Vol.3 Ch.43 - All alone again

So that’s it, then… They really did up and leave me, and for what? BecauseI was a bit angry yesterday? Come on, didn’t that shorty prick say himselfthat we shouldn’t be divided? What’s the deal…As I was busy pondering these questions all to myself, I drank the coffee Ihad the innkeeper brew for me. He asked why I wasn’t rushing anywhere,since I had explained to him the situation I was dragged into, starting from theITA letter.“I mean I understand you’re upset,” he said as he wiped down the empty beermugs from last night, “but didn’t you say the ITA’s gonna be on your case ifyou don’t do this?”“I did,” I answered back, calmly sipping my Latte, “but what can I do aboutit? They were the ones who left me, so I can just tell the ITA what happenedtruthfully. I’m not the one at fault here.”“You sure?” he asked again, “Because if I looked at it from their perspective,they could just as easily lie about you to the ITA and say something like Hewent home on his own, thus putting the blame on you fully, no?”At first I didn’t think that to be probable at all. Why would they do that? Ithought, but things slowly started to make all too much sense and mysuspicion (as well as my anxiety) started building up immensely. I had noidea what these dumbasses are capable of, I know barely any usefulinformation on them, and vice versa. Cutting off one loose end doesn’tseem too dif icult on their part, and they have no obligation to be nice tome in any way…With that, I took a big swig of my Latte, finishing it off in record time, beforepaying and running over to the ITA.“Don’t rush your drink…” the innkeeper tried warning me, “Your stomachisn’t gonna accept that much coffee that quick, y’know?”***Running with all my might to the ITA, my breaths were getting more and moreragged by the second. I guess that coffee really did a number on me… Evenwith that, I powered through, before making it to a location I’ve never beento.“Huh…?” I stopped to reaffirm something, “Wasn’t the ITA Base supposed tobe this way? Or wait, was it on the next one… Damn, I don’t know thisplace! I should’ve consulted the innkeeper, or payed attention to the signsmore or something!”I ran around from block to block, from street to street, but I simply couldn’tfind it anywhere. It was as if nothing went my way ever since this damnedtrip started… Just then, I stopped to gather my thoughts.“Okay, so my options from here on out are: Go back home to talk it out withthe ITA and hope I wasn’t falsely accused of being a deserter” I said, “Or:Just go on my own and hope I can catch up to them in time.”I reasoned that traveling alone wouldn’t be that dif erent than travelingwith these fucks, and with how wacky and not-so-serious they all looked,I’m sure I could not only catch up to, but even surpass them with ease! Assuch, I went with the latter option of the two and boarded another transportwagon to Melgam.“Finally, some peace and quiet.” I thought as I noticed how empty the wagonwas, “I should make a point of traveling in the morning from now on…”Thinking back now, the last time I traveled alone on a transport wagonwas… When I was 5? I remember trying to run away from home even backthen, but my parent’s quickly found me and I got a stern talking to, not tomention I got the biggest grounding of my life. God, it takes me back…As I fondly remembered my parents and my time back in Whitehood, Iremembered another dear friend who hails from there.Speaking of, I wonder how Ed’s doing? He said he was going back to TrivisNumerica, but he never mentioned where to exactly… I guess he’s goingback to Whitehood, since he used to always complain about missing hisparents. Oh, but then again, he did say:“You explore your side of the world, and I’ll explore mine.”Does this mean he hasn’t given up on our grand adventure yet? On onehand I sure hope so, but on the other hand I wouldn’t want to see him haveto deal with any of this nonsense that I’m dealing with now… God, I wish Icould visit Trivis Numerica myself. I’d go with him, Nelly and Cecily, andmaybe some of the Generals, like Aaron. I remember he said he was fromSecundis, same as Ed and I.We could all go and visit my home village, I could introduce Cecily to myparents, and it’d be a blast! Then we’d go visit Anna and Arthur over atSpringwood. I bet Arthur’s gonna have a heart attack when he hears aboutNelly! (Actually, I don’t wanna jinx it…)Anna… Now that I remember, she did say she’s branching Arthur’s to aglobal scale, but I wonder how far she’s come with that project. TrivisNumerica is mostly done, but the world is vast… No, they’ll make it! Theyhave each other to rely on, unlike me…Jumping from one thought to the other, I slowly drifted off to sleep. Onsecond thought, it’s gotten way too quiet for my liking. I’ve made so manygood friends on this journey so far, and yet here I am, sitting in an emptytransport wagon. (I guess this is what Aaron would consider ‘poetic’?)***Wooohooo! Dream world! I realized where I was. I haven’t been here inages! Must be because of the coffee! That innkeeper gets full credit!I was quite ecstatic over the fact I was aware of being in a dream. Thereason for this is purely a hypothesis of mine, but when I was young I oncefigured out I could control my dreams if I realized I was dreaming. When Iasked the other kids about it, they just told me outright It’s impossible tocontrol your dreams, idiot! But I knew for a fact that it was, since I had theproof in my head!It’s occurred a couple more times since then, but the last time was definitelybefore I started this journey, so… 4 years at the very least. In any case, Itested my abilities out by thinking up the ability to soar through the sky. It wasextremely intuitive, and I felt as free as a bird as I flew through the clouds. Itwas like second nature, in a way, I wonder if flying would be this fun inreal life... After flying around for a good while, I perched myself back on theground before remembering the ones I held dearest to my heart…I wanna see Cecily and Nelly so bad! I thought.As quickly as I expressed my wishes, these two materialized right in front ofme. Cecily wore her leisure wear, and she held a sleeping Nelly in her armsas she quietly sang her the lullabies that she knew."Nelly, say hi to dada!" Cecily waved to me."Ah." Nelly tried her best to pronounce the word, but ultimately failed andwent back to sleep. Cute...I never did ask this, Cecily, but how do you know so many lullabies?She paused for a second before answering, “I used to sing these to Carterwhen he would have nightmares…” She then continued to sing to Nelly in acalm tone.I wonder if this is actually true, or just my dream telling me what I wannahear? Carter… I really do miss him, and I’m sure she misses him more.Why’d you have to leave us, man? But wait… If I can make even theimpossible happen, like flying around, then surely seeing him here andtalking to him like before is possible as well, no?Thinking up the phrase I wanna see Carter! I noticed something start tomaterialize. It… It was him… It’s really him!Carter! We’ve missed you so much! I said as I gave him a bear hug.“Yeah,” said Cecily, “how long has it been since we last saw you?”“…mare…” he murmured something.Did you say something? I asked, Speak up, bud!“NightmarenightmarenightmarenightmareNightmareNightmare…” he saidthe same word multiple times.Nightmare?“NightmareNightmareNIGHTMARENIGHTMARENIGHTMARENIGHTMARENIGHTMARE”NIGHTMARE!“Gaaaaaaaah!!!” I woke up, scaring the driver.“The hell’s your problem, dumbass! Want me to go off-road or something?!?”he scolded me.“Sorry, I had a pretty intense nightmare.” I tried explaining.“Nightmare? Seriously? Come on man, you’re not a kid anymore! Fuck’ssake…” he grumbled.But what the hell did that dream mean? I asked myself. Just then the driverabruptly stopped the wagon.“Uuh, everything alright?” I asked as I peeked my head out the front of thewagon, only to see the driver leaned forward with an arrow through his head.“What?!?” I screamed, quickly grabbing my weapon as I jumped out of thewagon.“Well well, looky here!” A voice emerged from the surrounding bushes,“Guess nothing's that easy in our line of work!”Suddenly, a ton of people started laughing at this person’s joke, leading tothem revealing themselves to me.“Who are you guys?!” I yelled back at them with my sword unsheathed.“Ooh, a fighter, how dangerous~!” he jeered, “But, since you asked so nicely,I’m gonna tell ya’! There are some who call us… bandits, and we’re gonnabe needing you to hand over all of your stuff, y’see.”“Over my dead body!” I lashed back at them, “I need this stuff!”“That can be arranged, friend~!” The bandit spoke up, provoking me further.Can’t fucking catch a break on this damned trip…