Welcome to Gaia! ::

Answer

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Isi craned his neck as he tried to search his cell phone's address book for Alex's number. He knew he had it in here somewhere! He and Aphi JUST updated this damn thing! Ah! There it was!

Alex's Phone

Blinking his way past the dizziness of a blood rush to the head, Isi waited, hoping desperately that the ringing ended with a voice as he watched the unchanging smile in the corner of his vision.

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Patience

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Isi caught his legs in a hug from where he sat on a stone just in front of a tent Aphismet and he had set up at the edge of their property, far away from the glittering flash and glow of the Delaran household. After the narrow escape from Eiry's frantic antics, they had decided, mainly because of Isi's stubbornness and unwilling to leave the raevans, that they would spend however long they needed there at the edge until their raevans needed them. Of course, Isi was even a little abhorrent of that idea. After Alex left, he made some motions to stomp back to the top of the house and drag the raevans forcibly from their battle, but he was at a terrible disadvantage without his crutches and he was easily carted to the edge of the property over Aphismet's shoulder. So he sat there now on the rock, arms crossed around his legs and his brows set in a firm line over his eyes as he monitored the battle for any change that might set him into mad stumbling across the moor to their aid.

So far, it had been a day since the start of their battle. An entire day. Isi didn't even understand how they could continue fighting like that, especially with Eiry as weak as he was. Eiry was no where near as strong as Rivener, no where near what he needed to be to last against him in a battle, but, sure enough, he was still up there pulling his own against his brother.

He lifted one of his hands up to smooth into his hair, feeling the tangle of his curls catch against his fingers. "Why did they have to get infected...?" Isi gave a slow shake of his head and gathered himself up against the cold. How were they going to help them? What could they do to help them? The normal book recipes for healthiness couldn't help their raevans. No bowls of chicken soup, despite Aphismet's amazing cooking, would clear away their madness. No pills, no drugs, could sedate the compounding strength of their abilities. No tea, no rest, no constant sleep or themometers could help them, not at all. This was a different kind of infection, one that Isi didn't know how to cure or relieve.

And he felt so helpless, yet, at the same time, he felt so incredibly stupid, like the answer was right before him. He knew it wasn't, but he couldn't help but feel like it was. It felt terrible. Isi realized then, that this is what all parents or guardians must feel like when they saw their children shivering with fever. They could do nothing but wait it out, and watch, and Isi was sure that it was the most painful experience for a parent that they could ever experience. That period of waiting, of helplessly and idly standing by, that was the hardest part of illness.

Isi glanced to the crunch and rumble of Alex's truck as it made its way slowly across the field towards their makeshift outpost. It would be the beginning of the second night soon, and Alex was here for her daily check up on the Delaran brothers. As the truck cruised to a stop, Isi turned his eyes away from the highlight of red along his body from the truck's lights and to the eerie glow of ruby and sea green against the oncoming night's fog above the Delaran home.

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Eureka

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It was on the evening of the third day that the battle finally began to slow. Isi sat on a rock outside the makeshift tent they had on the outskirts of the Delaran property. After some time of silence he sighed and folded his arms around him, "This is stupid."

Aphismet only peeled his eyes away from their house's rooftop long enough to spy the youth looking disgruntled. With a sigh the chef returned his gaze to the warring Sigels. "I know, Isi. I wish there was something we could do, too, but there's nothing."

"That's the stupidest part," Isi mumbled. For a few more moments he stayed in silence, looking at the lights on the foot top dance to and fro. Then he spoke aloud, much louder than before, "They've been up there fighting for three ******** days! Who knows what kind of shape they're in right now!"

Aphismet frowned. Isikoro's worries, while warranted, had been on repeat for a while now. Aphi was beginning to feel like a personal failure for not meeting his brother's expectations, for not finding an answer to this. "There's nothing we can do, Isi! Hopefully they'll wear themselves out before-..." He wouldn't dare say it aloud. The thought sent shivers down his spine.

"I don't like feeling like this," Isi grumbled, burying his mouth against his folded arms so that his nose rested on the fabric. He kept his eyes trained on the battle, "Everything's out of control, spiraling spiraling away. And we can't get a grasp on any of it. I don't like feeling like that, not being able to do anything. It's stupid." Again, silence. But Isi spoke up again in a quieter voice, "Is that how you feel when others get sick? I think that's how parents feel when their kids get sick. Right?"

"Of course I feel like that. I hate this as much as you do. But complaining isn't going to make it stop happening, Isi; it's only making us both stress even worse." Aphismet turned to face his brother, tilting his head and leveling a beseeching look at the graying-haired boy. "We have to stay positive and do what we CAN do: we have to watch them, and be ready to go get them if things suddenly change." The chef sighed and shrugged his coat closer to his neck: it was the coldest yet, tonight.

"Sorry, Aph," Isikoro muttered into his clothes, sinking further into his self-hug. "I'm just not patient, I guess...By the way, uh...Thanks for coming so quick after I called you a few days ago."

Before the chef could wave off the other's apology, Isi had latched onto a much more acceptable topic. "Don't mention it," he replied with a smile. "I'm just sorry you got my voicemail instead of my picking up. I wish I could have been here even sooner. I'm just glad you were safe." The man reached over and ruffled his brother's hair affectionately.

"You should've seen the expression on my face when I heard your end of the line drop into the voicebox," Isi said, squinting his eyes and face into a smile as he braced his neck against Aphismet's hair ruffle, "And hell, shut up, Aph, I'm gunna mention it. Thank you. I don't know how much more of Eiry's poetry Alex and I could've sat through. I've heard "The Tell-Tale Heart" so much from Eiry, I'm sure I know it by heart now."

Aphismet smirked softly. "Well, if that's all he was doing was recite poetry, it wouldn't have been so bad." The chef sighed. "I'm so scared that next time it's our HEADS he'd leave imbedded in the walls, cutting off our air... That boy of yours can be so dangerous. And scary. At least with Riv you know when he's going to attack you. With Eiry, it's like trying to figure out a time bomb."

Isi ran his fingers through his hair, trying to fix it back, nodding to everything Aphismet said, "Yeah, definitely. In a way I feel safer with Rivener more than Eiry. You should've seen the stunts he was pulling before he stuck me in the ceiling. He was chasing me around the house like a madman, crawling on the floor even! He looked like some kind of weird crab...And Aphi, the kitchen island has holes now."

THIS Aphismet hadn't noticed. He blinked at the younger man, face pale. "My kitchen island has HOLES? H-how?! What happened? Oh god, how am I going to explain all this to the insurance people... Do they even cover willfull ripping of walls and floorboards to remove stuck family members?" Now it was Aphi's turn to run a hand through his hair, biting his lip with nerves.

"I don't know? That's adult stuff, how should I know that!" Isi bleated helplessly. he glanced over to Aphi, watching him engage in his own show of nerves and worry. It made him sad to see him like that, "Well...I woke up from sleeping in because Eiry wouldn't stop haunting me in the night, and I was pinned to the kitchen island with all your cutlery and silverwear. That's why I had holes in my pajamas. But, I'll help pay for the repairs and everything! The money I've been saving up is just for that, Eiry and his wild endeavors."

Aphismet smiled over at Isi sympathetically. "Poor kid," he sighed. "Quite the crap you have to go through at your age, raising such a bundle of trouble. There'd be no need to pay to fix things, Isi: if the insurance can cover it, it'll be paid. I just hope I can explain it to them in a way that doesn't make them think I'm crazy." The chef sighed and glanced up at the roof again, blinking. "Hey look, they're just kind of... talking?"

"Well, it's better than just sitting around all day with my face plastered against textbooks, I assure you," Isi said, "And it's not easy for you either Aphi...You have to hold it all, me, Eiry, Rivener, yourself, the house, everything....Uh...What?" Isi looked up, squinting his eyes. It was hard to see in the sudden fallen darkness, but the two glowing colors of Rivener and Eiry were still. He could hardly believe his eyes, though. Earlier that day, Isi was thinking in despair about how they would forever have a raevan rave party on top of their roof, but now his fears were wiped clean from his memory. Isi waited, not trusting the apparent slow in the lights, and he squinted his eyes, trying to see the figures. Perhaps, one of them finally caught the other. But at that thought, Isi's mind quickly devolved into paranoid delusions. What if one of them knocked the other unconscious? What if the other was killed?! "Oh god, do you think one...?!"

Aphismet tried not to panic. He'd taken his eyes off the two of them for too long, he didn't know what had happened! His voice was calm enough, but one look at the chef's wide-open eyes would reveal his panic. "I d-... Let's not assume anything, Isi. They could just be- Oh, thank god, they're both moving." Although it was only for Eiry to swipe punched at the Scorpion, but still.

Isi didn't know how he was supposed to feel at this moment. His muscles were twitching, telling him to jump and run as fast as he could to the house, but the better portion of his mind told him wait. He glanced at Aphi, easily seeing the worry in his eyes and he bit his lip. "They've slowed down," he said, glancing back as the two lights moved apart. "...Do you think they're tired? ....God damn it's so dark out! And ball-freezing too."

The chef opened his mouth but couldn't really think of what to answer. He shrugged his shoulders, keeping both eyes fixed on the two above. Rivener and Eiry had parted after a few rounds of hits, and now they looked like they were- yelling at one another? "I-I... Don't know? I can only hope so!..."

"They better be, after three days!" Isi exclaimed, wrapping his arms around him again in a bitter effort to ward off the cold through his jacket they stole from the back of Aphi's car. "...If not, I'll go up there personally and knock 'em both out with your frying pan," he grumbled, "....Riv and I were supposed to have a scary movie night tonight."

The chef chuckled. It always made him happy to hear of how Isi and Riv were movie-buddies now. After that incident that seemed so long ago... "To be honest, bro, I don't know if a frying pan would hurt them. And they don't work like we do, who knows how long it takes before Sigels get tired- Oh my god!" The white-haired Delaran actually shot to his feet in surprise when the two Raevans suddenly HUGGED in the sky above the roof.

Isi struggled to move himself up onto his legs, wildly swinging his arms for balance as he straightened up and strained to see what Aphismet saw. "What?! What?" he asked, not really believing what Aphismet was saying, "What happened?!"

"They're HUGGING!" Aphismet nearly screamed, grinning dumbly, beside himself with relief and happiness. "Isi, they're HUGGING!" The chef laughed hysterically and turned to grab his brother's shoulders, dragging him into a hug of their own while both sets of eyes kept trained up on the two Raevans.

Isi could hardly believe what his brother was saying. He hoped he didn't miss the roll of a half formed body off the roof, but it was to his relief and joy that he saw the two figures just floating at the pinnacle of the roof instead. In fact, as he watched, they grew closer and closer until they were....

Hugging?

Sure enough, the two glowing figures were pressed to one another in an embrace, and, as it seemed, things were better. Eiry had none of that crazy smile plastered to his face, and Rivener's wings were no longer pinned high up in threatening curls. From what Isi could tell, things were closer to normal than they have been for nigh on a week! He blinked wildly, was caught up in a hug, and before he knew it he was wrapped up tight and his ears were ringing from Aphi's exhaltations of joy. "What? They're....Really? Oh my god, that's great! Are you sure? That must mean they're okay now!! Aphi, we have to go to them!"

For once, Aphismet agreed with his brother's wish to run into the house. Or at least towards the house. "Of course we do! Come on!" Lacing his arm under Isi's shoulder to lend the boy speed, Aphismet jogged towards the house, screaming up for the two Raevans. "RIVENER! EIRY! DOWN HERE!" The chef could almost cry from relief. They'd be okay!

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Freak

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For being the 15 year old boy that he was and taking on the responsibilities usually reserved for adults, Isi was a pretty patient guy. But when he woke up the following morning, confronted again by the wild mutterings of his ward, he was instantaneously displeased and more than ready to take a frying pan to Eiry's skull, if he had the chance, the sigel being see-through and all. He first came upon Eiry sinking back again into the pits of madness when he woke up the day following the end of the three day long battle between brothers, cranking up the heater to warm up the frigid air of the Delaran house. Eiry, possessed again by his Cheshire smile, was crawling along the floor, sometimes falling into the floorboards and laughing as he pulled himself out. Disturbed and holding his stomach as a new feeling of despair and frustration bloated from within, Isi immediately hobbled out of the way, doing his best to evade the minty raevan's activities.

"You've got to be kidding me," Isi said then and for the better part of the day. He stood helplessly by, watching as Eiry's mischievous activities escalated to greater and greater heights, his body once again taking on the movement of lump noodles and stale pretzels. The frei first searched all around the house, looking for something and promptly throwing everything off their shelves and onto the floors, rearranging furniture with the absent gesture of his hand and leaving it in puzzling formations. The tumid growth of his powers was almost appalling the way that he could move objects so easily. Isi observed the amplified effects with knotted stomach and sweaty brow, thinking only of the time in the future when Eiry wouldn't have to be terribly ill and sick to perform these kinds of misdeeds and magic.

Wary of the orange glow around the house, Isi traveled around, trying to clean things back up after Eiry's destructive pathway before Aphismet came home, but it was as the day increased that he began to fear again for his health. Eiry was roaming the house, suddenly aware of the surroundings once more, as he constructed little ways and methods, tinkering toys and traps, that just make clicking sounds that mimicked the beat of Isi's heart. He looked around, finding all these little things, as he did his best to dodge his raevan, finding himself increasingly disturbed by the insane melody of ticks and tacks and tangs all around the house. Drips of water from the faucets, clicks of metal...It was all very weird and supernatural to Isi and he felt his sense of safety slowly disappearing.

When the evening rolled around, Eiry was strolling around, reading aloud passages from his favorite haunting stories, choosing to read them in a haphazard halting fashion, his chin tucked into the warm of his jacket, as he ripped pages from his book and ate them, underlit by the orange glow of his rune. Once, he stopped, cocking his head to the side, and he laughed aloud, completely amused by something nobody else could hear.

"ISIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII. TICK TOCK, TICK TOCK BOY, YOUR WATCH only has so many dials, so many numbers. And the stars, the STARS ISI ARE ALL RED TONIGHT. Did you see? Did you taste them? I DID. And I have plenty of teeth for everyone tonight! I have your molars, Isi! NEVERMORE WILL YOU need to chew for I'LL CHEW YOU UP INSTEAD!

Isi hid in the corners of the house, swinging himself great steps to avoid his raevan, stepping through drifts of torn up papers and navigating around a labyrinth of misplaced furniture. It grew harder and harder to avoid him, and just when Isi thought he was going to get captured again and pulled into the wall, this time unable to call for help, the telephone rang. For a moment, Eiry sang off key to the ring, trapezing through the hallway, until it finally clicked into the message machine. The voice of the good Doctor Kyoupi filled the stale silence of the house and Isi felt his heart fly.

There was hope. A cure! Finally! Isi could almost cry for joy and he bit his lip through a warmth that nearly leaked out of his eyes in the form of tears.

Now it was time to call Alex.

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Epilogue

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An end to the spell of horror at the Delaran household had finally come to an end.

Isi sat in the couch, his legs stretched out onto the coffee table, peeking out from underneath layers of blankets. He was resting his legs, finally able to let them lay without worry of having to jump into action or hobble out of harm's way. There was no electronics on, just the fireplace that crackled happily in its wall. He found himself staring into the flames, imagining them as the madness that, until not too long ago, consumed his raevan. He glanced down into his lap where Eiry's head rested against a pillow. He was folded up the length of the couch beside him, quite limp and quite incoherent. It wasn't too long ago that Alex and Zul left their company, leaving them to the quiet contentment and healing of the fireplace warmth.

Isi let his hand rest against the Sigel's hair, smiling softly at the pale tusseled locks and knotted matt of hair. He ran his fingers through, trying gently to undo the rat's nests that warped his hair, but to no use. That would require a brush. Later, Isi told himself, lifting his other hand to his mouth, carrying a warm mug of coco to his lips. He drank long and put it back to the side, struggling to get his fingers free of Eiry's hair.

The raevan was breathing softly, his mouth slightly agape and his mottled skin flickering in the shadows cast by the light of the fireplace. It looked like things were beginning to heal. Already, the orange in Eiry's hair was beginning to fall out and melt away, leaving only mint, and his rune, although faint and flickering, but slowly gaining strength, was returning to its original ghostly hew of fresh lamb's ear. Every so often, Isi could see his fingers twitch, and the ghostly glow of little orbs would appear for a moment around his wrist, flutter and then fade away. His magic was dimming again to it's original level.

Eiry drew a deep breath then and Isi knew that he was crawling very slowly to coherency's reach. He smiled, moving his own bangs of pepper and earth aside as he looked down at Eiry's eyes, expecting to see them open at any moment.

A moan. A shift. A stretch of the ribbon and a toss of the head, and finally, Eiry's eyes opened. They were strawberry red again, clear and lonely without their friend, madness. For a few moments, he struggled on focusing, rolling his eyes around to scan the ceiling, and then Eiry moved his clearing gaze to Isi.

"...Isi...?"

"Welcome back, kiddo."

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A Gift on the Doorstep

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Sometime around noon you hear a knock on the door. Going to answer it you find a Delivery Person holding a brightly colored package. They hand you a clip-board asking for your signature before handing it over.



A sticker on the present box reads in bright, bold red letters Do Not Open Until Christmas!. Attached is a tag with Eirdirsceol's name on it, on the other side you see a small message.



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Change

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"Eirdirsceol, we need to talk."

Eiry glanced up from the floor where he was cleaning up dribbled messes of dirt, roots, and paper. A dust tray was in one of his hands and a small broom in the other, while near his coiled ribbon was floor cleaner, a plastic bag, and paper towels. He made a miserable face at Isi, who was standing over him, leaning haggardly on his crutches with a miserable face of his own.

"Am I cleaning this up wrong? asked Eiry, immediately trying to figure out the reason behind Isi's lilted brows. Guilt, which had already taken a seemingly permanent residence in his newly formed stomach, swelled up, pushing painfully against the ribs in his chest, "Forgive me, Isikoro, for this dreadful mess of rot and earth! I didn't know what I was thinking...Thoughts, like cockroaches, scattered wither they could, beyond my reach. No inkling of intention there was on my part to eat up your garden whilst the virus claimed my right thinking and senses."

Isi held up a hand, trying his best to stop his raevan from an impromptu monologue. There were a lot of those lately, ever since Eiry recovered from the virus and discovered the havoc he had wrecked on the Delaran household. The ghostly sigel spent every waking moment reorganizing furniture that had been left up in the precarious complex designs throughout the home, using his newly gained power of telekinesis to move things back to where they used to be. It took a lot out of him and Isi often found him panting against the floor or against a wall after moving a single piece of furniture. Slow going, but Eiry was resolute. After a room was moved back more or less to its original state, Eiry cleaned up the floor where he had retched up globs of dirt and roots, along with shreds of books and paper. He had already done with the hallway and kitchen, and was now finishing up the dining room.

"Quite frankly, Eiry, I don't care about the state of my garden, whatever it is," Isi said. Truth be told, Isi's stomach sank a bit at the thought of accounting the damage done to his precious vegetable garden. He continued, "And no, you're doing quite fine cleaning up, it's very responsible of you. But that's not what I'm here for."

"Did something escape me?"

"No. Eiry-"

"Whatever it be, I promise, hearttrue, I'll make it right."

"Eiry, you haven't done anything wrong," Isi paused, "Besides what's already been done. But anyways. I just want to tell you that-"

"I know."

Eiry interrupted yet again, pulling up the shredded cover of his favorite book, Edgar Allen Poe's Complete Collection of Poetry and Tales. He held it up for Isi to see the frayed stubs and torn paper spine, his eyes growing misty as he painfully lamented, "The literary genius and beauty of Poe, my favorite, as well as all my other books, my most prized tomes, the closest to mine heart, all gutted clean! Empty covers, all, empty shells, with only broken backs to bear!" Eiry finished with a devastated tear, and a heavy shaking breath.

"Oh, Eiry," Isi sighed, running a hand through his hair, "I know about that, I know."

"My most favorite...The treasure I held above all. My friends torn asunder," Eiry wibbled, his voice quavering even more. He gazed despairingly at the ruined book in his hands.

Isi frowned, the bandages on his face from Eiry's attempt to pull out his eye, stretched, and he scratched daintily at his chin where a bruise swelled to match the discolored lump on his forehead. His face was a catalog of horrors and a road map of dark bruises traversed his body underneath his clothes, memories of being dragged around and through the house. Isi spoke little of it all, though, and urged his wounds away with hopeful thoughts. He hated being more limited than he already was.

"Eiry, I just..." Isi physically restrained himself from using his default harsh and blunt language, "Just listen. I didn't come to talk to you about any of that. I came to talk about our family."

Eiry folded the remains of Poe into his arms and watched Isi from where he drifted upon the floor among the various cleaning supplies. His red eyes were wide and baleful.

Isi gulped. He didn't know how Eiry was going to take what he was aout to say. Out of all of them, the Delaran family as it was now, Eiry was the only one not immediately gaining anything. Rivener got Zul, Aphi and Isi got Alex, but there was no one for Eiry. Not immediately, at any rate. Isi hoped that Eiry wouldn't pick up quickly on the math.

"Any day now, we're going to be getting new members to our family," Isi began.

"More pets?" Eiry asked.

"No," Isi fidgeted and squeezed the handles of his crutches. "Eiry, I mean people. As in...Alex and Zul. They're coming to live with us now. They're going to be a part of our family."

Eiry's gaze wobbled in between hurt and disbelief. The information was so stark, so sudden. It couldn't be real. But the more Eiry stared at Isi and studied the look on his face, he knew it to be truth. The ghostly sigel furrowed his brows at Isi.

"Zul is not my brother," he said bluntly. He watched as Isi sighed and looked around helplessly. A new confused feeling, a flustered feeling, welled up in Eiry's chest. "Am I being punished?"

Isi, struck by the question, blurted, a little bit more angrily than he should have, "No! Eiry, don't be stupid. You like Alex, she's very nice to you! And I know you don't know Zul, but that's precisely the point. You don't KNOW him. You have to give him a chance, Eiry. You don't have a choice. You have to give them both a chance, whether you like it or not."

Eiry tensed up his body with an inhaled breath. He did the math. He did the math quickly, far too quickly than Isi would've liked.
"I promised Rivener time to Zul. If, with every passing sun there be, Zul is here, then there will be no time for Eiry and his brother. I promised them." Eiry paused for a moment longer, moving his gaze to stare at the couch where he and Rivener usually sat together, immediately envisioning Rivener in the couch with Zul in his place. A heavy bout of sorrow laid its bulky weight on top of his already bloated pants of guilt. "Same for Aphi and Alex. I promised sweet-nothings for those with their Lenores. Isi..." Eiry looked at him, his gaze almost blaming him, "What...will I do?"

Isi stared at his raevan. He feared that this would happen, but he knew very well that it would come to pass. He gave an agitated sigh, looked around the corners of the room for an answer, before he laid his eyes back on Eiry. "Eiry, you're going to give this time. You're going to give them chances. And you're going to deal with it. Things change. Sometimes, they don't always change in our favor. Sometimes they do and we just can't see it. But, I promise you this, like I've promised you before, things will always change, and whether you can see it or not, change is usually for the better."

Eiry dropped his head, his ethereal wings falling against his back. An angry frown strained its way onto his cheeks and he quietly swallowed the hard lesson and too-large chunks of advice. He wanted to scream. He wanted to let out all his frustration in one single belt of noise, but he knew he would be reprimanded. That was childish, Eiry concluded. What was it going to do for him? Besides the relief of momentary release, of course. Nothing. It would do him no good at all. The ghostly sigel laid down his torn book.

"Zul needs somewhere to sleep," Eiry said at length, his words bitter and hurt, "...Bequeath him my room. No longer do I wish to be next to Rivener anymore. Zul has that place now."

"Where will you sleep?" Isi asked, raising his brow at his sigel's odd behavior and startling request to be away from Rivener. "Where will you put your things?"

"The attic," Eiry muttered, leaning down to scrub furiously at the floor panels. He had to remove the stain, that ugly blotch of dark and mess and earth. "It suits me better. Suits them better. And I can be far away from their sweet nothings."

Isi stared at Eiry, quietly watching him madly scrub at the floor, as if he were trying to scrub away the feelings he caged within himself.

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Crash

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Chugging along on a dirt road, somewhere between Gambino and Durem North, Isi faced the wind on his motorbike. He spat a lock of hair that had flipped into his mouth from the wind, and tried his best to keep his eye on the road. It was a dark day, but it wasn’t too far from Isi’s expectations. After all, it was the beginning of winter and a grey sky meant nothing but good rain for his garden. Isi was alright with that.

He was just coming back from a few hours work at the lab. He had spent most of the day cleaning up and moving around, doing the little things he was good at doing at, and doing what he could to help Alex keep the records clean and correctly filed. There were a few raevans wandering around the building, some newer than others, some Isi didn’t even know the names of, and some he was quite familiar with, and Isi did his best to stay out of their way. After all, his time at the Lab was work, not time to be spent socializing. He had gotten a good amount of things done, enough to satisfy his guilt from neglecting the lab lately, and then he decided to call it a day. It just so happened to be that it was rather late when he started his way back home. Isi hoped to get home quick before Aphismet, so he pressed the gas pedal a bit harder, and zoomed on.

Just then, his bike bounced up from a pot hole.

Isi gasped, struggling to hold onto the rearing head of the bike, and before he knew it, he found himself swerving out of control. His tail flew out on the loose gravel, and within a blink of an eye, Isi found himself flown off his bike and into the ditch, his vespa jumping in just beside him and just barely missing the boy’s body. Isi scrambled away from the heavy bike, his head reeling from the small crash. He coughed out some dust and dirt from his mouth, and checked himself over. He wasn’t hurt, just bruised perhaps, but he was okay. After he completed his self-diagnosis, Isi glanced at his bike. It didn’t look good. His front tire had popped from the pot-hole.

”s**t,” Isi said aloud to himself, his pleasant mood instantly disintegrating into irritation and anger, ”How the hell am I supposed to get home now?” He looked to his cell phone and sighed. It was at one bar left of energy. He had to call quick and he had to call now. He flipped it open and dialed, the flashing low battery threatening him.

Ring…Ring…Ring…Click! ”Eiry?”


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