Huh. We're movin' fast! Already at 7 hearts! Well, maybe we're really only at six, but we're only like, one cup of coffee away from being seven (don't you hate it when that happens in the game? I do.) A short chapter this time, but the next one will be longer!
Chapter Ten: Romeo and Juliet
Wizard noticed a lot of things. He never left his house, but why would he need to? He could see almost the entire Island from his crystal ball (except for Witch's house in the woods; she'd put some sort of enchantment on it and Wizard couldn't for the life of him figure out a way around it) He knew what teas Jin liked best, he knew what Chloe got for her birthday, and he knew that there was a collie dog living on the roof of Town Hall. But there were two things that were alarmingly apparent: one was that most of the eligible bachelors and bachelorettes were pairing off. The other was that Molly was slowly isolating herself from the rest of the Island.
Oh, sure, she still went on her walks with Julius occasionally, but even the purple-haired man was making himself scarce; he and Candace were getting pretty serious, to the point where he was starting to scramble to find a blue feather, and he had little time any more to catch up with Molly. Molly seemed like she didn't mind, but Wizard knew better.
Another thing about Wizard was that he. Was. Old. Very old. He remembered when Colleen's great-grandparents first migrated to Castanet from Ireland when they were children. He remembered when Ramsey's great-great uncle first started digging the mines in the Garmon District. He hadn't always lived in town (he used to live in the forest with the Witch, but that was another story all together) but he'd always been watching. Perhaps out of curiosity, perhaps out of fear. Either way, the humans that always managed to repopulate the Island were very entertaining, to say the least. And some more than others.
Take Molly, for example. Smart, determined, hard-working, albeit a little annoying, and yet she always seemed to be alone these days. That was interesting. Wizard knew it was no one's fault, no one was purposefully trying to exclude her. These sorts of things just happened when the whole town seemed to be dating each other, and Molly was adamant on not dating anyone. He could guess why, what with the whole Luke incident, he didn't blame her. Still, he knew she was lonely.
Loneliness. Now there was an emotion Wizard didn't know how to deal with. It was rather cliché to thin this, but before he'd met Molly, he hadn't realized how heart-breakingly lonely he'd been. Witch was horrible company, and even when he'd lived with her he'd been lonely. But he hadn't realized it until Molly started visiting him. Something about her just made him feel more…comfortable. It was like sitting in lukewarm bath water, and when she was away, it was like having a ton of ice dumped into the bath tub. Alright, that wasn't the best of metaphors, but the feeling was the same. And now, watching Molly pace through her house with nothing to do and no one to talk to, it made Wizard feel…funny. He didn't want Molly to feel as badly as he did being all alone. That sort of miserable loneliness was reserved for him and him only.
Was it creepy to watch Molly in his crystal ball? Maybe. Probably. Yes. But it was then, staring into the image cast on the spherical surface, that Wizard committed his second reckless act: he decided he'd visit Molly. It was so spur of the moment, he didn't fully realize what he was doing until he was knocking on his door. What had possessed him to do such a thing? He was still confused as to why he was here, a thermos of vegetable juice in his hands. Why vegetable juice? Your guess was as good as his.
"Yes?" Molly said, opening the door and sounding slightly shocked to see Wizard on her doorstep. "What…what a surprise! What brings you here?" Wizard smiled nervously, and rubbed the back of his neck, looking for the right words.
"Um, well, I was, uh, making some vegetable juice, and I thought you might like some…?" He held out the thermos uncertainly, and for a heartbeat, he thought she was going to decline. But she smiled that smile of hers, and Wizard felt that odd fluttering sensation in his chest again.
"That's so thoughtful of you!" she said, taking the thermos. "And I thought I was the only one who could cook!"
"Well, I'd hardly call it cooking," Wizard mumbled, wondering if real cooking was anything like making potions. "But I'm…glad you like it. I know it isn't much." Now, maybe it was her loneliness that made her do it, because her common sense was telling her that Wizard would probably react badly to this, but she reached out and hugged.
Wizard had never been hugged before. He didn't know what to do, honestly. But he was vaguely aware that the appropriate thing to do when receiving a hug was to hug the person back, so he did. And it was…nice. His first hug.
The fluttering in Wizard's chest intensified, and now it was borderline uncomfortable. What was happening to him? Was he sick? He'd never felt like this before, and while it was an unfamiliar feeling, he didn't dislike it. It was only uncomfortable because of it's foreignness. But he had to know what was causing it. After retreating back to his house and pouring over his books, he found that none of the old tomes he'd inherited from his master had anything on feelings. That was understandable, feelings and emotions were a luxury immortals were rarely permitted to enjoy. But that didn't quell his curiosity. In fact, it stoked it.
The library at town hall was limited, but what he could find, he checked out. He'd never really paid any attention to the books in the library's possession before; none of them had ever contained anything worth his while. But as he leafed through the thin pages of the few books he'd borrowed, he now found a wealth of information that he couldn't believe he'd never cared to know. Most of the information was interesting, but irrelevant, except for a small book about the size of his palm. He knew it to be what humans called novels, and he knew it was nothing but fiction (something at which his master had taught him to scorn) but now, it was more of a learning tool, and he couldn't keep his nose out of it.
It was a silly story; the tale of two children with silly names which he couldn't remember, falling in love within the course of a night. It was pretty unrealistic, as relationships between humans took time to develop, but Wizard couldn't help but read each line with a certain interest. Love. The boy was in love. And as he finished the book at around dawn the next day, he couldn't help but wonder…was he in love as well?