Bloodline

Reflecting - part 27

As he steps out, many eyes immediately face him, some startled, some angered, all wanting him gone. He walks towards where his tent used to be at, and searches among the wreckage that's also other people's tents. He finds the small box he took with him before he left the castle and puts the blue zircon gem away in it. No need to hide myself now, he thinks, and looks around. Everyone keeps staring at him uneasily, Zircon looking back to some. He then begins to leave a trail of smoke as he moves down the line of broken and destroyed tents, everyone backing away from this. Once he reaches the end, he then lifts his hand, the smoke rising until it covers the area, almost like a fog. The soldiers try to look into the cloud, but its then when the cloud slowly fades away, revealing only the grass the tents were pitched on, the parts of the destroyed tents, and many different belongings of the soldiers.

I need to get that village nearby to help supply us again, but with this much damage done, I think I'll only be able to get enough wood and things to make more tents, he thinks, moving towards the exit of the fort, taking off the mask and looking at the design he carved into it. He pulls his knife and begins to carve more into it, just as from behind, Tesath warily walks to him. He senses her approaching, and turns to her. "Hey, do you think this is a better look to my mask?" Its this moment he sees how tense she is just looking at him, and puts it away. "You want to talk about anything...? Are you feeling alright?" "I-Im not sure, which Zircon am I talking to?" She says, him raising his eyebrow. "What do you mean, I've always been the same." He says, her backing up. "The Zircon I knew never slaughtered anyone like that, and especially never attacked allies." He looks at her, and sighs. "Its about that day then, huh? I'll tell you this, I know what it was that I saw, and I've already gone over this with Maralyne, so if you want to know my perspective, talk to her, I need to go someplace to think about things." She continues to follow him at a distance, even out of the destroyed fort. He looks back at her, stopping, and turning to her. "Is there anything you want to tell me? Because I dont think I like followed like this." She stops, holding a hand out to him. "I never said anything about what you saw, but I want to know if who I'm speaking to is who I knew before, you said you would come back to the path we all followed, so show me that you will come back once this is over."

He looks at her, then to her hand. "Tess, I know I may seem like a completely different person, even I'm thinking this, but I will return to you guys, one way or another." He walks to her slowly, and takes her hand, his eyes glowing a brighter gray than before. She smiles nervously, and looks into the distance. "Where were you going to anyways? There isnt much here except for forest and hills." "Well, I was actually going to go through the part of the forest we walked through all that time ago. It was nice when we walked there, so I thought that I could reflect there." He says, looking around. She holds his hand tightly as she looks in the direction hes looking in. "Would it bother you if I walked with you?" He looks at her and smiles, "Not at all, especially with someone like you Tess."

Time passes, and they walk deep into the forest. Zircon mostly thinks through most of it, while Tesath looks around at the environment, admiring the sights. "Look at the river over there, this forest has quite a bit more than I thought it would." Zircon only thinks as they walk past it, almost not hearing her comment. She looks at him nervously, but continues walking. They pass by a deer that looks at them for a moment, and runs off, only this is when Zircon comes to his senses and looks at Tesath. "Quite a lot of nature here huh? I'm surprised the enemy havent torn down most of this forest." She looks at him as he says this, and looks at his glowing eyes. "Since when were your eyes glowing this way, and why did they turn gray when your eyes were a greenish color before we got here?" He scratches his head, thinking. "It was probably when I got these powers, I couldn't tell you. But are my eyes really glowing right now?" He says, blushing as Tesath giggles. "Well, they are, but I like the soft glow they have." They continue walking as a mysterious figure follows from behind.

"So what were you going to think about while walking here? Are you comfortable telling me?" She asks, Zircon looking away. "Well...ever since Maralyne talked to me in the medical tent, I'm doubting what I actually did see during the battle, and I'm questioning whether or not I really did do what I saw or whether it was visions I saw in a blind rage." He looks at his broken blade as he says this, clutching it weakly. "I'm starting to think some kind of force is trying to draw me into doing things I falsely think I'm really doing, and I'm not sure if it's from within me or something that's influencing me." She takes the blade from his hand, and holds his hand. "This is what we feared when you began to abandon us, we knew that you trying to take on an army by yourself, you'll start thinking in ways that are not yourself, and when you brushed us aside like we were nothing to you in the first fort, it really showed us how far you were beginning to lose yourself." He looks at her, and takes off the mask.

"But what if this side of me is what I was hiding with the persona of the Zircon you guys have known all this time? I've never grown up with my real parents, so I have no idea what I would've been like with them, being in the Wind I've tried to change myself into a person everyone could like, despite being treated like a Grounded most of the time, and being with you guys I've always been trying to stay friends with you guys through everythjng, but I feel like theres so many different personalities of me that I have no idea which is the real me, especially with how I've been lately." She stops and holds his hand tighter. "Whether this is your true self, or whether it's the Zircon you've been around us, you have to find which is the real one yourself, but we'll help you with getting closer to that answer, if you only let us help you." Looking at her smile, his eyes glow brighter, and he smiles back. It's at this moment the mysterious figure gets closer, with more appearing out of nowhere.