The Chronicle Keeper (Formally - Destiny)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN | nolan

Aislin and I waved good-bye as we encouraged Lady and Belle forward, down the cobblestone driveway. This trip was turning out to be more of a hassle than I had anticipated. I just prayed that at the end of our journey, finding Destiny would be worth all the agony suffered, and the long hours of deprived sleep and food.

Though there was still some light left, I could still trace every feature of Aislin's face. Her skittish behavior earlier this evening, when I had found her in the main gathering room, still unsettled my own conscious. I could read he relief to have finally left, I had felt the thick tension between her and Kadir over supper. That's what had really triggered my desire to remove not only Aislin, but myself as well, from the stone house estate.

Using the moon and the stars as my guide, instead of turning left out of the driveway, like Kadir had instructed us to do, I tracked back the way we had come and turned right out of the driveway. Glancing over at Aislin, surprise caught me off guard to find her wide-awake. I had been expecting her to fall asleep, but had to smile to myself, thinking she must be treating this as a nighttime adventure, rather than a chore and a necessary evil.

"How are you holding up there?" I asked her.

"Great!" Her enthusiastic smile was almost deceiving, as I saw the uneasiness swim within her icy cold, blue pools. Her eyes never seemed to lie about her true feelings, I was beginning to detect, but I couldn't always rely on them either, especially if I couldn't look at them. Whether it is a door in the way or with her back facing me. Sometimes, though, it was just a matter of asking the right questions to receive the right answers.

"What made you so skittish and jumpy earlier this evening?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" Her voice slightly rose in pitch and I knew she was becoming fidgety.

"Right before Kadir came to get us for supper. You almost impaled me with how spooked you were. What was that all about?" I asked again, turning my head so I could look at her.

"Oh, that." The words were hesitant as they clung to her lips. I kept my eyes intently on her. "I was deep in though and he came up behind me..." She paused for a moment, I suppose debating if she should continue, and then set her cold eyes on mine. "...Like he was made out of thin air. And then he vanished!" Her eyes grew twice as big, like she had seen a ghost.

"Vanished?" I asked. Not quite sure if she had used the word in the right context.

"Are you sure?"

"I knew you wouldn't believe me." Her voice had become a whisper, as if what she had to say didn't matter to me. But it did matter. Everything she said and didn't say mattered to me.

I breathed in a couple of fresh breaths and mustered up my gentle voice. "No. I believe you, Aislin. I know what you mean." I said, because I did believe her. I had seen it happen before, just not with humans. When out hunting, things vanish and reappear all the time. As if Mother Nature liked playing tricks.

We walked in silence for a time, left to our own thoughts. I was constantly making sure we were on the right path to Tekirdag. The last thing we needed was to get lost just on the outskirts of the city. It didn't seem like a hard task, but I still had my doubts when we would actually reach the city.

Glancing over at Aislin, she was patiently taking in the dark scenery around her. There wasn't too much to see, but the moon did cast some light to illuminate our way. I wasn't expecting to find a hotel, or even a motel for that matter. We would need to find a place with adequate accommodations for Lady and Belle. So I would be searching for something a little more out of the norm, but I couldn't think of any ideas off the top of my head.