Tags: Hiravias

PoETober 2018

Prompt #4: Belong

It wasn't something he expected to find.

At least not like this. Maybe at the end of his exile, once he'd figured out who he was and all the soul-eating stelgaer crap had cleared up at last. He'd imagined striding back to his tribe in the Thein Bog, his shoulders strong and his back straight, and being welcomed with the accepting arms he'd dreamt of as a kid. And some comely lasses for good measure, since he'd gotten older. And then he'd gotten even older and, well, the only accepting that'd come was that maybe some dreams weren't meant to be.

But this… This was nice enough, he decided.

Hiravias watched from his perch in an old oak tree, chewing on the bread from his midday meal, as Edér tried and failed to tempt one of the Watcher's cats closer with a string. The Watcher herself was off to the side of their little makeshift camp, repacking the bags with Sagani and Kana's help. Everyone else busied themselves with their own tasks, or in Durance's case proverbially sawed logs under another tree – which was arguably his best side anyway. Even the peasant woman with them was nice enough to gather what few things they still had left out. Though, he couldn't figure out why she stuck around. Eh, probably didn't matter.

It was… homey, almost. Like a warm fire after a long day of slogging through rain and muck. He'd joined for the safety of a group, but they'd come to strangely fit each other. And he'd gotten, well, fond. He didn't really want to admit it, and he knew he shouldn't. They violated the Builders' ruins on a near-daily basis, and he was going to deal with that someday, really he would, but…

He breathed deep of the piney forest air and bit off another hunk of bread.

In a way, he mused, they were all terribly alike. Outcasts, misfits, a part of them adrift in one sense or another. Well, save for that peasant woman, maybe. Some of them tried to hide it, but just because he had one eye didn't mean he couldn't see for shit. But, here, together, well…

"Hiravias!" the Watcher called. "Hey, Hiravias!"

He jerked from his reverie and rubbed the stump of his right ear. "Yeah, what is it?"

She grinned. "Thought you'd fallen asleep for a moment there. We're about to head out. You ready?"

"Sure. Be down in a minute!"

He swung over the branch and started down the tree, hiding his smile against the bark.

Together, they all belonged.