The Atheil Chronicles: A Call to Fire

Chapter 11

Ariana wrapped the velvet cloak around her body tighter, trying to stay warm. It was well past midnight now and she was fighting back the drowsiness that was desperately trying to overtake her. It had been hours since they left Corda behind, and they'd been walking almost nonstop since then. Arianas thoughts kept driving back to her mom, wondering whether she was off in a cold, hard dungeon right now, scared and alone. She tried not to think about it too much because it made her imagination run wild and she started thinking about all the terrible things that they could be doing to her. Ahead of her, Ryonen walked at a fast pace, his eyes fixed ahead of him and into the darkness. He had hardly spoken a word since they'd left Corda, and Ariana had a feeling that he was keeping something from her, although she had no idea what it could be.
"Ariana." Ryonen said, his voice pulling her away from her thoughts.
"Yes?"
He turned around and looked at her. "Did you hear what I said?"
"No." She said, a bit embarrassed. "I'm a little out of it right now."
He raised his eyebrows. "I just asked you if you were hungry. Vultan gave me some bread and some dried fruit and nuts for us to eat. I added them to the satchel with the rest of the stuff I got from your house." He opened the flap of the satchel and pulled out a leather canteen. "He also gave us some water." He set it back in the bag and shut the flap, letting it settle back on his hip.
Ariana shook her head. "I'm okay." She said quietly.
Ryonen studied her face. "You're tired." He said. Then he saw her shiver. "And cold." He stepped in front of her and touched her cheek lightly. "Your face is freezing." He said, a note of concern in his voice. Or maybe she was imagining it.
Ryonen pulled off his cloak and wrapped it around her like a blanket. "Sit down." He said. "We'll make camp for the night."
Ariana started to protest but he shook his head and pointed to the ground. Reluctantly, she sat down against a tree and watched as he shuffled around. She was about to ask him what he was looking for when he picked up a few logs and made a circle with them on the ground. He pointed at them and green flames shot up from the ground inside the little barrier.
Ryonen sat down next to her, his arm brushing against hers. "You need to sleep." He said, pulling some fabric out of her satchel and handing it to her.
She took the bundle, seeing that it was a jacket she had packed. She was about to put it on under the cloaks when Ryonen took it from her hands, his brows furrowing. "What are you doing?" He asked her.
Ariana tilted her head at him, confused. "I was putting it on." She said, not sure what he was getting at.
Ryonen shook his head and bunched it back up, placing it on the ground next to him. "I gave it to you so you could lay your head on it, not wear it."
"Oh." She said. "But what are you going to use to keep warm?"
He shrugged and leaned back against the tree. "I don't need anything." He said. "Just worry about getting some rest."
"Ryonen." She said, starting to protest
"Ariana." He responded, a stubborn look on his face.
She sighed heavily. "At least take back your cloak. I'll be fine with just one."
He shook his head. "No, just keep it for now. You were shivering before when you only had yours on; you'll be much warmer with mine on, too." "Fine." She said, laying down and putting her head on the jacket. She was too tired to argue with him. The ground was soft, and she snuggled up in the cloaks, curling into a ball.
Ryonen glanced down at her and then looked up at the stars. "Are you comfortable?" He asked.
Ariana nodded and then realized he couldn't see her. "Yeah." She said out loud. 
"Good." His eyes were still fixed on the stars. "Sleep well, Ariana." He said softly.
She kept her eyes on his face as she let the drowsiness wash over her. One by one, her limbs started to get heavy, and then her eyelids were beginning to droop. Just before she lost consciousness, though, she felt something warm brush her hair back from her face ever so gently. She let out a smile, sighing softly before sleep overtook her.
* * * * *
When Ariana woke up, the sun was just starting to peek through the leaves above. She pushed the cloak gently away from her face, stretching her arms as she did so. Ryonen was lying on his side next to her, one arm under his head to cushion it and the other on the ground next to where hers had just been. Had he scooted closer to her last night? She sat up, trying not to wake him as she did so. She slipped off his cloak and gently laid it across him. He stirred a little bit, but then settled back into sleep, his breathing evening out as he did so.
Smiling, Ariana leaned back against the tree and crossed her legs in front of her. She began brushing her hands through her hair, working out the knots before letting it settle on her shoulders. She looked absentmindedly around her at the foliage surrounding them, realizing that she didn't recognize most of the plants there. Some had leaves the size of dinner plates and others had leaves the size of her pinky's fingernail. Besides the unusual sizes, they were also bizarrely colored, with almost every color of the rainbow incorporated into one plant or another in some way. If it wasn't leaves with swirling patterns of color, it was brightly colored flowers dipping down from above.
Ariana glanced over at Ryonen's sleeping form. He looked younger, somehow, almost like a child. His hair fell across his face in black folds, the strands shining with the reflection of the morning sun. She resisted the urge to brush them back, keeping her hands firmly in her lap. Something about him made her feel so comforted. She felt this intense sense of familiarity when she was around him, like he had something that she needed and never knew about before this. She paused as he stirred next to her. After a moment, he opened a green eye and looked up at her. He smiled and sat up, brushing his shoulder length black hair sleepily away from his face. 
"How did you sleep?" He asked her.
"Pretty good." She said, watching him as he adjusted himself against the tree behind him. "How about you?"
Ryonen had pulled the cloak off him and was now playing with the fabric in his lap. "Good." He said, distracted. "Did you give me this?" He asked, indicating his cloak.
Ariana nodded. "Yeah, I didn't need it anymore. I thought you might want it."
"Ah." He said. "That was thoughtful of you."
"Please." She said, snorting. "It was hardly thoughtful compared to you giving me it last night when I was cold."
Ryonen gave her a strange look. "Should I have let you freeze?" He asked, a smile pulling at the corner of his mouth.
Ariana laughed and the sound seemed to echo in the campsite, bouncing off of the trees before dissipating.
Ryonen got up, pointing at the barely visible flames in the pit and making them vanish. "We should get a move on." He said. "Our destination's at least a 4 day journey from here."
Ryonen held out his hand to her and she took it. He pulled her to her feet. "Where exactly are we going?" She asked, tossing her cloak out behind her and watching as debris fell off it.
"To the Eastern Kingdom." He said, gathering up her jacket and stuffing it back into her satchel before handing it to her. She mumbled her thanks and threw it on. "We need to talk to someone about finding your mother."
"If the people in your kingdom react anything like Vultan did when meeting me, then we aren't going to get any help there." She said, feeling a sadness rise up in her.
Ryonen stepped in front of her and took her hand. "I promised you that I'd find your mom, Ariana. I won't break my promise. I'm going to do everything in my power to help you."
She looked down and Ryonen lifted her chin with his fingers so that she had no choice but to look at him. "Do you believe me?" He asked softly.
She let out a shaky breath. He was so close to her that she could see the flecks of silver in his eyes that would have otherwise been invisible. Her heart skipped a beat and she felt that tug in her stomach again, that feeling of being drawn to him. She looked at his beautiful face and felt a sudden urge to touch his cheek or run a hand through his glossy black hair. She blinked, stopping herself. She could hardly think straight with him so close to her. "Of course." She said, finally answering him.
"Then you have nothing to worry about." He let go of her hand and picked up his satchel from the ground.
Ariana took the opportunity to step away from him casually. There, she thought, that's better. "Hey," she said, smiling as he buttoned his cloak at his neck, "I was wondering about something. What did you say to Vultan last night to make him change his mind about helping us?"
Ryonen turned away from her and started walking. She ran forward to catch up. "Nothing, really." He said, not looking at her. "I just told him that your mom had been kidnapped by Malor's men and that I promised that I would help you get her back."
Ariana tried to catch his eye but he wouldn't look at her. "Are you sure that's all you said, because it seemed like you told him quite a bit more than that."
"I'm sure." Ryonen answered quickly, his tone suggesting that that was all he was willing to say about the matter.
She bit her lip. She knew he wasn't telling her the whole truth, but she also didn't want to push him if he wasn't comfortable sharing. She supposed it didn't really matter all that much, anyway. If he did say anything else to Vultan, it probably wasn't relevant to her. He would have definitely told her if it was."
She decided to let the matter go for the time being. "So," she said, breaking the silence, "tell me about home."
Ryonen looked at her out of the corner of his eye, probably assessing whether or not she was serious. "Really?"
"I did ask, didn't I?" Was all she said in response.
He smiled as if this was funny. "What exactly do you want to know?"
"Do you have any siblings?"
He shook his head. "No, it's just me."
"Okay, what about your parents?" She asked.
"What about my parents?" Ariana raised her eyebrows at him disapprovingly. "Fine, fine. I don't know, what do you want to know about them?"
"What are they like?" She asked him. "Are they anything like you?"
"Well," he said, "they're..." He paused. "They work at the castle, so they aren't home a lot.
Ariana looked at him. "They work at the castle? What do they do there?"
Ryonen looked away. "They're advisors."
"For the king and queen?" She asked, incredulous.
"Something like that." He answered.
Ariana could hardly believe it. "That's amazing, Ryonen. So that means we'll have no problem convincing the king and queen to help us since your parents know them." She was feeling optimistic for the first time in the last few days. Her mom actually had a fighting chance of being rescued, now. She reached over and squeezed Ryonen's arm in excitement, smiling. He returned her smile weakly. "Are you feeling alright?" She asked, eyeing him carefully.
Ryonen nodded and smiled again; this time it seemed a little less forced. "Yeah, I'm fine. I was just thinking about something."
"Okay." She said, though she wasn't sure if she believed him. "Finish telling me about your parents. Are they nice?"
"Yeah, they're nice. They're a little bit strict because of their jobs, but they're still caring people. My mom is pretty much the head of the family. She's the stricter type whereas my dad is more laid back. It was an arranged marriage."
"Wow." She said, "How old were they when that happened?"
"92." He said.
"Excuse me?"  She said, pretty sure that she had heard him wrong.
"They were 92." He turned to look at her. "My parents just turned 119 years old this year."
She felt her mouth fall open. "I'm sorry, are you seriously telling me that your parents are 119 years old?"
"Yes." He replied, clearly amused by her reaction.
"Oh." She said, then paused as she did the math. "You said you were 26, right? But that means your mom and dad would have had you at-93?" She furrowed her eyebrows, not believing it. "How is that even possible?"
Ryonen chuckled and hurriedly grabbed her hand as they stepped over a fallen log. "To Elves, 93 is still young. We age much slower than a human does."
"Why do you look the same age as me, then? If you aged slower than you would look younger, right?"
"Not necessarily." He said. "For the first 18 years of an Elf's life, they age at a similar rate that a human does, if not just a little bit slower. It's only after they come of age that the aging process slows down to almost nothing."
That's absolutely bizarre, she thought. Out loud, she said, "So when I'm 50 or 60, how old will you look?"
Ryonen was silent for a minute, then he spoke. "I'll still probably look as if I'm 18." He said quietly.
"Oh." She said and silence fell between them.
Arianna looked sideways at Ryonen, taking in his striking features and his youth. Would he truly still look like this in 30 or 40 years? What would it even be like to live for so long? To him, her life would seem to pass by in the blink of an eye; he would practically live forever whereas she would grow old and die. Ariana turned away from him, trying not to think about it. She had no reason to be worrying about such things; it wasn't as if Ryonen meant anything to her. If anything, he was becoming a good friend to her, nothing more. He was just helping her find her mom, she convinced herself. After they got her back, Ariana would probably go back home and never see him again. Even if he wanted to continue to come see her, it was expressly forbidden. It would never happen.
She turned away from Ryonen and bit her lip, feeling as if her stomach was tightening. She became lost in her own thoughts as she realized the futility of the situation. Regardless of how much she reminded herself that she shouldn't care, she felt herself growing even more withdrawn as time went on. It was probably over an hour and a half later when they decided to stop and eat some lunch. She sat across from him eating her bread and nuts silently, looking down at her lap as the sound of the wind blowing through the trees was the only thing to be heard.
"Are you okay?" Ryonen asked after what felt like an eternity of silence. She looked up and he was starting across the open space between them, his face a mixture of confusion and hurt.
"Yes." She said, trying not to sound as conflicted as she felt. "Why would you ask that?"
"I don't know." Ryonen said, picking a leaf off of a twig. "You haven't said anything for a while."
"Oh." She said, and she tried not to look at him as she picked at her piece of bread.
Ryonen watched her. She didn't even have to look up to know; she could practically feel his eyes boring into her like search lights.
"What's wrong?" He asked her. "Really."
"Nothing." She looked up and gave him a reassuring smile while he gazed into her face.
"Okay." He said, slowly, but he didn't sound so sure.
They packed up the little supplies that they had and began walking again. This time, Ryonen didn't even attempt to talk to her, except to tell her to watch out for a fallen branch or to ask if she was thirsty. Ariana appreciated the silence, mostly because she knew that the more she talked to Ryonen, the more that feeling in the pit of her stomach would grow.
It had always been there, from the first time they met. She had immediately felt drawn to him, in a way she couldn't understand. It was as if she couldn't stop herself from liking him, from feeling something for him, whether that be a comradery or something more-. She shook her head. She couldn't keep letting herself think that way. He was an Elf and she was a human. It was forbidden for them to interact together, let alone be friends. In front of her, Ryonen seemed equally as distracted as she was. Most likely he was wondering why she was acting so distant toward him. The thought made her feel horrible; the idea that she was causing him pain in any way wracked her with guilt. To be honest, she didn't know why she was reacting the way she was. Knowing about Elven laws should have made her realize earlier how things needed to be. Did she honestly expect him to stay with her after this all worked out? No, she thought to herself, the certainty of the truth washing over her even as she thought it. No, he would be gone as quickly as he had come. She swallowed and tried to come to terms with this, solemnly following Ryonen further into the forest as the deafening silence spread around them.