Wind of Change
A silent World 200 AF
Part 1
She didn't really know when it happened, but slowly things between them began to change. At first, she couldn't put her finger on what it was, but as their journey proceeded, it became clearer to her. She wasn't the same; she wasn't the girl from New Bodhum that couldn't fight. Not anymore. He'd changed her. Maybe they had both changed. It was hard to tell when time itself kept changing around them.
It was a day like any other. They were sitting by the fire; she huddled up in all their blankets while he held the fresh meat over the open fire, the crease between his brows ever present during the procedure. Once in a while he would look up to meet her gazing eyes, his face changing into that crooked smile she'd come to known. Somehow it warmed her more than the blankets around her did. They'd hunted together, her skills improving everyday she'd spent with him. He was a good teacher, better than she could ever have hoped for. He would always tell her to keep her back straightened and her arm as steady as her eyes. There had always been something she had to improve. But not today. Today she'd done everything flawlessly, something he just wouldn't stop telling her about. Even Mog had joined his phrases until she had to cut them short.
The fire was sparkling before her, sending both light and shadow upon the young face opposite hers. Suddenly she realized that she was happy. She knew that she shouldn't be, and she knew it far too well. But this place seemed to relax her. The solitude of it all, the dark sky above, and the sea before them comforted her in a strange way she couldn't explain, even to herself. She'd noticed that the place seemed to have the opposite effect on Noel though, who'd been tense and short with her ever since they'd arrived. Maybe Oerba reminded him to much of the place he'd left behind? Maybe the silence was too much to bear, too similar to the dying lands he'd once came from? She couldn't even imagine how it would feel like to be the only human left alive in a world that slowly ceased to exist. How could one stay sane in a place like that? She couldn't even imagine the anguish it would mean to be all alone in a dying world, knowing that you would be next and you could do nothing to stop it. She shivered and she could feel Noel's eyes on her instantly.
"Are you still cold?" The sincere worry in his words made her smile. How could she explain to him that it was him, the thought of his world that made her body tremble? She knew it would come out wrong no matter how so instead she nodded; wrapping her arms around her body, hoping that the act would leave him content. She didn't expect him to react the way he did. Not at all.
He'd dropped the meat on the stone beside him and hurried over to her side. Before she could object, he'd put his arms around her well-wrapped body and pressed her close to his warmth. She blushed, trying to think out ways to break free without hurting him. Not able to think of any, she relaxed in his embrace, trying to strangle the fact that she enjoyed this far more than she should. She knew that the touch came natural for him and she didn't have the heart to tell him that there were certain unwritten laws to consider in her world. This act, this closeness and comfort wasn't right, she knew it in her heart. But despite that, it felt so right in a way that she couldn't explain. It must be hard for him, she thought, trying to adapt to a world he'd never known. How could she expect him to handle himself in all social situations when, in the end, he'd been the only one left in his world? The warmth from the fire and from his body made her sleepy and she closed her eyes, hoping that tomorrow would be a cold day.