Umbren stared at the girl who had walked in for what felt like an eternity, and she did the same.
It was the first time he had seen a luxcian up close, well with enough time to realize so. The girl had long golden hair, and tanned skin. Rampant curiosity shown in her golden star pupils.
The silence between them was broken by the sound of a basket leaving the girl's arms, hitting the floor of the room. Umbren's attention was immediately drawn to it, and when he looked back up, the girl was right in front of him.
Umbren's mouth went agape in surprise, but the first words of the encounter were not spoken by him.
"So, you're a real Nocturnal, uh."
"What's a..."
He was interrupted by the girl before he could finish his question, "I don't think you should be moving too much, though I don't think you could look any worse"
Umbren was still a little disoriented from having just woken up, so he couldn't really comprehend what the girl was saying, "Who..."
"Alyze!!! What's taking you so long?! You better not be messing with that boy!"
Umbren was once again interrupted, but this time by a man's voice. It was stern, but filled with frustration.
The girl jumped and ran back to the door and picked up her basket, "Um, sorry I have to go tell him that you're awake. I'll be right back."
As the door closed behind the girl, Umbren looked around at the room he was in. He seemed to be in some type of cellar, as there was food hanging all around the wall, and barrels were speckled around the room. Umbren himself laid on a bed, if you could even call it that. It was a slab of wood covered with a layer of animal skin. It was quite uncomfortable, but it wasn't the worst.
Umbren stared at the ceiling, with thoughts swirling in his head. He wondered where he was, who the girl was, how he was in a luxcians house, how he wasn't dead, if he was in danger, if the others were in danger.
He heard frantic voices outside, he could tell it was that girl, and the owner of the voice he had heard a moment ago, but he couldn't make out what they were saying.
A few moments later he heard footsteps again. and soon the door opened up again and the girl came through it with a canister of water.
At her entrance, Umbren sat up, but a sharp pain shot through his side, forcing him to lay back down. The girl approached him and held out the canister to his lips, but she got a distrustful stare in return.
The girl gave a reassuring smile, "Don't worry it's just water. It's not like it's gonna kill ya. In fact, you'll die without it."
Umbren tried to voice his protest, but he realized how dry his throat was, and he closed his eyes in defeat. Soon a heavenly cool liquid washed down his throat, and he eagerly gulped it down to the last drop.
"See, just water."
After she said that, a look that said that she had forgotten something came over her face, "Oh, I forgot that basket, I'll be right back."
She rushed out of the room again, leaving Umbren to his own thoughts.
Umbren laughed to himself. It wasn't due to his current situation, but because of a memory. He remembered his conversation with lord Mortis that night of the attack. He laughed at the way he acted. He thought about how he tried to act tough in front of his presence. But really it was all a lie. He had said that he would not be able to meet lord Mortis's expectations, but what exactly were they?
Umbren had suspected that Mortis wanted him to become furious and filled with blood lust, and Umbren had put down that desire. But should he have done that? Should he be furious? Should he try to take vengeance? Should he…
Umbren stopped the thought as he feared what conclusion it would lead him to and covered his eyes with his hand, and his face broke into a grin.
Mortis had been right in a way. He was afraid of what would become of him after he came to a conclusion with the thoughts swirling around in his head. No matter what though, he would not be able to remain the same. Faldrid and Mortis had seen through his attempts to move on and try to act normal. He had planned to just do that for the rest of his life, but that proved more painful than he would have ever thought.
"Still, what am I going to do about my current situation?"
Umbren thought back to the image of the girl and her star pupils…
An image of a young man with a knife through his chest, blood dripping over his mouth, and his star eyes filled with hopelessness as he stared towards the sky.
Umbren become overcome with nausea. He rolled over in surprise tumbling out of his bed, shooting a sharp pain through his whole body.
***
Alyze's heart was beating faster than it had ever before. It was not out of fear, but excitement. Excitement of the unknown and the possibilities that came with it.
As this was going through her head she ran into the main room of the house. It was separated into three sections. The first one was a kitchen area with a bar separating it from the other sections. The middle section of the room, which contained a big table for meals with a door that led to the forge behind it. Then the other part of the room contained a fireplace and chairs around it.
At the table sat a man staring at four objects strewn about the table: A black cloak, throwing knives with their sheath, a weapon that looked like a machete but had a curve to it, and a black sword with a silver hilt.
The girl looked at the table and the man disapprovingly, "What did I say about weapons on the table dad, that's where we eat ya know."
The man didn't look up at her. He maintained his pensive stare at the objects on the table, "How is this possible."
The girl grabbed the basket in the kitchen, and looked towards her father curiously, "Hmm, what did you say."
The man took the cloak from the table, "Look at this Alyze, a cloak, no armor, just a cloak."
Her father had a large beard spotted with grey, a dark tan, short cut golden hair, and was burly by luxcian standards, and some in the village even said he was as big as a geodine, but Alyze doubted that.
Alyze seized an apple that sat on the counter, "So?"
Her father started to speak frantically, "It just doesn't make sense. Why would they not protect themselves? The only thing that this protects them from is fire, but nothing else? How are there rumors of them being near impossible to kill, if they have no armor!"
Alyze looked up from her basket, "Dad, don't tell me you threw our guest clothes into the fire."
Her father went on as if not hearing her, "And these weapons! These weapons! Just look at them. I mean it's impressive that he had so many on him, but just look at them. These knives look like they're practically going to fall apart from old age. The only exception is that sword, but it may soon end up like them at this rate!"
Alyze gave a wry smile, "Then why don't you fix them up for our guest, if you're so bothered by them?"
Her father folded his hands and grumbled, and then after a moment picked up the curved weapon on the table, "A kukri. I've never seen one up close before. Those Nocturnals usually fight to their last breath to make sure they don't fall in our hands. I could probably get away sharpening and mending the knives and sword, but just imagine if anyone catches me working on this, especially the mayor. It would probably do more harm than good to this thing though."
Her father then shook his head, "Why would I fix anything for someone we don't even know is safe to have around."
Alyze walked back to the pantry where the boy was held. She stopped and put a finger to her cheek, "You're the one who was eager to let him into the house after you saw all his stuff."
She didn't hear what his response was as she had already come up to the door and started softly cracking it open, so as to not scare the boy. Though she suddenly heard a loud noise and slammed the door open out of worry.
***
Umbren clenched his fist at the entrance of the girl. He hated the girl for seeing him in such a state, but also her star pupils which caused such an image to come to mind.
The girl dropped her basket and with it an apple that it contained. She rushed to his side, "Don't try to move too much."
She helped him back into the bed, through many painful grunts from Umbren. She then pulled out a blue bottle from a pocket in her dress.
"Here, drink this."
Umbren swatted the bottle away. Water was one thing, but he had no idea what that was.
The girl shook her head frantically, "Don't worry it's a healer's concoction."
Umbren's voice was weak, "A healer, ha, those are just a myth."
"They may be rare, but I can assure you they are not a myth, Nocturnal."
"Even if that was true, I still don't know what's in it."
"I don't either, all I know is that it's supposed to help."
Umbren gave a wry smile, "That's reassuring."
The girl got even more frustrated, "Oh, just shut up and drink it, you Nocturnal."
To Umbren's surprise the girl forced open his mouth and poured the mysterious liquid down his throat. It was smooth and tasted like sour grapes. Umbren couldn't protest, he was in too much pain to do so.
After the girl took the bottle away from his lips, a powerful drowsiness overtook him. He wanted to say something in protest, but he knew time was running out. so, he was only able to manage one halfhearted sentence.
"I don't know... what a Nocturnal is...but I'm...Umbren."
***
The girl smiled to herself, now alone in the room with the sleeping boy.
"Umbren," She whispered to herself.
She got off the bed and picked up the apple that was on the floor and placed it next to him. She then put the ingredients she wanted from the walls and barrels into her basket and left the room, quietly closing the door behind her.
As she came back to the main room, she heard her father grumbling to himself, but at her entrance he looked back, "How is he?"
Alyze nodded, "It's nice that you're concerned, he just went back to sleep, after she gave him the elixir."
Her father closed his eyes, "Mmm, I guess that's good..."
His eyes burst open in surprise, "You did what!!!"
Alyze shook her head at his reaction, "He needed it more than we did, and besides the person who it was meant for isn't here anymore."
Her father scratched his beard, "But still, that was worth two years' worth of work."
He looked up at her with furrowed eyebrows and grief in his eyes, "The reason you took him in wasn't because of her, was it?"
Alyze stopped unloading her basket, and seemed to be looking at some far off unreachable place, "Honestly, I don't know."