In Stone

18: "Promise me, right now."

18: “Promise me, right now.”

“Watch your step there,” Caspian warned once again as he moved through the underbrush.

Caia, who was in no way dressed for a hike through the woods, tried but tripped anyway. Caspian caught her, just as he had caught her all the previous times, and helped her back up. He seemed to have an infinite amount of patience for her and she smiled at him apologetically. When she tried to actually apologize he waved her words away without a thought.

Through it all though, he wasn't even really looking at her or listening if she asked a question. It was like he was in his own world and, though he was still caring for her, it was hard for her to break through the wall he had up now.

This hike that they had been going through for the better part of an hour now started only after Caia had finished beating her fists against the stones in an attempt to get them to start up again. Despite the natural talent that Caspian was so scared of in her, she couldn't break through the portal back to her world. She thought so desperately about returning home but the gray, overgrown blocks of dry stone here on this side refused to open up again.

So, after telling her that she was only hurting her hands, Caspian got her to stand and follow him into these deep, untamed woods. Caia had been hiking a time or two growing up, part of her desperation to fit in, but those hikes were nothing like this. The trails that she had found herself on were made for people to walk on, carefully monitored and cleaned.

This overgrown, woodsy area was untouched by human hands. Caspian had to keep warning her to watch out for something, the brambles were cutting her exposed legs, and the sky was completely blocked by the tall canopy of leaves. There was no straight path, no helpful plaques telling about the flora or fauna, it was all just forest and wildlife.

“You must be happy to be back,” Caia tried once again to engage Caspian. He just made some kind of sound that could have been affirmative in his throat.

Was he mad at her? That was the only thing she could think as she fell silent, making sure to stay close behind him as they walked. She hadn't meant to bring them back here. This power of hers was proving itself even more unreliable than cell service out in the middle of nowhere.

Caspian barely heard her walking behind him. He was keeping tabs of her, of making sure he cleared as much of a path as he could for her, but his mind was mostly on what had just happened. As she did everything else, Caia was adjusting to this quickly. Much more quickly, in fact, than he was and this place was his home.

He knew these forests. He had played among them as a child. Recognizing them now was an easy feat for him. He just wasn't sure if he was happy to be back.

Part of him must be thrilled. After so many years as a stone statue in that world he didn't recognize that was just so completely different, he should be glad to be back in the familiar. And he was, in a manner. But he also knew that he wasn't ready to be back. Rowan was on the other side of the portal, daring to live her life happily. How could he return home and face the people that he had called family and friends with that dishonor hanging over his head?

He couldn't just stay here though. While he might be able to survive amongst these familiar trees, he knew for a fact that Caia could not. Where she was from alone would be against her, the fact that she was so clumsy and helpless wouldn't improve her odds. For her safety, he had no choice. He had to return to the village that he called home.

It was only when he was pushing away the last brambles that would let them out into the small path that led to the entrance that he remembered he had disappeared five years ago without a word. Rowan had vanished along with him, they had left behind only his parent's mangled bodies and the mystery of what happened along with the disappearance of the holy statue.