Child of prophecy

17 | Raymond

ANALIA

WE walk on a path that's littered with vines, past the tavern into what looks like an alleyway. The sun, clad in all its effable glory, casts its radiance upon us, with our shadows trailing directly behind our forms. There are some pieces of bones on the ground that make me shudder, and I try to keep my eyes off it, dragging Auriana closer to me with my arm that's wrapped around her.

"So where are we headed exactly?" Iyan asks as he eyes us in a trice before I see him fishing out the map from one of the pockets on his waist belt. My eyes wash over his figure, and my cheeks begin to heat up just at how tall he is.

"I know a place," Auriana says from beside me, just as the boy leaves his spot beside Iyan and ventures onto our side, specifically beside Auriana. She yelps in fright as his black fur brushes against her leg.

"Relax," I tell her with a laugh. "He doesn't bite. Iyan made sure of that."

Boy whines softly, and she peers down at him still skeptical about a wolf not chomping her down. She inches closer to me as she continues with what she was saying earlier.

"I've been staying at a cottage, and luckily for you both, it's big enough for the three of us. It's not so far from here. It's also one of the few houses here that haven't been torn to rubble or stomped down by Giants and dragons."

My eyes widen so much, I fear they might pop out of their sockets.

"You're joking, right?" I say with a sarcastic laugh, just as we burst out from the alley to another part of the town. The buildings here are way smaller and surprisingly in good shape, apart from some cottages that look as though a gigantic leg tromped right on top of them.

"Is that enough evidence for you?" She points directly at the cottage my eyes are already on.

"We definitely can't stay here then," I pause on my tracks, throwing my arms in the air to prove my point. "I mean, we could be sleeping and then suddenly get crushed to death." I shudder at the thought.

"Well, I've been living in this part of town for days and I'm still alive. I haven't even seen giants. Trust me when I say, this is the safest part of this entire excuse for a city, town. Whatever the hell this place is," she exclaims.

"Goodness, that doesn't make this part of town any better. I can't–"

"We'll stay here," Iyan interrupts me by saying, with his eyes still planted on the map he's holding.

I didn't even realize he had stopped walking too to watch Auriana and me banter, but more so, I'm too agitated to care about being embarrassed at the moment.

"What? No, didn't you just hear a word I said?" I'm basically yelling now, but I'm too exasperated. I shrink back when Iyan's brown eyes finally tear away from the map in his hands and peer into mine. I quickly avert my eyes, unable to withstand their intensity.

I can't believe I just yelled at him.

"She's right about this being the safest part of this terror." His voice is calm and firm, making me embarrassed for overreacting.

"If we were to move further from here, we'd be stepping into the territory of said giants, not to mention running into dragons and the likes. So for now, until we're able to come up with a plan on how to evade them, we have to stay here. Do you understand, Analia?"

A gust of wind brushes past us, and I watch as a tumbleweed rolls in front of me before I open my mouth to answer him. "Sorry for being so unreasonable," I say with a nervous laugh.

"Expressing your opinions doesn't make you unreasonable. There are chances of us getting attacked, so you aren't completely wrong," Iyan continues, and I wonder why he's trying to make me feel better. He probably doesn't realize what he's doing. He's treating me as though we're friends and equals, but we're not.