Bride of Adron | ✓

Chapter 10 - Hunter's Ville

It was a miserable day.

The sky was dark, and swirling with murky clouds that looked like they may pour at any moment. The wind was loud in Noelle's ears, and her head ached from the deafening sound of thunder above her head. When she was little, Aurora had taught her a trick to know how close a thunderstorm was.

"First, you'll see the flash of lightning in the sky," Aurora had said, soothing the child while she was afraid during the storm. With each loud roar, poor Noelle had jumped almost three feet in the air. "Then you count. However many seconds you get to before the noise tells you how far away the storm is. Count with me."

The next time Noelle saw the bright light outside of the window, she and Aurora began to count. They got to ten seconds before she heard the thunder.

"This means that the storm is actually ten kilometres away," Aurora said, patting her daughter's head. "This means that you have nothing to worry about."

When Noelle once again saw the flash of lightning in the sky, she began to count aloud. She did not care if Lolita or Roland looked at her funny, she was trying to find comfort in her mind during a time when she had none.

She got to the number three before the sky cracked open above them. The storm was three kilometres away, and the danger was growing. Suddenly, Noelle found herself wishing she had never tried out Aurora's trick.

"We need to get going and leave this forest," Lolita said, breaking their silence. Previously, the group had taken cover under the trees, as their leaves were thick enough to shield them from the rain. However, now that the thunderstorm was steadily growing on them, the group knew they had to evacuate before it reached them.

"Come on Roland, let me help you," Noelle said, reaching towards her friend who was sitting propped up against a tree trunk. She was worried for him. They had to leave the town a significant amount of time earlier than was healthy for him, and Noelle knew that if they continued making him use his leg and did not give him his rest, Roland's leg would never heal. What worried her the most was the fact that he had not said a word for what seemed like aeons, instead staring into space with a dead, blank look.

"You guys should leave me," he said, and Noelle thought she did not hear him right.

"What?" Lolita laughed, stopping in her tracks as she stared at him.

"I said you guys should leave me," Roland repeated. "I'm only dead weight."

Noelle's blood ran cold as she heard the words her friend was saying. Roland, the one who had gotten her out of that wretched castle, the one who preached about not giving up and fighting until the end, was now proposing the idea that they should abandon him.

"Are you stupid?!" Lolita yelled, running up to him and leaning before him, grabbing his shoulders and giving them a little shake to knock some sense into the boy. "We can't leave you!"

"I-I'm just putting you in unnecessary danger," Roland stuttered, looking down to stop the girls from seeing his tears.

"Roland, we're all in this together. Now get up!" Lolita urged, grabbing his right arm while Noelle took the other, and together they tried to haul Roland up.

"See? I can barely stand up on my own! I need help with everything! I only slow you down!" Roland yelled, frustration and despair evident in his tone. With all of her heart, Noelle wanted to stop him before he spiralled.

"Roland, look at me," Noelle urged, steading her friend as she looked up at his face. She could not tell if it was damp from tears or rain. "Look at me! Calm down, you're not dead weight to us. You're our friend."