The Comyenti Series Book Bundle, Volume 1 and 2 (Epic Romantic Supernatural Fantasy)
Page 7
‘This will stop the bleeding and help it heal.’
While he was busy applying the cream, she looked around a bit and studied the wooden sculptures on the chest to her right side, left of the fireplace. She forgot all about her worries when she picked up the tiny figurines one by one. There was so much life and energy in them.
‘May I?’ she asked timidly, trying not to move too much.
‘Sure, it’s a little hobby of mine but hold your head still, please.’
She examined the wooden sculptures gently touching them with her slender hands. Lots of them were of cats, tiny children climbing a tree, a young man with a walking stick and a cat standing in front of him like they were talking, an old man sitting with his back towards a tree with an owl in one of its branches, an elegant woman with a ball in her hand and waves at her feet, and a man and a woman beautifully entangled in each other. Sula was particularly fond of a woman with a fine bird; either a robin or wren, on her shoulder and a big wolf by her side.
Creatures big and small…
She caressed the pieces in her hands one by one while Felix bandaged her head. He was moved by her delicate touch on the wood that he had somehow not expected from her.
‘Do you like them?’
She blinked her eyes at him in wonder for a moment before glancing back at the sculptures.
‘Like them? Why, I love them! You have a gift, Felix, you truly do.’ To Felix’s surprise, she gently picked up his free hand with both of her hands and looked meaningfully at it. ‘That human hands can make beautiful art such as this is a miracle. A miracle.’
He crimsoned at her touch and her sudden kind words; he was not used to her being this kind. A pleasant shudder went through him.
‘Did someone teach you how to make them?’ she stared into his eyes now with an examining look.
‘Nah, I taught myself,’ he shrugged, avoiding her eyes, gone shy.
‘How?’
Sheepishly he laughed at her, whilst tidying away the things he had used to tend to her wound; quickly adapting to her questions.
‘Friends of mine asked me the same and I always answer; the wood guides me,’ and he lifted his hands. ‘These are just vessels,’ he lay a hand on his heart. ‘My inner self links to the wood and the Great Bhan who created the tree… why, the creator of everything. We’re all linked together. That’s why I can do this.’ His eyes locked on to hers and seemed to make contact with her soul before saying, ‘Actually...all I do is listen… to my heart.’
Her mouth opened slightly, she was really moved and her eyes darted from Felix to the little sculptures.
‘So...you don't ever have an idea before you start working on a piece?’
‘Sometimes I do roughly but it's not as if I think a lot about it. The images just come to me, like dreams,’ he walked off and threw away the dirty water outside, closing the door and looking at her again and at one of the pieces she now held in her hands.
‘That’s the last one I made, only last week,’ he gestured to the one of the woman and the wolf. ‘I want you to have it, somehow it feels right. If… you want it of course.’
Sula stared at the polished wooden gracious woman and touched the head of the wolf carefully, like a caress.
I wonder...how is this possible?
The figure looked very much like her own mother who had lived among wolves and was friends with every animal, big and small. A tear came to her eye.
‘I can’t, it’s too lovely,’ Dreams? More like visions. He must be one of those people who can see glimpses of the past and future. My past, how?
Her thoughts were interrupted when he approached her and folded her hands calmly around the warm smooth wood and looked at her straight into her wonderful jade eyes.
‘Not nearly as lovely as you are, Sula. I can never equal nature. Consider it my gift to you.’
She had to look away from his clear blue eyes at that moment and his intense stare. Touched as she was by this simple gesture of sincere kindness, she felt hot tears well up in her eyes and her throat closed up. She said in a broken soft voice, ‘Thank you... Felix.’
That was more than enough for him. He had noticed her sudden emotion and found it irresistible in such a strong woman.
Chapter 7 Revelations
They prepared a meal together from some of the many vegetables, bread and cheese they had retrieved from the giant and ate it with delight while they sat at Felix’s small table.
After the meal Felix stared at Sula with a serious look and finally dared to ask, ‘I noticed you have unusual ears, Sula,’ and how hard you try to hide them...‘I have never seen someone like you before. I mean…it’s not just your beauty or the way you talk and act. And it’s more than simply the fact you don’t come from these parts. You’re…different. I feel,’ he weighed his words very carefully she noticed with warmth in her heart. ‘If you don't mind me asking...are you… from the fairy world?’
Swallowing away her initial fear, she avoided his stare and answered with a half smile, ‘Not a fairy, but flesh and blood, like you.’
‘Of course, I never doubted that,’ he said, remembering the warmth he felt coming from her when he hugged her, smelling her sweet scent, whilst tending the wound.
‘Well, to be honest, at first I thought you were an angel,’ and he gave a sudden wheeze for a laugh, showing his white teeth and a cute dimple in his cheek. It was the most beautiful smile and then he gave her a look of sudden insight, thinking about the accident with the bridge and then when she did not respond, ‘A ‘fallen’ angel! You must be!’
No, you are, Felix,
‘I am part human, part comyenti, Felix. A Mindmerger,’ she said it so quickly not allowing herself time to think or back track.
His mouth fell open and he frowned.
‘Mindmerger…com…yenti… are you saying that they really do exist?’
She glanced at him with a sad look, surprised he had even heard of her species as most hadn’t.
‘Existed; I’m probably the last, a distant memory...’
He needed a moment to think, she could tell, he licked his dry lips. He looked excited that she was something rare.
‘Great Bhan! I thought your kind only lived in myths!’
‘And what do those myths tell you about us?’
‘Let me see, if I can recall, comyentis were human-like creatures with the powers of… animals?’
Sula nodded silently. A real brightness came to his eyes then. Felix was gifted with a great memory and could recall a great number of stories by heart. Sula was impressed what he told her next. For decades her species were luckily thought to be extinct so people had stopped searching and hunting for them, but they had lived on in stories.
‘They’re also different and beautiful, unnaturally beautiful,’ and he slowly moved his hand to touch her, but watched her face closely to see if she approved. When she did not flinch or move, he stroked her delicate cheek lightly up to her ear and she closed her eyes against the intimacy. ‘But despite this unnatural beauty, comyentis looked very similar to the most alluring of humans and would be able to live undetected amongst them, as long as they never showed their powers,’ he cocked his head in thought when he withdrew his hand. ‘But aren’t they all supposed to have identical features in common?’ He examined Sula’s face closer. ‘Pointed ear tips, slanted bright coloured almond shaped eyes, but more importantly very intelligent and immensely strong. If I remember correctly, it was because of all these characteristics that your kind was hunted and eventually driven away. Brought to extinction by mankind a long time ago and not seen for so long that people doubted they ever existed in the first place and not listed in any records, just fairytales.
‘Hmm, ‘driven away’ that’s mild to say the least, ‘wiped out’ would be more accurate. Sadly it is not a myth or a fairytale, but actual history,’ she responded grimly and sat down at the fireplace on one of the comfy cushions.
‘A comyenti,’ Felix said with his mou
th still slightly open. ‘You’re the first one I’ve ever met!’
‘Well, obviously… And also the last.’ she added a bit cynically.
He bit his lip at that. ‘So, it is true? Are you… nearly all wiped out to the brink of extinction?’
He came to sit next to her with sympathy in his aura. His response had been heartfelt and emphatic and Sula was touched by it.
‘I have dedicated my whole life to searching for others of my kind, as my mother did before me…without any success yet. The Search is my life.’
Astonishment faded from his face as he placed his hand upon hers.
‘I am sorry, I didn’t know.’
‘Your kind knows so little.’ She flinched and retracted her hand from under his.
He tilted his head at that, pursing his lips.
‘Hold on, Sula. I may be human, but it was not me who did this to your kind, you know.’
‘It’s not the fault of an individual, if it only was…’ she ruefully reflected. It would be much easier to deal with if it were only one who captured us; enslaved us, tortured us in trying to get us to ‘expose’ our secret abilities, killed us… Yes, if it were only ‘one’ who was ignorant and evil, but no; an entire species. And no one to stand up for us. We encountered fear, greed, ignorance and hate from the hunters and indifference from the rest of mankind. Small wonder my mother had been so full of wrath towards them. And I? What am I doing here? In one of their villages, sitting by their fire as if we’re friends? The same fire that killed many of my people.
She found herself drawing back from Felix; as the old familiar feeling of loathing humans, re-emerged.
‘Will you tell me your side of the story?’ Felix asked softly, understanding her character a bit more now and her sympathy for animals, even giants.
Solemnly and with dark narrow eyes she had already withdrawn from him, both physically and mentally. He saw before him the same person she had been yesterday when they first met. Sula however noticed the honest sympathetic look in his eyes; the look of a child and how could she not answer a child?
Or a cat, she thought with a small smile painting her mouth. She sighed and warmed to him again.
‘There is little to tell, and what I have learned through the years is not very pleasant.’
But she started to elaborate, about the hunt. How they came with their dogs, nets and weapons and the brutal global torture of the comyentis to extract the secret of their powers from them. And when all their efforts failed and humans got desperate and envious and dangerous in their hatred, the slaughter of every comyenti left alive followed; near total annihilation. And how there had been a price on their heads for the ones left alive. That had only been decades ago, in the time of Sula’s grandparents. Sula told him. It had always been risky for Sula to enquire about similar stories when amongst humans and she and her mother had always known to be careful. For to be exposed could mean the end of everything. But Felix needed to know her story, she felt deeply and instead of asking like she was much used to, she was now the one who did all the talking.
‘In your village it may be a myth but I have learned from many people that it’s not. Humans did exterminate us; they despised us. To hate is easier than to understand. The same reason why they hate each other, or more precisely…because of a lack of reason. I’m the living proof because as far as I know it all ends with me.’
She stared at the shadows formed by the opened door, suddenly wanting to escape, to leave this village while she still could. Her eyes were darting back and forth and Felix felt her discomfort. Comyentis were very sensitive beings he remembered from the books and from seeing Sula in the crowd before. How she resembled a caged animal…
‘Your mother, you mentioned her before, she…died a natural death?’ Felix asked gingerly. She nodded, staring in the flames again, but not really seeing the fire. Briefly she told him about her mother’s life.
‘My mother’s parents were both full comyentis, not mixed with human blood. She had two younger brothers. The whole family were discovered whilst on their travels and captured by four brutal men who were going to sell them to a circus. The circus people wanted to use them in their shows; to perform super powers on command to make these people rich and famous. The family managed to escape whilst the men were slept, using their powers, but…accidentally killed one of their captors. They travelled freely for a few days, staying low, thinking they would be safe on the open plains but didn’t know that the locals had put a price on their heads and that all that time they were being followed by their dogs and horses. They were soon traced and completely surrounded by numerous local huntsmen and murdered when they attempted to escape, except for my mother who managed to flee…using her ability to fly.’
‘Fff…fly?’ he stammered.
She nodded, painfully aware of his curiosity but she also saw how visibly shocked he was by the horrors of her story.
‘Of course she would, stupid me, huh?’ he added. ‘Using abilities of animals, but it sounds wonderful to me. To fly…’ He looked at her suddenly, like he had just remembered what they where talking about. He cleared his throat, feeling embarrassed.
‘How old was your mother when this happened?’
She sighed and stretched her legs a little.
‘She was still a child, only eight.’
‘Orphaned and alone. Great Bhan, that must have been hard for her! How did she survive?’
‘She flew to the mountains in the East, far away from humans and was accepted by a pack of wolves. She often told me how content she had been considering the circumstances. She had great respect and love for her wolf friends. My mother loved all creatures, big and small. When she was in her twenties, she dreamt of her parents calling her to search for other comyentis. She was afraid to at first, but then remembered the promise she had made them and said her goodbyes and left. That was the start of The Search passed on to me.’
Sula told him about her mother’s promise to her own mother and how she had to continue the line whilst continuing the search.
‘Your mother used a human man to conceive you and then left him?’
She nodded and frowned. Shrugging her shoulders she replied, ‘Of course, she had no choice. She had tried to find others of her kind; she searched Bhan in vain for years. She knew reproducing with a human was the only chance of our survival as we do match. However she couldn’t have stayed with them for it would have been a great risk for me to grow up amongst or even close to humans.’
Felix was silent for a moment, but then shyly remarked, ‘I guess so, but this promise…will you…?’
‘What? How do you know my mother made me promise the same thing?’ she asked bewildered and confused.
‘Well, it’s only logical. It might all end with you, now that your mother is gone. It’s what you do with a dying species, I understand that much. I’m not judging you or your mother. I’m just asking, if I may?’
He kept surprising her. Sula stared at her hands in silence and answered a little sternly, ‘Yes, my mother made me promise the same thing before she died, knowing it to be our only chance for survival.’ and it’s a binding promise, Sula thought grimly. If I break it, I will lose all my abilities and will be…human. But Sula wouldn’t tell him that!
He nodded looking thoughtfully. ‘So, you er-’
‘So, what?’ Sula shot him an angry glance.
It’s none of his business! ‘A child doesn’t really fit in to my lifestyle! My mother fulfilled her promise and because of that I never had a real home. I couldn’t do that to a child!’ She responded upset. Nor will staying somewhere be any better…
‘If you find yourself a home, it will.’
‘How can I? I have to continue my search, haven’t you been listening at all?!’ Her face tightened with frustration.
He acted like he wasn’t moved and remained calm.
‘But why? I mean, of course I understand, but after all those years…What if you really are the last one?’
‘I have to know for sure. I have to know that… I am not alone.’
Felix didn’t respond, he wanted to but thought, You’re not alone, Sula. Not anymore.
It was awfully silent for a few moments.
She had turned towards the door, so that he could only see her back and tensed shoulders. He had treated her too much like a human. She was very sensitive, her comyenti side was so overpowering.
‘I could never begin to imagine what a heavy weight they have put on your shoulders Sula. Of course you wouldn’t want the burden. You must hate The Search, don’t you?’ His voice was tender.
She turned around briefly to find herself looking at his chest, for he was a head taller than her. Glancing back at the flames, she thought to herself with a shudder, I never did until now.
‘I love travelling and to have my freedom; the vastness of it. To be able to sleep under the stars, and be surrounded by open spaces. To hear the song of birds all around me and have the scent of flowers and trees in my nostrils. To feel the softness of the clouds and the wind in my hair. To wake up with dew on my face and feel the sunlight on my skin.’ She seemed to glow with an inner light on saying all that and Felix bathed in that light almost feeling the warmth of it. He closed his eyes against the intensity. ‘No, you don’t know me.’ And she shook her head.
I’d like to, Felix thought to himself, but instead he said, ‘I’m not saying you don’t need all that, I myself love to travel too, for the same reasons, but I have all those things everyday right here on the farm and in the mountains, where I take my goats to each day. But to wake up every morning somewhere new, after all those years, your search-’
‘Will you please stop talking about it?’ she interrupted annoyed. She could feel her body temperature rise. Wearily she flopped down on the cushions. Felix stared at her considerately.
‘I’m sorry,’ he whispered moments later, gingerly perching beside her. ‘I had no right.’