ODE TO THE END: A BALLAD OF BROTHERS

CHAPTER 6

NAOMI

"Okay Naomi. Remember. You aren't going to see him. You're going to review your assignments under your favorite tree, with the morning as your backdrop." She smiled and nodded. "If he is there, it was just a coincidence."

It was a fine cover story if anyone ever asked, but Naomi approached the end of the woodland divide with a vision of exactly who she wanted to find. She had forgone her shoddy armor prior to setting out, but the girl sheathed her bat in her backpack just in case. The suspicions sowed by her homeland was a difficult thing to weed, so it was not without fear that she stepped into the clearing.

Naomi entered her sanctuary and that serene site welcomed her with a kiss of the wind. The grass danced with the blowing breeze, as it often did, and the hill gave way to the same cityscape scene. The sameness put her at ease, for her violent encounter had not been forgotten. For now, her heart could still find peace here, but would things remain the same if he remained? Naomi would not need to wonder long, for she soon found her visitor sleeping beneath the tree.

Naomi felt the bruise on her neck as she saw the boy. His eyes were closed, but she knew what lay beneath those lids. Orbs as cold as the pale winter. To see them again was to revisit a frightening time, yet Naomi could not recall all the things his angry gaze conjured. It was overwhelming though, the feeling she felt. What was it though, Naomi thought. What had she seen the instant their eyes first met?

"What're you doing here," said the sleeping boy.

At least Naomi thought he was sleeping. She now realized that he had simply been resting his eyes. If he was awake the entire time then perhaps he had been waiting for Naomi to do or say something. In any case, wandering her thoughts must have taken up more time than he cared to spare.

Naomi stepped back and stuttered, her response choked by the suddenness by which the boy spoke. Her fear formed knots in her throat so large that she could no longer breathe. She wanted to run - her body reacting to the memory of his threat - but the girl froze. She was scared, but it was not her basic instincts that paralyzed her. No. Naomi, with bright eyes fixed on her assailant, forced her feet to remain firm. She would stand her ground for no good reason beyond her desire to do so.

"I said what're you doing here," the boy said again. "Did you not realize I was gonna kill you last night?"

The boy may have remained in a rested position, but the fact of his words cut into Naomi's brain and she soon saw the stranger for the danger he posed. Even as the boy lay with his back against the grass, Naomi could see that he was taller. This stature gave credence to a strength even greater than hers, for the fight she put up against him the night prior would have amounted to nothing if not for the bat she now held in her hand. His clothes were tattered too, and their condition granted him an untamed menace. This stranger oozed danger beyond what Naomi ever cared to fathom.

What was I thinking, she thought. Her feet soon began to thaw and her heels inched back, but the girl had a way of stealing her resolve.

"I came here to thank you," Naomi shouted. Her outburst freed her from her cold sweat. That said, her breathing remained short and her heart raced. She managed to do it. She spoke to him. What would happen now, she thought. What would he say?

"Are you serious," said the boy. Naomi saw him wipe his face and rub his closed eyes.

"Yes, of course! I mean - It was you that brought my stuff back, right?"

"Yeah. But I did that so that you wouldn't come back here," the boy responded. He yawned, rubbed the grass from his large hair, and swiped the dew from his dark skin. The menace Naomi imagined whittled with every pedestrian gesture. This intruder, this boy, seemed no more threatening than her brother whenever she was told to wake him up for school.