Dark Clouds (NaNoWriMo 2022)

28.11.22

Chapter Twenty Eight

The cold is beginning to set in as the leaves begin to change color to match all of the spilled blood. Wearing warm clothes and wrapped up in a blanket, I sit around the fire with my friends. It's so weird to call them my friends, but that's what they are. Kaelan sits next to me, and Ryu and Nero sit next to us.

A few men approach and join us by the fire, as the flames illuminate their faces, I begin to find them familiar...

"Owen?"

The large man with the same ginger beard looks up at me, and he recognizes me as well. He lets out a big, hearty laugh.

"I never thought I'd see ye out here, Sams," he says, still smiling at me.

"Could say the same thing about you," I reply. "You left the tavern?"

He nods. "Me wife... her father fought. I wanna make her proud."

I nod in response.

We all strike up a conversation together. Ryu, Nero, and Kaelan wanted to know how I knew this man, and he wanted to know how I knew them. I asked Owen how the tavern had been doing, and he said it was good, and that right now one of his brothers is running it.

We talk about the war. Right now, it seems like Selanta has the upper hand, but Nero says that Isaac and the general are planning something big. He doesn't say what, but it sends a chill down my spine.

Later that night, Kaelan and I returned to our tent. We share one now. Before, he had been sharing with maybe a dozen other men, so this is definitely an upgrade to him. We lay on the bed, Chann at our feet, and my thumb traces his face and along his scars.

"How'd you get all these?" I ask softly.

Kaelan begins to tell me all of his stories from being in the war so far. He tells me that a few are just from training, as he hadn't been the best at first, but the newer ones were from the war. He's killed many men, injured even more.

"It's a heavy burden," Kaelan says. "Knowing that I took away people's parents, children, siblings..."

I brush away a tear that falls down his cheek.

"But I suppose that's just the way of war, of survival. It's them or me. I think of the people who love me and it gives me the strength to get through."

We spent the night in each other's embrace.

I wake up early the next morning and exit the tent to a nice day. The sun is out, for once.

A few hours later, the camp is as lively as I have ever seen it as reinforcements and supplies arrive. Everyone is so happy, in fact, that the knights and the warriors and the nurses begin to dance while a few people play a beat and sing.

Suddenly, Kaelan pulls me into the dancing with him.

"Kaelan!" I shout in surprise. "I can't dance."

He simply smiles down at me and takes my hands, leading me through the lively folk dance that the others are doing. We look into each other's eyes, and I can't help but smile. Here I am with Kaelan, dancing, and Nero, who I consider my best friend, is here as well.

We all sat around a fire again that night, eating dinner as the sun begins to set earlier and earlier. Ryu, Kaelan, and the thieves turn in after they finish eating, saying they're getting cold, leaving Nero and I sitting together.

"Would you like to go for a walk?" I ask him after a few moments of silence.

"Sure," he says, standing up.

We walk around camp together and eventually out onto a trail that leads into the woods away from the border. We begin down the trail. We walk in silence down the trail, side by side as leaves crush underneath our fight and the moon illuminates the trail.

"Sams?" Nero asks, so softly that I wonder if it had been the wind.

"Hm?"

"I'm scared."

I turn to face him. His face can't easily be made out in the dark, but I can feel the emotional energy coming off of him in waves. I don't say anything as we slow to a stop, letting him speak and myself listen.

"I'm fighting my own country. I feel like it should feel wrong--wrong to fight and kill and turn on my own people--but... it doesn't. What does that say about me, as a member of the Selantan royal family?"

Finding a large rock just off the trail, I sit down and motion for Nero to join me, which he does.

"I understand," I state, able to see my breath as I speak. "That's how I felt when I left my tribe."

We sat there together in silence for a few minutes.

"I'm doing the right thing, right?" Nero asks.

I place my hand on his, like he had done with mine.

"You're doing the right thing, Nero."

After the walk, I return to my tent where Kaelan lay reading a book. I lay next to him and give him a kiss on the cheek. After his... near death, I've found myself being a lot more affectionate. I suppose it's true, that you don't know what you have until it's gone.

"Where were you, darling?" Kaelan asks, setting his book aside.

"Nero and I went on a walk," I told him.

His eyebrows furrow, and I see a sad look in his eyes. I take his hand in mine.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"Do you have feelings for Nero?" he asks me.

My eyes widened in shock. "No!" I say reflexively. I shake my head, soon smiling and chuckling. "Nero and I?" I laugh lightly, holding Kaelans hand tightly. "No, Kaelan," I assure him. "If anything, he's more like a brother to me. Besides, he has interests for my friend Evan, back at the castle."

Relief blankets Kaelan's face before we begin to hear singing from outside. Kaelan immediately sits up, causing me to sit up, too.

"What is it?"

"We're going to battle."