4. Trent Phoebe{ManxMan}

•CHAPTER 3

There was an awkward silence before an awkward laughter and soon enough I was again left with questions. They were leaving and we were all outside. Valencia left first and I was with him, his scent like a blanket of warmth around me.

"So, I believe this is where we too part ways."

"Do we have to?" I asked despite myself and watched as his eyes squinted before he smiled woth his dimples almost shyly, glancing at the ground.

"I'm afraid my mother has me on a curfew." He admitted and reached for the back of his head. "We can't all be free to do as we please."

"Oh." My heart sunk and my shoulders followed suit.

"Perhaps, if we're lucky, we'll meet again."

"Perhaps?"

He was grinning to himself, staring up and then shaking his head. "I like leaving everything up to fate." He was looking at me again, finally. I got closer, perhaps not in the way he'd have appreciated but he didn't flinch, nor move away and instead kept my steady gaze.

"I believe we make our own fate."

His head tilted and he smiled, his hand raised before he glanced behind me and cleared his throat, fingers curling into a fist gently. "Well, it seems we both have different views of the world," he stepped back and gave a slight nod. "Good night, sir."

I blinked and watched him climb onto his horse. I didn't even get an address. What just happened?

I looked behind me and saw the owner of the tavern sneering, her nose lifting in disgust and felt my stomach turn. I looked back at the retreating horse and strong back and wondered if I'd ever get to see him again, if I would be so lucky.

I paused in my thoughts then. This was obviously not my time, this was not my life, so could I? Was this even allowed? What were the rules to this predicament of mine? Despite the uncertainty and the reality that this time was not my own, I couldn't help long to be surrounded by that warm scent again.

Now, as I began walking aimlessly, full and tired, beyond overwhelmed, I could only ask myself, where do I sleep?

I found myself making my way back to my fathers shop, hoping he'd come back, it was dark so it only made sense. Honestly, he was also the only familiar thing in this unfamiliar place.

I rounded the establishment to the back with the horses and decided I would sleep with the horses. I caught his scent, faint but still there and it was expected if this was a place he came to often anyhow.

I got myself some hay and stacked them like a bed, I found a stray blanket and sniffed it. It wasn't strong but an odour clung to it. I sighed and hoped it wouldn't get cold enough to need it. For a moment I contemplated shifting but decided against it. In a town full of humans, I needed to be careful, I also wasn't familiar with who came and went around here as is.

Morning came with the sound of a rooster far enough away that I shouldn't have heard it and yet I did. I was glad because Elijah had already awoken and was in the barn. His scent floated in towards me, calm and yet on guard. He believed me gone.

"I'm glad I didn't scare you completely." The bucket he held clattered to the ground and I watched him, I was leaning on the door.

"Stay away from me!" He yelled and a stack of hay came flying for me. My eyes widened and I yelped, diving down into my make shift bed, I groaned at the impact.

"Wait!" I called as I rolled and stood as fast as I could, watching him run for the outside. I growled lowly and managed to tackle him down. "Please!" He was struggling beneath me. "Elijah! Elijah, please!"

He was panting, I froze as we stared, his eyes were full of tears, his scent coated in genuine fear and angst. His heart hammered in his chest, it reminded me of prey, their fear and desperation, his eyes begged me.

"I'm not... I'm not going to hurt you."

"Like I haven't heard that before." His words were laced with a bitterness I couldn't help but flinch from. I raised my hands above my head, and looked away, I bared my neck to him despite myself and whimpered. "What- what're you doing?"

I was straddling him, slowly, I backed off of him still on my knees until he was free. He scurried away, his back colliding with the wooden wall of his store and curled his legs into his chest watching me.

"I promise you, you don't have to be afraid of me." I told him lowly staring sadly at the ground.

"Who...are you?"

I looked over at him, his brows drawn in, there was a flicker of confusion as he stared at me, his scent was still heavily coated in fear but somehow it felt as though he wanted to believe me.

"I'm Trent. I'm from years in the future." Saying it out loud, I felt like I belonged in an asylum, like I was a mad case that needed to be arrested but this was true. My whole life was something out of a person's imagination to the human mind and despite how crazy time travel sounded even to me, I knew it wasn't far off.

Elijah blinked, his shoulders relaxing slightly before his brows furrowed.

"That's impossible." He murmured.

"It's not." I told him and sighed. "I was in the middle of a fight to save my brother from this vampire and her crazy caster when I was blasted into the sky and showed up here, in your stable." I explained watching him. "I know it sounds insane, but please, you have magic, you know in our world... Anything is possible."

"But-" he pursed his lips then. "Time travelling..." He shook his head. "How?"

"I don't know." I shrugged. "I guess that caster just...wanted me out of there." I gave him a meaningful look and he tilted his head. "Will you help me?"

He blanched at me, eyes widened before he snorted and rolled his eyes. The more we spoke the more his scent cleared of fear. "Help you? Why would I help you?"

"I don't belong here, I'm not from this time." I said motioning to the space around us covered in mud and hay and the well visible from our position. "You're a caster, you're literally existence is to maintain balance, which means, fixing things like this."

"I don't know what you're talking about." He stood then and I followed, he dusted his pants off, frowning at the mud that clung to him.

"You're a caster, how can you not?"

"I'm no caster, Trent." He looked at me with glassy eyes. "I can't help you."

He turned from me, going into the store heading for the small room he stayed in and I followed.

"Can't or don't want to?"

He sighed then and watched me carefully. "Listen, I don't know where you're from, what you're here for or why, but I do know that I can't help you."

"Why not?" I furrowed my brows and folded my arms over my chest.

"If you haven't noticed I don't do magic."

"You are the very definition of magic, how ca-"

"I don't!" He held his finger up as he cut me off, his chest rising and falling rapidly. "Never again." He whispered to me and yet it felt as though he were telling himself mostly and then he pushed past me and I wondered what happened.

I found myself even more curious about his life, especially at this point. I wondered just how far I had been taken back and why? Why did I land here of all places? This close to him. I swallowed looking around the empty and lifeless room and curled my hands into fists.

He would help me, one way or another he would and in the mean time, I would just listen and hopefully set him on the path that eventually leads to my brothers and sisters.

A\N
Written: 27 January 2022