ANGUIS

Chapter 23

Tres et viginti – Chapter XXIII

Taylor and Karlie resumed their voyage to Brandel after breakfast.

The Queen was quiet, the only sounds filling their ears as they go through the woods that would take them to their destination were the leaves crackling beneath their horses' hooves and the wind blowing softly. Karlie stares at Taylor's profile for a moment, noticing that the blonde has been silent for all morning; as if something was on her mind. "Why are you staring at me?" Taylor suddenly asks, breaking the comfortable silence between them.

Karlie grips the reins tightly, locking her jaw as she averts her eyes from the blonde, who's looking at her with a confused but loving smile. "What's on your mind?" she replies with an ask, and all of a sudden Taylor's tiny grin vanishes completely.

"Nothing," the Queen says softly, looking down at the her horse. The latter neighs, as if it was responding to Taylor's statement.

"You're lying," Karlie affirms. "and Peach agrees, apparently," she adds with a chuckle. "Something's bothering you, I can see it in the way you clench your fists around Peach's mane. What's wrong?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Taylor snaps. Karlie's eyes widen momentarily, taken aback by the blonde's sharp tone. When the Queen realizes her mistake, she quickly mumbles an apology. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to snap at you,"

The brunette shrugs. If she doesn't want to talk about it, then I'll just leave her alone. They stay silent for a long time, although the atmosphere between the two girls was thicker and unbearable. The blonde's stubbornness tells her that she doesn't have to say something in order to fix this, so Taylor purses her lips tightly and bites the inside of her cheek until it hurts too much. The birds had stopped chirping, and as if sensing the change in their moods, the sun begins to hide between gray clouds. The air is starting to get cooler and more chilly, making the both of them shiver in their flimsy umber jackets. "I'm sorry," Taylor whispers after a while, her shaking voice showing how truly apologetic she was. When Karlie doesn't say anything in reply, the blonde feels like she has to say something more, to explain to the tall girl why she has been feeling restless all morning. "I..." she begins, but falters on her words when her eyes meet Karlie's dark ones. "I had a bad dream," she says, and the gloom in the taller girl's eyes decreases slightly.

"You had a bad dream?" she asks skeptically.

"Yeah," Taylor nods, her hands stroking the soft fur of Peach's mantle. "It was not an actual bad dream, but, this morning, when I woke up, I was feeling uneasy and fidgety. And when I saw that you weren't there when I woke up, it just..." the blonde sighs.

"I'm sorry," Karlie replies softly. "I wanted to get us breakfast and take it to our room because you looked so...so soft and angelic when you were sleeping this morning, so I didn't want to wake you. I'm sorry," she explains. There's a moment of silence, before the taller girl hesitantly asks, "What was your dream about?"

"My dad," Taylor whispers. "When I was younger, we used to go to the countryside, and he would let me run around the wheat fields. Sometimes we would play catch, and sometimes we would just lay down and stare at the blue sky, talking about everything and nothing," the blonde pauses, staring unfocused at the ground. "In my dream, we were playing catch, and I think I was ten years old. I was laughing and carefree, but when everything suddenly turned dark, my dad's laugh vanishing, I started to get scared. I stumbled on something, I don't remember what it was, but when I looked up, the sky was not its usual bright color. It was dark, and gray, and the sun wasn't shining anymore. In front of me stood a tall, faceless man with long raven hair, and he was holding my father's dead body by the hair in his left hand and a bloodstained lance in the other. When I tried to reach out to him, the man took a step back and I fell to the ground. I suddenly started to feel weak, my hands were shaking and - and I think I was crying. I was crying and the faceless man kept repeating that I was never going to defeat the evil. No matter how much I try, I will never win."