Story: Middle Part 36
[[Continuity Note: Alf just had an interview with some magic people. He's feeling rather tired afterwards.]]
Alf slept the rest of the day, only waking at dinner time because his parents felt that him missing two meals in a row was not a good idea. They put it down to him simply not getting enough sleep the night before, but Alf knew it was because of that magic sample. The idea worried him. He'd never felt anything like it before. He'd never realised that using magic could make you feel tired. He'd have to ask Aliana about that later. He'd have to ask her a lot of things, actually.
When Alf awoke the next morning, he was feeling much better about himself, and life. So much better that he remembered that he didn't have to ask Aliana, and could in fact ask his orb oracle about time magic and the tiredness he'd felt. It told him that tiredness was normal, but with exercise of his magical abilities he should be able to last longer before getting tired. Time magic was something fairly advanced and not taught until later because of the greater number of ethical issues involved with its usage. They had to be absolutely certain that young magic users weren't tempted to use time magic to solve all their problems as too much could severely distort life as they knew it.
Apparently experiments by magi-scientists had shown exactly what happened when objects went through time too many times. They began to mutate as though evolving, even though many of them were inanimate objects. They even discovered that these objects would disappear randomly with no way to track them, only to discover that they'd traveled through time when they discovered records of them appearing in their laboratory.
As Alf ravenously ate his breakfast, he remembered two things from the day before that he'd almost forgotten. The first was that Damien was ridiculously depressed and he had to find out why. The second was that the magi-scientists had also wanted to interview Rock. After Alf was finished with them, Alf's parents had gone in to speak with them as they arranged the room back the way they'd found it. With a short talk, Mr Wiley and Ms Aldus decided that there was no need to interview Mr and Mrs Struthers since they didn't know much about Alf's magical usage at all.
After breakfast, Alf's worried parents allowed their son to visit Damien at his place.
Alf knocked on the door as he'd done many times before. This time Mr Reid answered the door. "Damien's not in at the moment," he said. "He said something about going out. I thought he was with you, but since he's not with you, I don't know where he is." Mr Reid said this all nonchalantly, as though he wasn't afraid for his son's safety at all. He probably wasn't, Alf decided. It was too early to worry about things like where your teenage son went when he didn't tell you. The problem was, Alf thought as he walked away from the Struthers house, he didn't have any idea where Damien was. Stopping at the nearest payphone, he decided to to ring Damien's mobile. He didn't pick up, and Alf didn't bother leaving a message.
With no other clue about where to go, Alf headed toward the Aldus house. Jessica greeted him at the door, calmly inviting him inside.
"Have you seen Damien?" Alf asked her.
She shook her head. "But I think he might be out in the woods."
"What makes you say that?" Alf asked.
"Just look," she said, dragging Alf towards one of the windows at the back of the house. A small dark cloud had collected over a single tree in the middle of the forest.
"Well how do you know that's Damien?" Alf asked.
"Rock's asleep and who else do you know that would be that idiotic?"
"Good point," Alf nodded. "I'm going to go out and talk to him."
"I'll go with you," Jessica volunteered.
Alf stopped her. "I don't think that would be the best idea at the moment."
Jessica frowned, but acknowledged that Alf had been Damien's friend for longer. "Fine. But don't take too long. I'm getting bored. And if I end up eavesdropping on you, that's not my fault."
Alf frowned at her, wondering where the very ethical Jessica had gone. Apparently having people around to entertain her more than ever before had stifled her creative ability to entertain herself.
He left the house soon after leaving his coin with her to ensure that she didn't eavesdrop on them and went towards the tree with the angry cloud hovering above it. He hovered up to the tree before seeing Damien on the highest branch as he'd expected. "Hi," Alf greeted Damien.
Damien looked away from his friend, not wanting Alf to acknowledge his presence.
"Aren't you going to tell me what's wrong?" Alf asked.
Damien gave no response.
"Aren't you at least going to tell me to go away?" Alf tried.
There was no response for a long while before Damien said, "Go away" rather half-heartedly.
"Say it like you mean it, would you?" Alf grinned, stepping onto a slightly lower branch so that they were eye level despite the fact that Damien was sitting. "I know something must have upset you at the council meeting. And I'm not going to go away until I find out what it is."
Damien only turned farther away from his friend, and it started to rain.
"Argh," Alf growled, frustrated. He started a fire to keep himself warm and wished that he had the ability to blow the cloud away, or at least make it stop raining. "Why are you better at that than I am?" he wondered.
Abruptly, as though only just realising what he was doing, Damien stopped the rain and made the cloud evaporate. "I didn't realise that was me."
Alf wondered how he could use such a large amount of magic subconsciously. "We're friends aren't we? And friends communicate, they don't leave each other hanging."
Damien shot Alf a piercing look. "Why?"
"Why what?" Alf asked, confused.
"Why are we friends? Why do you want to be friends with me?"
Alf was still confused and now slightly concerned. "Why wouldn't I?"
"Because I'm a horrible person who pretty much single-handedly ruined the Austrlian economy. Because I do things without thinking of the consequences. Because I don't care."
"What? You're not a horrible person. You can't be expected to know all the consequences of your actions. You're young. You're learning. You're a person and people make mistakes."
"I hate magic. I never want to use it ever again."
Alf looked around them, a little shocked. "Then why are you using it right now?"
Again, as though only suddenly becoming aware of his surroundings Damien let his magic go. It didn't take long before the branch he was sitting on broke without magical reinforcement, and he fell. Frightened beyond belief, it took a while before Alf reacted. Using his levitating ability, he made sure that Damien landed softly on the ground. He followed him, but Damien darted off before he could talk to him. And this time he didn't leave a magical trail for them to follow.
With a heavy heart, Alf headed back to the house to tell of his lack of success.
[[End scene.]]
posted by Cedric @ 10:46 pm
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