Hallek

They'd come back to the river again. Hallek sat on the bank and watched the water flow by, lost in thought. He hadn't had much time for that, not since they'd begun their mad dash from the city. But now they were about to part with Norak and Dyryl. The crossroads they'd be camping at for the night were a half day from Maukra's home and a full day from Tivik, in opposite directions. Another change, like when he'd been whipped by Verris and had to flee. Only what, two weeks ago? And now everything was different.

Movement across the river bank caught his eye. He reached for his sword, but the little brown creatures stepping out of the underbrush were the most harmless things he'd ever seen. Brown furred mammals under two feet long, stepping through the leaves on dainty hooves. A little under half, presumably the males, had a pair of lightly curved horns at the top of its head, and a pair of gleaming white tusks in their mouths. On a larger animal the tusks would have been threatening, but on something that small they were just adorable.

“What is that?” Hallek smiled to himself.

“It's a euprox,” Shylldra said from behind him. “Haven't you seen one yet? We had one for dinner last night.”

“I didn't realize I said that out loud. And I didn't hear you come up.”

“Yeah. I'm sneaky like that. Mind if I sit down?”

“It's not my river.”

She stuck her staff into the dirt and sat on the ground beside him, the both of them staring across the water at the euprox as they started digging the dirt with their tusks. Now that Hallek thought about it they did have the look of a common and frequently hunted animal. He had a vague memory of some kind of stone baked mammal haunch just the right size to hold in one had that had popped up at almost every dinner. The Scarred Men probably ate euprox meat every day. The eoraptors and other predators too, come to think of it. They were probably the easiest meal for everything in the forest. Hallek felt a pang of sympathy for the little brown creatures.

“So what are you thinking about?”

“That it sucks to be a euprox.”

“Okay. What were you thinking about before I showed up?”

Hallek let out a slow breath. How could he go about explaining this?

“What do you want to do with your life?”

“Right now or in general? Right now, survive. In general...I guess I just want to help people. I know that sounds dumb but I was raised in the palace, daughter of the emperor's seventh concubine. I wasn't much usethere. So I joined Maia's temple and now I'm useful all the time. Except now, when I'm fleeing the city because I'm too useful.”

“Makes sense. You want to be useful. Verris wants to be in charge. The emperor wants to marry you. Norak wants to hunt this Fang he thinks is wandering around the forest and Dyryl wants to live up to her mother. But I never...I don't...” Hallek groped for words. “It used to be so hard. To live. To eat. To get food at all. In the alleys I had to fight rats and compies for food. Sometimes I ate the rats and compies. Sometimes I lost, and I didn't eat anything. And sometimes even when I won, someone bigger would come along and take my food. And then...and then I found Downwind.

“In Downwind, all I had to do was shovel. And working the piles meant I got lunch. I got a whole meal every day, all to myself. And on top of that I got my pay, which meant I could have two meals. More even. And I got a hut for myself too. A roof. A real roof that was mine and only mine.”

“Hallek...” Shylldra said, putting a hand on his arm. Trying to comfort him. He appreciated the gesture, but that wasn't the point.

“I'm not looking for sympathy, that's not what I'm getting at here. I got to Downwind, I started shoveling, and it was good. It was great. And I just don't understand why that can't be enough.

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“I don't want anything, Shylldra. I have everything I want. A job that's not going anywhere as long as dinosaurs still crap in the streets. A roof over my head. More food than I can eat. I'm comfortable. I'm happy. But everyone keeps telling me I shouldn't be. Old Mungo said I could make foreman. The swordmasters said I should sign up at the arena. Verris just gets pissed at me. But they all talk like I'm...like I'm missing a piece of myself, or something.” He pointed to a stone jutting out of the river. “I mean look at that rock. Right there. That's what I want. It sits there, content where it is, and the rest of the world just flows around it. Why does everyone seem to think there's something wrong with that?”

“Because it's an illusion,” Shylldra said.

Hallek looked at her. He hadn't expected such a direct response. Certainly not so quickly.

“The river doesn't just flow around the rock. It wears the rock down. Hundreds of years from now that rock will have all eroded away. Or the dirt underneath will break and it'll get rolled down the river. One way or another, it’s going to move eventually. It not that nobody wants you to be happy, Hallek. It's just that the only way to end up somewhere you want to go is follow the current or fight it, and what you said...it sounds like you don't want to swim at all.”

Hallek looked back out over the water. The rocks sticking up from the water suddenly looked precarious to him...

“Not going to give me a review on the speech? I thought that was pretty good for something I just came up with.”

“Not bad,” Hallek said, a smile pulling at his lips. “Is it a talent?”

“No I took lessons. They teach us how to come up with sage advice on the fly at the temple.”

“I thought that kind of thing was supposed to come from Maia.”

“Prove it didn't,” Shylldra challenged. Hallek just laughed at that and lay back on the riverbank beside her. They sat in silence for a few minutes. “Is that why you've never gotten around to kissing me? Not wanting things to change?”

“What? I've kissed you! Haven't I?”

“No. We've been seeing each other for three weeks, traveling all this time, and you haven't even tried.”

“Well it's not connected. I guess we just never got around to it.”

“I think it's time then. Don't you?”

Her hair fell in a halo around his head as she lowered her lips to his. Before he'd even consciously registered what was happening he had his arm wrapped around her back, rising a little to meet her as she wrapped her own arms around his chest. She tasted...well, the romances he'd seen always described kisses as tasting sweet but the truth was she tasted like roast euprox. She must have been snacking on the road. Hallek didn't mind.

“That was...” he gasped when their lips parted. “Wow.”

“Better than that,” Shylldra grinned. “I bet right now you know exactly what you want.”

She was right, but before she could start gloating he kissed her again.

The next morning dawned with the revelation that while Norak and Dyryl had become good friends over the past few days he would not miss them and their smug self-satisfied smirking.

It had started out alright. They'd shared a tent for the first time, and waking up to the soft warmth of her breast against his arm, her skin pressing against his all up and down his right side, her head resting on his shoulder. And when the initial early morning panic faded and he remembered where he was and how it had happened, he liked it.

It was the understatement of the decade, but he wasn't thinking to clearly that morning. In fact he was pretty sure he was grinning like an idiot.

“Hey,” he said, shaking Shylldra's shoulder gently. “Hey, it's time to get up.”

Her only response was a soft mumbling. With a warm smile, he leaned over to kiss her on the cheek before trying to wake her up again.

“Hallek!” she gasped, sitting bolt upright in the furs. Her forehead slammed into his nose, sending him falling back against the side of the tent gripping it. “Look...I don't...Hallek? What happened?”

“I don't know,” he said, checking to make sure his nose wasn't broken. “Did something bite you?”

“No I just...” Shylldra shook her head. “I had a dream. There was this big mouth, and then you...were...a mouth....I don't remember. Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah I think I'm alright.”

“Are you sure?” Shylldra said. “Because even when you were moaning in pain you never stopped grinning like an idiot.”

Hallek looked at Shylldra. She sat up in bed, hair flowing down her back, unaware or uncaring that the blankets had pooled around her waist. Something about the way she sat argued for uncaring. What mattered right then wasn't that she was covered, it was whether or not Hallek was okay.

He thought that was perfectly amazing.

“I know I am. “But it’s fine. I'd be more worried if I stopped.”

Then they left the tent and all the smirking started. He could feel himself missing them less every second.

“This isn't goodbye,” Norak clapped Hallek's arm, with yes a smug self-satisfied smirk. “The Birdfang village isn't so far away. And Dyryl visits Maukra all the time. We'll see you in Tivek sooner or later.”

“And good luck on your hunt. I'm still sore from the last time we sparred.”

“You're good. You should try the arena!”

You too? Hallek didn't say out loud. And then at last the goodbyes were said, and Hallek and Shylldra were on their way to Tivek.