Quest (OLD: the new version MIGHT be posted shortly)

Chapter 16-Jae

Morning came late, because the high cliffs blocked of the sunrise. I woke up to Argus’s low grumble. He and Sage were sitting apart, talking.

“Your babe’s fine,” Argus was saying. “Your diaphragm was bruised, not the womb.” I heard Sage let out a shaky breath.

“Thank you,” she half-sobbed. They were being quiet, so I guessed that I wasn’t supposed to hear. I sat up anyway. Nearly everyone else was asleep.  Heather had fallen asleep crying into Pete’s shoulder, and they were still entwined on the ground by the fire.  Landon was fidgeting in his sleep, kicking at the dirt.

I suddenly remembered what had happened. I suddenly remembered hearing Sage’s voice call me from over the water, and then the confusion when she was screaming right next to me. I remembered seeing her, a dark beauty, standing in front of me. I remembered her eyes, dark with Black Magic, and her skin, smooth and flawless, and her arms, reaching out for me.  I also remembered how she transformed into the hideous Siren.

“Morning, Freeman,” Sage said, sitting down next to me. She had a mug held out to me.

“We have coffee?” I asked, eagerly grabbing the mug. She snickered.

“It’s just strong tea. It has the pick-me-up, but not the brewed taste.”

“What a rip-off,” I sighed. She gave me her half-smile. “Are you alright?” I asked.

“Jae,” she huffed warningly. I remembered her feelings yesterday, only yesterday, morning.

“Forgive me for worrying. I know that you are perfectly capable of climbing mountains and taking down hideous Sirens and fighting werewolves,” I corrected myself. “Sage the indestructible, Sage the powerful, forgive me.” She snorted at me, but I got a brief, full smile.

She looked around the sleeping and dozing questers. Her eyes stopped on Pete and Heather.

“She found strength in the bay,” she muttered, smiling. “Those two will be good for each other.” She absentmindedly put a hand over her baby, as if reassuring herself that she had someone, too.

“I heard Argus say that you bruised your diaphragm,” I started to say. “Were you worried that you’d hit…”

“Yes, I was, but I was wrong,” she interrupted calmly.

“Sorry, I just wanted to make sure.” It was a touchy subject for her. “Well…” I sighed.

“Well what?”

“Well,” I repeated, “have you thought of a name?”

“A name? That hasn’t really been the most pressing matter to me.”

“Well, it’s important, isn’t it? I mean, a strong name, like, uh, ‘Jae’ for instance, makes a person seem notable right away.” Sage scoffed and rolled her beautiful spiced-coffee eyes. “And you don’t want to choose a weak name, like ‘Amelia’, because it makes a person seem, I don’t know, girly and fragile.”

“Is that why you’re so concerned for me all the time? Is it because I originally told you my name was ‘Amelia’?”

“Yes, in fact,” I teased.

“I noticed that you didn’t use my actual name,” she smirked.

“You were named well; I can’t find anything wrong with ‘Sage’. You still didn’t tell me what you’re going to name the baby.”

“I honestly haven’t thought of it.”

“Well, let’s think of it now. If the baby’s a boy, you could name him after the strongest man you know.” I winked at her, teasing. She suppressed a smirk and looked confused.