Chapter 16: When the Bough Breaks

~ Jaden squinted around himself for another dead branch to use for kindling. Here under the trees twilight had fallen fast and it was quickly becoming impossible to define solid objects from the normal lurking shadows of a pine forest. Tucking his hatchet into his belt Jaden gathered up his last armful of wood and headed back toward the plain where the others waited. He stepped out of the trees' cover and slowed to a halt. Below him was their camp, Andrew already had a fire started and something was simmering for their supper. Takyle sat on her sleeping bag, prodding the flaming logs with a stick. The scene was downright cozy, an island of light, but that was not what had halted Jaden.

Above him stretched an endless expanse of stars, jewels shimmering in the chill night. Out across the plain the moon, barely a thumbnail crescent, was just beginning to rise from behind one of the darkened hills in the distance. In the North a tiny splash of pink, overlain by a faint, twisting ribbon of green painted the horizon. A shadow of the Aurora Borealis.

Jaden set down the branches he was carrying and sat down beside them. He lay back in the grass and reveled in the sky, drinking it in, pulling it towards him, allowing his soul to expand to meet it, crossing the void, filling the space, turning, floating, alive...

A faint wind whispered through the grass, caressing his face, causing a shiver to run up his arms. Above him the pine boughs rustled in agreement.

"This is not real," his mind told him. "I do not care," he told his mind.

Below him he heard Andrew call his name. Realized that he could not be seen hidden in the darkness as he was, and that he'd been gone far longer than it should take to gather a few more pieces of wood. The spell was broken. He stood up and took one last look around, and then, almost regretfully, continued on down the slope to his teammates.

"Soup's on, Jay, you might want to hang up your wet clothes to dry first though," Andrew counseled, while using a spoon to poke at his simmering pot of...stew? Takyle spoke up to contradict him.

"I took the liberty of doing that for you, Jaden," she said.

"Um, thanks." He sat down with a sigh on top of his sleeping bag and accepted the steaming aluminum bowl that Andrew passed to him. He stirred the suspect looking contents for a moment and took a somewhat hesitant bite.

"Hey Andy, this isn't nearly as bad as I expected it to be. Thanks!" Andrew gave him an exaggerated glare across the fire.

"You love my cooking you little squirt, and it's a hell of a lot better than anything you can do!" Jaden shrugged and took another bite. What the man said was true.

The meal was finished in what Jaden would classify as companionable silence. When he was done he pulled out his journal and leaned close to the fire for light. Takyle scooted over to sit next to Andrew and when Jaden next glanced up she was leaning into him, his arm around her shoulders, as they silently gazed into the fire. Jaden quickly looked down again. A small, but instantaneous knot had formed in his belly.

Takyle and Andrew had grown increasingly close over the past few months and Jaden found their newfound intimacy to be intimidating. He wouldn't have admitted it to anyone, but he was fairly sure that he was actually jealous. Afterall, Andrew was his best friend, why couldn't Takyle find somebody else? Somebody that Jaden didn't know... He wrote in his journal:

I know that Takyle has known him longer than I have, and thus has more claim on him than I do. That doesn't change the fact that I don't like it. ~