The Shadows ✔️ [TSS#3][BXB]

XXXIV

I awoke with a jolt, looking around my tent in a sweaty mess as I try to remember why I awoke in the first place. Was I having a nightmare?

As I run my hand through my hair, there's movement from the corner of my room and I look up into the eyes of Raen standing over my bed with a furious look.

"R-Raen?" I jolt upright in bed, my eyes never leaving him as he stares down at me. His lips curl at my words and I shrink slightly at the look.

"You dishonour me Keylin." He states in disgust and tears spring to my eyes as he says this.

"I'm sorry. I didn't-"

"You selfish disrespectful little bastard how dare you do this to me!"

He screams at me and I whimper in fear as his eyes change to the glowing yellow before his features begin to morph to that of murk Raen and he hisses at me.

I scream as he pulls my body down the bed.

"No! N-agh please no! I'm sorry I'm s-s-"

I fall off the bed with a bang and I open my eyes to look around me only seeing a wide awake Baja staring at me, tail flicking as I make eye contact with her before she gets comfortable on the couch again.

I get up with a groan from the floor, looking around me as I roll out my injured shoulder. I make my way back onto the bed and pull the covers up close to my face as I stare at the spot Raen was standing in my nightmare.

I cried myself silently back to sleep.

That morning I stared at my porridge in silence, my appetite having disappeared at the memory of last night, the worst part was how it felt so real.

"Key?" Bow questions making me break out of my state and look at him. He furrows his brows at me in worry.

"You okay?"

"Yeah.." I say clearing my throat. "Just not feeling too good, not really hungry." I go to get up, throwing my full bowl of porridge in the bin.

"Okay, please bring an apple with you. It'll be a while until we get food again."

I take an apple off the table and wave it at him before shoving it in my pocket. He smiles and waves me off but just as I turn, I spot a small crowd at the entrance of the camp, looking closer I can see men and women with bandages and wounds.

"What's going on?" I question with a frown and Bow looks out at the entrance.

"They were too weak to come with us and make the trip back so soon so they had to stay in the Sky Lanes and recover before coming home."

"Oh." I state and Bow nods squinting out at the small crowd.

"There should be more coming tomorrow, they're the first batch I think."

"I'll see you tomorrow." I turn and smile a sad smile at him and he waves as I make my way to continue helping the Dry Landers put up the remaining tents. Even with my injury, it didn't mean I couldn't help them in other ways like carrying buckets of ash to dump or sweeping.

I found that doing something no matter what it was took my mind off of everything that has happened. It makes it bearable I guess if I don't think about what happened.

It gets hard. I know I can't block it out completely because I don't want to 'block out' what happened to my friends...what happened to Raen...It's the only way I can keep going without shutting down completely. Besides, I made a promise I wouldn't get lost, yet sometimes it felt like I was sleep walking through the days-like I was barely here half the time.