Eye of the Needle: Into the Reikai

DeMain III: Wheel of Fortunes

Over the next week, DeMain learned a lot more about Avery, though it was mostly because his enrollment in the nearest school was still processing, and he didn't exactly have anyone else to talk to. Plus, Avery had a gaming setup and tons of extra controllers. How could he refuse?

Avery was a really big fan of anything fantasy, and DeMain had gotten hooked on a singleplayer game revolving around a warrior braving a cursed land and purifying it or... something. He didn't really understand the storyline, but Avery insisted it was intentionally vague. The game was hard too, but it wasn't impossible. The feeling of overcoming a goal after working at it for a long time was sort of addicting in a way he didn't think his own life had been good at replicating. Avery let him play for as long as he liked too, with him even passing out in his bed while DeMain played. DeMain's mother had initially chewed him out, but she stopped halfway through and congratulated him for making a good impression. She'd been so busy with Diane on the other end of the house that he forgot she was still here sometimes. It was just he, Avery, and Avery's pet mouse named Char that Avery sometimes liked to pick up and take around the house with him.

Gaming wasn't all they did though. Avery liked to walk through the woods in the back of the house, sometimes finding old bones that he put up in chimes or made into sculptures so they didn't go to waste. DeMain made the mistake of coming along closer to the evening, where the forest's canopy hid all of the roots, roots he spent most of his time tripping over. They talked for quite a while though, and DeMain's opinion of Avery was gradually improving. He was weird, yeah, but he never came onto DeMain like he was trying to prove himself, or like he had it out for him like so many other people had. He was sure of himself in a way he hadn't really seen in the other kids he'd gone to school with. A lot of them were concerned with looking good and acting superficially that it was refreshing to find someone he could have a genuine, deep conversation with. Avery never really touched on it, but DeMain knew the look in his eyes when the conversation turned to Mr. Olsen and Avery's mother that something similar to his dad had happened to her. There was a silent, unspoken agreement that they were the same in some way or another, and neither of them spoke of it for the rest of the walk.

"You said your religion was paganism, but you never said what kind." DeMain said, skipping a stone poorly into a pond.

"Oh. How do you know there are different kinds?"

"I'm not dumb, and you also told me the password to the house computer."

"Oh. Yeah."

"...so what kind is it?"

"It's not really a 'kind'. I'm not really sure if there's even a name for it."

"Well... what do you do in it?"

"Well, I usually do..." Avery froze, trailing off.

"Do what?"

Avery refused to move and started backing up suddenly, getting into a loose fighting stance. DeMain glanced over and saw what he was afraid of. A massive buck was glaring at them both, only a good ten feet away. Its antlers were fresh, and it didn't look very happy to see either of them. Even less so with another spare antler Avery had grabbed to bring home. DeMain recalled Avery mentioning they had to be careful during rut season, but he didn't think that meant this season.

The thing charged them both, preparing to gore. Avery threw DeMain to the side and rolled out of the way, saving them both from an early death. It didn't stop the ground from hurting though, it was all pine needles and rocks.

"Run back to the house! I can probably climb a tree or something!" Avery cried, getting into a low stance to attempt to dodge again.

"That's stupid! I'm not gonna leave you alone with that thing!" DeMain shouted, an intense feeling of helplessness overcoming him. Helplessness...