Highland Bear (Book 4)

Chapter 60

AN - Only two more chapters left! Az x

Chapter 60

Rohesia had never seen such a beautiful place. Set nestled as if it was a part of the nature around it, it was a part of the land and as such it was a part of the people and was both defensible and made the people want to defend it. It had high walls, and a small village before it, tiny cottages dotted around. However, there was a huge difference between here and the place she had grown up. The draughty castle which had been her home was nothing but an empty shell. This keep screamed that it kept its family safe. She was still at least a half a day's travel from the place Artair had called home since childhood.

She felt a tension leave Artair behind her, a tension she had not even known he had until it left him. As if coming home had a profound effect upon him which she had never before felt. She realised she did not even regret or even a little homesickness over the place that she had spent so many years of her life. In fact the only thing she had missed was her father, not particularly any place, just the one person who had tried to keep her safe her entire life. But now she had someone else and hopefully she would have somewhere to call her own. Though she really did not mind where it was, so long as the one person she wanted to be with was there that was all she needed.

The journey seemed to speed up and slow down all at once. Finally having a goal as to where they were meant to be had a longing and anticipation within each of them...of varying degrees...which lengthened the journey drastically for them. However, at the same time, for half the party, they were coming home, and homeward bound travels always seemed to take less time than those that took you away from the safety of your own comforts. Artair, was just glad that the sun was out, shining down like a homing beacon upon the one place he wanted to be, besides exactly where he was with the woman he held securely to himself. He was not going to let her go again, lest she vanish from his sight and he doubted he could catch her with her fae like ways.

They still rode on, the Keep never seeming to get any bigger, but at least it was not getting smaller, as the sun began to set, the sky ablaze with fire. The brightest oranges and the hottest of reds all mingled together in an orchestra of colour which lit up the sky. Midnight hues chasing them down, slowly engulfing and suffocating the last breath of day, until finally they rode in the twilight, the darkness of the start of night. It was then Artair really took in the fae magic of the Keep. The surrounding village had lights spring forth in tiny pinpricks. Whereas the Keep itself seemed aflame with the torches they lit along the palisade. He could not hold back the smile he had at the thought that someone knew they were on their way back.

Either they had been spotted by an eagle eyed sentry, or Aislinn had foreseen their arrival. But they were being welcomed home, in the only way the Keep itself could...by guiding them safely to its doors. With a deep cleansing breath of the filth free air that spoke of home. Edinburgh had been a close, dingy, smoke filled, dirt ridden place that had made it hard to breath at times. The stench he had never gotten used to, however, he this smell of clean air and mountains had never been something he recognised until this moment, when he was finally returning.

Spurring his horse on a little further, he smiled as the rush of cool air around them, it was getting closer, and he could feel it in the bubbling in his blood. It made him feel lighter, as if he was flying over the ground, like when he was a child. The anticipation was starting to gnaw at his stomach. He just wanted to see everything that was so familiar once more.

Sheena was ready for this journey to be over, the pain and jolting in her arm was starting to make her nauseous. It was at times such as these that she lamented the fact she could not use her ability, to heal herself. Her first stop would have to be the healers. Then she could greet her great niece properly. But it seemed they were doomed to just get on with it, and surge through what could be the embarrassing moments in life, like seeing you great-niece who is actually only a few years younger than you, for the first time outside of a dream world, when you were 'dead' in the 'real' world. She could not stop the snort which left her at the ridiculousness of her thoughts, but she knew that it was the truth. It just did not stop it from being so ridiculous.