Chapter four, people! Getting excited yet?
Just sos you know… I'm trying to keep the writing style as close to the actual book as possible. Don't expect too much, though! It's tough!
Disclaimer: Don't own the characters you recognize. Only Sophia and James :)
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The group had been travelling for four days. When they ran out of tree rocks, Mark had to go hunting. Willie was a bit angry when he had to start eating foreign foods, but soon got over it.
Water was common. Creeks were every couple kilometers so they had breaks then. Mark could see his old town in the distance and was pushing his friends harder to get there. They travelled the most that day than any of the three days before.
By noon of day five, they were at the base of the mountain. Mark turned to them and said. "I'll meet you at the top!" He made sure Willie was on his shoulder, and then took off sprinting towards his old town up the mountain. Half-way up, he heard the welcoming horns blow. By the time he made it to the top, the gates were open. He stopped at the familiar guard and said in unused native Tsook, "My friends are coming up the mountain. Could you meet them and bring them to my farm?"
"Kakon? Is that really you? Where have you been? What is that on your shoulder?"
"It's a long story. I'll tell it later. Oh, and this is Willie." He paused before running off and turned to the guard again. "By the way, how long have I been away?"
"Well, I'd say about fifteen years now. Megaan is living in your old farm. She should be there now. I'll take care of your friends. Go see her. She has been waiting."
Mark ran off again with a wave. The village looked the same. The blacksmith, Tybor, had a bigger shop now. Mark yelled a greeting to him and Tybor dropped what he was doing. He almost fainted, but held himself together and yelled back before Mark was out of view.
The townspeople who knew Mark before all stopped and stared at him disbelievingly. They had thought that he was captured by the Mordo and his men. They also knew Mordo never returned home after the search. The whole thing had been forgotten within a couple years, but some people just couldn't forget.
When Mark reached the old house he called home, he stopped and thought. Willie shifted on his shoulder- he had been clinging onto Mark the entire run terrified. Anyways, it had been fifteen years since he was chased away by Mordo. Twenty had passed in his time, so Megaan was probably about five years younger than him now. Had she really been waiting for me fifteen years?
He
raised his hand and knocked three times. When the door swung open, he
saw the girl -now woman- that he had been thinking of every day for
the past twenty years. She was wearing her hair down and her skin was
the same light yellow it always had been. She had on her usual
leather clothes with bare feet. Both of them were frozen. Megaan was
first recover and tackled him in a hug. Willie jumped off to avoid
being squished.
"Kakon! Where have you been? What happened? I was waiting for you! What took you so long to get back? Nobody knew what happened! Are you alright? Why didn't you come back? I've been so worried! You left on such short notice!"
"Megaan!"
"Yes?"
"It's nice to see you, too." Mark smiled and looked into her eyes. Everything was going to be alright now that he was with Megaan.
"Kakon? Is that you? Where have you been? Come, sit." It was Dagon. He was much older, Mark noticed, as he looked up from Megaan.
"Dagon. Nice to see you as well! I'll explain everything as soon as possible. I have some friends with me this time, though. I left them at the botton of the mountain. They were tired so they are coming up slowly. I ran ahead. The guard said he would bring them."
As Mark was talking, a younger version of Dagon came from the far room. He was tall and thin and walked with a purpose. But when he saw Mark, he stopped and dropped his jaw. "Kakon?"
"Is that little Barow?"
"No so little anymore, Kakon. Be careful, he is now strongest in the village." Megaan teased. By the looks of it, she was right. Barow was thin, but he was packed full of muscle.
"Lets sit down. We need some answers, Kakon." Dagon said.
The four of them sat around the fireplace. Megaan refused to let go of Mark's hand, which he was fine with. By the time he finished telling them of his plan to take them to the jungle, but not yet at the part where the light re-appeared, there was another knock at the door. Dagon got up and opened it to reveal some very scared-looking hikers. Willie, who had been sitting patiently beside Mark the entire time, jumped up onto Karen's shoulder.
Mark switched to English. "Good timing, guys. This is Dagon, Barow, and Megaan. I was just telling them what happened when i left here." Mark then went back to speak Tsook, much to the surprise of his fellow hikers. "This is Karen, James, and Sophia. They're the friends I was telling you about. They, of course, only speak English."
Barow stepped towards them. Mark was impressed by what he heard next. "Hello. Please sit with us." He spoke it in English.
"So you have been practicing! Congratulations, Barow!" He said in Tsook. Mark turned to the three displaced hikers. "I gave him a few lessons. I guess it stuck with him. Anyways, come sit. You probably won't understand anything, though."
James, Karen, and Soph did was they were told and sat along the wall to Mark's left. Mark told his Tsook friends all the events from the forest and how he was sent back. He told them of becoming a scientist to cure the epidemic that caused their world to collapse. He explained about returning to the Missile Rage with Karen and how the light appeared. Finally, he told about the trip from the forest to the village.
It was dark by the time Mark fell silent.
Megaan came up with only one question by the end: "Did you save yourself for me?"
Mark looked at her and squeezed her hand. "Forever." He kissed her lightly on the cheek. "When should we plan the wedding?"
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There's chapter four… I think I'm gonna spend a couple days on my other fic then get back to this.
~Maux
