Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul

(I just realized his stalk eyes are posed almost identically to Semeir's. I honestly didn't do it on purpose. I'm laughing now XD)

If you've read The Andalite Chronicles, you'll recognize Elfangor right away. Handsome fella, ain't he?

War-Prince is just a military rank, he's not royalty.

He has sad eyes because in the book, he goes through horrible things, finds happiness only to have a godlike being(Ellimist) take it all away to "fix" the timeline. It's between the time he's back to the time he has to return to Earth that Semeir's story takes place.

A glimpse of a moment where Semeir sees that pain:

{We do terrible things in a war, Semeir. Terrible things. Alloran getting infested by a Yeerk was my fault.} He sighed. With my stalk eyes, I watched him hang his head and close his main eyes. He didn't seem to realize he said that out loud. If he did, he didn't care. {I condemned him to a fate worse than death. If we win this war, if Alloran is still alive at the end, the only thing I want to tell him is how sorry I am. I don't expect him to forgive me. I can't even forgive myself.}

{Elfangor--}

{What happened to your family wasn't your fault, Semeir.} He said each word like he knew how badly I'd beaten myself up about it. {Leehan was an accident. Learn from it. Learn from the mistakes you make in life. If you never remember anything I say to you, remember that. Please, Semeir, always learn.}

It wasn't like Elfangor to show such vulnerability. Usually, he had a quick word to make me feel better. The sudden confession stopped my blubbering. I felt like such a child, crying about a simple field scuffle when he'd seen so much worse. As a warrior, I would have to see far worse on a battlefield.

In this war, no one was innocent. Everybody made mistakes, everybody carried guilt--even the Andalite I looked up to.

{Semeir, everyone thinks I'm a great hero, but I ran away. I ran until I couldn't anymore. I started out like you--I was about your age--wanting to be a hero and fight the Yeerks, but a war is so much more. It devours life. It twists people. I'm a hero because the Ellimist had good timing. That's all.}

{So many people look up to you.} I said, surprised. How could he speak that way?

A shudder ran through him. I wouldn't have noticed if he wasn't hugging me right then. He whispered, {If they knew the truth you do...they wouldn't, Semeir.}

{I know the truth, and I look up to you.}

Elfangor smiled down at me. It was a pained smile, and I knew he was crying inside. He wasn't the type to let other people hear him cry. He'd seen and experienced things beyond explanation or understanding. Sometimes, he seemed ready to throw his fists in the air and scream.

I knew he wouldn't. That wasn't Elfangor's style.

He took all that pain, all that weight in his hearts, and transformed it into something positive.

{Someday, I think I'll be the one looking up to you,} he said.

I don't think he realized he gave himself away.

Everybody placed him up a pedestal. I know because I do, too. Except...the more I'm around him, the more I just see him as Elfangor, the Andalite who came to my rescue in more ways than one.

He is my hero for that alone.