The Fragile the Broken and the Brave

41. Canopy

8.21.20

Connor's POV

I was totally right; my dad did bust a vein from my disappearance. However, that didn't stop me from going back today. He's my soulmate. I have to see him again. I slid back to the cave again through the woods, and I smiled in delight when I could scent him again. He was just at the bottom of this cave; I mean, he did say to come back anytime. Varian never told me exactly how long anytime was, so here I am less that 12 hours later walking into the same dark cave. When I came into their large cavern, I saw that the two had just finished eating. Orion was playing with the same toy he was playing with yesterday, and Varian was putting a bow across his shoulders slowly. However, when I came into the main area, he took it off at the speed of light before aiming it in my general direction, and I quickly put my hands up in the air. "Oh, It's just you. Sorry about that." I was relieved to see him drop the weapon down to his side, and he walked slowly up to me. My soulmate seems to have many different sides to his mind, and this one was the more serious, cautious one. "I have to go out to hunt for food, can you watch Orion for me? I just don't want him to get stuck again."

"Yeah, I can. I wish you luck on your trip."

"Pfft, who needs luck when they have skill?"

"Fair point."

Varian chuckled once more before disappearing up the tunnel, and I turned to look at Orion. He didn't really seem to care about my existence, so I walked closer. Strange, kids normally love me. Maybe he's just shy. "Hey Orion," I acknowledged, and his head turned towards me slightly.

"Hi." The one word response hung in the air, and it was a bit eerie how silent the kid is.

"So... What are you playing?"

"I don't know," Orion mumbled. He set a plushie rabbit down on the ground, but he seemed to have lost interest in it. He stood up and walked over to the table where he sat down on the bench, and I watched him randomly begin picking between his toes. He seemed pretty focused, so much so that his eyes were in a totally different world, and I could see him beginning to chew on the inside of his cheek.

"What's your favorite game?" He didn't show any visual recognition that he had heard me speak, but his head twitched slightly to the side. I don't know if that was acknowledgement or not, but at least he replied verbally.

"Catch, with my brother." He doesn't seem to be a boy of many words, but he seemed to understand me when I spoke. I wish Varian gave me a bit of a better guide on how to talk to him. His right finger twirled circles around in his hair while he ignored the rest of the world, and I sighed before sitting back. No matter how hard I tried, I found it hard to get through to him. I just hope that Vari comes home soon; this is just straight weird.

It took almost two hours for my soulmate to return, and he came back with only a bit of meat. I wondered why that may be, but then I recalled that we were still on pack lands. We probably keep the population of antelope pretty low with constant hunts to build pack relations. I feel bad knowing that we're taking from these two's food supply, but no one ever knew that they had settled here. I didn't even know that there was a cave here until a few hours ago. "Hey. How did everything go here?" Varian seemed cheerful, and I was worried that it was just because he found food. However, he soon pulled a small trinket from behind his back, and I recognized Papa's lost bracelet from ever ago. "I found this in the forest. I wanted to give it to you to celebrate our friendship."

"Thank you, Vari. It's very beautiful." I took the silver from his hand before sliding it on so that I wouldn't lose it, and he smiled widely at my acceptance of the gift.

"Did Orion behave well?" The boy walked over to his brother before handing him a small bit of cooked meat he had saved from last night, and the little boy smiled gratefully at him. The sight was absolutely adorable, and I would have taken a picture if I had a camera.

"He did, I just couldn't figure out how to talk to him very well."

"Don't worry, it'll get a bit better the more you get to know him."

"Okay..." I looked down at the floor slightly bored, but I didn't stay that way for very long before Varian grabbed onto my hand. The contact, even if he didn't know he was doing it, sent shivers up and down my arm, and I almost forgot to move when he pulled me along behind him. However, my legs caught up with my mind just in time for him to drag me out of the cave, and we emerged into the broad daylight. The bright sun hurt my eyes, and I had to squint to see any hint of the green forest I had grown up in. It was a truly stunning sight; papa had made sure to keep the territory very nice, but also very natural. None of the humans could find out we existed. I had already ruled out the possibility of the boys being totally human, but I didn't know what else they could be.

"Do you know how to climb trees?"

"Not very well, but I can. Why?"

"Follow me and try not to fall." Varian jumped onto a low hanging branch on a nearby tree, and he quickly hauled himself higher. I sighed and remembered that I did have wings if I happened to fall down before climbing up the wood the same way he did, and I only almost slipped twice; I call that a win. When we finally broke through the top of the canopy, I realized that this was the big tree I used to look at from my bedroom window as a kid. I used to tell myself that I would climb it all the way to the top one day, and now here I was, with my soulmate, right near the top of the tree. "Now, if you look around, you can see so many different things. Over there is the town, and up north there's another one. I don't know what that big thing is to the west, but I've defaulted to think it belongs to some lousy rich man. South is... well I don't know exactly. More forest." While he spoke, I stared into his eyes from the side of his head. I don't think he noticed until he tried to turn back to me, and then he was turning a shade of red no man should ever turn. I felt alarm rise up in my chest, but he simply smiled and shook his head. "We have to come up here when the sun sets; it's beautiful."

"I have no opposition."

"Alright, now we have to get back down."

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