Passion (Book 1 of "The Fantasy of Life" Series)

Chapter 16

York

Kel and Cullen walked in the front of the group. Kel strode proudly with very wide and high steps, I think pretending she was the one leading us to Hope. Maybe not really pretending, she might actually think she's the one leading us. Cullen was walking kind of awkwardly, every once in a while looking back at Ashanaya and blushing. Ashanaya and Marhara were just behind, Marhara seemed lost in thought, I wonder if it was still bothering him that he wasn't at Ceylorn's side, it probably was. Ashanaya was just silently following with a look of determination on her face, but she also looked very tired. Valen and I were in the back of the group. He had his arm around me and I kept my head on his shoulder. I hadn't really noticed but we seem to walk in this way quite often, I suppose it'll probably change when Cullen isn't leading us somewhere, but it still interested me how easily we seperated into small cliques. Ashanaya and Marhara may have been next to one another but they weren't talking, as a matter of fact they weren't even close to each other. They were at least 6 feet apart, and Marhara was a little bit behind Ashanaya, both lost in their own troubled worlds.

Valen was lost too. When I looked in his eyes he looked as if he may as well have been on another planet, he seemed to get lost in his thoughts a lot. I suppose we have that in common, I quite often have strange thoughts, my train of thought quickly gets away from me and my attention span is that of a squirrel, as long as squirrels don't pay good attention, I don't know much about squirrels. Nymphs were always more interested in birds or fish, if it roamed about on land it had to be big, like deer or bears. Though water nymphs seemed to be very taken by things like butterflies and water sprites. Wood nymphs often killed the sprites in the forests. They were just tiny creatures that glowed different colours and made very high pitched noises that mimicked the animals around. The wood nymphs said they were poisoning the food but I don't believe it; I never learned the real reason for the hunting of forest sprites. I've often read that they were spirits of good luck, they fertilised the forests and made the flora bountiful. I'd never found any evidence to prove that theory either.

"What are you thinking about?" Valen interupted my thoughts.

"I-" I stopped. "I forgot. Oh! Sprites."

"Those little, pixie things?" He raised an eyebrow. "You looked like you were thinking of something serious, that's all it was."

I nodded. "Wood nymphs like to kill forest sprites, I don't even understand what they do."

He smiled. "Elven lure says that sprites exist to aid people in the most subtle of ways. You know by cleaning water, fertilising plants, feeding animals, I even heard that they add small flavouring to different types of water so that we don't get bored."

"I've heard the same thing, well except for that last one." I laughed. "Maybe they are around to help us, but why do the wood nymphs want them dead?"

"Maybe they just like bland water." His smile grew larger.

"Why would they like that?" I cocked my head to the side.

"It's just a joke." He ran his fingers through my hair, it felt weird but I liked it.

"Oh, nymphs don't have the greatest sense of humour. Things we do usually aren't because we think they are funny it's just because we think that's what is necessary or we just want to. When we laugh it's normally out of irony or a lack of understanding. There are some things that make us laugh though, like genuinely." I shrugged.

Valen just looked at me. "You're so weird you know? One minute you're really upbeat and fun, next your really formal and smart."

I looked at him, worried. "Do you not like that?"

He kissed my cheek. "No it's fine, it makes you even more interesting."

I smiled. "Maybe one day I'll tell you the more interesting things about nymphs."

He raised an eyebrow again. "Oh? Like what?"

"Water nymph mating rituals." I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Ew." He laughed.

"Water nymphs don't really have mating rituals, they just, do it. Wood nymphs are a little more ceremonial but not much." I looked bak forward.

"What about you?" He nudged me.

"Probably light some candles, sing an ancient hymn, sacrifice you to Ganahass." I didn't try to sound like I was joking. I said it very matter of factly. Nymphs had a little bit of a sense of humour, it was kind of cynical but it was there.

"Sounds romantic." He nudged me playfully and I rolled my eyes.

"Guys. There it is." Cullen spoke from the front of the group and he pointed froward.

Along the horizon was an assortment of buildings, not buildings like in a nymphan haslan, they looked very strudy and safe. There seemed to be an orange or copper theme, a lot of the houses seemed to have metal frames or metal roofs. There were some very tall buildings but a lot of shorter buildings, a lot of the buildings had a lot of layers, a decent amount seemed circular and some had pointy type things on the top. I wasn't sure what their purpose was but the looked interesting. The bottom of them, along the walls was white, maybe slightly yellowish but mostly very pale white. There was glass adorned on some of the walls that showed the inside of the buildings. They were windows if I remembered correctly. At the last wood nymph haslan I was at, the only building that had a window was the long house and it was usually covered up, but in this city it looked as though it was almost mandatory to have windows on your buildings.

I really liked the look of this city, there was so much of it, dozens of pathways were carved in between building and connected different sections of the city. It looked nice, safe and... stable.

"Hope." Kel seemed proud of herself.

Ashanaya stepped up to Cullen. "You said Valerie should be in the forests on the other side of the city?"

"I think, I should have took the indoctrinaries from the Ashen that were attacking Kel it just didn't seem important at the time. Perhaps, we can go back." He started to turn around.

"Nope. Crows ate them. I'm almost sure of it." Kel rocked back and forth on her heel.

"Just try to remember." Ashanaya seemed to almost be begging.

Cullen nodded and closed his eyes. His face scrunched up, it seemed hard to remember, maybe knowledge from indoctrinaries was harder to remember than normal information. That'd make sense because it's a lot of information.

He opened his eyes. "Yeah, she should be in the forest behind."

"Good, she'll die for what she's done." Ashanaya began walking forward.

Valen stepped away from my side and began to walk toward to her, I followed short. He stepped up to her and put a hand on her shoudler. "Hey, 'Naya, calm down, we'll get her."

"I know. I'll make sure of it." She sounded cold and didn't look at him, but she did cover his hand with hers, only for a moment, but in it's on way it seemed to say 'thank you.'

He took his hand from her shoulder and she walked toward the city at a very determined pace.

The group changed, Ashanya was in front, then Valen and I, Kel, Cullen, and Marhara were all in the back. I liked change, it shook things up, and considering what we were getting into I need a little morale boost. I can't help but hope Valerie won't be there.