Highland Dream (Book 1)

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Waking up can be traumatic, it can be abrupt or it can be a gentle awareness and the world slowly comes back into focus. The latter was the case for Aislinn, and the first thing she noticed was the distinct lack of noise…which mercifully meant that it was no longer raining or it was the fine misty rain…meaning the storm was finally coming to an end. Maybe this was linking with her dream, some sort of prophetic sign for her, but she was just not awake enough to understand this sign just yet.

Opening eyes in a slow blink had her looking at the inside peak of a quickly thrown together tent. The lack of rain had been noticeable at first and that lack of noise had made her miss the sound of conversation not too far away. From what she could see from the gap at the tent entrance night had surely fallen and she had slept the day away. The problem now…she was wide awake and she wanted to do some work, anything to keep herself busy and useful.

Deciding to put herself to use even if it is the middle of the night she made herself to the entrance and peeked out to see who was awake outside. From what she could see most of the men were huddled together on pallets just under the tree line not too far away. Looking further around she saw the shadows of two men standing at the opposite end of the clearing and from the size of them she could guess which the men it was. Due to that fact, it made it an easy decision for her, she quickly and quietly made her way out of the tent. Staying close to the tree line she neared the men, only now taking the time to make sure she was correct in just which of the men were on guard.

The moved in synch and she remembered seeing them talk with Camdyn this, or yesterday, morning depending on what the actual time it is now. They were remarkable, she had never seen two people look so alike. She had heard of twins before, knew of a woman in her village that had hoped for twins when the size of her pregnancy showed it would be twins or a baby which could be too large for a natural birth, unfortunately the latter had been true and neither had survived. She was fascinated with these men, but also knew that they were probably seasoned warriors so she made care to make some noise upon approaching them lest they decide to kill her first and ask questions over her corpse.

They were good guards she would give them that. The first rustle of leaves under foot and they snapped to attention facing in her direction. Not bothering to stay in the shadows of the tree line, if they knew where she was, she walked with much more confidence than she felt in their direction.

Aonghus thought that maybe the Faeries were walking again, the darkness provided by the cloud cover overhead meant all he and his brother could see, was her shadowed silhouette against the darker shadows of the trees. He wanted to see if Artair was seeing the same vision as him, but he did not dare take his eyes away, in case she disappeared from sight by the time he returned his gaze.

As she neared them he could make out more of her features. The Faerie slowly became Aislinn, and Aonghus was starting to question her true origins, for no one should be able to walk as far as she did as silently without having some magical blood within them (well without some training in hunting or scouting). With a quick glance, now he knew she would be going nowhere, at Artair he knew that his brother had the exact same thoughts.

Aislinn could not believe the similarities between the two men in front of her. How strange to have someone look so much like you they could be you. The strangest thing about them thought was they were both holding the same facial expression, at that expression was not one of warrior alertness, or someone ready to question her for her movements in the middle of the night. Instead she thought she saw a look of awe, which was probably the dark making her see a distorted picture, for why would they be in awe of her.