Starlight (Book 1)

Chapter Fifteen

     Ro and Arik left the tavern well before the sun was up. Ro had noticed Arik taking bags of coins that had been placed by their door before they left. She could hear them clink in the saddle bags every so often when the stallion stumbled. Arik had been paid well for killing the Pooka. She wondered why he hadn't receive any money from the Frostfall Court, but then soon realized that she was probably the payment for his services. Ro hung her head for a while after that thought crossed her mind. Grams raised her to have self-respect and dignity, but those were two qualities that weren't useful to her now. In fact she saw them as a setback. It would have been better if she had been a native-born. She would have adapted to the slave life and accepted it.

She couldn't overcome what she knew. She had a life in her realm to go back to. She had someone that she loved that was waiting for her. Ro looked up to see Arik's back as he rode in front of her. He looked like a human and he was. At least half of him. Were Halflings capable of love? He moved like a Fairy. He spoke their language. Even though he had tried to deny it, Arik had saved Ro from the wolf because he could not watch her get devoured. That meant something. That meant that a part of him cared.

"Arik?" Ro said his name softly and even though he didn't make a move to face her she knew that he had heard her, "Do you have a family?"

The Halfling kept his eyes forward. He didn't know what had made the girl ask him that question. He wished that she hadn't. It was none of her damn business. He didn't want her prying into his life. He kicked the sides of the stallion and trotted a few feet in front of her. He wanted her to take the hint that he did not want to talk to her anymore. He just wanted to get to the next stop. He ignored her question all together and brought his focus back to the woods. He listened for any sign of danger and kept the girl's question at bay.

Ro pet the mare's neck as she looked down at the horse. Of course he had a family. Everything has to be born. Even Fairies and Halflings. She knew that it was a stupid question. Obviously it was a sore spot for him. Maybe his family is dead, she thought. For the first time in a long time, Ro thought of her own parents. She thought for a long while about how her life would have been different and how much she would have loved to have known them in person and not just through Grams' stories about them. When Ro went prom dress shopping with Grams part of her had wished that her mother could have been there. She wanted to have that moment with her, but Grams was there. She had been her mother. Always would be.

Ro wanted to cry and feel sorry for herself in that moment, but she didn't. She held back her tears and just turned her eyes forward to face Arik's back. The same back that she had woken up to. It was bare and Ro had been staring mostly at the Halflings gash rather than his muscles, but it still made her blush. She had not expected to find Arik in bed with her when she woke up. The food had been sent up as promised and Ro had fallen asleep before Arik returned to their room. It was true that there was only one bed, but Ro thought that Arik would have woken her up and made her sleep on the floor. It seemed brutal, but she knew that she couldn't put it past him. His back had been her view for the majority of the day. The gash was covered by his shirt and she was glad to not have to see it. She had nearly memorized all of his muscle movements and the stallion's strides. She knew that they were still days from the Tempest Court and the thought of being in Arik's company for the rest of that time made her upset. She had tried to understand him, but he wouldn't let her in. She wanted to be able to find the humanity in him.

Ro nudged the mare to move up closer to Arik and the stallion, "I have a family. A grandmother. My Grams. I also have an aunt and an uncle. They are in my realm." Arik kept his eyes forward, "My grandmother...she's sick...I worry every day about her." Ro bit her lip for moment before she continued. "When Commander Alston and Nila told me about the Unicorn it gave me hope that I could go back to her. I want to find one. I want to go back."