Fading Into The Sea

Chapter 9

I felt like I got punched right in my stomach, to say that I was frightened was an understatement, I was terrified. My hands were clammy and my whole body had started to shake. I had all this information running through my head and none of it made any sense; a prophecy. Lost item. World destruction...Obsidian? Obsidian... I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and shifted my gaze over to meet the golden eyes of the dark haired man standing before me. He wore an expressionless look upon his face as he waited patiently for my next words, the only problem was that I was speechless. Instead I carefully turned in the other direction and walked to the opposite side of the ship on wobbly legs. I gripped onto the rail of the ship and stared out to the horizon hoping that it would calm me. My breathing was uneven so I took a couple of deep breaths and started to feel better. Or as better as I could be considering the circumstances. Obsidian stopped talking to give me some room to breath. I tried to ignore the question that I knew he knew I was going to ask; why did you leave? But I couldn't sit in silence any longer so I asked the next best question I could think of. "Where do we go from here?" He gave me a confused look and didn't answer my question.

"Pardon?" he asked.

"I mean what is our heading?" His face still bore his puzzled expression but he didn't question me.

"We are on our way to Laret to see the queen, but we must make a stop at a port first to repair some of the damages to our ship, and restock our food and water supplies. We should arrive there by tomorrow afternoon." I shook my head in acknowledgement to his statement and made no attempt to make eye contact with Obsidian. A tear plopped from my eye and I quickly wiped it away with my hand. "Brea I-" he started but stopped when I turned to look at him. A soft breeze must have blown a small strand of my hair out of place because Obsidian reached up and tucked it behind my ear, his hand lingered for a half of a second longer then what was normal, and sent a shiver that ran down my spine. Then one small word slipped out of my mouth in a whisper.

"Why?" He knew what I was asking and I could tell he wanted to tell me but something was stopping him.

"Brea, there is still so much you don't know. So much that I can't tell you, tonight may not be the best of nights to talk about that."

"Will tonight or any other night or even any other time of day be a good time to talk about it?" I paused a moment but he didn't reply so I went on.

"Do you know what I went through to find you? Do you know how long I searched for you? People didn't believe that I had any friends let alone a friend that lived in the woods. My father just dismissed me when I said that you were in trouble, only a few other people helped me try to find you. They didn't believe me either but they helped me search anyway, they helped me for a couple of days but called off the search. People came to the conclusion that I had just made it all up for attention. Everyone started calling me crazy and my father sent in a tutor to teach me how to be a proper lady before I could ruin the family name. Day after day I dealt with people calling me crazy, after a while I started to believe them, I started to think that I had made it all up...But then...Then you just showed up out of no where." Hurt and betrayal ran through me like a forest fire. The look in his eyes changed after I was done talking and the expression on his face was stern. Everything he had said makes sense but he still hadn't told me why he left so abruptly and with out telling me where he was going. When he spoke next, his words as if by magic, doused the fire inside of me, and not in the good way either.

"Look Brea, I am sorry for what has happened in the past, but you have no idea why I had to leave. I wasn't even supposed to be there in the first place, but I guess fate had its way with us even back then. You have to let this go, after all we were just kids and I wasn't around long enough to become as much attached to you as you had attached yourself to me. For the sake of the mission I suggest you put this behind you and focus on the journey ahead." The expression on his face was unchanged as he turned to walk away, he stopped but a moment and said. "Its getting late and you are going to need your strength, I will walk you back to your room." I couldn't believe what I had just heard. It was as if I was talking to a total stranger. But that was just it, he was a stranger. The time we spent together as kids meant nothing to him, I followed at a distance behind him,not muttering a word. He opened the door for me and I walked inside, "Tomorrow is a big day so get some sleep." and with that he shut the door and once again I was left alone in my creaking room.