Chapter Eight: Gaps (part 1)

“What are you doing here?!” I shouted as I saw the large white charr climbing in through my window, I still didn’t notice that my hand was still outstretched with an orb of magic ready to be released from it. I was still coming to terms with who I was looking at. Garfas, the charr that kept returning to me in memories was now physically in front of me.

Garfas finally made it inside and placed his feet on the solid wood floor, he moved over to the cage and lowered my hand with his finger.“Mind putting away the artillery?” He asked. “I don’t want a face full of necro blob.” I nervously glanced at my hand and withdrew the magic back into my body, I shook my hand to remove any residual energy. Sinking deeper into the steel cage, I kept my gaze fixed on Garfas. There was somethingunsettling about this, how was he here right now; how did he find me, and why now? “Either you’re in trouble here or you grew to like big steel cages over the years,” Garfas began to circle me as he looked for the door. “Mind explaining the situation before I start thinking the wrong thing?”

“I was teaching myself how to lock pick,” I grumbled, keeping myself from making eye contact. Now however I could not see where he was walking over to… until I saw his face right next to mine from the other side of the bars.“I’m going to take a guess and say that you bit off more than you could chew,” he said with a grin. I shifted to the other side and crossed my arms with a disgruntled huff escaping my mouth. Garfas replied by chuckling as he shook his head. He moved over to the lock and placed his hand on it. With one tug and a grunt of significant effort he pulled the lock in two, allowing the gate to swing open. I stared at the white charr with my eyes widened at his display of strength, I had forgotten how ridiculously strong he was. He noticed that his pointy grey wizard hat had been tilted over his eyes in the exertion so he took a moment to adjust it.“Thank you…” I said as I climbed out of the cage.“Anytime, cub!” He said with a smile as he patted my head.

I swatted his hand away and he only shook his head and looked at me as if he was expecting that reaction from me. “You still have not answered my question,” I said. “How…? What…?” I was struggling  to ,form the question. There were far too many gaps in my head that it all just became a jumbled mess. Then my head started aching.“Blast it!” I said as I walked over to my pack. I found it by the side of my bed and quickly searched for one the many vials of medicine that I had inside. I found the blue one and downed its contents. Once it was empty, I tossed it aside and began to rub my temples. As I sat down on my bed, I felt a large mass join my side as I braced myself for the full force of the headache.“Head hurting?” Asked Garfas as he placed his hand on my back.“More like a migraine,” I said as I glanced over to the charr. “It will pass eventually don’t worry.”“Have you been getting a lot lately?” He asked with concern.“not really, only happens on occasion.” I answered.“Oh I feared this would happen,” Said Garfas with a sigh. “Maybe I should have waited a little longer to talk to you.” Now I was confused

“Garfas, for the sake of not making my head feel worse,” I said. “please start making some sense.” The white charr looked reluctant at first, but after I sent him a piercing gaze, he caved in.“Okay I’ll say!” He chuckled. “Just stop looking at me like that, you make it seem like I’m here to kill you or something.” I softened my gaze and rolled my eyes.“Just answer me this first. How much do you remember about me?”What an odd question, I wondered. “What do you mean?” I asked. “I remember everything! We were in the same warband, we started talking after the incident with the flame legion, I saw you fight in The Bane, you taught me how to use a sword, and… and… um…”

“Can’t remember?” He asked. “Are there large gaps all over the memories that are older than three years? Always knowing that you’re missing something important but you’re not sure why?” I gave the charr a distressed glance as I stood up from my bed and backed away.“What’s going on?” I asked alarmed. “Many things are missing but I cannot recall them! Why can’t I remember?!” My migraine started intensifying, the stabbing pain began to creep deeper into the recesses of my head, the trickling light in the window began to force my eyes shut.

“Calm down, cub.” I felt Garfas pull me closer to him. “Don’t worry there’s nothing wrong with you. Your head is just… not really complete that’s all.”“That’s not concerning at all!” I spat sarcastically.“Okay, just listen.” Garfas lifted my chin and made me face his eyes. “C’mon, look at me.”I pried my eyes open to look into the bright amber orbs in his eyes, admittedly I did find something inherently relaxing to them.“Garfas,” I said quietly. “What’s going on?” Garfas stepped back before beginning his explanation.

“Well you see, you had your memories… repressed? I think that’s the word you used.”“Wait! You’re saying I did this to myself?”I asked in disbelief. “Why would I want to forget my time with the warband?”“…you said it was for the best,” said Garfas. “You said you couldn’t take the truth in your current state. So you did… something to your head.”“…what exactly?” Garfas scratched the top of his head as he considered my question.“It’s like, dropping a puzzle onto the floor. It’s in pieces now but it’s slowly being put back together. I don’t really understand all that magic stuff, you know that about me. ” Garfas shrugged. “I can only tell you what you told me. It was just something you had to do, a process that would be easier for you to handle. At least that’s what you were going on about.” I could not believe what I was hearing, but oddly enough, it made sense to me. It was Garfas that was telling me after all; I knew I could trust him.“Then what happened?” I asked. “What truth would be so horrible that I would not want to deal with it in the conventional manner?”

“…I can’t tell you that.” The white charr shook his head.“What do you mean you can’t tell me?!” I shouted back. “This is all about me, I have the right to know!”Gafas simply reached into his pocket and extracted thick leather journal, after sifting through a few pages he placed his claw on a line and began to read. He nodded to himself once he had his words in order. “You said that I’m not supposed to reveal things to you that you don’t already know. It would make the process do the exact opposite of what it was intended for, if I say too much then it would all come back to you in a split second and your mind would collapse from the stress. And you would, well, become a ‘drooling mess.’ That’s what you said anyway.”

I stared at the charr allowing a bit of my anger to subside, I did not agree wholeheartedly but he must have been following these instructions for a reason. No doubt if what he was saying was in fact true, then it was me who wrote in that journal for him. I sighed as I looked at Gafas’s expectant glance.“Okay,” I said.“I believe you. So how did you find me?”

“Actually I’ve been following you around for about a year now, it took me a while to find you in the first place though.” I glanced at Garfas outraged. He had been following me around for so long and did not even notice.“A year?” I asked. “A whole year?!”“Well it’s not like I could walk up to you and say, ‘Hi, I don’t know if you remember but you used to know me’. As much as I wanted to. I needed to wait a bit, make sure you knew who I was.” Garfas stood uncomfortably as he explained. I could see guilt looming over him, I was beginning to feel bad as well. I was ready to lash out at him but I could not blame him for what I apparently did to myself. My piercing gaze on him began to soften once I realized that my migraine was gone, however.“Well I suppose that’s understandable,” I said completely abandoning my resentment. “I suppose I owe you an apology.”

Garfas’s goofy smile returned once he saw that I had returned to my less disgruntled self.“Don’t worry, cub.” He said moving in closer. “It’s nice to finally talk to you again though.”“Um…y-yes!” I said averting my gaze. I forgot how forward he was once he saw that you were comfortable with him. I needed to find something to talk about if I did not want to embarrass myself.

Suddenly I heard the door in the living room open.“Hey big guy, I’m home!” I unknowingly bored a large smile once I heard Daniel’s voice echo through the house.“He’s early,” I said glancing over to Garfas. “Come, Garfas. Let me introduce you to…” I trailed off once I saw the panicked expression on his face. “What’s wrong?”“I need to get out of here!” Whispered Garfas.“What?”“I can’t explain right now,” said Garfas moving over to the window. “Just trust me on this one, okay?”

I stared in befuddlement as the charr was leaving through my bedroom window.“But…” Garfas turned around and faced me.“It’s for the best if you tell no one that I was here too, I’ll be in touch. Goodbye, cub!” With that he leaped off my roof without so much as making a sound, I continued to stare for several more minutes before shaking my head in disbelief.“Blasted oaf,” I said as I began to make my way to the living room.

Making my way down the stairs, I noticed a slight spring in my step. Despite everything that was causing so much chaos amongst the secros, I managed to find a glimmer of happiness to cling on to, and at the moment, that was all I needed.

“You’re early,” I said as I found the human placing down all his equipment to the side of the entrance. He glanced up at me and beamed with a wider grin than usual.“Hey big guy!” He said cheerfully. “Did ya miss me?”“I was absolutely bored to tears,” I said walking up to him. “How did the job go?”“Fantastic!” Said Daniel. “But I gotta say I’m a little tired, help me take my stuff to my room?”“Of course,” I said with a smile. I took his pack and swung it over my shoulder, and walking side by side we both ventured upstairs.

“So anything interesting happen?” Asked Daniel as he looked up at me.“There are some secro related things I need to go through with you,” I said. “Very delicate matters that need our attention.”“Oh,” said Daniel with a smile. “I smell trouble brewing. So anything that’s not work related? I bet you wouldn’t stop bothering Serenity!”I paused as I looked into the human’s eyes, I really did want to tell him, but I wondered if it was a good idea or not.“There was nothing else that was noteworthy,” I decided to say. “I’m getting better at lock picking though.”

Edited by Jalinar