The Jem

~38~

The stars now sugared the night sky. The fire crackled and the embers danced around the six of them. "You know we are running short on food?" Deeja rasped as she dug her hands into Darya's satchel trying to look for anything to eat. "You guys ate everything I stole from the market's we passed in Galleyana?" Darya's eyes widened with shock but mostly anger. Brice snorted, "A heartless murderer and a conniving thief too."
He didn't know why but Brice knew that he had hit a nerve when he saw her throat bob and something in her eyes turned sorrowful.

Deeja cut the awkward silence, "What? They didn't feed us well enough in that cell." The cat rose her hands in front of her face as if to say, Don't blame me.

Darya had got up and walked to the near by lake. He shrugged. She deserved it, didn't she? Or maybe he had cut too deep. Darya had apologized and he'd been too blind to give her a chance to explain. She was probably right, the 'emperor' would have killed Deeja. But he couldn't just forgive her in a snap of a finger.

Brice gulped at the rising guilt that cleaved through his chest. What had he done?

~

Darya strode off to the lake holding in everything she wanted to say, wanted to scream at him. But mostly, she just wanted to cry. Darya was perceived as a strong person and she wouldn't cower or break at hard times. Even when her family was no longer with her. Even if her life had gone to utter crap. Darya had never cried about it. But tonight, tonight everything had been building up. Her parched eyes that would never shed a single drop of water, finally poured salty tears down her face.

And they wouldn't stop coming. Because she didn't wanted them to stop, she wanted to cry, she wanted to let it out. Darya wept till the others had all said good night. And then she wept some more. Then a crunch of leaves sounded behind her as she sat on the bank and cried, her tear drops falling into the river. "Why are you crying?" -Brice.

The water wielder removed her hands from her red face. She peered over her shoulder to see the prince leaning against a tree. She only stared at him for a while then started crying again.

He began walking over, slow, lazy steps that still looked practiced. "Why are you crying?" He repeated with heart breaking gentleness.

"Because I want to." She blubbered. He laughed. "You think this is funny?" Darya glared at him from her hands.

"No, I'm confused." Brice sat sprawled on the dark grass hands behind him, keeping him up right. "About what?" She tried to not look at him.

"Why you try to act strong and unyielding. When your actually scared." He began toying with the grass.

"Don't do that, Crimson will get angry!" She snarled. Another soft laugh. "And it's not an act."

"Then What is it?" A little humour floated out with his words, but still he obtained that gentle tone.

"Its-Its"

"It's your wall." He finished for her.

"No. Stop acting like you know who I am. And Id rather enjoyed our silence. I loved the peace and quite." Darya crossed her arms, her face sticky from the tears.

"So your telling me, that it didn't rip you apart hour by hour that you couldn't speak to a-a friend?"

"I thought you hated me."

"It's slowly fading." Now she laughed.

"What's the point of this conversation?" She asked and her fingers intwined around the grass.

"Don't do that, Crimson will get angry." He lifted her hand away from the little strand of grass, he'd repeated what she had said to him moments ago. She stuck her tongue out. "And the point of this conversation is that...that I wanted to know why you were crying. Why you were upset?" He added his honey brown eyes glinted with the stars as she finally met his gaze.

Darya hadn't realised he was still holding her hand, till she had gripped it tightly. "I cried because, I deserve to be unhappy. I killed your father-heartlessly. And I am a conniving thief." The words had hit her like a brick to the face when he had spat them at her earlier in the day.

"No one deserves to be unhappy. And I know I shouldn't have said those things." His gaze softened, his thumb grazing the back of her hand. She shuddered. Another laugh poured out of him.

"So you-you forgive me?" Darya gulped.

"It will take some time to get over it. But..." he nodded, "Yes."

She finally snatched her hand away from his. Brice only stared at the glazed sky as he murmured, "Why did you become a thief?"

"I was broke, I had no family, I needed to eat. And most of all...I needed to feel important. I thrived on the adrenaline when the guards would chase me. They knew my name by heart. Even if I was important to them in a bad way." Darya explained, her eyes slid to the darkest of blue sky.

"So you want to belong to someone?" His brows rose.

"No. I want someone who would look for me even if it was in the coldest of the night. Who would care for me deeply. Who would see past my looks. Who would love me and find me...important-important to them."