The Apprentice's Journey

The sun rises in the morning and the light floods into the room. I smile to myself and rub my eyes before looking to the bed across the room to see it empty. "Duncan???" I cry. After an accident involving some portal guns, I'm having to sleep in his tower and even though I am used to him getting up early to do his experiments, I still worry when he isn't there. I worry that he's gone and my biggest fear is being left alone.

"Kim!!" He calls back and I follow the sound of his voice to where he is sitting, frantically searching for something in a chest. "Weapons, we need weapons."

"What?"I ask meekly, my voice still waking up. He turns round and acknowledges me.

"I think I have found something, a plant, I think it could help cure your.......condition."

I look down at my arms, covered in a purple slime that clung to my skin. I had learnt to live with it now but it itched like hell and would be nice to get rid of. "Where do we have to go to?"He turned and walked over to me looking me straight in the eye.

"That is the thing, we have to go." He pauses, deep in thought. His eyes a mix of sadness and anger and something else that might be pain. I just stand there, looking at his big blue eyes, the colour of the ocean, the colour of tears. As I think about these things, he still refuses to move. He still keeps his body rigid, unmoving, unchanging,

"We have to go where Duncan." I say, quietly.

He finally moves and turns away and I realise how difficult this is for him to say. And then he mutters a word and I find my stunned into silence.

"Blackrock."

Even though I didn't know him back then, I know how much Blackrock changed him. He stood there, waiting for me react, yet I didn't know how. He had done so much for me and this...

I couldn't make him do this for me.

"Duncan, you can't.." I began.

"I can, I did this to you and now I have to put it right."

He went back to the chest and carried on as if nothing was wrong. Though I knew different and it was then I realised I was terrified. Terrified for the scientist who had changed my life.