(no subject)
The fireball had blazed overhead and Russell had watched, standing alone in the broken street, until he could stand no longer.
He slumped against the beanstalk, taking a while to compose himself.
He hadn't had the heart to destroy the beanstalk yet, and he entertained the notion of just leaving it. As a monument and a reminder.
It would eventually get cut down anyway, Russell finally decided, reaching up to cut one of the leaves off. He scratched a quick array to shrink the plant completely back into the ground, sending it back under the broken stones of the road.
Russell glanced up and down the street.
Time to move forward.
&&&
Months passed.
Putting Central back together would be a huge task and it still looked liked it would be years before things would be back to normal. Russell and Fletcher helped as much as they could, until it became evident that not much more could be done.
The brothers went back to Xenotime for a short while, staying until Russell's restlessness led them to do some traveling.
Their traveling, which lasted for far longer than first planned, involved touring the country, researching, working, and never staying in one place for too long.
Not once since the disaster had he found the door back to the bar. He held out hope that it would appear one day when he needed it the most, and that maybe, maybe, there would be someone there waiting for him. He never stopped looking.
Russell didn't much talk about why he felt the need to keep moving, that was something only he felt he understood completely. Anyway, he wasn't quite sure he could explain how he was both following and searching for something. Or maybe it was simply a way of keeping busy.
When the time came for them to return to where they had started, three years had passed.
Three years that had gone by in a stop and start motion that somehow seemed to match the pace of their journey. But being back in Central calmed Russell down quite a bit and he settled in easily.
And even if Russell sometimes had a far away look on his face as he drifted off, he was home and he was content.
He slumped against the beanstalk, taking a while to compose himself.
He hadn't had the heart to destroy the beanstalk yet, and he entertained the notion of just leaving it. As a monument and a reminder.
It would eventually get cut down anyway, Russell finally decided, reaching up to cut one of the leaves off. He scratched a quick array to shrink the plant completely back into the ground, sending it back under the broken stones of the road.
Russell glanced up and down the street.
Time to move forward.
&&&
Months passed.
Putting Central back together would be a huge task and it still looked liked it would be years before things would be back to normal. Russell and Fletcher helped as much as they could, until it became evident that not much more could be done.
The brothers went back to Xenotime for a short while, staying until Russell's restlessness led them to do some traveling.
Their traveling, which lasted for far longer than first planned, involved touring the country, researching, working, and never staying in one place for too long.
Not once since the disaster had he found the door back to the bar. He held out hope that it would appear one day when he needed it the most, and that maybe, maybe, there would be someone there waiting for him. He never stopped looking.
Russell didn't much talk about why he felt the need to keep moving, that was something only he felt he understood completely. Anyway, he wasn't quite sure he could explain how he was both following and searching for something. Or maybe it was simply a way of keeping busy.
When the time came for them to return to where they had started, three years had passed.
Three years that had gone by in a stop and start motion that somehow seemed to match the pace of their journey. But being back in Central calmed Russell down quite a bit and he settled in easily.
And even if Russell sometimes had a far away look on his face as he drifted off, he was home and he was content.