Yaro hefted a large tree trunk onto the back of the great azure dragon. She could have carried it back herself, of course, but he had far more surface area to carry the wood than she, so she allowed him to carry the bulk of their finds. Besides, she used plenty of energy just sawing the tree down with her fire whip. ”I still wonder what it could have possibly meant by that.”
The dragon stood, their haul finally complete. “It doesn’t sound good, to say the least. Maybe it was Shia’s will that you heard that. Maybe she talked with you directly?”
Shia had been one of the twin gods of the land, the good one that still lived. It was all hooey, but she would not bash someone for false beliefs in divinity. She would be hypocritical if she did so. “Maybe… They are definitely more intelligent than they look.”
“Maybe they did actually care about what they were doing to you,” he continued. The dragon was kind, but Yaro made sure she kept a good distance from him while they walked back to the cave. If anything were to happen, she would be ready. They were in the wild, after all. And this drake, what essentially was a young adult, was so oblivious to the things around him, she wondered how they would survive the colder seasons. “It would explain why Ellis survived, too. They could see people in need and feel bad for them.”
Yaro linked arms with Ellis. She was taller than his form by almost one and a half, but her arms were long enough to hold onto his. She thought about carrying him, the sayk was falling and she and the dragon had to slow down for him. Ellis responded, “I think that might be why. I always thought it was because Tia had frightened them, but they don’t seem like they can be frightened.” He squeezed her arm, filling her heart with flutters. “Do you have any more ideas, Kelnor?”
“It’s all very cryptic,” Kelnor said in his deep voice carrying through the trees. Yaro stayed alert, if anything wanted to eat them, they weren't hard to find. She assumed the reason they hadn’t been assaulted by now was due to Kelnor’s massive size, an anomaly.
Luckily, Jorm the fairy also traveled with them. For a fairy, he was incredibly strong, and talkative. He had to remark, “There’s a lot of strange things around Ellis. From Yaro’s story, I'm sure there’s a lot more strange things around her. She’s so very very strange. I want to know what happens when she breaths fire.”
Yaro blew hot breath at the fairy that always found a perch on Ellis’s shoulder. He had a habit of lightly insulting Ellis, something she’d seen to an end shortly after they let her into the group. Now those remarks were directed at her. She actually found a few of them funny, even. She couldn’t tell if he liked or disliked that.
“Yaro, sweet, that’s a question.”
“I know that,” Yaro retorted. She did know about the quirk almost immediately of this place’s culture. Asking questions without any kind of note, either tonally or with any kind of linguistic marker, was still a question. She was just supposed to know a wonder was an ask. “I burn my mouth and it heals, obviously.”
“Right, so it’s your saliva that does the healing.”
They bantered about what ifs and whys all the way back to the cave where she stood waiting. Yaro’s frown stayed from the moment she felt her aura, a beacon for them to follow in case they got lost.
Yaro couldn’t believe she was the one who saved her Ellis. The one who tried to have her killed, who nearly killed her, was the one who rescued her Ellis. It was a cruel joke. She did not give greetings like the others did when they arrived.
Yaro helped unstrap the wooden logs, setting them in the driest corner of the cave. The zuyg had already risen, so they would have to wait until tomorrow. She watched the three of her lumber companions make their way over to the fire to join the group. Yaro took a deep breath of the cold air, lightly smoky from the burning pyre. She had to trust these people, for now. She had to find out who Ellis was beyond those feelings she felt.
She walked over, a cold breeze prickling her bare skin. This was the absolute last situation she ever thought she’d be in: one where people waved her closer, invited her for the night's dinner. She did not wave back, but did not emanate any animosity.
She sat next to Ellis, his cold body cloaked in a blue robe. He had that propriety about him, something that meant more about a cultural embarrassment than actually keeping himself warm. She moved close, her higher temperature sure to keep him warm enough. She was offered a bowl of a few made from some rabbits Hio caught earlier.
She looked over their companions. Rather, she looked over Ellis’s companions. He had made a tight knit group in his few seasons without memory. He’d made some promises too, ones Yaro wasn’t entirely sure he should keep. She looked at the neck of the gorgon, her name Carrin. Scars on her neck told tales of her imprisonment. Yaro shivered at the memory of her in the desert so shortly ago. She eyed Tia who ate without looking at anything or anyone in particular.
Carrin was but a child, not even fully grown and they took her away from her nest and sisters. She’d asked for it, something Yaro wasn’t sure was a good idea. She had her venom sacks removed from all her heads, if she got in trouble, she would not be able to save herself. Somehow, they thought bringing her along was better than safety. Yaro sighed, knowing she too left safety for freedom long, long ago.
Finally there was Hio, a young Spiorkalai freshly diverged from his pack, ready to imprint on his own forest. He had no reason to come with them, nothing to escape from, no plan really. He didn’t talk much, but was happy and pleasant to be around.
All seven of them wanted something out of coming all this way, something Yaro could not share in. She’d found her person.
She’d actually found him.
She remembered nothing of him, a painful thing she’d chosen in order to be here at all. She wanted to be angry with Ellis for forgetting her, but could not. His memories had come back. And, though he told her, and the others, of their history, it rang hollow in her mind. They made new memories, imagination of what was and how it could have been. The feelings she had towards him, she tried to connect them to those memories, but it just did not do what she needed it to do. She would need to make new memories to put those feelings to, new reasons that she'd suffered as she had for the sake of one person.
She'd already gotten to know some of him, based on how the others treated him and his interaction with them. He was timid, but kind, and a little self-absorbed. He genuinely cared about helping people and learning, but with a darkness that clouded his judgment at times. These were things she could say, statements of either facts or opinions. But for her, they had no weight. They were just that, things, objects she could hold, not a part of her in understanding. She wanted to know him, to ascribe those attributes with things she liked in him, learn what she didn’t like in him. Spending time for connection was the only way to do this reasonably.
“What’s even so dangerous about these mountains,” Jorm asked Tia. He fluttered around Ellis, dancing in a way.
Tia held her soup in her lap. “There are some creatures who live on this mountain, Venigao. If you hear clicking, run back to us and do not look back.”
“You really expect that we would be in danger here. Enough to just run away.”
Yaro wasn’t worried about this at all, so she ignored their conversation. She had the strangest feeling that she could join in the conversation without backlash. There she sat, completely unclothed and her form plain for all to see. And they carried on a conversation without regard to her, talking about something that had nothing to do with getting rid of her, attacking her, or otherwise mocking her. Even in the thief's house, this rarely happened. There had to be at least one remark on her existence. Yet these people, Ellis’s friends, didn’t seem to care. Or, if they did, they were very good at hiding it.
She kept her distance.
She sat opposite from Tia, sure to keep her in her sights at all times. She was surely manipulating them, slick words meant to have one slip into her will. She’d done so with Yaro, making it seem like she truly wanted her dead while giving her a fighting chance. She'd done it with Ellis, saving him but conscripting him in a plot so big that he had no reason to be a part of it. She’d even manipulated her own daughter, from Jorm’s recollection. All in, according to her, a means for freedom of her country.
And what if Yaro hadn’t had what equated to divine intervention? What then? How was letting her off like she did a sure way to get what she wanted? Did she really care? Something was very very off about her.
They ate and told stories. Yaro didn’t share hers, they would not be allowed any ammunition to use against her. They shared theirs with her; Kelnor and his caged upbringing with Jorm; Hio’s flight with his mother; Carrin knowing nothing but four walls for years; Taho coming to this land as a spy. Tia did not share much either, other than gestures towards freedom. Yaro felt for them. They knew hardship like she did. Maybe that’s why they felt kindred with her.
Time for sleep came; yawns and stretches came from everyone rapidly. The fire dimmed and the night was quiet and cold. To keep warm for the time being, they slept in a pile in the cave, to share body heat. Kalnor produced the most heat, Yaro having to provide the rest. Tia and Taho did not sleep with them. Yaro slept fitfully, one eye open every night.
Yaro snuggled close to Ellis who hugged her tightly back. Carrin interrupted by saying something that broke apart in Yaro’s mind. She tapped the speech murn around her neck, somehow jostling it making it work again. It was one of the things that was essential for her current being. She understood Ellis who, upon gaining his memories, slowly, spoke in Agar, his native tongue. But his body, which he distinctly said wasn’t his, knew Thoos. So he translated before Tia brought her a cheap speech murn. Yaro wondered if it recorded her.
The gorgon asked if she could sleep with them, wrapping to share their body heat. Ellis agreed before Yaro could decline. Yaro huffed and let it happen.
After all, she had found him, she’d actually done it. It did not fill her mind, but her heart swam when they embraced. It felt off, his body was not his. His soul was, so that feeling still persisted, a fire deep in her core that warmed, not burned. He’d traveled across worlds just to be with her. It had to have meant something.
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