Part two of redirecting the river. If you are familiar with some of my other stories you will recognize The Traveler.
Also the chapter titles are pieces of a single sentence, it was a last minute addition. I have also changed my other stories about The Traveler to go under a single main title. Saga of The Traveler.
I just remembered to fix the first chapter. I meant to say multi part instead of two part.
Enjoy.
The next several hours were a rapid blur. Laura and the badly burned Ruben were taken back to their family home by several of the men who found them. It was through them that Laura found out what happened. They were all too happy to rat out the real perpetrators.
Ruben was the worst off the two of them. Laura was no doctor but she knew he was in extremely bad shape. A large part of his body was covered in the horrifying burns, his chances of recovery were high but he would be forever scarred.
The though brought a nagging pain to Laura's heart. It had been her idea to play in that barn away from everyone else. Now it was poor little Ruben who was forced to pay the price.
Laura herself was remarkably unscathed. She had several minor burns, mostly on her feet and lower legs. Her dress was of course ruined, both it and her hair were quite singed. The coat that the stranger had given her shielded her from most of the flames somehow. Laura was not aware of any material that could have done that like it did. The garment felt like leather in her hands but could not have been. It would have been consumed by the flames if it was.
More weirder than the coat, was that silver eyed man himself. Laura had screamed that he was still in there when the barn collapsed but she was in for a bit of a shock when the ruins of the barn were later examined for a body.
Except for piles of ash and burnt hay there was nothing.
The man's body was nowhere to be found.
There was no way he could have escaped the barn with no one noticing and yet somehow he had done just that.
At first Laura thought he may have been a hallucination. Her and her brother were about to burn to death, so of course her mind would conjure up a protector to save them both. Yet when Laura held that unique coat in her hands she knew the man had been no delusion. He was there, he had to of been.
Laura knew she was not crazy.
Letting out a soft sigh, Laura ran her hands over the skirt of her clean dress. She was going a little stir crazy.
After they had been taken home, their father had called in all the doctors he knew of for Ruben. The boy probably should have been taken to the hospital but for whatever reason their father wanted him treated here instead.
Ruben was cleaned and bandaged up but Laura was forbidden from entering the room. Laura would have tried to enter anyway but their mother was in there with the unconscious Ruben. He would not wake up alone, that was the only reason why Laura was not forcing her way into his room. As much as she wanted to be by her little brother's side, Laura did not want to cause more problems.
This was why she was currently sitting in a chair outside the room that one of the servants had brought for her. If she could not be inside then she would be just outside in case he awoke and called out for her. Laura was unsure if Ruben would remember that she escaped too, if he did not remember she would rush in as fast as possible to reassure him she was fine as well.
Laura dared not imagine how Ruben would react if he thought she had perished.
Laura sat in her silent vigil when the soft thuds of footfalls reached her ears from down the hall. It was so quiet that if the hallway had not been as silent as the grave she would have missed them.
Something else Laura noticed before she even looked up. The way the person was walking, they were making noise in purpose, as if to not startle her.
Laura looked up to the shock of her life.
The silver eyed man was walking down the hallway toward her.
Alive, and even weirder, he did not have a single burn or scratch on him.
When he got closer, Laura took her first real, hard look at him. The silver eyes were the most obvious fact about him but Laura saw that she was not entirely correct on her first assumption. His neck was covered in small marks, it was not until he was right beside her that Laura could see that they were scars in symbols of some kind she had never seen. His bare arms were covered in the same weird markings.
HIs attire was also strange too. It seemed made of a foreign black material of some kind. If Laura had to wager a guess, it reminded her a little of armor from one of her books.
For a moment he was silent, he only stared at the door to Ruben's room. He seemed to have no desire to enter, if Laura had to guess he seemed more curious than anything. "How is the lad doing?"
It took Laura a few moments to find her voice. "Fine?"
The stranger chuckled quietly. "Sorry, I seem to have forgotten my manners. You're Laura, correct?"
Laura could only nod.
"I'm sometimes called The Traveler, but you can call me Endymion." The man, Endymion, bowed slightly in greeting. Before Laura could come up with a response, he dropped down to one knee beside her chair.
"How... You were still in the barn..." Laura was struggling to speak, something about this man unnerved her. Not in a dangerous sort of way, in fact she felt safer beside this man than she did anywhere else. There was just something wrong about Endymion. As if he was not supposed to be here.
"I will answer all in a moment. First though, mind if I have my coat back?"
Laura had not realized until that exact moment that she was still wearing the coat he had given her back at the barn. After she changed clothes she had put the garment back on, it made her feel... safe.
Blushing slightly in embarrassment, Laura removed the coat and offered it to Endymion. The man gave her a small smile before standing up and throwing it back on with a flourish.
"Ahh... much better." Endymion shifted his shoulders as he sat back down beside her chair again. "Now, what would you like to know first?"
"Are you real?" Laura blurted the question out before thinking.
Endymion actually laughed. "Coin for every time I've been asked that." The words had been mumbled but Laura's ears still caught them. "Yes, I'm quite real. Just not from around here."
"Where are you from then?"
"Somewhere very, very far away. A place that no longer exists." Endymion's voice held a concealed edge of remorse.
"I must know... the barn, we looked it over when he arrived. The doors were sealed even during the fire. If you are real then how did you get in?" This was the question that was really nagging at Laura's mind. If Endymion was indeed real then he had to of come from somewhere.
"You are correct, I was not in the barn. I arrived shortly after the fire began."
Laura could only stare at him in disbelief. "How did you get in then?"
A tiny smirk grew along Endymion's lips. "Trade secrets milady."
Laura sighed, it was fairly obvious she was not going to get any real answers about this topic from the strange man.
There was one other thing she needed to know though.
"Why did you save us? Why come into a burning barn and nearly get yourself killed for us?" Laura was not one to devalue her own life but she was just a young girl. Getting two people killed to save one would be foolish. Why this man would take that risk she did not know.
"I did not save you both."
"What?" Laura was really confused now.
"Ruben was going to make it even if I had not arrived. You, however, would not."
Laura had no response to that. Was Endymion saying that she was supposed to die? The thought of course scared her, but the other thing he said is what reassured her. Ruben was going to make it either way. That was at least something.
At least it was until the next words that Endymion spoke reached her ears.
"However, it would have been a mercy if you both burned instead."
Laura was about to scold Endymion for daring to say such a thing but he raised a hand to silence her and continued speaking.
"I've seen the monster he becomes. You have not." Endymion glanced over at the door leading to Ruben's room. "A creature, human in form only, consumed by hatred, rage, and grief. The man he becomes was no longer your brother."
"My brother is no monster!" Laura's voice was a little louder than she would have liked but she was not about to let this man insult her brother, whether he saved them or not.
Endymion smiled. "Of course he isn't. Now he has a chance."
The silver eyed man turned around so that his back was facing her. "If you want to see what I speak of, follow me. If not, remain here for when little Ruben finally wakes."
Laura watched Endymion walk away for several moments. Part of her wanted to stay should Ruben awaken, but another part desperately wanted to know what he meant by her brother becoming a monster. Perhaps if she knew why, she could prevent it in the future.
Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Laura rose to her feet. She gave a last passing look to Ruben's door before following Endymion down the hallway.
If people are interested in seeing Endymion in more Evil Within stories then drop a review saying so. I have a few more ideas. Also, what Endymion had under the coat looks somewhat like Kevlar armor but only looks like it.