The Elementalist

Chapter 2

Two gravestones sit on a hill within the torch-lit boundary. Under both stones lay worms and dirt. Only those who die fighting are buried. The rest are burned to ash.

I sat alone as the sunset, saying goodbye to the only marker that my parents ever lived: no grandparents, no uncles, no aunts, just me.

Childbirth was hard on mom; shortly after, taking sick and died, and a hunting accident took my dad a few years after. I don't remember them, but it should hurt to leave them, to leave the village. I should have been crying or something, but I just felt disappointed. Disappointed in myself for not caring more, that despite this being the only home I know, that these are the people I grew up with, that helped raise me for almost 16 years, that I felt apathetic having to leave them behind.

I was lying down between the headstones, feeling the grass move around me and the chill of the night set in, looking up at the slowly darkening sky. If Alexander didn't come to the village, would I ever have realized that I don't care about the village as much as I thought? Or if this was always going to happen.

"Anna!" A voice shouts from down the hill. Sitting up, I saw Daniel running up the hill. Coming to a stop a few paces away, he spoke, "I knew you would be up here."

He was panting lightly, a thin layer of sweat on his face, his hair slightly matted down. It was the most disheveled I had seen him in a long while. "You searched the whole village, didn't you?"

"Well, yeah, there's a lot of places to be alone down there," He responded.

"Of which I use none," I deadpanned.

A sly smile slowly appeared on his face. "Today was a weird day. Maybe you wanted to switch things up and be alone with three other people in a barn somewhere." That made me smile a little bit, though it didn't last.

"Daniel, what do you think I should do?" I ask.

He turned to look over the village, sitting down as he pondered the question. "Well, I don't know. I mean, if you don't want to leave, killing Alexander is always an option." " But I feel that you aren't as against leaving as the others think. I have had it for a while now."

How could he know that? I didn't even know that until a few hours ago. The surprise must have been clear from my silence as he continued to speak. "I'm not the smartest person in the village, Anna. I would be the first to admit that. But Anna, you're my best friend, and my eyes and ears do work. I look out for you. Can you honestly tell when you last had a meaningful conversation with someone who's not me?"

I opened my mouth to speak before slowly realizing that I couldn't remember.

Daniel looked over his shoulder at me. " I love as much as a friend can. You're like a sister to me, but if I can call the fire hot for a moment. I would need to be daft and blind not to notice how antisocial you are." He smiles, "And I can only be one or the other, so you have to pick one and stick with it."

I chuckled at that, "You're daft then. You're far too observant to be blind."

"Careful, Elder Margaret might hear that. I swear the old woman can hear a pin drop."

A quiet settled in after that, intermittently broken by a light giggle, but that soon calmed, and we were left with a warm silence. We sat there, enjoying the peace as the sun slowly dipped beyond the horizon.

It wasn't meant to last. I would be leaving the village tomorrow, and despite how much Elder Richard protests against Alexander, there isn't much anyone can do to stop it. The light smile I gained slipped away with that thought in the forefront of my mind. Glazing over at Daniel, he was facing out toward the sunset. He was still wearing that worn gambeson he used in the morning for sparing. He has a light but unbelievably sincere smile, his black hair tied up in a ponytail, the traces of bruises forming on his cheek as the training finally catches up with him. At that moment, I realized something. There is one thing keeping me here. A realization made too late.