The Patriarch

Part Two

It's been a year since the day you met Xan, and Halloween has come once more. While it's very interesting to you that nobody seems to react to seeing him on a normal day, they respond amazingly when they see him today. After a few particularly loud responses, you ask him about it.

"I am normally cloaked with a camouflage spell," Xan explains as you walk the streets together. His heavy footfalls and great stature bring the attention of most nearby people, and they excitedly ask for pictures. Xan poses in a cheesy, overdramatic way as they snap their photos, and you can't help but laugh. "Most humans cannot hope to understand the entire realm of possibility around them, so my kind keep themselves hidden from prying eyes."

Thinking back on what had happened the day you met, you nodded silently. Specifically, your giggling fit upon Xan telling you he was interested in you. It still made you cringe to this day.

As a group of trick-or-treaters pass by, he growls loudly, making them scurry away, yelling in mock horror. You look up as he chuckles, and smile.

"Why is it that you're dropping the cloaking spell this Halloween?" You adjust your costume slightly; it was an improved version of the one you'd met Xan in last year. He'd helped you with some of the details when you'd mentioned reworking it, and it looked better than ever. "You'd told me when we met that you didn't really have any experience with humans."

"On this day, it seems that humans only see my true self as a constructed costume," he playfully swipes at a couple of kids, who scream in terror before laughing. "And as such, seem to appreciate my monstrous appearance. But only on this one day. To my knowledge, it seems to bring them a lot of joy to witness something so... what is the word I've heard in the past...'awesome'?"

You giggle under your mask and he chuckles again. It was still really odd to hear him use modern words. His speech was always just a bit old-fashioned, so when he uses current colloquialisms, you get tickled; it's just so out of character.

You felt lucky that you lived in an area where Halloween was a major thing; in the town you'd moved from, it was barely even noticed. To think that you wouldn't have met Xan if you hadn't moved to this place...

You reach out and take Xan's huge finger in your hand. It was really all you could hold onto due to his size. He looks down on you, his violet eyes favoring you with a long look. A strong breeze rustles the fallen leaves, and yours and Xan's cloaks lift and dance in the air.

"I sense something strange from you, my small one," Xan says as he stops and kneels down. "What is it that makes you so unsettled?" 

He gently rests his thumb on your shoulder, his fingers wrapping around your shoulders and back. It was a caring gesture that you'd gotten used to over the last year, and it always made you feel safe. As he looks deep into your eyes, you smile softly. It was useless to deny it; he always knew when something was bothering you.

"I was just thinking about where I came from," you say quietly. "About what would have happened if I'd never moved here," you sigh heavily, "and if I'd never met you."

Xanxaske is silent for a long moment, his thumb gently stroking your shoulder. He was thinking on what you'd said, and you patiently waited for his response. Due to his long lifespan, it sometimes took a bit for him to think things through. Abruptly, and firmly, he shakes his horned head, his feathered ruff rustling.

"No, it would not be possible for us not to have met," he says with finality. You feel yourself flinch slightly in surprise; he seemed so very certain about it.

"Why do you say that? How can you be so sure?" You look up into his eyes as they flare a bright violet. 

He places his other hand around you, and the world abruptly falls away, leaving the two of you in a windswept, orange-tinted blur. Xan looks at you with his bright violet eyes, and you feel yourself seem to grow weightless.