A new dawn

Their parents had told them to get on a little get-a-way after their less than happy year, and in their own way of being concerned trying to get them in a good place to enjoy the world around them, so Wirt and Greg's summer was shaping up to be another adventure with no choice on their part. But at least Greg was excited—and in a way that dispelled any of the too anxious voices in Wirt's head and he twitched his eye a bit, but he hadn't really expected much anyways.

Not that his mother and step-father were bad people, no, they were just being kept extremely in the dark and the unconsciously near but nowhere to be found "Unknown", they weren't sure how to handle Wirt's new protective, hidden but strangely grown and adult personality. They wanted him to find his childish self again, after all he wasn't very old and while he was still lovingly awkward and soothingly poetic, this new adult manifestation seemed to come a bit too soon after their release from the Lakeville hospital. While nonetheless still Wirt, and that he was shaping up to be a caring young man, there was simply more to life than wallowing. And so his mother sleepily smiled at the two in the morning and ushered them to the porch.

Greg waved around a stick as his mother sloppily kissed him on the cheek and strongly told him to "behave" and to listen to Wirt, with his father leaning down to give him a small hug. Wirt solemnly nodded at them with a small wave and smiled at Greg, taking his hand and leading him outside. Wirt's step-father nodding shortly nodding at him before going back inside the house, leading his mother by the hand and shutting the door.

And so they were off.

"Adventure! Adventure! Adventure!" Greg waved the magic wand, or the stick Wirt mumbled, and pulled out Jason Funderburker out of his shirt's front pocket. "Are you ready to see the world? I wonder if we'll see any—any unicorns, or dancing rats? Oh! Or maybe even singing frogs like we did before, huh—"

"No! We are certainly not seeing any dancing rats or-or any… singing frogs like-like before." Wirt admonished waving his hands.

"Pshh, safe." Greg huffed looking around to see the graveyard they'd found the Unknown in so long ago.

The day was still young, and it was as harmless as any regular graveyard should look like and be, but there was a chill in the air and an incredible feeling of unbreathable nostalgia and Wirt felt his throat constrict at the sight of Greg leaning in to go inside the gates. Feeling the incredible urge to wrap Greg up in his arms and never let go he grabbed Greg's hand and lead him away from the graveyard urgently.

"No. Greg, no… not today… We have new places to visit and explore, right Captain?" Wirt tried to hide his less-then-friendly emotions of the graveyard and slapped a smile onto his face.

"That's right Second Lieutenant worry Wirt!" Greg laughed, bopping Wirt on the nose with the magic stick. "It'll be okay."

Wirt always forgot how long it had been since they'd left Beatrice and the woods keeper, and why he felt so attached to their ever so elusive memories, but it never felt quite so long with Greg standing taller and growing up besides him. Soon he'd be leaving to go and find his life, and never had Wirt felt so small yet impossibly full.

"Yeah. I know."