Ch. 4
The path I'm walking is dark, humid and dangerous. I can't see clearly, everything has been swallowed by the black veil of darkness. Night has fallen onto me and I'm willingly giving myself to this dark path I'm walking… if only I could create some sort of light to light up the path, maybe I could be able to see clearly what's in front of me, getting closer to me… step after step…
I wake up with an accelerated heartrate, my heart is racing, my breathing is heavy. I look at Astrid, she's sleeping peacefully. My eyes try to find Vyell, but he's nowhere to be found. Jivete, Adstan and Nikaia haven't come back yet… I'm worried.
I stand up, it's cold out of the leather mattress but I know trying to get back to sleep will be impossible after such a nightmare. The night sky is calm, I can't even hear the bats tonight. Suddenly, something catches my eye: a weird marking on the wooden stick. It looks like some sort of… scratch? I decide to go investigate when an explosion takes place not too far away from our camp. –"What was that?!"- I hear Astrid scream. In that moment I can see how a big wall of smoke darkens the light of tonight's night sky. -"It's the castle! Astrid, stay here! I'll go investigate!"- I jump and start running towards Sparrow, the fastest horse we have, and before Astrid could say anything to stop me, I leave the camp.
Soon after I leave with Sparrow, another explosion takes place, the expandable wave of the explosion's force makes me lose my balance and I fall off Sparrow's back. The horse stops right after he realises I'm no longer riding him, but I hit the back of my head and everything surrounding me is spinning around.
No… what if something happened to them? Is Adstan alright? Where's Vyell? Did he really abandon us? I get up, dust myself off and try to get over Sparrow's back again, but my body aches -I can't-. I hear people scream, some animals running in my direction to get as far away from the fire as they can, but I'd give anything to get as fast as I can, and hopefully on time, to where I last saw my groupmates for the last time… I don't want Adstan to think I hate him, I don't want Jivete to get hurt, she rescued me after all… and Nikaia… I know deep inside her she has a good heart. I can't let anything happen to them.
I try again. Leaving the pain aside, I jump over Sparrow's back, once again, and start running towards the castle. I'm running as fast as I can when suddenly a big, furry, brown thing attacks Sparrow and I fall off hitting -once again- my head and losing consciousness -yet again-.
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My sister fell asleep on my lap while I watch Peter play Skyrim with the controller he brought. We were going to play other kind of games, and we were going to play something else together, but it's always the same: we always end up playing the same game, our favourite game. Whenever Peter comes to my place I like to watch him play because he can do things in that game that will teach me later how to deal with certain enemies, it's not like I don't know how to play, but you can always learn something new by watching others play. It's raining outside, and the peacefulness of my sister's dreaming makes me sleepy too and I start to fall asleep.
Suddenly a noise wakes me up, my sister wasn't where I left her, and Peter was turning the console off. –"Hey what happened? Are you leaving already?" – I ask him. He laughs –"Yeah it's 8 pm, K. I have to get home, you know."-. 8 pm?! I slept two freaking hours?! That's why my neck hurts. He takes his jacket and gives me a pat on the shoulder. –"It's always a pleasure to play while you sleep! Hahaha"- He laughs, I look at him with a fake mad look and we say goodbye. Right after my sister arrives at the front door with a pot of home made cookies. –"Oh darn, he left?"- She asks –"Yeah, but he just left, you can go after him."- I suggest. But the rain was pouring hard outside and even when we called out to him, Peter couldn't hear us. He apparently didn't hear his mobile either, because even when I called him I could see he didn't even take the device out of his pocket. The subway was nearby and he's quite a tall guy, even if we decided to run after him, his long legs would have taken him inside way before we had the chance to even reach a proper distance for him to hear us scream his name. Shame, the cookies Annelise made were delicious.
I go back to my room and notice a red spot on my shoulder. What's this? Blood? That's when I notice Peter had left his controller over the console. Oh damnit, next time I get to see him will be after our period of exams. Well, it's not like I will destroy it or anything. I try calling him again, but he didn't reply, so I sent him a text:
Keira:
Hey, smartass! You left your controller on my console.
Delivered 8:21
Pets:
Oh crap, really? Well, you take care of it :)
8:44 pm
And that's how you gain a new controller. I get close to it and notice it's a bit scratched on one side, I take it, there's blood on that exact part of it. Great, Peter got hurt and said nothing. Typical of him.
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I woke up to find Sparrow caressing my face with his nose. There was mud on my hair and all over my body, I can no longer hear the people's screams at the castle. The incident was over. I stand up and take Sparrow with me, I walk clumsily over the mud. Everything hurts, but I need to find my groupmates…
I get to the place where Adstan and I pretended to be a couple and attended someone's -I don't really know who- wedding. The castle was destroyed. Everything was burnt down, there were bodies of people who didn't make it out of the explosion spread all around the place… I vomit at such carnage. The sight of all this massive destruction is unbearable. –"There was a wedding taking place here while it happened, none of them survived."- I hear someone say. I turned around, startled. There, standing in front of me, stands the man who protected me from the dragon's reed of fire at Helgen. I feel my face go pale. I know this person… but who is he? Where have I seen this person before? A dream? I take a step close to him, but he takes another step back. –"What are you doing here?"- He asks. –"I… was looking for someone. They were here last night; do you know what happened?"- I ask the stranger in front of me. He turns his sight to the floor and sighs, as if my presence was a bother to him. –"It looks like someone made this whole place blow up. It wasn't a dragon if that's what you were thinking."-. He starts walking around the bodies and takes something from near one of them. Suddenly I feel something grab my foot and I scream. The man, who was kneeling searching for something, stands up as quickly as a lightning and takes his staff, ready to begin a fight. But what we saw, instead of an enemy, was a severely wounded woman asking for help.
He dropped his staff and got close to her. He put both hands over her and a beautiful, golden and sparkly coloured kind of magic came out of his hands. The woman's face went peaceful and I could see how her wounds started to heal. What a beautiful kind of magic. The man, who was almost finished healing the lady, noticed how fascinated I was by his magic and smiled. –"I think I might have misjudged you, uh... what's your name?"- I look at him confused. –"Fayre… or that's how they call me…"- He remains silent for a while. –"Fayre they call you? And how do you call yourself?"- I go blank. My head aches again. How do I call myself? I don't know! If I did, Jivete wouldn't have had to come up with a name for me!
He notices I'm struggling –"Your name. Your real name. What's your real name?"- he asks, still kneeling, one forearm in one leg, the other one on his knee. My real name… I don't know my real name… -"Fine, you don't want to tell me, I get it. I might have judged you well enough, then."- He stands up, I bite my lip. –"I don't remember… my real name…"- I finally mumble. He stops walking and turns around looking curious. –"How's that? You don't know who you are?"- He asks mid smile. He's laughing at me, what a pig. –"No. Jivete, Nikaia and Vyell found me unconscious near Dragonbridge. I have no recalling of who I was before I woke up the day they found me."- I decide to trust him. After all, he just healed a severely wounded lady, he can't be all that bad… or so I want to believe. He also rescued me from the dragon back in Helgen… no, he can't be a bad person, he wouldn't do all those things if he were. The mysterious man walks up to me and takes a closer look at my face –"You don't seem like the kind of person that gets along with that kind of people, is it the fact that they found you, the reason why you're traveling with them?"- He asks.
I don't understand, "that kind of people"? What could he possibly mean by that? Are Jivete, Nikaia and Vyell bad people? I don't believe so. They rescued Astrid, Adstan and me! Why would they rescue an unconscious random person if they were bad people? It doesn't make sense…
I must have had quite a weird look on my face because the strange man starts laughing middle of my thinking. –"Your face gives you away, you're quite easy to read, Fayre."- He keeps laughing. –"I'm Wlfric. With w, if you ever need to write it down."- He winks at me. What the hell is up with this guy? First, he takes me for some sort of criminal and now he winks at me. He's mentally unstable!
We search the place for my "friends" bodies. I really hoped we didn't find them, but at the same time I was worried if they weren't in between the cadavers, then… where could they be? I should probably head back to the camp, I left Astrid there all by herself and if there's something I've learned after months of practicing my melee attacks is that daggers are way easier to dominate than a heavy hammer. I need to go back to her. –"Wlfric… I- I need to go back, they're not here."- He stands up and stares at me with a serious face. His eyes are cold and penetrating. –"It's up to you, Fayre… I'm sure you'll soon find yourself coughed in the middle of quite the dilemma, though"-. I look at him with concern –"What do you mean?"- I ask. He suggests a smile with the corner of his lips, but it's almost an invisible one. –"My lady, if I told you, you wouldn't believe me. I think you'll have to find out yourself and time will give me reason."- he states, almost in a whisper.
When I get back at camp I can see Astrid boiling something in an iron pot. Behind her, there was Vyell who smiled when he noticed I arrived safely. –"Vyell! Where were you? I looked for you all night long!"- I say, hiding the fact I had vanished again, but I got no answer. Well… not that a mute man will ever explain where he was about 5 hours ago, maybe it was stupid of me to ask such thing. –"Fayre…"- I hear Astrid begin –"Vyell found Adstan. He's wounded… he… you should go talk to him…"- Astrid says with a sad face. I hurry to find Adstan. He was lying on Vyell's improvised tent, the place was a bloodshed. –"For the love of- what happened to you!?"- Adstan opens his eyes, startled by my high tone. I can hear him let a sigh go and sketch a weak smile at the same time –"Why are you always so loud, Fayre. Your voice gives me a headache."-. At least his humour hasn't vanished, I see… I feel how my eyes begin to hurt, announcing tears that were digging their way out of my eyes. –"Hey… don't start crying on me again, you know I can't stand it when girls cry…"- He whispers, touching his nose with his thumb and index finger. How can I not get worried? We've been traveling together for a while now and I consider him a friend, how in oblivion- I said oblivion? Oh God… costumes get stuck after a while… well, anyways how can he expect me not to get worried? I'm not a rock, I got a heart and a soul, there's no way I can stay unperturbed at the sight of his wounds! –"Adstan, I met a man earlier today, he healed a severely wounded woman near the castle, he-" – "You went there after Jivete told you to leave?! What on earth were you thinking Fayre?! Ugh…!"- He starts to get up but the wound he has on his side hurts him, making him close his eyes fiercely and curve his mouth leaving an expression of pain on his face. I get close to check up on him, but he pushes me away. –"You're an idiot. Is your desire to get yourself killed? If it's that so, don't make me worry about your useless being."- He harshly states and turns to his good sight to stop facing me. I lower my sight. I was just trying to find them, I was worried… but it looks like I do everything wrong.
The night was falling and Jivete and Nikaia hasn't come back. Adstan's been sleeping all day long and I finally decide to tell Vyell what I saw in the woods last night. He was reading his strange book again and when he notices I'm approaching him, he closes it and puts it inside his little leather bag. I sit next to him and begin to describe what I saw. How a big, furry, dark creature attacked Sparrow and my lost of consciousness after that. I could see how Vyell's look transformed from a relaxed expression to a tough, sort of worried one, and it was getting more and more evident the more I told him about last night's events. Specially when I got to the part where Wlfric appeared at the castle. His eyes went dark and cold. I could see a total different Vyell from the one I'm used to, and it honestly… scared me.
I went back to check on Adstan, he was sleeping but his expression clearly showed he wasn't having a good sleep. His wound was still bleeding quite a lot, so I decide to do something about it. I take his cream coloured shirt and ripped it off in order to use it as bandage. I uncover his torso and take the herbal salve Vyell had made to put on Adstan's wounds and spread it on his injuries. I could see how swollen his side is, it's also quite red too. The wound is quite deep and large, it was made by a dagger, or at least that's what it looks like…
The more salve I put on Adstan's wounds, the more relaxed his expression gets. I think it's working. Poor Adstan… what could have possibly happened? And where could Jivete and Nikaia be? I wonder… -"Why are you doing this, Fayre?"- Adstan's voice startles me. Do what? Healing him? What else does he want me to do? Let him die? He rolls his eyes at my lack of answer. In that moment, Astrid enters the tent with a bowl of a green looking thing. I hope she isn't planning on feeding Adstan with that, it honestly doesn't look eatable!
-"Fayre, can you give Adstan this soup, please? I made it using some of the herbs on Vyell's alchemy book. It should help him with the pain."- I look at her, eyes wide open and lifting one eyebrow. The thing stinks! –"Astrid… you sure this thing's eatable? Are you sure you used the right plants and we're not in danger of killing this guy?"- I ask, half jesting, half serious. She gives me the most "are you serious" look I've ever seen, I guess I just have to trust her, after all, whether it left with my memories or had I never learned how to do it, I have nor the less idea how to make food to survive a day. So… I give the… potion… to Adstan who much to his regret eats it putting the funniest faces I've ever seen. –"I hope you know how much I despise you right now, Fayre, for laughing at my disgrace"- He says, trying to control his inner need to vomit the green potion.
A thought suddenly strikes my head –"Adstan… who did this to you?"- I shyly ask him as I put the bowl down. His stare darkens. Silence takes over the tent and while I wait for him to answer my question Jivete enters the tent in a hurry. –"Adstan… So you made it…"- She looks at him with cold eyes. I can feel the tension growing between them, I start to feel anxious myself, what's happening here? Jivete then proceeds to take the bowl that contained the green thing Astrid had cooked for Adstan and puts a white powder on it, she starts to mix it up with what's left of the soup with healing properties, and after a while, it turns dark brown.
She looks at me –"Fayre, Astrid told me you went looking for us, how sweet. But I don't like when my subordinates go against my orders. Also, what happened to the boy you met outside the castle?"- She asks, still holding the bowl on her hands. I nod. For some reason her expression makes me feel… frightened. –"I… was worried about you, ma'am… I never intended to disobey you, I just wanted to know if you, Nikaia and Adstan were alright."- I mumble. In that moment, Adstan looks at me right in the eye. His penetrating blue eyes were shining with the light of the candle that was placed behind me. I space out into his deep blue eyes when I hear Jivete laugh. –"Fayre, you're something. Here, take this. I think you mentioned to Vyell you hit your head earlier today, this will help you. Eat what's left of Adstan's food."- she orders. I doubt. How could Vyell tell her what I told him before her arrival if he doesn't talk? I stare at the bowl Jivete had just given me, observing how its colour had changed from green to brown, wondering… is it safe to eat this after Jivete added that powder to the mixture? I look at Adstan who gives me a concerned look, and then I look up at Jivete who urges me to eat the content with her eyes, smiling and serious at the same time. I take one last look at the content of the bowl before taking it near my lips and drinking the mixture. –"Finish it off."- I hear Jivete say. And so I do.
