Season's Change Winter's Plight Book 1

25 Silence

Avriel sat quietly for a while and simply watched the fire consume the wood. He looked up at Katana with honest confusion in his eyes. "How?" She looked at him quizzically, her soft silver brows slightly creased, not sure what information he was seeking. "How were you captured by the brigands?" It honestly baffled him. Early on in their training, she could defeat him on his best days with little to no effort. How then could she be taken captive? It just didn't make any sense to him. He smiled softly with his eyes down and kept his voice smooth and low, "I'm not trying – how do you say? – to be mean, insensitive. I mean you always win when we spar. I just – just don't understand. Sorry."

Her expression got colder and became more distant. "I was not."

"I am afraid I do not understand. If they did not capture you, then how did they get their hands on you?" Avi's voice remained soft and gentle with honest confusion and concern coating every word.

A look of shame and trepidation filled her eyes and covered her body. She looked away from Avi and the fire, the only source of light in the cave. She seemed to grow dimmer and to shrink into herself as her emotions and sense of self seemed to collapse in upon themselves. "Katana, please." His voice took on an edge of alarm and compassion he did not know he possessed and. He had asked a question that maybe he should not have asked. Her body language was much stronger and easier for him to understand than the words she taught him. His heart started racing a bit in his chest as it started to break a little. "Katana. Please help me understand." He was close to begging her. His voice still soft but on the edge of a whine. Without thought, he moved closer to her offering himself as comfort. "I am so sorry. I know this is hard for you. I know, but please. I need to understand this." He wanted to find her eyes, to somehow tell her that it would be okay. That whatever pain it was that she was feeling he would shelter her from, but he didn't know how.

"I was not captured by them. There was a raid on my city. I was struck by a dart from the Dark Dwarves and made to sleep. The darts have a sleeping poison on them. I was taken from my city as prisoner." Her expression was dead, cold and it made Avi feel horrible for even asking. He felt his own tears starting to build in his eyes as that vulnerable shaky feeling started to fill his chest. He waited patiently for her to continue. "They kept me in a cage."

"You were caged?" Katana jumped at the loud ring of his voice echoing through the cave. She nearly lept to her feet and away from Avi at his cry. She had never seen the expression that flashed across his face. She never wanted to see it again. He nearly spat the words out in a feral snarl as he momentarily lost control of himself. His word just turned upside down and his ability to understand and be patient went with it as his anger and the injustice of putting another being in a cage soared. "Sorry." He brought his volume back down. His heart broke into a million little pieces and sank even further. As his anger rose, his sense and need to protect the fragile part of her she was sharing with him expanded and threatened to consume him. He was outraged and appalled and tried very hard not to let those emotions creep into his voice or cross his face again. "Who would do that to another being and why?" He moved, he didn't think or worry, he just moved as if he had a right to, closer to her and touched her arm.

She did not try to move away from him. It was odd how the warmth of his hand and the solidarity of his touch made her feel. She calmed under it and relaxed a bit. She wanted to tell him her story, wanted him to know what she had been through, but she did not understand why she did. She just did and that confused her. Instead of letting her emotions go she focused her energy on telling him her truth. "They traded me to the surface dwellers they were pale elves, Faye. They traded me to the pale-haired humans you call brigands."

"They traded you? What kind of people trade other people for goods and gold!" His normally deep rich-toned voice rang high as the words spilled out of his mouth rapidly and true anger once again filled his heart.

"Earthstone, Avriel. Earthstone and mithril." Her eyes dropped to the fire, her head hung in shame and regret and her hands fell into her lap. He sat with her in silence for a long while. His hand still resting on the warm skin of his friend's arm. There was more to the story she was not telling, so much more. He read it all over her face and the way she moved as he fought his own emotions and tried to heed hers. His anger was boiling and burning him. He needed to breathe, wanted to go outside and sort his feelings out, but he could not do that, so he sat in silence with her and watched the fire burn. After some serious thought, he spoke. "I used to think there was no fate worse than death. I was wrong." Again, without thinking about what he was doing, Avriel pulled Katana into his arms, sheltering her in his strength and offering her the comfort of a loving friend. He held her while her thin shoulders shook slightly and smoothed her hair just like his sister used to do for him when he was hurt and scared. He hadn't known that elves could cry. He fought back his own tears with deep and steady breathing, then gave up and let them fall into his beard.

The pair didn't move for a very long time. They just sat, clinging to each other for strength and support. "The Brigands. They will pay with their lives for the wrong they have done you. And if I can find those horrible dwarves--"

"Avriel, NO!" Her voice rose as she pulled away "You will not go after those Dwarves or anyone else that lives under the stone. Humans are not meant to dwell in caves. You will be blind in the dark. I will not have it. I am to keep you safe from harm, not lead you into it. Please Avriel," She pleaded as she looked deep into his eyes, "Please. Give me your honor. You will not seek revenge against those that captured me. Please?" Her tone was one he had never heard before, one he did not quite understand. She hadn't moved out of the circle of his arms, but she put enough distance between them, so she could hold his eyes with hers. He heard her words and he would heed them. Still, he sat, with her in his arms and stared into her eyes, lost and confused and duly frightened. He nodded his agreement. "No, you speak them. Give me your honor!" She grabbed his chin and pulled his face to hers. She pressed her forehead to his. "Please?" She looked at him, then returned herself to his arms.

Stunned and shocked beyond belief, Avi found speaking to be very difficult. Every emotion he owned filled his heart and mind and served to tie his tongue. For one, he was keenly aware of her proximity as she pulled back and pressed her forehead to his. She had never been so close to him, no woman ever had. She had never spoken so strongly to him about anything except corrections during his training. He could feel her breath upon his lips, feel her nose touching his. He nodded, fought to breathe and finally spoke. "As you wish. Katana I will not seek revenge against those that captured you and put you in a cage and sold you to the highest bidder." His green eyes searched her silver in the silence that fell between them.

When she was satisfied that he spoke his truth she lay her face beside his again and let him hold her close for a little while longer. She broke the hug and moved away from him slightly. "Thank you." She gave him in his own language.

He nodded again. "I should sleep."

"You should."

"I'll just go to my cave." Katana nodded at Avi understanding his need to be alone, but not wanting him to retire to his own space and not feeling the same sense of need at all. She did not want to be alone. She wanted to be near him, her Stupid Human. She wondered for perhaps the hundredth time why she had given the space to him and allowed him to leave the main chamber. It was far easier to watch him sleep if he was in the same room as she was. He unfolded his legs from under him, stood, stretched and looked at Katana with an unreadable expression on his face. "Good night."

"Good night." She returned from her seat by the fire.

He turned and walked away, a silent fire burning in his heart.

A/N

Thank you so much for the wonderful art that was shared with me. I am humbled and in awe. I honestly cannot thank you enough for the inspiration you have given me.

Always,

Shelly Keller