(Versions of) Tangled Stars

Version 2 Chapter 4

Chapter 4

    Something had caught Liam's eye that night during dinner. If he had a chance to redo one thing in his life, not following that spark would have been it. He had told Gliseaetta he would only be gone for a few seconds, but it turned out to be much longer. The spark led him to the garden in the town that was the closest place with any plants in it that wasn't a days trip away. Or at least that was what farmer Sami had told them.

    Azura  had given Liam and Lucial a tour of the farm, which was where they met Sami. Everything was hand grown, which Liam found absurd since they used machines for pretty much everything else and would definitely have made the process much faster.

    When he brought that up, she stared at him as if he had two heads, "But you have to make sure they are all treated with equal care! A machine does not care for a plant." Why was everyone in this town so metaphorical? He wondered.

    Lucial tried to argue that there would also be more food for everyone, but Farmer Sami decided to drop the subject and they must have angered her because she ended up kicking them out after Liam rolled his eyes at her.

    Liam hoped that she wasn't still there once he reached the garden. To his short lasting luck, no one seemed to be on the field except for him. He was halfway through the field when the shiny light disappeared. Liam looked around for it, feeling stupid and wondering why he had gone there in the first place. He then wondered why no one else had seen it. Well, maybe they did see it but had better things to do than follow it. Or perhaps he had been the only one to see it. He settled on both.

    A chill ran down his spine as the sun came down. He didn't know exactly how long he'd been chasing this thing or where it would bring him, if anywhere. Like everything else that had happened that day, he eventually figured this was a complete waste of time and he started to turn back.

    Then, he heard a loud SQUISHH! And realized that he was suddenly standing in mud. It was a waste of time and now his clothing was ruined again, his shoes were in wearable now and his pants were sinking into the mud.

    He looked up as the setting sun one last time and saw a tree. He almost gasped when he saw Marco lying in one of its branches. He shrugged, it might not have been the most comfortable position but at least he was safe. He had meant what he had said before, he did care for all of them. His past life must have been horrible for him to run away like that, so it felt comforting to have a group of people to restart with. He only hoped he never knew about what that life had been like.

    He figured he would tell everyone in the morning once he got back. A part of him didn't want to stay there with the whole town. Yet, the least he could do was stay and lead them to where Marco was. They would probably get mad once they learned that he had gone through the garden and farm and had looked for him.

   Liam sighed and turned away from Liam, remembering how his parents had looked for him. He closed his eyes, even though he didn't want anything to do with his old life, it gave him hope that they were still looking for him. He shook his head, he didn't remember anything from before and it was useless trying to.

    He was about to leave when the light returned and nearly blinded him. He shielded his eyes, moving a little closer as the light became slightly dimmer. The grass died everywhere the light touched in a black ring around it and Liam swore he could smell blood. He was about to make a run for it when it let out a slight ringing noise and a screen popped up that made him fall to the ground.

    Liam was frozen in fear, his heart raced. A loud whirring sound emulated around the screen as a dark fog formed above it. He noticed the fog was coming from a spinning fan on top of the screen that was keeping it levitated. His heartbeat eventually steadied. He should have been more scared, but he was more intrigued with it as he had never seen anything like it.