Leno’s POV before (Remembers Me Now). Or, Leno finally meets his best friend.
Leno was almost eight now, and he didn't have to help out every day at the store, and Mam had given up on making him go to school with his sisters. He was the littlest, and he knew that meant he was gonna grow up to be a solider, and soliders don't need school. They learned a lot of other things, but Little Leno wasn't big enough for that yet, and Pop was always busy, so Ryan got to run around on his own.
Ryan used to stay home with Gramma all day, but it had been years since, and Ryan knew all the best places in the city to play. Even the parts up in the northside, where the castle was, where he wasn't supposed to go, but over by the northwest gate, if Ryan didn't get too close to where the Royal Stables where, he could get to the Stone Pile.
He called it The Yard in his head sometimes, some days he decided he was going to The Yard, and he took his wooden sword that John had gotten for him at the Faire, and a snack from the kitchen cuboards that he could totally reach without any help now, and he marched through the cool, crisp fall air to The Yard.
Little Leno was gonna fight monsters today, big scary ones, like Gramma told him about, four legged creatures like big, stretched out dogs with huge, spiked horns on their head. He was gonna slay the Deer and save everyone, and everyone was going to love him so much -
When Ryan made the last turn around the corner into The Yard, he thought, suddenly, that he must be dreaming. Because, there, right in front of his eyes, his friend was sitting at the bottom of the biggest rock pile.
The blond head of curly hair was as familiar to Ryan as anything, the wide blue eyes in his round face were shinning but serious as the boy stacked the old, flat cobblestones together. It looked like he was building a house.
"Hey!" Ryan shouted, and the boy jumped, scrambling to his feet and whipping his head around. He looked, scared? Why was he scared, it was only Ryan. "Hey!" Ryan ran the last few steps up to the boy, waving his hands, grinning.
"Sorry," the other boy said, trying to take a step back and tripping over a stone. Ryan dropped his sword, grabbing his friend and keeping him from falling.
"Got you." Ryan said, looking into the blond boy's flushed face. "I got you." He tightened his hands, pulling the boy to stand, and then held on even tighter, arms around the boy's middle. "You're not gonna fall."
"Oh." The other boy tentatively reached out to touch Ryan's arms. "Who are you?"
"I'm Ryan. I'm eight." He added, because that felt important.
"I'm eight too."
"Cool."
"Cool." Ryan was grinning so wide, and now his friend was grinning back. "You wanna play monsters?" Ryan blurted out, because that's how it always went in his dreams, he asked, you wanna, and his friend would.
"I don't know how," the other boy pulled away, looking down to scuff his boots in the dirt. His boots were really clean, and Ryan hoped his friend's Pop wouldn't get mad if they got messed up.
"I'll show you! Here," Ryan quickly bent to retrieve his sword and hold it out to his friend, and once he took it, Ryan spun around and started gathering up the rocks. "We gotta make the monster first, a really big and scary one."
"Okay. Can I help?"
"Sure!" And the boy carefully laid the sword down, and joined Ryan in piling up the rocks to build the one stone wide legs of the Deer, the piled up heavy body, and then found sticks for the horns. When the monster was done, Ryan stood up, brushed off his hands, and grabbed his sword.
He stood in front of the monster, and swung his blade until it was pointed right at the beast. He looked over his shoulder, where his friend was standing just behind him, hands clenched in the bottom of his shirt, blue eyes so, so wide.
"Hey," the boys eyes snapped to Ryan. "What's your name?"
"I'm Will."
"Cool." Ryan grinned at his friend, and then turned to the monster, stepping so that he was in between the stones and his friend. "I'm gonna save you Will. You don't hafta worry about anything."
And when Little Leno swung his sword up and high, he let out a battle cry, the one he'd been practicing in his dreams, with Will. And, when he struck, knocking the stones down, Will cheered and clapped behind him.
Hell or Highwater is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter and actor David Duchovny. It was released on May 12, 2015 through Thinksay Records. Duchovny's backing band on the record, Weather, consists of Berklee-trained musicians. The album was produced by Weather member Colin Lee.
I was just playing 'Hell or Highwater' on my phone, and as mum waits for the microwave to finish heating the thing she wants to eat, she asks "Who's this?"
So I tell her David Duchovny (I added hes on actor on the x files LIKE THE IDIOT I AM OF COURSE SHE WOULD KNOW)
Her response:
"Oh god." Like she just remembered something, and experienced NOSTALGIA.
There’s great sadness to the passing of time, regardless of whether you’re in a good place or not. I wouldn’t say my songs are about a longing to go back, but they’re just the pain of no more.
ok so in a month im gonna meet DD at his concert and i have no idea what im gna say? like im gna be a nervous wreck and also can i just blab that i love the x files when im technically there for his concert, is he over hearing that?? WHAT ARE YOUR EXPERIENCES????? i’ve read he’s really nice.
also anyone who goes to his meet & greet in NZ or AUS hit me up once you’ve gone and tell me how it went!
