Swords and Staffs

5. You and me

Alistair:

We strolled hand in hand through the luminous forest and sat down on a wooden bench painted in ivy and moss. Arlene placed her hand gently on mine.

"Arlene, you know this is wrong, we cannot be together, and you know that."

"It doesn't matter what they think" she whispered, blissful and content.

She smiled affectionately and caressed my cheek. It was warm and comforting. I reached towards her face and pulled back a loose strand of hair behind her ear. She looked so beautiful in the sunlight.

The golden threads of sun shined brightly, filtering through the leaves of the trees and illuminated her dazzling features. The most dazzling features were her eyes. Her magnificent royal purple eyes sparkled and shimmered in radiance. The sun was nothing compared to the crystals that shone before me. They were my suns. She smiled once more before a huge black hole appeared behind her and she was pulled backwards. Everything started to disappear.

"Arlene! Come back Arlene!"

I woke up screaming her name obnoxiously loud. I was sweating heavily, and my pillow was drenched, a huge round circle of sweat had taken over the space where my head had been. Why in the name of Aaldin was I dreaming about that? I had only just been reunited with my childhood friend never mind beginning to think of her as anything more. Although I must admit that I took a liking to her when we were young. I'd get nervous around her often and struggle to get my words out when I spoke to her.

I groaned groggily as I put my clothes on. I decided that I had to see Arlene today. To speak about what had happened the day before. I had to go to the mage's camp and find her. I had to figure some way to get inside. There must be a way. I decided not to take my weapons just in case she saw me as a threat, after all I would never hurt her. I dashed through the camp hoping to avoid my mother, but I failed. She came sprinting towards me.

"Alistair, where were you last night? We were celebrating our victory against the mage apostates! You were the main guest!" she seemed furious, twitching with envy, her face almost as red as her cherry lipstick. I was in trouble. She stood there impatiently, tapping her foot repeatedly on the pavement.

"Forgive me mother. I thought that I would rest early. I felt a little weary after the battle." I lied. I didn't go to the celebration because I needed to think. Attention was the last thing I needed. I also didn't exactly want to celebrate being against Arlene's kind, it just wasn't right.

"That's fine Alistair but make sure that you tell me where you are next time, everyone was wondering where you were."

"Of course, mother," I replied.

"Wait a second, Alistair, why do you seem so flushed and quiet?" mother asked me, examining my face.

"What do you mean?"

"Aha! I knew it! You've met a girl!" I stood there astonished, wondering how in all of Aaldin's creations my mother could be so psychic!

"No...", my cheeks couldn't help but ripen to a rosy red. My goodness Alistair, could you please try not to give it away!

"Tell me everything about her! Does she like you back? Are you madly in love with her? Is she a Templar? Someone from Mournstead? Or even Everton!" mother's eyes widened in curiosity.

I had to come up with something quick.

"Excuse me, mother but I must take my leave, I am expected elsewhere... I promise to tell you more later."

"Ok, dear, but make sure you tell me every detail!"

I slowly backed away from her and headed towards the forest where she had raced to after our argument. She had to be there.

Of course, I had never been to the mages' camp for if I were even spotted near it, I would have been charged and killed. The mages were extremely protective of their camp even though it wasn't really anything to be proud of. Ours was much better, fully equipped with weapons and all sorts of different ammunition. Our camp was more organised, and we didn't hold prisoners in cells to practise blood magic on. Everything about the mages camp was unruly and dysfunctional. Or so I was told.

I entered the forest. It was very peaceful today, the birds sang, and the trees danced and swayed in tranquillity. That was when I saw her. She was spread out on the ground, asleep, not as delicate as I last saw her. There were dried tears on her cheeks and her marvellous raven hair was knotted, tangled, and covered in thick mud along with a few leaves and twigs. I gently tapped her on the shoulder, and it wasn't long before I saw those beautiful royal purple eyes.

Arlene:

My eye lids opened. The boy from yesterday was standing above me, strands of hair draping downwards from his slicked back hairstyle. He startled me and I jumped out of my skin. "What are you doing here?!" I whined, yawning as I did so.

"I came to find you. After what had happened yesterday, I thought that we could go over things."

He obviously expected me to say something back.

"About you and me..." he continued. It seemed strange that he had referred to us as "you and me". However, it also sounded normally comforting to me. It made my heart tingle as if it meant something, that I was finally going to get something that I desperately wanted. I wasn't sure of what I wanted yet. I wondered, what did he want?

Disrupting my sudden swirl of thoughts, Alistair grabbed my hand and pulled me up from my little nest.

"Why don't we have a little walk," he said with hopeful eyes.

"Sure, why not. Of course," I basically said all of the variations of yes.

We started to stroll down the twisted path of the forest, when I noticed he still hadn't let go of my hand. I stopped in my tracks and removed my hand from his.

"Alistair, you know that this is wrong. You're a Templar, I'm a mage. We're meant to hate each other not-" I stopped there. I didn't want to go too far too soon. He would probably get the wrong idea and think that I was some sort of psychopath.

"-Not like each other." he said slowly finishing off my sentence. I was amazed. He really did feel the same way. But the problem was that we couldn't feel the same way. We couldn't feel any way towards each other, other than hate.

He started to speak, "I know this is wrong and I know that we are meant to be feuding but, how do I put this? I don't know what is wrong with me, Arlene, but I don't care. I don't care what happens, I just want to be able to be around you and if you don't approve of that then you can go. I just needed to get that off my chest, but I admit it, I quite like you Arlene. And I know that sounds crazy since we only just met again after a while but trust me I understand if you wish to turn around, leave and don't look back."

After he said that he looked at me for my reaction and was clearly surprised by the result. I was overjoyed. Now I knew. I knew that it wasn't just some weird feeling in my stomach I had since I had met him. I now came to the realisation that my feelings weren't playing up. I naturally and generally liked him. More than I thought I did. I wanted to see where this went and wanted to be with my best friend again but maybe as something more.