A funeral was scheduled two days later, the day Milford, Max, and the other Mondollions would have to leave for the journey.
For those two days, Milford literally just stayed in bed and stared up at the ceiling until it was either time to eat a chosen small portion of food or when slumber overtook him.
He couldn't have just thought about it like he usually did. The scene of Horomir's untimely death replayed over and over in his head like a movie. It wouldn't go away because there wasn't anything more to think about.
Not even thinking about his mother's beautiful face could make him smile halfway.
Max, however, didn't just stare at the ceiling like Milford did. They either chewed their thumb or just stared at Milford. Sometimes it was even both. They watched over him like Horomir once did.
It felt so long ago.
Over the course of these days, nobody came to visit them or even say hi. Nobody even looked through the window that was next to the door.
Through all of these things weighing down on him, Milford vowed on Horomir's life to avenge him. He would kill Marcus in cold blood. It would feel so good yet somewhat bad on his conscience. God was a forgiving person no matter what situation it was, right?
All this happened for a period of two days, until the day of the quest arrived.
The plan would be Horomir's funeral, then there would be one hour to get ready, then they would leave on their dragons to Beijing.
Ten minutes before the funeral started, Milford and Max were walking down the rows of cabins to where the funeral would be held. Stacks of lawn chairs that weren't put together with much effort were behind the casket.
As they walked, Max kept glancing at Milford, then would quickly turn away after.
Finally, words met Milford. "Stop staring at me, Max."
"I'm worried about you."
"Save your sympathy. You've never worried about me like this before. I'm fine, really," he lied. He wasn't alright in the slightest.
They were both dressed in black suits that they both borrowed from Marcus's old locker. They had cleaned the suits earlier, but there was still dust or lint here and there located in several places.
When they got to their chairs, they only saw one familiar face, and that belonged to Ajax. He wasn't sitting in one of the lawn chairs because they were too big for one, so instead they found him sitting cross-legged on the grass to the right of the many rows of chairs. He was wearing a tux, but it looked two sizes smaller because the polyester was stretching. He looked like he just watched the ending of a sad movie, his eyes glistening like diamonds.
As Milford and Max passed through the aisle, the other Mondollions, maybe about 30 of them so far, didn't look at them. They probably thought Horomir's death was all Milford's fault since he hadn't said anything about Marcus being the actual culprit.
When Milford saw the casket at the end, he could not look at it. He wouldn't dare to look at the very coffin that held his past friend that had helped him so little yet so much.
Milford imagined himself looking at the casket for a long period of time then sinking to his knees and sobbing while Max would reassure him that everything was going to be alright except they both knew it wasn't going to.
He still had the journey in not even five hours, which made him even more anxious. Instead, he just looked away and focused more on getting a seat as far away as possible from everyone.
He managed to find the second to final row along with Max on his left.
About twenty minutes passed waiting for more Mondollions, and the funeral passed four hours later.
Milford had spoken, but Max was the only one who really listened. Both of them carried the casket up to Horomir's grave.
Tears were shed.
On the gravestone, three words were simply marked:
H o r o m i r:
A L e a d e r
After, the crew leaving for the journey had the remaining hour to prepare.
While walking back, Milford saw many Mondollions, excluding the youngsters and the elders, practicing with swords, shields, or both at once. Then, he realized that he didn't even have gear yet.
He told Max to wait for him at the cabin, and then set off towards Horomir's cabin, where Ajax, the new leader of the group, was.
When Milford opened the door, he didn't see anything unusual. He only saw them in a chair behind a desk, a few bookshelves on the walls.
It looked like Ajax had been sitting there for hours, even though everyone had left the funeral not even twenty minutes ago.
Ajax blinked then looked at Milford, as if he suddenly realized he'd walked in.
"Oh, um, hello," Ajax sighed.
"Hi. Do you happen to have any gear or helmets or anything that I could use?" Milford asked.
Ajax put two fingers up to his chin.
"Well, we could probably find you an unused sword, maybe a used sheild, and helmets are good."
Milford just nodded.
"Hey, um, listen. When we go on the, er, dragons, just remember. Horomir was a great fighter, and he would've wanted you to be...as good. Or even better. You never know, you know?"
Milford kept nodding after every sentence as if he were half-listening to a parent's lecture, but he really was paying attention.
"Well, get out of my office and get the gear you want in the locker room," Ajax ordered.
Milford frowned, but did what he was told. He didn't want to make Ajax mad, anyways. Not now.
He walked out the door of the office and to the cabin that Ajax had told him to go to, which wasn't far away.
As he opened the door to the cabin, he found Max fumbling with the blades and other armor.
"Hey, Milford," he mumbled without even turning around.
Milford didn't feel like saying anything back. He stumbled around lockers, old and new.
There were other Mondollions suiting up who gave him strange looks and glances, as per usual.
"Hey, man!" Max yelled from behind. "Your armor's over here!"
Milford ran over to him and saw that he was holding not a silver, but a gold-engraved helmet, sword, and shield. Max was struggling to hold all of it, so he took it from them.
Milford was amazed. Was this especially made for him? He hoped that it was just silver or something colored gold, since that itself would be very weak in battle, but he still felt special.
He turned around and saw that the other Mondollions were staring at him and his armor in jealousy and disgust. Milford shook it off and went to the changing rooms.
Five minutes later, he came out and saw Max was ready to go too.
They walked outside to catch sight of a dragon similar to the one they rode there flying away. There were about fifty people riding on it.
Then everything stopped.
Milford's mind lost all thought and function. He saw but did not think. Ajax was running to Milford in a hurry. They were mouthing words that Milford assumed dimly was a yell. Max pulled him to a dragon packed with others. He felt the dragon take off like a rocket. Felt gravity change. Then, he saw water in front of him as he fell to his doom.
