Fig stayed with Glorgol for a bit, chatting with him about different things. Mostly it had to do with their inventions and what they made so far; and what they ultimately lost in the fire. Glorgol offered to help them see if anything from the fire was recoverable tomorrow if they wanted, and Fig was grateful, because as much magic as they could use, they weren’t anywhere near as strong as Glorgol. He had proven his strength by picking up a large log and throwing it a fair distance half an hour into their stay.
What really intrigued Fig, was their new friend’s family. Apparently his grandmother had been unworldly strong, able to lift tree trunks out of the ground with just a couple of tugs. She’d also taught him all he needed to know about farming, and taking care of sheep and how to take care of cows. (Although it seems they were never able to get some for this property, but apparently when his grandma was growing up she’d helped in raising all sorts of animals).
After a while of talking, both of them were getting along pretty well, neither noticing the time pass by, until Fig looked out the window, saw that it was nearing sunset, and sighed softly.
“I should get heading out, it was nice to meet you Glorgol, see you tomorrow?”
“Yeah, goodbye.”
With that, Fig put their gas mask back on their head, and started walking out, towards home.
*************
Nearing the edge of the treeline, they put their mask in their bag o’ junk, and limped home. Their legs acting up again despite the resting that had been done in order to keep them functioning. It made it worse that no matter what, they were stuck without their walker. Their handy walker that could turn into a clunky cube when they needed to put it away, was probably irreparable now. Still, Fig couldn’t help but hold out hope that at least the blueprints for the walker survived. Or else they’d have to refigure things out from scratch, and that could be a while.
What they were most upset about, was the fact that they ruined a robot. The first thing they did was destroy it! They really should’ve done some research, and seen if there were any blueprints in the scrapyard that could teach them more about this discarded robot.
Still, most of the smaller designs, and a good chunk of their older blueprints were in their special bag. So it’s not like they had to worry about too much. In fact, the fire might allow them to continue working on those designs. After they repair their walker of course.
Once they finished pathetically hobbling home, they cringed looking at how the sun was down at this point. As quietly as they could, Fig opened the door, not wanting to wake anyone up. Although that was considerably harder considering the door always had to creak loudly when it was opened. Still they were very glad, and a little disappointed, that no one woke up to that.
Settling into their bed, in the room that they shared with their sister, Fig fell asleep pretty easily. The day having tired them out with its antics.
**********************
It was barely sunrise the next day when Fig awoke to their youngest brother shaking them awake.
“Figgy! Where were you! You were goooonnnne for forever!” He spoke with a slight lisp, making his voice sound younger than he actually was. (This also helped him in getting out of trouble, but Fig could tell that it annoyed him because everyone was prone to babying him because of this).
“I was exploring Aeon. Now let me sleep.”
“But mom and dad were worried too!”
“Then tell them that I’m home and safe. Let me sleep.”
“But I wanna hear about your explorations!”
Fig sighed, they were never going to get to sleep in at this point. They loved their younger siblings, but sometimes they wanted their siblings to step on a thorn. Not really, Fig had stepped on one a few times and it had hurt. But still, would it really hurt to let them sleep in just a little?
“Fiiine. But you can’t tell mom and dad about my adventures. Or try and copy them.”
“Okay!” Their brother agreed a little too easily, so Fig made a note to tell some ghost stories in there too, just to make sure that he wouldn’t try to venture out into the woods.
“Get out of my room, tell our parents that I’ll be out in a minute!”
Without another word, Aeon left, and Fig closed their door, made sure the curtains were closed, and got changed into clothes that weren’t singed from a massive explosion. (They still needed to figure out a new workshop, but that would be something to deal with later. Right now, they had a family to convince they were alright). Doing their best to get their morning grogged, foggy brain in talking condition, Fig exited their room; painfully walking to the kitchen table.
“Might you tell us where you’ve been?”
“Honey, she’s an adult! But you did scare us sweetheart, could you give us a warning next time you’ll be out past sunset?”
Fig had to keep from physically cringing at that. Sure they weren’t out to their parents, but it still hurt. Still, the rest of what was said wasn’t unreasonable, it just kind of sucked since, despite being an adult their parents still treated them like a kid.
“If I know, I’ll tell you. I just hadn’t realized how late it had been, until I started heading home.”
Their parents seemed to contemplate that a bit. Fig’s mother shooting them a curious glance, before they seemed to reach an unspoken decision.
“Alright,” their father finally said, “but be careful, we don’t want you getting hurt.”
Nodding, Fig noticed as their other little brother, the older of the two boys, started placing down plates of food in front of them, and gratefully started shoving pancakes in their mouth, not wanting to talk anymore.
After breakfast, Fig started getting ready to meet Glorgol, grimacing with every moment longer that they were standing. Maybe going out into the woods today wasn’t the best idea, but they couldn’t stand Glorgol up! That would be rude, and they may not have many manners but being somewhere when they said they’d be is one of them.
However, they didn’t manage to get out of the house that easily, as their youngest sibling still wished to hear about their adventures in the forest. So they made up something, something that would keep their younger brother from adventuring out on his own, while also making it seem like they had been on a cool adventure. The lie was about them tackling a huge spider, and scaring it further into the forest to keep from eating the villagers. Nothing too elaborate, but it wasn’t simple either. Still, it felt like forever before they got to go to the woods and investigate their old workshop with Glorgol.
