Patastrophe

Journey of the Sorcerer

The sun had risen enough to drive the cold of the night away and people were already busy packing up. I saw the folks around James's place loading their things onto a large red truck standing in the middle of the bare circle of dirt, surrounded by concrete ruins and handmade attachments to them. I kneeled on a hill overlooking the place, searching for James – he wasn't anywhere to be seen. I decided to sit down and enjoy the view anyway. Then, just as I was watching four men force an armchair up into the truck, somebody tapped on my shoulder. I immediately grasped the hand and twisted as I turned around, positioning my arm ready to break the arm. "Thank you, Pat, very cool!" the person said. When I looked up, it was James.

"Where the f- Don't mind that, how were you so silent, man?" I asked.

"Thought it'd be funny or something? You are definitely nervous right now." he said as he sat down, looking at me.

"Bad humor, man, bad humor." I said and looked away. His stare made me uncomfortable.

"Sorry – are you nervous?" he asked. I nodded without turning to face him. "Hey, me too, it's okay."

I looked at him and noticed the teary eyes. He smiled and wiped them, fumbling around for his phone. He tapped around and showed me a name followed by a numerical code – his Wyvern name.

"You know I don't-"

"I don't care. You might have the chance someday, and just can't gamble with that chance." he said. The tears were back. He didn't know that I had Wyvern or a phone in the first place – I'd been super secretive with my stuff, even with him, because...because. I mumbled the name and code to myself a couple of times, making sure I wouldn't forget it. He nodded, and put the phone away, forcing a smile again. I smiled back.

"So, what'd you do with Hoe?" I asked, watching the people move things around like ants again.

"Not much, you know." he said.

I turned and looked at him, making a sound of fake surprise. "Oooooooooh, did you do it with m'lady?" I laughed.

"I deserved that." he said.

"Absolutely."

Now, I'm not gonna lie, that walk was damn long. Nothing particularly interesting or dangerous with some groups leading us and clearing the road from any dangers. It took us damn well near a month to this new place. I listened to people talking about how the situation was over there and some said that it had been in control of various tribes so it was in good condition while others were concerned with how we had gotten to live there. Some people thought that the place was in ruins, you get the idea. I talked to them, learned more and more about the place -as far as they knew, of course- and just, well, met new people. I didn't really know our community (or tribe, whatever you call it.) before this, and honestly, it was a nice thing, just getting to know new people. Not that overrated, I'd say. As a side note: I always saw Hoe, as we were in the same tribe though I'm more than proud to tell you that I have always dodged her attempts to talk with me. It'd usually go like this:

She'd approach me, sometimes from behind and calmly say, "Hey" or some sort of greeting. I'd look at her.

"Hey, you still alive?", I'd say and then walk away to take care of some nonexistent task. I honestly don't exactly regret this although I've always thought that she had news about James or something, but that's the price you gotta pay to keep away from her.