"Time blurred around him."
The world was fuzzy and Dai's head ached as he tried to force himself up but Dai couldn't tell where he was anymore. Yet, it was warm. Comforting and soothing. For a moment Dai let himself just lay there. He was still exhausted and he could use a short break.
He closed his eyes and his mind go blank. The pain was ebbing but Dai still didn't want to move. His body felt numb. Yet he couldn't remember why. He could remember standing against Lukas and then he remembered summoning the Twin Blade of Shadow.
The blade.
Dai jerked up, snapping his eyes open as he looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings. He had no memory of coming to this place, yet it still looked vaguely familiar, as if he had been here once before. He seemed to be in a tent of sorts, its walls made up of a thick red fabric and a small fire burning in the center.
Dai found himself lying on a makeshift bed, with others surrounding him. He noticed many of them were Mutare, their bodies coated with burns, with just a single Lekki lying closest to the fire. Dai stumbled to his feet, rushing to Honey as fear filled his body.
She was trembling, her body coated with burns. Dai's own breath was shaky as he laid a hand on her, his frost spreading across her body and healing the burns. Honey's breathing steadied, but her eyes remained shut as a slight smile spread across the Lekki's lips.
Dai sighed in relief, thankful that she was alive and knowing it was his fault that she had gotten hurt. It was his fault that they all had gotten hurt. When Honey had told him to stop Lukas, Dai doubted this was what she had in mind. Yet Dai knew it was the best way to stop him even if it left them with minor wounds.
"So you've finally awoken, old friend," a familiar voice said. Dai's own face betrayed his shock when he finally turned around to face the once beautiful woman. However, she had aged, as years and years passed by and her beauty had melted away, leaving her face lacking beauty but never kindness or wisdom.
"Danna," Dai said, a soft smile on his lips as he faced the woman. She with neither Mutare or Lekki, but something in between. Halflings, they were called if a Mutare was being kind. The Lekki simply referred to them as vagabonds. "You have aged," he commented and the woman let out a slight chuckle.
"And I see you have not," she said. "Much has changed since you were last here," she said, her smile finally fading. "Much of that is thanks to you, but we are finally being accepted in both of our homelands," the Halfling woman who went by the name of Danna said.
"That is good," Dai said, dipping his head to the older woman, the highest sign of respect to the Mutare. Danna's face flushed, as she turned away. "Where are we?" he asked looking around.
"In a tent," the Halfling hummed, amusement glittering in her dark blue eyes. "And they call you the wisest Mutare in all of the lands," she said, smiling.
"This is your camp?" he asked and the woman nodded. "How did I get here?"
"It was the raven-winged Lieutenants who brought you," the woman said and Dai could only assume she meant the Raven Sisters. So they had kept following him. "You and the rest have been unconscious for nearly five days," she said and Dai blinked in surprise. If he had been sleeping for five days then why was he still exhausted? "Your wounds were the worst, dearest Daivid," the woman said.
"And the god?" the Mutare asked.
"Yes, the Fire God was injured as well," the woman said, slowly. "But his wounds healed quickly. He awoke three days ago," she told him. "He was angrier than a hive of hornets on a hot day, blabbering nonsense about killing us all, but he finally got a grip on that foul temper of his," she said with a chuckle.
"That is good to hear," Dai sighed.
"It was a surprise to see you, though," Danna said. "Especially after how you left us. Rora missed you more than anyone else," she said, looking down, sorrow lacing her gaze.
"Is she still here? Rora, I mean," Dai asked, glancing away guiltily.
"If you're asking if my daughter, my Rora, ever found someone else, then yes, she did," Danna said, sorrow pooling in her gaze. "She fell in love with the ocean and settled there was a Lekki man. She had two children before she fell to an illness raging across the land," the old woman said. "She's been dead for over a decade now."
"I'm sorry," Dai said, turning away. Rora had been a dear friend to him, in a time when friends were in short supply. Yet, Dai had always forgotten how easy it was for mortals to fall in love. Rora had always loved him, but Dai knew he would never be able to return her love, so like a coward, he left, fleeing into the night and he never saw her again.
Pitiful, really.
"I heard that song the pair of you made up yesterday, so I'm guessing you miss her even more than me by now," the older woman said. "My grief is old, my pain healed by time. I know how much you cared for her."
"How much she cared for me," Dai corrected, before turning back to Danna a forced smile upon his lips. "I'm happy that she found a family," he said.
Although he knew he really was not.
"As am I," the older woman said. "Come now, child of the moon. Much has changed, but the stories never do. We have all missed you," she said, leading Dai from the tent and into one of the rare clearings of the Wild Woods, where the sun still kissed the hard and frozen ground and those who lived there still danced under its warmth.
"You know I am simply repaying my debt to you and all of your people," Dai said.
"The legendary debt of Golden Eyes, who has served us vagabonds for centuries, yet he never bothers to tell us what we did to deserve his debt," the older woman said, her eyes glittering with amusement.
"It's not what you did, but what I did," Dai said, giving the same answer as he always had for the past millennium.
A U T H O R ' S N O T E
ALRIGHT NOW THAT WE GOT THAT SORTED
I GUESS
LIKE WHAT?
I'm screaming again, but whatever.
I was surprised when I got longlisted.
(Like what? ME?)
But this is so wonderful!
You guys have given me so much support already!
(even though i'm a flaky author who suffers from extreme writer's block)
But it feels great to be working on this project again!
AND WHO KNOWS MAYBE WE'LL WIN A WATTY?!