The Forgotten Light

18. Ritael

He was doing it again.

She thought their relationship had changed. After all, they were the same, they came from the same place, they were both homesick. She had more in common with him than with anyone else she knew.

But Kaelen once again shut her out. Ever since she woke him up when he started screaming in his sleep, he hadn't spoken a word. Awakened, he held his chest as if his heart ached and sized her up with a deadly gaze.

He played on her feelings like no one else so far. This time she wasn't angry or annoyed. She was disappointed. She didn't understand why the boy's behavior was changing so much or what was causing it. It was as if he was someone different every day.

She wondered if he himself would want to know what had happened to her over the years since they had separated in the new land. Wasn't he curious to know who had been taking care of her when the mysterious Aeternal woman suddenly disappeared? Did he even know that someone else had taken over her care when she was five years old? Was he really not interested in anything about her life?

She herself still had many questions she would have liked to ask him, but couldn't pick the right moment to ask them. She expected him to either throw something abrasive or not answer at all, walking stubbornly ahead across Sedona's hot paths.

It had been a long time since they'd passed the damaged sign, indicating that they had finally entered the city they'd been heading to for four really long days. Even so, Kaelen had no intention of stopping just yet. For the next few hours, he led them north. At first Ritael was annoyed and wondered if the boy was insane. Their wandering seemed aimless. She didn't understand why he didn't want to tell her the purpose of this exhausting wandering in the desert. Maybe it wasn't that he didn't want to. Maybe he himself didn't know what he was looking for or where he was going?

But then the landscape suddenly changed, and Ritael froze all the way at the top of the high rock they had climbed. Below them, she didn't expect to see anything but sand and huge stones, so when she saw water and trees between the high rocks, she had to make sure that what she was looking at wasn't a dream or a figment of her imagination. The greenery was almost foreign, unnatural to her eyes. It had been a long time since she'd seen so many trees, and they were beautiful, tall, green and untouched by fire trees.

"Wow," she sighed quietly.

She absorbed the view with her eyes wide open, not even daring to blink. She was afraid that if she did, everything would disappear. "Kaelen? What is this place?"

When she received no response from the boy, she looked to the side and saw that he was no longer there.

"Hurry up, the sooner we find them, the better. We don't want to attract unwanted glances," he called out from below.

Of course he had already started to walk down, right after he gave one brief, indifferent glance at the breathtaking landscape. Clearly he was looking for someone, and he had no intention of telling her whom.

She snarled and moved in his footsteps. Going down wasn't difficult, but she had to be careful how she took her steps. Maybe she wouldn't die if she fell, but she preferred that Kaelen's mocking laughter not be the first thing she heard when she came back to life.

"I thought we were supposed to be in Sedona, and meanwhile you've dragged us about three hours away. Are we even still in..."

"We're in Sedona, Slide Rock State Park to be exact, if you look at the maps from before the Invicta invasion," he said, jumping on the stone ground right next to the water.

"Okay," she replied slowly, drawling the syllables, "and what are we looking for here?"

And again, he didn't answer. Before she stepped off the rock and stood by the water, Kaelen was already walking a dozen feet in front of her, looking carefully around and examining the stone walls with his hands.