The Gift

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"The Gift" 

Branch after branch assaulted my delicate facial features as we whipped through the brush. Angelo ran ahead of me, clearing the path but leaving the limbs to welcome me with a back lashing force that stung sharply and made my eyes water. Luckily the adrenaline coursing through my veins kept me from feeling the worst of what was sure to leave the loveliest of welts and marks on my besmirched face. I smirked to myself, I can’t look much worse than I already did, hair full of weeds, face muddy. Maybe if I try hard enough the marks would become permanent, or at least last long enough for Alveania to change his mind about the wedding and rescind his betrothal request.

I huffed at the idea. Not likely. I could have the face of a boar and the body of a sow, he’d still marry me to claim my inheritance, my gift. My apparent beauty was just a perk, a mere bonus amidst the obscene bounty supposedly available to my future husband.

Ahead of me Angelo cut sharply to the right, I forced myself to concentrate on the issue at hand. We were being chased. We were being chased by hounds. Purebred demon hounds. Angelo was going to die and I was going to suffer a fate far worse if they caught us. I rounded the turn, sliding on the remnants of my silk lavender gown. Riddled with mud and other nature concoctions it was beginning to weigh me down. Lordes how I could not wait to be rid of the thing.

About fifty feet away Angelo was at the top of a wall reaching down, awaiting my belabored arrival, “Pass me your gift first then I’ll lift you up.” The idea of what he was suggesting pulled me up short. Why would he be asking for my gift? I suppose it made sense. I was currently clutching the silvery orb to my chest as if my life depended on it, and in truth it did. Wouldn’t it be easier to let him hold it so I had two hands to scale the wall? The gods knew I’d need all the help I could get just to make it over. So why was I hesitating? Did I imagine it or was there something in his voice that made me uneasy? But I trusted Angelo, he was the only one within ten miles or so I could trust at the moment. Even still, as I glanced at the object in my hands, I knew. I just couldn’t pass it up. I couldn’t let anyone else touch it.

“Keep it close, keep it safe, and never let it go.” The last words my mother had spoke to me before the demon hounds took her. The way she spoke those words made it clear they were to be obeyed, as if the world depended on it. Ignoring Angelo’s request I swiftly stashed my gift in my satchel and reached up to clasp his hands in mine. He yanked me up and over the wall right as the howls and screeching of the hounds reached the turn less than twenty yards away.

As we hit the ground, neither of us commented on my decision. Was that annoyance in his gaze? Hurt? I didn’t have time to decide before we were running again.

What seemed like an eternity later, but was probably only a half hour or so, we allowed ourselves to adopt a more leisurely pace. “Haven’t heard the howls for quite some time now, we should be ok for a while,” Angelo appeared to say to no one in particular. Quite a feat considering I was the only one about who could respond. I opted for silence; I was too weary for speech and the scene back at the wall still weighed heavy on my mind. I berated myself once again for distrusting him, for thinking too much on what was probably nothing. But expecting my mind to stop thinking was like expecting the winds to never blow in the winter, a wishful thought but foolish to believe.

Luckily Angelo was never one to push an issue nor was he a fan of idle speech. We journeyed on in companionable silence for hours. Two? Three maybe? We had to be well out of Alveania’s domain now and surely our tracks were well covered. We’d crossed three streams and traversed countless rocky trails. Even with their unnatural senses the demon hounds couldn’t find us without Necromancer help and if they had that we were as good as dead anyway. Angelo’s thoughts must have been running along the same course as mine, or maybe he was just tired of me dragging behind and barely stifling the low moans that managed to escape my throat. He told me to rest on a nearby boulder while he scouted for a safe camp spot.

Glad to be off my feet I all but collapsed onto the rock and submerged my feet in the running water of a small creek. As the cooling water brought relief to my aching soles I breathed a sigh of comfort and rummaged through my satchel for my gift. I didn’t feel right without it in my hands. I turned it over, examining it up close for the first time. About six or eight inches in diameter it fit almost perfectly in my hands. Not so big that I couldn’t grip it, but not so small that I feared dropping it. It looked much the same as it always had throughout my fourteen years of life, a foggy crystal ball, pretty to look at, but useless.

I focused on a tiny swirl in the mist. A face, unrecognizable, “Don’t trust the boy just now, he has yet to pass the test.” I didn’t so much hear the words as felt them. The face vanished. Perhaps I hadn’t overreacted by the wall after all.



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"Stare at it all you want, you're not getting your powers til you're 16." Startled I jerked around to see 'Uskae standing only three feet from me. His eyes were already bright with teasing, they just blazed brighter in response to my ridiculous reaction. Why was I so twitchy? Who else could it have been? Now I looked guilty and moronic. My face burned.



"Shut up, for all you know I could have them already and just be waiting for you to make a wrong move. Give me a reason to test my skills." He meerly chuckled and shook his head before moving up to the side of the stream some couple hundred feet to my left. He fiddled with a branch and thin vine, a makeshift fishing pole. I swear the boy could always make something out of nothing. I wouldn't know how to make a fishing poll in the middle of a bait shop with all the tools around, forget out in the wild. If it weren't for him I surely would have starved, maybe even taken myself back to Diomar in defeat. That thought was quickly dismissed, no way I would have ever gone back to Diomar. Even a slow painful death of starvation would have been better than subjecting myself to his attentions.



I watched as Donuskae expertly caught four fish and preceded to make us a cold dinner of unflamed fish and jungle salad. The jungle salad consisted of various fruits, nuts, and edible foliage. Proud that I recognized at least half of the nuts and fruits I consented that perhaps I wouldn't have completely starved left to my own devises. Least not as quickly. We ate in silence, the only sounds my murmured thanks and our chewing. Once we had filled our bellies we lay down side by side and watched the sky change from the dark red hues of twilight to the purple blue of early night time.



As the moon began to overtake the waning sunlight I inspected Don out of the corner of my eye. Like me, he lay with his head cradled in his hands, staring up at the sky but seeing nothing. His eyes were farther off, looking at thoughts and possibilities, not stars slowly twinkling into existence. Who knew what would await us in the morning. Sanctuary? Devil hounds at our throats? Both were equally possible at this point, the devil hounds maybe even more so. He didn't have to stay with me, he owed me nothing. But I knew he would stay, knew he wouldn't leave my side for an instant, no matter the rotten deal. He owed me nothing and yet I found myself owing him everything. I hated that. Hated myself for having the nagging feeling that still he could not be trusted, not completely, not wholeheartedly. I sighed.  Don glanced my way but said nothing. A few minutes later he spoke, "We better get inside, need to be up in a couple hours. Best to keep moving." I agreed and rose to follow him into the bowels of our cave.



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Image credit: theguardian