The Fatal Conflict (GBS2G7) (Round 4: The Huntsman's Garden)

Originally posted on MSPA by Dragon Fogel.

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Zach flew around until he felt uncomfortably distant from his body, circling the area. After some time, he returned to a rather bored-looking Zom.

"Anything interesting?" the zombie grumbled. "Or are we just going to sit here and play Twenty Questions?"

"Quite a number of dark-eyed children; Simphonia floating away from the corpse of one over there - I don't think we want to go that way; Kaja at the top of a slide in that direction; Kargrek over that way; I didn't see Bellona or Scott, they're probably out of my range."

"That's all?" Zom asked, looking bored. "No shelter or anything of the sort?"

"That's all. You'd have to start walking for me to search further."

Zom looked thoughtful for a moment.

"I think I'd rather play Twenty Questions," he mused.

"How do you play?" asked a voice coming from the height of his elbow.

Zom looked down, and saw a boy standing beside him.

"Oh, hello," he said to the youngster, still not sounding particularly interested. "How long have you been there?"

Zach stared at the boy in surprise.

"What are you looking at, Mister?" the youngster asked him, somewhat defiantly. "It's not polite to stare, you know."

"Your eyes." He paused. "They're... blue."

"Really?" The boy held a hand to his chin thoughtfully. "I never knew that. I thought they were like everybody else's."

***

After a brief discussion, it turned out that the blue-eyed young boy didn't have a name, or even know what one was.

"It's..." Zach paused, as he tried to think of how best to explain the concept. "Well, it's something you call yourself so that other people know who you are. My name is Zach, and technically so is his, but we've started calling him Zom so people can tell us apart."

The boy looked confused as he tried to puzzle this over, until Zom cut in.

"I'm Zom. He's Zach. Who would you like to be?"

The boy looked thoughtful for a moment, then shrugged.

"I'd like to be me."

Zach wasn't sure how to respond. Zom simply nodded.

"That's a good answer. Do you mind if we call you..."

He paused, and looked at Zach.

The ghost, feeling put on the spot, simply blurted out the first name that came to mind other than his own.

"Maxwell?"

The blue-eyed boy smiled.

"I think I can be Maxwell," he said. "Now when are we going to play Twenty Questions?"