Daevas -I- ✔️

Chapter 12: Truth Be Told

It had been days since Kaval led them further into Dantic. Ari was not familiar with the terrain, so he relied heavily on Kaval's guidance. He did not like it. It worried Ari that Kaval may lead him astray or to some other thing that Ari held no interest in. All he wanted, all he searched for, desperately almost, was Auovin. His heart could rest easy if he could just see him. Ari pressed his hand on his heart as it tightened. What came next did not matter so much to him. 

"Over here." Kaval grabbed Ari's hand to speed him along. 

They been over rivers the color of blood and passed forests with long grotesque limbs gushing out the sticky sap Cyrus told him to stay clear of. There were creatures lurking through the darkness, but they never attacked. Ari thought it was because of Kaval and what he was. He silently thanked Kaval for his presence. Truly, he would have been too frightened by all of it to take any more steps further without someone around. There was nothing but wretched things to be found in this land. 

When Kaval brought him up to the top of the hill Ari's eyes grew wide with amazement. Beautiful magenta, pink, and white flowers covered the vast land with a single cabin and a small lake lying amidst the beauty. There were no gates, no ruined temples, or remains of demons or humans. Just trees with white petals falling from its branches and a great snowy mountain out in the distance.  Ari never saw such a place untouched by war or humans. If freedom could be expressed with an image, Ari thought that this would be it. 

"In all of its ugliness, there is beauty to found yet," Kaval said as Ari turned his head to look at him. 

"It is beautiful," Ari said with a loss of words. 

"It is, is it not?"  

Kaval started down the hill causing Ari to follow close behind. 

"It is pink moss." Kaval leaned down and picked one. He pressed it close to his nose, inhaling the scent before passing it on to Ari. "Smell it."

Ari brought it to his nose and instantly fell in love with the scent. It was sweet and reminded him of both Cyrus' and Sai's natural smells. Too much time has passed by for Ari to draw up the smell of Auovin from memory. He never paid much attention to it, but now he wished he had. 

"You are so in love. You cannot hide it to save your own life. Perhaps, being so young offers you some leniency. It is cute."

Ari looked up with flushed cheeks almost matching the flower he was holding. 

"Why is that, I wonder."

"I do... love him... I do not know... if he feels the same... " Ari mumbled. It felt good to give words to the problem that was eating away at him for so long. He could not tell Sai or Rein, especially not Freir of this concern. Kaval seemed like the perfect person for it. There was no bias between them.

"Maybe he does not want to."

Ari's eyes widened. "It is not as if I wanted to either. He can be horrible and cruel. He is terribly selfish and manipulative as well. If anything he has a lot less redeeming traits than terrible ones. But I... cannot help what I feel... even though it is like that. Even though I know he will not change." 

What did that make him? It did not make him any better than Auovin. Ari knew he was horrible, and only tried to look at the little good in him, ignoring the rest.

"You have nothing to offer him and you are too... human for any blood demon as old he to want. You are small, fragile. Your feelings are easily hurt and you look too much like Harun for him to want you. You are everything he does not want. Perhaps, everything he despises as well," Kaval said as he stared into his eyes.