Previously on Onward...
Ian's friends voice their own concerns for their wizard bestie when they notice that he's been spending a lot more time with Mr. Vance than with them. This leads Ian to stubbornly turn away from his friends and go straight to his teacher for support. Meanwhile, Barley is out driving Guinevere the Second when all of a sudden, the van becomes immobile!
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◊ Uncovering the Truth ◊
The school day had soon reached its last period, and Sadalia and Althea arrived at the school's auditorium for their free period session. No one at New Mushroomton High ever went down below the theater's stage—aside from, well, the theater kids, who called this particular area "the trap room." So it was Sadalia's first time going down there, and Althea couldn't wait to show her around.
"Thanks for helping me look for my prop, Sal," the cyclops said as she opened the big auditorium doors.
"Hey, no problem," Sadalia said in a chill manner as they both entered the enormous room.
But as the two friends silently walked down one of the lengthy aisles together, the elf soon had a looming thought on her mind.
"You know, I feel like we hurt Ian's feelings at lunch earlier," she finally said to her best friend. "Do you think we were being a little too inconsiderate?"
"Well, he did say we were 'supposed to be his friends,'" Althea recalled, "and he didn't exactly come back after he got up and left like that."
"But we are his friends! He knows that, doesn't he?"
"I mean...before we came along, he didn't really have a lot of friends. Like, sure, he had Kagar, but that was it. So...maybe he's just not used to being around groups of people with different opinions."
Sadalia considered this possibility. "Maybe...," she said, "and magic is really important to him...I just feel bad, you know? I wouldn't want this to convince him to strike out on his own or anything."
"I get you."
"But what I don't understand is why he called his brother 'bossy.' That doesn't sound like Barley to me..."
"Yeah, I don't know...it's almost as strange as this whole mancrushing thing he has over Mr. Vance..."
As Althea glanced over at Sadalia, the elf gave her a look—which confused the cyclops.
"What?"
"I wonder if maybe you were a little too on the nose with that question," Sadalia said candidly.
"What question?"
"Well, gee, at lunch, you were all like, 'ooh, where's Ms. Traven? She's disappeared! Mr. Vance is behind this!'"
The elf didn't care whether she was being brutally honest with her best friend or not. Somehow, she had a feeling that somewhere in their lunch conversation, Ian's frustrated outburst came about because of Althea.
"Okay, I didn't say it exactly like that!" the cyclops said in defense.
"I know, but that's not the point. I feel like what Ian wants to know from Mr. Vance about this talisman he mentioned is really important to him, and we should respect that. And I don't know...Vance's lectures aren't that bad. He really seems to have the know-how for magic, and what he's saying could be useful."
Althea gave this some thought. As out of nowhere as he seemed to her, Vance did know many things about magic and the old days.
"Yeah, I guess so...," she relented. Then as the two girls found themselves in front of a single black door, the cyclops beamed and said, "oh, here we are!"
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If You Trust Me - An Onward Fan-Novel
FanfictionWhen Ian Lightfoot unexpectedly comes upon an unknown talisman, it leads him and his older brother, Barley, on a path to try and figure out its purpose. But when they are unable to follow the traditional quest right away, the brothers come into conf...