The Chronicle Keeper (Formally - Destiny)

CHAPTER FOUR | nolan

How do I begin to characterize the creature sprawled before me? I could start off by declaring she is clumsy, loud, and not aware of her surroundings, which only infuriated me more. I don't know why, I couldn't tell you for the life of me, but clumsy, loud, and not being situationally aware were trivial components that ticked me off.

She peered at me with her killer blue eyes. And when I say killer blue, I do not mean attractive. Possibly intoxicating, but only at the expense of her prey's life. Her eyes were cold and distant. They made me think of those harsh winter conditions, threatening and dangerous, like Mount Everest. Her stare, simply put, made me shiver.

At this particular point, I wished my brother had not taught me a little about manners and etiquette. Swallowing my frustration, I extended my hand to help her up. From visual examination, this girl appeared to have been through some... catastrophic events, to say the least. It was difficult for me to keep my right brow from arching in curiosity, as she stood.

What was she doing out here, so far from town? I kept this thought to myself.

"I'm sorry..." she spoke hesitantly. "For you know, uh, me stumbling over you like that."

Despite her cold and distant eyes, her voice was like silver bells, mellifluous and sophisticated. This only heightened my curiosity towards her purpose having traveled this far off the wooden path. I read the unspoken embarrassment scribbled all over her face. But she was sincere in her drawled out apology. It still didn't account for my sleep-deprived state, having stayed up cooking until the late hours of the night. I must have been exhausted because I couldn't hide the yawn that crept up and forced its way from my lips. I would make a strong cup of joe once I reached home.

I became aware of the ever-increasing silence and was about to ask her, her name, when she cut me off with her own question. I never was fond of being interrupted, but then I had to remind myself, though my intention was there to ask the question, I hadn't actually asked it. So I bit my tongue and let her speak.

"Where is the nearest town?" She asked.

Okay, so maybe she wasn't from around here. Maybe, she was a lost tourist? A hiker? It didn't matter what label I tagged to her, she didn't quite fit the description. Normally, I was good at pegging tourists, but she didn't present herself as a tourist would. She was too comfortable with her surroundings. There was no way she was a park ranger or anything of the sort. She had to be a local, possibly, that had gotten lost? There was only one way to find out.

"You are not from around here, are you?" I inquired, blowing off her question.

She looked at me with those... bottomless, ocean-like eyes of hers. Her gaze was like a surreal touch that picked me apart like a puzzle. Each piece she disassembled from the whole, setting aside each piece with precise care. It made me become disjointed, nervous, and restless all at once. 

"Stop that." I muttered, not appreciating her scrutinizing me.

"No. I am not from around wherever this is." Her frigid disposition had to be a form of bi-polar. I couldn't figure her out. But then again, what man knew the mysteries of the female mind?

I pursed my lips, debating my next plan of attack, but I couldn't think of anything. Shrugging, I answered her, "we are about five kilometers from Korana."

Mentally, I saw the gears in her head churning. I could see she wasn't an irrational person. She was so poised and held her composure perfectly. She analyzed everything and anything in sight, including me, which I still didn't know exactly how I felt on the matter.

"Well, I better be going. Can you tell me the way to get out of here?" She sounded a bit anxious, like she had to be somewhere, but where?

I was about to open my mouth, but closed it shut. I wondered if I should extend an invitation to cook her breakfast. I still had enough extra venison to feed three people. I could see she was fidgeting like she was hungry and then heard a little grumble from her stomach. I was finding the complexity of the situation, was not complex at all. This annoyed me. I wish I could pull myself together and be my normal, good-hearted self. But she had set some fireworks that I had not been cautioned about.