Searching for the Silent Lady

Chapter 5

Raven refuses to rest. I can tell he is struggling to walk. Even in the dim moonlight, I can see he is in pain. He hobbles next to me, looking at his grotesque hands, turning them over and over again. 'Does my appearance frighten you M'lady?' he asks me, again.

'For the last time Raven Sir, no! I have seen much worse than the likes of you,' I say, touching him lightly on his arm, but having to reach my arm right up to do so.

'I do love hearing your voice again, M'lady, if you don't mind my saying so.' Raven finally puts his hands down and just walks. Even with him limping, I have to walk briskly to keep up with his huge strides.

'I am enjoying speaking again,' I say. And I am. At the time, it didn't faze me that I couldn't talk. Back in the other place, people talked all the time but rarely seemed to say anything of importance. I never missed it because I never had it.

My memories have begun to leak back to me, trickling through my subconscious like the beginnings of a waterfall. I remember my ship much more vividly than before. I remember the creaking of its hull on the waves, the sounds of its sails in the winds, the feel of its deck beneath my bare feet.

I have even found other memories of great battles with sea serpents. Hunting for treasure on dangerous, beast-infested islands. Islands made of sharp, blackened rocks and caves that you could get lost in for a lifetime and beyond. Memories of wars, fighting in the water alongside Merpeople. Of long nights on the shore, sand beneath my toes and a fire burning, my crew singing songs of our battles and times at sea.

More than ever now, I long for home. Now that it is more than just a dream or a feeling, now that home is so close. The only things that I can't remember are myself, Raven and the Lady of the Land. I definitely feel a connection to Raven, but that is it, he is just missing from all my memories. Puzzle pieces lost.

'Raven?' I ask in my new voice.

'Yes, M'lady?' he says, wincing a little.

'Do you remember much of our life before now?' I ask, trying not to give away anything of my own lack of memories.

'To be honest, M'lady, not much. Although, I remember you.' He looked down at me with his strange blue-grey eyes that are illuminated by the dim moonlight. 'I knew that I had to find you. I felt it like it was the most important thing in the world to me.'

I look up at the towering beast lumbering beside me. I hold up my hand in the dark, it is still tiny, like a six-year-olds. Raven looks at it a moment, looks at his own taloned mitt and then takes mine. It is swallowed up in the mass of claws, scales, and feathers, but it is warm.

We walk a little longer. 'How are you feeling?' I ask.

'Better M'lady,' he says. He walks heavily as if he is drunk.

'I think it is best if we stop, we both need to rest and we cannot see a thing anyway, save ourselves,' I say and stop walking. Letting my hand fall out of his.

'Seeing as though there have been no signs of shelter anywhere, what better place than here?' Raven says.

I sit down on the soft grass, suddenly feeling how tired I actually am. It is a mild night and I guess that shelter is not really necessary anyway. I lie down and feel my eyelids are heavy and my legs are sore.

Despite the mild night, I find myself shivering on the grass. I try bundling myself into a ball, but my small child's frame does not hold its own heat well.

I feel the movement behind me before I hear his voice in my ear. 'You are cold M'lady?' Without seeing him in front of me, I can almost put a face to his voice. The face he used to have. The memory of him is so close, like a word on the tip of my tongue.