Treeline

Chapter 2

Rowan didn't say a single word to me the entire way home. Under his long blue coat his back was stiff. His sword clanged at his side as he walked. Rowan could be just as silent as the next fae, he was making the noise on purpose.

I attempted a few times to bring up conversation. Any conversation but of the hunter of course, I was wise enough at least to gather that.

"When is the regiment flying out?" I hoped that he might answer a question regarding himself if nothing else.

Each attempt was answered the same way with him acting as if he hadn't heard me. As if I were merely a figment of the wind. So beside the tap tap tapping of the sword, we walked in silence.

Rowan never used to be so touchy, so easily angered by my words. We used to be completely inseparable. It was almost as if we were one being, one entity split across two bodies. We never fought. He was always quieter but that made up for my...loud brashness as I have been told.

Things changed as soon as I started spending time with others. I would invite Rowan along and he would come, but he would never seem happy about it. One of his favourite jobs was to grow the trees, sprouting branches from our touch. Even that though, he would come and simply watch a small group of us laughing and playing along, branches shooting this way and that. He refused to join in.

Shortly after his new moodiness grew he joined the regiment. He told me it was so that he could get some air, some time to think, which was absolutely ridiculous. He had all the time in the world at home, why he felt he needed to head off into the goblin war was beyond me.

He became even less and less fun to spend time with so I obliged him and did what he wanted. He had his plans and I would have mine. I wouldn't have brought him to see the hunter, my new obsession, if he hadn't have asked so nicely out of the blue. My newer friends had already seen the hunter of course, Capsi and Trout. They both agreed with me that the hunter would make a perfect fae and that the two of us would make a great pair. Of course Rowan would have to find some reason to be moody and upset over it.

Our home lay in the centre of the woods inside the Hive. It was an ancient tree...or really cluster of trees. So entangled was it that it was truly difficult to see where one type of tree ended and another began. The branches leading to the Hive grew increasingly thicker. I tried to walk up beside Rowan instead of behind him, but he would just speed up. By the time we arrived at the Hive's topeastern entrance, we were both in an equally sour mood.

Rowan stopped outside the door. He opened his mouth, about to say something but I cut him off.

"Well wasn't that just pleasant? You wonder why I rarely invite you these days. And to think I could have gone frog skipping with Capsi instead." I crossed my arms and glared at him. His face contorted into a grimace so I continued. "Who do you think you are anyway, that you should have say in what I do and whether I let humans see me or not? Do you really think I'm pathetic enough, weak enough to let anything hurt me?"

"No, I-" he began to reply.

"And then you just storm off like I've done something to offend you! Ignore me the whole way back. Just because you're a soldier now doesn't mean you're better than me. That's sure what it seems like you're saying." Others shifted around us, coming and going from the hive. I ignored them, not caring if they overheard the words I spat at Rowan.

I paused. His eyes made their way from the ground to my face. His expression was blank and voice lifeless. "The regiment leaves tomorrow."

"Good," I snarled at him. If that's all he could say, not even an apology, then good riddance. If he was looking closely, he would have seen the subtle flow of wind wrap around my body before it hit him across his shoulder. His eyes widened but he didn't try to move or block the magic which he could have easily done. "Something to remember me by when you're gone."

I spun around and ran through the invisible door of the Hive, leaving him with his new snake-like shoulder tattoo and the constant dull pain that it would give him until I decided to remove it. For some reason tears formed in my eyes as I ran. Surely they wouldn't be for Rowan. No, this was the last straw, he couldn't even be happy after seeing the hunter who I had chosen to marry. If he didn't want friends then he was doing a right good job of it and wouldn't have them.

I ran through the Hive blind with anger and no one stopped me. I paid attention to nothing. I was in my own world, travelling to my room by instinct more than anything else. When I reached it, I threw myself onto my bed of leaves and sobbed.

Dedicated to cmofield who helped with Treeline's summary/blurb