I should have known escape wouldn’t be easy if you were there, guarding the gate.

 
Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Atheria 3rd Generation
Characters: Timaeus Brakstan
Race: Halfling – Angel / Human
Age: 46, physically about 27
Current residence: Atheria City, Eresiel
Final Word Count: 757 words
 

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For the most part, I feel like I do my part to help out our community. When I was younger, this doing-my-part thing consisted mainly of putting together three-dimensional models of structures made for parkour. Eventually, I realized that while there were a few of us that made use of them—mainly in the virtual reality system—it wasn’t really all that useful as a skill and it did make me feel as though I didn’t do enough to help around.

Now, mind you, I still do these designs, I like it and it is what I do during quieter moments of our lives. I pull up the drawing board and I just get lost in the moment. Usually, I’m immersed in a three-dimensional display setup, and it just helps me visualize things easier. Trying to just draw these on paper makes it really hard to figure out the smaller details and the safer side of things.

I think I was late in my twenties when I did realize that while I was doing my part in a way, I wasn’t really contributing. I’m aware, though, that if I were to mention these passing thoughts, certain people would likely roll their eyes at me. We’re not a huge community, our numbers are good but not overwhelming and I know that a good few from the older two generations don’t work. Some do, some don’t, and I know that some in our generation don’t work either.

One way or another, things work out well the way they are, but I didn’t like feeling as though I wasn’t doing at least something to help, so I went through the system, saw what jobs there were that I could try to learn and there it was.

Through one of the doors, there’s the whole livestock thing happening. All the animals that are raised as livestock are free to roam, they don’t live in cages, they’re not forced into terrible living conditions. They are kept in enclosures, but these enclosures are so large that they are free-range. Sure, at times, we do have to corral them back towards the buildings because the weather does what it does best when it is feeling foul but in the years that I’ve helped there, it’s been such a rare occasion that I’ve had to help with that all of four times.

What’s more difficult is when it’s time for us to gather the animals that are mature enough to be taken to slaughter. Now, considering the size of our community, there aren’t hundreds of animals being brought in for butchering every day, I honestly think I’ve only ever seen one of the bigger animals being brought in every few days, maybe once a week. Considering there’s also fish and wild game that the hunters bring in and everything else, I think things aren’t so bad.

Now and again, though, sure, we’ll need to keep the animals in—some, at least—either due to health issues or something else and that, well the last time that happened it was something close to a rodeo. The faintly amusing part is that it wasn’t even any of the cows or bulls that caused issues, it was one of the horses because yeah, we raise some too.

It was a colt, full of energy, just wanting to be outside with everyone else but he’d recently gone through a vet visit and due to certain health issues, he was on a restricted diet for about a week, which meant we had to keep him inside—where he had plenty of room to roam—so he wouldn’t graze outside with the others.

I’ve lost count of how often he tried to slip out and sneak past us. Every time I would catch him trying to unlatch the door, it was as though he gave me this exasperated look and I want to believe that he was realizing that escape, while I was there, was a moot point. He just tried so often, I have no words for it. The only time he stopped trying was when his mother was inside with him and, thankfully, by the time evening rolled around, she’d be coming back towards the stables all by herself, just waiting patiently to be let in, as though she was aware that it was the only thing keeping her colt from trying to escape.

Once the week was over, it took no time for the little brat to trot right off into the distance once we allowed him outside.

Maybe next time you’ll learn to knock on the door while I’m in the middle of a sensitive ritual.

 
Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Atheria 3rd Generation
Characters: Timaeus Brakstan
Race: Halfling – Angel / Human
Age: 44, physically about 27
Final Word Count: 712 words
 

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The look she gives me as we both finish stretching out to start in on our day is priceless. Her eyes are wide, a little confused and I just keep on grinning at her. The more she tries to remember the particular day during which she’d fed me that line, the more I know she’ll keep on digging until she remembers just when it happened and, well, it could take a while. I mean, it was thirty years ago.

I let myself have another stretch, my grin growing as she frowns at me and I shrug. “You totally did.”

“I did not.” She huffs and I shrug as I step away and towards the structure that awaits us. There are no nets on the structure; there never are when we’re the ones out here. I know others come and we set the nets back in when we leave but when it’s just the two of us, we know this place by heart and we don’t feel the need for the nets.

Jas follows me as I move closer to the structure and look up a moment. It’s been a while since we’ve last been here and I always feel the presence of butterflies trying to settle in when we first get going.

“When?”

I can’t help the laugh as I just barely turn my head to look at her. She’s still giving me the raised eyebrow look and it makes me laugh a second time. “We were fourteen.”

Her jaw doesn’t quite drop but it’s not far. It’s clear by her reaction that she probably hadn’t expected it to have been quite that long ago. I mean, it’s not like I’ve barged into her home since we both left our parents’ house, so it shouldn’t surprise her half as much as it does that it goes back that far.

“I swear, Jas. I did knock on your door frame but you had music playing and when you saw me, you threw your bottle of polish remover at me! Thankfully, it was capped and secure.” I grin and shrug as her eyes go up a size and I think she’s starting to remember the day, though she’d probably try to deny doing that. “You told me that next time, I’d better learn to knock on the door while you were in the middle of a sensitive ritual.”

Her face goes pink and I know she finally remembers the situation in question as she groans out a frustrated noise. I can’t help but keep going on, though, because this is hilarious and all of that because I said that her new manicure—not a common occurrence for her due to the parkour thing—looked nice. “You were painting your toenails, Jas. Your toenails, how does that make it a sensitive ritual?”

As someone who has never worn nail polish (well, okay, that’s a little white lie), I can’t imagine that painting my toenails might be a sensitive ritual I mean, I know that the stuff has to dry and otherwise, it just goes everywhere but that still doesn’t make it a sensitive ritual.

With an amused and slightly disgruntled punch to the shoulder, Jas sticks out her tongue and easily moves up onto the structure. I watch her only for a few moments before I move to follow her. That particular memory is just one of many and not all of them are happy memories.

I know all too well that once I started dating Caspian, I sort of left my twin behind; I tended to ‘forget’ I’d made plans with her in favour of spending time with him. It took a little while for that to settle but eventually, I’d found a rightful balance of boyfriend and twin and I think all of us were pretty happy about everything.

Nowadays, well, we have our outings. We make plans and I make sure to write down them on the wall calendar so I don’t forget them because I guess I am a little forgetful. Jas knows that as well and she at least gives me small breaks every so often, she gives me exasperated looks that are as amused as they are frustrated with me and she reminds me. It’s all we can do.

They always somehow manage to win. It’s so frustrating.

 
Timeline/World: Atheria – 3rd Generation
Characters: Timaeus Brakstan
Race: Halfling – Angel / Human
Age: 43, physically about 27
Final Word Count: 633 words
 

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Quick note to anyone out there who might be listening, don’t play tag with your imaginary friends, they always win.

Onto the story, yeah?

When I was really young, before I discovered just how much I loved parkour, I used to have three imaginary friends. It’s been so long, though, that I can’t even remember their names; though to be perfectly honest, I wonder if they had names. I admit that I’m the kind of guy who, if presented with a pet dog or cat (or anything else), I’ll end up naming that pet ‘dog’ or ‘cat’ until someone else comes along and names the bugger in my stead. So it’s highly possible that these three imaginary friends didn’t have names.

Why three? Because three was a good number, plus me, to play tag and I played tag often. At least, as far as my memory serves, I played tag often.

That being said, I never won a single game. Now, you’d think that being the one who had created these friends, I’d let myself win now and again but I don’t think I really understand that I was at their source. I was young, what young child knows that they created their imaginary friends? In some cases, these friends are as real as you and me, at times an entity, and at times they’re just a figment of the imagination.

I admit that I’ve watched a lot of videos and read a lot of what I could find on the subject, I’m not sure why. I always ended up with scrapes and bruises when I played with these friends of mine and now you have to ask yourself, did I make myself stumble when I was ‘pushed’ by one of these friends or was there really an energy of sorts at work here? I think that’s why I read up on it so much.

Not when I was younger, though, no. It’s recent that I’ve developed this need to know more about this habit of some children have to create extra friends. Maybe three or four years ago, really. I was reading a book in which there was mention of such a friend and, I’m not sure why, but it struck a chord in me and I remembered all these games of tags, all of the time I lost to these friends, all of the times I stumbled or tripped or came home with a new bleeding scratch or cut of sorts.

I suppose that in a way, it doesn’t really matter at this point. These friends are far behind me, I haven’t played tag in years and all in all I haven’t had any need for imaginary friends in as long as I can now recall. I still was curious to understand just where they might come from, what makes them crop up, what is real and what isn’t to these kids who have friends like these.

There’s nothing new on the subject, of course not, but there still was a lot of research done on the subject before the world went kaput and it’s been enlightening to find all that information and read it. I’m pretty sure I might never have any need for all of said information but so what? I have forever ahead of me and learning new stuff is always interesting.

Parkour is still my number one fun-zone but that doesn’t stop me from having other interests and that’s just that. It’s something to turn to when I feel like I don’t know what to do with my days.

I don’t know about people who seem to refuse to let themselves learn anything else now that they’re adult. They must be so bored senseless.

We have forever. I want to spend forever learning everything I can.

We make those decisions.

Timeline/World: Atheria 3rd Generation
Characters: Timaeus Brakstan
Race: Halfling – Angel / Human
Age: 42, physically about 27
Final Word Count: 573 words

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I never imagined that renovation would be so… complicated. I mean, when we first moved out of our parents’ house and into our new home, it seemed simple. We’d already pored over so many ‘pages’ of the tablet to find the styles we wanted just exactly so. We’d visited one home after the other in the virtual reality showroom to find that one perfect style we wanted more than anything else. It had all come together so easily back then.

After more than two decades living in these decisions, however, we came to the conclusion that it was time for something new, something different. I don’t know if we’ll do this every twenty years or so but I suppose I don’t mind much, it’s an exercise in decision-making. Our tastes in what colours we like might not have changed much but our taste in where this and that colour goes as well as the way we like our furniture to look has changed over the years.

I tip my hat to those people who live in the same house for all of their lives without ever changing anything in them; I don’t think I could manage that. Even the last few years before we decided it was time for a change were partially spent with my looking at the rooms and going ‘I don’t know what I was thinking back then.’

Not that the rooms look bad, that’s not really it. The style just seems, I don’t know, childish. Everyone matures with time, the way we see things change, the way we watch the world. It seems more complicated now to make those decisions because we just know so much more. We just spent the past two weeks already redesigning everything and we’re constantly stalling to a stop because, once we’re done with a room, we move on to another one sure, but the following day we look back to what we’ve done and we realize that this would look better there and that would look better in this particular shade more than that one. I know we’ll manage and get done but while it is fun to try to make sure everything is perfect, it’s pretty exhausting at the same time.

I know that a few people would likely tell us that we’re overthinking the whole process. Considering that it’s so easy to change the colour of the walls and switch furniture around now, it shouldn’t involve so much planning but planning makes more sense. I don’t want us to change everything out and over one day, look it over the next day and realize that this isn’t what we wanted or how we wanted it to look. I know Caspian feels exactly the same way; it’s why we’re doing this that way.

The 3D projected plan we’re working on is almost complete. I think that if we can finish up the master bedroom and just give a quick glance over to the rest of the rooms, we’ll be able to send the plans in. I know we could do it all ourselves but it’s the fact that we’re more or less changing the shape of the whole house, changing the placement and size of the rooms. Otherwise, we would have gone about in the easy way but, in a way, this a bit like starting in a whole new house instead of fixing up an old one.

It’ll be perfect.