The Forgotten Light

35. Kaelen

On the third day, Kaelen set out in the middle of the night. He slept little, and constantly heard some noises, as if someone else was passing somewhere nearby. Once he snapped out of sleep when he heard someone's laughter, but this was followed by complete silence, so he concluded that he must have dreamed it. He lay still for some time, but sleep didn't come. Exasperated, he moistened his dry throat with water, gathered his duds and went on.

Soon it began to dawn, and when the large dazzling ball appeared in the sky again, greeting him with its gentle rays only to treat him to a path through burning desert in a moment, he rolled his eyes irritably and threw his wide hood over his head.

His mood only improved when he reached the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Hardly anything impressed him in this world, but that view took his breath away. For a moment he simply stood there, stunned by the vastness stretching out before him.

If only the rest could see it, he thought, and suddenly became gloomy. He threw the strap of his bag over his chest and began walking down the path into the Canyon.

He didn't want to admit it, but he lacked company. For the first time, he was tired of wandering alone and grumbling to the rocks which couldn't throw him some snappy retort.

Only now did he realize how much he had enjoyed talking to Harlyn. He couldn't believe that he had only met him the day before yesterday. The boy was genuine and direct, if something was gnawing at him, he threw it out right away, he didn't like circumambulate. Kaelen felt surprisingly comfortable with him, he could almost be completely himself.

The trip from Salome to Sedona was his best, but he wasn't going to say that out loud at all. He had changed since then, and no one even needed to tell him that, because he felt it himself. The question was, what led to this change? After all, for the past twenty years he had been a hard bastard with a heart of stone, not giving in to his emotions, feeling no sympathy for anyone.

Could it be that time had finally healed his wounds? Or was it the journey that changed him? Or Ritael had such an effect on him...

Ritael.

He was about to tell her something very important, he had finally decided to do it. But annoyingly enough, he suddenly had no opportunity to do so. First he had to deal with hiding the ship, then the whole situation with Usain happened, and now he was sent north.

As if it wasn't enough, ever since Reyn's ship landed, or rather crashed in their hideout, the girl was constantly in the company of Harlyn and the rest of her friends from Florence.

It was impossible not to notice. The new rebels had only been in Sedona for three days, but that wasn't important. Since Harlyn showed up, Kaelen stopped running into Ritael, and if he did see her, she was always with him.

And that's a good thing. Very good, thought Kaelen. At last he was left alone.

But he wasn't feeling calmness at all. He hit the last standing broken trunk hard with his axe. It was good that he could relieve his anger this way. 

Anger? Why anger? 

Why, instead of being relieved that fate had given him peace and quiet, he felt so tense, so irritable, as if... as if someone had entered his territory uninvited.

The trunk fell lazily toward the river. He followed its fall with his eyes until he suddenly realized he was looking at Ritael. The girl was sitting on the other side of the river, a young boy accompanied her, and his pregnant mother was right next to them, watching them build some sort of structure of rocks. The child carefully placed the last pebble on top, and then the tower unexpectedly collapsed. Kaelen had never seen a more disappointed face. After a while, the boy began to cry, at which the woman shook her head with amusement. Ritael, on the other hand, hugged him close, comforting him with an angelic smile on her lips, "Oh, Tay, don't cry. We'll build you a new castle in no time."