Borne of Fire

Chapter 34

On reaching McSweens place however, they found him locked away in his workshop, also known as his backroom, refusing to answer the door with anything more than one word answers that "Yes" he was alright, "No" he hadn't got the pulsar working and "No!" he didn't want anything to eat or drink. With nothing left to do but wait out the rest of the evening L'non and Ja'aris relaxed into what Braxter assumed was a meditative state while Randyl simply sat on the chair grinding his teeth, his eyes closed and eyes moving constantly behind closed lids. Braxter himself made use of the time by attempting to clear the place up a little. He failed. The more things he cleaned or tried to arrange in some kind of order, the more things he found which needed cleaning and tidying. The fact that he didn't know what half the things were didn't help and that coupled with the fact that most of the things he found seemed to be components of something larger just made the task impossible.

As the light began to fade he closed the shutters on the windows and laid down on the floor, said a quick prayer to any gods who might be listening that he might be granted a more restful sleep than the last one and closed his eyes.

The next day followed much the same pattern as the previous with one major difference - they walked the streets of Heldaro together, as one. The threat of what had begun in The Golden Unicorn turning into something more painful being all too probable for any of them to want to risk it. Even Ja'aris.

For all the good it had done however, they may as well have stayed at McSweens place and tried their best to relax while he locked himself away in his workshop doing whatever it took to make the alarming noises which intermittently sounded from within. He had been in there for the whole day previous and not been seen before they left again that morning.

Now they walked through the village with people either going out of their way to avoid them or simply ignoring them. At one point as the four of them walked the debris strewn streets, they came across a villager struggling to fix the front door to his home. He had hold of it with both hands but was having difficulty locating it on the hinges which had been damaged almost beyond hope of use.

L'non immediately stepped forward to help, taking hold of the door to allow the man a better grip on the hinge. Initially he had smiled and nodded his thanks gratefully but on recognising who the help was being provided by, he had second thoughts. He looked around warily at Randyl, Braxter and Ja'aris who stood at the end of what remained of the path leading up to his home and with one last glance at L'non turned and ran away down the road. For a few moments L'non had continued to hold the door in place in stunned silence but realising that the man had just fled from him as if from a monster he leaned the door gently against the wall of the house and walked back down the path to his friends.

From there things got even more awkward. They began to see fewer and fewer villagers going about their business of rebuilding and instead began to entertain the feeling of being watched. This was accompanied by the occasional sighting of someone peering around a corner at them and then ducking back out of sight, only to have disappeared entirely when they turned the corner themselves.

"Worst watch I ever saw," grumbled Ja'aris after the third time this had happened. Braxter was forced to agree.

"Ever get the feeling we're not wanted?" he asked shaking his head and waving to somebody who right then was watching them whilst hiding behind a wall. The sun had risen behind him and he unwittingly cast a long shadow before himself across the open street, clearly giving away the place he was hiding.

"They want nothing from us Randyl. There is nothing we can do here." L'non conceded defeat with a voice laden with disappointment almost to the point of cracking.