Chapter 29

Our Distance and That Person


A month passed and Hector received a letter. He instantly cancelled lunch appointments so he could read it alone. It was from Bulgar, with Florina's tiny script handwriting on outside. It was almost as though he could sense the kisses pressed onto the page, his fingers were tingling as he opened the envelope.

Dear Lord Hector,

I trust you are well. The plains of Sacae are beautiful in late spring as they always are. Kent and Lyn are as well as they could ever be. They seem to be taking to married life well. I hardly see them, as I like to leave them to their own devices. I like to be on my own.

Where does she go? What if she gets injured while she's alone? Is there enough for her to eat? What about bandits? What about—

He read on.

In the past two weeks I stayed with the Kutoloh tribe. Rath and Guy send their regards. Rath is the same; very quiet, but he taught me some basic bow hunting skills so I could catch some food should the need arise. He teased Guy because I took to it quicker than he did and I am not only a foreigner, but a Pegasus Knight.

Hector smiled a little but found himself feeling envious of Rath. He could picture the stoic man touching Florina's arm, adjusting her hold in the bow, reassuring her with a hand on her shoulder. Why did Rath get to be so close to her when he felt nothing for her, but Hector had to be so far away?

Huey doesn't like the bow, but he seems to know that it wasn't meant to hurt him. It's come in handy when I was hungry.

Worry gripped him. So she was on her own again. She said hungry, but was she in reality starving? There was no way she mastered hunting in just two weeks, so when she left them on the third, did she spend a week hunting using trial and error? If he had been with her, he would have severed a gazelle's head and they would have had food for days at a time. He eyed his Wolfe Beil hanging above the mantle and charted a course for Sacae in his mind.

I came back to Kent and Lyn after exploring for about another two weeks, and here I am now writing this letter. I'll only stay for about a day. Newlyweds need their privacy you know.

Hector knew Lyn had probably tried to coax her into two days at least, but Florina wouldn't have any of it, he knew. At the same time, he understood her reasoning. When he and Florina were newly weds, he was going away with her for a few months. Or as long as Oswin let him go away…He just needed Florina to himself no sharing.

I'll be flying into Bulgar tomorrow morning to send this and I plan on finding other tribes to observe. I'll try to send letters more regularly. You need to know how I am doing or else you'll send the entire Ostian Army out to find me!

How did she know his plan of action?

Much love,

Florina

His eyes lingered on the "much love" part. He wanted to write back: Please come home. Please hover around me like you used to. Please sneak glances at me when you think I'm not looking. Please be near me so I can touch you, hold you and kiss you. Please be by my side like you promised.

He pressed the letter idly against his lips. Perhaps she'd receive that kiss from thousands of miles away.


Oh-kay, that's the last letter that will be read to you for a while. And so I don't have people throwing bottles at me for separating the two of them: know, the "Florina is away" part of the plot is pretty short. I mean it's a long time in the story's timeline, but I didn't think it was wise to write about every detail of angst over separation and the wonders of Sacae. No, that could be a fic unto itself and I'm not interested in writing that. Why? Because I spent too much time building up this pairing to not indulge myself now!

The question then becomes: why the separation at all? For the reasons Florina said last chapter and torturing Hector is fun. Also, using all my 30_kisses prompts.

Next update: Friday. If I feel chapter happy again, you may get more for your money (that you're not giving me...).