Seducing The Dragon King

Chapter Five: Persephone

After Trisha came back with wood for the fire and a few rabbits for dinner, we all sit around the fire, staring off into the flames, passing around a flask that Trisha had in her bag. Thomas's last words to me are still swarming in my head. Thomas won't stop until one of them is dead. And Jayce is not one to back away from a fight. Trisha wordlessly gets up, her eyes rimmed with red from crying, and clears her throat.
"I feel like we should say something." She gulps down a few mouthfuls of a bitter drink and stares down into the fire. "This is for you, Ren. You were an obnoxious little pest, but of the best kind. You were brake and annoyingly knowledgeable about the things no one cared about. I truly believe you didn't care either. You just got a high out of lecturing and reminding us you were smarter. Which you were not. Anyway, you always said you wanted your funeral to be more like a party. The best I can do for now is drink like this is a party. And I promise, once we get back to camp, I will throw you the mother of all parties. And–" her voice catches, "--you will be missed. I hope that wherever you are, if you are in fact anywhere, it's better than this dystopian hellscape. That's all." Thomas gets to his feet and gives Trisha a one-armed hug. Then he takes the flask from her hand and downs three sips, looking down at the fire.
"Alright. I know that if you were here right now, you'd probably be laughing your ass off after Trisha's speech. We were never good with words. That's why we always stuck to drinking. And fornicating. And basically anything that wasn't talking." Trisha laughs despite her crying.
"That was always your forte, my friend," Thomas continues. "I remember that smooth tongue of yours got you out of a mishap or two."
"Like that time he humped the butcher's wife and told him that it was dark and he thought she was a vision sent to him from the heavens!" Trisha laughs.
"Or when a bear chased us and we hid in the trees and Ren slipped and landed flat on the bear's back," Thomas chuckles.
"He sure killed though," Trisha sighs.
"Oh yeah," Thomas nods. "Pierced its skull with his pocketknife. We ate fine meat for about a fortnight after that."
"And his head definitely got bigger," Trisha adds.
"How could it not?" Thomas laughs. "The bear story was a hit with the ladies."
"That it was," Trisha sighs wistfully. "And curiously enough, every time he told it, the story changed. He sounded more and more heroic with every recount." I smile to myself, listening to their story.
"And every time we gave him a hard time about it, he said he'd been too busy saving our lives to remember the details," Thomas smiles ruefully.
"I cannot believe he will never get to tell that story again," Trisha says solemnly.
"We will tell it for him," Thomas says firmly. "Hell, we might add a few crazy details here and there that would make him proud."
"Right," Trisha nods, taking a few steps back"I'm going to bed. Maybe in the morning, it will miraculously get easier." She walks out of the cave, leaving Thomas and I alone.
"Will she be alright on her own?" I ask, watching her figure fade into the darkness. "Should you go after her?"
"That was Trisha code for 'I'm going to cry my eyes out'," Thomas sighs, sitting down beside me. "She'll come around when she's ready. She always does."
"How long did you two know Ren?" I ask, somehow feeling guilty about the situation.
"Three years give or take," Thomas shrugs. "All three of us met at a survivors' camp. I met Trisha there first and Ren showed up about a year later."
"Was that when you lost your family?" I ask slowly.
"Yes," Thomas nods. "I was lucky to find that camp when I did. It was right when things started going downhill for humans. We were hunted like deer."
"By... Jayce?" I ask sadly.
"By the Darkling, yes," he says angrily. "And by others like him. For how could the dragons thrive if they didn't eliminate the human threat?" Without thinking, I lean over and place a comforting hand on his arm.
"What was your tribe like?" I ask curiously.
"Ah, they had the best parties," Thomas chuckles. "A lot of dancing, drinking, whoring. And the best alcohol. It was... home. In a way that the camp we're set up in now isn't. And I suspect will never be."
"Do you think you can ever only have one place which you consider home?" I ask. Thomas thinks for a moment, then shakes his head.
"I think you can find your home with different people. It will just never be the same as that first time you got that sense of safety, of belonging. After you lose your home once, I believe you are doomed to spend a lifetime of searching for it, even if you find someplace new to call home, you will never truly believe it until that too is lost." I nod, taking in his words.
"So do you fear that you are destined to always keep looking for a place to call home but never find it?"
"I'm afraid of a great many things," Thomas shrugs. "I'm afraid because I still have something to lose. The second you lose everything, fear ceases. And you must be terrified," he says, glancing down at me. "Losing your past... sure you might not remember it,  but we've all had something, someone. Losing them even from our memories it's plain thievery."
"I do feel robbed," I nod. "Most people have their whole lives to look back on, whereas I only have the past day or so." Thomas nods and opens his mouth to say something, but I get to my feet. "I'm sorry but it's been an eventful day. I'm exhausted."
"Oh, of course," Thomas says quickly. "I made the beds over here." He leads me to a far corner of the cave where a few ratty blankets are laid out in three makeshift beds. I thank him and lay down on my blanket, falling asleep instantly.