Chapter 12: The Return

With the sunlight shining on their faces the Trip and Alex thoroughly enjoyed the walk back to school. The morning dew glistened in the sunlight. Everything was shining. Trip was very happy, one of the elements he had a good affinity with was light after all, and of course he would enjoy seeing a lot of it. Alex was also enjoying the walk. The two of them were incomparably excited to get back to school in order to get powerful. Trip also had Grelin to help him achieve his goal as well.

After an hour the sky started to turn grey. The clouds turned the originally blue sky to a dark and murky colour. Rain started to pour. It wasn’t very heavy, but it felt sad, almost as if something bad had happened. Trip started to get a bad feeling that something might have happened, but this bad feeling dissipated when Alex gave him a big smile. Rain was not always a bad thing after all; Trip liked rain so why should he be worried by this light rainfall?

Hours passed and it reached midday, the rain had only gotten worse. Even though Trip had tried to reassure himself that everything was ok, he still had a bad feeling which he couldn’t shake off. Nothing eventful happened during the rest of the walk towards the school and they made their way peacefully to the back of the school property, where they snuck in through the forest.

When they reached the grounds they decided that they would try to just slip their way back into classes. There might be some commotion but Trip had already thought of an excuse. The excuse was quite bad, but it was at least believable. The lie that he came up with was that the two of them fell asleep in a very well hidden spot, and when they woke up everyone was gone. However before they even saw the school building they were seen by Eleonore and Randolph who were sitting together just outside of the forest.

Trip and Alex walked over to them to say hello. Both Eleonore and Randolph looked at them their faces were filled with such shock. This would be a typical response to two people who had been presumed dead.

Randolph just barely managed to croak out the words “You two… are alive?”

Alex smiled with pride and said “Yup, we just overslept! When we woke up all of you were gone.”

Eleonore looked at him as rage filled her face “It’s been two months! What the hell have you done? The entire kingdom is in disarray because of you!”

Alex and Trip’s faces sank. ‘Two months!? How could it have been that long?’ Trip thought. However Alex’s face was full of despair, pain and guilt. He was unable to speak or say anything. He merely fell to his knees with tears in his eyes.

Trip looked at Alex and thought ‘It’s been two months. What could have possibly happened during this time to cause the kingdom to be in disarray? And how is this linked with Alex?’ Then suddenly everything clicked. Alex was of the Oyak family, to which he was the only descendant. His status was important, and his grandfather had already lost his son. What could he possibly have done?

Alex looked up at Eleonore with tears in his eyes and croaked out two words “What… happened?”

Eleonore looked at Alex with pain on her face. Even she was affected by the pain in Alex’s voice “Wh… When you went missing… Your grandfather went crazy, blaming it on the king. He attacked the king and managed to injure him quite badly. The king was very angry and he killed your grandfather, and wiped out the entire Oyak family.”

Alex said nothing for a while. No tears, there was nothing. Then a scream. Alex screamed so loud it could have been heard by everyone in the school. The scream was filled with such pain and agony. He could only scream “GRANDPAAA! WHY!”

Trip felt Alex’s pain more than anyone else present. While Trip did not lose his family, he never had one. He understood the empty loneliness that Alex would never be able to get rid of. Trip then heard a voice in his head. It was Grelin. He said “You should take him and leave, NOW!”

Trip was confused and he was also crying so at first he did not understand Grelin’s words, when he understood he simply asked “Why?”

“You idiot. If they find him they’ll kill him!” Grelin mentally shouted at Trip.

Trip was shocked as he knew that it was true. He then turned to Eleonore and Randolph and asked “Do you have a way to get us out of the country?”

Eleonore understood what Trip was thinking. Eleonore was actually experiencing something strange, when she looked at Alex she almost couldn’t hold in any tears. Her normally emotionless self was causing her to almost be unable to respond to Trip. Eventually she managed to say “I can get you on a carriage to West Hrior. If I tell them not to check what’s in the carriage it’ll be alright. I can get you a carriage in a week.”

Trip was disappointed by this. He immediately rejected the idea of staying in the school for a week, especially with Alex in such a state. Just with Alex’s screams the school would soon investigate. Trip then asked Grelin “Grelin, do you have any ideas?”

Grelin replied quickly “Walk. Travel through the mountains and walk out of the country, there is no risk in that. With your strength you should be able to survive quite easily.”

Trip thought about it. Eventually he decided to go with Grelin’s idea. He picked up Alex and looked into his eyes. Trip then said “Alex if we don’t leave now they will kill you. Leave now and then you can get revenge later.”

Alex looked blankly at Trip and then he dropped down to the floor and curled up into a ball. He said nothing. He just lay on the floor.

Trip looked at Eleonore and said “Thanks for your help, we’ll be leaving now.”

Eleonore felt strangely about them leaving. It felt as if she was losing something important, but she did not know what. Before Trip left she pulled out a necklace with a wooden puppet on it. She then said “This is a good luck charm. Farewell.” She then put the necklace on Alex. Randolph also said his goodbyes; and while he was shocked by what had happened he was more shocked by his sister. Trip and Alex did not matter much to him, but this was the first time he had sister express compassion and act this way.

Trip picked up Alex and put him on his back. They then left, walking at a slow pace through the forest. Trip couldn’t help but be filled by rage, just as they would return back to their comfortable lives, just when they both had established their goals something like this had to happen. Now they had no one but each other. It was a big scary world, Trip recognised that. He had only experienced so little of it, he was hoping to slowly learn of the large world, but instead he was thrown right into the deep end. He could not help but feel rather cheated by the heavens. It was at this point that Trip rid himself of unnecessary emotions and decided that he would never let something like this happen again. He would protect Alex, himself, and anyone that he might care about in the future for the rest of his life.

Grelin was within Trip, so he could feel what Trip was feeling. It shocked him to no extent, ‘How could this child be this calm in this sort of situation?’ Trip was not only not sad or angry anymore, but he was determined at this point. His mentality had always been extraordinary for a child of his age, but this exceeded even the strongest of adults.

Trip felt himself getting pumped. ‘Every step backwards would be countered by 2 steps forward, nay, a thousand steps forward!’ Trip thought as his pace kept getting faster and faster. He went as fast as he could, with Alex on his back barely hindering his blistering determination. Only when he was almost unable to move his legs did he stop. He then set up the tent and cooked some of the food that he still had on him.

Alex hadn’t recovered at all by the night. His eyes were dull and he didn’t recognise the world in front of him. Trip comforted him all night, assuring him that they were going to be alright. He even had to force feed Alex. Trip knew that Alex wouldn’t recover for a while, and he definitely going to try and rush Alex into becoming himself. He feared that Alex might never be the same again. He feared that their lives would never be so carefree and happy again.

The flurry of emotions that the two of them had experienced today was horrible. From happy to shocked to unbearable pain and sadness. Trip thought back to when they were stuck in the illusion. Back then they managed to survive and they came out of it stronger and more determined than ever. Could they do the same now, or would Alex be unable to recover from the pain he suffered this time?