L [o/i] ve is a journey

Heart of Oasis | Fixable

Lunaris did not know what happened.

The only thing she told him was, that she was scared. Scared of what? It really took some time and a little talking via writing with Kursiye and Corsa, just to get a hunch.

Appearently, Nerivie once saved a whole Kingdom from the clear desaster of being completly erased from the map with one spell, that spell. But ever since she used it, she closed herself in.

Lunaris knew how fear looked like, and he was too familiar with the urge to hide because of fear. But what heroine saving a country would try to bury herself in a room, and flinch at every sound coming from outside?

Her companion never had been in a position where he had to give encouragement to somebody close to him. There was just nobody close enough to him that would need- or take- encouragement from somebody so low as him. either his parents, who just smiled at his attempts, and then told him he should go and play, or do something more productive. Or his sisters, who snorted condescending at him, as soon as they were old enough to understand the difference between boy and girl.

Nerivie, however, always had been different. Treated him different. With a level of understanding and kindness he was unused to, and his heart ached at the sight of her flinches. The woman, the powerful, graceful mage that fought monsters in the desert as if it was second nature to her, the brave wizard taking on a whole storm, just out of curiousity flinched at something so simple as a knock.

He didn't understand how it came to be.

All he knew was, that her fear was strong. The memory of the scars came into his mind, and his heart got heavy. Then she turned her head to him and said: „You are right... I cannot sit here, avoiding the world forever. I have to accept the consequences of my doing."

Lunaris wasn't here for that. She could hide herself in this room if she felt like it. It would be sad, because traveling would have been great. But he had learnt a lot in here, and had gained the confidence that would enable him to make a living for them both. Heck, if she'd asked him if they'd just run away and leave for another country, and hide from whatever was scaring her there, he would just try to organize a boat to get them away from here.

But the moment he heard these words, the sharp scars she was carrying on her body came back into his mind, and he rushed to her, knocking her on the matress with his embrace. He pulled her close to his chest, as if to protect her from whatever she feared. He would fight whatever it was.

„Lunaris, what's wrong?" she asked, clearly in distress, and he just hugged her closer.

„I run....with you...away....if you want to...run." He whispered and felt, how she was paralyzed for a moment. Was it too much? The wrong words?

„Uhm," Lunaris heard her determination and felt her slight nodding, „I know."

He played with a strain of hair: „Shall we...run?"

A moment of silence, as she was concidering it. A lot of thoughts he wasn't part of, and he waited patiently for her to receive a conclusion. He knew. He knew how it felt to push through all these doubts, to gain an upper hand over silly worries and determine, what was only a doubt, and what was a real threat that had to be dealed with.

He had learnt, and still in the process of learning. And it was her who not only teached him, but also given him the strenght to do so himself. If she needed to cling onto him for a moment, to work through this, then so be it. Nerivie could be silent for the whole time, coming to a conclusion without him, it wouldn't matter. As long as Lunaris could be with her.

„I don't know." She finally muttered, and he could feel how her hands clung to the long coat she had bought him nearly a year ago. „But I want to see other places, too. I think, Ronaya would yell at me for sitting in this room all day long, telling me to learn some spells if I want to lazy around."

„Ronaya?" Lunaris asked.

„Hm," she nodded ever so slightly, „my master and foster mother. Back in Farun, when I was burying in my bed for making a mistake, she told me I could either go out and try to fix it or learn magic until I gathered to courage to do so. But she can't make me."

Fix it? Lunaris thought. But there wasn't anything to be fixed.

„Let's go out then. Something... for you... you have to see." The Viriyasci Lunaris had been learning was improving slightly.

„Hum." She nodded, „You're getting hungry, aren't you?"

„Neri...is hungry, too." He smiled. She had to see that there was nothing to fix.

Because there was never anything she broke.