Glimpse

The world around him seemed to waver for a moment before the image dissolved into multicolored motes of light. They danced around him for a heartbeat before they snapped back into a sharp focus - forming a picture of a world much different than the one he had left behind. For a second he let himself relax...then his stomach dropped.
And dropped. Along with the rest of him.
There was a yelp and a whump, and abruptly he was surrounded by brown and green and far to many poking twigs, the breath nearly knocked out of him. He stared up in complete shock, trying to process why he was there. Then his brain caught up with what had just happened.
Skystorm sighed and blew away a leaf that threatened to land on his face. “I suppose,” he said out loud to no one in particular as he gazed up at the colorful sky, “I might have miscalculated just a trifle.”
At least there was no Merlin with him this time to scold him about jumping between worlds so recklessly. He had heard that enough as it was. Besides, he’d had a good reason for moving so quickly this time. ...Not that he would be able to convince his teacher of that. Ever.
At least the sky told him that he had landed in the right world, even if the actual target area had been...slightly off. This place had been called….Twilight Town, right? The sky really was beautiful here. Some of the colors were even echoed in his overobe, as if the entire world were welcoming him.
Maybe that meant he would be lucky this time and actually find at least one of his friends.
A murmur of voices off to the side caught his attention. Oh yes, there were people here, weren’t there? At least there had been in the scrying mirror.
It occurred to him that maybe lying in a bunch of bushes, in the middle of a town, was perhaps not the most dignified position for a (apprentice) wizard to be in. Time to get moving.
It took longer than he wanted to extract himself from the foliage prison, and involved a rather embarrassing amount of hopping around trying to get one of his feet loose, but in the end he was free with no signs of the misadventure. Enchanting his clothing to repel dirt and grime had taken some time, but in the end it was well worth it for times like that. A final pat to ensure everything was settled, and he was ready to go.
Twilight Town had a very calm, relaxed feeling to it. People were wandering the streets, some with a purposeful air, but no one was rushing. It was like they had all the time in the world. Even the trolley rumbled along it’s track lazily, as if it was in no great hurry. Sky was sure he would normally find it very peaceful, but not today. Not when his heart was beating fast and he was torn between dread and excitement. He felt like he was so close this time, but he knew this might just turn out to be another dead-end on his search.
There weren’t an overwhelming people on the streets, but it was enough to keep him constantly looking. Scanning the crowd for the least little sigh of red. Or blue. He would be happy to see either of his friends at this point. Yet each time he thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye, and his heart gave a funny leap, it would turn out to be nothing. A hat. THe wrong shade of color. Someone who was obviously to old, or young, to be either Isa or Lea.
“But the mirror was showing here,” he muttered to himself as he reached a plaza with a round shop in the center. “I’m certain of that.”
Scrying, looking between worlds, was more than possible even if it did take a certain amount of power, and skill to do so. Merlin had taught him the basics after he’d begged him too, and the rest he had practiced on his own. The catch to most forms of the spell was that you could only ‘see’ people or places you were either already familiar with or could picture easily.
That had been more than enough for his purposes.
He had been hoping, praying, that it would help him find either Isa or Lea. Preferably both of them, but just finding one of them would be enough at this point. He had been searching since the first horrifying realization of what Radiant Garden had become, and that everyone he had known there was gone. Either fled, or fallen. That it was a slim chance that either of his friends were still okay was something people had told him several times. He just had chosen to listen to his heart in the matter. They were out there. Somewhere.
He had to believe that.
That was why he had thought he’d just gotten something wrong the first time he tried the spell and seen only a strange, blurry image. But the next try and the next all produced the same results. He had thought there was something wrong with the spell itself, until Merlin told him he was being foolish. And when he had used the spell to check on his family, it had worked perfectly….
At the same time, he hadn’t given up. If there hadn’t been a target, if Isa or Lea had been….gone...then the spell wouldn’t be working at all. Instead it activated as it should, it just showed a strange darkness or blurry images of worlds. Not an image of either his friends like it should have been. So he had kept at it, trying variations and hoping to figure out what worlds he was seeing.
He’d seen Twilight Town several times over the years when searching for his friends. It had just taken him time to figure out what world it was. When he’d tried to find Lea with the spell this time, he still hadn’t seen so much as a glimpse of his friend, but he had seen Twilight Town again. Only this time it had been the clearest he had ever seen the image.
He had headed here immediately. If they image was so clear than Lea must be somewhere nearby, or at least he hoped that’s what it meant. At the very least he might find some clue about what was affecting his spell.
That was the hope at any rate.
“Come on, Lea,” Sky muttered as he looked around the plaza. It had been years since he had seen his friends, but he was fairly certain he would be able to recognize them again them still. Yet there was still no one that seemed remotely familiar. “Where are you?” The image he had gotten before he’d came to this world had been vague, and he had hoped that once he was here he would recognize something. Or find Lea around the area it had shown. That would have been logical, right? But of course his magic had never been logical, even when it would have been useful for it to be. He’d tried boosting the spell before, but even that hadn’t worked. If only there was a way to clear up even the blurry images just a little, or make it focus on a slightly smaller area...
He stopped dead.
Maybe he should try scrying while he was here .
That might get past whatever interference was affecting the spell!
Sky chanced a quick around the square, and the people crossing through it, but there was no sign of either Isa or Lea, or anything that he thought could be blocking a spell as powerful as the one he was able to cast.
But he did see a very tall building on the other side of the plaza though. I might be able to match the angle I was getting from the image if I was up there, he realized , I doubt that it’s something up there that could interfere with one of my spells, but it never hurts to check that too. He started to walk towards it, eyes still fixated on the top of the building. At the very least it will give me a better vantage point. I wonder if there’s a way up there from the street? Or will I have to telep…
“Oof!” Something slammed into his side, sending stumbling a couple steps away, and he heard someone fall to the ground. Sky shook his head to clear it and glanced over in the direction of the blow. There
was a boy in a long black coat sprawled on the ground next to him, a bag lying by his side. “I’m so sorry!” He whirled around and held out a hand to him. “I wasn’t looking where I was going! Are you…” The words caught in his throat as the boy looked up at him. The long black coat wasn’t familiar, but the blonde hair and those eyes...he knew them. It had felt like forever ago he’d seen him, but he knew that face.
“Be careful next time,” the boy said with irritation, as he scooped up a bag he had dropped when he’d bounced away and got to his feet. Sky was too stunned to respond to that at first.
“Ven..” he managed to remember to say, the name almost sticking in his throat, “Ventus!” His hands shoot out to grab the boy’s shoulders. “Is it really you? What happened? I was worried! Everyone was saying you were…!”
The boy jerked back and swatted his hands away. “Who’s Ventus?” he demanded, “You’ve got the wrong guy!”
Sky blinked at him, confused. He looked exactly like Ven. They could have been twins in fact. But there was no recognition in those blue eyes, only confusion and more than a little anger. He would have thought it was because it had been so long since they’d seen each other, and yet...
“You’re….not Ven?” he said hesitantly. Even as he spoke the words he realized it had been ten years. Would his friend even have stayed the same? Yet this boy matched his memories of what Ven had been like back then almost exactly.
“I just said that already,” not-Ven said irritably, “I’m Roxas.” There was such strength behind the words that, despite how he looked, Sky couldn’t doubt it.
He hadn’t even been looking for Ven. Hadn’t even thought about him in years, except a passing worry about where he might have disappeared too. Yet somehow realizing this stranger, who looked so much like a friend he had known, even for such a short period of time, made Sky’s heart drop for a moment. Then he gave himself a mental shake. Whatever he thought, it had nothing to do with this boy.
“Apologizes,” he said instead, “you...look like someone I know.”
“Well I’m not,” Roxas said firmly, “I’ve never even seen you before.”
“I know,” Sky repiled, “and it’s my fault for assuming.” He placed a hand over his heart dramatically. He couldn’t help it. “I was just looking for a friend of mine I think might be around here. . It’s been...a long time since I’ve seen him, you see. I must have gotten over excited about finding anyone that looked even slightly familiar.”
‘Slightly familiar’ was a bit of an understatement when Roxas looked like a mirror image of Ven, but it probably wasn’t fair to confuse the boy like that.
For a moment Roxas looked annoyed, but that soon faded, “You’re...looking for your friend?” Sky nodded rapidly, “Oh, yes! I...got word he might be here, and I thought maybe…” he trailed off. If this had really been Ven, maybe he would have known where Lea was. But he supposed that was only a wish, so he shook his head, “Ah, but I suppose that doesn't matter now.” He paused as something clicked in his mind. “But maybe you’ve seen something?”
“Look I have to get back to….”
“He…” for a moment Sky paused. It had, as he’d just realized, been years since he’d last seen Lea or Isa. He hadn’t even caught so much as a glimpse in all that time. He didn’t know if they had changed, or even if they would recognize him if he saw them again. Maybe he would recognize them, but picturing what they could be like off the top of his head? Impossible. Was that why the spell didn’t work as planned? “...he has red hair,” he finally said, “kind of a trouble maker? His name is Lea.” At least those were things he was sure were true, no matter how much else would change. He looked hopefully at the boy.
But Roxas shook his head, “Sorry,” he said. “I don’t know that name.”
It was a slight blow, but Sky had been bracing himself for it this time and could only sigh in disappointment. “I see,” he said, “well, thank you anyway. And I am sorry about running into you.” He turned to leave.
“It’s not a big deal,” Roxas grumbled and rubbed the back of his head. “And, uh, I hope you managed to find your friend. Friends, I guess”
Sky paused to look back at him in surprise, and beamed at him. “Thank you, Roxas,” he said. “You’re very kind.”
Roxas muttered something, but turned to go as well.
Yet, Skystorm was still grateful for him.
Somehow, those simple words made him feel as if he could actually do something. As they each set out on their separate ways, somehow, Sky couldn’t help but feel that he was closer than ever to actually finding at least one of his friends. He just had to keep moving forward, and make sure he didn’t give up.