roam (jay)

"Have you told her yet?"

"No. I don't want to spoil this for her."

These were the last sentences I heard before going to bed on Thia's birthday. I didn't think much about them at the time. Not until we found out the situation the next day.

The base seemed such an empty place after most of the people in it had left. I mean, there were others here too. Cadets and recruits that came here to train and wanted to sign up. It suddenly struck me how big it must really be. It almost seemed too empty. Too much space for a building as important as this one

but it did give us plenty of time and space to enjoy our new toys. More often than not, when she wasn't in the lab, we'd find Thia lying on the floor in the lounge, the Marauders Map spread out in front of her, looking over every last detail. And though our wands were only plastic, we'd sometimes play fight with them in secret, when back at the apartment, pretending they were knives. But I didn't really spend a lot of time inside. There wasn't really that much for me to do there now that the guys were gone. Thia spent most of her time in the lab, working on the upgrade with Cat. Now that it had become so important, she spent more with that then she did with us, which left me, Noaba and Sam and all they seemed interested in was playing racing games on the Wii, which didn't seem near as much fun with just three of us.

So, most afternoons (I didn't want to completely abandon my friends as Thia had done. Not that I would ever blame her for that.) I'd run out of the base to the trees and hills. Sometimes I'd even take Buddy and we'd ride through the city to the mountains on the other side. The people always seemed happy to see that. I never learned how to ride. I didn't need to. Buddy had learnt for me. He did most of the work himself and when I was on his back, it was like the two of us shared one mind. I didn't even need a saddle or rains. Buddy always knew where I wanted to go and how and when. It must've looked as good as it felt. Glorious. I felt almost like a centaur with wings when riding Buddy. But I would only ride him a few days at a time. Most days, I ran through the trees and hills. The base seemed to be placed in the best position for me to explore.

With the city to the front and the forests to the back.

There was a small river running at the back of the base as well, narrow but deep, separating the hills from the rest of the land. I tried to avoid it as best I could. Not that I was afraid of water, which I'm not, it just made me feel a little uncomfortable is all. I'm ten years old now, and a prince. I can't afford to be afraid. Most of the time, I wasn't. Luckily, after a few days roaming backward and forward through the trees, I found the perfect place where I could just climb over the river and into the woods, without even getting a little bit wet.

Once I was there, I ran though the hills, climbing the tallest trees. It felt good to feel free. I would roam though the forests until I'd scoured every inch of it.

I wanted to know every branch, every rock, every tree. I wanted to keep going back there, until the maze of trees stopped being a maze. Once I went up to the edge of the highest hill and looked down to see the same river that flowed behind the base—wider than it was there—climbed the tallest tree there and watched the sunset. For a moment, I considered jumping off the tree into the river. It wasn't a steep drop, but I couldn't be sure how deep it was from up here, and water was water.

It was still hours until I got back to the base. I'd missed dinner and probably bed time too but I was neither tiered nor hungry.

"Where've you been?" Noaba asked, angrily, after she saw me walking back through the doors.

"Like you need to ask." Thia said with a little snigger. She waved goodnight to Noaba and we began walking back to the apartment together.

"You probably shouldn't stay out so late. It's not safe."

I looked at her and smiled. "Don't you worry about me. No one's ganna hurt me. Most don't even know the forest exists"

Thia was a few months younger than me, though she was strong, she did seem a bit more afraid about all this than me.

"Even so," She went on, as we began walking up the stairs. "we need to be careful. Once the sun goes down and it gets dark, who can say what's lurking out of sight and the trees won't make it much easier either."

"I know that forest by heart by now." It was only half a lie. I didn't know it that well just yet but I was planning to. "I don't need to see the trees to know where they. Even if someone did come after me, I know the best trees to climb and the best route to run away."

One day I won't need to run. I promised myself. One day I'll have a weapon, a great weapon. I'll make it myself if I have to and learn how to fight with it and I won't need to run from anything. I'll be able to fight them, like Thorin fought the Pale Orc.

Thia stopped in front of the door to our apartment and turned to look at me. "Doesn't this frighten you? Not even a little bit?"

I shook my head. "Why would it frighten me? Does it frighten you?"

She blinked at me and we stood there a moment, her beautiful green eyes staring into mine.

"Well, it's school tomorrow anyway, so we need to be up early." She said after a while.

I groaned and walked through the door. I hated school. I never much liked it, even before. Now with all that business with Mora and everything else…but what could I do? Whatever else I might be, I was still just a boy.