Swing of the Clock

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style,padding:0; margin: 0; background-image:url(http://i40.tinypic.com/j5bcrq.jpg);background-repeat:repeat-y;width: 525px;height:700px;] This wasn’t what Lena had expected. She’d heard the Ormy Ruins had caved in, but she didn’t expect them to be this unrecognizable. A pile of boulders. An elbow sticking out here, what might have been the tip of a crown or a trident over there. Before her lay the past. In ruins. She felt a lump rising in her throat. She tried to picture what it had once looked like. It must have been the pride of all. It must have been beautiful. Worth something. A shame it had fallen. Where was Logan? She snapped a picture and turned around. Maybe he’d spotted a cabbage along the way. She smiled at the thought, then reached into her backpack to make sure the two cabbages she’d brought for them were still in there. She remembered study sessions over cabbage when they’d been in high school. There’d been weeks when she was sure he wouldn’t have come if it hadn’t been for the cabbage, other weeks upon recollection she wouldn’t have showed up but for tradition. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but there was more than the past that was holding her and Logan together. It was the future, or of the possibility of one. Lena shuddered at the thought of that scary, unknown time period and went back to the past and the familiar comfort it held. She spotted Logan and waved at him, a giggle spilling forth. “Logan!” she yelled, running up to him, “I’ve got a present for you.” Not the cabbage; that could wait a little longer. She pulled a scrapbook from her backpack. She had waded through thousands of photos to find the twenty pictures to begin Logan’s scrapbook with, and hours more to arrange them just perfectly. Admittedly, she’d probably used too much glitter, and the pop-up page could be considered cheesy, but if it was the thought that counted, on a scale of one to ten, she’d have earned at least 42. She shoved it into Logan’s hand with a giggly blush, knowing if he didn’t like it, she had a cabbage in her backpack to back it up with. “I was looking for those scratch-and-sniffs that I got you sophomore year; you know, the cucumber-and-cabbage ones, but they don’t make them anymore. Sad.” She giggled again.

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[atrb=background,http://i.imgur.com/jnMIIWx.png] Early morning walks weren't necessarily Logan's cup of tea, nor were early morning anythings. Even when sleeping outside (which was almost always,) Logan usually slept under the bright sun until about eleven. He would be lying if he said he was more accustomed to dew on his shoes than all over his face in the morning. And yet here he was, walking up this traily thingy, forcing each step like he was walking through three-foot-high water. Even if he had found a cabbage alongside the path, he probably would've just given a small pleasant grunt in it's direction. Maybe taken note of it's location for later retrieval. But he didn't find any mystical cabbage, and he wasn't bothered with these problems of what he would do if he did find one. In fact, the only thing Logan was thinking at this point roughly translates to "I want to go to sleep. I want to go back to sleep. I don't want to be walking." He trudged on like a real soldier though, and slowly got to where he was supposed to be going. When he finally reached the ruins of the Orma whatevers he found even less than he expected. There were a bunch of old rocks laying around. Bummer. Logan couldn't imagine how a dump like this could ever have been anything but some old dump. Place probably sucked. He saw Lena wave to him from a distance. She said she had a present for him. Happy at the offer of free stuff, Logan wasn't really tired anymore, and managed to get to Lena faster than he'd been walking for quite some time now. Logan, quite honestly, was stunned by the gift that was given to him. You can't let her no you don't like it. None of that "Oh... thanks for the thought!" stuff. No, you have to act like this is the best gift you've ever gotten. Even better than that. Here goes, Logan. WHOA. This. Is. The best. Thing I've ever received in my life. This may well be a blessing from the gods. And you're right, it is stupid that they don't make those anymore. ...At least the last part was sincere. Logan wasn't worried about her catching on. He totally nailed that. He was glad he'd practiced all that subtle acting before.

[atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style,padding:0; margin: 0; background-image:url(http://i40.tinypic.com/j5bcrq.jpg);background-repeat:repeat-y;width: 525px;height:700px;] He totally hated it. But Lena ignored the thought; he must just be tired. It’s hard to be excited when you’re tired, even about something this amazing. “I know!” she said, “It is the best thing ever! Remember the day we took that picture?” she pointed to the one on the random page Logan had flipped to. “That was the day Zach got his braces off. You can’t tell with his mouth close, but- well, all the pictures are labeled. Countless hours of enjoyment and reminiscing for you later! In the meantime, I brought this.” She placed a cabbage on the book and tapping her purple cabbage against it like she was clinking glasses together. “Breakfast of champions,” she said, peeling back a leaf. They settled on a bench. The sun was rising, robed in purples and blues. Lena scooted half an inch closer to Logan, not too close. Actually, yes, this was too close. She shivered and scooted away again. Too soon. Lena couldn’t figure out if she should be looking at Logan while eating her cabbage or the sunset, so she started glancing between the two as quick as possible. Then she felt slightly insane, so she just stared at her hands. “Have you ever tried cabbage juice?” Lena asked.

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[atrb=background,http://i.imgur.com/jnMIIWx.png] Logan thought that Lena was maybe having some sort of muscle conversion, but didn't want to call her out on it. He didn't know what the courtesy for muscle spasms was. Was it like talking to a pregnant lady? Was he supposed to ask her? What if she was just fat? Maybe he should just ask "do you have any children?" to see if she would answer with "one on the way." Logan had never really sat on a bench with a pregnant lady anyway. Maybe this was one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences that he would look back on in his adult years and chuckle hardily. Wait, wasn't Logan already an adult? Logan guessed that he never really felt like an adult, but he was, technically. Anyway he was sitting next to this pregnant lady. Oh wait no that was Lena! And he had Cabbage! As he had started to chow right on down to downtown he'd been asked a question that was definitely of his interest. “Have you ever tried cabbage juice?” Logan thought that the closest thing to juice that could come from a cabbage was water. Apparently along with being a pregnant lady Lena was also a witch who could make cabbage into a juice, which Logan was assuming was absolutely divine. "No, I haven't had it! If you don't show this to me within one half hour you will feel the epitome of my fury!" He was obviously joking, and had his big ol' stupid grin stretched across his face. He pronounced "epitome" like "epeh tohm" and generally looked like an idiot. He was good at that. But with the promise of more cabbage based goods in his near future, he didn't care about his appearance one bit.