The Stone of Shadows

9. The Welcoming

She awoke the next day to the light peering through the window. The beam was cast directly onto her face, revealing her red eyes. She felt like a wet cloth being twisted. On the bed in the small room, she found her body planked with Kurt's.

Alexandra slid away from his body. She felt a sudden embarrassment as she realized she was wearing nightly wears, the aching parts of her body exposed to the chilly morning. She had no recollection of the night before. Her mind was dryer than a desert. When she slipped out of bed, she took a jug, put on her blouse, and exited the room toward the well.

The outskirts were clouded with a blanket of fog. Clouds of mist rose from the forests ahead, as the sun was hidden by the gray sky. Alexandra went to the well, filling the jug. She returned back to her room as Kurt stretched his arms up. His naked torso was covered in marks. Alexandra drank from the jug. She then went over to the bed, sitting beside Kurt as his head collapsed back on the pillow. "Here. Drink this," said Alexandra, handing the jug to Kurt as he turned around to look at her. He took the jug, putting the terracotta to his lips. "Do you remember last night?" asked Alexandra.

"Not really." Kurt put the jug down, not wanting to speak. She could see a bruise on his shoulder, the mark of a hand squeezing the muscle. She looked at her hands. "Did I hurt you in any way?"

"I don't know. You didn't do anything horrible... and honestly, I wasn't exactly saying no... So no, you didn't."

She started to recall all that happened. It was in a panic of facing her father once again. She was staring at the ceiling, and like a child scared of thunder, she held his hand. One thing led to another, and her anxieties had ran through her hands, blood pouring throughout her body. "Did you enjoy it?"

"I wanted to," said Kurt. "I just don't know what to make of it all." He could see the distress in her eyes, some swarming shame. "But... It's alright. Don't feel bad about it. I just never laid with someone in that way... I guess you could say it's a part of the journey."

Alexandra looked at Kurt with wet yellow eyes. His were a bright brown ones still held the boyish joy that he had left. She smiled. "You're very sweet," she said. "I wish there were more men like you."

"You still have to deal with evil before you meet the good," said Kurt. "Do you think you're ready to face your father?"

Her face turned a palish blue. All the anxieties of last night had creeped in once more. But she looked back at Kurt. It eased her a little, enough to reply with a quick nod. "I am."

The landscape changed as they trekked their last miles in Morrisland. The green pastures grew wet. The gray sky began to clear, replaced by a streams of white in the summer blue. Hills ascended slowly from the wet ground, growing into great peaks. The ground soon turned to marsh, and though the thick water held the preserved bodies of many unfortunate travelers, she was not scared. Her fears were reserved for home.

After many days of traveling from Kaspa past the border into Mirewood, Alexandra finally caught sight of her home. She stood in the plain of flowing grass, gazing up at the hilltop castle. It seemed like a dream, recognizing all the places from her life before her fall from the castle balcony. Every acre of grass, of marsh, of wood, of mountain, of sky above, was a part of her. But now she was more than that. She had encountered environments drastically different from those she recognized. The wetland bogs before her, where reeds plumed out of the muck, frogs croaked, murky mud bubbled, were not so different from the glimmering plains of the Gold Coast. The forests that coated the bog, did not rise high like the giant pines she had found herself in, snow biting her fingers. The mountains, where her castle stood, jumping up and down beyond the horizon, were not like the titans of Red Rock that reached past the clouds, with snowy caps that fed the mighty rivers. She was more than the man in the marsh song; she walked two continents, two lands starkly unalike from one another. She stood before her home, the wind blowing through her black hair. She gazed at the castle she thought she'd never see again.