MAGES: Fireheart

Chapter 3

John stood motionless, new furniture surrounded him on all sides. After leaving for the day, he had returned home in time for a nice hot meal. It was expected of course that the table would be set, ready for supper. But he hadn't ever anticipated returning to a completely different house.

John's bed remained the same, the golden blanket left untouched. However, instead of it being against the wall of John's room, it now lay closer towards the centre, a small bunk bed in it's place. It was only that morning that they had decided John's room would be shared with Cooper and Jack.

"We even dusted!" Sonja yelled, gesturing towards the paining on John's wall. "We know how important that painting is to you so we thought you might appreciate it cleaned a little. That's also why it's untouched." Summer spoke directly to John in a serious tone. He gave them his thanks. Outside of his room, the whole house had been completely rearranged to best suit all five of them. The spare room beside the kitchen had been claimed by the girls, scarlet and gold patterns covered their new wallpaper.

John's home had an enormous training room built into the mountain side. Being the naive teenage boy he was at the time, he bought the house never wondering who it originally belonged to. But of course after multiple months he had become curious. After some light hearted questions, John had learned the answer from a merchant at the sea side markets.

The home had supposedly been a meeting place for water mage outcasts who had been kicked out of their home. Years past of course, leaving the house so overgrown that half the rooms had been hidden and put out of sight, the training room originally being one before John had the overgrowth burnt down.

The training room was huge and was by far the biggest room in the house. It would have taken a sheer amount of determination for John's friends to have completely polished the floors and dusted the benches all in one day. Not just that but they did it on top of the rest of the house.

There were still many spare rooms scattered across his home but with five people, it wouldn't be hard to find a use for each of them. John remembered the conversation that morning about a second bathroom and by the looks of the tiling in one of the extra rooms, it looked like the group had gone forward with the idea. John ran his hands along the kitchen bench slowly. No dust, no dirt, nothing. It would have taken him weeks to accomplish what they had today.

"You guys, how could I possibly thank you enough?" Jack shook his head jokingly, "you wouldn't be able to." Summer hushed their friend, correcting his sentence for him. "You would be able to thank us John, but you don't need to. Probably because you've already made up for it. We should be thanking you for taking us in, we were so lonely by ourselves." A firm hand smacked down onto John's back as Cooper walked past. The slight nod of his head showed his gratitude more than words ever could.

Is it just me or am I no longer regretting this? John laughed to himself. He had certainly admitted before that he had doubt in his mind, but and act like this had completely reformed his outlook on the situation. There were possibilities here, possibilities of a great friendship blossoming under his wing once again. He had broken his friends apart long ago, now it was time for him right his wrongs and bring them all together again.