"Elle...thank you," I said quietly to the trees.
"What did I do?" She said behind me.
I turned and peered at her. "You helped change my eye back."
Her face drew long, like this statement surprised her. Then, in the usual sudden fashion, Elmiryn started to giggle. She covered her face with her hands. Something about this made me smile shyly. Once again, Elmiryn came across as strangely feminine, the way she pretended to conceal her amusement.
"Elle, why are you giggling?" I asked as a chuckle slipped into my words. I drifted nearer to the fire and sat down, cross-legged.
Elmiryn peeked at me through her fingers and grinned. "Nyx, I'll be honest. I just wanted to get close enough to give you a kiss on the cheek, that's all. Any other way, and you would've panicked on me."
"Oh. Was that all you wanted?" I muttered. My collar felt hot. I tugged at it, and glowered at the trees.
Elmiryn dropped her hands from her face and breathed in deeply. "I wasn't lying when I said I was fond of you," she murmured.
I fiddled with the hem of my tunic. "Fond how?"
"Fond as in...I want to wake up to you in the morning." She fixed her attention on me. I looked back at her, like a fish biting at a hook. I expected the eyes of an architect–the focused and objectifying stare that had leveled me that day in Gamath. My lips quivered, burning with the memory of her kiss.
...But to my surprise, those eyes were not there. Not there in the way that I knew they were hidden, tucked beneath a separate persona, not unlike my own special set of bestial eyes. What I was confronted with instead was softer. This gaze–cool eyes swathed in heat–held simple sincerity. My hand planted itself on the ground and I leaned my body in Elmiryn's direction, my eyes widening in fascination.
This was a side of Elmiryn that had previously only revealed itself under the influence.
"I've seen you turned inside out...and you were good to me," The woman continued, when my silence stretched on. She paused, then turned her gaze to the fire with a shrug of her shoulder. "Don't read so much into it. I'm only being honest."
"And yet still vague," I returned with a frown. "Elmiryn, I won't be one of your conquests."
"No," she said with a soft smile. "...You'll be the thread that holds me together."
I snorted and looked away. "And if the thread is poorly spun?"
I immediately regretted opening my mouth. Elmiryn sat upright like a bolt, her eyes at the widest I'd seen them. When she spoke it was a harsh whisper. "What did you just say?"
I looked at her, taken aback. "I–I–"
She crawled to me frantically, and I scrambled back in alarm. She caught up to me quickly and moved over my body. Elmiryn stopped when she hovered over my waist. The fire lit her from behind, and her face was illuminated by the soft touches of the moonlight. I blinked up at her, frozen in my anxiety. She reached a hand toward me, but stopped partway. The woman than shook her head and turned her face. I heard her mutter, "It isn't yours," before she stood up and walked past me. She didn't pause to dust off her knees or hands, just sat on her bedroll and laid back. I remained where I was, my breath quiet, but short. I dared to move only when the fire started to die down.
I sat there and watched the weak flames lap at the black and disfigured wood. In the quiet that was given me, I reflected on the recent conversation–my meekness against Elmiryn's self-confidence, the pain versus the humor, my anger versus...
And I paused.
Feeling disparate, I turned where I sat and looked at Elmiryn's still form. She was under a blanket and on her side, feet towards me, with her arms tucked beneath her head. Intuitively, I knew she wasn't asleep. I moved to her side and knelt. "Elmiryn."
"Mmm?" She didn't move her body, but I saw her eyes blink. Lightly I touched her shoulder.
"Elmiryn...I don't know why you got upset, but I'm sorry. I–" My voice cracked. I took a deep breath and tried to resume as steadily as possible. "I'm just worried. What if I come apart, and no one is left to help you?" I wiped hurriedly at my eyes. Tears slipped between my fingers. "I don't want to be the reason you..." My words left me. I bowed my head and tried to contain myself, and my body shook with the effort.
Elmiryn rolled onto her back, and her side brushed my knees. She reached a hand up and brushed back my hair. "Nyx...You forget."
With a hiccup I looked at her and frowned. "What do you mean?"
Her smile reached me, even in the indefinite darkness. "It was my job to protect you, before it was your job to contain me."
I looked at her, then laughed and buried my face in her stomach. She patted the back of my head, and I peeked at her shyly from beneath my mane of hair. She grinned at me through the valley of her breasts. "You're a little off the mark, as you can see."
I poked her side. "Oh, don't start!" But I had a grin to match hers. The way the shadows draped us, and the privacy of the untamed forests protected us, I felt safe. From this angle, Elmiryn didn't seem like the fearsome warrior I had met a week ago. It occurred to me then, that this was the first time since we had met that we spoke like this–in the dark. But the difference then, was that a stretch of branch and preconceptions separated us. I could hardly say that the mysteries surrounding our relationship were solved. But the waters I had previously eyed with trepidation were now up to my waist...and it was a relief to know that despite the horrors faced, I didn't drown.
I licked my lips and sat up a little, my left hand planted on the other side of Elmiryn's body so that our sides pressed intimately. The woman had laid her head back again, and her eyes had gone closed. "Elmiryn..." I breathed.
Her eyes opened a sliver, and I thought I saw her smirk. "Mmm?"
My heart pounded. I leaned over slow, and my arms shook with the effort of supporting me. I planted a light kiss on her brow and pulled back to whisper. "Probably against my better judgment...Elmiryn, I'm...I'm fond of you too!" I shook my head and let a wry smile spread across my face. "It's against all of my common sense, actually," I added with a giggle.
Elmiryn tsked. "Nyx, you know how to make a girl feel special."
I just giggled again. Carefully, I laid at her side, and Elmiryn shifted so that she faced me, one arm tucked beneath her head.
"Well how can I make it better?" I asked quietly.
The woman scooted closer, and brushed her nose against mine. "You want to know what you can do?" she asked in a breath. She draped her arm over my side. "I can't sleep. Could you...tell me a story?"
I blinked. "...Really?"
She snickered. "You sound disappointed."
I hoped she couldn't see the way my face flushed in the dark. "No, no...I...just don't know any stories well enough to tell you."
"Maybe you can tell me about that guy. Wind."
"Oh, right..."
"...What's the matter?"
"I'm trying to remember what Tobias wrote."
"Forget what he wrote. Tell me in your own words."
"...Okay."
Beneath the branches of tall trees, I told Elmiryn in hushed tones of the time mighty Wind had trapped the godless Spider of the West. Their conflict played out in the space between us, like a suspended breath, but rather than replace our dreams, it weaved into them. Spider, a Legend without a master, and Wind, a man without a home. Us beneath the arms of nature, hunted and hated, with the blessings of an immortal spirit and a compass that pointed northward.
The fate of a man, Sedwick, who lost so much to gain an opportunity beyond what anyone could have conceived, hovered in our minds...and who was to say it was a good or bad thing, what happened to him? Who was to say I was a monster, doomed to be alone? Who was to say Elmiryn was a ghost, doomed to fade away? Didn't all of our misfortunes return us to our hopes, in the end? In stories of lives far apart, that echoed across lands and cultures, that whispered across hundreds of pages, and that haunted children's dreams as much as our own...
Who was to say that a river, couldn't have its tributaries?
.
..quietly...quietly...
we speak to fall.
but close at heart
are we
from the start:till death apart
are we
Author's Note I didn't want the climax of my story to be the defeat of some big monster or an evil wizard. I wanted it to be about dealing with the truth. In real life, I didn't have all the answers upon the conclusion of this story, but like the characters, I found my path and walked it---problems and all. Once again, the plot reflected my life.
Eikasia: Tributaries Page 26