Savia's Heart [Sequel to Bastian's Song] [HIATUS]

[ 12 ]

[ Eryn ]

"You're doing the thing again."

"What thing?"

"The thing where you wordlessly stalk me like some kind of duckling following its mama." Eryn frowned at Vee over her shoulder, but didn't stop walking. The path was long and winding and she'd rather get where she was going before the sun set.

His face was frustratingly inscrutable. As usual. "You do not want to spend time with me?" Despite the question, Vee's inflection made it seem like he was curious about the answer but unfazed by the idea.

Eryn caught herself before she hissed at him. "It's not that I dislike spending time with you so much as that I would like a little privacy now and then. Especially while the ship is docked."

Silence answered her, but she took it in stride. Vee was a thoughtful person and he often took a long time to fully process any new information. At least she always knew he was listening, even if she did get impatient with him sometimes.

"Should I leave you now?" The note of uncertainty in his voice cooled her temper immediately.

Eryn considered his question carefully. On the one hand, Vee was likely to spook the person she was going to visit. On the other hand, Eryn couldn't trust him to get back to the ship safely. Though he still wore the threadbare clothes she'd given him eight months ago, there were other dangers in the city beside cut-purses and Vee very much looked like an easy mark.

She sighed. "Some choices in life just aren't real choices."

"What?"

"Make sure you keep up, Vee."

They traveled without speaking, in the comfortable rhythm of people who have worked together for a long time and learned to get along. Vee's pleasant humming accompanied them as the path gradually began to climb a rocky hill.

Eryn never enjoyed inclines, but she cursed this particular one every time because she never had her 'land feet' under her when she climbed it. The ground seemed to swell and shift under her, and she nearly fell many times. It was even more embarrassing to her when Vee seemed to have no trouble at all with the terrain or his balance.

An hour of quiet cusses and soft songs passed before they reached the summit of a large hill. The even ground offered Eryn a place to collapse and rest her shaky legs without fear of tipping over and tumbling the whole way back to the port city.

Vee stood beside her, both of them facing the direction they had come from, and stopped humming. Below them, the beauty of Zephyr's Cradle was laid bare to the sky. All of the humans in the city were small dots moving through the maze of buildings and merchant stalls and wagons. The ships at the dock bobbed peacefully in the calm of the harbor, sheltered from the raging passions of the ocean.

Even from this distance, Eryn imagined she could smell the mingled spices and rotted fish guts of the market. She wrinkled her nose. "What do you think, Vee? Isn't life on land pretty amazing?"

"Yes," he said immediately. "I think I prefer the land to the ocean."

She raised her eyebrows and aimed them at him. "So quick! Do you think you'll part ways with us then? Zephyr's Cradle is a great place to settle down, and you've more than earned enough to start a new adventure."

He frowned at the city and tapped his fingers against his legs in a rhythm she couldn't hear. "I can't. Yet. Maybe someday. Though I think I'd prefer a place that was not surrounded by water."

"Not a fan of islands then?"

Vee shook his head. "The ocean is...something about the ocean is terrifying. Every time I look at it, I am filled with dread. I could never live my entire life as you do, living on the waves and only going on land now and then."

Eryn shrugged. To each their own. "Why can't you leave yet? You don't owe us anything you know."

Vee's fingers stopped their dance and he lifted his chin. "I owe you still. And more, I think there is something important I need to remember." He turned his golden eyes to her and the last rays of sunlight danced in them. "And I know I have to be with you to find it. It's just out of reach."

He looked above her head. "It's like I could just." He reached out his hands. "Grab it." His fingers passed through the empty air. "If I tried hard enough." He stared at his empty hands for a few seconds and then closed his fingers over his palms. Vee shook his head.

In the fading light, Vee seemed to take on an ethereal glow. Eryn would have thought he was beautiful, if the sharp planes of his young face didn't remind her so much of a wild creature ready to snap at anything that moved too quickly. Then night fell, and the sun slipped away along with the illusion it had cast.

She shook herself and stood up on aching legs. "Well, we all do what we have to. You can wait here for me, if you want. In fact, I'd prefer that."

He opened his mouth. Eryn lifted a hand in a stop gesture. "But if you insist on following me then you must be quiet. I'm meeting someone and she does not take kindly to strangers. Deal?"

Vee closed his mouth and nodded.

Eryn turned and walked to the other side of the summit. She knelt at the edge and carefully jumped over the side to the flat rock ledge beneath the lip of the hill. In front of her, the yawning mouth of a dark cave gaped. A rustle of pebbles and a soft grunt let her know that Vee was just behind her.

She walked into the cave without looking back and the darkness swallowed her. Silently, she counted the steps. Twenty three forward. Seven left. Fifteen forward. Five left. Mind the drop. Thirty forward.

In front of her, soft blue light glowed against the inky black of the cave. Beautiful vines flowered over the moist rock and lit it with their own luminescence. Eryn smiled at the familiar sight.

The sound of dripping water drew her forward into a wide open space. Here, the glow of the vines was reflected from the floor, interrupted only by the occasional ripple on the surface of the underground pool.

Eryn saw Vee from the corner of her eye, standing still in the lit corridor. She knelt at the edge of the dark water and dipped a finger into it. Warm water lapped over her skin in direct contrast to the cool cavern air that hung heavy around her.

Beneath the surface of the water, a pair of green circles blinked into existence. Eryn smiled. "Hello Phaedra."

I missed you! Sometimes it feels like a week is too long. 

If you wanna know the story of how Eryn found this cavern in the first place, I can only say it involved a pretty lady, a dare, and an embarrassing amount of falling. ;)

What/who could Phaedra be? I wonder.