New Generation

Memories

((Max's POV))

        "Can I see first? Please?" Alice asks. I nod, although I kinda wanted to go first. I look att he magic swirling in the air. This better work, or I'll look like an idiot.

        "Show me Alice's house." I say. Nothing. 

        "Try teling it to find my dad's house. Maybe it needs to be specific." Alice offers. Good point, sometimes magic needs details. 

        "Alright. Show me Adam's house. Also known as Sky." The circle darkens, then lightens into a picture of a house in the side of a mountain. There's a stream running in front of the house, it looks like a great place to grow up. Apart from the blue X painted over the door. 

        "... at least it's still standing?" Alice nods, and looks away from the picture. 

        "Show me Brice's house, also known as Gold Solace." The image changes to a small clearing in the woods. Alice looks at the picture and her eyes widen.

        My house is in ruines. The stone fireplace stands out, along with a fragile looking frame giving the idea of the house's original shape. The wooden floor is blackend and burned, and the herb garden I had been growing since I was little is reduced to ashes. 

        "Max... I'm so sorry." Alice whispers. I wave my hand through the image, wiping it out of existance. 

        "You didn't do anything, those monsters did. Forget it, let's just get to sleep so we can keep walking tomorow. I'll take first shift." Alice nods and starts working on building a fire with Indy. I walk a bit further up the hill to watch the sun set and get away from my two companions. 

        From here, the sun sets right behind the castle. The different colors in the sky looks like a water color painting I did when I was little. It used to hang up in the hallway, along with my other finished peices. Not now, not anymore. 

        The sun sets, the stars come out, and I start picking out stars I remember from Dad teaching me. He always said how magic was often conected to myths, and would tell me the stories that went with the stars. You can build a new house! Your parents are going to be okay! Everything will get better! Yeah right. This isn't some Disney movie, this is life. Life burned down my fucking house. 

        "Hey... Max..." I look up to see Indy standing akwardly a few feet off the path. 

        "Yeah?" My voice is crap right now. If he makes fun of me I swear I'm gonna melt his face off. 

        "I'm sorry about... about everything. I'm sorry I was a jerk, I'm sorry I couldn't see you just wanted to be a friend, I'm sorry-" 

        "Indy... It's fine. It's not your fault..." I patt he ground next to me, and he walks over and sits next to me. 

        "I'm a jerk, I know I am, I'm just not used to people liking me. Back with Mitch and Jerome and Ryan... they're great, but they don't actually like me. They don't trust me, and honestly I don't blame them. When you showed up, I didn't know what to think. You're funny, you're nice, and you're different from what I'm used to. So I put my guard up and was a jerk. I'm sorry." He kicks at a pebble, sending it rolling down the path. 

        "Indy..." 

        "Princeton." I blink and tilt my head at him. 

        "What?" It's dark, but I could swear his face darkened. 

        "It's my real name... My parents wanted something royal sounding, so what's better than having the word prince right in your name?" His tone is very bitter. Not fond of his parents.

        "Oh. Well if you don't like your name, I'll keep calling you Indy, alright? It's a different name, you're a different person than whoever you were when your parents named you, right?" He nods, then starts messing with something behind his head. A moment later, the takes off his bandana and folds it neatly on the ground next to him. 

        "Alice doesn't like me. I can tell." He mutters. Why did he have to take it off when it's dark? I can't see his face now! He takes an apple out of a small bag he keeps his ammo in. 

        "She thinks you're to secretive. And that you look like a squid." He chokes on the apple at my second comment. 

        "I'm not in the damn Squid Army, okay? Even if I was, I wouldn't want to do something so bad to your homes... that's evil." I nod. His tone says he means it. He truley thinks doing something like this to a family is evil. 

        "Did something happen, Indy?" He takes a bite of his apple and stays silent. Once I'm convinced he's not going to answer me, he speks up. 

        "Sorta. I was kicked out by my mom, she always favored my brother. Heh, favoring a twin, that's messed up now that I think about it. I heard later that my dad had been killed a few hours later. Right before the end of the war." He takes another bite of his apple. 

        "I'm sorry. That's... that's horrible." He shakes his head. 

        "Hearing my dad had been killed? That was the best thing that ever happened to me." He takes one last bite of his apple, then tosses the core. I look at him, slightly confused. 

        "But... family is family, right? You must miss him sometimes, right?" He shrugs. 

        "You're lucky. Even if everything doesn't end happily ever after for you, you had good days. You can look back on the days that you spent playing in the yard or whatever and be happy. Sure, it would hurt, but you had good days." He starts to stand up, but I stop him and give him a hug. He looks startled, and I feel him tense up, then he relaxes a bit. 

        "Thanks..." I let go, and I think he smiles at me, then he picks up his bandana and walks over to the campfire. I smile and lie down. The stars don't seem so sad anymore....