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Log 23

Horus took Fade to the edge of the river and sat him in the benches where the teens had watched the sunset together. The ex-militant put his hand on Fade's shoulder and waited for him to say the first word.
After a moment of gathering thoughts Fade spoke, "I failed, Horus. I freaking failed. This was supposed to be my responsibility and I let Ryan die, Kris get hurt, and now we have a psychopath of the lose." One could hear the hurt in his voice as he looked back to the camp, "You should've seen her. She was absolutely terrified and I let it get that far."

"Let what get that far?"

"Able! I let that asshole get to her and fucking rape her! The only reason I went back to our camp was because I... we needed to get more firewood for this damn fire. Her screams, God, get them out of my head!" Fade put his hands on his ears as he shook his head.
Horus smiled once he noticed the small glimpse of silver on his right hand. The ring that Fade had sworn off wearing was now sitting snugly around his ring finger. Although, where was the other? The one that belonged to his younger brother, where had that one gone to? As the wise Horus put his hand around Fade's shoulders he tapped it as well, "Look Son, I can tell that this has taken a tole on ya. It's all over your face, the once sarcastic prick of Finnigan Lockwood has turned into a sulking baby."

"I ain't no baby."

"Then stop moping about stuff that you can't change! You can't bring Ryan back, you can remember him. You can't stop Able from raping Kris, you can comfort her when she needs it. The Finnigan that I know would never sulk about a lost comrade! The Finnigan I know would n..."

"The Finnigan you knew was good at hiding how he felt! The Finnigan you know would hide how he was feeling until it went away! The Finnigan you knew was a careless bastard who cared for himself! The Finnigan you knew didn't have something to lose!" Fade blurted as he stood up from the log.
Fade's chest rose and fell as he took deep breaths looking at Horus, who now was laughing. His deep laugh making Fade think he was going to get it for yelling at him.
But instead Horus stood and smiled, "And what would you have to lose?"

"My friends." Fade said without hesitation. Fade looked back at Horus with the look of a man willing to do anything for the ones he cared about. He would take a million bluets, a hundred knives, and a thousand lashings for them. He didn't care if he had known them a month or a year or even his whole life, they were the closest hung he had to a family he had and he wasn't going to lose them.
Horus walked closer and put his hand on his waist. As he walked closer he noticed Fade had been tapping his fingers on his leg the whole time they had been talking. Tilting his head to the side, Horus dug in his pocket for a small object. The object was small, it was flat with a round circumstance, and was made of bronze.
"Here," Horus flicked the coin at Fade who caught it as he caulked his head to the side, "take this. It's an old British pence coin. I see you are fiddling with your fingers, this can help with that." Horus started to weave the coin between his fingers to show Fade what he could do to destress himself.
Once Fade reached for the coin, Horus grabbed his hand and looked at the ring snugly on his finger. Being the father figure that he is, Horus started to give him shit about how he said he was never going g to wear it after Corwin.
       "F-off Horus, I figured I'd wear it now."

     "Right, but where is the other one?" He flicked the metal chain that now laid laid bare around his neck. The teenager stuttered for words as the older man took him under his arm and tossed him around.
      "My little Finnigan has the hots for someone! Oh, how I never thought I'd never be alive to see the day."
      "Let me go! Horus keep ya' voice down. The Tin-Heads would hear ya'." Fade tried to silence Horus who started to give him as much shit as he could as the boy blushed and tried to push him off of him.

          Suddenly, there was a small, horse voice that called from the brush, "Finnigan, can I talk with you?",Kristin walked from the brush with Spade next to her.
      Horus, being himself, instantly noticed she had on the smaller ring and she called him Finnigan. "Ooh, I see, now. You two go talk I'll wait here to talk about the next stages in the plan." Horus smiled and jabbed Fade in the side.
       Fade who glared at Horus turned to look at Kris with worried eyes, "What is it?" He jogged to her side. The lavender haired girl looked beautiful, like better than when he first saw her. The clothes that she first wore were too small and looked nothing like something she'd wear.
         The purple top fit her shoulders perfectly flowing into bells around her wrists. The black corset fit her curves to a tee and held her small frame to her true shape. There was something about Kris in black skin tight pants that made Fade think she was a goddess. Her hair was pinned back off her neck in a bun with a few small peaces framing her heart shaped face.
The new silver butterfly pin made Fade was to touch her hair and run his fair fingers through her hair. It's ribbons of lavender gliding in between his hands as she rested his head on his shoulder.
"Finn? Hey, Finn?" Kristin's voice snapped Fade from his daydream. He shook his head and looked at her as she dug the toe of her black boots into the clay of the river bed. "I just wanted to thank you for staying with me after Able. It meant a lot to know I had a friend there."

"No problemo, Snips. I didn't want ya' to be alone after that." He smiled as they walked away from Horus and Spade. 
      They started walking with an unknown destination in mind as they started to talk about something different than what had just happened.
      "So Kris, I-uh..."
   
      "Finn, is everything alright?" She turned to face him as they walked. Suddenly, Fade grabbed her hand and started to run. He ran past the grave he made for his brother, marked by a tree with a knot with his name carved into the bark. He ran to the edge of a cliff and let go of her hand to dig in some leaves piled over something.
         "Um, Finnigan? What are you..."
    
       "I found it! The damn Tin-Heads didn't find it." He cut her off as he pulled out a strange contraption. It looked like a glider but it's wings were made to bend instead of glide. It's bronze frame-work was slightly rusting, but the rubber handle looked perfect.
          With a smile, Fade turned to Kris, "How 'bout it, Snips? Wanna take 'er for a spin?"