I posted (that is, attempted to post) the following earlier, with a mistyped address.

Bart

I'm studying for finals. This here is a chapter fragment. Reunion might be moved to an all-fragment format--meaning small but far more frequent posts.

Comments will be read and responded to.

Peace, Bart

*

Reunion 6

Bart dreamed of nuclear war that night--fitting symbolism, he reflected upon awakening the following morning, for the fact that his own little world had been shattered yesterday afternoon. He opened his eyes slowly and squinted into the morning light. The others were already awake and tearing down camp, having graciously let him sleep in after the previous day's ordeal. Wincing at the sharp pain in his torso, he brought himself slowly to a sitting position and rubbed his eyes, letting the emptiness of a new day settle heavily into his stomach.

The silence around the campsite was heavy as well; each and every one of them was keeping their mouth tightly shut and their eyes carefully ahead, lest they rekindle the negative energies that hung in the air like a cloud of combustible gas. Crono appeared to be favoring his left leg somewhat, which brought Bart a measure of grim satisfaction as he pulled himself out of bed. Marle's face was blank, her eyes red. She looked about ready to cry, scream, or collapse--or perhaps all three.

Grunting slightly, Bart stood, noting to himself that his legs hurt every bit as much as the rest of him did. He ran a hand through his dirty, matted hair in a half-hearted attempt to get it to sit flat on his head, then went about taking down his small tent and rolling up his sleeping bag, grumbling to himself about the disadvantages of sleeping out in the woods when there's a city not three miles away.

Unexpectedly, the first voice to break the oppressive silence was Magus'. "Well, it appears we're all up." The rest of the group, Bart included, stopped what they were doing and glowered at him. He continued, unfazed. "As much as I'm sure all of you would rather grouse and feel sorry for yourselves, quite frankly, we have more pressing things to worry about than some petty argument. As long as the Omen exists in this world, none of us are safe until we can be absolutely certain it's been destroyed or at least neutralized. Seeing as how we've no information on how it got here or how long it's been around, I think the wisest course of action at this point would be to go and do a little research. Perhaps something in Nuian history might give us some clue as to when and why it showed up here." Magus cast his gaze around the rest of the group, an uncharacteristic look of authority on his face. No one objected.

Cautiously, Bart approached him, once everyone had resumed the business of packing their things. "Magus?"

"Mm?"

"Can you give me an honest answer on something?"

Magus nodded. "Always."

Bart stifled a yawn. "Well, it seems to me like we've got a pretty big problem on our hands, with the omen and all, and all I'm really doing at this point is causing dissension. I can't help but thing that you guys really might be better off without me... What I'm getting at is, should I even bother sticking around?"

"Yes."

Bart waited expectantly for some sort of explanation. Finally, realizing that none was forthcoming, he nodded once, then went back to finish packing his things.

*