The Cure for Boredom - A Taron Sunwake

Chapter 9: Freaking Out

After Kam had turned a corner and couldn't see him, Taron ran back to his room and locked the door before huddling on his bed against the wall. Ammy wouldn't stop asking him what was wrong, so it was thrown across the room.

Okay. I need to go through everything I remember since meeting him, which is everything. He thought, trying to stay calm. Unfortunately, since he hadn't had any emotions until after he meet Kam, and then he'd been too worried about actually having them to pay attention to anything else, he wasn't able to remember anything that might tell him when he'd imprinted. That realization broke his calm demeanor and he ran from his room, warping the magic so he'd be in his uncle's house instead of the school, and dashed outside. He kept running until he found the family's collection of skimmers(a mix of hover cars and bikes) and grabbed one at random to take him into town.

What was he supposed to do? He had never thought he'd imprint, and certainly not to.. This wasn't something that had happened before, because his grandmother would have said something about it if it had, so it wasn't like there was anyone he knew that he could ask.. That's when he noticed something.

The scenery around him wasn't boring him. In fact, he felt ashamed that he had never seen the land like this before. The wind rushing around him as he was riding, the feeling of fresh air filling his lungs, the way the colors complimented each other naturally... it was amazing, but it only made him feel more worried. Too many things were happening or changing in his boring world, and that wasn't something he was capable of handling very well, if at all. Felling overwhelmed, Taron decided to go and do something others did when they wanted to get rid of feelings: drink alcoholic beverages.

He drove through the city at a startling speed, a trait inherited from his mother, and weaved through traffic like it wasn't there until he parked the small skimmer in front of the Drunken Dwarf Tavern. Walking inside, he felt magic wash over him and realized his age had just been checked. Looking around, he saw that this place was more of a club than a tavern, but didn't mind. He went up to the bar and sat down.

"I need something that will burn my throat on the way down. What do you have?" He said, slipping a perfect, marble-sized ruby sphere onto the bar.

"Ain't you a bit young ta be drinkin'?" The bartender asked gruffly as he inspected the ruby with a critical eye. "I don't be serving no minors here, even if they got gems."

"I'm old enough to be drinking, and I know that magic in the door checks age. If you don't want to serve me though, I'll take my ruby back and go somewhere that will." He reached for his gem, but the bartender pulled his hand out of Taron's reach.

"Somethin ta burn yer throat, eh? I got some fire brew that'll do that." He pocketed the gem and got Taron his first drink.

Back at Avalon, Kamenwati walked into the hand-to-hand combat class and couldn't find his roommate anywhere. Even his mother, the teacher for this class, had no idea where he was. According to the other teachers, she explained, no one had seen him all day. She wanted to go look for him, but she had classes to teach and he had done this before..

Kamen wasn't about to let that stop him from finding his friend though, and since this was his free-period, he went off to search for him on his own. His first stop was, of course, the room they shared. It wasn't until he saw Ammy laying on his bed that he began to worry.

I'm glad you're here Kam, do me a favor and fix the necklace? Then we can go find Taron together and find out why he was acting, well, unlike Taron! Something is really wrong, I know it! No matter what, Taron has never left me behind like this, never thrown me away like some pebble... Kam heard sadness in the thoughts of the psicrystal. There was some worry mixed in there too. As he welded the broken chain back together with his lightning, Kam worked up the will to ask a question he wasn't sure he wanted the answer too.

"Do you think he left because of what happened this morning? He's strong, but he didn't hurt me at all."

I'm not sure why he left. All I could sense was a mix of jumbled emotion.. I've never seen him like that, never seen him so confused and angry and depressed. As shocking as it was for him when he figured it out, you are his friend, his very first if you don't count family. I think he hurt himself more this morning than he could ever hurt you.

"Then I guess it's time to go and knock some sense in him, huh? You can find him once we're off school grounds, right?" He asked as he put Ammy around his neck. "We need to move fast if we're going to get him back before the next class starts."

For Taron, they couldn't move fast enough. A man had decided to make it his momentary purpose in life to find out why Taron was drinking enough to have hangovers for a month.

"Come on kid, what's go you so glum, did you fail a test at that fancy school? Rival kick your rear at checkers?" Not getting a response, the man decided to changed tactics. "You a doppelganger that wants to be a real human?"

"Argh!" Taron almost screamed as the man's incessant pestering continued. "You want to know, you really do? Fine. I just found out I love someone who can't possible feel the same way about me! Do you have any idea what it's like to know the one person you'll love will never return the feelings you have?"

"No.." Said the man as he held his hands up in defense. "But then again I never had to worry about it. But kid, it's probably just a crush. Is she really popular or something? You may just like the idea of her."

The exasperation Taron felt toward this man knew no bounds.

"So can you tell me anything more about how he was acting this morning after we left, anything at all?" Kam asked as he drove a 'borrowed' skimmer toward the city.

Well, after he went back to the room he got on his bed and curled up next to the wall.

"Damn, that can't be a good sign. I hope he doesn't do anything stupid before we can find him."

What if he does something stupid when we find him?

Kamenwati's only response was to speed up...

The man was drunk now, that much was clear.. The fool had thought that, because Taron had already drained five-and-a-half bottles of Emerald Blaze and was still sober, it wasn't a strong drink. It finally got to the point that Taron just nudged him and the drunkard fell off his stool to sleep on the floor. Three bottles later, he heard a very familiar voice in his head and cringed.

There he is, at the bar!

Taron didn't move as he felt a hand turn him around, but he was surprised when he saw that Kam had come looking for him instead of his parents.

Maybe he.. no. He doesn't. The young dragon thought, squashing the hope before it could be shattered.

"Taron.. what the hell, man? I told you I was fine, so why are you here making the bartender a fortune? So you had a bad dream and attacked me when you woke up. So what? I can handle that with ease!"

"Leave me alone. I hate you." Taron replied bluntly, his heart aching with every word.

He's lying Kamen! There's something he's not sa- Don't let him grab me! Ammy thought desperately as Taron lunged for it. Kamen backed away just in time and held the psicrystal protectively as he looked at Taron incredulously. To his credit, Taron managed to look completely bored before pushed past his roommate and almost broke the tavern's door off it's hinges as he ran away as fast as he could. Cursing, Kamen chased after him, leaving a confused bartender behind.

Taron, scared as he was of being caught before he could figure things out, kept running into people and being slowed down enough for Kam to keep up. Sensing that his roommate was about to grab him, Taron darted into an alleyway at the last minute. Once Kam realized Taron was no longer in front of him, he turned around and went into the alley after him.

He was greeted by the sight of Taron pinned up against a wall with a knife to his throat.

"Give me the rest of the jewels you have boy, or I'll have you grinning from your throat." The man from the tavern said dangerously, obviously not as drunk as he would have had others believe. Taron just stood there, still not thinking clearly. "I guess that means I get to make you smile."

"Like hell you do!" Kamen said as he flew down the alley and slammed into the man, knocking the knife out of his hand and pinning him down as he pummeled the man unconscious. He stood and found Taron staring at him, the strangest look in his eyes and a small nick on his neck.

"Now.." Kam said as he looked at his roommate. "What is going on!"

"It's nothing. Go away and leave me alone." Taron said quietly after a moment, though each word tore at him.

He's lying you know. The forgotten Ammy thought. Whatever it is, he doesn't want you to leave. I can sense his emotions as clearly as he can, and it hurt him to.. say.. Io's Hoard! Taron, have you done what I think you've done?

Kamenwati looked between the amethyst hanging from his neck and the one standing in front of him, completely confused. What was Ammy talking about, and why was Taron shaking?

Taron, answer me.. please..

"Yes." Taron slid down the wall until he was sitting on the ground, arms wrapped around his knees.

But that's a good thing! You should be ha- The psicrystal started to say before Taron cut him off.

"Shut up! Don't you remember what Grandmother taught all of us about imprinting? This shouldn't be possible!"

She was explaining what her kind went through when imprinting. You are not like your grandmother though. You may be a dragon, but you're also human. Since when did humans listen to others when it comes to matters of the heart?

Taron had to admit that Ammy had a point, but that didn't make him feel any better. Ammy could be wrong after all. Kamenwati, putting the pieces together, figured out that Taron was freaked out because he had a crush. That's easy enough to handle, right?

"Okay Taron, get up and tell me which girl you have a crush on." Kam said as he pulled Taron up by his arm. The young dragon let himself get pulled to his feet, but he didn't say anything or even make eye contact with his roommate. "Come on man, you can tell me! Is it Belyu?" He teased. This went on for a few more minutes before Taron had finally had enough and threw him to the other side of the alley.

"It's you, you unperceptive idiot!" He cried out angrily before storming off. As Kamen got off the ground and went after Taron, he failed to notice the man he'd knocked out sit up and grin. Taking out a small gray datapad, he sent the following message.

"Target acquired."