Chapter Text
For as long as Marl can remember, Gabbro was there...
Unless they weren't.
Apparently it depended on their mood, which seemed to fluctuate like the weather (or, more fittingly, the Quantum Moon).
Not that Gabbro had ever been an overtly 'moody' person. As far as Marl could tell they had at least three: sleepy, disinterested, and hyper-focused. To start...
As much as Marl had spent literally their entire life in close proximity with their older cabin mate, they'd never once been able to claim that they actually 'understood' Gabbro. That's because they didn't speak much unless prompted, and gave very little away in their facial expressions or body language. They never smiled, and only ever frowned if their beanie wasn't on just right or they were being forced to eat grits. For this, in the very beginning of their friendship, Gabbro reminded Marl very much of a rock. Or maybe a tree.
But if Gabbro found something that scratched the itch in their special little brain, then they spoke at length about only that single thing. It could have been ferns, or frogs, or mushrooms, or the ants under the cabin porch, Gabbro would study it intensely and recite all of their observations in minute detail. Sometimes, Gabbro even spoke to the objects of their interest, asking them questions as if they genuinely expected an answer.
Marl quickly figured out that this was (one of the reasons) why the older hatchlings tended to call them 'weirdo' (there was also their habit of staring off into space, or the way they watched when the others were eating, and the way they preferred to go around bare foot, sometimes shook their arms and legs frantically as if something was crawling on them, but Marl had always know them to do that).
Something else Marl noticed was that, if and when Gabbro did decide to share their thoughts, they only ever shared them with Marl. When it came to the older hatchlings (Porphy, Chert, Hornfels, Tuff, Gossan, and Slate), Gabbro reverted to selective deafness and mutism, preferred to use sign if pressed for a response, or just avoided interacting entirely. And with the younger ones (Riebeck and Hal), Gabbro was more inclined to watch them from where they sat in the corner or under the dining table reading books and drawing in the margins than engage them in games or 'conversation'.
So, the fact that the blue-eyed misfit appeared to gravitate to Marl rather than the others made Marl feel... well... 'special'. Not Gabbro's kind of 'special', but...
Whatever it was, from four-years old, Marl stuck by Gabbro's side as much as they could... which wasn't as much as they'd like, because Gabbro spent a lot of time playing solo hide-and-seek– that is, they found a really good place to hide, and stayed there until they were hungry enough to reveal themself again.
But, at the end of the day, Gabbro always showed up. And when they were around (as in, present), then they were most likely with Marl. They even shared a bed together more often than not (something Gabbro started doing pretty soon after Marl was old enough to be deemed 'house broken' and released from Rutile's care into the hatchling cabin, and which Marl realized was a much better alternative to lying awake and listening to Gabbro fighting down sobs with quiet noises of distress).
For some reason (imprinting or whatever), after a while, Marl had decided that Gabbro was their Gabbro. And, like most tadpoles, Marl was quite possessive. They doubt Gabbro ever noticed this.
Either way, Gabbro was Marl's Gabbro. Their best friend.
...
...and then Feldspar moved in...
---
Feldspar was a spoiled brat. A nuisance. A menace.
They had parents, but they made the biggest fuss about wanting to live in the hatchling cabin. Marl couldn't understand why.
That said, everyone got used to the intrusion after not too long. But Feldspar was Slate and Gossan and Hornfels' friend. Sure, they could be fun, sometimes even funny. They also took more interest in the younger hatchlings than the rest of the teens did. That was their only redeeming quality in Marl's opinion.
At first, just as with all the other older hatchlings, Gabbro avoided Feldspar.
But...
One morning while they were all eating breakfast, Chert cornered Gabbro for staring at them while they were trying to eat, waving an accusatory finger at the younger hatchling from across the table. It was one of the few times Marl saw their best friend's face pull into something more than mild displeasure. They'd watched Gabbro's ears droop, their eyes fall to their lap and become glossy, saw their bottom lip disappear between their teeth, and felt that kind of icky feeling hatchlings got when their friends are getting scolded.
But then Feldspar spoke.
"Stop your whinin', squirt! Gabbro's just Gabbro, yeah? At least they're not gonna try stealin' your grits when you're not lookin'."
...and then Marl watched as Gabbro's eyes widened just a little, their ears perking again, and their gaze shifted covertly to the right, landing on the boisterous, chaotic teen...
(Even a very young Marl could tell something changed in their friend that day. It also made them feel icky.)
And that stuck. From then on, any time Gabbro did or said something that irked Chert or Hornfels, Feldspar would chime in and say 'Gabbro is Gabbro', and that was the end of it.
---
The icky feeling only got worse when they saw Gabbro's demeanor toward Feldspar change from that point too.
Before, Feldspar equalled loud and not interesting. Now, Gabbro watched them whenever they were in the same vicinity. They didn't approach the teen, but they were always observing...
Even when Marl was there.
It made young Marl angry.
So, in classic 'child with a grudge' fashion, Marl started doing whatever they could to catch and keep Gabbro's attention. But there was very little Marl ever said or did that actually elicited much of a reaction from Gabbro. Thus, when showing off their drawings or pet grappler beetles, or stuffing their cheeks full of marshmallows didn't work, they turned to being destructive instead. They crumpled or tore Gabbro's drawings and broke Gabbro's crayons.
But Gabbro never did much more than let their hands fall to their sides, wait for Marl to finish having their temper tantrum, and silently collect the broken fragments of their crayons or drawings into their pockets, and disappear for a couple of hours.
Marl only did that a handful of times before shame and guilt prevented them.
---
Sometimes, one of the adults would stop by the hatchling cabin looking for Gabbro to take them fishing.
Only Gabbro.
That seemed very strange to Marl. Spinel was grumpy and didn't even like hatchlings.
What was even stranger was the way Gabbro's eyes lit up on those occasions. They'd leave the cabin in a hurry (Gabbro never hurried), without so much as a wave or a goodbye to Marl or any of the other hatchlings. Not even Feldspar...
But when they were brought back, Gabbro would stand on the porch, staring at the retreating fisherfellow's back until they were out of sight, and then crawl into a little hard to reach nook under the porch and stay there for hours.
Overcome with curiosity (and lacking any real sense of tact at their young age), Marl had asked why Gabbro was so special that they got to go on fishing outings all by themself.
After a while of quiet sitting (in which their best friend had focused on building a little twig fort for a bewildered weevil), Gabbro said that Spinel was their parent.
That had been a shock to Marl, who until then had believed with all their little heart that Gabbro was an orphan like them. In fact, so full of disbelief was Marl, that they refuted it with every ounce of ignorant certainty they could muster.
"That's a lie! If they're your parent, why do you live here?"
Gabbro's expression didn't change a bit as they snapped another twig into perfectly equal-sized bits and stacked them on top of the others carefully.
"...Because I cried too much. So they don't want me anymore."
...
Marl didn't have a response to that. Their young mind couldn't comprehend what they'd just heard.
So they sat silently and watched Gabbro until Slate stepped out on the porch and bellowed into the air in general that the two of them were going to go to bed hungry if they didn't get their butts inside by the count of ten.
Neither Marl nor Gabbro ever brought the subject of parents up again.
---
Gabbro continued to watch Feldspar.
And then, to Marl's dismay, they even started to imitate them.
Feldspar told a lot of stupid jokes. So Gabbro started telling stupid jokes too (only to Marl, but the fact that they did it at all was completely foreign). Like...
"What do you call a zero-g frog?"
"...I don't know."
"A 'fro'. Because its got zero 'g's."
"..."
Feldspar also had this annoying way of starting or ending their sentences on an emphatic laugh. So Gabbro did too...
...Well, they weren't emphatic, and it wasn't really a laugh, but they began peppering their sentences with 'haha', which they shouldn't have done, because that would only make them look weirder, and then the others would tease them more. Marl didn't want that.
They tried telling Gabbro as much. It didn't stop them, though.
What was even worse was when Gabbro started acting like Feldspar.
No, they didn't start rushing around or talking in yells or wrestling you on the spot. But they did see Feldspar leaping from bunk to bunk like a giant frog while trying to escape from Slate once, which had the whole cabin breaking out in raucous laughter. And then Gabbro did the same the very next day while all the older ones were out. They were pretty good at it (the leaping from bunk to bunk like a frog bit), and Hal laughed, Riebeck fretted about them falling and getting hurt, and Marl watched with awe because they'd never seen Gabbro acting so 'dynamic' before...
But then...
Their foot got caught on one of the ladders, they went tumbling to the floor, and as they fell, knocked one of the lit oil lamps off of a bedside table, which smashed and caught alight instantly.
Thankfully, hyper, fleet-footed Hal dashed off and called the adults quickly, and nothing more than the dresser and some floorboards were damaged (and Gabbro had sustained a couple of bruises from the fall).
But, as soon as the fire was delt with and all hatchlings were accounted for, the dreaded question came:
Who did it?
...
Marl doubts very much that Hal meant anything by tattling on Gabbro. But then came the verbal lashing:
'What were you thinking?'
'You put the little ones in danger!'
'Do you realize what could have happened if Hal didn't call us? The whole cabin could have burned down!'
'Reckless! Inconsiderate!'
'Who's going to fix the dresser? Replace the floor boards?! Clean up the mess?!'
Marl had stood off to the side with Hal and Riebeck and saw Gabbro bite down on their bottom lip and stare blindly at their feet, their shoulders trembling as the berating words rained down on them. Then, with absolute terror, they'd watched as their best friend raised their hands to their forearms and dug their fingernails into their skin and tore-
Riebeck screeched when they saw the blood. Hal started crying in fright. Then, so did Marl.
Rutile, Spinel, and Gneiss were shocked too, stunned to silence, unsure of what to do. Then they said things like 'not normal' and 'acting out', and by this time Gabbro had actually started crying silently, their eyes wide and almost scared.
Marl didn't know what to do either. They'd never actually seen Gabbro cry before...
But guess who walked through the door at that exact moment?
...Feldspar.
The teen knelt in front of Gabbro, took their hands into their own, and spoke quietly, gently, in a way that was completely unlike the Feldspar Marl was used to seeing. Marl didn't hear what Feldspar asked Gabbro, but they remembered very clearly what Gabbro had signed back:
'Inside. Hurt. Too much. Cry, bad. Don't want. Hurt, don't want. Bad, don't want.'
Marl knew exactly what every sign meant. But they had no idea what Gabbro was actually saying...
Feldspar seemed to understand, though. They took Gabbro outside and bandaged their arms and sat with Marl's best friend until Gabbro wasn't crying or trying to use pain to stop the tears anymore. And when they came back inside, Gabbro didn't hide under the table or the bed.
---
And just like that, Gabbro wasn't Marl's Gabbro anymore. They were Feldspar's Gabbro now. At least, this is what Marl's hatchling brain had deduced.
Oh, they still spent more time with Marl than the other hatchlings, but that wasn't really saying much, and it was only when Feldspar was too busy hanging around with the other teens or learning to be fire watch with Tektite.
It didn't make sense to Marl. Gabbro was a hatchling, Feldspar was a teenager. Teenagers were cool in theory, but they were really boring when it came to playing with toys and other games. Why would Gabbro even want to be around Feldspar so much?
And Gabbro had changed a lot. Every time they came back from fishing or swimming with Feldspar, they'd be 'smiling'. It wasn't your typical smile, but Marl had watched Gabbro more closely than anyone, so they could tell. And, they'd started talking more, and hiding less.
Marl didn't know how they felt about it all. On the one hand, if Gabbro was smiling and talking, that meant they were happy (which was a word Marl would never have used to describe Gabbro before).
On the other... Marl knew that Gabbro was only smiling more because of... well, not because of Marl.
For instance, they once spoke enthusiastically (enthusiastically! Gabbro!?) about some project Feldspar, Slate, and Gossan were working on. A crazy idea to fly into space. Gabbro had never spoken about space before that, but now they were determined to learn as much about the topic as possible, even going so far as to voluntarily approach Chert and Hornfels to ask them questions (although they quickly backed off when Chert got all uppity about it, and chose to do their own research instead... which took up all their free time between classes and chores and before lights out).
So, once again, Feldspar was the reason Gabbro was even less interested in Marl. Naturally, Marl liked Feldspar even less from that point on.
Looking back, Marl knows now that they were just terribly jealous.
---
The hatchling cabin emptied a little when Gossan and Slate, and then Tuff moved out.
As they grew older and time moved on, Marl learned how to 'read' Gabbro. They could easily tell when their best friend didn't have the energy to deal with a situation or certain people (usually when Chert was having a meltdown, or Hornfels was arguing with Feldspar), or when they'd found a new thing to be obsessed about (because they'd disappear for hours, stay awake way too late and forget to do their homework, or pace and mutter), or when they were on the verge of having one of their strange episodes where their eyes glazed over and their shoulders started shaking like that time they dug their nails into their arms (Marl was glad that hadn't happened again)...
So it was obvious when Gabbro was feeling overwhelmed or anxious (although Marl hadn't known the right words for it at the time), because they chewed at their lips and bit at their nails and plucked at the fabric of their pants or sleeves, sometimes rocking in their seat, their eyes darting around rapidly. Marl had never figured out how to help Gabbro in those moments. Trying to distract them with talking or bringing their favourite books never worked...
This particular episode coincided with Feldspar getting sick. Marl wasn't surprised. But they didn't pay it much attention, because they were kind of used to Gabbro being so hung up on Feldspar now.
Gabbro refused to come to class that morning. They convinced Hornfels that they just had a tummy ache. So Marl (slightly miffed) had left them curled up in bed and walked with Hal and Riebeck to the annex classroom, and hadn't stopped thinking about their best friend once that entire day.
However, when Marl returned that afternoon, Gabbro seemed to be in a better mood. They were sitting with Feldspar on the teen's bunk, both of them laid out on their stomachs reading a book about mushrooms.
Marl remembers not bothering to greet either of their cabin mates as they walked through the door. They didn't try speaking to Gabbro for the rest of the day either. And they didn't feel bad about it, because it wasn't like Gabbro tried to speak to them.
But Gabbro still climbed into their bed a couple of minutes after lights out, shuffling close until their back was pressed to Marl's. And, as much as Marl tried to give them the cold shoulder, they couldn't stay angry.
They could never stay angry at Gabbro.
Who knows why...
---
After that, every time Marl caught Gabbro on the verge of having one of their episodes, Gabbro would wrap their arms around themself and start humming some weird low tune they'd never heard before.
Marl had a feeling they knew who'd taught it to them. And they'd instantly disliked it. So they covered their ears any time Gabbro hummed it around them.
If Gabbro ever noticed, it didn't make them stop...
---
Porphy made them all throw a surprise party for Feldspar on the day they moved out after their sapwine ceremony.
Marl wasn't really there because of Feldspar. They were there for the food and marshmallows and games (and because Porphy said so).
Gabbro didn't like parties. So they sat under the shade of a tree and watched the goings on from a distance.
Before they left, Feldspar found Gabbro in their little hiding spot and handed them something. Marl didn't watch the entire exchange, so they didn't actually see what it was until later.
It was a flute...
After the party was over and Feldspar had left, Marl sat nearby and watched Gabbro try to make sense of it, their droopy ears twitching and folding back slightly in discomfort when the resulting sounds came out too high-pitched. They were completely oblivious to Marl's presence all the while.
A few minutes in, curiosity and rising bitterness and intrusive thoughts spurring them on, Marl grabbed the instrument right out of their best friend's hands.
They don't know if Gabbro had caught on to their intent before Marl could carry it out. Even Marl wasn't sure where their intrusive thoughts would have led them. Either way, Gabbro had reached out swiftly and grabbed their wrist harder than Marl had ever seen them grab anything before. And before Marl could issue a complaint or a yell at the slight pain and huge surprise, the look in Gabbro's eyes had silenced them immediately, and any thoughts Marl had of putting a swift end to Gabbro's new obsession flew out the window.
Gabbro took their new instrument out of Marl's grasp gently, and slowly released their wrist. They said nothing– no apology, no reprimand... nothing. They just got up and left, and Marl knew they wouldn't see Gabbro until dinner time.
Whatever Marl had felt after that, they couldn't pinpoint it at the time. They were just too young to understand it. But they didn't speak to anyone for the rest of that day. And when Gabbro came back, they sat quietly at the dining table, clasping their new instrument to their chest and refusing to show it to anyone.
That night, Gabbro didn't sneak into Marl's bed. Nor the night after that one. Nor the next.
And even though Feldspar wasn't there anymore, and they never came back to visit, Gabbro spent hardly any time around Marl. Even on class days, Gabbro would spend their break times settled on a tree branch, practicing their flute.
Marl thinks that might have been the very first time they ever felt regret, because by the fourth day of Gabbro not speaking to them, they really wished they hadn't done what they did. They knew they should apologize, but they were too ashamed to even do that much.
Add to the shame, bitterness when they realized that the tune Gabbro almost always played on their flute (and Gabbro was always playing their flute now) was the same tune they'd been humming whenever they had one of their episodes.
Unable to understand what that actually implied for the emotional state of their best friend, Marl had merely felt an even stronger dislike for Feldspar. They were glad the older teen had left the hatchling cabin...
---
Marl spent more time with Hal and Riebeck in the coming days. And as soon as they were old enough to start learning the basics of a trade, Esker began taking them out into the woods.
Marl enjoyed those little adventures, walking through the pine forests and learning about the trees and flora, and about the various tools and methods for maintaining and felling (although they weren't actually allowed to hold an axe for quite some time).
They can't remember exactly what they learned on any given day, but there was one lesson in particular that stuck with them;
Esker said that trees were a lot like people; that they needed 'friends' in order to thrive. They spoke about the relationships some trees formed with other plants. Or vice versa. Like, how some fungi formed a deep and intricate network of mycelia around a tree's roots, thus providing the tree with protection from harm and helping them absorb vital nutrients from the soil. Or how lichen helped trees to photosynthesize. Esker said that was called 'mutualism'.
But they also said that some plants that tried to be 'friends' with the trees weren't good friends. That there were some plants and fungi that merely used the tree for their own benefit, overgrowing them and hogging the sunlight (like Strangleweed), and even sucking the life-giving nutrients right out of their root system, leaving the tree stunted and weak. That was called 'parasitism'.
Marl thought about that a lot. In fact, it made such an impact on them that they decided to tell Gabbro about it (even as Gabbro played their flute without ceasing; Marl really had no idea how they even managed to breathe when they played like that).
To their delight, by the time Marl had finished talking, Gabbro actually lowered their flute and spoke. They said,
"Yeah, mushrooms are cool. Did you know they don't have stems..?"
...And, well, even if Marl was far less interested in mushrooms than they were in trees, they were just happy that Gabbro was talking with them again. So they listened to Gabbro ramble about different classes of mushrooms and how they grew, and which ones were edible, and which ones looked cool but would probably kill you, all the while absent-mindedly twirling their flute in one hand.
But Marl couldn't help but notice that Gabbro didn't 'smile' as they spoke. In fact, they'd all but stopped smiling after Feldspar left.
They weren't smiling, but at least they were talking to Marl...
---
As it turned out, Feldspar had been serious about attempting to fly to space. They even got Slate to build them a 'space ship'.
For some reason, Feldspar also thought it was necessary to take Marl on a 'tour' of said space ship. They had no idea why, (later, they found out that all the other hatchlings had already been presented with a tour, and felt inexplicably annoyed that this meant they weren't special in some way). But Feldspar had been grinning and laughing as they'd shown Marl around the exterior and the cockpit, enthusiastic and loud and friendly like they hadn't a clue about the fact that Marl didn't like them very much.
Marl was indifferent to all of it.
But some time later, when Feldspar tried to launch the thing, they crashed horribly and almost died.
Marl remembers watching Esker tending to bloody wounds on Slate's face outside of Gneiss' cabin, while inside, urgent efforts were carried out to save Feldspar's life.
Then they spotted Gabbro, standing at a distance, watching the scene with terror in their eyes. Before Marl could call out to them, Gabbro turned and fled.
This time, Marl followed. They tried their best to find Gabbro, checking all the places that looked like attractive hiding spots. It took a while before Marl actually located them.
They found Gabbro hunched up behind a boulder with their arms around their knees, rocking themself and muttering something under their breath. They didn't respond much when Marl gently tapped their shoulder and asked if they were okay. But when Gabbro did eventually lift their head, Marl was taken aback to see dried blood caking their left ear and the side of their neck...
Porphy treated the wound for Gabbro when they got back to the hatchling cabin with Marl much later that afternoon.
That night, Gabbro climbed into Marl's bed for the first time in almost three years. And, instead of lying with their back to Marl's, Gabbro slept while clinging to the back of their shirt.
---
...Gabbro was anxious.
They were worried about Feldspar. They didn't say it out loud, but Marl knew.
After a few weeks, their best friend went to visit their injured ex cabin mate. Marl wasn't there to see what happened, but when Gabbro wasn't back by dinner, they knew it hadn't gone well.
When Gabbro did return just before lights-out, they trudged in silently. Their feet were bare and covered in dirt, and there were pine needles and dead leaves sticking to their clothes. They looked and smelled like they'd taken a nap in the forest (and probably had). When Porphy (who was the oldest now that Hornfels had moved out) asked if they were hungry, Gabbro declined with a stiff shake of their head. After a deeply scrutinizing look, they were dismissed to take a bath.
Marl watched them head for the large outdoor geyser-fed tub from their bunk bed. Then they returned to their notebook and semi-focused on finishing their homework, but their thoughts were on their best friend...
...Gabbro was out there for a very long time.
So when Porphy got up from reading their medicine books and said they were going to go out to check on them, Marl shot off of their bunk and volunteered to do it instead.
When Marl stepped around the back of the cabin, they didn't see any signs of Gabbro. But their clothes were still in an untidy bundle on the ground outside the wooden tub. So Marl stepped closer...
And saw them lying at the bottom of the tub, completely submerged below the water's surface.
Marl didn't think they'd ever panicked before. They did now.
The thought that they should yell for Porphy flashed through their mind, but their body moved first, and before Marl knew it they were lifting themself over the edge of the tub and plunging into the steaming water, clothes and boots and everything. They sucked a quick breath before diving under, and grabbed the first part of Gabbro they could reach, which might have been a leg or an arm or even their face, Marl wasn't thinking enough to notice, but either way Gabbro flailed and there was a lot of splashing (which was probably all Marl), then they pushed themself up and out of the water, and Marl followed immediately.
Then Gabbro was rubbing at their eyes while Marl gasped and coughed for breath, grasping the edge of the tub and staring at their friend with wide eyes. They didn't get a chance to ask what Gabbro was thinking because Porphy and Chert both appeared around the back of the cabin hurriedly, and the oldest teen exclaimed a great big, 'Stars above! What are the two of you doing?!'
Gabbro didn't answer. At least when they were asked if they were okay, they nodded an affirmative. And Marl got a scolding for getting their clothes soaked and dirtying the bath water with their boots.
When they got into bed that night, Marl remained awake, hoping Gabbro would crawl onto their bunk too. They weren't disappointed. But, instead of lying with their back to their friend, Marl turned to face Gabbro.
"What were you doing in the bath?" They whispered.
Gabbro didn't answer for a while. Their tired eyes were downcast, blinking slowly.
"Taking a nap."
...
Marl was confounded.
"You can't breathe under water, stupid! What if you drowned?!" They hissed, quickly looking past Gabbro worriedly when their volume got just a tad too loud.
When they returned their gaze to Gabbro, their friend's eyes were closed. Marl tried tapping them on the arm, poking their nose, but Gabbro didn't respond. They were sleeping. Or pretending to be...
Annoyed, Marl let out a huff and turned around again. They glowered at the darkness and ground their teeth, convinced that the twisting in their gut was just anger, because they were too young to identify its true source. A minute later, Gabbro's fingers curled into the back of Marl's shirt.
That feeling in their gut didn't dissipate, even as they drifted off to sleep to the sound of Gabbro's quiet breaths.
---
They guess they could put it down to naivety. Marl doesn't know how else it took them that long to realize that there was something deeply wrong with Gabbro.
But realizing it didn't mean that they knew what to do about it.
Maybe if they'd just asked...
---
But they never did.
---
Gabbro didn't try to visit Feldspar again. Although, sometimes Marl would spy them watching their ex cabin mate from afar. They usually looked away after not very long.
It took a bit of observing for Marl to figure out why.
Feldspar had changed. Along with the jagged scars that now marred their face, their bright (and incredibly annoying) smile had twisted into something dull and mocking. Their eyes had become sharp. And when they spoke, they sounded like a complete slughead.
That was when Marl disliked them the most. They'd even go so far as to say they preferred the 'old' Feldspar.
It was also about that time that a new tadpole was brought to the hatchling cabin. It made no sense because, like Feldspar, they actually had living parents (but a lot of the things the adults did didn't make sense to Marl). Their entrance into the 'family' didn't mean much to Marl either– they were just another hatchling to keep an eye on (which wasn't Marl's responsibility). But Hal got attached pretty quickly.
That hatchling was Reg.
And Reg was a grabby, noisy whinge-guppy, and they cried at random things. Therefore Gabbro avoided them, and so did Marl as far as they could help it.
The following years were busy ones. Marl spent their free days with Esker or Tektite in the woods. They learned about various cutting methods, and how to tie knots, and how to maintain tools, and how to check trees for different kinds of disease like bark blight and needle rust.
Gabbro spent theirs with Spinel on the rivers doing whatever fisherfellows did besides catch, gut, and scale fish.
They saw each other for classes and at mealtimes, and sometimes at campfires (when Gabbro felt like joining... which wasn't that often).
But at night time, they were always in the same bed (even after Porphy had their sapwine ceremony and moved out, leaving Chert 'in charge' (since they were the oldest), and they immediately started calling the shots and insisting that Marl and Gabbro were too old to still be sharing a bed.)
The pair didn't pay them much attention. It was something Marl latched on to: that even if they didn't get to see their best friend during the day, Gabbro would always crawl into their bed at night, and they'd wake up together in the mornings.
And Marl started to feel like Gabbro was their Gabbro again...
For a while...
---
"I'm gonna join the Space Program."
...
They'd been walking back to the hatchling cabin after classes when Tektite called them over to keep an eye on things from the lookout tower on the Big Tree while they went to relieve themself.
At first, Marl had been very confused. Gabbro hadn't spoken about space even once since Feldspar crashed.
"Why?"
"So I can become an astronaut."
"Why do you want to be an astronaut?"
"Haha... so I can go to space?"
...
"Why do you want to go to space?"
Gabbro didn't answer that one, which meant it was up to Marl to come to their own conclusion. And they didn't like that conclusion, because it started with a capital 'F'.
"Hornfels and Chert already joined the space program," Marl hoped this would be enough to get Gabbro to reconsider.
Their best friend (who had grown quite a bit taller than Marl) merely shrugged.
...
Marl doesn't remember what went through their mind at that moment. They just remember feeling so driven by anger that they wanted to stamp their feet and yell.
But they were almost a teenager, and that sort of thing was stupid and immature, and they didn't want Gabbro thinking they were stupid and immature.
So, instead, they'd climbed up onto the rail of the lookout deck and grabbed one of the branches of the tree.
"Check out this new climbing trick Esker showed me!" They'd exclaimed with a grin, riding a wave of something reckless and stomping down the voice in their head that screamed that they should not be doing this without proper fall protection...
But Gabbro was watching them, and that's all Marl cared about-
Until their foot slipped on the fibrous redwood bark-
And the small branch they'd desperately grabbed a hold of snapped right off-
!
And then they were falling.
The shock and fear of knowing just how far down the ground was took the ability to scream right out of them. Marl honestly thought there and then that they were going to die.
But they landed hard on the railing-
heard something go CRUNCH-
fell some more, crashing right through the deck, broken boards tearing at their head and face and arms-
and then they hit the ramp below, which broke their fall rather than their fall breaking it...
...
When splinters were no longer raining down on them from above, Marl opened their eyes to see Gabbro leaning over the lookout deck railing and staring down at them...
...Then the pain hit-
Marl drew in a breath-
...
And screamed louder than they'd ever screamed before.
Gabbro ran off, and an eternity later, Tektite, then Hornfels arrived.
Everything was a blur from there. Marl remembers being asked if various parts hurt, and not being able to say anything in reply except 'No!' and 'Aaargh!'
Then they had to walk all the way down to Rutile's cabin, and Marl was almost certain absolutely everyone saw them scream and wail and sob like a tadpole while clutching at their broken arm, and somehow their pain-riddled preteen brain still had the capacity to feel embarrassed about it.
Getting the bones reset was even more scary than the actual fall. Marl remembers being held down by Tektite and Gneiss while Rutile did it. And how they'd wet themself from the fear and pain...
...
When it was over, and the painkillers had started to do their job, and they were covered in bandages, and their arm was in a cast, and they were wearing an oversized shirt in place of their soiled and torn overalls, Marl had laid in the treatment cabin cot and stared blankly at the ceiling.
With nothing to do, and afraid to move too much and jar their battered and bruised body, Marl thought about trees. Somehow, their thoughts went back to what Esker had taught them about tree diseases; how once a tree started to show signs of infection, when it's leaves were browning or wilting, or when it's bark started to rot, it meant that the disease was already root-deep...
After a while, their thoughts becoming foggy as the painkillers really started to take effect, they remembered how Gabbro had avoided them for years when jealousy had pushed Marl to try and break something precious to them. And how that same jealousy had made them do something equally (perhaps even more) stupid...
Jealousy really was an awful, ugly, poisonous thing...
...
Marl was starting to feel a little like a diseased tree...
...
Marl didn't want to be a diseased tree. Diseased trees got cut down before they contaminated the rest...
...
Then Marl thought about Gabbro. If Marl was a diseased tree, what kind of tree was Gabbro..?
...
Their mind went back to what they'd asked Esker about Strangleweed...
"Why does it kill the tree?" Marl had been eyeing a cluster of pale blue flowers growing between the viney plant's tendrils. The name seemed inappropriate for something that looked so pretty...
"Well, it doesn't mean to," Esker had answered thoughtfully, "You see, it needs the host plant to stay alive if it wants to keep growing. It's just tryin' to survive. But in doing so, the host tree eventually dies. And so does the weed..." their mentor had then cupped one of the flower clusters in their palm and eyed it for a beat, "Sometimes, disease kills the tree before the weed can. They both die all the same..."
...
...Marl decided that Gabbro was like a young pine that was overgrown with Strangleweed...
They hadn't decided who the Strangleweed was, although they had an inkling...
...
---
The next day, they received a proper scolding from Esker and Tektite for pulling that stunt and almost getting themself killed.
Their mind a little clearer with the wearing-off of the painkillers, Marl was once again flooded with embarrassment, both for acting so childishly, and for the way they'd cried. They couldn't believe everyone saw them cry like that.
They couldn't believe Gabbro saw them cry like that...
If only they hadn't climbed that stupid tree...
That stupid, stupid tree...
...
If there was one thing Marl was absolutely certain about now, it was that as soon as they were old enough to be a real tree keeper, the Big Tree would be one of the first they cut down...
---