Talentless // Fitz Vacker

// five //

(a/n: SO MANY UPDATES TODAY, I AM ON A ROLL) 

Sophie felt a little disappointed after looking at her tree. 

Dex's has spiky red leaves, and periwinkle berries with a twisted trunk. It looked very... well Dex.

Adora's was more intricate. You couldn't see any bark, covered by pedals. Small flowers that coated the bark of her tree reflected her hazel eyes, brown, green, blue, even a bit of yellow. The leaves of her tree looked like a cherry blossom, pink pedals falling everywhere. Each pedal hit the floor with a small colorful think sound, creating the smallest chime in this giant abyss of noise.

Sophie's seemed...plain... small and weak looking, her tree stood with golden star shaped leaves covered the skinny branches. No flowers, no color just a basic tree. She wished hers looked more like Adora's, so bright and positive. 

But...they had graves. 

Something shiny caught Adora's eye, she walked over to the lowest branch to see a small gold charm bracelet. A small bauble of a ruby encrusted guitar hung from the bracelet. 

Adora felt a wave of nausea. She fell to the floor, her back to her tree as she lay on her side and she curled into a small ball. She felt the pedals fall on to her dress and in her hair, a twinkling sound as they fluttered. 

Sophie had sank to the floor too, burying her face between her knees. Adora could hear her soft sniffles but couldn't pick herself back up to comfort her. 

Adora thought about her escape attempt. Before Dex and Sophie had joined her in the cave. 

She felt the boney hand wrap around her ankle as she desperately tried to free herself. 

Before that—she felt each pebble hit the surface of the water before sinking to the bottom when she skipped stones in the waters she "drowned" in. 

Even before that—when she felt a pull towards the caves. When she felt a pull to go upstairs. When she almost grabbed Sophie's memory log, instead grabbing her book of fairytales. What would have happened if she grabbed the memory log? 

A light leap before that— at school when she felt a wave a nausea similar to this one where she needed to go home despite feeling fine. 

The night before—she didn't even get a warning before she threw up and she was perfectly fine a few second later. 

A couple months ago—when she went to grab the homework she forgot in her locker just to find it crushed in the wall with ominous writing on it that she dismissed because the next day it was just gone...

Before she even lived in the lost cities—when the cloaked figures showed up at her door, causing her to jump out the window with a back pack, amp and electric guitar. 

Before that— at Sophie's place when the rabies-kidnapper-man tried kidnapping them months before they did it successfully. 

Years before that—when her substitute teacher had given her a book about stars, most of them unmapped and then throwing her out a closed window and into some poisonous flowers. 

Were they all connected? 

She wasn't crying, she'll do that later when she's in the shower. Sophie was, but after about 63 deep breaths, Grady and Edaline found them. 

Adora staring into space on her side, curled into a little ball almost completely covered in pedals from her own wandering. Sophie with tears streaming down her face as she hugged her knees. 

"They kept the trees," Grady hushed. 

Sophie head snapped up, but her eyes couldn't focus on the two people in front of her. She thought it was because of the light but she soon realised that she was crying. 

Grady gave her a giant hug and Edaline went over to Adora. 

Edaline propped Adora up as she kneeled down and Adora leaned on Edaline as she wiped flowers off of Adora, picking some out of her hair. 

"We should've warned you." Grady said through a sigh. "I just didn't want to upset you if they weren't even here." 

"How did they..." Sophie squeaked. 

"We gave them a hair from your hair brushes in your room. We planted the seeds at your funeral." Edaline explained softly. 

Sophie sat up, wiping her tears away. "but you know we're alive now, why are they still here?" 

"Probably because Wanderlings are living things. Would it be right to kill them just because they were planted prematurely?" 

"No..." Adora tapped on one pedal that fell on her, listening to the quiet chimes. 

It wasn't the trees fault they were kidnapped. 

Edaline kissed her forehead. "I'm so sorry." 

It's what Adora said to them by Jolie's grave. 

"Oh." Sophie lifted her hand. "I found this. Is it okay if I keep it?" She held up a silver charm bracelet. 

"Me too?" Adora fiddled with her own bracelet, only hers was gold. 

Edaline looked away. 

Grady cleared his throat. "Of course. We wanted you to have it. In fact, this is good. Just in time for you to start your first full year at Foxfire. We'll have to get charms." 

Edaline watched as Adora played with the mini guitar charm. "Thanks for making it gold..." Adora muttered, Edaline helped clip it on her wrist, the gold matching the rest of her jewellery. 

"Let the past be your guide..." Sophie read aloud, staring at one of her charms. 

"What's that?" Edaline asked. 

"The inscription on the compass." 

"Compass?" Edaline turned pale as she helped Adora up, dusting off more pedals. "We didn't add that charm." 

Grady looked at the tiny compass as Adora peered over Sophie's shoulder. "All I see is a jumble of runes, you're sure you can see a message?" 

Sophie read aloud the same inscription. 

Adora furrowed her eyebrows. "What runes?" She asked, squinting. 

"The ones over here," Sophie pointed. 

Adora looked at her incredulously. "That's a swan." She said, matter of a factly. "At least the head of one."