Revenance

Chapter 8

The sound of flickering fire and the warmth of it woke Mira. Her eyes fluttered open and her head rolled to the side, her slick and soaking wet black hair draping over her face. She moved her hair to the side and looked around. There was a bright fire in front of her. A long, black and dusty torn up cloak was wrapped around her and Tajo's mask was sitting to the side of the fire pit.

Mira raised her head, flinching at the pain shooting through her temple. She was able to see Tajo on the other side of the fire, his back to her. She figured that the cloak around her shoulders belonged to him, since he wasn't wearing one. His hair was longer than she expected, nearly reaching his shoulders. Mira also noticed that he was a lot thinner than he appeared, though despite this, she couldn't see his bones, as you would be able to.

"Tajo...?" she breathed, struggling to sit up.

He turned to face her, but before Mira could get a glimpse of his face, he covered it with his gloved hands. "Mira. You're... awake."

She nodded slowly. "Your face. Why are you covering it?"

Tajo moved over to his mask and pulled it on. "How are you feeling?" he asked, blatantly ignoring Mira's question.

She rubbed her head. "It... it hurts."

"You got hit on the head. I found you washed up near the mountain." He sat down next to her. "What happened?"

Mira thought back to what had happened earlier. "My brothers, they..." her voice trailed off and she shook her head. "Nevermind. It was nothing."

Tajo watched her for a moment. "I know that's not true. What did they do?"

Tears started to roll down her face and she choked on her breath. "They..." She sniffled and buried her face in her hands. "...threw me into the river." Her shoulders shook and muffled whimpers escaped her throat as she cried.

Tajo hesitantly placed a hand on her shoulder and pulled her close. She leaned on him as she cried, wishing she could stay with him forever.

"Did you lose your cloak?" he asked.

Mira wiped her eyes and nodded.

"You could use a new one, is that right?"

Mira nodded again and looked up at him.

Tajo pulled a red glowing thread out of thin air. Mira watched in awe as Tajo created more threads from the one, curling and twisting in the air, creating long, beautiful and intricate patterns all around the both of them.

The red light reflected in her wide eyes. She reached out to touch the threads, but her hands drifted through it, barely disturbing the patterns. Tajo briefly glanced at her, but didn't say anything as he was focused on what he was doing.

After a moment, the strings stopped moving and wove itself into a new bright red cloak with a new embroidered floral pattern along the sides. Tajo placed the finished cloak in Mira's arms. It was warm and soft but Mira could feel how strong the cloth was.

Tajo retrieved his cloak and put it back on, while Mira fastened her brand new cloak around her shoulders. She slowly stood up, her body still aching and looked at how the long smooth cloth draped over her.

"It's ... wonderful. It's wonderful, Tajo." She looked up at him with a small smile on her face. She wrapped it around herself and giggled at how cosy it was. "It's quite big as well."

"Hopefully it will last longer for you," he said. Tajo began putting out the fire. "Are you ready to go home?"

Mira stiffened. She didn't want to have to see her brothers again. She wanted to stay out in the forest with Tajo, where everything was fine. Where everything was okay. Where she didn't have to face everything in the village.

Tajo noticed her hesitation and turned to look at her. "You can't stay here forever, Mira." He sighed as he cleaned up the rest of the fire pit. "I don't even understand why you keep coming back."

"Why can't I just stay one night? Please, Tajo. Please just let me stay at least once." She looked up at him, pleading with her wide eyes, and he almost caved. But he firmly shook his head.

"No."

"Why not? Tajo—"

"I SAID NO!"

Mira flinched. She was on the verge of tears but she didn't let herself cry.

Tajo noticed and quickly felt guilty. He walked over to her and knelt down, placing his hands on her shoulders. "I'm sorry, Mira. You just ... you can't stay. Not right now, anyway. Please, trust me."

She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and sighed. "Does that mean one day I can stay with you? One day?"

He hesitated, shaking his head but also nodding. "I don't know. Maybe. Maybe not. But for now—" he glanced at the horizon, where it was already dusk "—you need to get home."

Mira nodded slowly as Tajo let go of her. He stood up and took her hand, and in silence, they walked along the river back towards Mira's family's farm.