Playing with Fire [COMPLETED]

22 ~ years later ...

I ride my horse through the harsh snow that has been falling for a week straight, the snow nearly up to her belly now. I unsling my bow from around my back, and tuck my wings in close as I ready an arrow, aiming it right at the neck of the stag I've been tracking half the week. There's a soft sound as the stag bleats, and I fire my arrow. It strikes the stag, and the beast goes down, dying almost instantly.

Riding up to the stag once more, I drop down. Approaching it slowly, I hesitate when I feel a strange sensation in my body. Like a thread is woven around one of my ribs and is being tugged on gently....

A sensation I haven't felt in years. Five and a half years, to be exact.

Typically, I'd ignore anything felt through the bond with Ruin. But .... this .... this is strange. Something almost new to me. I take a deep breath, and finish my job with the stag, then I bring it home for myself and Farrin to consume.

She sits in front of the hearth, staring into the fire, as I walk in, dragging the stag.

Farrin does not look at me as I walk in, she just stares into the flames. I set the dead animal down on the table I use for skinning it, and then, I hear the chair Farrin is in creak. She turns and looks to me, those yellow eyes seeing all that I am thinking and feeling in a second.

"You .... you're going back to him," she says. It is not a question.  A statement, one she already knows the answer to.

"I felt something. Out in the forest," I say.

"Yeah. Well, if you go .... I .... I don't know."

"I won't ask you to go with me," I tell her softly. "It's been five and a half years in the mortal realm, but here.... I don't know how much time has passed."

"Ten years" she says.  "It has been ten years since you saw him, in this realm. But since we are all immortal, we do not age. So I assume he's already lost track of time."

"I can't tell if thats a jab at me, or not," I say.

"It isn't. It's a jab at him," she replies. Farrin gets up and walks over to me, her fiery hair falling in her face. "I'm sorry, my dear, sweet Exie, but I will not go with you. I'll stay here. "

"But what about you? Who will take care of you without me?"

"I can fend for myself," she says determinedly.

Her expression tells me not to push her on the subject. So I simply nod and hug her. 

"I gotta get packed," I say.

"Go. And make sure you don't end up dead."