When All You Have are Embers

XVI

Aurora

As she sat in the same booth, in the same crack in the same tree, she felt nothing. Not hope, or sorrow. Just nothing. This seemed to be her entire life now. Waiting in this booth.

She sighed and rested her head in her arms as she drew circles on the table.

"Rory..." She heard her name and lifted her head to see Grey standing above her, holding two pints of ale. He sighed and tucked the wooden plate used to carry drinks under his arm.

She sighed and got up. "You don't have to tell me, Grey." 

"You can't keep coming here." He said. She didn't reply. "Why are you still doing this?" He asked. A tone of near disbelief in his voice. "You must have run out of hope." He said.

She turned to him and smiled. "Old habit." She said. "I guess... It's comforting to just be here now. Knowing this was the last place he was." She said looking at her feet. "It's not really about waiting or hoping for him anymore. Just knowing he once sat here is enough."

Grey sighed and wiped down the table she was at and handed her one of the mugs he was carrying.

"Wha..." She looked at him, confused.

"It's on the house, so don't worry about it." He said as he walked away.
"Go on and drink, but you can't come back here, Rory."

She stared into the amber colour of the ale, as her reflection glared back at her out of anger. Anger that she made someone pity her. She looked at everyone sitting in the pub and sighed. No one else here looked as pitiful as her. She placed the mug on the table and left the pub.

The weather outside was dreadful. Huge drops of rain and strong winds. No one was outside but her at this moment. She looked up at the dark and cloudy sky and jumped from leaf to leaf till her feet touched the ground. She walked out of the forest for the first time in what felt like decades.

She looked behind her to see the twisted tree trunks, and twirled branches of the home she never left, and knew so well. She sighed and walked backwards, still looking at the forest until  her ankles hit something and she tripped and fell back.

She looked at what she fell over and saw a huge piece of metal attached to a chain. It was rare to find man-made objects this close to the forest so she poked around it, scared to go too close. She pulled out one of her small daggers and tapped the object lightly to see if it moved. It made an unpleasant noise. She winced at the sound of metal on metal and covered her ears. She looked at it from above and noticed it looked quite familiar.

On the top of the object was an engraving of the sun and moon. She reached into her shirt and took out her own locket to compare the two. And surely enough, they were different but also the same.

She walked around it carefully and slowly until she saw something that made her heart stop.

A pair of wings were sticking out of the object, as if someone was trapped inside of it. She dropped to her knees and wrestled with it, trying to pry it open.

"Hello? Can you hear me? Are you alive in there?" She yelled. There was no answer. She took the same dagger and stuck it in between the ends of the locket. She pulled as hard as she could but nothing happened. "Help! Someone help!" She screamed.

As she tried and tried again someone who had heard her screams came running.

"Rory?"

She turned around. "Grey! Thank God, I need your help. Someone's trapped in this thing." She said.

Grey knelt down beside her and examined the object. He grabbed half of the locket and started helping her pull.

With Grey's help it didn't take long until the locket broke open. Aurora fell back and immediately got up to see who was trapped. It was a man who looked to be no older than her. Grey scooped him up in his arms gently and sighed.