brendan scott ( earth elemental ) . (liveandlearn) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2012-07-19 19:51:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | #solo, 2009-09-13, brendan |
winds of change are set to blow.
Who: Brendan, Ronnie Ducaine (NPC), and some NPC home-owner.
Where: A random Scarlet Oak backyard.
When: Afternoon.
How they’d managed to get this far through the day with the soaring temperatures and the minimal shade, but Ronnie had made sure they had plenty of chilled water and regular breaks as well. Ronnie was experienced, he knew what it was like on these random days where the temperature sky-rocketed without warning, and he took care of his crew, small as it was today, just himself and the young man he had taken on relatively recently. It wasn’t a big job, so the self-employed landscaper wasn’t worried, and the pace was pretty lax. It wouldn’t do to work too hard and make themselves sick, he said more than once at the beginning of the day, and Brendan took that to heart. Plus, it was Sunday. Even so, he couldn’t bring himself to slack off or take it too easy. He was still new enough to this job that he felt he needed to make a good impression, and though Ronnie had never -- to date, at least -- seemed disappointed with his capabilities, that didn’t mean he couldn’t mess up.
Besides, throwing himself into his work kept him from thinking about the strange dream he’d had, that dark-haired girl with the bright blue eyes, the strange movements in shadow that formed into the shapes of men and women with too-sharp teeth, and swirls of flame and smoke. As dreams went it wasn’t the most unpleasant he’d had, but it had been far from comfortable, and he’d been glad to wake and get away from it if he was completely honest with himself. Distracting himself from the disquieting quality of it was something he welcomed, and he went about his work at his usual pace, relocating this, tending that, and generally just making himself useful as best as possible.
One of his recognised skills in the small team Ronnie had built up was the plants and flowers, the middle-aged man had said himself that Brendan had a natural gift for it, and the elemental had just smiled and thanked him, shrugging it off as one of those things that you just couldn’t explain. One of the other guys had asked him how he knew what to do, if his mother had taught him some tricks, but Brendan usually avoided the latter question as best as possible and responded to the former with some vague comment about instinct and intuition. It wasn’t a lie, not really, so he never felt too bad about offering it as an explanation, and the other guys accepted it easily enough.
Today though, something felt off, and for several hours Brendan thought perhaps he was coming down with something, or the heat was getting to him like Ronnie had warned it might. He took a break, drank another bottle of water, and went back to work, moving on to the plants with his employer taking care of the last of the shallow fencing the woman had wanted erected around her pond. Something about her dog getting too close to the water. Brendan couldn’t recall.
At first he didn’t realise anything was really wrong, at least not until he felt something, something he didn’t recognise, something inside himself almost, and then he saw the small spark of light where there really shouldn’t have been one. Right in front of his eyes, the flowers he had been working on neatening caught fire. The flames jumped to life beneath his hands and instinctively Brendan jumped back and away with a reflexive yelp, landing unceremoniously with his eyes wide and the breath stalled in his lungs. What the hell had just happened?
Ronnie was calling something, he realised, and behind him there was a woman’s voice. Brendan turned and scrambled for the cooler his employer had brought at the same time the older man had the same thought. It wasn’t long before water had been dumped over the flowers, enough to extinguish the flames that had all too quickly spread over a large portion of the bed. Standing on her back porch, the woman was demanding to know what had happened, and Brendan didn’t have an answer for her. Nothing like that had ever happened before. Never.
“This heat can do all kinds of damage, Ms. Harper,” Ronnie said in a placating sort of voice, shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders. “I’ll take care of it, don’t you worry.” It was only when the woman had shuffled back inside her air-conditioned house that Ronnie turned to his young employee and fixed him with a level stare that was more than a little knowing. Even so, he didn’t ask questions, didn’t throw accusations, instead calmly said, “We’re almost done here, Brendan. Why don’t you head on home?”
“I-I can--”
“It’s okay, kid, you didn’t do anything wrong.” Ronnie even patted him on the back in an understanding, almost sympathetic fashion. “Like I told Ms. Harper, I’ll take care of it. You head home. Get some rest.”
The plants were still smoking. The leaves had burned clean away and the heads of the flowers had blackened and withered. Brendan felt a little sick, a little shaky, and extremely confused. That fire had come from him. He was sure of it. It just didn’t make any sense.
He nodded anyway, muttering an affirmative before making his way out of Ms. Harper’s back yard. He didn’t give a single thought as to how he might get back to his apartment, just started walking in the rough direction of his building, trying and failing to figure out what had just happened.