Inheritance

Part 2. Chapter 18: A Magical Thing

Earlier, while Pollyanna sat across from him and Taylor sat next to him, Them made polite conversation with Taylor.

"So, Taylor..." Them began, but she suddenly began playing with her food which made him clap a hand to his mouth to contain his laughter.

She shoved her biscuit into her noodles and pretended it was a dragon drowning. "Help me! Help me! I'm drowning!"

Them commented, "you certainly are creative with your food..."

Taylor exclaimed cheerfully, "oh yes! I've always been creative! You should have seen me when I was locked up! The guards would come around with food, slide it through a little hole in the wall, and then I would play with... I mean... Eory would..."

Taylor went silent, then, and clutched her head.

Them could see she was having a crisis. He put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Hey, are you alright?"

Taylor took a shuddering breath and then she shrugged. "I'm fine, you fool. Just a little dizzy."

Them leaned his cheek on his hand. "Well, you should eat something."

The fairy girl slumped down in her chair. In a moment, she gnawed her arm instead of her gnawing her food.

Them nudged her. He recognized the nervous tick she had and tried to get her to stop. "Hey, you should eat your food, not yourself."

She had such a look on her face that Them was afraid she would snap as she was prone to do and become unruly and wild.

Them never knew what she would do when she became like that. Sometimes she would stamp her foot, and sometimes she would pinch him or smack him.

But this time, she obeyed and ate her food instead of playing with it. Once she swallowed her last fork-full of noodles, she asked, "shall I meet you on the dream plains tonight?"

Them looked at her dreamily and nearly said yes, but instead he said, "I'm sorry, I should let you get as much sleep as possible..."

Taylor slammed her fists on the table. "Fine! I didn't want to see you tonight, anyway! I don't want to see anyone tonight!"

Them blinked wildly and couldn't tell whether there was something wrong with her or whether she was just being her usual self.

He thought there must be something wrong. This kind of craziness was different than her usual kind.

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Them crawled into bed that night next to Pete. He was glad that their elven overseers didn't mind them sharing a room. However, his mind was stuck on past events, and he had much trouble getting to sleep. He lay curled up on his side, breathing evenly, and then rolled over onto his back and stared, unblinkingly, at the ceiling.

He turned his head to look at the sleeping Pete next to him and thought to himself, you're supposed to get me on the right path... We met at such a young age, but I've never felt like I was on the right path. That's why I belong here. Maybe I can do some good for once.

Them seemed to have spent all of his twenty-eight years trying to find something fulfilling, and always failing.

He had been many things in his life; a thief, a scribe, a craftsman, a cook, a cleaner, a tailor, but he was not particularly great at any of them, and they didn't make him burn the way he thought a breathing creature was meant to burn on a day-to-day basis.

There was only one thing that seemed to do that, and it was women.

Life was so unenthusiastic to him that he felt the need to take his pleasures where he may. He fell in love as much as possible, because it was the only thing that made him burn with the passion he had been searching for his entire life.