My Name is Marcus: Umbra

VIII. Only Stars

"Are you cold?", Marcus asked, his voice raised so he could be heard over the headwinds.

Marnie shook her head. "I'm fine", she replied. Admittedly, the evening winds were a little chilly at their current altitude, but her jacket kept her warm enough that she felt no need to complain.

"Are you sure you don't need a hat? You're more than welcome to borrow mine", Marcus offered.

"No thanks", she answered, "some of us don't like havin' hat-hair."

Marcus smiled, feeling a little called out. "Hey, I like to think that my hat-hair is part of my charm."

"Really? And here I thought it was part of your disguise", she smirked, remembering the undercut he had throughout the Gym Challenge versus the slightly longer and messier hair he had now.

"You know, if you keep calling me out like this, I'm gonna start feeling attacked", Marcus chuckled.

They'd only risen above the treeline with Corviknight less than a moment ago, and yet already there were so many sights to take in. The emerald green trees that once served as a canopy over their heads now appeared as an ocean beneath them, endlessly stretching outward as far as the eye could see. In the distance, the two could make out the headlights of a Corviknight Taxi, seemingly leaving from Wedgehurst to return to wherever it had come from. On the ground, a pillar of steam rose into the air from the far-off Wedgehurst station as a train prepared to depart. Marnie sat towards the front, gripping the seat of the saddle firmly with both hands. Marcus sat just behind her, his arms encompassing her as he held onto the handles of the saddle to her left and right - an obviously chivalrous act to keep his passenger more secure in her seat as they flew.

"I didn't realize how far into the woods we'd gone", Marnie remarked as she looked around.

"Yeah", Marcus replied, "the Weald is pretty deep, you have to go pretty far and look pretty hard to find it."

"I can get why you like it so much, a nice quiet place, far away from distraction", Marnie said with a grin, "far away from PR..."

"Oh, definitely", Marcus chuckled. "In all seriousness, though, that place is pretty special to me."

"Right", Marnie remembered, "that's where you n' Hop found Zacian n' Zamazenta, right?"

"Yeah", Marcus nodded, "but it's special to me for a whole lot more than just that."

Marnie turned around and gave Marcus a curious glance. "Yeah?"

Marcus nodded with a smile. "Everytime I go there anymore, it feels like I come out with my head on a little straighter, y'know? Like, the last time I was there was with Hop." He paused as he began to recall. "We weren't seeing eye-to-eye for a while over the championship thing; that was his dream, and he'd lost out on it, and he didn't know what to do after all that. Meanwhile, I was champion now, and really had no clue what to do with that... it was pretty complicated for a bit."

"I never knew", Marnie responded. "The two of you always seemed pretty tight, I can't hardly picture you guys havin' a spat over anything."

"It was definitely new for us, that's for sure", Marcus stated. "We'd promised one another before the semi-finals that no matter what happened, we'd still be friends, but the whole situation certainly seemed to mixed things up. It felt like our paths were diverging and neither of us knew where we were headed next." He paused and smiled. "But after the whole thing with Sordward and Shielbert, the two of us ended up back in the Slumbering Weald... between working together to save Galar again, and coming together and actually talking things out, we both ended up learning a lot about each other and ourselves, and now we're closer than ever because of it."