Seven! I'm up to seven! Hopefully, this is to everyone's liking (ya know, the people who look at it XP)

Eli wasn't scared of fire. Nope, never, negative. So, why was he weary of it now? Burpy didn't frighten him as he was his best friend, but the fire in the fire pit was giving him goosebumps.

'But why?' Eli asked himself. 'Why am I so afraid?'

He didn't even register Kord sitting next to him. When he looked up and saw the tall blue cave troll, he jumped five feet in the air.

"Whoa there, Eli, I didn't mean to startle you," Kord said.

"I know," Eli said back. He didn't dare move. His hands were shaking something fierce, but he hid them behind his back. Nope, he wasn't scared before. So, why was he now?

"You have that look on your face," Kord said.

"What look?" Eli questioned.

"The look that you get when you're thinking about something, but don't want to admit it out loud."

"Do I?"

"You wanna tell me what's going on? Pronto and Trixie aren't out here. They've gone to bed a while ago."

"Not really, no. But I know you won't give up so easily either."

"Nope."

"I guess I could tell you, but you have to promise you won't laugh."

"Never."

Eli looked deep into the cave troll's eyes, hoping to see some sort of lie within the dark orbs, but found none.

"I-it's the fire," Eli admitted.

"The fire?" Kord repeated.

"Yeah. I dunno why, but it is. It's like I'm afraid of it."

"Now why would that be?"

"I don't know. Just something about it gives me the shudders."

Kord nodded.

"Well, you know how I am with water. Is it that type of fear?"

"No," Eli immediately shot down. "I'm not like you with water."

"So, what's it like? I can't help you if I don't have any context."

"Well, I'm just wary about it is all."

"Wary?"

"Cautious. Whatever you wanna call it."

"What about Burpy?"

"He's okay. I don't get like this around him. Kord, I don't know what else to do. I'm scared of fire. But I haven't been before. What does it all mean?!"

At that moment, Kord didn't see the leader of the Shane Gang. He saw a fifteen-year-old boy who was scared and lost with no one for him to turn to except someone he saw as an older brother.

Meanwhile, Eli was trying his hardest to not let the tears fall. Especially not in front of Kord.

"Eli, I truly don't know. But, what I do know is that you're stronger than me or Pronto or Trixie combined. You trained with your slugs day and night, us only in the day. You're able to withstand any mental attack that comes to you, Trixie can't do that, I can only do that for so long, and Pronto wouldn't know what to do," Kord said. "You're smart. Trixie is as smart as you, you're a tad bit smarter than me, and you're definitely smarter than Pronto."

Eli barked out a laugh, a sound that made Kord smile.

"But most of all, you are a Shane. One of the best Slugterra's ever seen. You understand me? And if the best Shane is spooked by a little fire, so what? You've got us right by your side. We aren't leaving you, Eli. Even if you told us to."

Eli smiled while wiping away any evidence that there may have been a few tears that had slipped down his cheeks.

"Thanks, Kord. For everything," the fifteen-year-old said.

"Anything for my bro," Kord responded.

If the other two saw or heard anything, they never said. And Kord nor Eli mentioned it.

So, good? Bad? Meh? Lemme know? You don't have to if you don't want to.

~*MegaMon2580*~