I heard Rowan wake Isaac up, then go back into his tent and then I went back into the glade, not surprisingly, I didn’t really feel that tired, I wasn’t even sure how long I’d been dreaming for. I went to Isaac to ask him and he told me that I’d been drifting in and out since Rowan had found me, three days ago. I was slightly surprised at how long I’d been out for. I guess loosing a part of you can take a long time to mend.
I relieved Isaac of his duty and sent him to bed. Then I spent most of the night looking up at the stars and watching the sky, I watched as the silver stars faded out of existence and as the black turn into a pink curtain, draping over the sky as the sun rose from the horizon. It was a new day.
I cooked the men a breakfast of wild berries on hot bread. The sweet aromas woke them up and they groggily climbed out of their tents. Rowan kept looking at me hopefully, but I just looked straight past him. Lord Rico complained about the meal, but ate it quickly when I told him that if he didn’t want it then I would give it to Arian.
We saddled the horses and I took the bridal from my bag. “Oh, we have come down of our high horse haven’t we?” Rico mocked me
“Of course Lord Rico, that’s exactly why I’m using the bridal, your superior intelligence has shown me the error of my ways.” I said, my voice thick with sarcasm. I gave him a superior look and walked ahead of him on Arian. I couldn’t be bothered with him at this point. Now that I felt like a full elf and not just a pretender, I wasn’t interested with his petty arguments; he was just an inferior being that didn’t understand what I could actually do to him. He was ignorant and I couldn’t be bothered to educate him.
The men all followed me through the forest until we got to the end of the trees and a wide, open expanse of land lay out in front of us. “Where to now?” I asked him coldly.
“You mean you don’t know?” he said.
“No otherwise I wouldn’t be asking.”
“Oh, well this is new, the little elf’s lost her way.” The mocking was getting old and I had reached my tether, I no longer cared if he did it out of ignorance of his current situation or not. I flicked my eyes over him and sent a flash of light through my eyes over his body that paralysed him. He slowly fell sideways off his horse and onto the floor in exactly the same position. I looked at him once and saw his eyes move around frantically under their uncloseable lids. I looked away and spoke to him while surveying the surrounding landscape; if he wouldn’t show me respect, I wouldn’t show him any.
“I don’t think you know who or what you are trying to mock Lord Rico, but I think that you now know that I am no ordinary human girl to be trifled with, you are no longer ignorant of your current situation, and therefore I will not be so lenient next time.” I locked my eyes on his in a steely glare and then flicked them over him again and let him free. He stiffly stood up and held onto his horse for a minute. He eventually was alright again and climbed onto its back.
“I will ask again, where to now?”
“We are to go southeast over the plains and then make our second and third camps in the plains then our fourth camp will be made at the base of mount Cadavain, it should take us about four days to get there.” I looked to the horizon and saw the mountain that he spoke of, it was a looming shadow in the distance, huge already and disappearing into the cloud mist. I couldn’t imagine how big it would be when I was actually standing next to it.
I stared at the horizon line to the west of me for a moment and then urged Arian to trot quickly over the plains. The others followed me. We were on our way into the real world. A place I didn’t know, completely new, I wasn’t scared. I was looking forward to the difference, a new me. A slightly painful thought slipped into my mind but I pushed it away as soon as I realised it was there; What would Jacob and Johanna think of the new me? It made me feel a way that I didn’t want so I pushed it aside and blocked all memories of them from my conscious mind, storing them away in the back of my sub-conscious and creating a thick wall around them. I would not let them hurt me anymore.
I sat on Arian and cleared my mind from all thoughts, just letting my body slip into the easy rhythm of Arian’s movement. I concentrated solely on the beats of her hooves on the ground as they played out a pulse in my mind, mirroring the way the blood rushed around my head. I lost track of time and it was only when Lord Rico spoke to me that I realised it was growing darker. “We’ve covered more ground than I expected today, but I think it’s time to stop, the men are tired and need to rest, the horses too.”
“Very well.” We slowed down to a stop and set up our tents, I watched as the men started up a fire and then when it was done I went into my tent and ate some fruit and a dry biscuit that I washed down with some water. Then I went to sleep, hearing the voices of the men as they talked to each other in the growing darkness.
The next morning I woke up and got out of my tent as the sun rose over the eastern horizon and cast pink shadows over the endless sky. I enjoyed the suns first warmth on my face and would have smiled, but such expressions did not come easily to me since the forest. Then I woke up the others by clearly calling out their names. We ate and then packed up our tents. Rowan was silent and none of the men really spoke at all when I was there, that suited me fine.
We got onto our horses and rode in much the same way as we did yesterday, I thought about more things though, mainly about the training that I was riding into. Would it be easy? Hard? I wasn’t sure if it was what I wanted, but I wasn’t sure what I did want and this was a simple enough path to follow, I was turning into the stream, following the course that I was sent on. No questions asked.
I slowed Arian down, I could feel that she was getting tired. Isaac caught up with me, “If you don’t mind me asking, what wrong with you?”
“What do you mean?” I asked him crisply
“Can’t you tell?”
“No.” I could feel the hatred building up in me as I stared at the face that had caused me so much pain, the face that had ripped me apart.
“No mind reading?” he asked surprised
“No.” he could tell that I was not going to say anything further without prompting.
“What happened to you in the woods?”
“It’s inconsequential.” I was trying to control my hatred towards him, but my words still came out harsh and ruthlessly.
“Well, whatever happened, you’ve changed, why?”
“Not everything has an explanation that you can understand.”
“Try me.”
“No.” he was taken aback that I was being so abrupt
“Then tell me what happened to the old Ilea?” I ignored him and carried on riding, looking ahead.
“Well, whether you tell me or not is your choice, but I just want you to know, you’ve broken Rowan.” As much as I hated it, that one got my attention.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know what, if anything, happened between you, or if you did anything to him using your magic, but whatever happened or whatever you did, you’ve broken him. He’s a shell of what he used to be. You should know, he never slept while you were in that trance, three days he stayed by your side, he hardly ate or drank, he just held you until he couldn’t anymore, he fell asleep with you in his arms, we had to move him away from you. He hates us for doing that because he wasn’t there when you woke up again, and now you’re like this, he blames himself. I just thought you should know that you’re not the only one who’s changed. You’re not the only one who’s turned empty” He gave me a sad, angry look and then joined the others behind me.
I couldn’t let him get to me, it didn’t matter, I had to be strong I had to act as if I didn’t care about it, otherwise I would get hurt again, this way I only felt one thing. Numb.
YOU ARE READING
Awoken (Ilea, Book I) (COMPLETED)
Fantasy“I have found you.” Was all he said as the blackness swallowed me. Ilea has been living with a secret that she knew nothing about, a secret so big that her whole life is being turned upside down. Torn away from her friends and thrust out into a wor...
