Embers

Dandelion

Chapter 32

Eira's POV

She had no idea how long she was wandering around in the dark forest. Only that daybreak never seemed to come around here. It took a Eira a while to figure out she was locked inside her own mind. With her own horrors that the Other was more than happy to show.

Eira could hear the voice of Geralt coming through sometimes. At those moments, she screamed at the top of her lungs. To tell him she was still here. That she couldn't seem to escape.

The Other would laugh loudly when Eira tried to reach for the Witcher. A laugh that was so sharp and harsh on her ears that she more than once crawled away to hide into the shadows of the Oak Trees. Her hands covered her ears and Eira tried to block everything out.

The Other was always close. Always following Eira with every movement she made. Sometimes the Other disappeared out of sight, but she was never away. Always talking, always laughing. Eira feared the Other. The Black Elemental tried to break her, Eira knew this and tried to hold on to her sanity.

"It's easier to just let go," the Other told her at one moment when Eira hid underneath one of the Oak Trees. "Join me in Nilfgaard."

"You're not really here," Eira muttered when the red head showed herself.

The scoff from the other reached Eira's ears and sounded so familiar by now.

"Of course, I'm not. I'm bored, that's why I'm here. And you're the only other Elemental. Took me ages to locate you."

"Nilfgaard?" Eira suddenly spoke when remembering the Other told her the place.

Eira locked eyes with the redhead who stood not far from her and who wore a smirk on her red painted lips.

"Of course Nilfgaard," she scoffed and Eira got up slowly.

"Why Nilfgaard?"

The Other's gaze followed Eira's slow movements. A gesture that told Eira the Other wasn't too sure if Eira was as harmless as she thought.

"Better than travelling around and sing songs," the Other chuckled, but there was a nervous undertone in it and Eira picked up on it.

The black elemental had something she shouldn't and Eira needed to figure out what.

"No," Eira said, her voice firmer this time, hands into fists. "There's something in Nilfgaard."

"Shut up about Nilfgaard. There's nothing," the Other suddenly raised her voice impatiently.

Eira cocked her head a bit to the side, never let her gaze wander away from the Other while she heard hurried whispers in her head. She recognized the voice of Geralt and two other ones, but they were too far away to hear them clearly.

A change in the wind around her caught Eira's attention. It was small, but the wind around her felt warmer than before. It kissed her skin almost lovingly and when Eira let her gaze travel to the ground at her feet, a small flower stood small and proud.

She arched her brow confused. The little dandelion wasn't there before. There weren't any flowers where she was. The flower was perfect and in bloom. The bright, yellow colour looked odd and out of place in this dark forest.

"They think they can save you," the Other chuckled entertained.

Eira's blue gaze met the Other's black orbs and she grit her teeth. She opened her lips to speak when a sudden rush of movement disturbed her. Eira snapped her head back and her mouth fell open out of surprise when she locked eyes with someone she hadn't seen in months.