Secrets Intertwined

Chapter 14: Part 3

She yelped and pushed him away, scooting back. It took her a few seconds to gather her bearings, took her a few seconds to look at the scared faces and remember what had happened.

Looking around, she saw nothing but forest.

"Where are we?"

"In the forest," grinned Nikolas.

"Yeah, no shit," she muttered, "How long was I out?"

"About an hour."

Aislyn jumped at hearing the deep voice from behind her. Glancing over her shoulder, Aislyn saw Galen sitting not too far behind her, his massive arms crossed over his chest.

"Only? Shit. We have to go. We're not far enough away."

She lifted herself to her feet and stooped over to pull Kaighen to her feet, grasping her little hand tightly. She then turned to Galen and gestured to the fish-creature.

"Do you think you can carry him... Galen, isnt it?"

"Yeah."

Aislyn turned to look at Nikolas for a moment nad then gestured with her head, "Lets go. Quickly."

Aislyn figured that she should be the one to take charge, she had been the one to set everyone else free, so she felt responsible.

On a whole, none of them seemed to be in too bad of a state. Kaighen, she found out, had a healing power and it was because of her, Aislyn was back on her feet in such a short time. Galen was a little shaken up but physically he wasn't in bad shape. The fish-man, who couldn't speak, she guessed he hadn't been trapped for long, he didn't have the haunted look in his eyes that only came from time locked away.

Nikolas was something different though.

When she first met him, she was shocked at his appearance, although looking around at their little group now, she figured that she looked the most normal.

She felt oddly connected to her little entourage. She had hardly exchanged more than a few words with any of them, yet she felt comfortable in their presence. 

She led the group aimlessly through the forest where spent the remainder of the day hiking through the woods, stopping only to drink from streams or to relieve themselves.

Finally, once Aislyn could see it was starting to get dark did Aislyn call the group to halt.

"I think we should cam here for the night."

The had stopped next to a river so the fish-man, or Finn, as Aislyn referred to him in her head, could spend the night in water. With help from Galen, they made a small bonfire, warm enough to take the chill away from the night air.

One fire and one uncomfortably quiet conversation later and the others had drifted off to sleep, trusting Aislyn when she said she would keep watch.

Amidst the gentle snoring of her travel companions, Aislyn was watching Nikolas. From the information she had gathered, he had been trapped almost as long as she had. Yet there was a lightness on his shoulder where there was a heaviness on hers. There was a... feeling she got from him, one she couldn't identify. 

All day she had watched him from the corner of her eye. Seen how he had joked with Kaighen, carried her when she got tired, how he had made attempts at communication with Finn, how he even prised a laugh from Galen. She listened to his strange accent and strange way he talked.