Dear Readers: Back to Stonehenge we go, to see Lachesis and her newfound friend on earth :)
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Scene 10: Like Home
2020 B.C.
Donal’s grey-blue eyes distinctly brightened, at her answer. Truly—she would? He looked incredulous with joy, to hear that she would have him as her keeper.
The sight warmed Lachesis’s shivering heart. She gladly placed her hand in his, letting him lead her away from these strange haunting stones.
He asked her questions, as they walked across the earth.
“From where did you come? I could have sworn that I was there alone, beside the altar stone, and then you suddenly appeared…”
She had never known how to say anything other than the truth. “I… am not from this world…” she hesitantly stammered.
His face was not sure whether to raise his brows or furrow them. This resulted in a blend of both. “You mean a distant land?”
She wagged her head. “Not quite a land at all.”
His expression became even more bewildered. Could she truly be an angel? Here beside him, flesh and blood?
Instead of probing further, he spoke of himself—much easier on his racing heart. “I also am not from this country. My father and I traveled far, from a mountainous realm, to find those famous stones. To heal the abscess on his jaw, his injured knee…” he paused, tried to forget that the wound was from a lost fight over his mother. “As you can see, we’re not the only ones who hold faith in the legendary cure.”
Lachesis cocked her head; it was her turn to ask him questions. “So legend has it that the stones have healing powers?”
Donal nodded. “That is the rumor, far and wide. The ring of stones stands as a site of ritual for the locals. But for ailing travelers like my father, it is much more than that. It is a site of hope.”
Her breath paused at the word; she could use some of that. Hope of returning home. Although the earth was much less dismal with this kind boy by her side, she still longed for her home, with every fiber of her mortal frame. But she just couldn’t bear to think upon that now.
So she proceeded with her questions, finding herself sincerely curious about his human life. “Have you been here for long?”
He shook his head. “Only a few days. We are staying in a small village for now; my father offers the hamlet his skills as a hunter and a coppersmith, in exchange for a roof over our heads,” he explained.
“So he wields his bow mostly to hunt?”
His head bobbed in a solemn nod. “He dislikes drawing human blood. He very rarely ever has.”
Lachesis mulled that over briefly. Felt her blood rising from a resurgent rush of guilt and shame. She was to blame…
“But I am glad he did, today,” Donal expressed.
This did not take away the blame, but somehow softened it a bit.
They reached the village. He led her through clusters of humble homes, narrow roads milling with natives. Her state of undress was a happy excuse to hold her close, to shield her from their prying eyes.
Donal approached a woman known for making clothes, asked if she had a garment to spare for his guest. The old crone sized them up with stingy eyes. Said that nothing was ever ‘to spare,’ around here.
A passerby intervened. “Don’t you know who he is? This lad’s the son of Ames,” he told the woman, clarifying when she didn’t recognize the name. “The archer’s boy.”
She recognized him then. Hastily handed Donal the finest dress she’d ever made—barely more than a burlap sack, but still her best.
Donal thanked the helpful neighbor, who also offered water from his flask to rinse the stain before Lachesis donned her clothes. Coarse on her fragile skin, but comfortable for all the coverage it provided.
“I’m lucky that my father has such skills,” Donal claimed as they continued through the hamlet. “They’ve made him rich, and welcome everywhere he goes, throughout his life. I don’t think I inherited any of them, but I am blessed to reap the benefits as his son.”
“I’m sure you have skills of your own…” she encouraged him. Taking care of a woman, for one. She did not utter it aloud, because the thought felt rather strange.
He blushed. “With a bow in these blundering hands, I’d sooner shoot my own head backwards than hit a target right in front of me.”
They arrived at the archer’s hut. Donal was relieved to find his father not at home; he had dreaded the judgment in Ames’s flinty eyes, at the sight of this girl setting foot in his house.
He prepared for her some oaten cakes and berries. Offered her a cut of meat, but she insisted that the fruit and grain were plenty.
They spoke further as she ate. The wholesome fare sated a human hunger she had been ignoring, since her landing on this earth. All the while he was beaming ear to ear, unable to believe that he was here hosting an angel in his home.
And all the while, Donal did not dare to ask her name. He did not think his ears were worthy of such wonder.
After some time looking upon her, speaking with her, he ended up asking her something no less bold. The words rolled off his lips. “I can never be with you, can I?”
She blinked her beauteous eyes of cloudless blue.
“I must give up on you from this first day I’ve met you,” he realized out loud.
Of everything she’d heard today, these words were the hardest for Lachesis to understand. Let alone to answer. But he was staring at her, here inside his home, where he was keeping her so safe. Just staring speechlessly, after what he had said. She needed to reply.
“Be with me?” she echoed quietly. “What does that mean? That we would… live beside each other?”
He seemed set to explode in bliss, just at the thought. “Live beside…” he affirmed, “…lie beside… love.”
That last word had been scarcely a whisper, but it struck sharply as an arrow straight into her human heart. “Love?” she parroted, a trace of panic in her trembling voice. “What cause have you to love me? Love is within family…”
“And love beyond blood breeds new family. Builds new love.”
By all the gods, this boy was mad…
He looked at her in earnest. “Is this all truly foreign to you?”
It was. Her downcast gaze evinced it.
He paused, his heartbeat thundering in the momentary silence. “You really are from far beyond the stars, aren’t you?” he marveled.
She steadied her shudders, reclaimed her composure, unsure why those words had evoked such deep anxiety in her. “This earth is new to me. And terrifying,” she fretfully admitted. “I want to go home, but I’ve no idea how.”
He tilted his head a bit, to find her eyes under her lashes—she seemed to be hiding behind them. “What is home like?”
She heaved a sigh. “Home is a cave. A dark and quiet cave. So full of shadows, but… the safest place there is.”
He reached out his hand, to grasp hers where it lay on her lap. She looked up at his face when they touched.
A smile tugged his lip. “I know a place that might come close.”
He led her from the hamlet, across another vast expanse of grassy earth. They walked in silence this time. Till they reached a cave.
A small, lonesome chamber of stone in the land. Lachesis could not help but smile as they stepped inside. “Thank you,” she breathed.
His own smile brightened. “Is this anything like home?”
“It is,” she answered as she roamed the shadowed space, mortal limbs animated by the memory of her immortal home. “My sisters would sit here, and here… and I’d stand here, before the Loom…”
Donal did not ask about this Loom. “Only you and your sisters?”
She nodded. “And our mother, once a day. And that was all.”
He arched his brows. “No men?”
A soft laugh escaped her lips. The sight was lovelier to him than all the stars, from far beyond which she had fallen down to earth.
“No men,” she confirmed. “Just us.”
He saw contentment in her wistful eyes; her reactions to his talk of love made more sense to him now. “And you were never lonely?”
“I had family, I had safety. I was happy,” she reminisced. “I never wanted anything, because I never thought about anything more.”
He drew near. “And now? Are you thinking of anything now?”
She turned to face him. Silent, tense—thinking of nothing.
That had been foolish of him. Dangerous. “I’m sorry…” he murmured, gesturing at a slab of stone lined with soft moss. “Here—why don’t you get some rest? You must be so exhausted from the fall.”
She was exhausted, though she wouldn’t have known or noticed the sensation till he mentioned it. The moss looked soft indeed…
She lay to rest upon it. He sat nearby, far enough not to be a fool.
“Just sleep. You’re safe for now,” he promised as she drifted into slumber. “Perhaps in dreams, if not on earth, you will find happiness.”
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What'dya think is in store for Lachesis and Donal? :)
Next scene, back at the cafe on campus, we'll find out what Cloe was about to ask Tom... And if you liked this one, please don't forget to vote! :)