Chosen

A Deal

We travel on until the sun is just showing over the tips of the trees. Sora pulls up on the reins and look at the sky. “It’s going to snow.” He murmurs.

“What makes you say that?” I ask, looking up at the sky in a similar way he had. There are a few clouds, but other than that the sky is empty.

Sora glances at me and shrugs, “You learn things as you grow older.”

I cross my arms and examine his face again; I see barely any hint of aging… in fact, he could probably pass as my age. “Oh, and you’re so old.”

He only smiles, and I realize that he may be older than I thought. “It’s going to get cold; we’ll push on until we reach a town up here a ways, we’ll get a room at the inn. I nod once, enjoying the thought of being in a warm bed, and then follow him as he sets off again.

I’ve never been in this part of the country before, so I find it rather interesting when Sora stops at a cliff overlooking a valley. I glance at him and see a trace of sorrow in his eyes. I stare out at the valley the way he was, watching the wind play with the overgrown grass. As I watch a lump forms in my throat and my mouth sets into a hard line. Deep inside me a memory stirs, a sad one.

“What was here?” Something was here, this I know for sure; what it may have been and why it is not here anymore is beyond me.

“We better get moving if we are going to beat that storm.” He wheels his horse around and launches into a canter. I frown at the frozen ground beneath me, wishing so hard that I could get the answers I want. If I could just remember whatever it is that’s stirring inside me, than I would be satisfied.

Sora slows down and after a while I catch up to him again. “Is it really such a bad thing that you tell me? I mean, I’m bound to find out eventually… I have a right to know! Why can’t you tell me?”

“Yes, you do have a right, but unfortunately I vowed to protect you and that is exactly what I am doing.”

I shake my head angrily, “You’re protecting me from my past! How is that helping me? Will something bad happen if you tell me?”

There is silence and for a moment I think I have gotten the better of him, then, “It’s not that I can’t tell you, it’s the fact that you wouldn’t believe me even if I did tell you.

“I would,” I promise, “Just tell me what you’re keeping from me.”

He doesn’t say anything right way, but eventually he just says, “You’ll find out eventually.”

After a short while big, thick flakes of snow began to fall, coming faster with every minute. The temperature drops, leaving us huddled over the horses, watching our breath as we count the minutes it takes us to get to the inn. Sora had been right; somehow he had been able to tell that there was going to be a snow storm.

The town comes up rather abruptly, not there one moment and suddenly we are riding down a dirt road with houses side by side. People stare at us as we pass. I don’t blame them considering we are both armed. I suppose we could cause quite a bit of suspicion among the towns’ folk.

There was an inn at the very end of the street; we barely saw it because of the blinding storm. As we draw close and dismount, I see that it is in bad shape. The structure of the small inn seemed to be leaning alarmingly against the wind, and for a moment I think that it may even fall against the giant gusts that whipped into anything and everything; then I decide that it was better than sleeping outside in this and, if it falls, so be it.

We ride the horses to a nearby stable where we could leave them without them being in the snow. Sora watched me as I dismount, groaning with displeasure when I stretch for the first time in the past four hours. I look quickly at him to see that he is smiling, amused by my reaction. I raise my eyebrows at him and ask, “What?” He shakes his head, resuming that same straight face that he has managed to hold for so long.