Half an hour later...
The shining sun blazed across the sky as the curved windows of our rented thatched house stared out at the sandy beyond.
I watched the walking people cross the stone roads. Their faces staring at us through our windows.
Maybe it was the smell of our cooking, or maybe it was because we were unexpected visitors, but there was definitely something off with the stares these people would give us. Over the last two days, every time I've gone outside, the people of this town would watch my every move with this deadly stare of resentment.
Actually, now that I think about it, it's probably because Tusk killed their Guardian Deity... But still... I can't feel bad for them, since their so-called Ancient Guardian Hawk Deity, did attack us first.
---
I sat down at the small wooden table, that was perched next to the curved window that looked out at the sandy abyss beyond. Ceauli sat down across from me, three bouls of mushroom soups in hand. She placed one in front of me, and another in front of her, while saving the third for Tusk later.
"Slurp..."
She then started sipping her share of the soup.
I did the same...
I was quiet, calm, nice...
I looked up at Ceauli and asked, "what do you think about all this? Tusk and the Guardian Deity?"
She stopped slurping the soup.
"I... I think it's fucked up, to be honest. Tusk's a bit too crazy for my taste. The Hawk didn't shoot at me, so I can't say I'm angry or anything... I just think that Tusk might have done something to provoke it. You did say the fight seemed personal like he was fighting for a reason. You think they knew each other?"
"Maybe..."
"Ohhh, what if she's the girl Tusk talks about in his sleep-"
"Shuuushh... He could hear us."
Ceauli leaned forward in a slight anxious stare, "oohhh..."
I dropped my spoon into my still full bowl of soup and continued on with the conversation.
"But back to what we were talking about... That first shot... It wasn't him the arrow was aimed at, but me. I was the archer's target. Tusk was protecting me... I think..."
"You sure though, it was dark, wasn't it?"
"I'm... I'm sure...!"
We looked at each other. Our mouths burned to this stirred mushroom soup as we sipped simultaneously, our conversations bouncing back and forth with every sip and slurp. The wooden bowls scratched up and down as our wooden spoons flopped from side to side.
That soft hum, the breeze hitting across the window, the sound of the wood, the thatched roof, the door creaking... They were all relaxing sounds that reminded me of my childhood in Elisese. They were sounds that made me feel at home with my mother... In my hole underneath the stares.
And for some reason, I still look back on those days sort of fondly. Not for the pain and suffering, I went through, but for that one moment, on that one day, in that one hour, from the sky blue eyes of that man, the blonde hair of gold, the dark figure in thunder...
It was a moment that overrode all those other memories. A moment that made me forget about the hate, and the scars, and the chains, and everything holding me down. And for the first time, I felt free, free from everything, from life, from pain, from all those people that threw me away, called me nothing...
But even then... With all this fate running down my back, will I be able to stay afloat in it? Will I be able to escape it, or will I drown in its showering waters, to the Shorebringers swords and daggers, in an ocean of flames with the sea of the white kindles.
---
Minutes passed...
"How you liking the soup?" asked Ceauli casually with a spoon half in her mouth.
"It's good. Where did you learn the recipe?" I asked back.
She smirked, "it was passed down in my family, for generations."
"Ah, I see..."
We had a moment of silence as the sun beamed down in evening rays, through the warped window next to us. I sipped some more of my mushroom-stewed soup as Ceauli did the same. Our conversations were awkward, but it was an atmospheric awkwardness that heightened the orange-lit mood that accelerated across our speck-filled air.
Ceauli continued into another conversation.
"Hahaha, look at Tusk," she pointed at him as I turned my head to her hand's movements.
We watched as Tusk slept soundly. His legs sticking out the bottom side of his small bed as he laid lifeless and limp.
"He looks like one of those monsters from the Badlands," I laughed.
"He does..."
"He really does..."
I looked at her, she looked at me.
I can't tell what she's thinking, Ceauli is always so far in her own head that sometimes I'm wondering if I am even on her mind, or if her love for me is just a ruse to take out her anger on her family and brother.
Lin... I shouldn't, but I need to know why she left...
"Um, Ceuali... I don't want to pry into this too much but... Why did you leave your brother in Forr?"
She paused. Her hands fidgety and restless. She then opened up like a book.
"I was too controlling. I didn't let him live his life, and after losing everyone, our friends, I think it broke him. Took him apart. So I let him go."
"Let him go...?"
"Yeah... I think it was for the better."
Ceauli finished her soup fast. But she didn't leave the small table just yet. She sat there, staring, watching, listening to me eat, sip, smile.
"Hoefen?" she asked.
"Yes," I replied turning my eyes up from the last couple layers of my stew.
"Hoefen, do you wanna run away with me?"
"What?"
"We can leave Tusk here and go. Runaway together!"
I looked at Ceauli as if she was crazy, "but... What about the Monsters, the Shorebringers, everything... My... My fate..."
"Hoefen fate this fate that! It's been like that for a week now. Hoefen... Think! What does that have to do with us? We can do anything, be anything. Were... Were blank slates..."
She looked into my eyes as I looked into hers. Our hazel's matching in the soft orange surrounding waves.
"Ceauli, it does have to do with me... Fate... I can't see it, nor can I touch it... But if I'm next to him, no if I can at least follow his shadow, then I hitch a ride on his path."
She looked at my determined eyes.
"But didn't you say you gave up on fate?"
"I... I did... But I also learned that I could get away from it."
"Well if you can get away then let's see the world, create our own path," she suggested.
I dropped my spoon into my half-empty wooden bowl, "it's not we, Ceauli, it's an us, a Tusk, you, me. I can't leave until I meet Sariel until my journey is over. And... And... And I don't know... I don't know the rest after that, but we've just started our journey, so we can't just leave Tusk yet!"
"Hoefen, I came along with you because I thought you would be able to show me what I was missing. That ridged dream... But if you can't share that dream with me, then... Then..."
"Then?"
"Then what's the point of going further... What did that prophet say to you back then? What did she tell you about fate, about your destiny, about Tusk?" she asked, with her hands leaned up against the small wooden table.
"I don't know it fully... But she said that fate is like a guiding line. I'll get there eventually, but if I fall off that path then I could get lost forever in the sands of time. She said that Tusk could keep me on that path... But... I guess you're kinda right. I don't really like it, fate and all that stuff. It makes me anxious, itchy, it feels wrong to follow it, to rely on it, but I can't stop myself. The Swords of Feun, of Fate, the Shorebringers, Sariel... I'll do anything."
Ceauli leaned back, her eyes tainted by my choice of words.
"Anything, really? For someone, you don't know? You'd do anything?" she questioned, her words twisting into a hypocritical criticism of herself.
"Yes... Ceauli, you know me right? I already told you everything about my life. Sariel saved me, he gave me my freedom. I can never find any better joy in his eyes, in his presence, not this world, or the people I will meet. I need to relive that moment. To thank him, to feel his warmth."
She turned her head as if I was a stupid animal.
"Really? Or is it something else?"
"..."
Something else?
Why is she going so in-depth on this? It's not that bad? I just want to meet him, I just want to see him. It's not like he's done anything bad...
Ceauli stood up from her seat and looked me straight in the eyes.
"Would you choose Sariel and Tusk over me?" she asked loud and clear.
With no hesitation, I immediately said, "yes."