Erage #4 You can't leave us behind

Hyethra doesn’t know how long it has been. She is very impatient with waiting for Untoltelage to wake up. She thinks he’ll make it through his wounds, but the possibility of him dying and leaving them stranded in the woods with no help is terrifying. She doesn’t want to stay out here. She wants to go home. She knows she probably can’t go back. That just makes her more angry.

Finally, Untoltelage starts to stir. “Is he awake?” Hyethra asks.

“Let’s ask him.” Quastiffany says, “Untoltelage, are you awake?”

Untoltelage open his eyes and tries to sit up before falling to his back again in pain. “Yes, I’m awake.” Untoltelage says, then he groans, “I had really hoped that this had just been a nightmare.”

“What do you mean?” Quastiffany asks, “Why would you want this to be a dream?”

“Are you serious, Quastiffany?” Kekister asks, “Look at him. You can’t think of any reason why he wishes that this was just a bad dream.?”

Quastiffany doesn’t answer. She thinks that Untoltelage doesn’t really mind physical pain very much. She thinks that Untoltelage must have been talking about something else that he doesn’t like about the situation.

Jostahim keeps his distance from both Quastiffany and Untoltelage. Untoltelage looks at everyone and says, “Yeah, I kind of hoped you weren’t really all here.”

“You don’t want us here?” Kekister asks.

“Yes, exactly that.” Untoltelage says, “I don’t want to have to deal with a bunch of kids. I’m not a babysitter.”

Hyethra is offended that Untoltelage thinks that he would have to “babysit” them. But, isn’t that kind of why they waited for him to wake up? To ask for his help?

“Untoltelage, we want you to bring us home.” Hyethra says.

The other kids look at her but don’t object. They want to go home too. They are worried about what the military might do, but that is what Untoltelage is here for. He will give them the answers.

It occurs to Jostahim that they expect Untoltelage to have all the answers. Why? Because he has magic?

“You want to go back in the city?” Untoltelage asks, “I can’t imagine why. Besides the military. They probably won’t take to kindly to magical kids in their city after what just happened.”

“That’s why we want your help.” Kekister says, “Can you help us get back in the city?”

“I could get you in the city. But that wouldn’t just solve all of your problems.” Untoltelage says, “If negotiations go South, you might not be able to take an alternative.”

“You think they’ll kill us.” Quastiffany says. It sounds like an observation, not a question.

“I-um, yes. Just try to think from their position.” Untoltelage says. He frowns and makes a face of pained concentration. “Why is it so hard to think from the perspective of others?”

That was a rhetorical question, so nobody answered. Untoltelage thinks for a few minutes then he speaks. “Alright, I think I can see their side now. So just imagine you are a military guard. Your job is to protect the city against invading magic-wielding serial killers.”

“Serial killers?” Jostahim asks.

“Yes, most everyone outside of your city is a serial killer.” Untoltelage says, “So your guarding against these invaders. They don’t show up very often. But ten you get a report of one attacking a school. They summoned a tornado.”

“Was that you that summoned the tornado?” Hyethra asks, angry. It sort of sounds like an accusation.

“No, I’m just a kid. I can’t make a tornado.” Untoltelage says.

“We’ve seen a tree grow as tall as the wall in a matter of seconds.” Hyethra says, “You think you can’t make a tornado just because you’re a kid?”

“Okay, maybe I could have made a small tornado if I had practiced air magic exclusively. But I spread out my interests.” Untoltelage says, “but imagine you are arrive at the school to find a magic-wielding maniac destroying the school with a tornado.”

“If you didn’t create the tornado, who did?” Jostahim asks.

“Kids, please stop interrupting. I’m trying to explain why the military won’t let you back in the city. Why they might just kill you on-sight.” Untoltelage says, exasperated, “You find a twenty-year-old man flying around and conjuring a tornado. And you shoot him down. He’s dangerous.”

“Did this actually happen?” Kekister asks, “How could they shoot him down in a tornado?”

“I was there. I helped.” Untoltelage says, “Imagine you are there. There is a small tornado headed your way. Then a little kid crawls out of an upside-down car and throws fire and frost at the tornado, reducing the tornado into a powerful funnel cloud.”

“You were outside during a tornado?” Kekister asks.

“No, well, yes. It wasn’t a real tornado. It was magically conjured. It was directed to destroy the schoolhouse. It was actually safer outside than inside.” Untoltelage says, “Now remember, you’re a military personnel. You keep watch on the kid that weakened the tornado. You send in most of your forces to search the schoolhouse for survivors. After a few hours, the odds aren’t looking too good. It soon becomes clear that you are not going to find anybody alive. Except that you do find some. These people survived mostly unharmed. It is suspicious. But it is all too similar to that little kid who attacked the tornado. They are all little kids of about the same age in sam circumstances.”

“Yeah but…” Jostahim begins to say.

“Shh! Anyway, you bring the kids who attacked the tornado back to your base. You question his kid. You ask him about what happened. You learn that, contrary to your assumptions, this child is native to the city. He grew up here and developed magic on his own.” Untoltelage says, “You know little about magic. This ignorance makes you prone to fear. And remember, your only experience with magic is serial killer invaders coming and attacking your city.”

“But they don’t know that we have magic.” Jostahim says, “We could convince them that we don’t have magic.”

“Maybe you could have. But I fear that it is too late for that.” Untoltelage says, “The kid you are questioning stop talking in the middle of a sentence. His face goes blank. Up until them, he had seemed like a normal kid. You were beginning to think that magic might not be inherently evil, but rather the people who live outside simply have no civilization, which causes their insanity. But this kid has stopped talking. You try to get his attention. When you do, he leaves. He just walks out. Of course, the guards at the doorway aren’t just going to let him walk out. But the boy wiggles past them, becoming wiggly, slippery to the touch. They panic. They point their guns at him and threaten him to get him to stop leaving. The boys snaps. He attacks, takes one of their guns and leaves. Sure, he didn’t kill anybody. But he went feral. Insane. Dangerous. Unpredictable.”

“That was you.” Jostahim says, “They don’t have any reason to believe that we have magic except for our miraculous survival and… oh.”

“That’s right. You were still in the clear at this point.” Untoltelage says, “You are military personnel escorting the survivors back to the base for questioning. You need to know what happened. But the one kid that you had already brought to the base is missing, hiding somewhere in the base. Okay, let’s keep the rest of these kids in sight then, we don’t want anymore missing children. Then one of them enters the base and brings out the boy with magic powers. The boy that now has a gun. A magical display later, and the boy escapes. But the kids display magical manifestations as well.”

“Yes, you’re talking about how Quastiffany walked through people as if they weren’t there.” Jostahim says.

“That’s a good example, but I’m talking about the example that implicates all of you as magic wielders.” Untoltelage says, “After the boy escapes over the other side of the wall. You surround the four remaining kids that you are beginning to suspect have magical powers simply because of your own paranoia and panic. Then they confirm your suspicions by growing a giant flower blossom underneath their feet. The flower swallows them and shrinks back into the ground. The kids are gone. They have magic.”

“We could still convince them that we aren’t dangerous.” Jostahim says, though he is beginning to see that it would be hopeless.

“Yes, you could.” Untoltelage says, “I would prefer if you did that. Then I wouldn’t feel responsible for you… why did I try to dissuade you from returning?”

“We should try to go back.” Hyethra says.

“I would prefer that.” Jostahim says, “But they’ll think we have magic. We can’t go back.”

“We could convince them that magic isn’t bad.” Kekister suggests.

“We’d do better to convince them that we don’t have magic at all, but we’ll have a hard time convincing them of anything.” Jostahim says.

“Especially if they shoot us before we get a chance to speak.” Quastiffany says.

“I think we should just stay with you, Untoltelage.” Kekister says.

“What? Why would you stay with me?” Untoltelage asks, “I’m fairly certain none of you trust me.”

“We don’t trust you.” Hyethra says, “But we won’t survive out here alone, and… and we can’t go back home.”

“I don’t have to take care of you.” Untoltelage’s protests.

“You do have to take care of us. It is your duty to make reparations for what you’ve done.” Quastiffany says, “You’ve made us into orphans, cut off from our families. You’ve made us homeless, cut out from the city. You’ve made us refugees, cast out of our world of civilization to live out in the wilderness. You’ll make us die if you don’t work to fix your mistakes.”

“Hey, that’s kind of harsh.” Untoltelage says.

“No more harsh than you deserve.” Quastiffany says, “Maybe I should have left you to your tears in that dark maze of a military base.”

“There is no maybe about it.” Jostahim says, “You really should have just left him there. Why did you even go in?”

“It’s silly.” Quastiffany says.

“Yeah, I bet it is. But you didn’t just go in for no reason.” Jostahim says.

“It might as well have been no reason.” Quastiffany says, “I heard a child crying, but it was just Untoltelage.”

“Wait, you were crying?” Jostahim asks Untoltelage.

“Well, um. Like she said, it’s a silly reason to enter a building.” Untoltelage says, “Let’s just forget all about it.”

Kekister hasn’t said anything in a while. He is thinking about how they Could possibly survive, even if they stay with Untoltelage. Unless he can use magic to conjure up a house, food, water, clothes, plumbing, electricity. How will they survive out here?

“So now that we are joining you, how are we supposed to survive?” Kekister asks Untoltelage.

“I don’t want to you to join me.” Untoltelage says, “I just want to be left alone.”

“That’s too bad.” Quastiffany says.

“You can’t force me to take care of you.”

“No, but you made the choice when you took away everything we had.” Quastiffany says.

Untoltelage feels strange. He shouldn’t care for anything that these kids want him to do. But he does feel guilty for what they have lost. He doesn’t truly believe that it is his fault or that it would matter if it was his fault that these kids can no longer return to their home. But there is something wrong with him. Something off. He feels obligated to do something for these children. The persistence of their insistence that he must help them is probably the cause of this issue. But something else gnaws at his mind. Something that tells him that he shouldn’t care how persistent they are. If they annoyingly repeat this request, he should just destroy them. The scariest part is that he finds such an idea revolting.

They believe that they are coming with him. They are not taking no for an answer. Untoltelage doesn’t want them around.

“How will we live out here?” Kekister asks, “Have you lived out here before?”

“Um, well. It’s kind of hard living out here. There isn’t really any civilization or infrastructure. Nobody grows food. Nobody builds houses. Nobody performs any lasting improvement.” Untoltelage says.

“What? Just because nothing lasts forever doesn’t mean that it isn’t worth the effort in setting up.” Kekister says.

“Maybe, but anything permanent is highly valuable.” Untoltelage says, “If you built a farm or free food or made any permanent improvement, it would be taken from you. More than that, actually. Anytime people meet out here, it almost always results in a battle to the death.”

“So how do we survive out here?” Kekister asks.

“I usually use plant magic to produce food.” Untoltelage says, “But with so many of us, I’ll need the help of my magic-enhancing artifacts to sustain for more than a few weeks.”

Untoltelage looks up at the sky, finding the sun. Then turns to look at several different directions before he decides upon a path.Then he sets off into the forest.