4: “Home” Sweet Home

With the airborne heroes' attention now freed, they turn back to the ground… yet all that awaits is death.

Arcs were singed into the pavement, and inside the bends were splatters of blood. Large, bloody footprints and small piles of ash dot the landscape, along with one huge, and one enormous ashen lump from the giant and the vines, destroyed from the final barrage of the orange dragon.

Celerity kneels in the center of his stage of gore, curled over and clutching his head. The wind blows ash, rather than snow, across the frozen ground. Where once stood the school is now nothing more than a few blackened walls.

Torch and Lightbringer gently land next to him and softly embrace him.

"I-I… I couldn't… couldn't do anything!" Celerity wails, loud enough to be picked up by my drone.

After a few moments, the clouds break and the sun shines on the three remaining heroes. Everyone else who fought is gone — sent to the great beyond.

I tap my phone, ending the recording, and summon back my drone. In less than a minute, I hear a quiet whirring as the drone lands on the dark screen and shuts down.

A few minutes later, small fluttering whispers among the trees. I hold out my hand, letting the three tiny dragons land on my hand and return to their inert, plastic state. The scratches and missing chunks of wing slowly fill in as I look at them resting on my palm.

For the longest time, Struan quietly stands there.

"Why? Why did you have to do it?" Struan asks. "Why do you have to do any of it?"

I don't respond as I watch the ground, carefully stepping around rocks and pinecones and onto the sidewalk. With a sigh, I watch my breath drift up. I gaze after it towards the clear, cloudless sky.

The sun was rising on a brand new day — one that many now wouldn't get to experience.

Honestly though, why did I do it? Explosions and fire aren't usually my style.

We walk home in silence.

***** ***** *****

Remember when I said that Struan might be the top supervillain? Yeah… no. Just kidding! It's me!

…Or rather, it's both of us, but Struan is my somewhat unwilling assistant.

The crisp, winter air refreshes my lungs and clears my head, yet there is still no snow. I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket, which I take out with a mittened hand. Keeping my other hand in the warmth of my pocket, I bite the edge of my mitten and wiggle out my thumb and index finger to check the notification.

Huh. Looks like he made it out.

The principal sent out a school-wide email talking about the tragedy of today. In essence, class is canceled for the rest of the day, as is school for the foreseeable future. Really, it's a no-brainer.

Struan leans over to see, so I adjust my screen so he can read it easier and so I watch his reaction. He looks crestfallen. I get it. School was his only source of normalcy for a long while, and now it is closed.

That and, studying for no reason? Wasting your life like that? I sure would be upset too!

We continue walking in silence.

Our current home is a ways away, so I guess the earlier situation has been fully settled by now. After all, it has been a bit over an hour and a half since the explosions, dragons, and beanstalk wrapped up.

Normally, I would fly us to the house in combination with Struan's ability, but that seems like a bad idea today. Struan has been trying to avoid touching me, and I figure the walk would do us both some good.

After another half hour, Struan is looking a bit better, so I decide to break the silence.

"Hey Struan?" I ask.

"Yes?"

"Wanna enroll into a super academy?"

"Huh? Why? No?"

"When school starts back up, you won't have to retake your teesst! … And it seems like it could be fun," I say in a sing-song voice.

Struan just gives me a deadpan look, but I see the growing glimmer in his eyes as the idea of a super academy grows on him.

I give him the final push by saying, "You know, we could also have more stable housing there. I'm sure you would prefer that too."

"... Alright…" Struan slowly responds.

"Awww, look at that widdle smile! Hehehe! You can't hide it from me!" I giggle as Struan quickly covers his face with his scarf in embarrassment. "See? I know you so well!"

Pretty soon, we turn into the neighborhood and the house is in sight.

We walk up the driveway and climb the front steps. I grab the doorknob and stop.

"Struan!" I shout, my voice tinged with horror.

"What!?" He shouts back, even more horrified. I watch as a multitude of thoughts flash across his face, the first of which being — were we discovered!?

"The door!! It's unlocked!"

Struan's eyes narrow as he slowly turns to look at me.

"..." He just looks at me like I'm a complete idiot and groans. Recovering, he pushes me aside and flings open the door.

"It's always like that. Remember? You never bother to find the keys," Struan says, and aggressively gestures for me to go inside; so I do.

"Hehe, did you just roll your eyes at me? …And was that a huff…? Aww, did I make you a widdle mad?" I snicker as I step through the doorway. "Urgh!! This smell!"

"Well… you never bothered to clean up… and when I offered, you were all like 'nahhh, it's too much effort,'" Struan said, mimicking my voice by raising his pitch.

I snicker some more at his awful attempt. "Yeah, you're right. And hey, all the more reason to enroll in that super academy sooner!"

I step over the body sprawled across the hallway leading to the kitchen. Maybe I really should have cleaned up. The stench is awful and I'm starting to lose my appetite. But! I shall persevere!

"Didn't we just have breakfast, like, two hours ago?" Struan asks.

"Ah, but you don't understand! Food! Food! Food is essential! Food is a must! Food is what we all live for!" I say as I rummage around in the fridge.

"I kinda get the feeling that you live for chaos instead…" Struan quietly mumbles.

"What was that?" I ask.

"Nuttin,'" Struan says.

Despite his protests, Struan joins me at the fridge and yanks out a few ingredients. We have cleared out most of the food in here; so soon, it's probably gonna be time for us to move again.

As we aren't the ones buying the groceries ourselves — relying on whatever happens to be in our current home — we have been making a lot of mystery stir fry or chili in name only. It usually turns out surprisingly well and keeps our diet diverse. After all, variety is the spice of life!

After eating, we do the dishes together. While this house is STANK, we sure don't contribute to it directly. We wash our dishes, do our laundry, and clean up after ourselves… usually… just like normal folks.

Ready to move on to the next thing, I ask Struan if he took care of that task I asked him to do earlier, to which he nods in acknowledgement. Great.

I set up my phone as a camera while Struan pulls out our outfits. I double check that Struan has gotten everything for today's livestream, and of course, he did. He's such a good boy; I'm so glad I picked him.

"Hey, Ama?"

"Yeah?"

"Please tell me you don't have any other… activities… planned after this? I don't think I can take much more today."

"Just this one more," I say.

I understand where he is coming from… sorta. It's already been a busy day. He never really liked this sort of thing and has always been a bit squeamish, and, well… I realize this isn't exactly the most normal thing to do.

But still, setting an example is important, lest everyone else tries to do the same.