Walking With Giants (Completed)

Chapter 25

Aurum was on his way to Elipse's camp.

He had come up with one conclusion: he had definitely overreacted and could only redeem himself by trying to catch up with the group and help them. He hadn't developed his plan very much, but he needed speed rather than a solid, foolproof plan. Not like he had many of those, anyways.

He was trudging through the thick, layered snow when he heard a loud crash noise from just ahead. He decided that it might be a conflict, and if Herin and Horus and the rest of the group were there, it would be a good time for him to dive in and assist. He tried running, but the snow was too thick, and he fell flat on his face, luckily in the snow. He spat out a bit of the snow that went in his mouth, and shook it out of his sleeves. He got up and walked a bit faster.

Oddly enough, he didn't hear anything besides that one crash. Maybe the conflict was already over? He couldn't quite tell, but maybe it wasn't a battle. Whatever it was, he had that nagging feeling in his head to just go around it and avoid whatever had just happened. His conscience kicked in, and he found himself turning a bit towards the origin of the crash.

He began to see someone through the trees. He couldn't quite make out who it was, but he kept well hidden with the snow on his white sweater.

It was just one person, and he seemed to be sulking, lying on a freshly chopped tree. Or was it stripped from the ground? Nevertheless, he didn't know the person, but he had an assumption.

"I assume you're Ursa?" Aurum called, standing up in plain sight.

"Go away," he called, and Aurum could hear the tears in his voice.

Aurum didn't really know what to say for a moment, which was unusual. He attempted at conversation, since if he could get Ursa to come with him to Elipse's camp, maybe they could help out more. From what Aurum heard, Ursa was almost as powerful as Herin.

"Why are you crying?" Aurum called out.

"Why do you care?" Ursa kept his distance.

"Because-" Aurum stopped. He carefully chose his words. "Did you see Herin and Horus and... all of those people?"

"If you mean I attacked them and they attacked me and I lost my best friend and girlfriend... yeah," he sniffed.

Now it's all coming together, Aurum thought. It's gonna be harder than I thought to get him to come with me. Maybe...

"Do you wish that you could make it up to them?" Aurum asked him.

"They'll never accept me again," Ursa groaned, losing the tears.

"They never will if you don't present yourself to them. It takes work to earn trust back, Ursa. If anyone would know, it'd be me."

There was a long pause as Ursa stood, almost frozen, looking at the ground. A minute slowly crept by, and Aurum leaned against the trunk of a tree, letting the words seep in, trying to keep himself from asking Ursa again. It seemed like a stale mate, both of them hoping the other would speak. At least that's what Aurum thought of it.

Ursa climactically looked up, emotion seeping through his eyes, filling his face with a vibrant red.

"What do we have to do?"

Ursa and Aurum were almost at Elipse's base.

It was a very fast walk, both of them going as fast as they could across the thick, fresh snow blanket on the ground.

"Shouldn't we have seen them there by now?" Ursa said, using his energy to compact the snow and make their trip easier. "It's not like they were running as fast as they could towards her base." They both kept running, and Aurum sucked in a deep breath to say what he wanted to say to Ursa while they ran.