The Torn

Chapter 5

I hear a gasp from beside me as we both take in the grueling scene before us. Embers are still alight, dancing lively against the faded background of cinders. My feet burn, bare on the blackened, crunching grass. A hut in the distance moans before collapsing in a poof of soot. Time stands still yet seems to speed up around us like souls stuck in one moment as a time traveler jumps through them. It's odd. I feel grief flood through me. Odd indeed. I take a step forward, closer towards the small flickers in the closet hut. I can smell the burned wood strongly tearing back the layers I had spread to protect myself from my own past. I've never liked fires. They always seemed so insincere, so cold. (Ha, ha there's that irony again) Lost in thought I barely catch myself before my traitorous hand reaches out to place fingertips against charred and burning wood. I snatch my hand away when fliting sparks jumps up catching my wrist. They don't hurt but they knock me out of my stupor. With a shudder, my companion seems to fall forward behind me, stumbling before sinking to the ground. Her whole body shaking.

"I knew this would happen, I thought they would stop, I thought I could end this" Muttering to herself, she wraps her arms around herself. Something clicks in me and I sink down next to her and place my arms gingerly around her shoulders pulling her close. I don't know why I do it. I don't know anything anymore. She turns towards me, her solum eyes fastened onto mine, filled with determination. Leaves above us rustle loudly as if trying to shake away aching pain. "Will you help me?" A question. Her voice doesn't sound desperate or pleading, only strong. Maybe it was that that compels me to say what I say next, maybe it was the way she seemed so vulnerable but beautifully strong sitting in the grass beside me, maybe it was her.
"Yes."

Trekking back through the woods proves a tiring and difficult act. The forest floor is inclined slightly to where we're hiking uphill and inhalation from the smoked village burns heavy in my lungs. Even though the run there had seemed mere minutes, it seems a weight had been placed over both of our backs the moment we stepped into the clearing of cinders. Walking's tiering to ay the least. My muscles ache more than they ever have since joining the Princess's guard and I blame it all on my lack of movement in the last weeks. Right now the feeling rocks, stones, and spiky, dry grass jab up in the bottom of my foot was no motivation to move either. Between my sore muscles, exhausted feet, and my hurting diaphragm and lungs, we carry on slowly until the trees begin to thin out again and I find my toes curling into plush, green vegetation. Immediately I plop down onto the ground, rolling onto my back. My body sighs with relief and I hear the girl drop down beside me with an "Ooof." My body involuntarily turns to her and before I can stop myself and I state the answer to the question I hadn't even realized I wanted her to ask. The answer, if reciprocated, could be the key to unlock the passage that could lead me to the answers I had been seeking. Who was this girl, what did she know, how did she know, what did I really know? My eyes locking onto hers, my lips move to form words of my own betrayal.

"I'm Lin"

In that moment I want to bash my head with a rock and I count the seconds between the moment in which her eyes widen and the moments to come where she scrambles away from me realizing she found a fugitive on the other side of the war. I wait. One second. Two. I bite my lip when a dazzling grin splits the girls face, previous troubles forgotten. Propping herself up on one elbow, she turns to me, sticking a grimy hand out, a lock of sand colored hair falls into her face. 

"Adeline"

I can't help but feel the corners of my lips tug up as I take her hand.

Our trek continues, terrains talking on multiple forms of marsh and hilly forests. Throughout the trip words of personal experience being exchanged, bits of life fluttering into a picture of her.