Fates Intertwined

16. | Stars

Aurora stared into the fire as it crackled before the five of them. They had made camp in the forest, the night sky alight with stars. Aurora had spent so long away from them, she couldn't help but stare.

It was late, well after midnight. At least, that's what Zyran's watch had told her. Her brain still couldn't fathom the fact that electronics existed.

"They're still going to be there when you look away." Zyran spoke, drawing Aurora's attention.

"Huh?" She looked at him confused as he laid sprawled out, leaning up by his forearms.

"You keep staring at the sky as if the stars will vanish. I assure you, they'll still be there." He chuckled.

"I know. I just... I haven't seen them in so long, it feels odd." She said, her arms wrapped around her knees.

"Odd how?"

"Odd to be able to see them again. Never thought I'd miss them, but here I am." She shrugged.

He patted the spot beside him and she moved back, laying down and staring up at the sky. Nara and Eric were already asleep, leaving just the two of them aside from Lina. But she wasn't paying any attention.

"You never realized how much you missed it until you lost it, huh?" He asked, laying down beside her with his arm cushioning his head.

"Yeah." She whispered. "I wish I could see it under different circumstances. Ones where I wasn't running for my life, you know?"

"Yeah. I get it." He turned to look at her. "Do you ever regret it?"

Finally, she turned her gaze away from the stars. "Regret what?"

"Running. If it weren't for us, you wouldn't be living your life on the run."

Aurora sat up, leaning toward him. "I've been trying to get out of that place for as long as I can remember. You guys offered me that opportunity and I took it. I would've been a fool not to."

"So you don't regret it?"

"No. In all honesty, I'm glad you guys showed up. I probably would've been locked up in there for another hundred years if it weren't for you." She sighed, laying back down. "Sometimes I wish I knew who my parents were. Maybe then I'd be able to ask for help and finally stop running from it all."

They laid in silence, staring up at the sky. Zyran had no idea how to respond and Aurora wasn't in the mood to talk more about it.

"Are you ever going to tell me? About what happened?"

Aurora heaved a breath, closing her eyes. "Zyran."

"I've told you everything, so why won't you tell me this?" He propped himself up on one arm.

"It's not that I don't want to tell you; it's just that I don't understand it." She blurted.

"What do you mean you didn't understand it?" His brows furrowed.

"It felt like... Like we knew each other. It was almost as if we shared the same memories." She explained.

"How would that be possible?"

"It's not." She murmured. "Because I'm over three-hundred years old and you're in your twenties."

"I'm the only one in our group over twenty." He told.

She leaned up onto her arm, meeting his eye. "How old are you?"

"Twenty-two. Nara's just turned nineteen, Lina's almost twenty, and Eric's nineteen." He explained.

"You look younger."

"I get that a lot." His lips pulled upward in a teasing smile. "So, did you ever know your parents?"

She sighed. "No. I have no memories of them, no pictures. All I remember was being taken from my bed in the middle of the night and raised by some random family. They were never my real family, and I only found that out because they made sure to use it against me. Thank God I don't remember much."

"You were taken in the middle of the night?" His brows furrowed.

She nodded. "Some creature, from what my brain can remember."

"Did it hurt you?"

She thought about it. Finally, she shook her head. "I think it was more protecting me rather than harming me."

"How weird." He murmured.

"Yeah." She smiled slightly.

They fell back into a silence and after a while of staring, Zyran finally lifted his hand, brushing her hair behind her ear. They stared at each other, Aurora's eyes slowly drifting to his lips. They were leaning toward each other, Zyran pulling Aurora by her chin, but before their lips could meet, her head was snapping away, looking out into the darkness.

"Rory?" He called.

Her brows were scrunched in concentration, as if she was trying to see through the darkness.

"Rory." He called again. This time, she shushed him. Pushing herself to her feet, she took slow steps toward the darkness, into the woods.

She was listening for something.

"Are you hearing something?" He asked. She didn't answer. He felt a familiar thread of fear run through him. "I'll wake Nara and Eric." He did as he told, waking Nara and Eric and alerting Lina.

As they packed up their things in case they needed to abandon their camp, the noise Aurora had heard grew closer.

Zyran walked up beside her, but her gaze never strayed. She was watching for something. "Rory?"

She heard something flapping, as if something was flying, but whatever it was was huge. Large enough that she could hear the wings against the wind. Her eyes zeroed in on a large figure landing atop of the trees.

"Run." She suddenly said.

"What?" Zyran asked, taking a step forward.

The figure began to glow with an orange light, but Aurora didn't wait to see what it was, screaming, "RUN!"