Chaos Bender

Two birds, One Train

I put the ring in my new pocket along with my corpse of a phone. I thought I'd carry it in case Noctis knew something about it. The thought of it being just a mood ring did cross my mind. But it was just fine before I touched it, plus it was like solid gold, not that cheap plastic stuff mood rings usually made of. Plus that weird symbol could've been a clue as to what that strange message meant.

After changing completely, I returned the key to the clerk and returned to my seat. At first I was surprised he didn't look up from his magazine, but after what seemed like an hour of not moving, I came to the conclusion he fell asleep. I was glad because I didn't have to do any further explanation on my or Alex's wings. A Crow flew towards us, I was relieved that we didn't have to wait in the train station anymore. Once Noctis shifted, a paper bag with a fast food logo could be seen in his hand. I was so glad he brought lunch.

"Sup team? I brought lunch!" With a grin he reached in his bag and pulled out a raw corn cob. He tossed it at me.

The amount of disappointment couldn't be expressed in words as I held the raw corn cob in my hand.

"You've got to be kidding me?"

He took another one out of the bag and made a big chomp out of it. He didn't even wait to finish chewing before responding.

"What? It's food isn't it? Dig in."

"I'm not eating raw corn."

"Baby." He rolled his eyes and turned towards Xion. "Hey! The kids are hungry, gill them up some grub, will ya?"

She sharply lifted her head and glared at him. Then, she just smiled.

"Sure." She turned towards me. "Cole, would you like your Crow baked, fried, or extra crispy?"

All of them sounded pretty good. I smiled at the thought. "Can I have all three?"

"Woah, woah, woah. Fine, if you don't want the corn. The restaurant I went to served the homeless for free, but they only gave me one meal. So to make up for that I went out and found some corn."

"You 'found' corn? Where ?"

"A cornfield nearby. Don't worry, the farmer won't miss them."

At that moment my hand made contact with my face. Noctis never just "finds" anything. From that moment on I didn't want to know where he got that RV.

"Ok, why don't we all go to the restaurant ?"

He shrugged, "can't, our train comes in five minutes."

"There are trains ? How come I haven't seen any after all this time?!"

"Dude, I've only been gone for forty-five minutes."

Time moved slow when there was absolutely nothing to do. The tragedy that is my phone made me realize that the hard way.

"Well I'm fine with corn, you and Alex can share it." Xion said. She was tossed a corn cob. I looked down at mine. I owed Alex for saving me.

"I will too I guess. Wait, are we gonna stow away on a train !?"

Noctis threw me a disgusted look. "What? No way. Cole, you insult me. I got us tickets."

"What, did you 'find' those as well ?"

"Yup, they were just lying around in some dudes window. Finders keepers."

"You know you can't keep stealing from people right?"

"You know people really shouldn't leave their windows open right ?"

Well, he got me there. The rest of my time was spent eating the corn after Xion heated it for me. After I was done, I noticed Noctis' clothes were different from the torn cloths he had earlier. He wore a black short sleeve jacket with a black hood. The shirt underneath was long sleeve, dark, and had a lot of zippers. Black jeans, and also had black boots. Upon closer inspection it almost looked extra padded on the shoulders, elbows and knees. It almost looked like armor. It was a little worn, but a lot better than what he had prior. We boarded the train once it came. We were the only ones that came on, but the train had more passengers on it than I expected. We managed to find a seat together just before the train took off, Alex went right to sleep on my shoulders after we all sat. Her snores were light and airy, like heavy breathing.