The sun started to reveal itself slowly from the Eastern mountains. It was dawn.
The ashes of the campfire were blown away by the morning breezes.
Strangely, there wasn't much snow. Just a few snowmelt dripping down from the leaves.
The yellowish morning light on snow looked like a sweet dessert.
Cyril walked around, hoping to find some dried branches or leaves to start a campfire. The cold was chilling deep down to his bone.
Kel stood nearby, leaning against a big tree, watching Cyril struggle to start a fire.
"Use your magic, Cyril. Damnit!"
"Shut up, Kel. I'm trying to focus"
Kel rubbed his temples in irradiation. If not for her, he would never help Cyril. He really gets on his nerves. Not just this once. If they ever met 200 years ago, both as humans, they surely could've been rivals who get on each other's nerves every single day. Kel thought to himself.
It took Cyril several attempts to finally be able to start a fire.
They both then sat opposite each other.
Kel studied Cyril's face before he started speaking.
"So, Cyril, are you going back to the palace?"
Cyril paused for a moment and then he turned his head to Kel a little bit. His eyes then drifted to the horizon, where the faint silhouette of the kingdom's borders could be seen.
"No"
"Why not?"
"I'd rather let my people remember me as a good warrior who saved them instead of a shameful person who ran away from himself"
"Beside, I can stay at the border and attack the enemies before they can even reach my Kingdom."
Kel paused, seemed like he was thinking about something deeply .
"What about her?" Kel murmured himself quietly but Cyril heard it.
Her?
Oh, his beloved Amandine.
Kel turned to Cyril with a serious expression.
"What about your lover? Wouldn't she be waiting for you?"
Cyril's expression softened but he shook his head.
"No, when I was in camp, suffering the dark magic spell, I thought I was going to die. So I sent her my engagement ring back"
"But I'm sure she's still hopeful that you will be back. Didn't you promise her?"
Kel's voice got louder.
Cyril's head snapped to look up at Kel.
"She won't love a demon. She fell in love with a young man, whom she thought would give the
world to her and now look at me I'm not the same man anymore. I did the right thing to do."
"The right thing? Which is? Making her believe you died and letting her weep for you while you are here still breathing? Is that your right idea?"
Cyril shot a glare at Kel.
"You don't understand. She will be safer without me. If I go back she will be disappointed in me. Disappointed in what I've become. Even I couldn't accept myself. How could I expect her to accept me."
"Accept you as what? A warrior who stayed behind to fight and won? A man she was supposed to marry?"
Cyril couldn't answer Kel's question. He just looked away, facing away from Kel's gaze.
Kel shifted into a shadow from his back and reappeared in front of Cyril.
"She doesn't deserve to carry the grief of loss just because of your selfishness. Do you think she would want that?"
When Cyril didn't answer, Kel took a few steps closer to Cyril.
"She is crying for you every night. She is grieving over your death. And here you are, still alive, still breathing, still walking, still talking and you couldn't go back?" Kel's voice grew louder and louder in the point of started yelling at Cyril.
God, please don't maker suffer. I just want her to be happy please. Kel thought to himself.
Cyril took a few steps back. He looked surprised by the Kel's sudden anger.
"Why do you even care? How do you even know if she cries or not? I thought you are just a shadow mage"
Kel opened his mouth to say something but words didn't come out. For once, Kel was at a loss of words. His heart started to ache.
Kel's mind drifted back to the memories of his bittersweet past. Two centuries ago, a woman as the same deep brown eyes as Amandine and the same beautiful soul as hers, but under a different name.
She'd walked beside him unaware of the velvet box, which he always carries in his pocket throughout their adventures or the words he's been too coward to say. He wished he could turn back time and ask her to marry him. To be his wife. He could've even begged her.
Kel thought to himself. His eyes shifting to the ground. He blinked fast not to cry. Kel tried to make his racing mind steady but it was in vain. She wouldn't remember it but he rememberes it all. Every single moment of their time together.
Cyril got worried when Kel seemed to have lost it.
"Kel," Cyril called out, "Are you alright?"
Kel's gaze shifted back to Cyril. His eyes were like shining emeralds. His face is flawless. And he is a fearless warrior even at his young age. He is also courageous.
Cyril surely is a good man. He just dislikes him for being chosen by the woman with the soul he loves. Kel couldn't shake the feeling of unease.
He just wants her to be happy. And why is it too hard even after he has sacrificed his whole heart to help someone she loves?
"Hey...are you alright?" Cyril asked again
"Yeah... don't worry. I hope you understand what it is like to lose someone you love especially to death... I've lost someone before. Please I beg you, please go back at least for her. At least explain her why you ran away. She will understand."
"Alright, I will go back."
Kel's eyes tightened up at Cyril's word
"Only if you will come with me"
"Fine"
Kel smiled slightly. His mind race with the thought of seeing her again. This time, not by sneaking into her room at night. But by as a regular person. Maybe deep in her mind, deep in her soul's memory, she would remember him.
To be continued...