Tanthia looked at the stranger's face. Over the course of his stay at the clinic an itch in the back of her mind grew and grew, but she couldn’t quite scratch it.

She placed another warm cloth on his forehead, “I don’t know what’s wrong with you but at least I can make you comfortable. Who on earth are you for that witch to demand such a thing.

“She doesn’t know thing, does she? How would she react if she knew her efforts were in vain?”

On the other side of the bed stood a women veiled in shadows. Creatures seemed to whisp from the floor she stood on, “It’s all so saddening. You are already mine. How would your witch and doctor react when they discover that? No doubt they will come running to my clutches.”

The woman frowned as she looked to Tanthia, “The people of this town are so persistent. Oh, how I envy them. Even now not a single tear of grief or mourning comes to her eyes in the face of this tragedy.”

She forced her attention away from the doctor and back towards Canadine, placing her palm on his cheek, “By the end of this night you will be mine. No matter how persistent you are, I will ensure that you let the wave of sorrow overcome you. By the end of this night, you will come running to my arms, begging me to take you in. I promise you that.

Canadine furrowed his brow in discomfort. Tanthia gave him words of comfort while the women in shadow gave a slight smile.

***

Canadine jerked awake, gasping for air. He frantically looked around him, trying to recognize where he was. His breathing slowly steadied as he found himself in the same place, he had fallen asleep.

There was a fire right in front of him, illuminating soundlessly asleep figures around him.

In front of the fire sat a woman with a slender face and hazelnut eyes and hair. She threw powders and items into the fire in front of her. After a particular blast of smoke, she coughed and groaned in frustration. That is when she noticed Canadine.

“Bad dream again?” She asked softly, but still focused on the task in front of her.

Canadine rubbed his face and got to his feet, “The same one as always.”

He motioned closer to the witch and sat near to her. The fire comforted him. It reminded him of the one that used to be lit in the great hall back home.

The witch ran powder through her fingers, “Gralt still has that dream. No matter what I try, I can never make them stop for him.” The witch frowned and threw the powder into the fire and it surged forth, “I even considered dabbling in dream magic.”

Canadine rubbed the back of his neck, “Why didn’t you? It seems like uneasy solution.”

The witch gave a smirk, “Prohibited is what it is. I not sure my angel would appreciate it if I attempted to do it.”

“You could always try becoming a witch.”

“Hmm…you all can try all you want but I’m not going to do that. Really, you're almost as bad as Dari. I know you two think i have a stupid reason for not, but you’ll just have to accept it.”

Canadine remained silent, shaking his head with a smile.

“You still don’t believe it do you?”

“It just seems like a petty reason, especially for you Selari.”

Selari shrugged, “Maybe, but the satisfaction I will get when my teacher discovers that I am more powerful than her and her spirit will be worth the trouble.”

Canadine suddenly furrowed his brow at Selari and looked around, “I thought Pillim was keeping watch.”

“You think I can sleep comfortably with him on watch? I’ll probably wake up with five gold pieces missing.” she scoffed.

“He won’t do anything like that. It’s been seven years. I would think you would have grown to trust them more.”

She turned back to him with a smile, “I have.”

Canadine gave a reluctant sigh, “Well we can’t keep allowing Rima to be on watch, not matter how many times she puts herself forward, or how good she is.”

“I do love waking up to fresh rabbit though.”

“We all do, but that’s not a good reason to allow her to push herself like that.”

Selari’s eyes widened as she found what she was looking for in her patchel and threw it into the fire with a loud crackle, “She just feels bad that we have to camp outside so much because we can’t stay in inns or hotels with her.”

Canadine shook his head, “I never heard about Jenkai before I left my village.”

Selari stared keenly into the smoke, “Ignorant bliss. You and Gralt really do make it out to be amazing.”

I tight pain swelled up in Canadine’s chest, “It was…”

Selari threw what looked to be an eye of some kind into the fire and smoke burst forth from it.

Canadine coughed and covered his eyes from the smoke, “What are you even doing.”

“Sightseeing.”

Canadine raised his brow, “Am I supposed to know what that is?”

Selari shook her head, “no, no one really uses it.”

“And you are using it because…”

“It was something Gralt told me, about your hometown actually. Apparently, your town had a book that could tell the future.”

Canadine gave a little chuckle, “Allegedly. Our Charastro carried this door stop of a book all the time. He would say that it would prophesize the future at any moment, so he should always be ready.”

“Did he ever receive a prophesy?”

Canadine smiled to himself, “My parents used to tease him behind his back for it. Thye use to say that the village should pawn the thing off…”

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Canadine’s smile quickly faded and he withdrew in on himself.

“What actually happen Canadine.”

“What do you mean?” He refused to look at her.

Selari garpped his face and turned it towards hers, for once she was giving him her undivided attention, “You know what I mean.”

“We’ve told you before, haven’t we?”

Seari let go of his face, “Hardly. Whenever the topic is brought up, Gralt refuses to elaborate, Dari practically runs away, and you just go silent.”

“Is there anything else to be said?”

“A lot.”

“But you know everything.”

Selari swiped his defense away, “All I’ve gotten these past seven years is that a man masacred your village, and you’re hunting him down.”

“You’ve never complained about us hunting him before.”

Selari looked further from the fire to where Dari and Rima shared a blanket, “I’m not complaining. If I have to hunt him to the end of the earth I will because for some reason we ran into the three boys that knew of the man that stole everything from Rima.”

“Crazy coincidence, wasn’t it?”

Selari furrowed her at him, “Don’t try and change the subject.”

Canadine went to lay on his back, “If you want to know about him so much just ask her.”

Selari kicked Canadines sides, “She practically shuts down when he comes up in conversation, and I don’t care about the man.”

Canadine glanced up at her face, “Then what do you want to know about?”

“How you all feel about what happened, or… what happen to the town afterwards.”

A perplexed expression came to Canadine’s face as he sat up, facing her.

Her face had turned bright red at Canadine’s reaction, and she had gone back to throwing things into the fire, but this time she was less selective.

Canadine simply just stared at her, but his face slowly began to take on a grin.

She glanced at his stare from the side and threw some type shredded plant at him, “Don’t look at me like that! Gralt has just been talking about his hometown a lot more recently.”

“God, you must really love him.”

“Shut up.” she said in a hushed tone.

The grin stayed on Canadine’s face as he rested his cheek on one hand, “Well since you’re gonna live there one day apparently, I’ll tell you what you want to know.”

She tried to shake off her embarrassment, “Thank you.” she said it in a small voice.

“Well besides that book, nothing really happened there, but that was nice in its own way. It was by the seaside, so the laughs of seagulls were heard all throughout the day. Most men were fisherman, that’s what Gralt and Dari’s dad did…”

“He never talks about his dad.”

Canadine looked up at the crescent moon in the sky, “Yeah…I wouldn’t expect that he would.”

Memories of his own family filled his mind as he began to wipe tears from his eyes.

Selari went to put a hand on his shoulder, “If you don’t want to talk about it…”

Canadine brushed her hand off, he couldn’t stop now, not after so long, “No it’s fine.”

Mrs. Volen on the other hand was the town healer. She seemed to always know everything. She was always the first person to know if we had done something. If it was bad enough, she would stick this awful, smelling root in our mouth,” He laughed to himself, “But she was usually kind and understanding. My mother was more…” A lump welped up in his throat, “She was more short…short tempered. She would always be going on about someone in town while my father worked on some piece of furniture.” Canadine closed his eyes to try and remember it all, “And my sister…I wonder what she’s doing now.” Canadine looked to the ground, “I wonder what I’ll say when I see her again. After leaving her like I did. She had so many things to worry about…and I just vanished without a word.”

Selari put her han on his,” You’ll go back one day.” She said reassuring.

Canadine’s blood began to boil as the images of that night came to mind, “I can’t go back. Not until I kill him,” he spit.

“Then I’ll continue to help you to the best of my ability,” she threw an herb into the fire.

“Huh?”

“I’ll make sure that you go home no matter how much. Even if it means tracking that man to the ends of the earth.”

“Why do you care so much?”

Selari smiled to herself as she poked the fire with a small stick, “I never really had a family. My teacher picked me up from an orphanage and even then, all that woman saw me for was my potential. She never cared about anything besided magic. However, after these past seven years with you all…I don’t think I want to lose that.”

Canadine laughed to himself, “Does that refer to Pillim and Enlan.”

Selari rolled her eyes, “Pillim more than Enlan, but you get my point.”

“Hmm, then I’ll make my own promise.”

Selari raised her brow, “Oh really, and what would that be?”

“I’ll keep us together until I get back home.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less,” she threw what looked like wool onto the fire and it surged forth higher than the trees around them.

Selari jumped back as Canadine shielded his eyes. It was only for a moment though as the fire went back to normal soon enough.

Canadine looked to Selari as she took quick breaths, “I think I saw…a lion maybe.”

Canadine went to go help her up, “A lion? You’re joking. What does that even tell you.”

She wiped herself off, “Well my angel only lets me see so much…get that look off your face, only angels are able to Sightsee.”

Canadine looked back at the fire, “What use is it if you don’t know what it means.”

“I haven’t ever done it before…”

Suddenly the bushes rumbled behind them and they both spun to confront what it was.

Pillim came out with his hands up, “It's me, it's me, no need to be so jumpy.”

“I thought you were keeping watch?” Canadine asked.

Dari gave a nod, “I was but if you two are staying up anyway I’m just gonna go to sleep.”

Selari suddenly jumped in her skin, “How much of that did you here.”

“Every…Last…Word.”

Selari’s eyes seemed to bulge out of their sockets, but Canadine simply laughed to himself.

As Pillim drew closer to Pillim he put a finger to his lips, “Don’t worry my lips are sealed.”

He walked by her then past Dari and Rima, “Ahhh! Watch where you point that thing Dari! I could have been killed!”

Dari gave a brief yawn, “Watch where you step. Don’t think you could get something from me just because I was asleep.”

“Why on earth would I try to steal from you when Rima is right next to you!”

“Like something like that would hold you back!” He said in a hushed whisper.

A hand weakly grasped onto Dari’s face, “Be quiet,” Rima groaned, “Sel and Canadine were bad enough.”

“How long have you two have been up.”

Dari shifted under the blanket, “Well it’s kinda hard to sleep when you two are going off on each other,” two groans of agreement came from behind them, “But if I were to say a time frame…I would have to say the whole time.”

Selari covered her face in embarrassment, “Don’t tell me.”

Dari closed his eyes, “If only Gralt wasn’t such a heavy sleeper, I would have loved to have seen his reaction. I’m going back to sleep, so please try to be a little bit quieter.”

Pillim was taken aback, “Are you not going to address how you just tried to kill me!”

“Nope.”

Pillim looked to have more to say, but shortly gave up.

Canadine looked to Selari, but she still covered her face, “I can keep watch, I’ve already gotten enough sleep.”

Selari started walking past him, “That’s probably best,” she suddenly stopped and turned back to him, “Just remember your promise and I’ll remember mine,” she went off again to where Gralt was sleeping.

Canadine smiled to himself and looked back at the fire. He wondered what a lion could mean for the future and the promise he had made.

If he had only known then what it meant then. If only the angel had not been so cruel to allow them to walk right into the lion's jaws.