Flames And Blades

Chapter Twenty-Five: Crash And Burn

I woke up, unsurprisingly, tired and sore. Getting over myself, I stumble out of the tent I just barely managed to drag myself in last night and moved over to a chair set up outside. Near an ever decreasing pile of logs, Warrisonan and Adam sat mock arguing over which rom-com God was the best- Patrick Dempsey or Ashton Kutcher. Across from them, Luce ran around with a bunch of littles, playing an intriguing game of footy. This action, above all else, destroyed any hard edge I had in the thought of Luce into oblivion.

Some kids ball gets thrown at my head, by accident taken by how guilty he sounded and I give him the ball and a small 'no worries'. I shrug the pain of it off and head towards Adam and Warrisons spot, where they have traded mock arguing for acting out iconic scenes from The Notebook. I figure that by the time I help out feeding a few of the littles and cleaning up, their imaginary credits should be rolling, so I head off to the smell of almost burning oatmeal.

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"So, what's the agenda for today? If, that is, there is any" I finally manage to ask, huddling into my drink of hot tea one of the single fathers had made everyone after lunch had wrapped up, for extra warmth. Adam quickly stops fidgeting and looks down, mumbling something that annoys Warrison enough to pipe up since Luce has long since disappeared.

"Well, a-um, well sort of, a hunch of sorts has been made. Through like, these, um legends I, I mean someone researched about. Involving a twin and tree carvings and since...since you're a twin and the campsite trees had carvings in them...that you um..might, like find something or even just give us clues. Is all." Warrison can't even look me in the eye after stumbling through the entire thing and his voice was so...small. Like a child lost his favourite toy and doesn't want to get in trouble with the teacher for it. I don't see why this has both him and Adam so tormented with guilt, but I decide for the sake of them returning to normal, I'd go for it. I stand up from the log, tea long gone and another one of Warrison's jackets added to my belongings, and nod for him to set everything up. Not bothering with saying anything as he looked too nervous to hear anything.

"Let's do this," Adam whispers to himself, in a relieved sigh that tells me he thought I wasn't able to hear him.

"Just cause I'm walking away doesn't mean I'm deaf, Adam." I turn backwards from pacing just to smirk at him and continue towards the car, the one horribly parked between a bundle of trees thanks to Warrison insistence on driving.

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The short hike up to the campsite is entirely too freezing, drop into winter weather we're in. Warrison and Adam despite this, seem entirely unaffected by the frost and very rude winds messing up my hair. A fact that would piss me off if I was properly caffeinated right now. My continuous and unstoppable shivering and trembling from the wind slows us down quite a bit and we have to stop multiple times to figure out exactly where we are, which only left me colder and colder nonetheless. To top that all off, a branch gets caught on the handle of the knife I tried to keep in my boot and not only makes my sock fall off, but also sprays a pile of snow inside said sock.

Naturally, my reaction to all of these events would be to start swearing or be enraged, but, seeing as it was too cold get my jaw to settle long enough for a single understandable syllable to exit, and my brain was too busy looking for a new source of caffeine to do the whole anger thing, I decide to charge ahead of the two boys who actually know where we're going and the lead the way. Only I had a very vague idea of the direction we were going.

Keeping that I, apparently didn't think of until after Warrison pulled me back from my march forward to point at the trees and their stupid marks right beside him. In an attempt to look cool and in control of myself, I pull an eyeliner pencil out of my pocket and start to draw a few of the symbols I see in front of me. Using my forearm as a very pale background, I get to drawing them up and, at first glance, I notice that they look similar to Warrisons and my tattoos. Eerily enough so that I stepped forward and looked at them closely to make sure I was seeing properly.