What force was it that held our ancestors from utilizing this miraculous power before? Fear of destroying the world? Encroaching upon the realm of the Gods? All of it fake. Prophecy is nothing more than another part of Botany, although more extraordinary in nature.

-Professor Shokolov’s Journal, 3rd Entry

Stupid meddling bastard!

AxEl kicked the pile of garbage next to him. It flew over the entire alley and left him more agitated than before. He was finally about to make a deal and for some reason Finn of all people had to come and ruin it.

He was at a loss selling this Firewire. Having gotten it on the trust of another dealer, AxEl had promised that his connections would make selling it easier. Yet now here he was, cursed by the God Mirage himself. AxEl banged his fists against the concrete walls, feeling his skin split and bleed.

He looked down at his fists and cursed. I can’t let mom see me like this, was the first thought that crossed his mind. He slumped against the wall and sat down, covering his knuckles with his shirt cloth.

You shouldn’t have done that, something said in his mind. He wondered which part it was. Perhaps a part that remembered that he was supposed to be a normal teenager? Attending classes, enjoying the company of his friends and focusing on grades?

Another look outside the alley let him see that more and more students were passing by. AxEl frantically covered his face with his hoodie, trying not to attract any more attention to himself.

He stuffed his hand in his pockets and tucked his dreads back into his hood. Wouldn’t do well to have them give him away. Perhaps he should have gotten them cut, but AxEl much preferred them this way.

AxEl wandered aimlessly, until a message rang at his phone. He caught the name at the top of his screen.

Nook.

He’d be expecting AxEl there at the park anytime now. AxEl swiped at the phone and enlarged the message.

Where are you? I stay around the park any longer and they’ll start thinking I’m you!

AxEl sent a short reply back.

As if they’d mistake your tiny frame for mine.

He set his phone back into his pocket and headed there, trying not to keep his friend waiting for too long. AxEl remembered that he’d parked his bicycle somewhere around the previous street, so he wandered back and unlocked it.

He rode it all the way to the park, where he found the short statured Nook sat. In some ways he was quite the opposite of AxEl. Short where he was tall, lean where AxEl was muscular and bald while AxEl liked keeping his hair long. He was swinging on the set, enjoying himself. AxEl walked over to him and caught his eye. Nook jumped off of swing, sliding across the ground as he did so.

“Do you think we should change where we meet up?” AxEl asked.

“What do you mean? This is the perfect place. We could reach anywhere in the town from here!”

“It just seems a bit…childish?” AxEl argued. Nook put a hand to his chin and thought for a moment. “That why you’re a dealer? Want to be a man?” Nook jibed.

“No, that’s ‘cause I’m a rebel.” Nook had brought up the drugs too suddenly, but before he could open his mouth to ask, Nook spoke again. “Maybe you’ve got a point. Eligible bachelors like ourselves ought to occupy our times in more refined places.”

“Like?”

“Like stalking that weird old man again.”

AxEl groaned. Not that again. “Nook, you realize we’ve memorized that man’s whole routine and yet haven’t found anything interesting about him?”

Nook held his hands up. “But tonight might be the night we do! Come on, AxEl. A foreigner with pale skin comes around, doesn’t talk much to the people and spends most of his time in his own house? There has to be something he’s hiding!”

“He’s hiding his name if that’s what you’re asking. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone who knows what it is.”

“And that’s another mystery you and I could figure out, if only someone had the patience to look for a lead.”

AxEl sighed. He padded his pockets, those still filled with some blunts of Firewire. Not as if I’m using my time for anything better.

“Why now all of a sudden, though? Did he do something?”

Nook’s eyes took on a gleam. “Came into the place I was working and bought some tools. Real interesting stuff, too.”

AxEl leaned in close. It was intriguing that he would do that. “You sure?”

“Is it enough to grab your attention?”

“Just tell me, Nook.”

“A saw, a hammer, pipes, nails and screws. He’s either renovating the place…”

“Or making space for something new!” AxEl finished. “Alright, you’ve got my interest,” he said and flashed Nook a grin. “When do we go?” he asked.

“Right about now,” Nook replied with a similarly enthusiastic look.

****

Nook’s bag rumbled with the various wrappers that were trapped within. “You really packed them in there, didn’t you?” AxEl asked.

“Might be a long stakeout. Don’t want to get bored, do we?” Nook responded. More wrinkling noises escaped the bag, which prompted a question from AxEl.

“Won’t that cause a lot of noise?”

Nook stopped in his tracks. “I….uh, didn’t think of that?” he replied with an innocuous smile. That would be a bridge to cross once they made it there. The leaves of the forest crunched under their feet. It was fall season in HuedoLupan, so the trees shed their coats to make room for a new pair.

The orange landscape provided a pleasant sight on their walk towards the old man’s house. From what AxEl and Nook knew of him, he was an irritable old man who barely left his own abode. Content to stay inside and carry out whatever experiments he had in mind. It got the mind churning on what he was doing there.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

He was pudgy and red headed, something that attracted attention to him no matter where he went in Barksight. The town had scarcely seen interesting foreigners, most of them being tourists who loved the sights of the town. The AnaHon mountain range attracted enough people that their town was a popular tourist spot.

They continued their journey to the outskirts of the town, where the old man lived. As they went on, the sun grew longer over the horizon, casting a red shade over the town. AxEl barely put a thought to the fact that his mother might scold him for staying out late again.

It was then that they happened upon a familiar small hill. “We’re here,” Nook stated. He put the bag down on the incline and lay down, hiding himself from the view of anyone on the other side of the bump of ground.

“Honestly, how do you afford all of that?” AxEl asked his friend.

“Me? Oh buddy, you’re eating just as much of this as I am. Now crouch down. You’re so tall he could probably see us from the other end of the road.”

AxEl made himself prone on the ground next to Nook. They shuffled a bit, moving around leaves and getting comfortable while they waited. And waited. And waited. After a while of just laying there with nothing but the sounds of birds and rodents to distract them, Nook pulled the binoculars away from himself.

“Your turn. I’m going to snack on some of our rations.” AxEl snorted and took the eyepiece from Nook. He put it against his temple and looked ahead onto the slowly darkening expanse.

Nook ate loudly, crunching down on sweet bars and other junk foods that he’d bought. He looked up at the dark sky and chomped on it before shoving the rest into his pocket for later.

“You ever wonder why bigger animals don’t come after us?” He asked AxEl.

“Probably because the stuff we eat can barely be classified as food.”

“I don’t know. I think I’d be quite delicious.”

“It’s good that you think that way, Nook. They’d probably go for you first, after all,” AxEl remarked.

“Hey! Why’s that?”

“Faster and stronger,” AxEl replied, pointing at himself.

“Smarter and harder to catch,” Nook said, mimicking AxEl’s movement.

“Yeah, but I’m mo-“ AxEl attention was diverted by the worm that he had just realized was on his finger. He jumped back and flicked it off his hand. “Gross.”

Nook chuckled. “Ah, don’t be a baby, it-“

“Wait, shut up.”

Nook quieted himself instantly and looked over to see what had caught AxEl’s attention. It was the old man, driving up the street in his car. He parked the vehicle near his garage door and then opened the door. Baggy eyes, old fashioned clothes and that striking red hair distinguished him from being anyone else. He was a wide old fellow after all.

The old man popped upon the trunk of his vehicle and seemed to drag a bag of…something out? From their position, all they heard was the clinking of metal and plastic.

“AxEl, what’s inside the bags?” Nook whispered as he shook AxEl.

“Can’t look inside the bags, so stop moving me!” AxEl whispered back. He held the bag in one hand, its open end drooping to one side. A bulb fell out of there and the old man cursed as it broke on the concrete.

He watched as the man pulled out what looked to be a novel microscope out of the back of the car and carrying it over to his house. He struggled with the keys, before finally unlocking the door and heading inside.

He’d left his car locked and when AxEl and Nook focused, they heard his door locking as well.

“Now isn’t that suspicious?” AxEl noted.

“Brings in a bunch of equipment and then just heads inside? Yeah, that is suspicious,” Nook replied. AxEl turned away from the sight and looked at his friend clearly.

“You said he might be making room for something? Microscope might mean he’s just researching something?”

“Or someone,” Nook replied. He’d always had a mind for the creative things in life, just didn’t know when to let it loose and when to keep it harnessed. AxEl tapped his fingers against his knee, thinking about their next move.

This deep into the night, they had a good chance of not being spotted. But if they were, they had no idea what the old man would do to them.

“The general store sells a microscope like that. I heard they had it ordered for someone, but I didn’t know the old man wanted it,” AxEl stated.

“How do you know that?” Nook asked. AxEl debated for a moment whether to tell him more about his dealing work, but decided to bite the bullet and go for it.

“I stay around there sometimes. Easy to find customers,” AxEl answered.

Nook immediately put his hands to his sides and looked away. “Yeah, I guess that would make sense why…”

An awkward silence shook the air and they turned their attention elsewhere. Down the road, the old man’s house had another light turn on. That caught their attention. “Want to get closer?” AxEl asked with a mischievous grin.

“Of course,” Nook replied, returning the expression. They left the bag on the hill top in fear of having it give away their position. They crouched low and walked slowly, taking a winding path to the house so as not to crunch on any loose branches or leaves. AxEl led in front while Nook followed.

When they finally reached the window, they looked through it to find that the old man was dragging the equipment down into his basement. He flung open the door with one hand, having a bluish light escape from the bottom.

AxEl caught the barest sight of the basement off of his glasses, but found nothing important. Nook shuffled a bit to get a better view and they kept watching. The old man closed the door behind him and walked down the steps.

AxEl and Nook nodded to each other, moving around the perimeter of the house until they came upon the basement window. From there, they tried looking down but found it covered up by curtains.

“Not getting in this way, it seems,” AxEl cursed.

“Maybe we can…” Nook said as he moved forward, His bent his shirt, compressing the pockets and leading to a loud crinkling sound from the wrapper. They heard footsteps coming up from the stairs and decided to run.

They took off from the place, keeping low but moving quick. They jumped over the hill and ended up on the other side, waiting in dead silence. Even breathing felt noisier than it should. AxEl and Nook both waited on the other side for a few moments, finally looking back to the house and not finding the old man.

“Okay, definitely something in there,” AxEl stated.

“You think we should camp out for a bit to see if he comes out?” Nook asked. Though AxEl didn’t want to push his luck, he felt an unnatural attraction to that place. He wanted to know what was happening down there.

Unfortunately, though he agreed, they didn’t see anything for the rest of the night. After sitting and eating a bunch of snacks, they were both tired. AxEl fished around for another energy but found nothing but empty wrappings in the bag. Nook looked at him sheepishly, chewing on the last bit that he had.

“Oh come on, how many of those did you have?” AxEl asked.

“Maybe a bit too many?” Nook answered with a sheepish smile. AxEl tossed the bag aside and laid back down on the ground. After a few restless minutes he sighed.

“He’s not coming out. I’m leaving,” AxEl stated. Nook nodded in response.

“Think we’ve discovered enough for today,” he replied. He grabbed the backpack off of the ground and slung it over his shoulders. A cool wind blew past the forest, chilling them both.

“And it’s getting much colder,” AxEl added. He zipped up his hoodie and began walking. It would be nice to get some rest in his bed for now. He could explain himself to his mother later.

They began stepping down onto the road when AxEl raised an eyebrow. “Nook, did we learn anything new? We just sat here and waited most of the time. Isn’t the old man always going in and out of his house?”

“But we’ve never seen him bring something new into the basement. And what kind of things did he bring?”

“Bulbs, microscopes. Think I saw a mixer in there, but can’t be sure….Oh!” AxEl finally had things snap in place.

“Magic Bullets,” Nook said.

“You really think he’s growing some plants down there? What would it even be? Firewire?” AxEl asked as they started moving down the sidewalk.

“Can’t be. The Burnbark trees only grow in hot weather. Maybe some Tonguewisp if he learned how to?” Nook offered.

“Ah…yeah, maybe,” AxEl quickly replied. Nook rested his hands on his head and walked in front.

“Really, AxEl, we learnt this stuff in the lessons. How do you not kno-“ he realized that he shouldn’t have finished that sentence. AxEl immediately picked up from there.

“Whatever. They’re also about things that don’t matter to us,” AxEl replied. It was true, neither of them would use a Magic Bullet in their life if their job didn’t involve it.

“Yeah, sure.”

AxEl was getting frustrated with the number of times Nook brought up the topic, but kept quiet. He had a reason to do so, and ultimately it came from a place of worry.

They kept walking until they reached the cusp of the town proper. It was understood that this was were Barksight really began, since its where the buildings and shops stopped. Wasn’t a very big town, all things given, but popular nonetheless. So it wouldn’t take long for him and Nook to reach their homes.

AxEl received a message and dreaded who it came from. Whether it was his mother or someone else, he wasn’t going to get out of it any prettier. He and Nook kept pace while he opened up his phone and read the message.

You have the money? Meet me by the alley near the Café.