Primal

Chapter Fifteen

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Chapter Fifteen

 

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

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When Aeron woke up, the air around them was even colder than when he fell asleep. Noor was still on the ground, but now she was sleeping there. The room was silent except for her steady breathing, a small puff of smoke rising up into the air with every exhale that left her lips.  She looked gentle, breakable, her body curled into a little ball. He stood up slowly, trying to stay silent. The bed still squeaked under his movements, however, causing her to stir slightly. He slid out of the room, closing the door gently behind him. Aeron knew that Tilly and Zander would be in another room just down the hall, and he walked towards it slowly. He didn’t knock, opening the door with a single swift movement. Zander was asleep, but Tilly was sitting up next to him with her eyes trained on the door. When Aeron walked through her globes lit up, a lopsided smile stretching across her face. “I knew you would come here.” She said, stretching her legs as she stood up and walked towards him. She stopped about a foot away, stretching her hand out towards him. He swatted it away with a single movement. “Zander has known for awhile, don’t worry about him. We met before you even kidnapped the wing girl. He’s a handsome one, isn’t he?” Aeron could tell that she cared for Zander now, and at one point in his life he might have been extremely jealous, but it didn’t matter to him much anymore. They had to part now while he still had the strength to tell her one final goodbye.

 

“Noor. Her name is Noor. And anyways, we’re leaving as soon as Noor wakes up.” He said simply, his voice monotone as he looked at her. Her eyes widened in shock, her mouth gaping open slightly. She hadn’t expected him to say that, of course. He was surprised he could even get the words to leave his mouth. “The ‘we’ is including Noor and me. Not you, and not Zander over there. All you two have done is damage her spirits, and that’s no fun to travel with.” He explained, looking over his shoulder at the sleeping form. How many times had that man hurt Noor? How many times had he previously broken her and left her alone? They had to have a past, and even if Noor refused to speak of him Aeron knew the pain she must have felt. “I hope you two stay here together. It’s probably the only place you could ever belong.” He didn’t wait for a response from her, leaving the small room. She called something out after him, but he didn’t care enough to listen. Noor was guiding him to a new chapter in his life, and he wanted nothing more than to leave the old version of Aeron far into the past.

 

When he returned to the inn, Noor was sitting up with the blanket wrapped around her. He grabbed her arm, pulling her to her feet. “Come on, we have to go.” He said, gathering the little belongings that they still claimed as their own. As he pulled her outside he couldn’t help but wonder why she didn’t ask him what he was doing. He was actually glad that she didn’t question his actions. They walked out of the old inn doors, the town still asleep under the cover of the gentle night. The fog covering the ground was thick enough that Aeron couldn’t see his feet, the smoke fading out at chest level. He felt like a powerful giant among the clouds. Without knowing exactly where he was going, he just went. Their bodies glided along the ground, moving in a single fluid motion as one entity. Their movements cut through the fog in simple slices, leaving a temporary path before it mended itself.

 

“Aeron…” Noor whispered, her fingers squeezing his gently. “Why?” There were so many questions that she could have been asking. Why did he pull her out so suddenly? Why didn’t he stop Tilly the night before? Why were they here, together? The possibilities were endless. “Why me?”

 

He took in a sharp breath, looking up at the rising sun in the distance as they wandered across the field. “Why wouldn’t it be you?” He retorted. In his mind, he never even thought through his actions. He only did what he instinctively thought, getting Noor out of any dangerous situation. He had to protect her at all costs, and even though Tilly was his family she was always one to jump at anything that would benefit her. He brought her hand up to his face, allowing his lips to brush against the back gently. “There was no other option.” She didn’t look pleased with his answer, but she didn’t say anything in reference to it. She just reached up to kiss his cheek gently, her lips leaving a gentle warm imprint in its wake. Even when she parted and turned forward towards the orange shades in the distance, his skin still tingled where she had once touched.

 

Noor smiled, both of them looking forward at the rising sun. “It gives you hope, doesn’t it? It gives me hope.” She whispered, yawning softly. Her eyes were still partially closed, swollen and tired from the night before. She was raw beauty, an untouched gem in its original earthly radiance. How was this sight so attractive? Usually he would turn away, but his eye was trained on her face, unable to look away from her exhausted expression. At least they had gotten to sleep in an actual building for once; their bodies were rested more than they had been from the start of their travel.

 

“Yeah.” He responded, looking at her face as she looked off into the sun. The light reflected against her skin, like glittering crystal glass sparkling in the rays. In that moment she looked breathtaking, and he somehow saw her in a new perspective. “Yeah, it gives me hope.” Of course he wasn’t talking about the sun. The idea of the rising sun giving one hope was unrealistic and cliché. No, she gave him hope that he could actually be a better person. Her heart was light and her soul was uncontaminated by the cruel world around her. Wherever she went, she gifted him eternal happiness.

 

In the distance a small pack of Faunecks traveled, their small, shared words floating across the distance towards them. Moments like those made Aeron realize that they weren’t the only two people in the world, lives existing outside of their own. While it was comforting, it also added a sad overtone to every moment he shared with the girl next to him. When they finally got her cured, she would have to go on to her own life. Both of them would part, and soon he would be alone once more. He reached out and grabbed her hand, his fingers parting so hers could slip into place. It was a silent gesture, but they both knew what it meant. While there was time shared between them, he refused to let her go.

 

They finished crossing the clearing, the sunrise cutting off by the tree branches above. “There’s another town soon. We can resupply there.” He muttered, looking off into the path ahead. He had only been through the second town once, but he remembered it as a safe place. There should be actual permanent structures instead of sloppy lines of tents, and maybe the actual sound civilization would help bring ease to her worried mind. “Tilly and Zander will probably stay at the other town behind us for a few days. We hopefully won’t run into them again.” He wasn’t sure how much he meant that, but it would probably comfort her. In the back of his heart, he knew that he did miss Tilly to some extent. After all, Tilly was all he knew. The feelings he once had would never fade away, but they were not nearly as strong as his devotion to the hand that was weaved into his.

And so they walked under the bright orange sky, the sounds of their happy small talk filled the air, both of them truly and completely happy for the first time in their entire lives.