Hunted|Haunted - Chapter 5 - Runaway Train

Toma is pacing around his room, grumbling inaudibly.

It was just a couple of weeks short of four years since Neven joined the family. And while he knew damn well how to keep his little stitched muzzle shut, what Imeje had unaccounted for is that Toma would grow up to be increasingly curious about what exactly happened that morning his brother didn’t wake up.

— I just can’t believe it!
— Why? You believed butterflies turned into caterpillars until last Tuesday.
— UNRELATED!

He tried to kick a chair and missed, trying his best to make it seem as if that was on purpose.

— I may not know what my dad was actually like, or how things were between him and mum, but… Why didn’t anyone tell me dad was alive?!
— Maybe they didn’t want you to be upset that he didn’t come back?

Neven got pretty good at helping Toma regulate himself, however, he struggled to justify that decision as well. Thus, his remarks were kind of half-hearted. Toma will probably calm down as soon as he understands he has no control over the situation.

— Oh, I am SO not upset right now!

Toma dove under the bed, crawling around the mess, occasionally throwing something outside. Rather fitting, considering that ever since the last growth spurt, he looked like a funny, lanky spider.

— I’m failing to understand what exactly changes now that you know your dad is alive.
— Now I know for sure he will come back!

And here it is. Neven would’ve dramatically dripped onto the floor, had he not been firmly pressed to the wall by a heavy transplantation textbook. A funny thing, medicine turned out way easier than expected. He already had the pinpoint precision and steady hands, so the only thing he was learning was where to stick what. Which wasn’t that hard, either. Darn Aano influence. For half of the things he read, he could point to the scar left from it. I’m… forgetting something. Oh, yeah.

— Kid, don’t you think that if he wanted, he already would?
— Well, what if he wants, but can’t?
— Then it’s as good as if he didn’t want to.
— Why does everyone assume dad left just because?
— I’m not doing that. I am saying that your dad had a knack for getting himself out of impossible situations, and since he still didn’t, it will not happen. If he could survive and make a friend after messing up coordinates on a teleportation circle so bad he ended up on the North Pole, he could damn well return home by now.
— Or at least explain why did he do that
— Nope, he’s been absolutely terrible at explaining himself ever since I can remember.

Toma went quiet.

As Neven flipped onto the next chapter, he heard something that sent him out of the doll and straight under the kitchen table.

“Then I’m gonna go and ask him myself!”

Ever since, Toma has started to prepare for the “expedition”. On one hand, it was quite nice, as the expedition motivated Toma to study diligently, and practice “boring” spells as well as the easy ones. On the other hand, he made Neven do Khastana’s promise, so he would be left with no head regardless of whether he chose to tell Imeje. The next best thing he could do was make sure Toma goes on a little walk around the forest and returns home safe, albeit disappointed.

Thankfully, having lived his whole life under an extremely strict set of rules, Neven was quite good when it came to working around them. So, getting Imeje to make him easily trackable wasn’t that hard, even if he couldn’t tell her exactly why that would be needed. Imeje figured that that would be useful, since Neven couldn’t move that much, and Toma had a habit of losing things.

For months, Neven would set impossible milestones for Toma that he would have to achieve before he could set trail. Making an infinite bag on his own. Remembering a long list of edible plants. Learning silent walk. Learning invisibility. Figuring out how to switch places with an object. Conjuring a bullet. Conjuring 6 bullets. Conjuring 6 bullets in a row. And there he was, knocked out on the bed, having just summoned Neven’s gun.

It was clear, there wasn’t anything Neven could make him learn first at this point. At least, nothing came to his mind right away. He was pretty sure that no matter how long the list of milestones would be, Toma would inevitably get into such exotic trouble that there wouldn’t be anything he could do on his own.

Neven put a magic leash on the gun and promptly joined Toma in sleepy oblivion.

… Only to wake up squished among many suitcases and crates.

— Toma Ilvar Grobar. What the hell have you got us into?
— Baggage wagon.