Fields of gold

Middle of the night

Féline hissed when the sharp ringing disturbed her beauty sleep. Mind hazy, Eleanor grumbled something about her blasted landline before her brain caught up with her. Switching on the side lamp, she caught a glimpse of the time on her watch.

3.14 am.

Who the heck calls me at this hour ?

The phone stopped ringing before her feet found her nice fluffy slippers. Eleanor yawned, put out. Living in the middle of nowhere had its uses, but it could sometimes be a pain. No mobile phones. Not that she would handle its radiations anyway. Miffed, she was about to pull the comforter over her head to return to her dreams when the phone started ringing again.

Eleanor dropped out of bed with a groan, and dragged herself to the living room. The wind had howled all day, but the storm had died somewhere during the night. Still, she had not been able to fall asleep before way past midnight.

And that blasted ringtone killed her ears, even at the minimum. Reaching for the headset, she closed her eyes against the light and groaned.

"Yeah ?"

"Oh, Ella, thank god ! You need to come down, quick before tomorrow morning."

Myriam's voice was hushed and frantic. But it was still 3 am.

"What the hell Myriam ?"

"People came, dark suits and all. I think they were from the government. They asked him questions, he responded some in his own language."

This time, the nurse held all her attention; there was no use to name 'him' as they both knew who she was talking about.

"What ?" Eleanor breathed.

"We received the order. They are transferring... to an unknown facility."

The young woman frowned, her heart flip flopping in worry. The government wanted Laurëfindelë ? Had they figured out where he came from ? She had thought about it, long and hard. The most obvious would be a closed-knit community with an invented language of their own, somewhere in Australia or Brazil, where genetics liked to play tricks.

Another possibility had been that she'd been transported into the X-Files TV show. Eleanor had laughed at her own idiocy... but now, to know the government wanted him caused her suspicions to flare. Perhaps they would just ship him back home ?

Or perhaps they would experiment on him. Laurëfindelë was... different. And even his blood tests were weird, according to Myriam. His ears, too, and his flawless features, and the age in his eyes... Well, everything about him was strange.

He might very well disappear from the surface of earth.

"Ella ? You're still here ?"

Eleanor blinked her thoughts away, playing with the cord of the old phone.

"Yeah."

"I don't trust them, those guys. And neither did he. I've seen him sad and desperate, but this time he looked... different."

A rusty eyebrow climbed upon her forehead.

"Different how ?"

There was a pause on the other side of the line, as if Myriam couldn't quite reconcile with the idea. And then, she breathed, barely loud enough for Eleanor to hear:

"Dangerous."

Dangerous.

The physiotherapist's words came back full force as she considered the situation. Laurëfindelë, for all his gentleness and good disposition, had probably been a soldier. Yet, despite the trauma that had left him broken, he'd shown an even and welcoming temper. Sadness, sometimes, and despair crept into his eyes when he believed she wasn't looking. But she'd never witness any violence about to be hurled at anyone. In pain, or harassed by the nurses, Laurëfindelë was the epitome of control.