A Voice in the Night

Part 2

It was already dark by the time they stopped to make camp. They had debated ridding through the night but Zaber had convinced Zahara that they would want all their strength in the event of an emergency. Zahara headstrong had wanted to push on as insisted that there was no need but relented in the end.

As Zaber laid his bedroll out he filtered magic to his eyes inspecting the jungle around him. The darkness pealed back in layers and he could see far through the trees in every direction. It was eerie as he could tell there were no life forms for hundreds of meters but that of small animals, yet he felt as though they were being watched.

'What's wrong?' Zahara's voice cut the silence and Zaber remembered her. She had been watching him and noticed the calm of concentration on his face.

'I feel as though, we are not alone.'

They took a few moment s to set up camp, tying up the horses and making a fire before Zahara lay her bedroll down next to his, the distance more intermit than he would have liked. She noticed his discomfort and winked at him.

'Don't worry, I don't bite.'

Zaber looked at her skeptically, 'its not your teeth that I'm worried about.'

'I'll keep my hands to myself I promise.'

Zaber slid into his bedroll keeping his eyes on her, like a cat watching a dog wondering when it will pounce.

Ever since they were children he had been fond of Zahara, but her father's elevation to elder and council member had put her out of his reach as far as a binding friendship was concerned. For the last hundred years he had pushed down his feelings for her, but she had not done the same.

Zahara didn't see the gap from her side. He was a soldier and more than that he was a Sentinel, they were not permitted to have relationships with anyone outside their own class. Thousands of years of breading had made them the elite of the fighting forces and it was a sin to taint their bloodline.

Zaber wanted nothing more than for her to slid in next to him, but the punishment for that was too high, her banishment, or more likely his. The feeling was a distant one and easily pushed aside.

In any other circumstance Zaber would come out on top if such an event occurred, but with Zahara it was only ammunition for Garradon to hurl at him.

Zahara pulled some bread and dried meat from her pack and handed it to Zaber, he laid back and began to eat.

A tall strangler fig towered above him, he could see through the gaps in its vines where the host tree had died and rotted away. The sapling would take root at the top of the tree and send down tendrils to the ground. As it grew more tendrils engulfed the tree taking its form and eventually killing and replacing the host. It left a hollow column of roots and vines of immense size behind.

'Do you miss living with ordinary elves?'

Her words snapped him out of his thoughts. It had been over seventy years since he had dwelt with any but his own kind and she had only just now asked him. He couldn't blame her, he realized up until this moment he had never though about it.

'I don't know, I think, no.'

She stared at him incredulous, 'I don't believe you.'

'We have our own comradeship, we maybe be Sentinels but we are not alone. You all seem to view us as hermits segregated from the world, its not so. We have each other.'

'But don't you miss every one else?'

'I don't miss what I have never truly had, since birth my destiny was chosen for me, I was always viewed as an outsider even as a child. I don't miss the sideways looks, I do not miss the envy or the fear.' He paused and sighed, 'nor their pity.'