Tales of the Travellers

5

I sat on the rooftop of the highest building. I stared at the sun as it began to rise to introduce us to a new day.

I was not looking forward to this new day. All I had now was Lily, who no longer knew who I was to her or her mother. She was her own woman now, and a rather science fuelled one at that, but at the same time always had that sense of wonder for the world like I remember her to have been born with.

But to be honest, it only ever pained me to see her, and to see what I've done to her.

I heard she even had children of her own now. But I can't touch them either by the rule of blood.

Erica was smart in explaining my absence to Lily when she was younger. She told her that I was this silly man who learned how to fly and promised to fly around the world and come back to them to bring them gifts. As she got older and understood, Erica told her of what I truly was, but I still believe Lily doesn't believe her.

But I never revealed myself to be her father, she had her own life, she didn't need me to interfere with it. No matter how much I wish I could.

I wasn't going to go to Erica's funeral however. I didn't want to, I didn't know how I'd explain myself to people if they were to ask, and if I told them to truth I knew they wouldn't react well.

So I decided to watch from a distance.

And I would've stayed there too if it hadn't been for someone sitting next to me.

I turned my head and immediately recognised it to be the one and only Jason Traveller praising me with his presence. "Hello stranger," he greeted.

"Howdy," was my reply as I looked back to this odd town.

"You hardly look ready for anything," he informed.

"I'm not going to anything, so I have no need to be ready," I replied.

"But if you're not ready then you can't do anything," he countered.

"And if I don't plan on doing anything than I won't get ready to do anything because I'm not doing anything," I countered back. I soon lost track of what I was saying.

"Then how about instead of sitting on your sorry ass, you get ready to go do something since the love of your life is undergoing some weird human ceremony and you aren't there to help her make a joke about it," he replied.

I stared at him oddly, "How'd you know she wasn't one for formalities?"

"Because you certainly never seemed to be." He started going through his coat. I noticed we looked very similar except for the top hat he wore proudly on his head. He produced a pair of white gloves from his inside pocket. He stood up and somehow forced me to follow.

He started straightening me out, fixing my jacket, my under shirt, my sleeves and everything. He smoothed out my hair roughly and, after giving up, plonked his hat on my head to hide it. As he did this he spoke to me. "You are going to go down to that funeral of hers, you are going to pay whatever humans call respect to her, and you are going to console your daughter," he explained.

I stared oddly at him. "How? I can't touch anything of my blood without burning them."

He flicked my nose and told me to shut up. He waved the gloves in my face and forced me to hold them. "Present yourself, be yourself and don't be a complete idiot, some of these people don't even know you."

"All of those people don't know me," I countered.

"Well there's very little I can do about that." He pulled out a gold pocket watch and looked at the time, "Well you better get going, or you're going to be late."