On my way home I bumped into Rick.
"You like to see our training field?"
He looked excited and I agreed. For the first time, I stepped into the world of the Titans. Their houses were built in a robust style but attractive for the eye. In the center was a cooking place and behind the last cottage, they made a training field.
"What is the field about?"
"We need to build our strength, we've been small and lazy for too long."
"What do you mean by lazy, you worked hard, the herb garden looks great it didn't start itself..."
"Can I tell you a secret?" he whispered with a twinkle in his eyes.
I thought.
"You know a secret is not a secret if more than one knows about it since each one of you hears the unspoken words this means... there are no secrets."
He laughed out loud. It was a burst of infectious laughter, one I still hear if I think of him.
"What about the secret?" I asked as we sat next to each other underneath a tree.
"I thought you never asked."
"That would mean I am the only one not knowing the clan's public secret. I thought I was one of you," I pouted.
"It's magic, that's all. How come you didn't figure it out yet?"
"What is magic?"
"The herbs, the garden, everything even we."
"Are you sure?"
"One hundred percent sweetie."
'Sweetie' he had called me sweetie and it felt great to be called that way by someone else than an adult raising me.
"What will you do?" he asked.
"Do when?"
"If the time is right to leave." Perplex he looked at me, "did no one tell you we will leave?"
I shook my head.
"No one officially mentioned or... invited me to come along. I knew, hoped one of you would. Perhaps Rosemary mentioned it."
Near to him, I felt uneasy and suddenly worried about what would become out of me.
"It's what the training field is for, isn't it? You are not fighting laziness or fat but build muscles to fight the outside world."
He nodded.
"We don't know what we will find out there and if the magic will stay."
"What do you mean?"
"It's after we arrived here we changed. Not only we shrunk but we received certain powers. Powers we all share and some specific ones. We agreed with the terms set by Mother Nature and became her little helpers."
"Terms? What terms?"
"Keeping a part of a sick world clean, providing in nature's healing power, living underground... living solo ..."
He sounded sad and it did not felt as if it was a great deal.
"Was it worth it?"
"It wasn't a bad deal. A safe life, a long life, no hunger but now... Now it's back to reality. Living life in a world different from the one I left, or perhaps not that different at all."
Total amount of words: 2505
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