Seven Stories

Chapter 5: Unsafe

Larmilai stumbled on a root. She barely caught her balance by putting her hands on the trunk of the guilty tree. Pain shot through her palms and she knew from the heat she had scratched herself.

"ERIC!" she called in distress.

She had lost him hours ago, when they had entered the forest. Why had they come here? What had made her follow him in this suicidal, pointless quest? "It's my fault" she thought "I should never have told him about that. They were my dreams." She bit back a sob. Her hair was a red mess like a halo around her head and her dress, torn everywhere, had long ceased being cute or pretty.

She kept going onwards. There was a trail there, this was the path Eric would have followed. If she stuck to it, she would find him. Hopefully he would not be harmed. He just couldn't hear her. He was probably just too afraid to answer, or to move. She tried to pick up the pace, but her ankle hurt too much now. Her own breathing echoed in her ears.

She was alone here. Submerged with despair for a moment, Larmilai closed her eyes.

A light in the dark. Warmth against her chest. The young girl look down in puzzlement. The shimmering sphere had escaped her dress and was floating above her chest, producing a comforting golden glow, like a miniature sun. Sparkles and smokey shapes rippled its surface. Trying to make sense of what she saw, Larmilai did not notice the stranger standing in front of her.

The blonde-haired man was looking at her, just so far that the medallion's light wouldn't reach him. His face bathed in darkness, he was staring at her with a blank look. Eventually, he opened his mouth wide, unveiling sharp, long teeth, and like an animal, he growled...

Larmilai woke up sweating and panting again. She looked around her, looking for Eric's hand. She had fallen asleep on him. It was dark now, but he must be somewhere around. After five more days of nightmares, they had decided she would sleep over at his house in the hopes that this would calm her down. It had not made the bad dreams go away, but at least she had a shot at being reassured. However, her eyes were not yet used to the blackness and she could not find her friend.

"Eric" she called softly.

She recognized the smell of lavender and the touch of a mattress. This alone was enough to slightly calm her down. She just needed to know she was not alone and she would fall back asleep easily... And, true enough, she soon felt a hand brush her shoulder. The touch made her sigh in relief.

Then the hand brutally gripped her shoulder and she realized this was too big, too rough a hand, to be Eric's. She screamed.

***

Lii was playing with her cup of beer. She had barely tasted it, unlike the rest of the off-duty guards in here. A good part of the Guard had decided to meet in the cook's big tent to celebrate the end of the first round of discussions with Light, and most of them had gotten very, very drunk. They were all gathered around the new woman, drinking in her words with almost as much eagerness as they emptied the barrels of alcohol. Lii, seating at another table, only listened.

"How do they treat people who switch to their side?" a man asked her.

"Did you have to perform rituals to the Sun?" asked another, speaking louder.

"Yeah, did you renounce our religion?"

Lii chuckled. Each and every one of these questions, they had asked her seven years ago. Most of them, she could have answered exactly like Laya would. However, they did not ask with the same tone. They had wonder with disgust and almost fear, back then. Now, they sympathized with the prodigal daughter and seemed to agree with every syllable out of her mouth.