Looking For Group

Part 24

Twilight pressed his face against the cool glass of the taxi cab window, wishing he could nod off right there. Every time his eyes slowly closed, the taxi would hit a bump, startling him back awake. When it happened for the fifth time, he gave up. He was just going have to buy a cup of coffee and deal with it.

Wild was quiet, of course. He stared out the window, watching the world go by. The passing street lights gave an eerily glow to his scars.

"I'm sorry if I scared you back there," said Twilight.

No response.

"Are you hungry? We could grab something on the way there."

No response.

Twilight sighed. "Are you going to ignore me the rest of the way?"

Wild continued to stare out the window.

Twilight supposed he deserved this. Though Wild consented to coming, he did it under duress. He was probably thinking thinking about the homework he was missing. In the beginning Twilight used to have terrible anxiety about all the tests and homework he'd missed, but after a while it stopped bothering him. The professors were not allowed to fail a Hero if they were busy being hero-ing.

Maybe Wild was thinking about how his life will change now. Will he be forced to give up his job? His apartment? Not everyone handled celebrity status easily. Warriors reveled in it, and Swords had been dealing with it for years due to his youtube channel. However Time loathed the attention and has sued quite a number of people for trying to take pictures of his wife.

Or maybe, most likely, Wild was thinking of Flora. Asking himself why was she unable to find him or why now? If Flora had been lying to Twilight about her intentions, the sword would've rejected her outright. Wild has only known about the sword's ability for only a few minutes now, he didn't understand what touching it truly meant.

"Did you want to be a Hero?" Wild suddenly asked.

Twilight startled. He wasn't expecting a question.

"...Sort of. Not really."

"Which means...?"

"Doesn't every kid want to be a Hero?" Twilight said. "Hell, there's Saturday morning cartoons about it. But as I got older... those fantasies die away. They change. Soon I wanted to be an astronaut or a firefighter. The fantasy of becoming a Hero was as real to me as Santa Claus."

"You should become a politician," Wild said, huffing. "You answer questions without really answering them."

"You misunderstand me," Twilight said. "I'm from a small farming community down south. The max population is only about hundred people. We don't have things like tablets or exotic coffee shops. If we wanted to use a computer, we'd have to go to the library. I was a ranch hand first. My dreams and ambitions barely extended beyond getting a new saddle for a horse."

Wild peeled himself away from the window to finally look at him. "So what changed?"

"Have you heard of Zant's Invasion?"

"Uh... a little, yeah. He was an usurper, tried to take over the kingdom."

"This happened a couple years back, before you lost your memory. He didn't attack the main towns first. He tested his strength on little villages on the outskirts of the kingdom. See how far he could get in without detection. My village was one of the first ones who got hit."

Wild's eyes widened. "And you fought back and become a Hero?"

"No," said Twilight. "I fought back and was nearly killed. My village was ravaged, my friends kidnapped, our crops destroyed. I may have been heroic that day, but I did not have the skill or ability to defeat him."