Phoenix's room was close by Eiriell's.
Which meant that she could hear the whimpers late into the night.
It was on the fourth night that Phoenix learned that her friend suffered from the nightmares. The quiet crying reminded her of Orion on the darkest of nights. Which is why it was so easy for her to slip into Eiriell's room and wrap her arms around her friend like she would her younger brother.
Phoenix would shut her blue eyes tightly and mumble something soft and incoherent, but it would be enough to lull Eiriell back to sleep.
And the two would lay there for the rest of the night, with Phoenix being ever so grateful because Eiriell helped chase away the human child's own nightly terrors as well. The memories of being so high up in the mountains that it hurt to breath. How powerless she felt with her hands bound. The feeling of her hands being nailed to the ground.
It was just that Phoenix was better at hiding it, she always did for her family's sake.
Phoenix and Eiriell would learn that sleep would come better as long as they were together. That the night terrors couldn't touch them if they were nearby one another.
YOU ARE READING
Of Ashes and Wind
FantasyAdults tend to fear things they do not understand. Phoenix Stroud was born with a unique trait - she had parts of both a girl and a boy. Something she never realized was a secret until one spring when the other children found out. Seeing the distres...
