The Forgotten Hero

X - The New World

It didn't take them long to find a suitable patch of earth by an ancient looking tree. They both dug the grave in silence. Liana's hands were numb and bloodied by the end of it, and she saw that Elias showed signs of fatigue also; the first time she had viewed him as a frail, old man. The battle with the soldiers must have taken a great toll on him.

When she asked him what had happened with the soldiers and that giant being in the air, Elias told her it was not important, and that he would explain another time.

Standing over the empty grave–trying not to look at Jerrim's lifeless body beside it–Liana stretched her aching back, and noticed the first signs of the approaching dawn through the trees. It had been a very long night.

Sometime later, she and Elias stood over the burial mound of her closest friend. She had stopped crying up to this point, having found an anger and a determination take over her, but now, looking at the bulging earth, she wept uncontrollably. Elias laid an arm over her shoulder, and she buried her head in his chest.

A succession of bird calls brought her back to the jungle, and their situation returned to her.

"He loved you very much," Elias told her in a soothing voice.

Looking up at him, Liana wiped her eyes and rubbed her nose, attempting to compose herself. "He never said anything. We hardly even knew each other."

"But it was clear. I saw from the start. You must have known. The way he looked at you. His thoughts and hopes behind his eyes. His jokes."

"I..." Liana shook her head. "I don't know. I hadn't thought about it until... until recently. Until it was too late." She stifled a whimper.

"You both knew how you felt about the other. Whether it was spoken with words or with your hearts."

Liana nodded, holding back more tears. She rested her head against his chest again, exhaustion overpowering her.

They stood in silence for a while.

"It is time," Elias finally told her.

She nodded again, keeping her eyes on Jerrim's grave. She tried to imagine her life going forward without him. Without his smile and his jokes, and him looking out for her. He worried about her so much. Her thoughts went to a dark place, and she snapped herself back to the present.

With an endless stream of thoughts and goodbyes in her head, she had no further words to speak out loud as they left the resting place of Jerrim Lightrun.

***

They traversed the jungle in silence, the dawn strengthening around them.

Liana tried not to delve into her head too much, and told herself it was best to concentrate on leaving the island first.

Elias did not look at her, not once. She understood that he was giving her time to grieve.

Pushing their way through a thick bush of tall leaves, they came to the edge of a grassy cliff, and Liana saw the shores of the Jungle of Ari once again. The gleaming blue-green ocean of the Mare covered the world for as far as they could see, fading into a misty haze over the horizon.

The biting wind whipped at their clothes as they surveyed the area. A few hundred feet below, the trees and grass gave way to sharp rocks that stretched into the waters, with some patches of coarse sand and stones.

"To the north, along the beach, is a boat," Elias said as he studied the horizon.

"What will we do now?" Liana asked, her voice hoarse after not speaking for some time.