Act 8

Lily spend almost half of her vacation searching and locating the various symbols and letters of the Nature’s Purist but she managed to decipher the instructions and the items needed in the ritual, Xavier on the other hand had begun to read the books Lily brought him. These had been their routine on her vacation, she would sneak into the forest to the mansion to decode while Xavier read the books she put on the shelves. Over the course of three days, she found out that there were six items need for the ritual, a flower called the “The Onyx Blossom”, a stone with the symbol that represent the family, a the blood of the person being ritualized, a wooden pendant with a wish carved into it , minced leaves from the oldest tree in the forest, and blood of the person doing the ritual. On the 4th day of her research Lily finished decoding the instructions of the ritual and after a moment of silently celebrating her accomplishment, she called for Xavier from her room to tell him what she had found, after a few seconds later he crept between the floor boards and materialized soon after. “You called?” he said. Lily stood up and show him her notepad, “Look! I found the items need for the ritual and I also decoded the instructions so we could start afterwards.” she said excitedly. Xavier now holding the notepad, was stunned to see the word in front of him. “How could be decipher an entire language so fast?” he muttered. Lily smirked and put her hands on her waists “Not bad for a small-town librarian huh? and by the way you are going to help me find the find the items.” she said matter-of-factly. Xavier’s white eyes became wider than usually as he stood from shock, “Me? Outside? I thought you going to handle this endeavor yourself? he asked. “come on it will be fun beside there only 4 items to find because we already the blood of the ritualized and the practitioner and you need to get out of the mansion more. As she said this Xavier was gazing out the window recalling the times when he was a young boy playing with his friends, the good times he said to himself. His trance was broken with a snap of Lily’s finger. “Are you OK? Is there something wrong?” she asked with a look of concern. “Yes of course, why wouldn’t I be. So, what are we going to find first?” he said. Lily knew something was up but she chose not to dwell on it. the sooner they started the sooner they finished. “We’ll start in next week it’s the final day of my extended vacation. I could use some R&R.” she said while stretching. Xavier had a look of confusion, “R&R?” he questioned. Lily slaps her forehead, “That’s right you’re not from this generation. Its means Rest and Relaxation. Xavier took a moment to process it and simply nodded. “By the way, I’m going to leave my stuff here because my back is aching from all of that carrying.” she stammered. “Well, no one told you to bring it with you every time you went home.” Xavier said sarcastically. Lily was annoyed at this and rolled her eyes and said “At least there was an effort, your welcome by the way.” she scoffed. Xavier grinded and patted her head, “Come now, it was only a jest.” he stated. “Hmmf... anyways I’d better get going, it’s almost nightfall and I’m going to sleep early. See you Xavier! she said heading out. And from that moment, that simple conversation made Xavier realize what he acquired on that day, he had a friend.

Two days after began her work, Xavier did nothing but to stand by the window, watching for people wondering too close to the mansion and just doing his daily routine when he felt something he never felt before. He felt bored, he was used to being alone for all these years and still he pondered why did he felt so alone. He walked, glided, passed through walls while he was lost in thought until he arrived at the study room. he blankly glazed around the room, looking at the various cracks and rifts in the floors and walls until his eyes met the table where Lily worked. as he slid towards it, he had a thought about Lily would have been there if it weren’t for her work. “What am I thinking” he said to himself, he still doesn’t know what is happening to him at this point; the constant pondering, the sudden anxiousness for Lily’s return, the boredom. He left the room and went to wait in the shadows meanwhile in the library, Lily also was undergoing her version of boredom. There were few only a handful of people came to read and all of them were either not borrowing or already knew their way through the library. She slumped on her desk and fiddled with random objects. She didn’t know the reason of her sudden mood nor how she could make it go away so she just sat and relaxed thinking that she could have been helping Xavier right now. she did give it much attention and she thought it was impossible but she thought she had developed some kind of fondness for him, this made her blush and she suddenly remembered the days she was there. The day he saved her, when she returned to confront and thank him until the days they spend together reading and decoding together. She never thought this would happen but nevertheless both of them realized that they both have something special but intended on keeping it a secret from each other. The remaining days were carried out as normal, no disturbances, a few “Apology gifts” from Mat but still not eventful. Lily again woke up to the sound of her alarm again, she groggily grabbed her phone to see it wasn’t her normal alarm but it was the calendar reminder she set up on the last day she went to Xavier’s. The notification blared out “Adventure Time” and her sleepiness was replaced by a wave of excitement. She jumped out of her bed without even fixing it up and started to sprint to the kitchen to make her usual breakfast before she took a shower. Feeling refreshed, she put on her hiking gear and marched out of the house. She couldn’t think of anything that could possibly ruin her day until it was too late, as she was reviewing what they were going to do she accidentally bumped into somebody. She took a step back catching herself before she looked up and apologized to the man in front of her. Her embarrassed look changed into annoyance when she saw that it was Mat, she bumped into. She took another step back and crossed her arms “You again?!?!?! I already told you, no matter how many times you beg it’s not going to work” she hissed. “Come on, I bought you all of those stuff right, can’t you just forget about the past already.” he said.