Alone?

[Kandler Norton]

Kandler walked into the forest. The common room was crowded and loud and he wanted a bit of time to himself. He sighed heavily as he came to a rather large tree. His back was now pressed against it as he slid down the trunk his eyes slowly shutting. He had not slepted in couple days and now was the perfect place as he started drifting off.

"Kandler! MOVE!" Josh yelled at his little brother. Kandler gave a slight groan and managed to get up after the beating from the dragon. He staggered a few yards before he hit the ground. The dragon roared angrily as spells were being sent up at it. As Josh looked back to see if Kandler was alright the dragon took advantage by swinging its tail at him knocking him back into a large boulder. Josh groaned and was knocked nearly unconscious. The dragon sent flames at him catching only his pants alight as Josh dove to avoid the flames. Josh put his leg out in seconds and let out a yell at the continous beatings the dragon was giving him. Josh was showing no mercy either. After nearly half an hour of fighting the dragon let out a cry and fell back dead.

Kandler slowly stood. His left leg broken his head still bleeding badly. His eyes swollen shut. He looked around to see his brother feet away from the dragon only to be lying flat on his back. Kandler ran, well hobbled towards his brother. He hit the ground next to him and watched his brother breathing heavily. Blood seemed to never stop coming. "Josh. Come on! We need to go." Josh tried to sit up but couldn't summon the strength. "I'm sorry Kandler." He whispered. Kandler shook his head. "No don't be!" Josh gave a slight smile. "Just make sure mom and dad know that it was my fault." Kandler shook his head. "It wasn't...and you'll be able to tell them." Josh just smiled still before his eyes went distant and faded.

Kandler's eyes shot open and he noticed he was on the forest floor. It was now night as the light that shone through the leaves were now gone or he had gotten deeper into the forest one of the two. He ran a hand through his hair and wiped sweat from his face and shook slightly as he stood.

[Erich Aubry]

"Bad dream?" Erich asks crisply, a smirk on his face.

[Kandler Norton]

Kandler jumped at the voice and looked at Erich. "eh...Yeah."

[Erich Aubry]

"How long was it until they found you?" Erich reviews the sequence of Kandler's dream, holds to the pained expressions of his brother's last moments on the earth. His mind monitoring the root systems beneath them both, Erich reaches out to pick a leaf from a low hanging branch beside Kandler's head.

"It really is not as bad as they say," he murmurs absent-mindedly. "Dying, I mean." His false palm crackles with light.

[Kandler Norton]

He stared at Erich and then bowed his head a bit jumpy when his hand came out to get a leaf. He took in a sharp breath and shook his head. "A few days." Kandler whispered. "You...You died?" He asked quietly.

[Erich Aubry]

"More or less, I suppose." His body dissolves as he speaks, and reforms beside Kandler, Leaning casually against the trunk of the tree.

"A good friend of mine turned on me once." Erich pauses for a moment on the word friend, laughing to himself quietly. "Our school had been decimated by the presence of a particularly violent wizard, a meglomaniac with a particular talent for charms who had managed to avoid being identified. We did our best to contain him and when it came time to put our plan in to action... he locked my mind in to a permanent vision of the future. All futures." Erich turns to Kandler then, staring at him with eyes the color of the unscorched grasses all about them.

[Kandler Norton]

He watched Erich and ran a hand through his hair. He found it a bit disturbing but interesting at the same time. "Who was this person? And...so you are really living just locked in the futures?"

[Erich Aubry]

"Oh no, of course not. I'm right here next to you aren't I?" Erich laughs, blinking back immaterial tears. "That is an entirely diffrent sort of existence. Your mind spreads out in to every possible time, probability and individual thought- it's possible to sustain anything close to a human mind."

There are bird calls and plants shifting uneasily throughout the forest, lifting their limbs and pulling against their anchored roots.
"I have seen the world end over and over again. We all die eventually. There is nothing out there I have not already seen."

From here. God sees all things.

[Kandler Norton]

Kandler gave a small nod as he frowned and stared at Erich. He scratched his ear once more just out of habit and closed his eyes. "So you are just spread into the future..well your mind?"

[Erich Aubry]

"Nein. For now, I am here in this time, this is as close to life as one can come sometimes." Erich sighs wearily, sliding down against the tree's strong trunk, phasing through it faintly though he does not notice. Water drips from a single leaf overhead.

"I'm waiting for an old friend you see." The forest is cold and still.

[Kandler Norton]

Kanlder nodded as he spoke. He cleared his throat. "If you don't mind my asking. Who is this old friend?"

[Erich Aubry]

"You recall what I said before, about the wizard responsible for the attacks in Germany?" Erich smiles in the chill air, conjured skin taut against his cheekbones. The ground drains magic from Kandler in minute doses though he cannot feel it. It grows flowers in the dark.

"This is who I am waiting for. He is inside the school, even now. A german with a talent for charms. You wouldn't happen to know anyone who might fit the description?" Erich asks, a sly grin on his face.

[Kandler Norton]

He stared at Erich for a long moment and then shook his head. "No. I don't know anyone with that description. I haven't met many people." he said soflty.

[Erich Aubry]

"I take it that you aren't taking charms year- or at the very least you do not pay much attention to his lessons." Erich stands then, turning his sight to the castle, pressing his mind against the wards and calls loudly in psychic echo to Rainer Langley Freundschaft.

[Kandler Norton]

Kandler laughed slightly. "Uhm. No I can't say I pay much attention in his class."