He sat for a second, then said, "Well, I never actually saw the tree..."
FLASHBACK
It happened a few nights back. My...mother and I were drinking coffee at Tinkton's Morning Grill.
Sitting at dimly lit bar, the security guard was talking to a young beautiful girl. He had faced a whole night of rejection, and girls laughing, awkwardly or hysterically, in his face. In other words, it was somewhat of a normal weekend for him. They just wouldn't believe he wanted to have a decent conversation. He did, but honestly it was a half truth. It didn't matter though, because this night was better than most already! Someone was actually listening to him.
One of my buddies was trying to call me again and again, and I kept blowing him off, but after a while I gave in and answered.
His phone rang, and he pulled it out and cut it off. The girl had asked him before if it was important, and he'd said it wasn't. It was obvious to her that the calls were annoying him. The next few minutes would each have a call, and finally he would ask her to excuse him while he took it angrily.
When I did, he told me to go outside, and I did. And you wouldn't believe it, but there was an aurora going on. We're practically on the equator! Aurora's don't happen this far south.
Reluctantly, after listening to his friend and trying to get him off of him, the security guard walked outside. Shocked by the waves of brilliant colour, he dropped the phone, and ran back inside to tell the girl he was talking to about it. She was as shocked as he was, and her skin flickered gray, and her hair black, for a second. The guard thought he saw something, but decided it was nothing.
I ran back into the cafe and told them to turn on the news. There was some kind of monster, some kind of evil winged beast. Someone said it was the dark one. It had created huge expanses of fire in space, and ripped a whole in the shadow. This was amazing, because before this no one had proven there was another side to it. Anyway, the fire was causing some kind of effect on the atmosphere to create the aurora for some scientific reason no one understands... Anyway, some figure had shone up and defeated the monster, but there was some kind of plant that was growing, and the news was asking for anyone skilled in magic to board the ships and help defend the system from the plant.
The guard and the girl ran back into the bar, and turned on the news. They were all shocked by what was going on. Could the stories be true? Was this really a battle between Aser and Aser's enemy going on right before their very eyes? The guard, however being the romantic that he was, wasn't thinking about the danger that their world was in. He was thinking this was a perfect place to show off. He very openly announced it, and after a few words with the young woman, he ran to reach the nearest port.
Being the loyal and heroic citizen of the UCH that I am, I went as fast as I could to the nearest port I could. I waited like half an hour for us to load up with a proper amount of magicians, but after a while we finally got out into space. Unfortunately we were pretty much the LAST SHIP UP THERE! Seriously! Thirty seconds before we left the atmosphere a mysterious white flash appeared and took the plant away.
Landing back at port, the guard walked out of customs dejectedly. People all around him were congratulating him, but he didn't get to do anything. He didn't get to help. He didn't get to be a hero. He went straight home after that, not even stopping back at the bar again. He would later regret it, but even though he had spent time in that bar almost every night since, the girl never showed up.
