The Silent Fool
Chapter 5: Magic Act
AN: I'm giving up the whole thought pieces and marching right into the hard part…
Magic Act
Jenna shuffled tiredly out of her tent, weakly raising a hand to block the bright, warm day that seeped through the sky unto the camp as day broke, and the birds sung softly to themselves as they prepared for the day. Stretching herself out, the fire adept shook herself awake, armor donned and staff in hand. Within seconds, Mia and Picard greeted her from the remains of the fire. Picard glanced quickly to the side, eyes catching onto the slightest of movements as Felix emerged from his tent, immediately followed by Ivan and Sheba. The two wind adepts looked even more tired than she was, but Felix- in his own classic tough guy way was well awake and looked raring to go. The last up was Isaac, who never failed to wake up a full 15 minutes later than he really should.
Jenna smiled at her boyfriend- who smiled back slightly in his early morning exhaustion, and then she looked around for the one member that had the most reliable habit of waking up too early.
Garet.
Contrary to popular belief, Garet was an early riser. He never failed to wake up at least an hour before anyone else to train, wash up, or simply watch the dawn break. Good old Garet, she thought, wandering around the camp in search, never sleeping, always moving.
But today, she couldn't find him. At first, she thought that he may have gone off to find a clearing, but that thought died as she stumbled upon his tent.
There was no trace that he ever slept in his tent in the first place. The bedroll was still laid out- a huge one for his big frame, and there was no note left around to tell of his location. However, most of his things were gone, mostly necessities that made roughing it a little easier. Wherever he went, he only took along a few potions and ethers with him, leaving most of them behind.
It was like he vanished.
VANISHED.
It was only then that the full horror of it struck her, forcing her to reevaluate that weird dream she had last night, the one she lost sleep to.
Jenna blinked slowly in the twilight, staring blankly up as she wondered what could wake her at an hour like this, wondering vaguely if she should shout and awake the others. The sound- a dry rustling paused outside of her tent, invisible, and hesitated before moving on into the direction of the forest.
It was probably some kind of animal, she thought, but she couldn't sleep well after that…
What if that wasn't an animal? What if it was Garet? What if he was hurt or kidnapped, or dying somewhere and she had no clue where he was? Or…
What if Garet ran away?
Ten minutes later, Isaac and Picard sat grimly inside Felix's tent as Jenna recounted the story, Picard nodding at pauses. It took Isaac a long moment to say anything into the silence.
"Why?" Mia, who stared worriedly at the canvas wall, looked up in surprise. "Why would he run away," Isaac continued, staring at his boots.
No one answered. Everyone knew exactly why Garet would run away, or at least part of it.
They treated him like crap. The teasing, the poking, the boasting… They didn't really mean it as it sounded, but they said it anyway. After all that time, the whole shame of it must have broken his resolve…
They made him run.
Suddenly, Felix's voice rose up in the tent. "I think we know why." Leaving Isaac confused and Jenna irked, he swept out of the tent in a cold rage.
What? I mean, I've always teased Garet, it was kind of our thing…
He's a man now, Jenna, her mind argued softly, But you've never treated him like one. To you, he was always that buffoon he was in Vale.
She couldn't argue with that.
"I… Well, we," corrected Sheba, gesturing to Ivan, "thought we heard a thought in our dreams." Sheba shrank slightly under the depressed, or in Picard's case tired, stares she received. Ivan nodded and took it up for her.
"It felt like a goodbye but…" His shoulders dropped. "It was… There were many emotions in it. Determination, resolve, bitterness, depression… And…" He trailed off, not sure if he really wanted to say it.
"And," Picard pressed, not letting either one avoid his gaze.
"We may be wrong," Sheba warned, glancing nervously at Jenna. "We think we heard him say 'love'."
He WHAT? Jenna, unable to fight the growing dread feeling that stuck to her since last night, forced the words to a question she desperately didn't want to know about.
"Who… Who did he say goodbye to?"
The two wind adepts averted their gazes almost simultaneously, knowing that the other didn't want to have to say it either, even more so in Sheba's mind, where everything started to click together in a most brutal, heartbreaking chain of occurrences…
Though everyone saw the teens' reactions, no one but Jenna really understood what they tried to tell her. In fact, she realized, it was something Garet, Felix, and possibly Picard tried to tell her all along, each one with their own way and their own amount of knowledge on the problem.
How could I have been so blind…
Garet left because of her actions, her own deeds that she mistook for a joke or simply friendly banter.
The way he became so distant… The pain in his eyes… The way he began to avoid her and Isaac…
Could it be that…
No, it couldn't… Could it?
Jenna didn't know what to think. The flurry of information and connections spun themselves into a web she could not decipher, a riddle with no true clues.
Did he mean to say… She couldn't bring herself to think it, feeling the wrongness of thinking it without him here, as he always was... But not now.
We were friends… Once Isaac and I dated, he drifted… I might have made him a third wheel...
Yes, it wasn't that he lo- No, don't think that.
Why won't you think it, she wondered vaguely, now starting to see herself in a new light.
What exactly was she hiding from herself? From everyone? Why did it bother her to think that Garet might have… fallen for someone?
"We'll start a search," interrupted Picard, effectively killing her epiphanies. Silently, Jenna was grateful, terrified of what she would find.
Isaac shook his head somberly, face drawn at the loss, "We can't." He didn't look up from everyone's stares, choosing to slowly shake his head again. "We can't go looking for him. I love Garet as I would my brother," he said, looking up. His eyes were dark and saddened, and he looked pale in the light, as if he was just a husk.
"We just can't… If he…" Isaac's voice broke, but his face was set in stone, "If he doesn't return, then we'll have to go on without him."
(BAM! There! Finished the next chapter, and its longer, so now complaining!)
