Felixentric

Scene 19: Adventure Time!

"Felix?" the groggy voice brought him to.

Felix sat up and heard a rustling of foliage beneath his arms as he did so.

"You... slept here?" the voice asked, before he realized Quinn was standing over him and they were both in the forest.

"You came after me?"

A small, tired smile spread across Quinn's lips. "No. I came out here, because I need more material for the newspaper."

In some way, Felix was glad Quinn hadn't risked his life to follow him. If he had, it would have meant trying to explain how father-Hohl had abandoned ship. It would have been hard without, then, explaining banefades and their psychological tendencies to break things and then haul ass. But he was also a little... sad? It wasn't the right word, but there was some negative feeling from the thought that Quinn hadn't cared enough to follow.

But, then again, Quinn had been far past drunk to make the right decisions at that time.

"How are you feeling?" He was groggier looking than he had been the other morning, especially now that Felix knew why.

"Tired," was all he could muster.

Felix tried sounding neutral. "Me too." And, in fact, he was. He'd spent all night running around the forest, talking to trees and deer about what they'd seen. He'd even argued with one of the toads for over twenty minutes.

But none of the forest could tell him anything much. Most of whom he talked to hadn't seen anything, but a few could explain the "man in the hood," but didn't know where he ended up. Some of the forest was too stubborn anyway. I didn't see nothin'!

"Were you..." Quinn looked around. "Did you find that guy? I should have remembered more and taken him more seriously when he said he needed you. I think he really had something important going on. He looked... I don't know... distressed, like something was coming after him."

Felix's first thought was to blame Quixotic again. First he came after me and now he's coming after my family. But it only made him so angry that he wanted to kick something. But he didn't want to be angry, so he just clenched his fists a moment and stood up. "I think it was my father."

"Your father?" He was asking for the story, of course.

But all Felix knew he had to say was. "He left about five years ago."

"Philander?"

"What?"

"Did he love another woman?" He asked this, though, he looked sorry for doing so.

"He loved my mother very much." He left it at that, except for, "But he wants to come back home..."

"But there's no home to come back to, so now he's looking for you." Quinn finished for him.

"Yes."

"You searched the whole forest already?"

Felix nodded. Except for the banefade tribe ruins, which he would never ever never go to for any reason ever. He went to a lake near the ruins with Hale when they were younger, but they'd never gotten close to the actual ruins, on the other side. It felt wrong, forsaken, dirty... to go rummaging around in it.

And he fell asleep before he made it to the old laboratory. In fact, he wasn't planning on really going there. He'd rather have gone to sleep and given up rather than go to the laboratory. It had burnt down a few years back. Lots of people died. It wasn't a pretty sight or sound or smell for anyone nearby.

"Well... I still have to find something for my article. Something stupid strange. You know of anything good?"

"Have you already done the opera-singing toads?"