Chapter 8
"Well?" he asked. "I know you're dying to say something"
Anora's arms were crossed. "Well," she echoed. "If I'm being honest, I think you look ridiculous."
Ero'then looked down at his garb. It was thick and heavy, practically a robe. Its designs were intricately woven into the material, forming complex patterns which drove him to question whether they meant anything or if they simply complete nonsense. His judgement had been forestalled, however, by the praise he'd gotten from the other women in town for it. After that, he supposed it couldn't have been all bad.
"Ridiculous?" Ero'then in turn echoed her. "Hm. I was hoping for something a little more encouraging."
Anora flicked her eyes over him again. The disapproval was thick in her voice. "If you wanted encouragement, you should have worn something else. Or asked someone else, perhaps. You look…" She shrugged and said again with exasperation, "Ridiculous."
They were on the road just outside of town. Ero'then had already said his goodbyes. They had given him a proper send-off and Ero'then had felt truly blessed by the depth with which everyone had drawn the joy out of their hearts for him.
The war had been hard on them all, and many loved ones had gone or had been lost already. They found hope in him, though. They knew what importance he had been chosen for— that he was not just another soldier off to war.
But Anora had been poking fun at him all day. All the way to the road. He had been hoping to draw a little something more from her now. Before he left.
"You know," he said. "If I die saving the world, and the last thing you said to me was that I looked ridiculous, it will be you who will feel the fool."
"I would have spoken truly. What would I regret?."
"You would have no regrets at all?"
"No," she said. "Well, perhaps you're right. I would have felt guilty that I had failed to convince you to change out of those ridiculous clothes. That, as you saved the world, you looked like an ass."
Goddess, it was pulling teeth with her. He smiled weakly. "It does look a bit strange," he finally acceded.
Silence fell between them. In one hand, Ero'then held the reins of a horse. Anora stood just off the road. There was a breeze in the air.
He cleared his throat again. "What will you do while I'm gone?" he asked her.
She shrugged again. Her arms were still crossed, and she had to keep looking down to get her hair from her eyes. "I don't know," she said. "I'll find something. I heard there was a group of resisters near the Deepwoods. Maybe I'll go help them there. Mingle with the soldiers. Find a mate who knows how to make love."
Ero'then protested loudly. Great and abundant detail went into his defense. He went to such graphic lengths to argue his case that he finally dragged a tiny smile onto Anora's face.
"Quiet. Ero'then. For the goddess's sake, be quiet. People will hear you." She sighed. "Hero indeed. And you're going to die looking like that. We're all doomed."
"I'll be right here," Ero'then told her. "Right here." He pointed out a particular cobble beneath his feet, shaped like a coil of string. "After the demons are gone, I'll be right there. I expect you to be too when I come back."
"I barely dragged you out of your childhood. How can I expect you to make it back from this? I can't very well wait for you."
"Just think of it this way," he told her. "Imagine the waiting. Imagine the tension. You might think you're missing out, but trust me. It will be worth it."
She took a long moment to stare at him."I can't believe you're going to look like that," she said. "I can't believe you're going to look like that when you die." She started crying.
He pulled her towards him. She complied, her head going into his shoulder. Then she looked up and he kissed her.
Ero'then considered this their first kiss. He had botched the first one, which, as she had just demonstrated, Anora planned to hold over him for as long as the two of them lived.
As she wrung his rib-cage in a hug tight enough to hold a bear captive, he knew she had been hoping to hold it over him for a long time.
"I'll find you," he promised her. "When it's over, I'll find you. I promise."
