𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑎 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑒𝑓 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 | 𝐆𝐈𝐋𝐀𝐍 𝐃𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐃𝐒𝐎𝐍

16 ⋆✶⋆ The Growing Rift

"Where the hell did you come from?" Gilan asked. He sheathed his knife while he turned himself around to face her.

The girl- she must've been around the same age as Will and Horace- made a vague gesture.

"Och..." She remained silent and furrowed her brows. It was then I noticed the dark circles under her eyes. She must be exhausted, I thought. "I've been hiding in the mountains here for a while," she said in the end. And she really looked like it.

"And do you also have a name?" Asked Gilan, not unfriendly now. I imagined he'd also noticed the girl was at the end of her Latin.

She hesitated. I shared a sharp look with my mentor, as we both seemed to wonder about the same thing.

"Evanlyn Wheeler, from fief Greenfield," she said. I brought up the map of Araluen from my memory and tried to remember where it laid. If I was correct it was a rather small fief, near the coast. "We came here to visit some friends..." She stopped talking and looked at her feet. She paused before correcting herself. "Or rather, my lady was visiting some old friends here, when the Wargals attacked."

Those poor creatures I thought, they probably hadn't even wanted to. All they wanted was to live in their mountains undisturbed with their family. My sympathy for the girl remained frozen as long Gilan kept staring at her.

"Wargals!" yelled Will in shock. The blonde girl cast her gaze to him and it worked like a charm on the young boy. He stared at her with big eyes, wandering all over the features of her face. I had to hold in the urge to snap my fingers in front of his face to get him back to reality.

While sadly shrugging her shoulder she answered. "Where did you think everyone went?" she asked. "For weeks Wargals have been attacking villages and cities in this region of Celtica. The Celts couldn't do anything against them. Most of them were able to flee to the southwestern tip of the peninsula. But there were also some who got captured. And I have no idea what happened to them."

Gilan exchanged looks with the two boys.

The girl let out a soft gasp, which caught everyone's attention. She nodded and her eyes started to water. One of them rolled down her filthy cheeks, leaving behind a trace. She held her hands over her eyes and started to shake. Gilan could catch her just in time before she collapsed, presumably from extreme exhaustion. Softly he let her glide onto the floor, against one of the stones around the campfire. His voice was now friendly and gentle.

"You don't have to be afraid anymore," he said. "You're safe now. Get some sleep and we'll make sure you get some food and drinks."

I didn't know what it was, but something inside me didn't trust this girl. Maybe it was my own jealousy, because Gilan was so extremely kind to this girl. I mean we didn't know anything about her, she came out of nowhere and was clearly hiding something.

When I snapped out of my thoughts I saw Gilan had his arm around the girl and had given her his cloak. That was the final straw for me, I threw a pebble so rudely to the ground it didn't bounce back. I waited until the girl was fully asleep and then pulled him aside, a bit farther away from the camp.

"What are you doing?" he raised his hand to touch my shoulder, but then apparently decided against it and hastily pulled it back. "Is something wrong?"

His eyebrows were knit together tightly and his eyes looked me up curiously. In the background the sounds of pots and pans banging together could be heard and the rattling of a bag.

I fiddled with the hem of my mantle and a sudden cold overtook my body when I thought of speaking up. A gust of wind whipped over my cheeks and closed my eyes to enjoy it.

"I don't trust her." I finally said.

The tall Ranger's frown became deeper and he started to rub what was the beginning of a beard. It looked rather handsome on him, but it wasn't so great when we kissed. He gazed at the floor for a moment, seemingly lost in his thoughts and then raised his head again.

"Why?"

I took a deep breath, breathing in the fresh mountain air and also smelling some wood being burned.

"Because she can't make up her mind about what she's telling us."

Averting his gaze, Gilan sighed agitatedly. He ran over his face with both hands and then looked at me again. But it was different from how he had looked at me before, there was resent behind his eyes. The cold in my body had now settled around me like a blanket that I couldn't get out of.

"Come on, you've got to notice it too," I said, now a bit quieter, "the odd pauses, the vague story." It was in that moment that I realized I didn't actually have a lot to go off of, but I was determined to convince him now. Another part of me though, said to just go along with whatever he said.

There was a silence, but it wasn't at all a comfortable one. I bit my lip and started tapping my foot. Even though it probably only were a few seconds, they felt like eternity.

The man in front of me closed his eyes and then let out a sharp breath.

"Look, what's this really about, huh?"

I could now loudly hear my own heartbeat in my throat. What if he heard it? And knew how nervous I was? I looked down and studied the green grass beneath my leather boots. The little blades were being crushed by the weight on them. Little dew drops were still resting on them, the afternoon heat hadn't evaporated them yet.

The setting sun shone so brightly in my eyes I had to turn my face. There were no more noises coming from the camp. I hated it, it made this moment even more nerve wrecking.

"Well?" Gilan asked, now more persistent.

Tears started pricking in the corners of my eyes, my heart was beating even faster. I couldn't tell him what I was thinking, or what I was really feeling.

"I-" I tried to croak out before cutting myself off. A shaky breath rolled down my lips as I tried to get a hold of myself again.

"It's just-" I stammered. "She came out of nowhere and it's kind of suspicious alright? And then also the overly dramatic falling down and stuff," I kept rambling on, without paying attention to Gilan anymore, "I mean she's clearly just out to wrap you around her finger."

He stared at me, and without missing a beat he said: "Like you?"

My face dropped, and shattered was my heart. Like a plate, thrown to the floor and the shards had cut open scars.

"What?" I softly whispered. The tears had freed themselves and were streaming like a heavy rainfall. I had to blink often to be able to see.

"Yeah," his tone was harsh, but I did see the flickering of light reflecting in a drop of water on his cheek. "Wasn't this all some rude trick to make me fall in love with you? So I'd finally leave you alone?" He looked at me with teary, but furious eyes.

"What? No!" I tried taking his hands, but he pushed them away. He turned away.

His head hung low, allowing the afternoon sun to shine trough his golden brown locks. His shoulders sank and it was like he was preparing himself for one last hit.

He spoke in a small, breakable voice: "Do you even love me?"