Eli said as he pulled me behind the tree.

Behind the majestic tree, there was an opening of a large cave. The opening was as high as the walls or even higher, with soft cyan rays gleaming out from the inside.

"That wasn't here before," he said, raising a brow. "The glow."

"What's in there?" I asked.

"I haven't explored this cave yet," Eli said. "Not sure if any beast lurks behind these rocks."

"So you bring me here?" I laughed. He looked down at me and chuckled.

"I brought with me my best fighter so that the chance of me surviving this exploration is higher," he smiled. "That's a compliment."

"Thank you," I giggled.

"Come on," he said, pulling me into the cave like a little kid. "Let's go explore!"

I laughed as he brought me into the cave with him, venturing deeper. At first the cave was boring. It was made out of rocks, but it quickly transitioned.

We stumbled upon the most beautiful tunnel I have ever seen in my entire life.

Crystal. Blue crystals. They don't seem to be reflecting light but instead there were light sources shining from within each crystal. This place was phenomenal. It was too breathtaking that it's hard to believe such place exist.

The path from here onwards was made out of these mysterious crystals, and when I looked forward I couldn't see the other end of the path. The protruding crystals covered the other end.

"What do you think is at the other end?" I asked, gripping his forearm and gently squeezing him.

"One way to find out," he said, looking down at me again because he is a literal giraffe.

"Are you sure this is safe?" I asked. I was starting to worry that there might actually be a beast lurking in the cave.

"Maybe not," he answered. "But what is there to worry? You are the person who saved the entirety of Slugterra. What can possibly bring us harm."

I mean he does have a point but-

"Come on let's just go! Part of exploration is the thrilling part of not knowing if you will die!" he smiled at me like that was a normal thing to say. "Just don't go into any random holes and you'll be fine."

"This tunnel is a random hole to me," I said, my lips pressed into a straight line. He gave up on arguing with me and just pulled me deeper into the tunnel with him, and I allowed him.

I'm glad I did.

Along the way I started hearing the sound of running water gradually getting louder. A river. Eli certainly noticed it too as he slowed down his pace when the noises got too loud.

The end of the path finally came to sight; the exit of the tunnel was covered with a group of vines dangling from the top of the tunnel, completely blocking what was on the other side.

Curious, Eli walked through it, pushing the vines out of the way and walking in front of me just in case any unwanted being pops up. My hand rested on the handle of my blaster just in case, eyes narrowed to search for any sudden movements.

Eli went through the last row of vines and immediately froze in tracks, causing me to bump into him from behind.

"Eli? Why did you stop-"

I tried to tiptoe over his shoulders to see what stopped him, and when I did, I couldn't believe my eyes and froze in tracks too.

The sound of a river? It was a waterfall.

At the other end of the tunnel there was this massive open space, as big as a Narwhaddle's iceball. Crystals transitioned to sand on the ground whereas they slowly transtitioned back to the inital rock material on the ceiling. There was a small opening right above the waterfall and I could only imagine light shining through it in the morning, adding glow to the already stunning waterfall.

But at night it get so much more beautiful.

Crystals underneath the waterfall glowed in the dark, emitting the same ray of cyan as the crystals in the tunnel. The breathtaking waterfall was glowing, resembles how bioluminescent dinoflagellates lit up the ocean on the Surface.

"What in the Slugterra..." Eli mumbled, taking his time to absorb in the beauty of this place. Neither of us have seen anything like this before.

This place is literally heaven.

"Ales," he called out for me, and I diverted my attention to him. He smiled at me, his hand raised up with Trixie's camera in it.

"Borrowed this," he said. "Let's take some pics."

Underneath the blue crystal stalactites hanging from the ceiling of the cave, Eli took pictures of this spectacular landform and helped me took some pictures. It was too dark in the cave to review the pictures so we decided to have long walks on the 'beach', holding hands.

We didn't want to leave this place, but we eventually did when Dalinda came wandering into this underground waterfall looking for us through the tunnel. We have been out for quite some time and it's probably best to head back before the others start to get worry.

We walked out of the cave with Dalinda through the same crystal tunnel we went through to get in. Once we were out, Eli immediately pulled out the camera to look at the pictures he took. I leaned over his shoulders to look at the screen of the camera.

"You're so pretty I swear to the Guardian Slugs," he mumbled, his eyes fixed on the screen as he go through the pictures with me in them. I blushed softly as I continue to check out the photos. There were different poses and lighting in each photo, and I was liking them so far.

But like every other girl, there must be at least one ugly picture in a photoshoot.

Eli's thumb when numb on the '->' button when a not so decent picture of me came up. I don't know how my face was distorted and my body was super out of shape. I blinked when I saw the picture, before gazing at Eli to gauge his reaction.

He just stared at it, before a smirk I know so well surfaced on his lips.

"This is going on my wall."

"NO!" I yelled, trying to snatch the camera away from him but his reaction was fast, since he is a slinger. He raised the camera to a level I can't reach before running away from me.

"Catch me if you can, shorty!" he screamed, running even faster.

I paused. My heart fluttered for a second, recalling how we used to be when we were younger, before my competitive side kicked in and we started to chase each other around the garden, underneath the magnificent tree.

Just like good old times.