Into the Abyss полностью

Not to take away from his moment of revelation, but Tom had to admit to himself that he hadn’t been having the greatest time of his life. Subjectively, at least. Of course, it seemed to Tom that that was one of the rules of having an adventure. ‘Never enjoy an adventure while you’re on it. Wait until it’s over and look back on it with longing.’ That’s always the way it seemed to work. He just didn’t have the necessary objectivity to view the whole thing like he was reading a book, or remembering it from a long time past. How was one supposed to get that level of objectivity? Tom certainly didn’t know. At the moment this ‘adventure’ was just a pain. Tom halted himself in mid-thought. To be fair, he had to admit that cruising around Astlan was a lot more fun than sitting in an empty cave waiting to be called by his ‘master.’

On the other hand, compared to just getting up in the morning in his own home where his mom was, and going to high school every day, caused both cave and Astlan to pale. At the time, he hadn’t really realized what he had in Harding. Things always seemed better in hindsight. So great, Tom thought, I now know how stupid I was not appreciating Harding. So I guess this is the part where I click my Red Hooves together three times and say ‘There’s no place like home, There’s no place like home, There’s NO place like home!’

As was to be expected, not much happened. He still wasn’t in Kansas, or in Tom’s case, New Jersey. Actually, Tom had to admit, a lot of Jersey was more like the Abyss than Kansas anyway. Tom sighed. He was just standing there looking down at Edwyrd’s clothes. He tried to walk around a bit, softly, so as not to scare the priest. He’d love to go out and stretch his wings a bit. The little Edwyrd body had made him feel claustrophobic and the fact that he kept gouging the ceiling beams with his horns didn’t help. He leaned against the wall so he could stick his legs out and stretch them. His knees in each leg were starting to get a bit stiff, or so he imagined. He was sure it was just being cooped up that made him feel that way.

How long had it been? How long had he stood there wrestling with the horns of his dilemma, or more precisely with the lack of horns of his dilemma, thought Tom looking at Edwyrd’s clothes. The others might return soon. While they couldn’t walk in and surprise him due to the bars on the door, if Edwyrd wasn’t already back by the time they knocked, it might get tricky. He doubted he could change back and dress quickly enough not to arouse suspicion.

Of course, Tom thought, still looking at the clothes, I could stay in this form; point to the clothes and say I’d gotten hungry and eaten Edwyrd. Tom smiled, it wasn’t completely wrong, Edwyrd was inside him. He suspected, however, that it wouldn’t make Jenn trust him any more than she already didn’t. But... he reminded himself, he could see Gastropé faint again, especially if he could manage to make his stomach growl while he was looking at the wizard. “Tom, you’re just evil,” he said to himself softly with a smile.

Edwyrd wandered out of the kitchen. It really was rather dark in this place since the candles went out. The light seeping around the doorway didn’t do much. In his Tom form he didn’t notice the darkness, but Edwyrd’s feeble human eyes had trouble seeing. Tom supposed that if he ever got good enough, he could probably make improvements on Edwyrd’s body. Strength, eyesight, little things so that Edwyrd still looked human, but had some of the advantages of being a demon. Unfortunately, for the moment, it was all Tom could do to keep control just being Edwyrd.

There were some cupboards with more candles in them, Edwyrd supposed he should light some, but he wasn’t sure how. He didn’t have a lighter or any matches, and didn’t know how to use flint and steel even if he found them. He knew from experience that Tom could probably light them by force of will alone. He was afraid, though, that in his current form, if he concentrated hard enough on creating fire, he’d lose control over his body. That was his real problem. No matter what he did he felt like he had to hold part of himself back to maintain control.