She flicked away the heating pain that sprouted from the fire and landed on the tips of her fingers when throwing in more wood. Though it's was nearly nine, the sky had already turned a deep opaque black and the afternoon rain made the air outside bitter, frost developing on the smaller plants. The fire in the house was bleeding light into the dark house and Maven chose to look at the books that were placed next to the water. They were hardcover with gold employers and their title were placed along there spines. One of them at the bottom had a picture on its cover, white with black text The White Guard. It was very old by the looks of it, torn and somehow burnt edges of the paper pages and it's straight spine was bending causing the book to arch when laid down. He picked it up carefully and held it in front of Nina. Prompting a reason for such an old and strange-looking book.
"What?" As if she didn't know what Maven was asking her.
"Where did you get this?"
She took the book from his hands and flipped through the first two pages which were covered in symbols by the looks of it. Symbols that he's never seemed before, they looked liked letter but with curls and edges that took away any meaning or created any word.
When looking at the page Nina's eyes looked content as if remembering something sweet from her past. Her lips curled into an almost smile and fingers tracing out the words remember my love which was written with harsh strokes and all uppercase.
"Whose that?"
Her eyes looked up and no longer filled with memories, Maven knew he was asking a personal question he didn't want.
"I'm not sure, but I've had it since I was a child, kind of like something to remind me of home."
Maven only nodded and even though he was prone to asking more, finding out about this girl, he left her with that only question, afraid he might uncover something he didn't need.
To lessen the tension that was roaming between the two, he picked up the first book he saw which was newer and wouldn't expect to be something of familiar remembrance. "Is this in Lake language?"
"Yea, you know it?" Maven nodded no. He remembers being taught it as a young boy, for reason that dealt with the century war but it wasn't something that king needed or what rather Elara needed.
She pointed at the true cover. "Décès Amoureux. It's means deaths lover. It's all in my language but the other two books are in English if that's easier for you."
He lifted his eyebrow at the sudden blow. "What do you mean easier for you?"
She scoffs "I would think a King would know more than one language."
It was a cute remark but he didn't want to think about Norta, he felt sleep drown him and if he thought about anything that related to him being King, his past that leads him here, then he would drown in his pity. He smiled which caused Nina's to give that concerned look, eyes softening and lips dipping a tad.
"I should get some sleep." Maven said, walking towards that couch. Still, with the old book in her hand, she watched as he sat down on her couch. "Of course." She smiled and walked up towards her bedroom. The living room was dark but the fire in the kitchen illuminated as much as it could. Nina room was lite by a single light making one spot on the ceiling glow. He watched it until it flickered off.
He was there alone again. He didn't sleep but instead sat down on the couch watching the fire dance inside the iron stove. He moved it slowly, letting it dance to its pleasing, wishing he could crawl it out of its cage. He let the fire dim then expand, playing with it until he finally just got up and stuck his fingers between the bars. On finger on fire, then the next four. He never felt so pleased with his ability. Many held stronger powers than him, that could wield a weapon without even touching it, or control the mind with just simple eye contact. It felt good on his hands though, the constant warmth always felt good. As the fire stayed ablaze on his palm he raised his head to the room that hung above him. The room was so quiet besides the crackling wood that he could hear the girls soft breaths as she slept.
What a peculiar girl. A girl that saved him from death and she's sleeping soundly while a monster sleeps on her couch. He could easily burn this place to the ground and take what he needs and run. But his conscience was somehow finally awake and no longer his mother's voice.
The air was so dense and quiet that the small tap on the window caused him to jump as if someone had drawn a knife behind him. When Maven looked into the void, there was nothing there and something clicked in his mind that gave him the idea to explore the black hole that was the night.
Before he opened the door, he tipped his head up to make sure the girl was sound asleep and the old screen door wouldn't alert her.
Even though he could only see the tip of her head, resting away from him, her gentle breathing gave him enough assurance that she was in a slumber.
The door creaked but he was quick enough to make his way out. Once outside, he thought he went blind for a second but the dimming light hanging near the door reassured him that he wasn't in a void. He watched as moths and other light thirty bugs dance around the lantern and turned back to what he was curious about.
The forest, to dense to see what laid beyond but the wall of trees moved with the wind. Thick trunks with green moss growing on the Northside and pockets of ferns lay across the forest wall. He waited for the noise again, anything that signified that there was life in the unknown wild. Amazing him how we plant our feet and call it home but really nothing is ours when the gods of nature take care of everything.
He didn't notice himself getting closer and when his foot snapped a twig he stepped back, stumbling on his feet.
"Are you Ok?"
He flashes his body towards the house where Nina, a thin robe draped across her body, crossing and rubbing her arms.
"Can you not sleep well?"
His body fell at ease, "No, I heard something."
She walked closer to him, twigs and leaves crunching under her feet. "You pay attention to anything at night, you'll have no sleep."
Her gaze turns away from him and into the forest wall. "It's either a wolf or a squirrel, but we have to be careful either way."
"You have wolves."
"We have bears too, but they're easily startled, just don't climb up a tree when you see them." Her eyes flicker back to his and he notices a girlish smirk.
She walks back to the house but she doesn't go to the door but instead climbs up to the smaller roof of the house.
"What are you doing?"
"You said you couldn't sleep and neither I."
He stood there confused. Nina's face scrunched up as if she saw the dumb in him. "Did I not get across that I'm inviting you to sit up here?"
"Oh!" He says quietly under his breath. He climbs up the wood next to the house and meets her up at the top. Her hands stay behind her supporting her while her legs stayed cross, head tilted looking into the sky. He sat next to her and crossed his legs, slouching, looking at his grey, thin pants.
Her hands move back and grab something out of the robe. A pack of cigarettes, something that was common in Lakeland's and banned in Norta.
She caught him staring as she stuck one between her lips and grabbed a lighter. "Judging already." Voice distorted as the cigarette bounced up and down as her lips moved. His eyes flickered back in fourth, embarrassed a little.
She fumbled with the lighter and Maven puts his finger on the top of the cigarette lighting it with ease.
"Didn't think you were useful." She smiled and it made his lips smirk for a second.
After she sucks in what Maven considered poison in a wrapped piece of paper, she handed him the white and orange stick.
"I'm good." Handwaving it away.
She shrugged and carried on breathing in and out the smoke, the wind carrying it away from his face and into the air.
She flicked the rotting ash, "I know they're bad for you but there not as bad as they use to be, from what I've heard."
Maven pushed his knees toward his chest, wrapping his arms around his legs loosely.
"They were banned in Norta a long time ago."
She sucked in and blew again away from his face, "What was the punishment when caught with them?"
He shrugs, "Not sure, maybe a fine."
"Mm, I just asked because I've heard they have strict laws down there."
"They used too." His mind drifted back to his past. Back in Archeon, a prince with no ruling future, letting his father rule the country as he lived his privileged silver life. Before it was broken down to pieces before it was taken away, his fault.
"Did they teach you astrology when you were a kid?"
An odd question he thought.
She pointed to the sky, pointer finger closer to the brighter stars in the sky.
"It's Ursa Major, and the bright star is one way you can tell you're going North."
He studied the constellation, a big spoon he thought. He probably was told something like this as a child by Julien or another book smart man but it wasn't something ingrained into his mind, he had better things to remember.
"The star is only the tail of the constellation, the tail of a bear." He stared more, trying to picture it. Though however created astrology must have been stupid because he couldn't see anything but a bunch of stars in the sky.
"My favorite one is the Gemini, but that in the West."
The way she spoke reminded him of Cal. Cal as a child to be exact. Her voice full of intellect she was dying to share, he couldn't blame her, she looked like a lonely girl the minute he saw her.
"How do you know all this stuff."
Her face fell a little pale but she kept her small smirk across her face. "My mother had old books about the sky."
She looked back up into the sky, forgetting about the ash between her fingers. The stars illuminated her skin like a light was held to her face.
He did the same thing, staring into a nightmare for the vainglorious and a heaven to the pantheistic.
_____________
Maven didn't remember ever ending up on the couch and he didn't remember Nina ever leaving in the morning until he heard crushed leaves outside. Looking out the window he saw the girl gathering a basket and a bag of what looked like seeds. He opened the window and polite smile warmed her cheeks.
"Good morning Maven." Voice fruity.
"Morning."
"How was your night?"
"Fine, yours?"
As if her hearing had disappeared, she ignored his question, on accident he thought. He tried again, "What are you doing?"
"Well, it's Sunday and I pick my fruit on Sunday's?"
"Fruit?"
"Yea fruit. Plums, there's a garden quarter of a mile from here that I use for selling in the village."
"Is it yours?"
"I found it, so... yes, it's mine."
As she started to walk away she stopped and turned her head.
"Would you like to come?"
He thought about it. A quarter of a mile was a lot and his body wasn't completely healed from his wounded back, but alone during the day seemed uneventful, and the back part of him thought the silence might bring back the voice.
"Sure."
"Good."
She walked to a path that was in the less dense part of the forest. Once he was across the wall of trees he entered a more open space of trees and greens. Even though it was late March in the North, the leaves were a rich green, new and fresh. He could hear a stream nearby and small chirping birds. Then a loud, bellowing noise. A mix of a songbird call and raven screeching.
"What was that."
She continued walking, unbothered by the noise. "There called Magpies, pretty birds that have a mocking type sound."
"They're loud."
"They're typically birds that stay in small groups, telling one another that there's food or danger. Sometimes they just do it causes there annoying."
Maven lifted his head to the trees, the morning sun wasn't too bright and the tall trees outstretched the sky, only small holes of blue could be seen.
As the path felt long and the scenery felt it was never lasting, Nina turned to an opening through the forest and out came an open area.
It was an open field of lavender flowers, quite tall ones too. It's outstretched for what seemed to be two miles worth of land, then back to the dense forest that swallowed the ground. The lush green mountains stood behind the pack of trees and he notices the sky was a baby blue with no clouds to be seen.
"Nice day isn't it."
He nodded, hands on his hips taking in the view. There were always gardens that could astonish the common folk but those were green warden made. He had never seen natures work of beauty before. How the purple made the green seems so small and the smell. Oh, the smell was pleasant compared to the earthy air.
Nina went down towards the field, toes digging into the ground and feet sideways as she kept her balanced walking down the steep hill. Maven followed still stuck on the sight, not noticing the bright sun causing sweat to smear across his cheeks.
The plum trees looked more like many big white bushes that swept across between the hill and field. Nina began picking them, fast, knowing whether it was ripe or not based on a few second looks.
"Here!"
Maven was caught off guard but caught the reddish-purple plum.
"Try it."
Hesitant for reasons he didn't know, he bites into the plump fruit. Satisfied with the taste.
She notices the full cheeks and smiled, teeth shown and a small giggle coming out.
The walk back was quick and by the time they got back, he had felt he had visited the god made garden for only a few minutes. It was already noon.
"Now what do you do?"
She tossed the plums into a bigger bucket with a steel handle and brown lid, that clicked when she pushed it down.
"Today I have to send them to the market to wash so tomorrow there ready to sell."
"When do you leave?"
Her face seemed surprised for his weird concern of her whereabouts. "Soon, but don't worry, I'll be back. Just don't do anything stupid while I'm gone."
Her outfit was different than her normal housing attire, jeans, and button-up white blouse. He assumed that she was lying about going just to the market.
He sat on the couch, flipping through pages of a book he wasn't going to read, she caught her staring at the flowers they picked up. She caught her face like a deer in the headlights. Her lips were a red plum color and skin pale but not as sickly as his pale skin. He had finally noticed her cheeks too, how similar they were to his as if someone traced a line through her cheeks and told her to suck them in. Her eyes too were blue, but not as vibrant, greyer and deep-set with thick dark eyebrows that arched down to her inner eye. She was a pretty woman, a girl that would be taken seriously instead of being seen as an oblivious child.
She stood up fast, ignoring the quick but awkward eye contact.
"Well, I'll see you tonight." Her body started toward the door. She turned her face for a response before opening the door. He only nodded and he was then alone in the small, simple house in the middle of nowhere.
_____________
The clock on the wall seemed to get more annoying every hour, the clicking was louder and the small sounds in the house-made Maven nervous. He was afraid that the silence would summon something he feared, a fake conscience that guided him through hell. Maybe if he read, distracted himself with a story, a book with a language not of his own.
Learning will quiet the weak paranoia.
Nina said the book was called Deaths Lover, a book about an older man who fell in love with a Houses Lord daughter. The man kills her whole family just to be with her.
Nina has only given him the synopsis but it would take him a trip to his memory to read the book and translate it all.
He tried his best though, words he tempered easily and other sentences that made no sense at all. He made through the first six chapters before his body gave up, deep asleep on the cotton couch.
A loud bang at the door startled him but didn't completely awaken him.
It was Nina, different and smelled of sweat and wine. It must have been a long night he thought. She didn't notice him and walked up the stairs griping the railing tight, holding her balance.
Maven watched as she fumbled around the edge of her bed and with her back turned away from his she stripped her shirt off.
Nina had a tattoo on her back. A snake that wrapped around her whole spine, simple but eye-catching. Moments later her body fell flat on the floor.
He stood up, walking closer to the stairs. Grabbing the railing quietly he crept up three stairs before stopping as the creaking wood got louder. She was knocked out, in a deep dream.
He had wondered this before if whispers dream there own dreams or have dreams of others. Without control, just see other nightmare and vivid wishes.
He wondered if his mother dreamed, or she took that away from herself.