Dark Destinies- Clare Siobhan (Fanfiction) Magical Generation

Chapter Sixteen- Sunflower

The mist begins to spread as the moon lights it into fairy-like dust.  Whisks meet and intertwine with each other as the two men close the distance between them, before halting as they come into view.  Drawing a cape back, the past, present and future are all unveiled. Through many years apart, the age creeping on their faces stun them both.

"Cody," the shorter of the two affirms, almost as if to make sure.

"Sammy," comes the much darker reply.

"It's been some years, I hardly recognised you,"

The familiar ginger locks are long gone and are replaced with dull grey strands that thinly hang round his head like an old abandoned curtain.  The vivid images in Sammy's memories of prominent bone structure and twinkling eyes don't match with the frail man that stands before him. His presence had weakened, the hunger for adventure also seems to have vanished. Even the green color in his orbs had abandoned his soul.  Cody's features capture the inevitable clutch of wrinkles and old age.

"I would say the same, but you don't seem to have-"

"It's from the Youth Spells," he smiles and gestures to his cheek, but it seems his entire body had aged backwards.

This is not the elderly Sammy Cody imagined. He grunts in response to the interruption but seems interested enough to continue the discussion, his familiar curiosity tingling. His hard expression loosens and wears into focused scrutiny.

"So they activate skin cells to strengthen the collagen-" But the fancy words and professionalism bores Sammy internally as he cuts him again.

"I don't know how, I just know it works.  Want me to try it out on you?"  Sammy asks, reaching down to draw a wooden wand out from his pocket case, but halts as he catches Cody's sneer. Was he just going to charm him without permission? Wrinkled features groan at this witchy lifestyle of zapping mixed with Sammy's impulsive nature.

"We shouldn't be meeting like this-"

"I'll take that as a no then," Sammy breathes out, letting the man's words fly across. Cody crosses his arms, straightening his back as he releases tension into the weary distance between them.

"What did you want to meet me for?" he takes a step closer, asserting dominance. Why does it seem like Sammy is trying to avoid something? As if playing things off as a joke, or a distraction.  "You know it's not safe for me to walk around in the open like this. We have to stay hidden-"

"Which is why the mist will provide good protection, don't you think?"

"Not enough. If I'm found, my family-"

"I know, but it's important-"

"Will you stop interrupting me?" Cody bursts, clutching onto his temples. The inner throbbing beginning to expand.

"Hey, calm down.  What's wrong with you?  No one followed me here,"

"Forgive me, but last I checked you aren't exactly the stealthiest," 

Sammy glares daggers at Cody, but the old man simply clears his throat and gloats at the man in front of him: his voice much too outspoken for a body so small. "And where's Seb?  It's unlike him to be late, being a military man.  I was hoping to see him after all these years... decades," he corrects himself with a cough as his memories drag back to Seb.

His round features, stoic posture, wide lips which usually folded into a half-grin of disapproval. Compared to the other two, Sebastian changed the least from childhood. Always down-to-earth, always rigid. Perhaps even in old age, he had managed to keep his earthly ambience.  Whenever Sammy had flown too high up in his dreams, he would always be the one to drag him back down to the ground.  If Cody had been cooped up in his lab, Seb was always the one to dig him out to the light again before obsession could posses him. He brought reason when there was none.