Fresh outta high school, stepping onto freshman year, all he wanted was to find himself and his purpose in this fast paced world. But what he least expected was to be entangled in the pricking strings of his past, while questioning his foreign fee...
"Huh....where exactly?" he blinks like a goldfish.
"You'll know" I say as if that would convince him. Before he can shoot me with whats and wheres, I grab his wrist and drag the perplexed boy to his much awaited fantasy.
We head out the stony pavements, crossing all the dorms, uphill to a secluded area, the twilight sky is a perfect add on. We reach the place, in nothing more than twenty minutes.
His audible gasp tells me I did the right thing.
There in front of us, lies a sworn worthy stretch of flowery pond, adorned with mock up lanterns to the tree stand at the sides, the water not too deep but enough for us to get chest wet, not too many lifeforms, and obviously no deadly creatures. I wouldn't bring him with all my effort just to get him killed now, would I?
To people, it's just any pond with absolutely no extras, but to us, readers of Forth Wing, it's straight outta the book beautiful, experiencing the trials of a rider, crossing the parapet, a prerequisite for the art of balancing oneself on a Dragon's back.
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Time to bring out my inner actor.
"You're General Sorrengail's youngest" I try to enunciate it in a deep accusative voice just like Xaden had been described, holding my head up to play the part flawlessly.
"You're Fen Riorson's son" he understood the assignment. I can see him relaxing and the soul actually settling on him, such a victory I would say.
"Your mother captured my father and oversaw his execution". It's sickeningly astonishing how I remember each word by heart, when it's been a month since I read the last of the series.
"Your father killed my older brother. Seems like we're even" looks like we are no different roomie.
"Hardly" sounding as venomous and nonchalant as possible.
"Are you going to kill me?"
"Why would I waste my energy killing you when the parapet will do it for me" I say with a wicked smile, with my eyebrows raised challenging him.
"See you on the other side, Sorrengail" I say with a smirk and start stepping on the narrow path with arms stretched on the sides to balance.
When we finally reached the other end, no part of us was not wet. We brawled right in the middle, impatient to be the first to reach, and almost fell like six times, nope definitely not the balance, just the urge to send the other soaking deep in the pond, but ended up together every time.
We seated ourselves on the trimmed grass, and let ourselves dry. I watch him grin wide at the parapet we crossed just now.
"Guess the parapet failed to kill me" he says with a light chuckle.
"Ohh darling, I wouldn't let anyone come between us not even the death itself" I wink at him.
He cringes hard, and we crack up at my silly effort to flirt.
I'm liking this.
"How did you find this thou'?, this place looks awfully deserted but at the same time not, the lanterns, trimmed grasses, even the pond speaks for it", he asks while his eyes admire the setting.
"Well, I have quite a habit of strolling around, especially places that look prohibited. And this, I guess it was day 1, I was bored with all those speeches, so lets say I kinda slipped through the back doors, and to the right of it, there's this peculiar pathway heavily maintained than the rest. Obviously I was curious, and that, straight away led me here. Trust me, the first thought that crossed my mind was parapet. Maybe coz' I always wanted to try and never found a place that had this long or something of a deep fall either"
"Hmmm...thanks to that, we now have a magnificent escape spot"
"Hell yeah....and how about we name this???" I suggest.
"Fourth Wing??? I mean it's the book that connected us here, and to the parapet"
"Forth Wing, it is then" we fistbumped at that.
On our way back to the dorm, we bonded a few more. Honestly, it's not even a day with him, but it feels like he's one of a kind, who can't be hated, like at all, nor can he be frowned upon, this guy is full of rainbows and sunshines, as if darkness itself found him to be a muse to admire and never to be disturbed.
"Thanks for that, I really needed a distraction, I was missing them too much, and to think it's hardly a few hours without them, ahhh....it's ridiculous" he sighs heavily as if he had been holding that for years, and disappointed to break it out in a matter of seconds.
"No, it's definitely not. Lemme tell you, the feeling of missing someone and being missed is the most human of all. Keeps us alive, and not a robot that refreshes memory prolly due to storage capacity, we're lucky to not have that kinda functioning. I mean it also makes sense, we all miss a part of us or who and how we were with them, but why would a robot go like, ohh I miss how I was wires and metals in hands of so and so"
He stops on his track making me stop too, and just stares at me for god knows how long,
"That's one weird way to put things" he shakes his head with an airy chuckle.
I give a sheepish smile, brushing my nape.
We reached dorm in a few minutes, seems like we spent an hour out there.
"Ahhhhh....I'm gonna shower now, and straight up sleep like dead" he says and rushes to the washroom, while I head upstairs to change my damp clothes.
It's nearly one in the morning, I hear his soft snores and here I'm having a 'series night'. Guess fixing sleep schedule ain't my thing.
"NOOOO"
I unplug my earpods, unsure if it's on the screen or here.
The clock reads 2.52 a.m.
"Maybe I'm just paranoid" I muttered to myself, and decided to go back to the series.
But I hear it again, the scream, this time resonating with sheer terror, more vulnerable than ever.
