There is a lot about me you don't know -Tales of Arcadia ENG

7- Silence

TRACK 7

It's the terror of knowing

What this world is about

Watching some good friends

Screaming "let me out"

Pray tomorrow gets me higher

(Under Pressure - Queen )

********

In the morning, at 7:00, Claire felt she had lost much of her energy on the road.

She had never thought it was so hard to spend a night almost totally off, just keeping watch, when she had spent several, sleeping only five hours or even less, for hours studying on school tests or for evening activities together with Jim and Toby... But the previous evening, spent trying to pay attention to everything and not fall asleep out of the blue -risking perhaps falling off her face- to finally make the switch with Blinky, had been an immense effort.

And that amount of time she had slept afterward she had not even felt it. It had been as if she had closed her eyes for just a moment, then opened them again and found herself seeing almost everyone standing there, some more, some less ready, having a frightening urge to go back in time or directly ignore it all, allowing herself to doze off again, clutching the pillow and pressing herself to the mattress in silent denial.

But she hadn't. Claire forced herself to get to her feet and walk slowly in the direction of the bathroom. Only rinsing her face, slapping both of her cheeks repeatedly until they burned, allowed her to regain some of her lucidity. Not all of it, but at least enough to focus, to make her notice what was around her in a better way.

When she returned to the others, in fact, she no longer saw only their blurred figures moving almost indefinitely but began to pay attention to details.

She noticed how Blinky was adjusting his pants, trying to get out creases that she wouldn't have paid the slightest attention to if the Troll hadn't really started to run all his hands over them.

She saw how Aaarrrgh was stretching forward, not even as if he were a cat or something before he collected himself and approached the other Troll with a slow, lethargic pace, barely smiling.

Claire paid attention to how Steve's hair was all backward, not even that he had forcibly moved it and then put hairspray on it, while his eyes were still half-closed from sleep and his cheeks flushed.

She saw how Toby, on the other hand, already seemed more energetic, talking to Jim about new morning workouts, while the other nodded and offered to prepare breakfast for everyone that morning, as opposed to the previous one which had been a bit messy. A bit like lunch and dinner, after all.

The attitude at meals had been almost frantic, so much so that it had made it more of a 'grab what you find without particular distinction or care and eat it once it's cooked if necessary .'

And, at last, she noticed how Archie and Douxie were missing from the group. The giant Book of Daoist Magic occupied their place on the mattress. Slight worry enveloped her stomach, accompanied by sudden and insistent anxiety.

Douxie had not returned to the room after leaving it, as he had said he would, and his familiar had disappeared just as quickly, saying he would go look for him and not to pay any attention to his missing. Before the end of Claire's watch, neither of them had returned.

"Blinky... Have you seen Douxie and Archie?" She asked in a half-voice, approaching the other quickly, her arms crossed over her chest and her fists tightly clenched.

The Troll blinked all over a couple of times. "No, neither of them. I had assumed you knew where they had gone, Fair Claire. Was I wrong?"

She shook her head, tightening her mouth in a thin line. "I thought I knew," she admitted, licking her lips, feeling them suddenly dry, somewhat like her own mouth, which had become drier than a desert. "But I'm beginning to doubt it."